"These worthless small fry actually warrant a personal appearance from you, the future Mizukage? Today, I'll show you what clearing the field really means." Shengu Xuan rolled his neck, a flicker of savage excitement flashing through his eyes.
Facing the sharp ninja blade that the Conservative Faction chunin brought slashing down at his head, Shengu Xuan could not even be bothered to dodge. He merely raised his right hand with utter nonchalance and gave a crisp snap of his fingers.
Snap!
The instant the snap rang out, the mud-soaked shadow beneath Shengu Xuan's feet suddenly began to writhe violently like boiling black asphalt!
Squelch!
A razor-sharp shuriken, black as ink and gleaming with a cold, eerie light, shot out of the shadow without warning. Moving at a terrifying speed impossible to follow with the naked eye, it instantly pierced the chunin's throat!
"Urgh..." The vicious grin on the chunin's face froze instantly. Before he could even scream, the ninja blade in his hand clattered to the ground. Clutching his wildly spurting neck with both hands, eyes wide open, he fell stiffly into the muddy water, twitched a few times, and went utterly still.
A deathly silence fell over the scene.
Every Conservative Faction ninja's laughter cut off abruptly. They had not even seen what had happened. That boy, who did not have a trace of chakra, had killed one of their elite chunin in an instant with nothing but a snap of his fingers?!
The mockery on Hōzuki Can's face was instantly replaced by utter shock. He instinctively retreated half a step and pointed his cane at Shengu Xuan, shouting in a trembling voice, "You... what did you do?! What kind of dark sorcery was that?!"
Shengu Xuan ignored Hōzuki Can's impotent rage. At that moment, a long-absent, emotionless mechanical