Incarnation of Shura

The sea wind howled, carrying the stench of blood across the bridge.

"Kid, lend me your kunai."

Zabuza's voice was terrifyingly calm, yet it carried a death wish that made hearts tremble.

Without any hesitation, Naruto pulled a kunai from his ninja tool pouch and hurled it over.

Zabuza caught the kunai's handle firmly between his teeth. It was the only "hand" he could use now.

"I don't need you to step in."

Zabuza turned his head. Though the bandages wrapped around his face concealed his expression, the flames burning in his eyes were enough to incinerate everything. "This is my fight."

Before his words had even faded, he vanished from where he stood.

Like a wounded lone wolf, he charged fearlessly into a flock of sheep.

"Are you looking to die?! Kill him!" Gato shrieked as he scrambled behind his bodyguards.

Hundreds of mercenaries brandished swords and charged toward the man whose arms hung uselessly at his sides, who could fight with nothing but his mouth.

"The Demon of the Hidden Mist... descends!"

Splat! Splat!

Blood sprayed everywhere. Zabuza darted through the crowd, and every swing of his head brought a lethal flash of cold light.

But there were simply too many enemies.

Zabuza was already at the end of his rope. His hands had been crippled, his Chakra exhausted, and his body was covered in wounds. He had charged less than ten meters before several blades struck his back, blood soaking his entire shirt.

"At this rate, he'll die before he even touches Gato's clothes."

In the distance, Ye Tian still sat atop that concrete block, idly playing with a fallen leaf he had picked up from the ground.

His eyes remained fixed on the kunai in Zabuza's mouth.

"Death may be inevitable, but if I don't let you slaughter to your heart's content, how could you ever swallow this rage?"

The corners of Ye Tian's lips curled into an amused smile. "Since you want to become Shura, I'll give you a 'Shura Blade.'"

In a corner where no one was watching, Ye Tian's hands rapidly formed an ancient and intricate hand seal beneath the cover of his sleeves.

"Go!"

At Ye Tian's silent command, an extremely obscure strand of Spiritual Power, condensed to the utmost limit, crossed dozens of meters like an invisible thread and wrapped itself around the kunai in Zabuza's mouth.

Sword-Controlling Art · Concealment · Sharpness Enhancement!

Zabuza, fighting desperately amid the crowd, suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

Just moments ago, when the kunai struck an enemy's bones, he could still feel obvious resistance. Its edge had even begun to chip.

But in that instant, the kunai in his mouth seemed to come alive. It became incomparably light, and he could faintly sense a trembling thirst for blood.

Whoosh!

Zabuza violently swung his head, originally intending only to slash the throat of the enemy before him.

Yet that light swipe brought an unimaginable sensation of smoothness.

The man's neck was like tofu, sliced apart without the slightest resistance. Even the heavy broadsword he had raised behind it was neatly severed by that tiny kunai as though it were paper!

"What?!"

The mercenary's eyes widened as he looked at the half of his broadsword remaining in his hand. Before fear could even set in, his head rolled to the ground.

Zabuza's pupils constricted sharply.

This sharpness... what was going on?

Even Kubikiribōchō at its sharpest could never have achieved something like this!

Before he could make sense of it, three more spears stabbed toward him.

Zabuza instinctively tried to dodge, only to discover in astonishment that the kunai seemed to foresee the danger. It actually pulled his head into an extremely tricky evasive motion, followed by an upward slash.

Riiip!

The three steel spears were instantly severed, along with the arms of the three men holding them, all flying into the air.

"This feeling..."

Zabuza was horrified, but it was quickly replaced by unprecedented ecstasy.

This kunai had become like a part of his body. It was even more nimble and obedient than his own hands!

"HAHAHAHA! It seems even hell is welcoming me!"

Zabuza let out a wild laugh, the red glow in his eyes growing brighter. Since even heaven was helping him, then he would kill to his heart's content!

Meanwhile, Ye Tian, who was controlling everything from afar, had broken out in a fine sheen of sweat.

"Damn, this Sword Flight Technique really drains the mind."

As he maintained the hand seal, Ye Tian grumbled inwardly, Controlling a piece of ordinary iron from this far away without leaving any trace is much harder than just killing someone with a Flying Sword. Uncle Zabuza, could you rein it in a little? That throat-cutting from a distance just now was way too obvious. I nearly couldn't explain it away!

It turned out that, for an instant earlier, Zabuza had not even touched the man when Ye Tian's Sword Qi slipped out ahead of time. He had forcefully covered it up as "Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere."

On the battlefield, the situation reversed in an instant.

The mercenaries who had thought they could easily torture a crippled man now looked as if they had encountered a true demon god.

That man's arms were clearly ruined, and he was clearly drenched in blood, but as long as anyone came within three feet of him, no matter what weapon they held, it would be mercilessly cut apart by that black kunai—followed by their heads.

"Monster... he's a monster!"

"He's not human at all!"

The mercenaries' mental defenses began to collapse.

Gato had already gone limp on the ground, a large wet stain spreading across the crotch of his expensive suit pants.

"D-Don't come any closer! I have money! I'll give you money! I'll give you however much you want!"

Watching that blood-soaked figure advance toward him step by step like a demon god, Gato screamed in despair.

"Money?"

Zabuza stopped. Blood still dripped from the kunai in his mouth, and his eyes held not the slightest hint of greed—only endless coldness.

"Spend it in hell."

Whoosh!

A streak of black lightning flashed past.

Zabuza's figure instantly passed through Gato's body.

The world seemed to freeze in that moment.

Gato's expression froze on his face. The next second, his head slowly slid off, blood erupting like a filthy fountain.

Gato, the wealthy villain responsible for countless evils, died.

"Phew..."

Zabuza released the kunai from his mouth.

The ordinary iron that had endured such an enormous infusion of Spiritual Power shattered into powder with a crack the instant it hit the ground.

Zabuza swayed, the light in his eyes beginning to fade.

Unable to hold on any longer, he collapsed heavily.

"Zabuza!" Naruto could not help rushing forward.

But at that moment, the mercenaries who had been scared out of their wits saw the "Demon of the Hidden Mist" fall, and greed and savagery once again overcame their fear.

"That guy's dead!"

"Gato may be dead, but we can still loot this village!"

"Kill those brats! Take everything valuable!"

Hundreds of desperadoes revealed vicious looks, waving their weapons as they closed in again like flies drawn to blood.

Kakashi's expression darkened, and he was just about to form hand seals to use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

"What a bunch of... suicidal ants."

A lazy voice, not loud yet distinctly clear, reached the ears of everyone present.

Ye Tian slowly rose from the concrete block.

He patted the dust off his butt, impatience flashing through his eyes.

Controlling Zabuza's killing spree had already consumed quite a bit of his mental strength. Now he had to deal with several hundred nameless grunts too?

What a hassle.

"Since you all enjoy robbing people so much, leave something behind before you go."

The usual cloudiness Ye Tian wore in his eyes instantly vanished, replaced by lofty indifference. It was the gaze unique to an immortal cultivator looking down upon mortals.

Divine Sense Pressure: Fear Aura!

Buzzz!

An invisible wave spread outward from Ye Tian in an instant.

This was not Chakra-fueled killing intent, but pure suppression on the spiritual level.

Beneath the shroud of that strand of Divine Sense—though he had yet to reach Foundation Establishment, it had already taken rudimentary form—the world before the hundreds of mercenaries changed.

The sky darkened.

The bridge vanished, replaced by a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Above that bloody sea, a primordial beast tens of thousands of feet tall, its entire body wreathed in ghostly netherfire, slowly opened its eyes and looked down on them as though they were ants.

The terror rising from the depths of their souls made it feel as though invisible hands had gripped their hearts tightly. Even breathing became a luxury.

"AAAAAHHHH—!"

"Devil! There's a devil!"

"Help! Mom, I want to go home!"

The hundreds of mercenaries who had been so vicious moments before now went mad, throwing away their weapons. Some even wet themselves in terror as they wailed and fled.

Several who were slower to run had their legs give out beneath them, foaming at the mouth as they fainted.

In the blink of an eye, other than the weapons scattered across the ground, not a single enemy remained standing on the bridge.

Naruto: "..."

Sakura: "..."

Even Kakashi was stunned, the hand seal he had only half-formed frozen in midair.

"W-What happened?" Naruto stared wide-eyed at the fleeing backs, utterly bewildered. "Why did they suddenly all run away?"

Then he turned toward Kakashi, his face full of admiration. "Could it be that Teacher Kakashi's look just now was so scary that it frightened them all away? That's amazing!"

Kakashi: "..."

Since when did I have such a terrifying look? Did my Sharingan evolve some kind of Conqueror's Haki?

He subconsciously glanced toward Ye Tian in the corner.

Ye Tian was leaning against the railing, dry-heaving weakly. "Ugh... The dust those people kicked up while running is too thick... cough, cough... I'm choking to death... I can't do this anymore..."

The corner of Kakashi's mouth twitched.

Though he had no proof, he could not shake the feeling that the bone-chilling aura from earlier had something to do with this sickly-looking youth who seemed harmless to humans and animals.

But no matter what, the battle... was finally over.