Cough!
Crimson blood spilled from the mouth of the boy whose feet had been lifted off the ground, his body pierced by rock spears that had thrust out from all around him. It splattered across the rock spear that had gone through his chest.
"You... are?"
Then, the boy slowly raised his head. Reflected in his wide-open eyes was a bandaged man, wrapped from head to toe in bandages with only his eyes exposed—eyes dark and bloodshot.
It was Kotetsu, the Sound Village ninja the boy had seen before in Konoha.
"..."
At this moment, Kotetsu, his entire body wrapped in bandages, did not move. He remained in the posture of having just stepped out from another patch of grass, merely staring at the boy before him. It was as though he were keeping his distance, or as though something had happened to him. He simply stood there without making another move, and it did not look as if he intended to approach.
Poof!
The pair of hands beneath the boy's dangling feet, the hands that had seized him, restrained his movements, and allowed the dozen or so rock spears to pierce him, exploded into white smoke.
A Shadow Clone Jutsu?
The thought flashed through the boy's mind instinctively.
"Ha... da... I... chi... ba..."
Kotetsu, who had stopped moving, tilted his head. His dark, bloodshot eyes shifted slightly until his entire right cheek rested against his shoulder. Then, with great difficulty, he spoke.
Like an infant learning to talk, he struggled to form the words.
What is wrong with this guy?
He feels kind of disgusting...
Hearing those words and seeing the bandaged man's movements—especially his head twisted almost ninety degrees—the pierced boy, Hada Ichiba, felt the corner of his bleeding mouth twitch.
But disgusting or not, this was a