He grabbed a nearby Grass Ninja by the collar and hoisted him up under his bewildered gaze.
"You Grass Ninja have been pretty damn cocky lately. You even dared to lay a hand on my people!"
The Grass Ninja he had grabbed finally reacted. He stared at Takahashi Yū's face, then carefully felt the red gas constantly trying to burrow into his head. Instantly, he grew even more terrified. He recognized Takahashi Yū.
"B-big brother, have you mistaken me for someone else? I wouldn't dare touch a member of your 'Undying Squad' even if I had ten times the courage." Thoroughly terrified, the Grass Ninja spoke in a trembling voice.
Looking at this Grass Ninja, whose reactions were clearly several beats slower than a normal person's, Takahashi Yū suddenly found him familiar.
He brought the dangling Grass Ninja up to his face and frowned as he carefully studied that fat, round face.
Thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a nose broader and larger than most people's...
Wasn't this the Demonic Path?
Replacing the Grass Ninja's hair color with the one in his memory and adding a few studs to his face, Takahashi Yū finally recognized this poor bastard who had been turned into a puppet even after dying in the original story. The audience hadn't even been allowed to learn his name. Nagato deserved to be convicted of desecrating a corpse!
"What's your name, Grass Ninja?!" Takahashi Yū shouted at him.
Suspended in midair and constantly subjected to the assault of Takahashi Yū's enormous face, the Grass Ninja was on the verge of fainting.
Hearing Takahashi Yū's question, which sounded like a roar, he instinctively answered at the top of his lungs.
"Taiseki! My name is Taiseki, sir!"
"Good! That's the spirit! I've got high hopes for you!" Takahashi Yū loudly answered Taiseki and flung him aside.
Taiseki crashed through several small houses, collapsing them, and successfully passed out.
"Where's your leader?! Get whoever calls the shots out here!"
Takahashi Yū shouted and cursed at the Grass Ninja before him, who had collapsed to the ground under the intimidation of Murderous Intent Fluctuation.
"Captain, a few of them went to the center of the village to report just now. They should be here soon," Hyūga Gōshi answered from behind him, as composed as ever.
The scene shifted to a more respectable building in the center of Kusagakure, where its current leader sat in a chair, imagining the Grass Ninja's future.
The Uzumaki Clan. We have to hold on to them and keep the other ninja villages from finding out. That woman we captured can even heal other people's injuries. Heaven truly favors us Grass Ninja. Only I can make the Grass Ninja great again!
Mangzhong, Kusagakure's leader, reclined in his chair with a smile, imagining Kusagakure flourishing under his leadership, playing all sides in the Shinobi World, making a fortune selling false intelligence, then stealing ninjutsu and seizing bloodline limits to make Kusagakure bigger and stronger and restore its glory.
Although it might never have had any glory, and who knew whether the Box of Ultimate Bliss recorded in the village's documents was real, Mangzhong was a practical man. He didn't pursue such empty nonsense, only benefits he could actually obtain.
In the midst of his daydream, Mangzhong's buttocks suddenly clenched, and his expression changed. He sensed a terrifying presence. He wasn't the only one; Murderous Intent Fluctuation enveloped all of Kusagakure.
Considering that Kusagakure might have ordinary civilians, Takahashi Yū had deliberately weakened his Murderous Intent Fluctuation. But looking at the sorry specimens before him, he felt he might have misjudged the Grass Ninja who had pursued Uzumaki Shui Ling.
Could those few have been the Grass Ninja's elite?
Mangzhong hurriedly rose, breaking free of his daydream, and looked toward the village entrance. Before long, several trembling Grass Ninja leaped over to him.
"Chief, it's that Takahashi Yū! The brute who went on a killing spree in the Land of Wind!"
"Chief, which of our deeds got exposed? The 'Undying Squad' is at our door!"
"Chief, what do we do? I just saw him grab Taiseki and lift him up to his mouth. Takahashi Yū even opened his mouth wider than his head! Is he going to eat someone? Please think of something, Chief!"
"What?! Eating people?!"
"What?! Taiseki's head got bitten clean off?"
The Grass Ninja kneeling on one knee all babbled at once, frightened into incoherence by Murderous Intent Fluctuation.
"Huh↘↗?!" Mangzhong paled in shock at their words!
He had long heard that Konoha's demon, Takahashi Yū, was a man who slaughtered people by the score, whose very aura was steeped in blood.
He hadn't imagined that the man had now progressed to eating people!
Mangzhong cast aside his plans to restore the Grass Ninja's glory and spoke urgently to the men kneeling before him:
"Have we offended him lately? Or did we steal something? Quick, quick, quick! Give it back, and offer him a solemn apology! All of you, get on your hands and knees and bow! Understand?"
"Could it be because of the Uzumaki we just captured? The Uzumaki have always been allied with Konoha."
One of the Grass Ninja asked uncertainly.
"Surely not? The Uzumaki's country was destroyed and their clan wiped out. What alliance is left?"
Another Grass Ninja spoke hesitantly.
"Whether it is or not, bring them out first. Why don't we bring everyone we've stolen recently and let that big shot take his pick?" The Grass Ninja before Mangzhong began talking over one another again.
"Shut up! Are you still the elite of Kusagakure? Are you pretending I, your chief, don't exist?!"
Listening to the Grass Ninja's spineless words, Mangzhong couldn't help the veins bulging on his forehead. He shouted as he headed toward the village gate.
The Grass Ninja froze, staring at Mangzhong's back as though they no longer recognized him.
Mangzhong stopped again and turned to address the Grass Ninja.
"You lot, bring the stolen ninjutsu scrolls too."
The elite Grass Ninja, still kneeling on one knee, exchanged looks.
"Get moving!" Mangzhong shouted.
"Yes!" The elite Grass Ninja scattered.
"That's our chief! He thinks of everything!" the elite Grass Ninja marveled.
Mangzhong hurried toward the gate, cold sweat pouring off him.
There was no helping it. The Grass Ninja's main source of income was selling intelligence, and they deserved much of the credit for spreading Takahashi Yū's infamy throughout the Shinobi World. The Grass Ninja who had observed from the outskirts of the Land of Wind battlefield back then had been unable to eat for three days after returning.
Right, that intelligence-gathering Grass Ninja in the Land of Wind seemed to be called Taiseki. From what they said, it sounds like his head got bitten off. Ah.
How savage!
He spotted the figures at the village entrance, especially the tall one standing in the middle with his arms folded.
Mangzhong steeled himself, picked up speed again, and ran toward Takahashi Yū.
Watching the Grass Ninja running toward him against the tide, Takahashi Yū was filled with admiration.
To think Kusagakure had such a tough guy!
Admiration involuntarily entered Hyūga Gōshi's eyes as well, and he said to Takahashi Yū:
"Captain, his chakra reserves are around Jonin level." After speaking, he couldn't help shaking his head.
To think Kusagakure, famous for switching sides with the wind, had such a valiant man! What a pity. Hyūga Gōshi kept his sigh to himself.
Seeing him charge on without slowing, Takahashi Yū couldn't help shouting:
"Grass Ninja, state your name! I, Takahashi Yū, acknowledge you..."
Before he could finish, Mangzhong suddenly leaped, bent both legs, and landed on his knees, using the momentum of his run to slide toward Takahashi Yū.
This was Mangzhong's exclusive secret technique. No matter how hard-hearted someone was, once he used this move, they would feel rather awkward about attacking him. He called it:
The advanced kowtow-Sliding Kneel!
If there were more people, there was another move called Circle Kneel.
Before Takahashi Yū could finish speaking, he stared in exasperation at the Grass Ninja who had slid to a perfect stop at his feet. That proficiency, that precision, that sheer shamelessness.
"I am Mangzhong, leader of Kusagakure. My respects, Lord Takahashi Yū."
Mangzhong looked up at Takahashi Yū, his face plastered with smiles.
Truly worthy of being the Grass Ninja's leader. Takahashi Yū closed his eyes, his temples twitching.
"What guidance brings Lord Takahashi Yū and the members of the Undying Squad to Kusagakure?" Mangzhong clasped his hands in greeting and looked around.
Hyūga Gōshi closed his eyes too.
So he was already on his knees without even knowing what he'd done wrong.
That's the Grass Ninja for you!
Before you continue