Baki panted heavily as he leaned against a tree, clutching the large wound that continued to bleed.
His eyes remained fixed on the sword in Yagami Yue’s hand.
That sword was dangerous.
It gave him an instinctive feeling of dread.
And yet, it was clearly nothing more than an exceptionally well-crafted ordinary sword.
The dangerous one was its owner.
Yagami Yue was dangerous.
“Why are you staying in Konoha?
With your strength, why not go somewhere else?”
Baki stared at Yagami Yue.
“I have my reasons.”
“Looks like the two of us really are going to fight until one of us dies.”
“Yes.
But it will only be you.”
“Then it seems I’ll have to use my strongest ninjutsu.”
Baki’s expression suddenly twisted viciously.
Suppressing the pain, he began forming hand seals.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Transparent blades of wind began forming in his hands, spinning like the blades of a windmill.
Wind Release: Wind Blade!
The wind blades were nearly invisible and difficult to detect, making them extremely difficult to defend against.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Baki’s hands moved rapidly.
One wind blade after another formed in his hands before being hurled toward Yagami Yue.
They came like a violent storm.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Yagami Yue slowly walked toward Baki, one step at a time.
The sword in his hand seemed slow, yet was actually incredibly fast.
Every movement was precise.
Each time a wind blade approached, his sword was already waiting in exactly the right position, slicing it apart.
Effortless.
Casual.
At times, he merely shifted his body slightly and allowed a Wind Blade to pass harmlessly beside him.
Not even a strand of Yagami Yue’s hair had been disturbed.
Yet his presence continued to grow more imposing with every step.
“How is this possible?”
Baki’s eyes widened as he stared at the scene in disbelief.
This boy was effortlessly avoiding his most powerful technique while simultaneously using nothing but a sword to intercept the relentless barrage of wind blades.
What kind of terrifying strength did that require?
Even if he had practiced swordsmanship from the moment he was born, this was still absurd.
And the boy before him was only six or seven years old!
Had Konoha’s training of young shinobi already reached such a terrifying level?
“Looks like this is the limit of your strength…”
Yagami Yue’s aura suddenly surged once more.
“Eagle!!”
Yagami Yue swung his sword at tremendous speed.
A crescent-shaped sword wave shot toward Baki.
Everything in its path— rocks, the ground, trees— was sliced through as easily as tofu.
The attack raced toward Baki.
Baki’s pupils contracted.
The attack hadn’t even reached him yet, but he already felt as though his body was about to be split apart.
Substitution Technique!
Poof!
Baki was replaced by a wooden log, which was immediately sliced apart by the Eagle.
Meanwhile, Baki narrowly managed to leap onto a tree and hide among its branches, gasping for breath.
He was only a chūnin.
Repeatedly using Wind Blade had already consumed a tremendous amount of his chakra.
On top of that, the nearly meter-long wound across his body had caused him to lose roughly a quarter of his blood.
He was beginning to feel dizzy.
But at that moment—
A clear sound of a sword being drawn rang out behind him.
“Iai — Lion’s Song!!”
“Not good!”
Before Baki could react, a figure shot out from behind him.
Yagami Yue appeared three meters ahead.
He stood tall.
Then—
He sheathed his sword.
Kill confirmed.
The battle was over.
Psssh!
A line of blood suddenly erupted from Baki’s neck, spraying several meters into the air.
His head was severed.
His body tumbled from the tree.
Yagami Yue gave a cold smile.
“Trying to hide in a tree?”
“Did you really think I was going to treat Observation Haki like a joke?”
The Roronoa Zoro Character Card had granted Yagami Yue more than just Zoro’s swordsmanship.
It had also given him Observation Haki and Armament Haki.
Observation Haki allowed him to sense the presence of others, making it somewhat similar to Karin’s Kagura Shingan.
Baki had relaxed slightly after hiding in the tree.
That brief lapse in vigilance had been enough.
Yagami Yue had immediately taken advantage of it, drawing his sword from behind and severing Baki’s head.
The battle was over.
Yagami Yue cleaned up the area and fabricated the battlefield.
…
Half an hour later, Yagami Yue returned to the base.
“What?”
“Kyōjirō is dead?”
The jōnin in charge of the outpost, Gekkō Genmei, looked suspiciously at Yagami Yue.
“Yes.”We encountered a Wind Release user from Sunagakure near the lake.
He was probably a chūnin.”.
He was probably a chūnin.”
Yagami Yue gave his “honest” account.
“How could there possibly have been a Sunagakure shinobi there…?”
Gekkō Genmei suddenly stopped himself.
He glanced at Yagami Yue and immediately fell silent.
Yagami Yue became alert.
His thoughts began racing.
“This person in charge, Gekkō Genmei, is suspicious.”
“He knew there shouldn’t have been any enemy shinobi in that area, yet he still sent me there on a mission.”
“And what is Gekkō Genmei’s relationship with Gekkō Hayate?”
“Later on, Gekkō Hayate becomes one of the Third Hokage’s people.”
“Could Gekkō Genmei also be working for the Third Hokage?”
Then another question occurred to Yagami Yue.
Baki had said that the father of this body, Yoru Ichirō, had fought to the death.
By all accounts, that should have made him a hero.
So why had he instead been falsely accused of betraying the village?
“There is something seriously wrong here.”
Although these thoughts raced through his mind, Yagami Yue maintained the same outward expression— cold, calm, and completely unfazed.