Konoha.
"Who are you?" Asked Hayate in a tense voice, his hand grasping the hilt of his sword fixed on his back, his whole body in a state of alert.
"He's strong…. dangerous…." Hayate felt a suffocating pressure from this tall man before him, something he had only felt from the likes of lord third.
At his question, Hayate heard the man chuckle and speak in a hoarse voice. "My name really doesn't matter, though you should ask what I do as that's much more important for you."
"Yeah…" Hayate got even more nervous at his words, as in a shaky voice continuing to speak. "And what is that?"
"I teach reckless and useless men the value of limits. A lesson that this world has enough graves filled with brave fools, and they should just live for those foolish enough to love them."
The words fell and Hayate saw the man reaching into his cloak and pulling out a blade with a green hilt, and Hayate immediately moving from the spot and hurling a few shuriken towards him.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The shurikens cut through the air towards the brown-haired man, who calmly without moving an inch deflected them with his sword, though this seemingly having given Hayate the time to approach the man.
Leaf Style! Crescent Moon Dance!Poof!
Two shadow clones appeared next to Hayate, as one attacked the cloaked man from the left, one from the right, and the real Hayate slashing down from the front.
PUFF!!
But Hayate's eyes widened as he saw the enemy rolling his wrists at an almost impossible speed, his blade cutting through his shadow clones in one horizontal strike, at the same time his left hand reaching for the real him.
"It's impossible….
Hayate showed a terrified look as he saw his blade grasped by the middle and index finger of his enemy, unable to cut or break free from them.
The man still maintained the calmness around him despite Hayate's terror, raising the blade in his right hand. "Consider this your early retirement. Graves fill quickly, and even loving mourners learn to move on."
PUFF!!!
The blade gleamed under the full moon as it cut through like butter, blood splashing on the floor followed by a heavy dropping sound.
AGHHH!!!
Hayate's painful scream rang through the neighborhood, waking most of the sleeping people. Hayate lay in a pool of blood with his left leg missing from down under the knee, the separated leg lying next to him.
The cloaked man didn't care about Hayate's screams, as making a hand sign and fire roaring out of his mouth and burning the separated leg in a matter of seconds to ashes, to the horror of Hayate.
Then he squatted next to Hayate and brought his hand next to the exact point where the leg was separated from and blood was flowing down, green light appearing and quickly the blood flow stopped.
Finally, the helpless Hayate saw the man's palm enlarging in his groggy vision, as a hand was placed on his head, black markings appearing on his head and soon disappearing into it.
"Observe the inevitable as a spectator, and be grateful for the life I've returned to you."
In his fading vision, Hayate heard these words and saw the man disappearing, and as his world turned black, a vision appearing.
In the vision him as a bystander watching his own corpse lying on a rooftop with crows flapping around it and using it a source of food. The vision changing again and seeing a purple haired girl standing before the firestone carrying the names of heroes who died in battle.
Arisawa Residence.
Thud!
On the roof of the house the cloaked man appeared and then burst into a puff of smoke, Isagi appearing out from the smoke and entering his room from the window.
"Ha…That was pretty edgy talk from me there, but people of this world don't understand simple words after all." Muttered Isagi letting out a light laugh, as no remorse on his face for having harmed a fellow village shinobi and leaving him crippled for life.
He had shown Hayate what his life could've been without his intervention, so he hoped he would live a retired and normal life from now on.
At the restaurant Isagi had almost decided not to help Hayate at the cost of fighting two elite jonin and making things messy and unpredictable, but then he thought rather than waiting for Hayate to encounter Kabuto and Baki, it was better for him to stop him from ever meeting them.
He was sure that preventing Hayate from dying won't really affect the future, as he had truly died for nothing and the attack still happened as planned.
Knowing the stubbornness of most konoha shinobi he knew a normal injury won't make him back down from going to his death again, so he thought of this method, at least staying in the hospital for a few months and then most likely retired forcefully.
Isagi decided not to copy Hayate's abilities despite one of them being really good for hiding, though him now having no need of it and he decided to save the remaining chances of the year for better abilities.
With the night works done Isagi after taking a shower immediately went to a deep and sweet sleep.