Toying with Them, Breaking Their Spirits!

Uzuki Yugao's sword hand trembled.

She took a deep breath and forced down the panic surging in her chest. Her voice shook.

"Uchiha Yongye, we're all Konoha ninja. Don't do anything rash! We were wrong. We're willing to apologize. We're sorry!"

Gekko Hayate stood beside her, an unnatural flush rising on his pale face.

He coughed twice. Each cough aggravated the old injury in his lungs, making his sickly face look even worse.

He hated having to apologize!

As an ANBU jonin, he had carried out countless dangerous missions and faced countless formidable enemies. Never had he had to humble himself like this.

But faced with this Uchiha madman, he had no choice. Getting beaten to death like this would be too senseless, too unjust!

"I'm sorry," Gekko Hayate said through clenched teeth. "I shouldn't have said those things."

Yongye looked at them, his expression unchanged. The mockery in his eyes only deepened.

"If apologies worked, what would we need ninja for?

"Everyone could just bow all day. Why fight wars? When you go on missions and run into enemies, do you bow and say sorry? Will that stop them from killing you?"

Uzuki Yugao's face went deathly pale.

Gekko Hayate's sword hand, however, stopped trembling. He raised his head, and a cold resolve flared in eyes clouded by years of illness.

Uzuki Yugao quickly straightened as well. Her long purple hair stirred in the wind. Her lips no longer trembled, and she held her sword steady before her.

They exchanged a glance. No words were needed. Years of fighting side by side brought them to the same decision at once.

They were elite ANBU ninja. They were no strangers to death.

Their fear just now had not been fear of dying. They could not bear dying in such a ridiculous, pointless way—beaten to death in the street by a madman over a few remarks made behind his back. It was too pathetic, too worthless!

They would become a laughingstock across the shinobi world!

That was why they had tried to back down, apologize, and settle things peacefully!

Now that they had abandoned that hope, they felt calm instead.

So what if they died? Before they did, they would make this Uchiha madman pay.

Uzuki Yugao turned her toes slightly outward and lowered her center of gravity. She raised her sword tip, taking the opening stance of Konoha Style Swordsmanship.

Gekko Hayate formed hand seals with one hand. Chakra gathered at his fingertips as he prepared to summon shadow clones.

Yongye watched them change, and the mockery on his lips grew unmistakable.

That was exactly what I wanted!

If I knocked them down right away, it would just be an ordinary brawl. It wouldn't break their spirits.

First, drive them to despair!

Then give them hope, only to snuff it out myself!

That was the proper way to break someone's spirit!

"Just now, this consumptive said I use the Eight Gates Release at the drop of a hat."

Yongye raised his right hand and pointed a finger at Gekko Hayate, his voice dripping with contempt.

"You're wrong. Trash like you isn't worth using the Eight Gates Release on. Forget the Eight Gates Release..."

The three slowly turning scarlet tomoe in his eyes suddenly stopped. Then the red faded, the tomoe vanished, and his eyes returned to ordinary, ink-black eyes.

He had deactivated his Sharingan.

"You're not even worth using the Sharingan on!"

Gekko Hayate's pupils contracted sharply.

Rage at the sheer humiliation exploded in his chest, flushing even his pale face red!

He had served in ANBU for years, carried out countless high-risk missions, and killed more than a dozen enemy ninja. Even Lord Danzo would never speak to him in that tone.

Yet Uchiha Yongye was not merely refusing to use his strongest technique, the Eight Gates Release. He would not even deign to use his Sharingan against him!

This was more than underestimating him. Yongye regarded him as an ant by the roadside, not even worth the effort of crushing.

But beneath the anger, Hayate felt a surge of joy he could not suppress.

The Uchiha Clan's most fearsome weapon was the Sharingan: genjutsu, copying techniques, tracking movement. Every pair of Sharingan eyes was a mobile arsenal of Ninjutsu.

By deactivating his Sharingan, Uchiha Yongye had thrown away his strongest weapon. Without the Eight Gates Release, all he had left was taijutsu and ordinary Ninjutsu.

In a straight contest of taijutsu and Ninjutsu, Gekko Hayate might well have a chance!

Besides, there were two of them against one!

Uzuki Yugao's gaze changed too. She gripped her sword tight as the same thought rose in her mind.

She and Hayate were both skilled in Konoha Style Swordsmanship, their swordsmanship among the best in ANBU. By forgoing his Sharingan, Uchiha Yongye was pitting his weakness against their strength.

Their chance was right in front of them!

If they could seriously injure this Uchiha madman, it would outshine the completion of ten S-rank missions!

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Gekko Hayate formed hand seals. With a pop, two Shadow Clones appeared beside him. All three drew their swords at once, the blades gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

The three figures spread into a triangular formation, their steps perfectly synchronized.

Their blades traced countless arcs through the air, weaving an impenetrable net of steel!

Konoha Style Swordsmanship—Dance of the Crescent Moon!

It was his best killing move!

With his real body and two Shadow Clones attacking from three directions, their swords rose like three crescent moons, sealing off every escape route.

So many formidable foes had fallen to this move. He refused to believe Uchiha Yongye could see through it without his Sharingan!

Uzuki Yugao moved at the same instant.

Like a wisp of purple smoke, she skimmed low across the ground.

Her sword scattered countless slivers of light through the air. Together, they resembled a hazy moon rising into the night, dazzlingly beautiful and hiding a deadly strike!

Konoha Style Swordsmanship—Veiled Moonlit Night!

Her attack meshed perfectly with Gekko Hayate's. He pressed from the front while she cut in from the side, her sword tip aimed beneath Yongye's ribs.

One attacked head-on, the other from the flank. One sword struck with crushing force, the other with elusive grace!

Yongye stood where he was, unmoving.

But his Clear Sword Heart had already spread through the battlefield!

In his perception, the true paths of Gekko Hayate's three sword strikes were as clear as a slow-motion replay. And amid Uzuki Yugao's dazzling flurry, only one thrust was the real killing blow.

Using swordsmanship against me? They were showing a master how to wield a sword!

With Clear Sword Heart, every sword technique looked to him like an instructional video played in slow motion!

Gekko Hayate's three blades fell at once, stopping less than half an inch from Yongye's body.

Uzuki Yugao's sword tip arrived too, stabbing toward the vital point beneath his ribs.

Then Yongye moved.

He leaned his upper body slightly to the right. The motion was tiny, but precise to the last fraction of an inch. Gekko Hayate's blade swept past Yongye's left shoulder, severing a few strands of hair without even touching his collar.

Then Yongye drew his left foot back half a step, planted his right toes, and turned his body ninety degrees at an impossible angle.

Uzuki Yugao's sword tip slid past his back, barely piercing the trailing hem of his robe. It missed his skin by a paper's thickness.

Two movements, flowing together with effortless ease!

Gekko Hayate's pupils shrank. He had no time to change his attack. As Yongye finished turning, he drove straight into Hayate's chest.

One elbow strike.

Just an ordinary elbow strike, landing square in the center of his chest.

Gekko Hayate felt as if a charging rhinoceros had hit him head-on.

His ribs cracked under the impact, and he flew backward like a kite with its string cut.

His two shadow clones burst into white smoke midair. His real body slammed into the ground and slid five or six meters before stopping, blood spraying from his mouth.

Uzuki Yugao was horrified. She tried to pull back her sword and retreat, but it was too late.

Yongye turned and swept out a kick.

It struck her lower abdomen with precisely measured force—not enough to kill her, but more than enough to put her out of the fight.

Uzuki Yugao grunted, doubled over, and flew backward. She landed hard beside Gekko Hayate. Her sword flew from her hand, spun twice through the air, and lodged with a clang in a gap between the stone slabs several meters away.

From the moment they unleashed their killing moves to the moment they both hit the ground, no more than two breaths had passed.