The kindly smile on Genji's face froze inch by inch like a fragile ice sculpture, then shattered.
"What... did you say?"
Every word seemed to be forcibly squeezed out through clenched teeth.
The faint smile on Hozuki Mangetsu's face vanished completely, replaced by a killing intent as cold as a freezing current.
"I said this country, rotten from the Root up, no longer needs you."
His voice was calm, yet it carried farther than Genji's roar.
"I had to kill my best classmate to graduate from that hellhole and become a Kirigakure ninja."
"I once thought that was a ninja's fate, the foundation of the village's strength. Now I understood—it was just a flesh-and-blood mill built by vermin like you to satisfy your own selfish desires."
"I don't care, but my little brother can't stand those lonely days without classmates."
Before his words had even faded, his figure blurred where he stood.
The twin blades Hiramekarei became a blinding streak of white in his hands. The Chakra Metal gathered along the blades hummed as they stabbed straight for Genji's heart.
"Naive!"
Genji let out a venomous shriek. He did not dodge.
Just as the blade tip was about to touch his chest, dozens of purple-black seals flared to life across the stone floor beneath his feet, forming an intricate and sinister circular formation.
A safeguard designed specifically against the Hozuki Clan's secret techniques—the Dehydration Barrier!
Hozuki Mangetsu's body suddenly halted in midair, as though he had slammed into an invisible wall. His skin shriveled at a visible rate, his pale cheeks rapidly caving in as moisture was violently drawn from him. In an instant, he looked as though he had been dried out for ten years.
"You stupid brat! Did you think I would truly trust anyone?!" Genji's face twisted