Come to Deceive

Just as the last enemy's greatest unwillingness before death suggested, the outcome of this battle had essentially been decided the moment Hagane Zhen successfully ambushed the enemy captain.

The remaining fight had merely been garbage time.

It was not that Hagane Zhen had excessive confidence in his own strength, nor was he being arrogant. In truth, he simply knew his own limits.

By fully exploiting White Zetsu's abilities, calculating against an unprepared enemy, his odds of assassinating their strongest combatant had been high to begin with.

Or rather, as long as he did not do anything stupid and the enemy did not discover White Zetsu's abilities, it would have been difficult for his assassination to fail.

Many people liked to fight with flashy, elaborate ninjutsu, but fundamentally, what ninja pursued had always been silent assassination.

The Mayfly Technique was among the most exceptional abilities in that field.

Judging by results alone, Hagane Zhen had achieved his goal as he wished and successfully wiped out five enemies.

But in terms of the process, this battle had actually been rather crude. Not only had he been forced into a direct confrontation with the enemy, he had even been injured because of it.

The ideal outcome, of course, would have been for him to silently assassinate all five in succession. Unfortunately, he had failed to do so.

He did not know whether it was an illusion, but based on his experiences since transmigrating, Hagane Zhen felt that while battles between ninja in this era were more brutal—

On the other hand, he also felt that the average quality of ninja at this time was inferior to that of the later Ninja Village era—excluding a few exceptionally overpowered ninja who were in a class of their own.

Whether in the combined application of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, the organizational structure of ninja squads, or their killing efficiency, they all fell short of the Ninja Village era.

But on further thought, that was only natural. Everything developed, and Hagane Zhen believed that the future would inevitably surpass the present.

Whether organizational systems, ninjutsu systems, educational systems, or forms of warfare, all continued to improve with the passage of time.

His thoughts had wandered too far, so Hagane Zhen quickly reined them in. In short, though the process had been imperfect, the result was acceptable—perhaps even satisfying.

After all, he had only just become "White Zetsu-Man." Before he had even figured out why his body had changed, and while still lacking proficiency in the corresponding abilities, he had hurried onto the battlefield. Performing this well was already quite impressive.

Having finished the battle here, Hagane Zhen had no time to clean up the battlefield or sort out the situation. He headed toward the other battlefield as quickly as possible.

Though he had already gone through one battle, Hagane Zhen's Chakra reserves remained in fairly good condition.

There had not been much ninjutsu trading in the previous battle, and his remaining Chakra was enough to sustain the next fight.

To give the other two clansmen acting as bait the best possible chance of survival, Hagane Zhen directly used the Mayfly Technique to move quickly, hoping to minimize the time spent on the way.

Moreover, he had already decided how to fight the next battle. His course of action was simply to continue assassinating them. Since he was pursuing efficiency, he might as well carry it through to the end.

When he had assassinated that captain earlier, although their contact had been extremely brief, he had still used that fleeting instant to successfully steal a sample of the man's Chakra.

That small amount of Chakra was naturally insufficient to support a prolonged battle, but he could use it to cast the Substitute Technique, disguising himself as the enemy captain with an accuracy so precise that it would be nearly impossible to disprove.

White Zetsu's Transformation Technique was a max-level godly skill. No other ninja in the ninja world possessed better disguise abilities than he did.

As long as he had a sample of the target's Chakra and did not reveal flaws in personality, habits, demeanor, or style of conduct, a White Zetsu transformation was almost impossible to see through.

The person Hagane Zhen intended to transform into was merely an enemy captain on the battlefield. He neither needed to maintain the disguise for long nor deal with a complicated situation, so the chances of him making a mistake and being exposed were low.

At the battlefield on the other side, following Hagane Zhen's instructions, Kenshin only fled without engaging, successfully delaying them for quite some time.

When Hagane Zhen drew near, he did not charge directly into the battlefield. Instead, he hid atop a large tree and first observed the situation on both sides.

He saw five enemy ninja trying to surround and kill Kenshin. Kenshin, meanwhile, was exceptionally clever—darting left and right while releasing Fire Release ninjutsu to create obstacles, significantly disrupting and concealing the battlefield.

So it really is another game of cat and mouse? Hagane Zhen thought to himself.

He transformed into the captain's appearance, then continued using the Mayfly Technique to approach an enemy ninja at the outermost edge of the encirclement.

Just as Kenshin unleashed another Fire Release technique and created a tremendous noise, Hagane Zhen suddenly appeared behind that ninja. Slitting his throat and stabbing him in the back flowed together in one seamless motion.

Afterward, he gently laid the enemy down. The body was still warm, but in truth, he was already thoroughly "cold." No unnecessary sound was made.

Having learned from his previous mistake, Hagane Zhen's methods had become more refined. This time, as expected, the enemy had not yet noticed that they were one companion short.

They were focused on surrounding and killing Kenshin, completely unaware of what was happening around them.

Luck once again favored Hagane Zhen, because the enemy's Reconnaissance Ninja was not among these five either. He was moving with the third group.

The remaining four stood too close together. After considering it, Hagane Zhen decided on a safer approach and chose to reveal himself directly in the captain's guise.

As he approached the four, he deliberately made some noise, and they indeed noticed him immediately.

"It's the captain."

"Captain, are you done over there?"

Once they clearly saw Hagane Zhen's appearance, the vigilance the ninja had just raised subsided again.

Hagane Zhen kept a straight face and nodded. A poker face required more acting skill than making an inappropriate expression, so he said:

"It's resolved. I came to support you as quickly as possible. The others are temporarily lagging behind... What's the situation here?"

"It's a little troublesome. The target has done nothing but run away. He'd rather keep wasting Chakra than fight us, so we've spent a bit more time here. But it's fine—we're about to trap him."

The squad leader seemed afraid of displeasing the captain, so he hurriedly explained.

The "captain" frowned as expected. Deeply dissatisfied with such dawdling, he said, "Stop trying to surround him. Follow me."

With that, he took the lead and charged toward the "enemy," leaving the four ninja no choice but to quickly follow behind him.

They soon closed the distance to Hagane Kenshin, but just as they prepared to launch their attack, the "captain" abruptly stopped.

He did not have much time. Otherwise, they would soon discover that one of their own was missing.

Without warning, he turned to look in a certain direction, surprise immediately appearing on his face.

"Clan Leader?"

"Why are you here..."

Like little fangirls admiring their older brother's acting skills, the four ninja completely trusted Hagane Zhen's performance and turned almost simultaneously toward the direction he was looking.

As Hagane Zhen spoke, cold flashes streaked through the air. Blades easily sliced through the necks of three ninja, leaving them no time to react.

Only the last ninja escaped the ambush because he was the farthest from Hagane Zhen and had fallen a few steps behind while moving.

The sole survivor's tiny eyes were filled with enormous confusion. He couldn't understand why the captain had suddenly attacked his companions.

No, could the companions I'd just been with all have been enemies in disguise? Am I disguised too?

"Two against one. Now it's our turn to surround and kill you."

Under the other man's shocked gaze, Hagane Zhen returned to his original appearance, and the characteristics of the Chakra he emitted changed as well.