Post-Battle Draw 2/2

Seeing Kakuzu and Hidan leave so cleanly, Sarara could hardly believe it. "They just left?"

Hayato said, "What else would they do? Someone like Kakuzu doesn't care if he has to become a monster to stay alive. No matter how skilled or experienced he is, that doesn't change his cowardly nature. People like him are certainly strong, but they lack the courage to go all in. Especially when their lives are threatened, they instinctively make a strategic retreat."

"A strategic retreat?"

"Running away."

Sarara nodded. "So he really did fight Lord First Hokage, but ultimately made a strategic retreat?"

"Who knows."

Maybe I could ask him when Hashirama Senju gets reanimated someday?

But with Hashirama Senju's scatterbrained, airheaded personality, the odds of him remembering were low. Unless Kakuzu had left an extremely deep impression on him back then.

Hatake Kaito was looking around.

Sarara asked, "What are you looking for?"

Hatake Kaito answered, "The corpses of those destroyed mask monsters are all gone."

Hayato had not noticed either. Kakuzu had probably taken them away amid the chaos.

Sarara said, "I never want to run into enemies like that again."

Hayato gave a bitter smile. Konoha and Akatsuki were opposed to each other, so they would inevitably clash sooner or later. And Hidan was among the weakest members of Akatsuki, which meant there were eight more enemies like that.

Just thinking about it gave him a headache.

"Ding!"

The system's crisp voice arrived just in time to ease Hayato's headache.

Host: Hyuga Hayato

Draw Mission: Repel Akatsuki's Immortal Duo.

Mission complete.

Additional reward: Destroyed two of Kakuzu's hearts.

Current available draws: one A-rank draw, two C-rank draws.

Draw now?

"Draw!"

He started with the A-rank draw. It was still a nine-grid card draw. After the white light faded, a card appeared in Hayato's mind.

This is... Black Ghost?

Black Ghost was a humanoid ghost made of unknown matter in Ajin, its entire body wrapped in bandages. It was something like a clone.

Humans who possessed Black Ghosts were called Ajin. Some believed that Ajin were actually a new species and could no longer be called human. Ajin possessed immortal bodies; after death, their bodies would reconstruct and return to peak condition. It was a far more genuine form of immortality than Hidan's and Kakuzu's.

Did fighting two immortals make the system reward me with immortality?

Could I start living recklessly from now on?

"Fusion?" the system prompted.

"Fuse!"

"Fusing... Fusion successful," the system prompted again.

A new entry appeared on the system's virtual panel: Chakra Ghost.

As soon as he focused his mind on Chakra Ghost, information appeared: Chakra Ghost was formed from the host's special chakra. When the Chakra Ghost suffered fatal damage, it would disappear and required thirty days to reform. When the host suffered fatal damage, the host could transfer to the Chakra Ghost.

Although it was far inferior to Black Ghost and was basically a life-saving item usable once a month, Hayato was very satisfied.

By comparison, the two C-rank draws gave him Elastic Love once and Parasitic String once.

Elastic Love was Hisoka's Nen ability in Hunter x Hunter. After fusion, it made the strings from the String-String Fruit more elastic and adhesive.

Parasitic String was one of the String-String Fruit's original abilities. After fusion, it could only be used on people weaker than himself. The larger the gap in strength, the easier they were to control. It was somewhat underwhelming, and its function was partly similar to Puppet String.

The draw results were satisfying. As expected, my system did not screw over its host.

The battle against Kakuzu and Hidan had required his full concentration, so Hayato had not paid attention to what was happening on the bridge.

Now, Hayato looked over with his Byakugan. It was much the same as in the original story: Sasuke lay injured, breathing weakly, but he was not actually in serious danger. Naruto did not even have a wound.

Haku lay on the ground, no longer breathing, but his chakra system was still operating. He was in a state of suspended death. Without emergency treatment, suspended death would become real death.

Zabuza was covered in wounds, tears streaming down his face after being blasted by Naruto and Kakashi's ultimate Talk no Jutsu.

Perhaps knowing that his death was near had made him reveal his true feelings.

Hatake Kaito asked, "How is the situation?"

"Everything is fine."

Hatake Kaito breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the mission had not failed, that was for the best.

"Let's go. We should take a look at the bridge."

Sarara said, "No more hide-and-seek?"

"They've already seen everything. What's the point of hiding?"

Sarara's lips moved twice.

Hayato clearly heard her say something and asked in confusion, "What did you say? Speak louder."

Hatake Kaito smiled. "She said, 'Hayato, it's really great that you're okay.'"

Uh... her lips had only moved twice, yet there had been so much content.

Are women's lips really that impressive?

Hayato looked at Sarara in confusion.

Sarara habitually pinched the soft flesh at his waist and glared at Hatake Kaito. "Who asked you to speak?"

Hayato: ???

You glared at the captain, so why pinch me?!

Women could be very cute sometimes, and very unreasonable at other times. Most of the time, they were unreasonably cute women.

"Boss Hayato." The moment Naruto saw Hayato, he ran over with snot and tears all over his face. "Sasuke, Sasuke, he... Waaah!"

Even with a different mask, Naruto had recognized Hayato at a glance.

Hayato held a hand against Naruto's forehead. "If you dare wipe your snot on me, I won't save your best buddy."

Naruto froze. "You're... Sasuke, he..."

With a sigh, Hayato walked over to Sasuke and said to Sakura, who was sprawled on the ground in tears, "Hey, pink-haired girl, move aside."

Without waiting for her reaction, Hayato pressed a finger to Sasuke's chest.

"Cough, cough..."

Sasuke coughed out the stagnant foul air lodged in his chest.

"Don't move." Hayato stopped Sasuke as he tried to sit up. "I'll seal the numbness points on your body. Don't resist. It'll hurt less when the senbon needles are pulled out."

"No need!" Sasuke gritted his teeth and pulled out the senbon needles one by one himself.

Perhaps he wanted to remember that pain.

The senbon had avoided vital areas anyway, so nothing would happen no matter how he removed them. Hayato could not be bothered to interfere. Only Sakura watched from the side, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Thank you," Sasuke said.

"No need. You weren't going to die anyway."

Hayato rose and walked over to Haku's "corpse," reaching out to press several acupuncture points.

Zabuza roared, "What are you doing?!" Dragging his bloodied body, he lunged at Hayato.

Why did they all love lunging at people so much? Naruto was like this, and so was Zabuza. They were clearly different ages, so why did they act the same way?

Hayato was polite to Naruto, but not to Zabuza. He punched Zabuza to the ground.

Kakashi came over. "What's going on?"

"This person isn't dead yet. If I don't save him now, he really will die. Do you want to save him?"

Zabuza, struggling on the ground, froze before suddenly banging his head on the ground. "Save him, save him..."

Hayato looked at Kakashi.

Thinking of the cold-blooded and ruthless Zabuza from before, then looking at the current Zabuza, Kakashi finally sighed. "Save him."

Hayato said, "Let me make this clear first. His heart is injured and his chakra pathways are damaged. Even if he survives, he may not be able to be a ninja anymore. Think it through. His tool might not work properly anymore. Still want to save him?"

That was directed at Zabuza.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Zabuza did not speak. He answered Hayato with three kowtows.

"Stitching String."

Threads thinner than hairs entered Haku's body, repairing his damaged heart and blood vessels.

Kakashi activated his Sharingan and watched with great interest as Hayato treated Haku using Stitching String.

Using Stitching String consumed a great deal of mental energy. Once the stitching was complete, Hayato wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Sarara said sourly from the side, "You've been pressing that girl's chest the whole time. Why are you sweating? Shouldn't you be drooling instead?"

"What girl? He's a guy."

"A guy?!" Sarara's eyes widened, wearing the exact same expression Hayato had earlier.

I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe it!

Impossible, impossible, impossible!

How could there be such a cute boy?!

If this had been in his previous life, the readers would definitely have said: if he was this cute, he had to be a boy.

[PS: Thanks to 1A90 and Five Colors Blind the Eye for their recommendation votes, to Taiyi Immortal King for four recommendation votes, and to shihenyu110 for ten recommendation votes. Thank you for your support.]

[PS: Special thanks to Lemon Dango Sauce for the 100-point tip.]

[PS: There will be two more updates tomorrow. Please bookmark and recommend; it concerns the site's next recommendation.]