"You damn bastard, I'm going to ki—"
Before Hidan could finish, Miura Kikuchi raised a foot and stomped down heavily. The massive force brought Hidan's face into intimate contact with the ground. Blood splattered instantly, and his head was driven into a small crater in the dirt.
This effectively silenced him. Combined with the water restraints Miura Kikuchi had placed on his body, he appeared to have completely lost all mobility.
"There. That should do it."
"The so-called Divine Son is nothing more than this."
Miura Kikuchi brushed his hands together, a smile spreading across his face. As a follower of the Jashin Religion, the act of easily defeating a Divine Son provided him with an immense sense of satisfaction.
He slowly turned around, keeping one foot planted on Hidan's head, and directed his gaze toward the calm, bespectacled figure.
"Now it's your turn, Simu Kamizuki."
Seeing Miura Kikuchi handle Hidan so easily, Simu lightly Applauded. "Truly impressive, Senior Miura," he praised. "The way you chained your ninjutsu was flawless."
"First, you used Water Style and Paper Bombs to distract Hidan, making him think he had an opening. Then, you used the cover of the explosion to perform the Water Clone Jutsu, hiding your real body."
"While Hidan launched his surprise attack, thinking he had won, you used the remaining chakra in the clone to perform the Water Prison Jutsu to bind him. Finally, you appeared in person to claim his head with ease."
"Such refined coordination has truly opened my eyes."
Simu's words were sincere. This was the first time he had witnessed someone use ninjutsu with such precision to neutralize an enemy. In a sense, Miura Kikuchi had opened the door to shinobi combat for him.
Hearing the praise, Miura Kikuchi did not look happy. Instead, a sudden, terrifying rage twisted his features. "You brats! You're clearly just rookies, yet you act so high and mighty!"
"I want to see exactly why you two have earned Lord Jashin's favor!"
Simu maintained a polite smile. "If I'm not mistaken, Senior Miura, your chakra is nearly depleted, isn't it?"
The rage on Miura Kikuchi's face instantly darkened into a gloom as heavy as storm clouds. Simu was right. Dealing with Hidan's unexpected resilience had consumed more than half of his chakra.
He gripped his ninja blade and sneered. "Even with little chakra left, it's more than enough to handle a rookie like you."
"Oh? Then I look forward to your performance, Senior Miura," Simu replied with a slight smile, seemingly unfazed by the senior before him.
Incensed once more, Miura Kikuchi rapidly mobilized his remaining chakra. It surged through his dense network of meridians, pooling at the soles of his feet before exploding outward.
Body Flicker Jutsu!
Miura Kikuchi vanished from his spot, the burst of chakra leaving a slight depression in the ground. Facing this, Simu stood perfectly still.
In a flash, Miura Kikuchi appeared directly in front of him.
He didn't react?
A spark of joy flashed in Miura Kikuchi's eyes. He had assumed Simu would be more troublesome than Hidan, yet the boy couldn't even track his Body Flicker. Since Simu lacked an Immortal Body, a single heavy blow would end this!
"Die!"
His blade sliced through the air with an ear-piercing hiss. The sharp edge descended, aimed straight for Simu's shoulder! But the moment he appeared, a whistling sound of air being torn reached his ears from behind.
"When did—"
Miura Kikuchi's body stiffened. Alarm bells rang in his mind. Years of experience told him that if he insisted on striking Simu, he might take the boy's arm, but his own body would be skewered by the attack coming from his blind spot.
He made a split-second decision to abort his attack. Spinning around, he swung his blade with all his might. The white flash of his edge collided perfectly with a pitch-black spear.
The impact was massive. The vibration nearly sent the blade flying from his hand as sparks flew between the two weapons. Though his palm was numb, he had successfully blocked the lethal strike.
Miura Kikuchi breathed a sigh of relief, but then he saw the black spear, which should have been knocked away, suddenly change direction in mid-air. Under the sunlight, he caught sight of several thin threads reflecting a golden glint, connected to the end of the spear.
"It's..."
"Not over yet!"
Not far away, Hidan—whose head was still pinned to the ground—grinned. From the stump of his neck, countless thin threads shot out from the flesh, connecting to the base of the black spear!
Crap!
Miura Kikuchi's face turned ashen. Under the guidance of those threads, the parried black spear swung back like a divine punishment. Because of his rushed block, his center of gravity was off, leaving him vulnerable to the follow-up.
He had no choice but to throw himself to the side. However, Hidan was no fool. Seeing the movement, he immediately used the threads to adjust the spear's trajectory. Although Miura Kikuchi reacted instantly, the spear still grazed his cheek.
Close...
He tried to regroup, but a string of blood droplets quickly surfaced on his face. The spear was retracted by the spider silk. Simultaneously, Hidan used the power of his Parasitic Spider to stitch his head back onto his body.
"Jie jie jie! The great Hidan is back!"
The body, reunited with its head, exploded with power, shattering the water restraints. Hidan stood up and caught the blood-stained spear in his open palm. A sickly madness appeared on his face as he licked the weapon.
"Now, it's time to begin Lord Jashin's..."
"Sacrificial Ritual!"
His skin rapidly turned pitch black, and eerie white markings began to surface across his body. Miura Kikuchi realized what was happening. He touched the bleeding wound on his face, his hand trembling. Letting Hidan obtain his blood meant only one thing.
Am I going to die?
No!
"If I interrupt his ritual, I still have a chance!"
Miura Kikuchi's gaze hardened. He rapidly wove hand signs, gathering a massive amount of chakra in his mouth once more.
But as he wove the signs, Hidan had already sliced open his own abdomen. Blood splattered onto the ground, which Hidan used his foot to trace into the circular-triangular symbol of the Jashin Religion.
Miura Kikuchi watched with bloodshot eyes, his hands moving faster and faster.
Faster! Faster!
"Water Style: Water Wa—"
The moment the signs were complete, just before the water could erupt, Hidan thrust his spear through his own mouth! A phantom wound instantly pierced through Miura Kikuchi's mouth. The gathered chakra dissipated instantly.
"No!"
Despair filled Miura Kikuchi's eyes. In contrast, Hidan was grinning, despite the black spear skewering him from cheek to cheek. It looked agonizing, but Hidan was clearly enjoying it.
He slowly withdrew the spear and looked at Miura Kikuchi with a mocking gaze. "Senior Miura, where should the next strike go?"
Hidan danced the tip of his spear over his own body—hovering over his heart, his head, his stomach.
"Why..."
"Why did the two of you receive Lord Jashin's blessing!"
Under the pressure of impending death, Miura Kikuchi's mind snapped. He swung his blade and charged recklessly. Hidan merely laughed, opening his arms wide and allowing the ninja blade to pierce his heart.
"Lord Jashin, do you see this?"
Hidan stood like a great cross, head tilted back with a devout, ecstatic smile. Miura Kikuchi's blade stayed buried in his chest.
"Ah~"
Hidan let out a pleasurable moan. Miura Kikuchi, still holding the sword, began to shake violently as a massive hole appeared in his own chest. The moment he pierced Hidan's heart, his own was destroyed.
Blood poured from his mouth. With a final look of resentment, Miura Kikuchi collapsed.
With the enemy dealt with, Hidan collapsed to his knees, seemingly drained of energy. He didn't even want to pull the blade out of his heart yet. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of blood in the air, looking utterly blissful.
The villagers watching from the shadows were frozen in horror. When Hidan opened his eyes again, he saw Simu's half-smiling face.
"What are you looking at?" Hidan asked, feeling a bit self-conscious.
Simu kept his hands in his pockets. "Nothing. I just noticed you've become quite proficient with the Parasitic Spider."
Hidan jumped up defensively. "I am not! I haven't been!"
Simu waved it off. "I know. I understand."
Hidan grabbed Simu's arm as he tried to walk away. "Damn it, Simu, I really haven't been secretly practicing with that Parasitic Spider!"
Simu turned back and said seriously, "I believe you." He paused. "Really."
"Aaaaah! I'm going to kill you, Simu!"
After the two left, the villagers finally dared to approach. Looking at the blood-stained ground and the ruined street, they shared terrified glances, feeling only relief to be alive.
Anger? That was non-existent. They didn't dare feel it. In this era, ordinary people had little choice when facing the high-end power of shinobi. When two groups of ninjas fought, the casualties were rarely the combatants, but the villages and towns that became their battlefield.
They didn't even dare to think of revenge. They had no power. They could only pray that misfortune would not find them again. After all, what could they do? Shinobi held the power to collapse mountains and part seas. A single Paper Bomb or kunai could snuff out their hope.
They had nothing. No scrolls, no knowledge of how to refine chakra—they didn't even know what chakra truly was.
"Caw! Caw!"
A flurry of cries broke the silence. A massive flock of crows circled the village, their black feathers blotting out the sun like a dark cloud. Their dark eyes flashed with a hint of deep red.
Suddenly, hundreds of ravens dove from the sky.
"Get away!" The residents scrambled for cover.
The crows swarmed the three corpses. In just three minutes of frenzied pecking, the bodies vanished, leaving only a pool of blood. The blood happened to form the circular-triangular symbol of the Jashin Religion—an eye of a dark god imprinted in everyone's mind.
The crows flew off, carrying the flesh they had consumed. By evening, they reached the Jashin Religion headquarters, landing on the temple and regurgitating the remains into the Blood Pool.
Simu controlled his body, sorting the flesh of the three corpses. The two ordinary cultists had little research value, but he prioritized Miura Kikuchi, who could use multiple Water Style jutsu.
As a transmigrator, Simu was fascinated by the power system of this world. Now that he had Miura Kikuchi as a research subject, he had to analyze him.
"Gene [Water Style Shinobi] is being analyzed..."
"Current Progress: 1%."
Using the flesh brought back by the ravens, Simu began to parse Miura Kikuchi's DNA to reconstruct his body. This would eventually allow Simu to clone bodies with the talent for Water Style or integrate those genes into other species. Furthermore, it helped him understand the physical structure of a ninja, which was vital for his study of the [Chakra-Ninjutsu] system.