The Grudges of Both Sides

Bang!

Naraku kicked off the ground with both feet, exerting explosive force as he surged forward, his target the Chunin who had come to rescue Kawakami.

As for Kawakami, he had already collapsed to the ground; judging by the blood covering his body, he was either dead or crippled.

"Kawakami!"

The approaching Chunin's face filled with grief and indignation at the sight.

That grief quickly curdled into rage. He locked his gaze onto Naraku's main body, his eyes brimming with killing intent.

He charged forward, kunai in hand.

Naraku didn't care in the slightest. Under his command, his two Shadow Clones moved to surround the other Chunin, while he closed the distance to engage this one in close-quarters combat.

Clang! Clang!

The sound of clashing kunai rang out incessantly, sparks flying through the air.

Although Naraku hadn't focused heavily on taijutsu due to his age, and his skills in that area were merely average compared to his mastery of ninjutsu, his agile movements and vast reserves of chakra allowed him to suppress his opponent with taijutsu alone.

A pale blue glow flickered over Naraku's body as chakra coated him almost entirely; in this state, the power of every one of his physical strikes was significantly enhanced.

Naraku was simply using the man as a sparring partner; otherwise, he would have finished him off long ago.

The remaining Chunin was also gradually falling into a disadvantage under the coordinated assault of the two Shadow Clones.

On the other side, although Shisui was facing two Jonin and one Chunin simultaneously, he remained perfectly at ease, not even bothering to activate his Sharingan.

When it came down to it, the Stone Ninja Village was only a small village, and the strength of their Jonin was at most comparable to a Special Jonin from Konoha.

For Shisui, ninjas of that caliber—let alone one against five—were no trouble at all to handle one against three.

Noticing that Naraku had stabilized the situation on his end, Shisui became even less hurried. He even voluntarily ceased his offensive, merely dancing around the group while relying on his superior speed.

However, while he was in no rush, the same could not be said for the scarred man and his companions.

"Who exactly is this guy? How can he be this strong?" Watching Shisui's relaxed expression, the scarred man finally realized the gap in their strength.

"Nomura," the man behind the scarred man spoke up at that moment.

"Should we just call it quits? After all, this matter is..."

"Call it quits?" Nomura let out a bitter laugh. "Jiro, ever since we accidentally killed Nakada Sono, this matter could never be called off."

Jiro, the man who had just spoken, fell silent upon hearing this.

Nakada Sono was the son of Nakada Shun.

A year ago, Nakada Sono had been passing through with a caravan when Nomura and Jiro happened to be out on a mission.

After the two parties crossed paths, Nakada Sono mistook them for bandits looking to loot his goods, so he attacked them without a word.

Nomura and his companion naturally wouldn't sit still and wait for death, so the outcome was predictable. Although Nakada Sono's strength wasn't weak—he had reached the level of a Chunin—he was still far inferior to Nomura and his partner. Facing two opponents at once, Nakada Sono died by their blades.

At the time, Nomura had intended to kill the rest of the caravan as well, but Jiro had stopped him.

Later, when Nakada Shun learned his son had been murdered, he was consumed by rage. How could he not avenge the death of his child?

Upon discovering that it was people from the Stone Ninja Village who had killed his son, he infiltrated the village alone. At the time, Nomura, Jiro, and the village's other Jonin happened to be away on a mission, leaving only an elderly Jonin to guard the village.

Inside the Stone Ninja Village, Nakada Shun not only killed that Jonin but also several young people—and unfortunately, Nomura's son was among them.

Thus, the grudge between them was forged.

In truth, after Nakada Shun killed those people in the Stone Ninja Village, most of his rage had subsided. He was, after all, just a merchant; while he possessed some strength, it wasn't enough to contend with an entire village.

He hadn't intended to pursue further revenge, but Nomura had no intention of letting him go.

Because Nakada Shun possessed considerable strength and resided in the Land of Fire, Nomura and his group, unable to find an opportunity for an assassination, chose another way to retaliate: raiding his shipments.

The feud between the two sides continued in this manner. Nomura's actions severely damaged Nakada Shun's interests, which was why he had come up with the idea of hiring ninjas to escort his goods.

Of course, he had his own selfish motives; he wanted to use Shisui and his companions to resolve the trouble with the Stone Ninja Village once and for all.

On the other side, the two remaining Jonin from the Stone Ninja Village were gradually suppressing Nakada Shun through their coordination.

However, after noticing the situation on Nomura's side, they couldn't bring themselves to be happy.

In terms of pure strength, the two of them were inferior to Nakada Shun; they only held an advantage due to their numbers.

Even so, it was unrealistic for them to take down Nakada Shun in a short amount of time.

Furthermore, it wasn't just Nomura's situation; they could see Naraku easily suppressing the two Chunin, not to mention Kawakami lying on the ground.

For a moment, the men from the Stone Ninja Village found themselves in a dilemma.

Compared to them, Nakada Shun felt differently. Looking at the men from the Stone Ninja Village before him, while he still harbored hatred, it was no longer as intense as before—save for a deep, lingering resentment toward Nomura, who had killed his son with his own hands.

Although Shisui didn't know the specific details of their feud, he didn't want to become a tool for someone else's revenge, which was why he hadn't wiped Nomura and his group out.

Otherwise, with his strength, he could have finished them off long ago.

"So that's how it is, Shisui." Naraku wasn't surprised by Shisui's actions. Shisui was a man who truly loved peace—someone who had inherited the true Will of Fire.

"In that case, let's end this quickly."

Suddenly, Naraku exerted force into his right leg, his speed whipping up a gale. His leg tore through the air like a sharp axe, landing directly on the person he was fighting.

Boom!

In an instant, the man was sent flying backward like a cannonball.

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of blood sprayed from his mouth.

Naraku then glanced at the person being besieged by his Shadow Clone, shook his head slightly, and walked straight toward Shisui.

His own strength had already reached the level of a Special Jonin; Chunin from such a small ninja village posed no challenge to him whatsoever.

"Not bad," Shisui said with a smile as he watched. Whether in terms of strength or other aspects, Naraku's performance was very satisfying to him.

The members of the Stone Ninja Village were all shocked by this sight. Because Naraku wore a mask, they could not judge his age, so in their eyes, this Naraku was simply a short-statured expert.