After killing the Elite Jonin, Shin used Yomotsu Hirasaka again, passing through a space-time portal to return to Mikoto.
When Mikoto saw Shin and Kushina return, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Kushina, what's wrong?"
Seeing that Kushina looked a little pale, Mikoto asked with concern. Had Kushina been injured?
Kushina shot Shin a look, then shook her head at Mikoto.
"I'm fine. I just saw some pretty gruesome things, and I feel a little unsettled."
"Shin, Dan Katō got away," Mikoto told him.
Shin glanced in the direction Dan Katō had fled. Even wounded, an Elite Jonin was still fast. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished from sight.
"Let him run. Some people run and run, only to end up coming right back," Shin said meaningfully.
Then Shin looked toward the Elite Jonin fighting Tsunade.
Tsunade had gained the upper hand, but the Elite Jonin was still holding his own by relying on his combat experience.
"Taking your time, Tsunade. Let me give you a hand."
"Flash Shadow Slash!"
Instead of using Yomotsu Hirasaka, Shin relied on
his own speed. Like a bolt of lightning, he instantly appeared beside the Elite Jonin, then slashed with the Kusanagi Sword so fast that even Tsunade couldn't see it.
Only when Shin sheathed his sword did Tsunade come back to her senses. Then she saw the Elite Jonin fall, eight fatal sword wounds across his body.
Tsunade drew a deep breath. That had taken less than a second, hadn't it? In that brief moment, Shin had struck eight times.
"When you strike, you have to be quick and decisive. If I fought like you, I'd have finished my meal before you finished your fight."
Shin turned to her and spoke with a mix of lecturing and showing off.
Tsunade was speechless. She wondered if something was wrong with her eyes. Had the man Shin killed really been an Elite Jonin?
What did it mean to be an Elite Jonin? They were the top fighters of the great ninja villages, hardened by countless battles to the death. Killing one was no easy feat.
And yet Shin had killed one in less than a second.
At the speed he'd attacked, even she wouldn't have been able to dodge.
"Shin, are you a monster? How are you so strong?" Tsunade couldn't help asking.
"A monster? What kind of thing is that to say? I'm a genius, and a hardworking genius at that."
Shin said with a dissatisfied look.
"I'm more talented than others, I work ten times harder than they do, and I've got cheats. So why shouldn't I be this strong?"
Tsunade looked at Shin as if to say, That makes a lot of sense. I have no comeback. But what did he mean by "cheats"?
"What about Dan Katō and the other Elite Jonin?"
Tsunade set aside her curiosity about what "cheats" meant for the moment and asked about the other two.
"The other Elite Jonin is dead. Dan Katō is still running."
"Dan Katō got away?" Tsunade furrowed her brow.
"I said he's still running. I didn't say he got away. Some people run and run, only to end up right in front of me."
As he spoke, Shin used Yomotsu Hirasaka to open a dark portal in front of them, and Dan Katō came running straight out of it.
Looking at Shin and Tsunade in front of him, Dan Katō was completely bewildered, his face badly burned.
As Dan Katō fled, a dark portal had suddenly appeared in front of him. It was so close that he couldn't stop in time. He ran straight inside and found Shin and Tsunade waiting there.
"You're pretty good at running, aren't you? Go on, keep running. If you get away, I'll admit defeat."
Shin looked at Dan Katō with a mocking smile. With the Mind's Eye of the Kagura to track him and the ultimate Space-Time Ninjutsu, Yomotsu Hirasaka, did Shin have any reason to worry about Dan Katō escaping?
Dan Katō was in a desperate position. He couldn't use his trump card, the Spirit Transformation Technique, here.
He'd probably be killed the moment he used it. It would be like handing over his life for nothing. That technique was meant for hiding and launching surprise attacks.
"Forget it. I'm done playing with you." Shin hit Dan Katō with a Rasengan, punching straight through his body. Dan Katō couldn't react at all.
This fight had shown Shin that he could face Kage Level opponents without any pressure, and kill Elite Jonin with ease.
Even Kage Level fighters couldn't kill Elite Jonin so effortlessly. Shin could because he attacked too fast.
Speed was unbeatable; nothing could withstand it. Even a Kage Level fighter who let their guard down around Shin might give him the chance to kill them instantly.
"Shin, why did you kill Dan Katō?"
Tsunade looked at Dan Katō, who had a hole torn through his body by Shin's Rasengan and was now dead, and asked.
"There's no point keeping him alive. Tsunade, were you really counting on him to testify against Danzo? Forget it. It wouldn't do any good."
"Why not?"
That was exactly what Tsunade had been thinking. She'd wanted to use this evidence to make Danzo pay.
Shin didn't know how to answer. Why? Because even if there really was evidence, Sarutobi Hiruzen wouldn't do anything to Danzo.
Besides, Dan Katō was one of Danzo's subordinates. Given Danzo's vicious nature, he'd surely planted some kind of safeguard in him. In the end, Dan Katō wouldn't be able to say a thing.
"Do you think Dan Katō alone could bring down the Assistant to the Hokage? And would he even be able to tell us anything? Even if everything went as well as it possibly could, would the Third Hokage really punish Danzo?"
Shin's questions left Tsunade completely stumped. Even if they had evidence, she knew her teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen, wouldn't do anything to Danzo.
"Now we can destroy all the bodies and pretend we don't know anything," Shin told Tsunade.
"The Third Hokage approved them coming with us. Won't he ask about them?" Mikoto asked.
"Mikoto, did you really believe what Dan Katō said? I guarantee the Third Hokage never sent him to assist us," Shin said with a smile.
This was only a C-rank mission. The Third Hokage would never send anyone to assist them, so Dan Katō had been lying.
"Tsunade, you should have seen that too, right?" Shin asked, looking at her.
"Ahem. Yes, I saw it."
Tsunade cleared her throat, her face slightly red. Whether she'd really realized Dan Katō had deceived them was something only Tsunade herself knew.
Then Shin used the Great Fireball Technique to burn their bodies to ashes. After disposing of the evidence, he took Tsunade and the others back to Konoha.
Using Yomotsu Hirasaka,
Shin opened a space-time portal, and they appeared not far from Konoha.
"This Space-Time Ninjutsu can cross such a long distance. It really is convenient," Tsunade couldn't help saying.
"By the way, where did you get this Space-Time Ninjutsu?" Tsunade asked Shin.
"It's the ability of my Mangekyō Sharingan." Shin pointed to his eyes.
Tsunade opened her mouth, wanting to ask about Shin's Sharingan, but unsure whether she should.
The Sharingan was probably something personal to Shin.
Shin saw Tsunade's hesitation too.
"You want to know about my Sharingan, right?"
"Yeah. If you don't want to talk about it, Shin, I won't press you," Tsunade said with a nod. She really wanted to know, but she didn't want to put him on the spot.
"I'll tell you all about it once we get back."
Shin wasn't planning to hide it. If he had wanted to keep it secret, he wouldn't have shown them his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Before you continue