Suzaku supported himself with his long blade, his back against the rough tree trunk, the poison blurring his vision.
Kurogaya and Sakikawa lied prostrate before him, gasping for breath, blood spreading from their ankles.
Sakikawa pushed himself up with his hands, his eyes filled with despair and unwillingness.
A dense swarm of puppets surrounded the three of them, leaving no room to escape.
A Sunagakure ninja emerged from among the luppets. He looked at Suzaku and the other two, as if seeing prey that had fallen into a trap, his eyes cold and cruel.
Kurogaya looked at the Sunagakure ninja approaching, a flicker of hatred in his eyes.
"Akasuna, the puppet ninja!"
"Sunagakure actually sent you to ambush us."
Puppeters were Sunagakure’s secret weapon.
This time, to prevent Amegakure and Konoha from signing a contract, Sunagakure had even dispatched a puppeteer.
"It’s over." Akasuna looked coldly at the three ninjas before him.
Suzaku tightened his grip on the hilt, his knuckles turning white.
Sakikawa closed his eyes.
Despair engulfed them.
On a branch extending from the tree trunk above Suzaku’s head, a crow covered in black feathers let out two soft caws.
Akasuna looked up, and poison needles shot out from his hand.
The crow flapped its wings and flew high. The poison needles missed their target.
Akasuna narrowed his eyes.
Black feathers slowly drifted down from the sky. A figure, faster than the circling crow, silently pierced through the black crow feathers, swooping down at a speed beyond the capture of the naked eye.
The figure was small but contained explosive power.
Akasuna had expected it, how could an ordinary crow evade his poison needles?
A puppeteer never confronts people head-on.
Akasuna instantly retreated, and a puppet blocked Haruki’s path.
Haruki’s figure approached like a ghost, his long blade slicing across the puppet’s body.
The puppet was instantly cut in half, becoming a pile of scrap metal.
Akasuna frowned, how could his puppet be dealt with in one strike?
He leaped onto a tree branch, his fingers moving slightly, and countless puppets instantly surged towards the small figure.
Haruki’s figure left a blurry afterimage in the air. His body weaved through countless puppets.
The sharp blade, with a piercing sound of cutting through air, critically struck the weakness of every puppet.
There was not a single wasted movement, swordsmanship born purely for destruction.
Even though these puppets had been modified by the puppeteer to have no weaknesses, under his blade, they were easily sliced open.
"That’s Haruki! He... how is he here." Kurogaya’s voice trembled.
More terrifying than death was the realization that the person who came to save them was Haruki.
If Haruki encountered a life-threatening danger to save them, he would rather die.
[System detected Kurogaya’s Pain Value + 5000.]
[Your Cursed Spirit Kenjaku’s rank has risen to 30%.]
"He must have snuck out!" Sakikawa immediately asserted.
Hanzo would never allow Haruki to leave the village alone.
Sakikawa looked at the figure weaving through the puppets, his breathing quickening.
Haruki cannot be in trouble. He absolutely must not be in danger. He is Amegakure’s hope. His value far exceeds the three of them.
[System detected Sakikawa’s Fear Value + 5000.]
[Your Cursed Spirit Hanami’s rank has risen to 20%.]
Suzaku’s vision had been encroached by darkness. He heard Kurogaya and Sakikawa’s words, his eyes stained crimson.
How could Haruki be here?
How could he sneak out?!
Is he not afraid of death?!
[System detected Suzaku’s Anger Value + 5000.]
[Your Cursed Spirit Jogo’s rank has risen to 25%.]
’I came to save them, shouldn’t they feel gratitude and affection towards me? What’s with Fear Value and Anger Value?’ Haruki thought to himself.
He could slightly understand Pain Value.
Haruki’s splitting movements did not stop.
Akasuna’s puppets had no weaknesses, after all, those things weren’t human. But coincidentally, Nanami’s technique, Ratio, could forcibly create an invisible weak point division on a person or object, with a fixed ratio of 7:3.
This 7:3 division point was the absolute weakness set by the technique.
As long as this marked 7:3 division point was hit, it could ignore the target’s inherent defensive strength, toughness, or special abilities, and would definitely cause critical damage.
Haruki didn’t care if these puppets had weaknesses, he directly forcibly set a weakness.
A technique built on rules is just that unreasonable!
A teeth-grating clang of metal exploded. Sparks flew.
Haruki felt a huge force coming from the long blade, numbing his arm and sending him staggering back several steps before he barely managed to stabilize himself.
A massive puppet appeared before Haruki, surrounded by many ordinary humanoid puppets.
[System detected Akasuna’s Killing Intent Value + 5000.]
[Your Cursed Spirit Sukuna’s rank has risen to 51.6%.]
Haruki glanced at Akasuna in the distance on the tree, it seemed Akasuna had discovered the problem and chose to keep his distance.
Akasuna on the tree sharply tugged on his Chakra threads, and the massive puppet immediately floated in the air, opening its chest armor to reveal a gaping cannon muzzle.
Blinding purplish-black Chakra instantly converged.
Three bowl-sized beams of light tore through the air, forming a triangular pattern that sealed off all of Haruki’s evasion space.
Haruki sheathed his blade, without the slightest panic.
A large amount of silvery-gray liquid metal, like boiling water, gushed out from his shadow beneath his feet.
The mercury moved with his Cursed Energy, easily controlled by him.
The mercury was like a living creature, allowing his Cursed Energy to mold it into any shape.
A huge, continuously flowing mercury shield formed in front of Haruki.
The three beams of light fiercely struck the mercury shield. The terrifying impact caused the shield surface to severely dent, and ripples surged wildly.
The mercury was scattered and splashed by the huge energy impact.
Although the shield was riddled with holes and on the verge of collapse, it did not completely break due to its unique properties.
Haruki spread the five fingers of his left hand, aiming at the puppet in the air.
Bone-chilling extreme cold Cursed Energy surged out.
The cold air spread forward at an astonishing speed, approaching the massive puppet floating in the air.
The puppet’s hands were quickly frozen, and the cold air spread throughout its body.
No matter how Akasuna swung his Chakra threads, the puppet, frozen solid, remained motionless.
Akasuna frowned tightly, the Chakra threads connecting to the massive puppet broke from his fingertips, immediately connecting to a new puppet.
Could he not even deal with a mere child?
Akasuna sneered, today he would nip Amegakure’s genius in the bud.
[System detected Akasuna’s Killing Intent Value + 5000.]
[Your Cursed Spirit Sukuna’s rank has risen to 52.1%.]
Chakra threads danced.
Three humanoid puppets leaped out from behind the frozen massive puppet.
One puppet extended rotating chainsaw blades from its arms, creating a piercing sound as it swooped low to the ground, targeting Haruki’s lower body.
Another puppet opened its mouth mechanism, spraying a large amount of poisoned senbon rain. The dense poison needles sealed off all of Haruki’s escape routes.
The third puppet extended several iron whips with barbs from its back, winding around the front like venomous snakes, striking towards Haruki’s sides and back.
100 PS = 1 Bonus chap
Read 30 Advanced Chapters on /astralicity