Go Kill Lin Qing

Lin Qing gave the survivors three choices. Which one they chose was up to their own judgment.

The survivors gathered together and discussed it in hushed voices.

Lin Qing did not join them. He picked up a cup of hot tea from the dining table, sat by the window, and checked the spoils from the battle.

Killing Suikazan Fuguki had earned him 450 Soul Shards. Including the Kirigakure ninja he had killed here and there, Lin Qing had obtained a total of 570 Soul Shards.

Lin Qing couldn't help thinking again that killing famous ninja really was the fastest way to earn Soul Shards.

Upgrading Aero Smith had cost 400 points. It had increased the scouting range and firepower, leaving Lin Qing with 310 Soul Shards.

With thirty pulls, the odds of getting a five-star Stand were low, and even a four-star one would be difficult. Lin Qing decided to save up a little longer and wait until he had enough for sixty pulls.

His second reward was Samehada.

It was a living weapon. Though it pretended to be a piece of metal in Lin Qing's hands, remaining completely still, Lin Qing had mastered the breathing technique and could clearly sense the flow of "energy" inside it.

Samehada was a good blade, but unfortunately, it wasn't suited to Lin Qing.

The moment he channeled a little Ripple into it, Samehada let out a mournful cry, and steam billowed from its blade as if it were being roasted.

Lin Qing planned to study how to use it. If all else failed, he could give it to Star Platinum to use as a club and extend its attack range.

His third reward was fame.

The small-scale battle during his escape from Konoha had left Itachi and Kakashi alive. If word got out, the most people would say was that Lin Qing had escaped from them.

Killing Suikazan Fuguki one-on-one was another matter entirely.

Lin Qing's name would spread far and wide, and bounty hunters would soon be after his head.

Lin Qing's attitude toward them was simple: he welcomed anyone who came.

Why turn down Soul Shards delivered right to his door?

With that in mind, Lin Qing planned out his path ahead:

Once he had settled the survivors, he would find a skilled swordsmith and rebuild Samehada around Ripple Qigong.

Along the way, he would keep killing any bounty hunters who came after him and earn Soul Shards. After that, he would draw for Stands.

After fleeing Konoha and going through all these hunts and battles, Lin Qing had gained a much clearer understanding of how combat worked in the Naruto World. He was also increasingly wary of his first fight with Itachi Uchiha.

Genjutsu.

That was Lin Qing's biggest weakness.

Against mid- to long-range ninjutsu, he could still rely on Star Platinum to move quickly and use Aero Smith's bullets to keep his distance while figuring out a way to deal with it.

But once he fell under genjutsu, it would be difficult for him to escape.

Relying on Star Platinum to "poke" him was only effective against basic genjutsu.

Against opponents who specialized in genjutsu, like Itachi Uchiha and Kurenai Yuhi, escaping would be nearly impossible in a one-on-one fight without help from an ally.

After killing Suikazan, Lin Qing's fighting style was no longer a secret. His enemies would certainly prepare to counter it.

Lin Qing needed to find a way to draw a Stand that could resist genjutsu or act independently, so that it could help him fight his enemies even if he were trapped in an illusion.

The road ahead is long and arduous.

Lin Qing sighed and took a sip of his hot tea.

The boat made frequent stops, and people disembarked one after another.

Before they left, Lin Qing took apart the valuable things on the boat and gave them to the survivors as travel money.

The survivors bowed respectfully to Lin Qing, then set off into the unknown, embarking on an uncertain journey.

Xiaotao stared blankly at the sea. Ever since her mother died, it was as if her soul had been sucked out of her. She barely said a word.

Sasuke, who had acted aloof before, was the opposite. He kept circling around Xiaotao, occasionally showing off ninjutsu and breathing techniques to catch her attention and keep her from sinking into grief.

Noticing Lin Qing's gaze, Xiaotao slowly stood up and came over, her head bowed. "Brother Qing, I... do I have to leave too?"

Lin Qing looked at Xiaotao, then at Sasuke's worried face. He reached into his robe, took out a tangerine, and handed it to her.

"Would you like to come with me? It might be dangerous."

Xiaotao took the tangerine, her eyes reddening, and nodded firmly.

Her mother was dead, her father had passed away long ago, and the Kirigakure ninja had killed her grandfather when they abducted her family.

Xiaotao had lost all her relatives.

"Then stay with me."

Lin Qing couldn't protect four hundred people.

But he could look after one little kid.

In this vast world, perhaps fate had brought the two of them together again.

The number of people on the boat dwindled until only the last group remained. They were the ones who had decided to establish a village.

There were about a hundred and sixty of them, men and women alike. They stood before Lin Qing as their leader stepped forward, bowed ninety degrees, and spoke in a loud voice:

"Sir, we can never repay you for saving our lives. If there's ever anything we can do for you, just give the word. We may not be ninja, but we still have plenty of strength to offer."

Lin Qing patted him on the shoulder and met the eyes of the survivors.

"Safe travels."

They set off with the map Lin Qing had drawn, heading into the wilderness to create a village of their own.

Only Lin Qing, Sasuke, and Xiaotao remained on the boat.

Sasuke leaned against the railing. The lively boat had suddenly grown quiet, and he felt hollow inside.

"Do you think... they'll succeed?"

"They will."

Lin Qing watched the survivors disappear into the forest.

"People can't be unlucky forever."

Suikazan Fuguki had been killed in battle.

The Ninja Blade Samehada had been taken.

The Fourth Mizukage had sold his own country's citizens.

Each of these events alone would have shaken the Land of Water to its core. All of them erupting at once was like a devastating earthquake that rocked the entire country.

The last incident was especially serious.

Many years ago, before the idea of hidden villages existed, ninja operated as clans and worked under an outsourced contract system.

Anyone who had ever held a job knew how unreliable outsourcing and labor dispatch could be.

Back then, the Daimyo only had to spend a little money to hire ninja to kill one another.

Later, at the urging of the First, Hashirama Senju, the hidden villages were established and the Tailed Beasts distributed. Agreements were signed with the Daimyo one by one, replacing the outsourced contract system with a system in which each country and its hidden village were directly responsible for one another.

For the first time, ninja had official positions.

Kirigakure enjoyed the benefits of those positions—the resources of the Land of Water, its funding, and official legitimacy—and so it had to fulfill its corresponding obligations.

Protect the country and defend its people.

That was the most basic duty of a hidden village, and the very foundation of its existence.

Now the Fourth Mizukage had violated the core agreement and shattered that trust.

The Feudal Lord of the Land of Water immediately summoned the Fourth Mizukage to answer for his actions.

Mei Terumi waited outside the conference hall, arms folded.

She was in her early twenties, in the prime of her youth, with a striking face and a lively, girlish look in her eyes.

Beside her stood her old teammate, Ao, wearing a patch over one eye. Beneath it was a Byakugan he had taken from an enemy on the battlefield.

"What do you think the Daimyo and Lord Yagura are talking about?" Ao asked. "Will Lord Yagura... be dismissed?"

Mei Terumi asked, "Don't you have a Byakugan? Why not just look at their lips?"

Ao's face remained stern. "How could I use ninjutsu on the Mizukage and the Daimyo?"

Mei Terumi shrugged. She had always thought her old teammate was too stiff.

Leaning against the wall to avoid the scorching sun, she said, "It's nothing but an exchange of interests and a compromise."

The Feudal Lord of the Land of Water was furious.

But he wasn't angry because Yagura had treated his country's citizens like livestock and sold them off.

He was angry that something which could provoke public outrage and destabilize his rule had come to light.

He was angry that Yagura had made money but hadn't known to pay him his due.

Ao finally understood. "You think they're... splitting the loot?"

"Don't make it sound so crude. When it comes to those two, it isn't splitting the loot. It's a revenue share."

Mei Terumi sneered. "Probably a thirty-seventy split."

Ao froze. "Lord Yagura gets seventy percent?"

Mei Terumi sneered. "The seventy percent belongs to the other party. The Daimyo."

Ao couldn't understand it. Setting aside whether the whole thing was right or wrong, Lord Yagura had gone to all the trouble of kidnapping people in secret and setting up a trafficking network, only to get thirty percent?

And even that thirty percent depended on the Daimyo's mood?

Was Lord Yagura reduced to kneeling and begging for scraps?

If even the Mizukage had to kneel and beg, what did that make the rest of them?

Ao's feelings churned. At a loss for words, he fell silent.

After a moment, Mei Terumi spoke again.

"The intelligence report says that the man called Uchiha Qing abandoned the surname 'Uchiha' and now calls himself 'Lin Qing.' What was he after when he saved those four hundred people trapped in the cages and killed Suikazan Fuguki?"

Was Konoha manipulating things behind the scenes?

Was he connected to another organization's interests?

Or did he have a personal grudge against Yagura and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?

Ao thought it over. "Could he simply have wanted to save them?"

Mei Terumi gazed up at the clouds drifting across the sky.

Could anyone in the world really be that simple?

Creak—

The two enormous wooden doors slowly swung open. The Feudal Lord of the Land of Water fanned himself lightly, lifted his chin, and half-closed his eyes. With a lazy, arrogant air, he nodded at the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, climbed into his palanquin, and left.

Yagura had handsome features and a small, slender frame, like a young boy. It was hard to connect him with the culprit behind the Bloody Mist.

He looked down at the ninja gathered below.

"Mei Terumi."

Mei Terumi strode up the steps and knelt before Karatachi Yagura.

The doors closed behind them, shutting the two inside.

"Mizukage-sama."

"I'm assigning you a covert mission. Go kill Lin Qing."

"Me? Me?"

"Is there a problem?"

Mei Terumi's eyes flickered. She accepted the order.

"No, sir. I'll carry it out."