Chapter 23 — Total Annihilation!
Amidst Hidan's maniacal laughter, two of the four chūnin bodyguards at Gato's side immediately charged forward.
In their eyes, the enemy's behavior was nothing short of contempt.
After all, if even Okamoto could defeat them, how could they possibly fail?!
What no one noticed was that the very moment the fighting broke out, Okamoto had already begun scrambling and rolling his way toward the exit.
These two monsters were absolutely not something mere chūnin could handle!
"I'm sorry, Father-in-law," Okamoto muttered as he fled. "I'll take good care of your daughter from now on. So please… die here together with Gato!"
Shinji noticed the man's actions, but he didn't care in the slightest. After all, his mission target was right in front of him.
"Water Release: Water Whip!"
"Wind Release: Gale Slash!"
Hidan was bound by the water whip at first, but to everyone's disbelief, he tore free using nothing but brute force!
Of course, that probably had something to do with the opponent being far too weak…
As for the Gale Slash coming straight down at him, Hidan could have tanked it head-on. But this time, he didn't. Instead, he calmly sidestepped, then closed in to begin close-quarters combat!
The daily taijutsu training over the past few months, along with the bitter cultivation after being utterly crushed by Shinji—all of it blossomed in this very moment!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Heavy yet lightning-fast punches rained down relentlessly. In just a few seconds, the man collapsed at Gato's feet like a torn sack of rags.
Even without weapons, Hidan's fists alone were enough to beat many people to death!
Shinji wasn't idle either. Two packs of blood burst apart in midair.
Under his control, all the blood split into countless crimson droplets that hovered before him.
The next instant—
The blood droplets shot out like bullets!
In the blink of an eye, several bodyguards standing in front of Gato were riddled with holes, including the two chūnin!
Faced with such an AOE attack, while no one else had time to panic, Hidan was the first to get anxious!
Wasn't it agreed you'd leave them to me?!
How did you kill them all in the time it took me to turn around?!
No, this won't do—I have to prove I'm the most devoted believer of Jashin-sama!
As a result, the remaining chūnin who knew Water Release was horribly unlucky. Hidan grabbed his head and smashed it to pieces!!
Blood droplets flew everywhere, yet somehow all of them avoided Hidan's position perfectly.
Before long, almost everyone inside the room was dead. As for those outside who heard the commotion and tried to rush in as reinforcements—one came, one died.
Eventually, worried that Shinji would keep stealing his sacrifices and still unsatisfied, Hidan simply grabbed two large machetes—meant for chopping watermelons—and charged outside.
Anyone who didn't know better would think the Devil had possessed him!
After clearing out all the enemies inside, Shinji recalled the remaining blood and casually played with it in his hand, reshaping it into all kinds of forms—another part of his usual training.
"Come out. My earlier attack should've avoided where you were hiding."
Boom!
A solid wooden desk exploded with a gaping hole.
A disheveled Gato crawled out from underneath, his face pale with lingering terror as he shouted desperately, "Don't… don't kill me! No matter who sent you, I'll pay double—no, five times—ten times the commission!"
Seeing Shinji remain silent, Gato continued desperately, "If you're willing to help me completely wipe out the Oshima family, I'm willing to share the Land of Waves with you! The two of us would be the true uncrowned kings of this country—power, status, wealth, women, anything you want!"
Shinji tilted his head slightly, as if considering it—but the very next second, he made his decision.
Slash!
A demonic blood-red blade swept cleanly across Gato's neck.
Thud… thud…
A head, eyes still wide open in death, rolled to Shinji's feet. The lingering gaze seemed to question him—why?
"Sorry. Your proposal does sound tempting, but to me, it's worth absolutely nothing. Besides, I promised someone I'd bring back your head."
Ruling a backwater like the Land of Waves?
If he were still penniless and powerless, he might've seriously considered it.
But now that he knew what kind of world this truly was—and with a cheat ability in hand—of course he had to pursue a far more exciting life!
Perhaps years later, when he stood invincible, he might witness even more magnificent scenery.
Of course, it was far too early to talk about that now.
Listening carefully to the sounds of slaughter outside, along with someone's deranged laughter, Shinji decided to wait until Hidan finished killing everyone out there before heading out himself.
He was doing this purely so Hidan could vent to his heart's content—definitely not because he found it troublesome and wanted to slack off!
Definitely not!
After some time, everything finally went quiet, replaced by a thick, suffocating stench of blood.
"That should be about it."
Lifting Gato's head, Shinji walked outside.
Along the way, severed limbs lay everywhere, blood splattered across the ground. If an ordinary person walked in and saw this scene, they'd probably faint on the spot.
Outside was even worse—corpses covered the ground!
All the armed guards Gato had stationed here to protect himself had been completely slaughtered by Hidan alone.
Thud!
Clang!
Standing amid the pile of corpses, Hidan bared his teeth and sucked in sharp breaths of cold air as he pulled all kinds of weapons out of his body and tossed them aside.
Combined with the blood covering him from head to toe, and that smooth scalp with no hair or eyebrows left—
One word: vicious.
"Feel better now?" Shinji asked lazily, not even lifting his eyelids.
At the moment, Hidan looked like he'd entered a post-that-kind-of-thing sage mode—clearly satisfied, yet visibly drained.
"Too weak. I need better sacrifices for Jashin-sama."
"And… I've realized that simpler, more direct weapons suit me better. Whether it's kunai or black spears, their killing power is just too low."
Shinji raised an eyebrow. "So what kind of weapon do you want?"
Honestly speaking, in the entire Naruto world, there were probably very few weapons cooler or more imposing than the Blood Scythe of Three Moons!
Could it be that Hidan already had that idea?
"This!"
"..."
"I never realized before how damn useful these machetes are! One swing and you smash their head clean off!"
Watching Hidan pull two watermelon knives out of the ground, Shinji fell into silence.
And then an image surfaced in his mind—Hidan holding two machetes, chopping his way from the east end of Konoha all the way to the west…
The aesthetic is all wrong.
"Uh… I think you should maybe put more thought into 'how to obtain the enemy's blood more cleanly and efficiently,'" Shinji suggested tactfully.
"Why? If I chop them to death in one strike, why would I need to collect blood?!" Hidan glared.
"In the future… sigh, forget it."
Shinji closed his eyes in helpless pain.
Forget it—do whatever you want!