Ninja Code

Watching the flaming tornado charging straight at him, Xiu had wanted to see whether it could break through his defenses and let his body evolve again.

But considering there were others behind him, he ultimately gave up on the idea.

The Mangekyo pattern in his eyes slowly spun, and a spatial vortex abruptly appeared before him.

The moment the flaming tornado struck the spatial vortex, it was swallowed up by the whirlpool at a visibly rapid speed.

"Trying to run? Heh..."

Glancing in the direction Kakuzu had vanished, another spatial vortex appeared, and Xiu's figure disappeared instantly.

Kamui's abilities were probably among the very best of the Sharingan.

The left eye could attack from a distance, while the right eye could transfer the user himself.

There was passive Intangibility when attacked, a Kamui Space, and the third power, Susanoo.

It sounded utterly unbeatable, but in truth, those were merely the basic abilities of these eyes.

For example, when the user activated Susanoo, he could attach his ocular power to a weapon and trigger the left eye's ocular technique when the weapon struck its target.

After mastering the power of Kamui, he could even open paths to other dimensions, or use the Kamui Space as a transit station for rapid movement.

During the Nine-Tails Attack in the original story, Obito had clung to the Fourth Hokage like a stubborn leech with just one right eye. With a pair of Eternal Mangekyo, Xiu's speed went without saying.

Without space-time Ninjutsu, no one could escape his grasp.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

Kakuzu raced through the forest, fleeing toward the Land of Hot Water with the desperation of a man running for his life.

He kept glancing back to see whether there were pursuers behind him. In barely a dozen seconds, he had nearly run his soul out of his body.

In all his life, this was the first time he had seen someone kill three of his masked clones with a single look.

I chovy! Konoha put a bounty on me, all right! You only put ten million on a monster like that?

And that strange Sharingan... could it be the legendary Mangekyo?

As an old hand in the Shinobi World, Kakuzu had been alive in the same era as the First Hokage, so naturally he had heard many secrets.

At the very least, back when Madara was still alive, information about the Mangekyo had not been especially secret.

Why did such power appear in the hands of a six-year-old brat?

After darting several kilometers away and seeing no pursuers behind him, Kakuzu finally relaxed a little.

Right, that brat was only six years old. Even if his abilities were unusual, his speed should still be limited by his age and body.

Thinking that, Kakuzu finally stopped and found a hidden corner to catch his breath.

But the next second, a voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Why did you stop running?"

Hearing that voice, Kakuzu's pupils contracted. He spun around sharply and drove a kunai toward where the voice had come from.

Clang—

The kunai struck Xiu's cheek, making his head tilt slightly. Then, as though it had stabbed a block of refined steel, it instantly snapped in two.

Kakuzu froze as he watched the fragments of the kunai fly away.

He looked at the half of the kunai left in his hand, then at Xiu's cheek, which had reddened slightly before instantly returning to its fair color. Kakuzu fell silent.

Xiu watched him leisurely, with an expression that seemed to say, go right ahead.

After two seconds of silence, Kakuzu took out another kunai, infused it with Wind Release chakra nature transformation, and stabbed it into Xiu's neck.

Pfft...

Unexpectedly, the kunai pierced Xiu's skin with ease and sank into his artery.

Kakuzu's eyes widened slightly. He instinctively pulled out the kunai, only to see the wound in Xiu's neck heal the instant he withdrew it!

At that sight, he was completely dumbfounded.

What kind of terrifying regenerative ability was that?

Kakuzu gritted his teeth and stabbed Xiu again, refusing to believe it. But this time, after the kunai broke through Xiu's skin, he clearly felt intense resistance.

He pulled it out, then stabbed again.

Clang...

Another kunai broke.

Looking at the broken kunai in his hand, Kakuzu fell silent once more.

Xiu raised a hand in invitation. "Why not try your Ninjutsu? Your remaining two masks should correspond to Wind Release and Fire Release, right?"

"..."

Seeing how calm the boy before him was, Kakuzu suddenly laughed.

"So that's it. What a twisted hobby..."

He dropped to the ground with a thud, spread his arms, and looked blankly at the sky as if he had completely given up resisting. "Kid, you win. Kill me."

Space-time Ninjutsu, super-speed regeneration, an immortal body, adaptive immunity...

Could he win?

No!

There was no way he could win!

He could not beat him, and he could not escape.

The other side had not even bothered to fight back. He was using Kakuzu to level up his immunity!

What the hell was there left to fight?

Kakuzu stared at the sky, his expression calm, his eyes devoid of any fear of death.

As a ninja, he knew this day would come sooner or later.

Thanks to Earth Grudge Fear, he had lived for nearly a hundred years. He had already gotten more than enough out of life.

He had long since grown tired of this world where only money would never betray him.

"Before that, where do you keep your money? With your strength, you must have saved up quite a bit, right?"

Xiu asked casually. The blood remaining on his neck turned into specks of light and quietly merged into his body.

Hearing that, Kakuzu's eyelids twitched slightly. He suddenly felt that perhaps he could struggle a little longer.

"Won't you ask something else? Like who put the bounty on you?"

"I could guess who did it with my toes."

Xiu snorted. Who else could it have been but Danzo?

Konoha's king of taking the blame—did he look like he was joking?

"Wait, do you remember the Ninja Code? Ninja aren't allowed to loot..."

"I haven't even finished ninja academy. How could I remember that stuff?"

Fuck! He's a goddamn illiterate!

Kakuzu's face darkened. After struggling with it for a while, he let out a deep sigh.

Something churned within his chest. A large hole split open along the stitches, and black tentacles pushed out a scroll.

"I knew it..."

Xiu's mouth twitched. Back when he had watched Naruto, he had wondered where someone as obsessed with money as Kakuzu would hide it.

If he were honest with himself, if his birthday gift had not been soul-bound and could not be summoned at any time, he would definitely keep Izumi and Aunt Hazuki by his side rather than hand the item over.

So how could someone like Kakuzu, who loved money as much as his life, possibly trust anyone else with his stash?

When he had noticed that Kakuzu did not have a storage scroll on him, Xiu had suspected that he might be hiding his money inside his body. He had not expected to be right.

"Good thing I didn't use Ninjutsu on you!"

Xiu sighed as he picked up the scroll. Inside were five storage seals.

He opened them one by one. They contained a box of banknotes in ten-thousand-ryo denominations, along with four boxes of gold.

After a rough estimate, there was a little over two billion!

Xiu put away his money, weighed the scroll in his hand, then raised an eyebrow. "That's all?"

Kakuzu's face darkened. "You little brat! Don't push your luck! Do I not need money to eat?"

"Ah, sorry..."

Xiu smiled without the slightest apology and put away the scroll. "Any last words?"

Kakuzu opened his mouth, wanting to say that he had nothing left to say, but he felt somewhat unwilling to die in such silence.

"Mm... my name is Kakuzu."

"I'll remember it."

Xiu drew two kunai and flicked them casually, piercing the remaining two masks.

All five hearts were destroyed, and Kakuzu's consciousness gradually sank into darkness.

Xiu took out a storage scroll and sealed Kakuzu's corpse inside.

In the Shinobi World, even the dead could not keep secrets, after all. There was Impure World Reincarnation.

Keeping the corpse might come in handy someday.