The stage had been cleared.
Her enemy stood before her.
When Sasuke created absolute silence with that inconceivable Genjutsu, the last thread of reason in Shinobu Kocho's heart snapped completely.
She no longer needed to worry about innocent casualties, no longer needed to suppress the hatred fierce enough to burn her soul.
The hatred she had accumulated for years, searing as magma deep within the earth, erupted in that instant!
"Upper Rank Two!"
Her voice was no longer its usual gentle warmth, but a roar that seemed to come from the Nine Hells, carrying a bone-piercing chill. Every word was like a blade honed with blood and tears.
"Do you still remember this haori?!"
Before her words had faded, she had already vanished from where she stood.
Insect Breathing: Dance of the Butterfly: Caprice!
Her entire body became a dazzling purple phantom, like a butterfly dancing among poisonous flowers blooming on the far shore of hell, beautiful yet brimming with lethal intent.
In that instant, her speed surpassed its limits, even leaving a string of clearly visible afterimages in the air.
Almost within the blink of an eye, she crossed dozens of meters and appeared before Doma like a specter.
The Nichirin Blade in her hand had a slender, unusually shaped blade, like a thin, venomous bee's stinger. Beneath the lamplight, its tip shimmered with an ominous, deep-purple glow-a kiss of death formed from several potent poisons targeting demons, refined and concentrated countless times.
The blade's tip aimed squarely at Doma's throat!
This thrust was the strike of vengeance she had rehearsed thousands upon thousands of times in her mind over the years, on every night she woke from a nightmare!
Yet faced with this sudden, lightning-fast lethal attack, Doma still wore that unhurried, nauseating smile.
He did not even