"Did you bring it?"
"Hehe, of course I did!"
"Quick, quick! The captain got called away by Jiraiya-sensei for a meeting. Let's satisfy our craving for a drink!"
Inside a Konoha tent, several Ninja had gathered together, secretly drinking like thieves.
As everyone knew, Konoha Ninja had three prohibitions.
The first prohibition was against luxury. Ninja had to live simply and frugally, forbidden from pursuing luxurious wealth and material comforts, because such things could numb a Ninja's spirit. Most Ninja managed this quite well.
The second prohibition was against women. Ninja were forbidden from entering pleasure districts, yet FUNFUN Street lay not far from Konoha, and going there promised a very FUN experience. Jiraiya-sensei and the Third Hokage were both veterans of such places.
The third prohibition was alcohol. Ninja were forbidden from drinking before the age of eighteen, and even after turning eighteen, they could not drink excessively. They needed to react quickly and await deployment at any time; getting drunk could easily cost them a battle.
But these Chunin stationed at the border constantly heard wails and screams in the distance. The pressure on them was simply too great.
There were no other forms of entertainment here. If they did not vent their emotions through drinking, their mental states would likely collapse bit by bit. Tsunade had tacitly allowed it as well.
It was not just the few of them. The other tents were the same.
"Ha! That hit the spot!"
"Hey, when do you think we'll get to go back?"
"Probably soon. Jiraiya-sensei is back, so things should get much easier for us."
"Drink less. If the captain comes back, we'll get chewed out again."
"What are you afraid of? Aren't Eagle and the others keeping watch? Other than Hanzo, who has recently become quite famous, who else in the Land of Rain could threaten Konoha?"
They chatted idly about this and that, then continued drinking, dividing a bottle of expensive Sake among their cups.
Just as the atmosphere was beginning to heat up.
Splat!!
No one noticed that several drops of dark red blood had splashed against the light-filtering tent walls.
"What a lapse in vigilance."
Looking at the figures that had fallen like autumn Maze, Yun Chuan shook his head beneath his blank mask.
With the few Konoha Jonin-level Ninja having been summoned away by Jiraiya-sensei to exchange intelligence.
Those isolated, sealed tents looked like sheepfolds in his eyes, and the Ninja inside were like a flock of sleeping sheep.
The black shadow leaping through the dense forest of tents was the savage, merciless wolf that had broken into the flock.
Moving through the shadows, Yun Chuan raised his blade and brought it down, seeming to become a master puppeteer controlling the lives and deaths of more than a dozen puppets.
As his fingers danced, the heads of the enemy "puppets" were yanked high by threads, rising and falling through the air, while the headless, threadless "puppets" tumbled to the ground.
Under the dim light, round heads flew and fell one after another amid sprays of blood.
Every strike was cold and decisive, without the slightest mercy, chilling to behold.
His short blade was like a sickle cutting Maze—perhaps pitiful, but never merciful.
The figures were like stalks of Maze cut down, their heads swaying as they fell silently.
The soundlessly dying corpses gradually piled up, blood pouring forth in streams.
Splat!!
Yun Chuan, who had previously moved through sheets of crimson rain without a drop staining him, finally had one drop brush across his cheek after he dealt with a Special Jonin who had noticed something amiss and gone on guard.
"Though it's midday, they reacted this quickly. Should I say they really are Ninja from a great nation?"
Hearing the commotion outside, Yun Chuan paused slightly, a faintly troubled expression appearing on his face. "Not a single template dropped. My luck is really terrible today."
Looking over the camp now steeped in the smell of blood, he raised a hand and wiped away the warm drop on his face, leaving a faint streak of blood across his cheek.
At his feet, a Ninja stared with eyes wide like a demon's. A Kunai had been driven into the top of his forehead, blood continuously gushing out and pooling before running down like a spring.
At that moment, Yun Chuan felt an aura lock onto him.
"You little thief!!"
A voice brimming with savage fury rang out. The entire tent exploded apart from top to bottom in an instant, and the ground beneath Yun Chuan's feet trembled.
Boom!!
The ground split apart with a deafening crash, collapsing like a landslide. The entire earth was shattered by an unimaginable, terrifying force.
The corpses were ripped apart by the Super Strength descending upon them, reduced to broken chunks of flesh. Accumulated blood and shattered bones exploded outward like a bomb in an instant!
Drip! Drip!
When Yun Chuan reappeared amid the murky scarlet rain of blood hanging in the air.
"...Lady Tsunade?"
He looked toward the woman in the distance, furious beyond measure, and praised her. "What terrifying strength."
"One enemy? There was only one enemy?"
Tsunade's not-yet-fully-developed chest heaved violently. Looking at the dozens of Ninja who had been silently killed around her, the anger already burning in her heart instantly surged into a raging blaze.
One brat killed this many Ninja? What the hell were those idiots doing?
The next moment, that fury erupted from her entire body along with terrifying Chakra.
Bang!!
She shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, a suffocating pressure instantly crashing down upon Yun Chuan. It was terrifying power created by condensing Chakra to its utmost limit!
She gave Yun Chuan no room to yield, striking only to vent her rage.
But even if it was not deep night, this was still Yun Chuan's domain.
Then let's test my current limit.
A curve appeared at the corner of Yun Chuan's mouth. His dark blue eyes locked tightly onto the rapidly approaching figure as he slightly raised a hand toward Tsunade.
Tsunade, not yet at the peak of her strength, was even faster than he had expected. She was before him in almost the blink of an eye.
Her seemingly slender fist, containing Super Strength, tore through the air and hammered toward Yun Chuan's chest.
But the instant the roaring fist wind surged up, Yun Chuan's raised palm suddenly closed.
Stand - Stray Cat!!
Hum!!
The fist wind that had been sweeping outward instantly compressed in front of him.
In that instant, Tsunade's body abruptly halted, making her eyes widen instinctively.
"What is this?!"
She felt as though her fist had sunk into a swamp. The terrifying force she had unleashed was like a hammer striking cotton.
Before it could even reach Yun Chuan's body, her fist could not advance another step.
More than that, like a spring compressed to its limit, when the terrifying recoil surged back, Tsunade's expression changed.
Her Super Strength sent water-like ripples through the air, and the affected atmosphere began to tremble wildly at the opposite frequency.
Boom!!
As if the air itself had violently exploded, an enormous shockwave burst out between them, expanding in a nearly transparent, invisible ring.
Feeling as though she had been punched with her own full strength, Tsunade staggered backward uncontrollably.
The shattered shockwave swirled around her body, as though it had suddenly transformed into countless wind blades pressed against her chest, neck, and the back of her head, carrying a chilling, deadly presence.
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