Startled, Kakuzu immediately turned, drew a shuriken, threw it, and retreated, all in one fluid sequence, as though those movements were engraved into his very life.
A living, breathing person had appeared behind him without a sound!
It was as though the man had been there all along, yet he had never noticed!
Had the man not spoken first, he would never even have discovered someone standing behind him!
The thought made Kakuzu break out in a cold sweat.
Kakuzu, who possessed five lives... now three lives, felt fear for the first time in ages.
It was a chill that clung to his bones!
Imagine a cold, venomous snake watching you from the shadows, waiting for the moment to suddenly strike and inject its venom with a bite.
Yet you knew nothing of this snake, utterly unaware of what fate awaited you!
This was sheer terror!
After throwing the shuriken and retreating to another branch, Kakuzu finally had time to examine the man before him.
But his heart sank at the very first glance. There was a clang, and although the man made no visible movement, the shuriken Kakuzu had thrown with all his strength bounced away in midair, as though it had struck some invisible barrier!
Kakuzu had already expected something like this. Anyone who could appear behind him without a sound while he was on full alert was naturally no ordinary person.
So he knew the shuriken would most likely be useless against the man. He had only intended to distract him long enough to retreat to a position where he would have time to react.
But he had not expected the man's methods to be so uncanny that he could not even tell how the shuriken had been deflected.
Could it be Wind Release? Given his knowledge,