"If you kill yourself, I'll let her go. So tell me—which life do you want to save, your own or hers?"
As he spoke, the middle-aged man bent down and pressed a kunai to Konan's throat, smiling at Yahiko.
"Damn it! How could this happen?"
Seeing the middle-aged man holding a kunai to Konan's throat, Yahiko was torn. The man had appeared out of nowhere and shattered Uzumaki Kuming's Shadow Clone with a single strike. Then he immediately attacked Yahiko. But just then, Konan had somehow appeared and thrown a kunai to save him.
That very action had drawn the man's attention. He changed the direction of his attack, seized Konan, and brought them to this moment.
"Yahiko, don't! Run! Go find Teacher Jiraiya!"
Konan shouted, but her cries seemed to infuriate the man. He raised his right hand, ready to drive the kunai into her.
"Don't! I'll do what you say, as long as you let her go!"
Yahiko quickly waved his hands, his voice full of pleading.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Then go ahead."
A glint flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes. He stopped, watching Yahiko as if waiting for something.
"You have to keep your word." Yahiko's hands trembled as he picked up a kunai and aimed it at his own throat. After struggling for a long time, he seemed to make up his mind and suddenly thrust it toward his throat.
But just as the tip was about to pierce Yahiko's throat, the middle-aged man vanished from where he stood and grabbed Yahiko's wrist. The kunai could go no farther.
"Why?" Yahiko slowly opened his eyes and stared at the middle-aged man who had suddenly stopped him from killing himself, bewildered.
"What an idiot!"
The words had barely left the man's mouth when he punched Yahiko