Countless blades rose from beneath Chen Xiaoxi's feet. Then each blade shattered, producing countless more, which once again surrounded Sasori of the Red Sands.
Senbonzakura Kageyoshi: An all-around attack with no blind spots, formed from hundreds of millions of blades.
Boom!!
In the blink of an eye!
The Kazekage Puppet's thousand arms suddenly exploded, turning into a shower of iron fragments!
The cherry blossoms formed by millions of blades were like a meat grinder, shredding Sasori of the Red Sands' flesh, bones, and everything else!
Sasori's thoughts were cut off completely. His mind went blank!
Even as he died, he couldn't understand why a technique that was nearly the same as before had suddenly become so much more powerful!
Meanwhile,
a woman dressed in a Red Cloud Black Robe spread her paper wings and hovered in the air, watching it all unfold.
At that moment, her mouth hung slightly open. She was utterly stunned.
White Tiger of Akatsuki! That was Konan's codename in the Akatsuki.
And the only reason she was here was because of the Masked Man's orders.
She had come to recruit people for the Akatsuki.
This time, her target was none other than the S-rank rogue ninja from Sunagakure who had assassinated the Third Kazekage—
the renowned genius puppeteer, Sasori of the Red Sands!
Since Sasori often traveled concealed inside puppets, he was rarely seen in ordinary places.
After several days of searching, Konan finally discovered that Sasori had attacked several villages along the Land of Wind's border.
So, following Sasori's trail, Konan had finally found this place today.
Despite being pursued by the Kazekage's ninjas, that man had leisurely made his way back to Sunagakure.
However, she had only just caught sight of Sasori and hadn't yet had the chance to go down and speak with him.
Then she suddenly witnessed what had just happened.
A Kage Level fighter had been killed in an instant like that.
A tiny ninja tool had transformed into countless blades and cut Sasori of the Red Sands into pieces.
It was simply unbelievable.
After hesitating for a moment,
Konan decided to go down and check things out.
No matter how she looked at it, what she'd just seen was far too strange...
There was a risk of getting into a fight,
but with her Dance of the Shikigami, she could perfectly nullify all physical attacks.
No matter how terrifying the other person's blades were, she naturally had nothing to fear.
Besides, she didn't want to have come all this way for nothing.
After all, her mission was to recruit people. She might not be able to recruit Sasori, but...
Perhaps she could bring the Akatsuki someone even more powerful than Sasori of the Red Sands...
Thinking this,
Konan spread her wings and flew down.
"Ding! Congratulations, host. You've successfully completed the mission.
One draw awarded~!"
"Start the draw!"
"Reward: Flash Step +1; Basic Kido +1; Reiatsu +1."
As the notification sounded, Chen Xiaoxi's eyes lit up. This time, he'd gotten rewards directly related to Bleach, and three bonuses at once, including a Reiatsu boost.
After all, out of the rewards he'd drawn from the system for these 100,000-plus missions, most had been from the categories of swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, movement, and Kido. Very few had directly boosted his Reiatsu.
As a result, his Reiatsu had only reached LV.3 so far.
There was no need to explain just how important Reiatsu was.
Aizen had once said that—
the battles between Shinigami were, at their core, battles of Reiatsu!
When the gap in Reiatsu was too great, one could even completely ignore an enemy's attacks;
a powerful fighter could even release their Reiatsu alone and make a weaker opponent's soul scatter, without needing to fight at all.
In fact, Chen Xiaoxi had just tried releasing his Reiatsu in front of Sasori,
but all he'd managed to do was strengthen his own presence. It wasn't enough to intimidate anyone.
So now, with a reward that increased his Reiatsu, Chen Xiaoxi was naturally delighted.
However, just as Chen Xiaoxi was pondering this,
he suddenly sensed a target rapidly approaching through his Reiatsu.
"?"
Chen Xiaoxi's heart stirred. He immediately narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction he sensed.
There, above him,
a woman dressed in a Red Cloud Black Robe spread paper wings like an angel's, looking down at him from on high.
Her signature blue-purple short hair and the paper fluttering around her left no doubt about her identity.
The moment Chen Xiaoxi saw her, he was first taken aback, then couldn't help smiling.
From where he stood, Konan's lovely figure was on full display, impossible to conceal even beneath her loose black robe.
She really lived up to her title as Pain's seventh path, the Path of Great Misfortune.
As Chen Xiaoxi openly admired the view, he marveled to himself.
Seeing Konan here,
he'd already guessed more or less what was going on.
She had probably come specifically to invite Sasori of the Red Sands to join the Akatsuki.
After all, the two of them rarely appeared in the same scene, and even more rarely in the desert.
Unfortunately, because an outsider like him had shown up, Sasori had been killed.
And that was how this scene had come about.
Meanwhile, Konan, floating in the air, naturally had no idea what was going through the mind of the perfectly serious-looking young man below.
She simply looked at Chen Xiaoxi coolly and asked without a hint of emotion:
"Who are you?"
"Did you really kill the S-rank rogue ninja Sasori of the Red Sands, who controlled the Third Kazekage's puppet, all by yourself?"
"When did Sunagakure in the Land of Wind have someone as powerful as you?"
Konan spoke with an impassive expression.
In truth, her intention was obvious. Although she appeared to be praising him, she was actually probing for information about Chen Xiaoxi.
Chen Xiaoxi naturally saw through it too. He smiled lightly and said:
"You've probably got the wrong idea."
"I'm not from Sunagakure. I fought Sasori only because he wanted to kill me."
As he spoke, Chen Xiaoxi shrugged helplessly.
"..."
Konan's gaze shifted slightly. Then she said coolly:
"Then, how about I invite you to join the Akatsuki?"
"Our organization needs someone with your strength. And we can offer someone like you a place of refuge."
"..."
As soon as she finished speaking, a small question mark appeared on Chen Xiaoxi's face.
What was going on?
She was already inviting him?
She hadn't even figured out who he was yet, had she?
Chen Xiaoxi was surprised, but after thinking it over, he suddenly understood.
At this point, the Akatsuki was probably still in its early stages, not yet the ten-member team it would become later.
Its actual members were only Nagato, Konan, and the two actors, the Masked Man and Zetsu.
In reality, there were hardly any members who could really go out and act. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent one of the organization's leaders, Konan, to recruit people in person.
Thinking about it that way, it made sense that he might be recruited after defeating Sasori...
With that thought,
Chen Xiaoxi fell into contemplation.
Seeing Chen Xiaoxi thinking it over, Konan knew she had a chance, so she continued:
"If you join us, you won't be restricted in any way outside of missions. You'll still be free to do whatever you want."
"What do you think?"
"Someone as solitary as you should need an organization, shouldn't you?"
Konan coaxed him persuasively.
Chen Xiaoxi rolled his eyes.
"Why do I feel like you're running a pyramid scheme?"
"But what you said does sound pretty reasonable."
"I can join."
After all, the system had just issued him a mission: join any organization and receive a draw. Chen Xiaoxi certainly wasn't going to pass that up.
"Congratulations! You've drawn the Hollowfication Power of the Shinigami!"
"Hollowfication Power of the Shinigami: The host will gain a perfectly fused Hollow Soul, allowing him to easily break through the boundary between Shinigami and Hollows, enter the Masked State of Hollowfication, and receive an all-around increase in strength!"
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