"Alas, you should have been more careful, and the last living person is gone."
Kirito sighed as he saw Nawaki kick the last surviving enemy jōnin to death.
"Haha, I accidentally overdid it, I'm sorry."
Nawaki heard this and forced a smile, then his eyes subconsciously looked at the dead yellow-haired jōnin in front of him, and his body kept shaking.
Murder!
This was Nawaki's first time killing someone. Although he had been prepared for it, when he actually killed someone like him, he couldn't help but feel fear in his heart. He looked at the miserable corpses around him, and suddenly felt a little sick to his stomach.
Hatake Sakumo didn't say anything to comfort him.
Killing a person is a psychological hurdle that every ninja must overcome. It is best to overcome this hurdle on one's own, and if one cannot even do that, then one should not become a ninja in the future.
Then he looked at Kirito and Chizuru, and saw that their expressions and eyes were the same as before. Kirito even went up to some of the dead bodies without blinking an eye and used some kind of yin-style ninjutsu to steal information from them. He knew that the two of them had long since overcome this psychological hurdle.
"Did you collect any useful information?"
A moment later, Hatake Sakumo asked Kirito, who had just dropped the last enemy head.
"Most of these guys were bounty hunters, and a few were ninjas from a certain ninja village. As for which village, I don't know. These guys had some kind of self-destruct seal technique placed in their brains, which would activate immediately upon the death of the host and destroy the host's brain."
Kirito shook his head and said,
"But one thing is for sure, their target is Nawaki, and they have all been given a direct order to take Nawaki's life at all costs. What's more, these guys' ninja weapons are coated in a deadly toxin that paralyses the victim's ability to fight."
Upon hearing this, Nawaki's already not-so-good expression suddenly became even more hideous.
Fortunately, he had decisively used the Konoha Secret Taijutsu: Konoha Dragon God from the very beginning, and with the help of the wind wall formed by this technique, he successfully blocked the various attacks of the enemy's ninja tools. Otherwise, if he was accidentally hit, he might not survive.
He had heard many times before from his sister about the despicable methods the enemy used against her, but he had never taken it seriously, thinking that he would not fall victim to them. Now that it was his turn to experience it for himself, he felt really bad about it.
Suddenly, the Kirito in front of him used a Shunin no Jutsu to come in front of him, then placed a hand on his shoulder and released his chakra.
Nawaki did not stop him when he saw this, and let Kirito use medical ninjutsu to scan his body.
"As expected, the enemy is even more cunning and dangerous than I thought. Here, take this."
A moment later, Kirito said with a grave face, and then took out a black pill from his body and gave it to Nawaki to eat.
Nawaki didn't understand why, but he obediently ate the pill.
A few seconds passed, Nawaki's face changed, and a sharp pain came from his stomach, and then he vomited several blood-colored worms from his mouth.
He looked at the disgusting things he had vomited and his face suddenly changed. He took a few steps back in some alarm and said, "What is this? Why would there be such disgusting things in my stomach?"
"Worms, haven't you seen them?"
Kirito put on gloves, picked up the few still lively and jumping blood-colored worms on the ground, put them in a small bottle for observation, and said with a flat face.
"Worms, Kirito, is there a insect manipulator around here?"
Hatake Sakumo saw the several blood-colored worms and immediately thought of the Aburame clan, a ninja clan that manipulates worms. He said with a grave face.
"No."
Kirito shook his head.
The Aburame clan, a clan of ninja that manipulates worms, is found in Konoha, so he is no stranger to ninja.
Since all living things have souls, so do insects.
However, the soul of an insect is very small, and compared to a human soul, it is almost the difference between the moon and a grain of rice.
Relying on this, it is not difficult for him to use soul perception to discover the enemy's Bugmaster. However, the enemy's Bugmaster is obviously a very careful person. Within a radius of five kilometers, Kirito has not found any place where souls the size of grains of rice are densely gathered.
"Kirito, you need to be more careful on the journey ahead. Although the Bugmaster themselves are weak, the insects they raise are terrifyingly powerful. You must be extra careful,"
reminded Hatake Sakumo.
Amongst the ninja, apart from the Puppeteer, the best at killing people would have to be the Bugmaster. Both are masters at manipulating a certain type of ninja tool, except that the one they manipulate is a puppet and the other is an insect.
Like the puppet master, the insect handler is also a master of poisons, and their poisons are even more insidious and deadly.
Because insects are really inconspicuous compared to puppets, but it is just such a bug that is not much bigger than a grain of sand that could very likely kill you.
He has seen the horrors of a Bugmaster. His blade can easily kill his enemies, but with such a tiny creature as a bug, his blade becomes less effective. If he encounters a Bugmaster who controls some kind of super-tiny bug, he would probably only have to run for his life.
Once upon a time, while on an S-class mission, he encountered a mysterious Bugmaster. The other party was supposedly a traitor from Kamizuru clan, controlling a kind of poisonous bee with the ability to become invisible.
Although he eventually managed to kill the person, he was also poisoned. If he hadn't been carrying a powerful antidote developed spontaneously by Konoha, which temporarily suppressed the poison, he would have definitely died along with his opponent.
The Bugmaster Nawaki encountered this time was obviously more deadly.
The opponent should have been aware that there was a medical ninja like Kirito by Nawaki's side, and knew that using poison would be difficult to succeed, so they gave up on using poison to kill Nawaki, and instead secretly placed a curse on Nawaki's body. If it weren't for Kirito's excellent detection methods, Nawaki would likely have been killed by the opponent's insects without knowing it.
"I understand what you mean, Hatake Sensei, I'll keep a close eye on it,"
Kirito nodded.
Before setting off, he went to see Tsunade again to say goodbye.
And he had promised Tsunade and his teacher that he would protect Nawaki, so naturally he would be on full alert to watch over him.
"Ahem..."
On the other side, Chizuru also looked very unhappy when she saw the insects that Nawaki vomited. She immediately coughed and looked at Kirito.
Hatake Sakumo also stared at Kirito.
Logically speaking, since Nawaki had been infected without knowing it, it was very likely that they had also been infected.
Kirito immediately understood, smiled, shook his head, and said, "Don't worry, you haven't been infected. The only ones who have been infected are Nawaki and I, because only he and I have touched this guy's body."
After saying this, he pointed his finger at the already dead yellow-haired jōnin.
"Kirito, what the hell is going on?"
Nawaki, a failure at theoretical classes, really couldn't wrap his head around it at the moment, and said blankly,
He just kicked this guy, so how did he get infected? And he was wearing shoes.
"Chakra, the worms on this guy can sneak into a person's body through the chakra without making a sound. You just used chakra when you kicked this guy, and I also used chakra when I touched this guy's head to use Yin Release Chakra: Mind Reading, so that's why you got infected,"
Kirito explained, seeing that Nawaki still didn't understand.
At this, Nawaki finally understood what was going on, and looked at the corpse of the yellow-haired jōnin with a lingering sense of fear.
Hatake Sakumo and Chizuru also had an expression of sudden enlightenment on their faces.
Then, Chizuru decisively used the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to burn the corpse of the yellow-haired jōnin to ashes.
...
At the same time, in a dark cave seven or eight kilometers away from Kirito and the others,
A bald old man, wrapped in a large black robe, watched as a blood-colored worm in his hand suddenly died. After a picture appeared in his mind, he immediately stood up slowly and said in a hoarse voice, "It's failed. All the worms I put on that person are dead."
"It's failed, so continue with the operation. You've already received the deposit. According to the rules, you must complete this assassination mission."
The next moment, a black-robed man wearing a rabbit mask stepped out of the shadows and said coldly.
"No, those people have already sensed my methods. Next time, my insect secret technique will not be as effective as it was just now, and it was not easy to cultivate my little cutie. This transaction is a loss. As for the deposit, I will refund it to you."
The bald old man opened his eyes slightly and looked at the person in front of him, shaking his head.
"I can pay more. Don't you Henketsu have masters who play with insects? As long as they can kill those people, money is not a problem."
Seeing that the bald old man was unwilling to continue, the rabbit-mask man immediately activated his money-making ability.
"Money is a good thing, but you need to have a life to spend it. The target this time is too difficult, and I'm afraid I can't help. As for asking my other clan members to help, you can talk to them yourself. I'm not going to get involved in this anymore."
The bald old man refused again without hesitation.
He had previously agreed to the request of the person in front of him because the other party was generous, giving a deposit of 50 million right away, and after the job was done, he could also receive 100 million in compensation. Second, he was confident in his own Secret Bug Technique: Parasite Bug Technique, and could easily kill a young fool who had just left the village.
But the result now was that the Secret Bug Technique, which he had always been proud of, had failed.
If even the most powerful technique could not succeed, then his other techniques definitely could not threaten Kirito and the others.
Moreover, a technique is most threatening when the opponent is unaware of it, just like his Bug Secret Technique. Once someone knows how to activate it, its threat level drops significantly.
He didn't know if his enemy had already discovered the secret of his Bug Secret Technique, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
At a time like this, it was best to choose to retreat rather than be greedy.
He, Zenjiro Genpei, had survived the Warring States period until the present day by relying on prudence.
"Refund the deposit? Haha..."
The rabbit-masked man laughed when he saw that the bald old man had refused again and even offered to refund the deposit, although his laughter was a little cold.
The next moment, more than ten shadow spikes suddenly appeared and pierced the bald old man's body.
However, no blood flowed from the bald old man's body. His body began to change, and a large number of black worms appeared in front of the rabbit-masked man.
Insect Secret Technique: Insect Cloning!
"This old thing is really crafty, but you won't be able to escape. You took Root's money, so you can't possibly get away without finishing the job."
The rabbit-masked man didn't seem surprised when he saw this. He immediately backed up, then used his shadow to create a wall of shadows to block the attacks of the disgusting worms in front of him, and sneered before blending back into the shadows.
Outside the cave, the bald old man poked his head up from the ground. He immediately bit his thumb and smeared the blood on the palm of his other hand before quickly performing a hand seal.
When the seal was complete, he pressed his hand heavily onto the ground, and a summoning technique appeared.
Summoning technique!
"Boom~"
A burst of white smoke appeared, and a giant two-meter-tall five-star ladybug appeared in front of the bald old man.
"Mushinokisuke, get me out of here."
The bald old man jumped onto the head of the five-star ladybug and ordered.
Upon hearing the order, the five-star ladybug Mushinokisuke immediately spread its wings and flew high in the air, carrying the bald old man.
At this time, a black cloud of insects gushed out from the ground not far away and quickly caught up to the bald old man and Mushinokisuke.
"The insect handler of the Aburame clan?"
The bald old man saw the fast-approaching black cloud of insects and said coldly, his eyes revealing a deep hatred.
In the ninja world, the most famous insect handler clans are the Aburame clan of Konoha and the Kaminari clan of Iwagakure, but once upon a time, their Henketsu clan was also a famous insect handler clan.
Unfortunately, during the Warring States period, the Henketsu clan was on the wrong side of the war and suffered a disaster.
The Aburame clan, on the other hand, sided with the Senju clan early on and is still active in the ninja world, continuing to grow and develop.
It was the Aburame clan that attacked the Henketsu clan back then, and since the Senju clan was behind them, the Henketsu clan ultimately lost.
The next moment, the bald old man opened his mouth and a black poisonous gas shot out of his mouth.
Bug Secret Technique: Bug Poison!
The black poisonous gas quickly enveloped the approaching black cloud of insects. A large number insects fell from the sky as they could not withstand the poisonous gas, and the insect cloud immediately became thinner.
Next, the bald old man threw several Kunai with explosive symbols into the already thin black insect cloud, killing and blowing up all the remaining parasitic insects that were chasing after him.
On the other side, on the ground, a black-clad man with a rat mask stepped out from behind a large tree. He watched the bald old man fly away in the sky, and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.
He never expected his parasites to be poisoned.
As a jōnin of the Aburame clan of the Roots, his parasites had been specially cultivated, naturally immune to most toxins, and almost immune to the vast majority of toxins in the world, but now they had been poisoned.
Otherwise, with the flight speed of the special parasites he cultivated, he would definitely have been able to intercept the bald old man.
"I didn't think you would actually miss, what a surprise,"
the man in the rabbit mask sneered as he walked out of the shadows of the big tree.
"The other party is, after all, a skilled bug handler. It's not surprising that he has special means of restraining the parasites. Don't worry, with Rooster watching, he won't be able to escape. The Henketsu clan's Bug Secret Art: Parasite Technique and Bug Secret Art: Explosive Bug Technique will surely become Root's weapons."
The Mouse Masked Man said coldly.
As soon as he finished speaking, he disappeared into a mass of parasites.
The rabbit-masked man heard the reply and finally felt at ease, then he also returned to the shadows and quickly disappeared.