"Damn... they're fast!"
Kakuzu ground out the words through clenched teeth.
He had thought he was being cautious enough, careful enough. He hadn't expected Lin Qing to be even faster than he'd imagined.
This was supposed to be just a mission. Kakuzu had no intention of laying down his life for it.
Clang.
The sound of weapons hitting the ground came from the samurai and ninja behind him.
Quite a few of them were trembling so badly that they could barely stand, let alone swing their swords at Lin Qing or even hold on to them.
Meanwhile, Zabuza and Mei Terumi felt relieved, but their expressions weren't much better.
They felt like kids who'd gotten into trouble and were desperately trying to clean up the mess, only for their parents to walk in and catch them red-handed.
The problem was more or less resolved, and they no longer had to fight for their lives.
But they had thoroughly lost face in front of Lin Qing—the face they'd spent over twenty years building in the Ninja World.
Oda Ieyasu was staring blankly at the scarecrow in his hands. In its chest was a tiny heart, beating slowly under the stimulation of the golden Ripple.
"Hold on to it. When this is over, I'll help you put Hideyoshi's heart back."
At those words, Oda Ieyasu jerked his head up. Lin Qing smiled at him and gently patted his arm.
A thread of pure Ripple energy flowed into him. The scorching, blazing Ripple of Life repaired Oda Ieyasu's body, which had been tainted by Venom.
Oda Ieyasu looked at his son beside him and the scarecrow in his arms, then felt the Ripple inside his body. The daimyo, who had seen more than his share of political darkness, felt his nose grow warm.