Beating the Young Brought Out the Old?

Several of them turned around in terror. The moment they saw his face, their breathing quickened and their nostrils flared.

"How are you here?!"

The man who had killed them, covered head to toe in mud, was Feng An.

He chuckled at their confusion.

"I've been here all along."

Then three more Feng Ans appeared around them, looking at the group with mocking expressions.

"It was just a Transformation Jutsu. You really haven't seen much."

The four Feng Ans had merely used Transformation Jutsu to turn themselves into grains of sand. Once Hinata had left, they could simply kill them.

Letting them go would bring him no benefit.

Feng An did not waste words with them. All four attacked at once.

Before long, blood flowed across the ground like a river.

Only one man remained in the end.

He had already been scared out of his wits by the miserable state of the people around him.

"I-I have over a million ryo hidden somewhere secret. Please let me go.

As long as you spare me, I swear I won't say anything!"

Sweat covered the man's face. Seeing that Feng An remained unmoved, he hurriedly added,

"You can cut out my tongue if you want! Just don't kill me!"

Nearly fifteen people had come, and now every one of them was dead. He was truly terrified of Feng An from the bottom of his heart.

Feng An glanced at him and asked, "Do you know who the man who escaped is?"

"I do! His name is Ibe Keichu. He makes money through assassination jobs and other dealings in different villages.

Oh, right! He seems to have connections with people in Konoha Village. When we entered the village, not only was there no one stopping us, but even the people in this alley had been cleared out beforehand."

"How can I find him?"

"That... I don't know. Ibe Keichu always contacted us, and we didn't know each other either."

"I understand. Thank you."

Feng An rose to his feet and slowly walked away.

The man's face turned pale as he asked in despair, "Are you still going to kill me?"

Feng An did not answer. The four of them formed hand seals at the same time.

"Earth Release: Mud River Flow."

The ground before them instantly turned into a mud pit several meters wide. The corpses on the ground, along with the despairing man, all sank into it.

Then the four changed their hand seals and used Water Release.

"Water Release: Raging Waves."

A massive amount of water sprayed from their mouths.

Before long, the mud pit became even softer, and the bodies trapped within it sank completely into the depths. There was no longer any chance of anyone digging them back up.

Then, with several pops, the four Feng Ans turned into puffs of smoke and vanished.

The remote alley fell silent once more.

Elsewhere, Feng An was walking down the road when his head suddenly grew heavy.

When the Shadow Clones dispelled, everything the four clones had seen and felt flooded back into his body. The chaotic information nearly made him stumble.

Hinata quickly supported him.

Her face filled with concern as she asked, "Were you hurt just now?"

Feng An patted his head.

"Maybe I used too much Chakra just now. I'm fine."

Hinata placed her hands near his temples and gently massaged them with the heels of her palms.

"Does it hurt here?"

Feng An took both her hands and smiled. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Hinata lowered her head shyly. "Th-then that's good."

Feng An gradually processed the information flooding in from the Shadow Clones, and it became clear.

Someone in Konoha had deliberately let them in?

He instinctively thought of Taimeng. With his Security Force status, it was indeed somewhat possible for him to pull strings.

"Did beating the young bring out the old?"

At night, two men in black cloaks stood atop a remote hill.

If Feng An had been there, he would have recognized them both.

One was Taimeng, Taiyo's father. The other was Ibe Keichu.

Taimeng snarled at him, "What the hell are you people good for?! I gave you so much money, and you couldn't even take care of one brat!"

Ibe Keichu was not about to back down. His gaze turned cold as he shouted,

"You've got the nerve to say that? I even suspect you deliberately set us up to be killed! You said he was, at most, at the level of a Chunin, but what happened? More than a dozen brothers, as close to me as my own hands and feet, all died horribly!"

"Every one of them was a brother who had gone through life and death with me! Your two hundred thousand ryo isn't even enough to cover their funeral expenses!"

Taimeng's expression darkened further.

What brothers? Would a rogue ninja like him even have brothers?

He was obviously trying to extort money.

"I'll give you another million ryo for their funerals."

Ibe Keichu shook his head and stared at Taimeng.

"Those were fifteen brothers who went through life and death with me. Their funerals have to be handled properly. One hundred thousand ryo per person for burial expenses isn't too much, right?"

"For my brothers' sake, I'll cover the two hundred thousand ryo you gave me before. Just give me another 1.3 million ryo, and that'll be enough."

This was going too far!

Taimeng clenched his fists, his face incomparably grim.

"Too much greed will get you killed before you even know how you died."

Ibe Keichu paused slightly, then threw back his head and laughed.

"Hahaha! You've been a Security Force lapdog for a while, and now you really think you're somebody? 1.5 million ryo. Short me even one coin, and you die."

"I'll burn it for you after you're dead."

"A Genin dares talk to me like that? You're courting death!"

Killing intent surfaced in Ibe Keichu's eyes. With a flick of his hand, five or six Shuriken flew toward Taimeng.

A figure appeared in front of Taimeng in an instant and used the kunai in his hand to knock the Shuriken away.

"A rogue ninja truly can't be trusted. You even dare to kill your employer."

Ibe Keichu immediately raised his kunai in front of himself and cautiously took a step back. "Who are you?"

"The one who'll kill you." The man rapidly formed hand seals.

"Water Release: Raging Waves."

A massive stream of water sprayed from his mouth and attacked the other man.

Ibe Keichu also formed hand seals quickly.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall."

The ground before him swiftly rose into an earthen wall.

The water scattered the instant it struck the wall and flowed onto the ground, its impact pitifully weak.

Ibe Keichu chuckled. "And you dared to talk so big with that?"

"Let me show you what real Water Release is!"

His hands rapidly changed seals.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique."

Using the water the man had sprayed out, he formed a water dragon that spiraled through the air, opened its massive jaws, and charged at him.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique."

The man used the same technique.

The two water dragons crashed together violently before exploding apart.

By then, Taimeng had finished forming his hand seals. He suddenly attacked Ibe Keichu.

"Water Release: Water Prison Technique."

The exploded water instantly gathered into a sphere that enveloped Ibe Keichu, leaving him unable to move.

Ibe Keichu's expression changed abruptly.

He had actually been ambushed by a Genin.

His body shook violently as though he were trying to break free through brute force.

The Water Prison Technique showed faint signs of cracking.

Taimeng hurriedly shouted, "Captain, he's about to break free!"

Captain?

"You're Shimura Shunta, captain of the Security Force!"

Ibe Keichu's eyes widened. Then he gave up struggling.

At a level slightly above Chunin, he had no confidence at all in escaping from Shimura Shunta's hands.

He understood everything now. The reason they had been able to bypass Konoha's security forces so easily was not something Taimeng could have accomplished at his level. Only Shimura Shunta could do it.

Shimura Shunta looked at Taimeng and said in a low voice,

"Everything that happened today was your doing alone. Understand?"

Taimeng bowed deeply. "This subordinate understands."

Then a kunai pierced through the Water Prison Technique and stabbed into Ibe Keichu's chest.

Before long, the water turned from blue to red.

Even at his death, Ibe Keichu could not understand why a Jonin would go out of his way to assassinate a brat.