Konan's Trial! Transformation!

In the forest, everyone grew tense.

"Don't panic!"

Kumogakure's Anbu captain was a bald, burly man. Holding two electrified broadswords, he shouted at the top of his lungs:

"He's only one person! And he has to protect that little brat!"

"We have ten Jonin and twenty elite Chunin here!"

"Even if we wear him down, we can grind him to death!"

A Sunagakure puppeteer beside him added sinisterly:

"That's right. Even if the Hokage came, he'd have to pay dearly against a lineup like this."

"Attack together! No need to play fair! This is for our respective villages!"

The group encouraged one another, and the greed in their eyes gradually overwhelmed their fear.

After all, killing this kid would earn them a fifty-million-ryo bounty and make them famous!

"Kill!"

Several dozen people charged forward like rabid dogs.

Ninjutsu flashed in every color, while shuriken filled the air, sealing off every route of escape.

Tobirama stood atop the water and yawned.

"So noisy."

"I was planning to play with you a little longer, but it looks like my foolish disciple got scared."

He glanced at Konan behind him, who was clutching the hem of his clothes tightly and trembling all over.

"Fine, then..."

"Let's clear the field."

Tobirama flicked his wrist.

More than a dozen specially made Flying Thunder God Kunai flew toward the surrounding crowd.

"Watch out for the kunai!" the Kumogakure captain shouted.

Too late.

"Flying Thunder God: Second Step!"

"Susanoo: Skeletal Arm!"

Golden flashes and crimson chakra erupted at the same instant.

"Whoosh!"

A streak of red light flashed past.

The three Kumogakure Chunin at the front still held their hand-seal positions.

A line of blood suddenly appeared across their necks.

The next second, their heads flew neatly into the air.

"Boom!"

On the other side, an enormous crimson skeletal arm appeared out of thin air.

Like swatting mosquitoes, it slammed down viciously onto several Sunagakure puppeteers.

The puppeteer who had been shouting just moments ago, along with the puppet he had been so proud of, was smashed directly into a mess of parts and flesh.

This was the perfect union of speed and power!

Fast!

Too fast!

These so-called elite ninja could not even touch the edge of Tobirama's clothes.

They saw only a bolt of golden lightning ricocheting madly across the battlefield.

Every time it paused, blood spurted forth.

Every time his blade swung, another head hit the ground.

"Aaaah!"

"What kind of speed is that?"

"I can't see him! I can't see him at all!"

In just three seconds.

Aside from one Kumogakure Jonin whom Tobirama had deliberately left alive, everyone else was dead.

Bodies lay scattered across the water, turning the clear stream into a murky crimson red.

Tobirama stood before the sole surviving Kumogakure Jonin and flicked the blood from his blade.

The Jonin had collapsed onto the ground. He had dropped his weapon in terror long ago, and his pants were soaked.

"Don't... don't kill me..."

"I'm from Kumogakure..."

"Shut up."

Tobirama cut him off.

He turned around and pulled over Konan, who was still staring blankly.

"Konan, look at him."

Tobirama pointed at the Jonin, whose courage had already shattered.

"This is your graduation test to become a ninja."

"Pick up your kunai and kill him."

Konan abruptly raised her head, her orange eyes filled with terror.

"I... I have to kill him?"

"But he's a Jonin..."

"Don't worry."

Tobirama smiled. It was a devil's smile.

He turned to the Jonin. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun as killing intent, nearly tangible, crashed down upon him.

"Listen carefully, Kumogakure ninja."

"I'll give you a chance to live."

"No ninjutsu. Use only taijutsu. If you defeat my disciple, I'll let you go."

"If you lose, or if you dare try to take her life..."

Tobirama pointed at the pile of mangled flesh beside them.

"That will be your fate."

The Kumogakure Jonin's eyes immediately lit up with the desire to survive.

No ninjutsu? Fighting a little girl only a few years old?

It was practically heaven giving him a way out.

"Fine! I agree! I agree to everything!"

He scrambled to his feet, picked up a kunai, and his expression instantly became vicious.

To stay alive, he would kill even his own mother, much less some little girl!

Tobirama took a step back, folded his arms over his chest, and yielded the battlefield.

"Konan, listen carefully."

"From the moment you decided to become a ninja, your life no longer belonged to you alone."

"Either kill, or be killed."

"If you don't want to die, grip your weapon tightly."

Konan bit her lip until she tasted blood.

She looked at the burly man across from her, his face full of savage flesh and killing intent, and fear kept rising in her heart.

Afraid.

She was truly afraid.

But she was even more afraid of losing her master, and even more afraid of returning to those days when she never had enough to eat and was bullied by others.

"Ah!"

Konan cried out to bolster her courage, gripping her kunai as she charged forward.

There was no technique to it.

It was completely the style of a street brawl.

"You're courting death!"

The Kumogakure Jonin grinned viciously. Though he could not use ninjutsu, his taijutsu had been honed through countless battles.

He shifted aside, evading Konan's thrust.

Then he raised his leg and kicked Konan in the stomach.

"Bang!"

Konan flew backward and crashed hard into a tree.

"Cough, cough..."

She curled up in pain, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.

The gap between them was too great.

Even without using chakra, he was not someone a novice who had only refined chakra for a single day could compare to.

"Is that all you can do?"

Tobirama watched coldly, showing no intention of intervening.

"Get up."

"You want to be my disciple, yet you can't endure even this much pain?"

At those words, a trace of stubbornness flashed through Konan's eyes.

She struggled to her feet and wiped away the blood from her lips.

I can't lose!

If I lose, I'll die!

"Again!"

This time, she did not charge in blindly.

She remembered the Three Body Technique her master had taught her yesterday.

Just as the Kumogakure Jonin threw a punch.

"Poof!"

A cloud of white smoke erupted.

The Jonin's fist struck a wooden log.

Substitution Technique!

Huh? The Jonin froze.

The next second, Konan appeared behind him, clutching an Explosive Tag in her hand.

"Die!"

She slammed the Explosive Tag onto the Jonin's back, then quickly leaped away.

"Boom!"

The explosion rang out.

It worked!

A trace of joy appeared on Konan's face.

But when the smoke cleared, her heart sank to the bottom.

Though the Jonin's clothes had been blown apart and his back was a bloody mess, he was not dead.

He had protected his vital points with chakra!

"You little brat!!"

The Jonin roared in pain, completely losing his mind.

He no longer cared about Tobirama's warning. Forget about sparing her life—now, he only wanted to tear this brat who had injured him to pieces!

With a Body Flicker, he appeared before Konan, thrusting his kunai straight down at her.

"Die!"

It was over.

Konan closed her eyes in despair.

Just then.

"Whoosh!"

A dark shadow flashed past.

"Crack."

The Jonin's arm was snapped outright, and he was kicked away like trash.

Tobirama stood before Konan, catching his falling disciple.

"Mas... Master..."

Konan gasped for breath, tears filling her eyes.

"Don't cry."

Tobirama patted her back, then walked over to the Jonin, who was howling on the ground.

"I gave you a chance, but you were useless."

Tobirama stepped on the Jonin's chest, making him cough up a mouthful of blood.

"Since you lost, fulfill your promise."

Tobirama tossed a kunai at Konan's feet.

"Konan, come here."

"Kill him."

Konan looked at the mangled, bloody man on the ground, still twitching, and her hands trembled slightly.

Kill someone...

Did she really have to kill someone?

The jonin on the ground saw Konan's hesitation and immediately changed his expression.

"D-Don't... don't kill me..."

"Little girl... I was forced into this too..."

"I have a daughter at home about your age... If I die, she won't have a father anymore..."

"Please... spare me..."

He was crying.

He cried bitterly, tears and snot streaming down his face, utterly miserable.

Konan froze.

She remembered the pain of losing her parents.

Would that little girl... end up wandering like she had?

Her hand lowered, and doubt entered her eyes.

"Master... he..."

In that instant.

A vicious glint flashed through the eyes of the jonin who appeared to be begging for mercy.

The hand hidden beneath him suddenly fired a poisoned needle straight at Konan's face!

"Die, idiot!"

"It's now or never—regret it in hell!"

Konan had no time to react.

But the poisoned needle stopped one centimeter from her eye.

It was firmly caught between two slender fingers.

Tobirama sighed.

"Still far too green."

He turned toward the jonin, and the three tomoe in his eyes instantly connected into one.

Genjutsu: Sharingan!

The jonin's body immediately stiffened, and his gaze became vacant.

"Tell her what you were thinking just now."

Tobirama's voice was cold and merciless.

Like a puppet, the jonin spoke mechanically:

"That stupid brat... was so easy to fool..."

"So what if that Uchiha Clan brat is strong? As long as I kill her... that Uchiha Clan boy will suffer for the rest of his life..."

"Even if I die... I'll take someone down with me..."

Hearing those words.

Konan's face turned pale as paper.

All her sympathy, all her hesitation, shattered across the ground like glass at that moment.

This was what a ninja was?

This was the consequence of showing mercy to an enemy?

If not for her master, that needle would not only have killed her—it would have brought shame upon him as well!

"Did you hear that?"

Tobirama tossed the poisoned needle onto the ground, his tone harsh.

"This is the battlefield."

"Your mercy is the blade you hand to your enemy."

"Konan, do you want to go back to the way things were? Do you want me, someday in the future, to regret it while holding your corpse?"

"No!"

Konan screamed.

She suddenly raised her head. There was no innocence left in those eyes, only a flame.

A flame called resolve.

She remembered the warm bed from last night, remembered her master placing food in her bowl.

Those were things she would protect even at the cost of her life!

Anyone who wanted to destroy that warmth... had to die!

"I don't want to die! And I'll never let Master down!"

Konan roared, snatched up the kunai from the ground, and charged forward.

Without hesitation.

Without trembling.

She straddled the jonin, raising the kunai high in her hand.

"Die!!"

Squelch!

Blood splashed across her face, scalding hot and crimson.

Once, twice, three times...

Until the jonin no longer moved, until his face had been stabbed beyond recognition.

Only then did Konan stop.

She panted heavily, covered in blood, gripping the kunai tightly in her hand.

Like a young wolf pup fresh from battle.

Tobirama walked over, took out a handkerchief, and gently wiped the blood from her face.

The tenderness of his movements was utterly unlike the cold brutality from before.

"Well done."

"Welcome to the life of a ninja, Konan."

"You've passed your graduation test. Congratulations on becoming a ninja."

Konan raised her head and looked at Tobirama.

Tears mingled with blood as they ran down her face, yet her gaze had never been more resolute.

"Master..."

"From now on, leave every trouble, every dirty job, to me."

"I'll become... the sharpest sword in your hand."

"Anyone who wants to destroy our life, I'll kill them all!"

Tobirama smiled.

He pulled Konan into his arms.

"Sure."

"Then whether your master can slack off from now on will depend entirely on you."

The sun set in the west.

The figures of one adult and one child stretched long across the ground.

The corpse on the ground would soon rot away.

But the once-innocent wandering girl had died.

In her place.

Stood Angel Konan, who would one day make the entire Ninja World tremble.