"Wh-what... what kind of monster is this?!"
Zabuza Momochi's hoarse, dry voice, filled with boundless terror, echoed through the white steam, yet seemed so insignificant, like a drowning man's final, meaningless cry.
His body was as stiff as a stone statue. His eyes, which had witnessed countless bloody slaughters and long since grown indifferent to life and death, now held only one emotion-an incomprehensible horror rising from the deepest reaches of his soul.
As Kirigakure's "Demon," he had faced enemies far stronger than himself and survived situations that had nearly killed him. He had thought he was no longer capable of fear.
But the sight before him utterly shattered everything he knew and all his pride.
All around him, within the thick mist that should have been his domain, where all perception was cut off, stood densely packed ranks of pitch-black humanoid creatures.
They had no breath, no heartbeat, no chakra fluctuations. There were only pairs of scarlet eyes, cold, deathly still, and devoid of emotion, all fixed on him like the darkest nightmares of the night.
They held all manner of weapons-sharp katanas, poisoned kunai, heavy spiked clubs... every weapon gleamed with a chilling light that made his heart tremble.
And in his perception, these "monsters" numbered in the hundreds, the thousands, without end! They emerged from every inch of shadow, staining this white world into a black hell of despair!
"Silent Killing Technique?"
An indifferent voice, carrying even a trace of mockery, drifted from behind the Shadowkhan.
With his hands in his pockets, Shengu Xuan slowly emerged through a passage two Shadow Ninjas had cleared for him. He stepped on the boiling river water without a drop touching his feet, as though walking on level ground.
He looked at the "Demon," who had completely lost his will to fight, his smile filled with pity.
"Playing hide-and-seek in my shadows?" Shengu Xuan shook his head as though watching a child trying to be clever. "Have you misunderstood what 'home turf' means?"
"Wh-what the hell are you?!" Zabuza used every ounce of his strength to force those words from his throat. He would rather believe the boy before him was the incarnation of some legendary evil spirit than believe this was power a human could possess.
When had Konoha produced a... godlike genin like this?!
"You're about to die. You don't need to know what I am." Shengu Xuan's gaze turned cold. "You only need to understand one thing."
"From the moment you set foot on this land and intended to kill my teammates, your fate was already sealed."
The instant his words fell, the Shadowkhan surrounding Zabuza moved!
There were no shouts, no roars, only perfectly synchronized movements, like a symphony of death!
Whoosh!
The Shadow Ninja closest to Zabuza flickered, its katana tracing a pitch-black arc as it slashed straight for his neck from an exceptionally tricky angle!
"Damn it!"
The threat of imminent death unleashed the last reserves of Zabuza's potential. With a roar, he swung the massive Kubikiribōchō in his hands and blocked the fatal blow!
Clang!
A piercing clash of metal rang out!
Zabuza felt an unimaginable force surge through the blade, no weaker than an elite jonin's full-powered strike! The impact drove him back several steps, his arms going numb.
But this was only the beginning!
The instant he blocked the first strike, a Shadow Ninja wielding a chain sickle on his left silently flung its chain toward his ankle. On his right, three Shadow Ninjas carrying kunai rushed in like phantoms, cutting off every escape route! Above him, a burly Shadow Ninja wielding a spiked club descended from the sky, bringing it down on his head with crushing force!
From every direction, above and below, every attack launched at the same moment, in perfect coordination that left no opening!
"Wh-what kind of coordination is this?!!"
At the distant edge of the thick mist, Kakashi could barely make out the battle, and his Three Tomoe Sharingan widened until it nearly split!
His Sharingan could see through the trajectories of these attacks and analyze their intentions. That was precisely why he felt unparalleled terror!
This coordination... was too perfect!
Every Shadow Ninja moved as though controlled by a supreme will. They never communicated, yet their joint attacks displayed greater coordination than an Anbu squad that had drilled together thousands of times!
Not a single wasted movement, not a millisecond of hesitation!
This was not a battle at all. It was a vast, precise killing machine whose sole purpose was annihilation!
"Gulp..." Sasuke swallowed with difficulty, his Sharingan spinning madly as he tried to record it all.
But he found that he simply could not keep up!
There were too many Shadow Ninjas, and their attacks were too bizarre! They could attack from anywhere there was a shadow, and could even merge into shadows to avoid damage!
Sasuke watched Zabuza struggle desperately under the Shadowkhan's assault, danger closing in at every turn like a tiny boat caught in a raging storm. Then he recalled his own pathetic state earlier, when a single blow from the Demon Brothers had split the webbing of his hand...
A profound sense of helplessness welled up in him once more.
He had thought the gap between himself and powerful fighters of Zabuza's caliber lay in chakra reserves and experience.
Only now did he understand that before Shengu Xuan's power, which operated on the level of "rules," there was no difference between genin, chunin, or even elite jonin like Zabuza.
They were all... insects that could be crushed at will.
"Aaaaargh!"
At the center of the battlefield, Zabuza roared like a cornered beast.
The Kubikiribōchō whirled madly in his hands, forming an impenetrable web of blades. Every swing cut one or two Shadow Ninjas in half.
Yet the severed Shadow Ninjas merely dissolved into puddles of black liquid, writhed briefly on the ground, then re-formed and rejoined the battle completely unharmed!
Undying bodies!
Endless numbers!
Perfect coordination!
Zabuza fell into utter despair.
The swordsmanship he took pride in, the assassination techniques that had made his name, became a colossal joke before this undying shadow army.
His stamina was rapidly draining, and the wounds on his body kept multiplying.
The Shadow Ninjas attacked with precision and ruthlessness. Their aim was not to kill him immediately, but to strip away his ability to resist, little by little.
His arm was slashed, slowing his swings.
His thigh was pierced, restricting his movement.
His back took a heavy blow, making the blood surge within him.
Like this, little by little, he was toyed with, tormented, and dragged toward the abyss of death.
Shluk!
Finally, during a gap in his defense, a pitch-black sword broke through his guard and plunged savagely into his shoulder, pinning him firmly to the ground!
"Urgh-!"
Zabuza groaned in pain. Unable to hold the Kubikiribōchō any longer, he let it fall onto the water with a clang.
The battle was over.
Dozens of Shadow Ninjas instantly closed in, cold blades pressing against his neck, heart, and head from every direction...
A single thought from Shengu Xuan would have him chopped into pulp in an instant.
"How does it feel, Demon of Kirigakure?"
Shengu Xuan slowly walked up to Zabuza and looked down at the blood-soaked man pinned to the ground like a dead dog.
"To be slowly toyed with until you die, on your own turf, by your own prey, using the methods you excel at most... quite a new experience, isn't it?"
"You... you... devil..." Zabuza raised his head, his unfocused eyes bloodshot and filled with venom.
"A devil?" Shengu Xuan laughed. "No, I'm just a genin passing through."
He raised his foot and gently stepped on Zabuza's face, pressing his head into the scalding muddy water.
"Now, take your ignorance and arrogance, and repent... in my shadows."
A trace of cold killing intent flashed through Shengu Xuan's eyes.
He was tired of playing.
The dozens of Shadow Ninjas surrounding Zabuza raised their weapons together. The shadow of death was about to fall!
"Stop!"
At that critical instant!
A cool voice, tinged with urgency, suddenly rang out from the far side of the thick mist!
Immediately afterward, countless senbon gleaming with cold light shot toward them like a torrential rain, filling the air!
Their target was not Shengu Xuan, but all the Shadow Ninjas' weapons embedded in Zabuza and pressed against his vital points!
Clink, clink, clang!
A rapid series of metallic collisions rang out!
With inconceivable precision, those senbon struck every weapon about to descend!
Shengu Xuan tilted his head slightly toward the voice, an amused curve rising at the corner of his mouth.
"Oh? Has another slightly more interesting insect arrived?"
He slowly raised his hand and issued a silent command to the Shadow Ninjas: Stop.
Every Shadow Ninja abruptly halted.
Within the thick mist, a slender figure wearing a Kirigakure Pursuit Squad mask silently appeared a short distance away.
"I am a member of Kirigakure's Pursuit Squad," the figure said in an utterly flat voice. "This missing-nin, Zabuza Momochi, is our target. Thank you all for cornering him. Now, might you leave him to me?"
"Pursuit Squad?" Naruto paused, then scratched his head. "So you're on our side!"
Kakashi's Sharingan, however, remained fixed on the figure, his gaze full of gravity and suspicion.
The timing was too convenient.
And that precise senbon-throwing skill just now was certainly no ordinary feat!
"Hey, Shengu Xuan!" Seeing that Shengu Xuan had no intention of releasing the man, Naruto could not help shouting, "Since they're Konoha's allies, just hand that bad guy over to them!"
Shengu Xuan ignored Naruto, his gaze moving with interest between that "Pursuit Squad" ninja and the dying Zabuza on the ground.
He smiled.
It was the smile of someone who had seen through every trick and was watching a clown perform with interest.
He spoke slowly, his voice quiet, yet reaching everyone present with perfect clarity.
"Nice performance."
"Unfortunately, your acting is terrible."
The masked figure suddenly stiffened!
Shengu Xuan said leisurely, "When the Pursuit Squad deals with missing-nin, they always destroy the body on the spot and bring back only the head. Since when did they need to take someone back alive?"
"And..." Shengu Xuan's gaze grew sharp as a blade, as though it could pierce the mask and look straight into the soul behind it.
"The way you look at him is nothing like someone looking at a 'target.'"
"Your eyes are full of sorrow, urgency, and... undisguised concern."
"Who exactly are you?"
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