Lei Dou's steps paused almost imperceptibly, and his gaze instantly sharpened.
In weather hot enough to crack the ground, two puddles were inexplicably sitting in the grass beside the road?
This disguise was so pathetic it practically insulted every passerby's intelligence.
The very second Lei Dou noticed something wrong.
Kakashi, who had been trailing lazily behind them, narrowed his one exposed, dead-fish eye as well.
How could there possibly be puddles beside the road in heat that could roast someone alive?
Never mind where the water had fallen from. The mere fact that it hadn't evaporated under this blazing sun already screamed, "I'm a trap."
Can you spot what's wrong, my dear students?
Kakashi watched without betraying anything. Though Lei Dou's combat strength was off the charts, and Sasuke and Naruto weren't exactly novices either.
Actual combat and training were two different things. When their lives were truly on the line, whether they dared swing a blade or noticed potentially fatal details remained unknown.
As the group approached the enemy's ambush zone, Kakashi's fingers quietly hooked onto the edge of his ninja tool pouch.
Bang! Bang!
Without warning, the two seemingly still puddles exploded, and two ghostlike figures sprang out amid sprays of water.
The chain sickles in the two ninjas' hands glinted coldly in the sunlight as they launched their surprise attack with murderous resolve.
Their eyes were keen, their targets the Sasuke and Naruto walking up front.
Their tactics were clear: eliminate these two seemingly easy-pickings brats first, and the remaining Lei Dou would be nothing to fear.
Or one could simply hold Lei Dou off while the other slaughtered Tazuna in the confusion, completing their mission.
At that critical instant, Sasuke froze for half a second, but his instincts quickly drove his body into action.
He drew a kunai backhanded, propelled himself into the air, and delivered a clean flying kick straight at his attacker's face.
That reaction speed was quite good. Watching from concealment, Kakashi nodded in satisfaction.
Naruto, on the other hand, stood rooted to the spot as though immobilized by a jutsu, his pupils contracting violently.
It was a classic stress response: his mind wanted to move, but his body had completely shut down. In a life-or-death fight, that was a fatal opening.
Well, it was his first real battle. Being scared stiff was understandable.
Kakashi turned his attention to Lei Dou at the rear.
From the moment the enemies burst out of the water until the blade closed in on Naruto's throat, Kakashi had never taken his peripheral vision off Lei Dou.
And Lei Dou's behavior startled even this battle-hardened Jonin.
He was far too calm!
It could even be called an indifferent calm!
Not even his breathing had changed in the slightest, as though what was unfolding before him wasn't an assassination attempt, but a boring mime performance.
Clearly, he had seen through that pathetic disguise long ago, which explained his utter confidence.
Just as Naruto was about to be killed on the spot, Lei Dou finally moved. He merely raised his hand casually and threw a kunai.
Whoosh!
A shrill scream of torn air instantly erupted.
Then came the dull sound of a blade piercing flesh. The Kirigakure Chunin lunging at Naruto didn't even have time to scream before the kunai's terrifying momentum punched straight through him and pinned him firmly to the ground.
At the sight, the corner of Kakashi's mouth twitched sharply beneath his mask.
That strength... could a human even possess it?
A simple throw had produced the impact of a heavy siege crossbow. This guy's arm strength was downright monstrous.
Just like that, a Chunin had met an unceremonious end.
Meanwhile, Sasuke had also driven back his attacker.
Though he hadn't killed him in one strike, he had left him in a sorry state.
The surviving Chunin flipped back to his feet and caught sight of his already-dead companion out of the corner of his eye. Terror surged through him, but he knew retreat meant certain death. He could only grit his teeth and keep attacking Sasuke.
Sasuke clenched his teeth and desperately parried with his kunai, the clang of metal ringing out without pause.
It looked as though Sasuke wouldn't finish his opponent anytime soon, and Lei Dou showed no intention of intervening. Tazuna, meanwhile, had fallen onto his backside in terror, his face pale.
"H-how did two assassins show up here?!"
Nobody had time for the old man's pointless questions.
Lei Dou strolled over to the still-trembling Naruto and gave his shoulder a heavy pat. "Everyone has a first time. There's no shame in wetting your pants, as long as you don't stand there like a wooden post next time."
At those words, Naruto, who had been deathly pale and drowning in self-reproach, jolted. The suffocating fear immediately eased considerably.
He stared blankly at the corpse Lei Dou had killed in an instant, his emotions tangled. In that moment, he had truly thought he was going to die.
Bang! Bang!!
By then, Sasuke's fight had also been decided. Chunin was only a rank, after all, not a guarantee of superior strength. An enraged Sasuke seized an opening and brutally slammed his opponent into the ground.
Sasuke bound the man's hands and feet tightly with wire, then dragged him over like a dead dog.
He looked up at Lei Dou with a questioning gaze. "What do we do with him?"
"You caught him. You deliver the finishing blow."
Lei Dou tossed the decision back to Sasuke as casually as throwing away trash.
Sasuke paused, then glanced at the nearby corpse with a gaping hole in its chest. His eyes abruptly turned cold, and he steeled himself!
His hand rose and fell, the kunai slicing precisely across the Chunin's throat. Blood gushed out.
Taking another person's life with his own hands for the first time left Sasuke looking utterly sick, his stomach churning.
Hidden nearby, Kakashi sighed silently. Cruel though it was, Lei Dou had done the right thing.
A ninja's path was paved with blood. The sooner they crossed this psychological hurdle, the greater their chances of surviving later.
"All right, stop spacing out. Let's keep moving."
Lei Dou's voice was as calm as though nothing had happened.
But Naruto's and Sasuke's minds were already in turmoil.
So this was killing. So this was being killed. A life could vanish so easily.
Their understanding of the world suffered a violent shock at that moment.
Lei Dou wasn't worried, though. These two were chosen ones, with plenty of resilience.
Tazuna shakily climbed to his feet and stole a glance at Lei Dou, whose expression hadn't changed once. He muttered inwardly, This kid... with killing skills that practiced, he's definitely done this plenty of times!
Compared with the other two brats, who had to struggle through their fights, that effortless lethal strike made his terrifying strength obvious.
Once he realized this, Tazuna unconsciously edged closer to Lei Dou, as though only being near this walking menace offered any sense of safety.
After the group had gone some distance.
Kakashi's figure finally emerged beside the two corpses.
He crouched down and examined the wound pierced by the kunai, his brow furrowed.
"...Tch. That force is simply ridiculous."
"Fast, precise, ruthless, without a single wasted movement. Lei Dou has probably already stained his hands with plenty of blood."
"But the real show is still ahead. This C-Rank mission isn't that simple."
That old fox, the Third Hokage, had actually arranged for a rogue ninja of that caliber to serve as a whetstone. Apparently, he was determined to test just how sharp this newly drawn blade called Lei Dou was.
The journey from Konoha to the Land of Waves was long, with several more days of travel ahead.
After that assassination attempt, the rest of the journey was surprisingly peaceful.
Whenever night fell and everyone rested, Naruto acted as though he had been pumped full of adrenaline, fiddling with a rubber ball for who knew what reason.
Lei Dou merely smiled faintly, seeing through it without saying anything.
Clearly, the encounter had shaken Naruto, leaving him desperate to grow stronger. But this was something that couldn't be rushed.
Since Naruto was working so hard, Lei Dou felt he couldn't slack off too much either.
And so, every night, the woods echoed with Lei Dou's heavy panting as he put himself through hellish physical training.
Watching Lei Dou's crazed, nearly self-abusive training was like seeing another version of Might Guy and his equally eccentric student.
Kakashi, hidden in a tree, could only marvel.
"No wonder this kid's strength is so absurd. He's this ruthless with himself when nobody's watching?"
"But what exactly is his body made of? After training like this all night, he can still travel full of energy the next day?"
An ordinary person would have been practically paralyzed after a night of training like that!
While Lei Dou and the others immersed themselves in training and traveling.
Zabuza Momochi, far away in a gloomy hideout, also received news of his subordinates' failure.
"They were both wiped out? Two Chunin who work perfectly together went to deal with three freshly graduated Genin, and somehow got themselves killed?"
"Interesting. Looks like these three Konoha brats aren't ordinary small fry."
"Lord Zabuza, they're only a few Konoha Genin. There's no need to use a cleaver to kill a chicken. You don't need to go yourself."
"I'll bring back their heads."
Masked, Haku knelt on one knee, his gentle voice carrying a chill.
Zabuza, however, grabbed the enormous Kubikiribōchō leaning against the wall and snorted. "No!"
He rejected Haku's suggestion outright, a vicious gleam in his eyes.
"The intel says one of those three brats is named Sasuke Uchiha!"
Someone with the Uchiha Clan's bloodline could fetch a mountain of gold on the black market, even as a corpse.
If he could capture one alive, the price would be beyond measure.
So even though they were only three Genin, Zabuza intended to collect this windfall himself for the sake of that enormous payout.
Several days later, the border of the Land of Waves was almost within reach.
"Keep walking for another three hours, and we should be able to see the Land of Waves' coastline."
Lei Dou shook out the map in his hands and spoke evenly.
Hearing this, Naruto and Sasuke let out long sighs of relief, their taut nerves finally relaxing a little.
After spending the entire journey on edge, they were finally about to deliver their client.
A C-Rank mission involving an assassination attempt by trained ninjas had long since exceeded its assigned difficulty.
Fortunately, they had made it through without serious trouble. Surely they could complete the rest smoothly?
Lei Dou leisurely put away the map, an amused smile curling his lips. Being nearly there meant the man carrying the huge sword was due to make his entrance.
He just wondered what lovely spot the man would choose for his attack.
They continued onward, and the mist around them gradually thickened.
Lei Dou discreetly studied the surrounding terrain. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened. This place... why did it look so much like that famous scene he remembered from the original story?
Looks like this is the place. Let the show begin.
The instant that thought passed through Lei Dou's mind, a piercing whistle erupted like thunder, rapidly closing in!
Without hesitation, Lei Dou shouted sharply at the two beside him, "Get down!"
As he turned, he saw an enormous black spinning silhouette sweeping toward them like a harvester, whipping up fierce winds.
At the same time, Kakashi, concealed in the treetops, felt his pupils contract and his heart skip a beat.
That sword is...
Bang!!!
With a teeth-jarring thud, Lei Dou actually caught the enormous spinning sword with one hand!
The expected spray of blood and torn flesh never came.
Lying on the ground, Naruto and Sasuke looked up in terror. Their minds had gone completely blank the instant they heard that sound.
With such terrifying force and such an enormous weapon, they would probably have been beheaded on the spot.
When Lei Dou told them to get down, they assumed he would dodge too.
Yet, to their utter disbelief, Lei Dou stood in place like an iron tower, catching that... no, that was a Kubikiribōchō taller than a grown man, with one hand!
The sight was so shocking that even Kakashi stared dumbstruck from hiding, his mouth hanging wide open beneath his mask.
What monstrous dynamic vision and terrifying wrist strength would it take to seize the handle precisely as it spun at high speed, then steadily neutralize an impact powerful enough to cleave rock?!
"Who's inconsiderate enough to toss bulky trash around? Even if you don't hit a kid, hitting the flowers and grass isn't nice either."
Lei Dou's voice suddenly rang out, tinged with laziness and mockery.
Kakashi nearly stumbled out of his tree.
Of all the possibilities he had considered, he had never imagined those would be Lei Dou's first words.
On the tree behind Lei Dou, Zabuza Momochi was supposed to have made his entrance standing on the sword in his coolest pose.
Instead, he was crouched on a branch, his face dark as the bottom of a pot.
According to the script, he would throw his sword, then use the Body Flicker Technique to appear on its handle, looking down on everyone with contempt.
Now look what had happened. He had jumped down, only for someone to catch his blade barehanded!
This was awkward.
Hearing Lei Dou call it "tossing trash around" made the veins on Zabuza's forehead throb with rage.
This brat!
Is he deliberately humiliating me?
The movement behind them brought Sasuke and Naruto back to their senses. Lei Dou slowly turned around as well, still holding the enormous Kubikiribōchō.
Beside them, Tazuna swallowed hard. Seeing Lei Dou hold that giant blade as effortlessly as a fire poker left him utterly rattled.
He screamed inwardly, What did this kid grow up eating? Is that strength even human?
With strength like that, it's a waste not to haul bricks at a construction site... if he helped me build the bridge, the work would fly!
"Were you the one who threw this scrap metal?"
Lei Dou looked at the bandaged man. Though his appearance differed slightly from the anime's art style, that distinctive look and nauseating reek of blood were unmistakable!
"Boy... give me your name."
Zabuza Momochi's icy voice seemed to emerge from hell. His intense killing intent pressed down on everyone as though tangible, and even the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
Sasuke and Naruto immediately struggled to breathe. Their legs began trembling involuntarily, and cold sweat sprang onto their foreheads.
Lei Dou, however, looked thoroughly impatient, his eyes even carrying the irritation of someone rudely dragged out of bed.
"I'm asking you a question. Were you the one who threw this crappy sword at me?"
Hearing Lei Dou's completely off-topic question, Zabuza felt a tightness in his chest.
Was this brat missing a few screws?
Couldn't he feel the killing intent in the air? Couldn't he see I was here to kill them?
"Yeah, I threw it! What are you going to do about it?"
Whoosh-!!!
Before he had finished speaking, a blur tore through the air.
Zabuza's pupils constricted sharply. A drop of cold sweat slid down his temple as he stiffly turned his head to the right.
The tree beside him, so thick it would take two people to encircle its trunk, had been silently sliced clean in half!
Rumble!!!!
The enormous crown slowly toppled, throwing up a cloud of dust. The Kubikiribōchō, which had been in his hand just a moment ago, now stood embedded at an angle in the ground five meters behind him, its blade still quivering.
"You..."
Zabuza was stunned. He had never expected this scrawny, fair-skinned brat to possess such astonishing explosive power.
That split-second throw had far exceeded Genin standards in both speed and strength.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Shimozuki Raito, a Genin of Konoha."
Zabuza had never heard that name before.