Chapter 254: Don't Need Justice At All
Right when the surrounding white dense mist was at its most viscous, almost condensing into water droplets.
A Hidden Mist ninja, adept at Silent Killing, silently closed in on Ikeizumi Uchiha's back like a ghost.
His footsteps were as light as a feather, his breathing merged with the sound of the wind, and even the minutest ripple of Chakra was meticulously suppressed.
The next second, the ninja sword in his hand gleamed with a chilling luminescence, aiming precisely at Ikeizumi Uchiha's defenseless neck.
It slashed down with surgical accuracy and ferocity!
However, at the crucial moment when the blade was about to touch his hair, the Hidden Mist ninja's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpricks!
Because he clearly saw the back of the Konoha ninja's head, covered in short black hair, twisting back towards him, inch by inch!
In the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the face that had turned halfway, and a pair of Sharingan scarlet and ominous that had activated at some unknown point!
He had already found me!
My Silent Killing Technique... is completely useless in front of him!
The shocking thought exploded like thunder in the Hidden Mist ninja's mind, but his body completely failed to keep up with the sudden change.
He didn't even have time to fully display the look of horror on his face.
He only felt a fleeting, icy touch on his neck.
The next second, the world spun.
The world in his eyes tumbled wildly. The last thing his blurry vision captured was a headless body below, still frozen in the posture of a downward slash, slumping and collapsing to the ground.
All his confusion and unwillingness, along with his final consciousness, sank into the deep abyss of eternal darkness.
His head had been severed with a single slice and rolled onto the ground.
Ikeizumi Uchiha lightly flicked his wrist, shaking off the warm blood beads from the blade, his movement fluid and unhesitating.
He didn't even have the interest to spare the corpse another look.
In the dense mist, more sounds of breaking air came from all directions. Innumerable blurry figures, bearing killing intent, swarmed in like sharks smelling blood.
Not far away, Mei Terumī futilely stretched out her hand, only to watch helplessly as figures of her fellow villagers instantly bypassed her, lunging toward Ikeizumi Uchiha.
The mixture of anxiety and powerlessness almost suffocated her.
Soon, a strange, faint red tinge began to seep out of the otherwise pure white, dense mist without warning.
Initially, it was like a drop of vermillion ink in water, but quickly, this red tinge spread and permeated at an alarming speed.
A sickening smell, a mix of cloying sweetness and rust, began to fill the air.
The white dense mist was visibly being dyed a darker and more terrifying crimson!
In just ten seconds, the entire area seemed to be steeped in a sea of blood. Visibility sharply plummeted.
The visual impact and psychological oppression brought by the crimson color grew exponentially.
The true "Village of the Bloody Mist" descended right here!
"Ugh !"
"Cough ah "
In the thick, blood-colored mist, stifled grunts, the dull sound of blades slicing through flesh, and the thud of heavy bodies falling formed a dense and cruel symphony of death.
These sounds were short and abrupt.
They often ceased right after they started, as if a formless large hand had grabbed their throats.
Mei Terumī held her breath, her heart involuntarily twitching with every muffled impact and thud.
She subconsciously counted in her mind:
Fifteen. Thirty. Forty-seven...
When she reached close to eighty, a chill shot straight from her spine to the top of her head.
How much time had passed?
One minute?
Or two minutes?
The Hidden Mist ninjas who had fallen to the man's blade had probably reached nearly a hundred!
And many of those who followed had no idea what was happening ahead, as all the slain had their lives instantly taken away before they could even let out a proper scream!
"Ah !!!"
Finally, a piercing, desperate scream tore through the suffocating silence.
Immediately after, a black silhouette was flung backward from the blood mist like a rag doll, violently smashing toward Mei Terumī's location.
Mei Terumī subconsciously sidestepped.
"Thud!"
The figure violently crashed into the wall behind her, sending shattered stones flying.
It was a Hidden Mist ninja. He was curled up like a cooked shrimp, constantly vomiting blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. A large section of his chest was visibly sunken, clearly with broken ribs, and he had completely lost the ability to fight.
"...He held back. He left a survivor." Mei Terumī murmured, gazing at the severely wounded, dying ninja.
At this moment, her taut nerves surprisingly relaxed a fraction.
This proved that Ikeizumi Uchiha was not a pure killing machine.
He adhered to his fanatic and terrifying "Absolute Justice."
Ikeizumi Uchiha would not easily take the lives of those who truly bore no sin. But anyone who dared to stand in his way would undoubtedly pay a heavy price.
Like the ninja before her, even if he miraculously kept his life, he would never fully recover without months of intensive care, and would very likely be left with permanent complications.
However, the heavy, cloying scent of blood assaulting her nostrils constantly reminded her that "lucky" guys like this were an extreme minority in this one-sided slaughter.
Breathing in the sickening air, watching the surrounding blood color grow denser.
She deeply knew that the man who dared to assassinate the Mizukage...
Would not show the slightest mercy to the Hidden Mist ninjas.
"Ao how much longer " Mei Terumī clenched her fists, her fingernails almost digging into her flesh.
Every second of delay meant another ignorant fellow villager might charge to their death, or, like the man just now, almost become permanently crippled!
As for those whom Ikeizumi Uchiha called villains, Mei Terumī had already dismissed them.
She worried about the Hidden Mist ninjas who shouldn't be killed, or even injured, but were foolishly charging forward.
Just in this moment of despair "Hidden Mist Ninjas! Stop all action!!!"
A voice, old yet containing an unquestionable authority and urgency, exploded like thunder, forcefully penetrating the thick blood mist and reaching the ears of every Hidden Mist ninja.
"Huff ... Huff "
The person who shouted seemed to have exhausted all his strength. After the yell, there were violent gasps, like the noise of bellows.
In the blood-colored mist, the sounds of blades meeting flesh, which had been frighteningly dense, quickly grew sparse.
Finally, accompanied by the dull thud of the last body collapsing.
Everything fell silent.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Several quick-thinking Hidden Mist Jōnin simultaneously performed hand seals. Strong cyclones roared, frantically attempting to dissipate the suffocating bloody curtain.
As the fierce wind swept through, the crimson mist gradually faded until it vanished.
The moment visibility was restored, all the surviving Hidden Mist ninjas were speechless, stunned by the sight before them.
A chill originating from the depths of their souls instantly froze their blood.
It was all corpses!!!
Everywhere they looked, the ground was covered with layers upon layers of corpses in various postures!
They virtually covered the entire ground. Gurgling, flowing blood converged into winding red streams, flowing wantonly along the cracks in the stone pavement, and finally pouring gushingly into the sewers on both sides of the road, dyeing the dark entrance a striking, deep red.
And atop the "small mountain" formed by the piled bodies, two figures stood tall.
The one at the highest point was none other than Ikeizumi Uchiha.
The common, standardized ninja sword in his hand was already nicked and blunted from the sheer amount of cutting. Scarlet blood beads slowly dripped down the blade.
His face was emotionless. His ominous Sharingan calmly overlooked the Hidden Mist crowd below, who seemed to be under a paralysis jutsu. The concentrated killing intent radiating from him virtually solidified the air.
It was a killing aura more pure and terrifying than the most cold-blooded assassins of the Hidden Mist Village.
Slightly below him, an Uchiha girl was faintly panting.
She had consumed a large amount of Chakra, and there were a few shallow, blood-stained cuts on her arms and shoulders.
But her posture remained perfectly straight.
However, few people lingered their gaze on her.
Everyone's eyes were fixed, with unspeakable horror and fear, on the man standing on the peak of the corpse mountain.
At this moment, Ao's figure appeared beside Mei Terumī. His voice carried a subtle tremor: "I... seem to have arrived too late. How many people are lying down now?"
Mei Terumī was silent for a moment. Her gaze swept over the scene of carnage, her voice heavy: "Countless. The speed at which he kills is faster than I can count. Looking at this density, the corpses alone are no less than three hundred. Among them are Jōnin, but more are Chūnin and Genin."
She paused, adding, her voice tinged with bitterness: "Jōnin might manage one or two moves under him, and die understanding how they died. But those Chūnin and Genin probably didn't know what was happening until the moment death arrived."
Listening to Mei Terumī's description, Ao felt a chilling sensation shoot straight from his feet to his skull.
The cold sweat on his forehead instantly soaked the bandage under his forehead protector.
He didn't even dare to look directly into Ikeizumi Uchiha's eyes, much less question why the other party had engaged in a slaughter within the Hidden Mist Village.
In the face of such absolute power, even anger seemed so pale and extravagant.
Thump. Thump. Thump. The sound of a cane striking the viscous blood was heard slowly.
Elder Gensui, the most senior and respected elder of the Hidden Mist Village, was seen struggling step by step, treading through the pool of blood, over the corpses of his fellow villagers, toward Ikeizumi Uchiha.
His aged figure seemed exceptionally small set against the backdrop of the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood.
Mei Terumī and Ao immediately followed closely, flanking him.
The remaining Hidden Mist ninjas were still immersed in immense shock and fear. No one dared to move, and no one dared to speak. They had finally seen the truth beneath the bloody mist, and they had witnessed a terrifying tableau of hell!
If Elder Gensui had not stopped them in time, they might also have become part of this corpse mountain.
That Uchiha from Konoha
Was simply a monster that could not be measured by conventional standards!
"Cough, cough "
Gensui's murky eyes swept over the ground covered in corpses. A trace of profound sorrow flashed in his eyes, and he couldn't help but sigh again.
But he quickly raised his head, meeting Ikeizumi Uchiha's pair of indifferent Sharingan eyes.
The instant their eyes met, even Gensui, with all his vast experience, felt his heart violently clench.
He saw no trace of emotion in this young man's eyes, only a deep, bottomless, cold indifference. He immediately understood that this was not an entity that could be moved or restrained by seniority, experience, or any worldly rules.
"This old man has already learned the general course of events from Ao "
Gensui's voice was hoarse as he proactively broke the suffocating silence. He even used honorifics: "The power you have displayed is enough to convince this old man that the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, indeed fell by your hand."
"This old man also believes that your purpose in traveling all the way from Konoha is not to invade the Hidden Mist. Otherwise, you would never have come alone."
He paused slightly, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding corpses, his tone carrying a subtle hint of compromise and helplessness: "It was these ninjas of the village who offended you. Their deaths were brought upon themselves. We ask the esteemed guest from Konoha to be lenient."
Upon hearing these words.
A wave of astonishment rippled through the crowd!
All the surviving Hidden Mist ninjas looked at Gensui's back in disbelief, their eyes filled with shock, incomprehension.
And even humiliation!
The elder who commanded respect even from the Mizukage was now speaking so meekly, seeking peace with an external ninja who had committed such a monstrous massacre in their village?
Was this reasonable?!
The next second, Ikeizumi Uchiha's cold voice rang out: "You seem to have misunderstood something. They were killed not because they offended me. You say you know the general course of events, but it seems you understand nothing."
"They were killed because they deserved to die. Their accumulated layers of sin mean that their continued existence is a failure of justice. The former Hidden Mist Village did not deal with these people, and even revered them as the village's elite. This shows that the ideology of this ninja village has become pathologically distorted."
"To tear open the veil of bloody mist covering the Hidden Mist Village, and to allow the virtually hopeless Hidden Mist Village to cultivate the soil of justice. These villains must all be purged, not a single one can be left. Only then can Justice suppress the Bloody Mist Policy that constantly breeds sin."
Gensui's heart sank.
This young man from Konoha was indeed uncommonly troublesome.
The meaning behind his words was clearly to forcefully interfere with the Hidden Mist Village's internal affairs.
All the Bloody Mist ninjas bred by the Bloody Mist Village were, in his eyes, villains who deserved death.
He was probably not limited to killing just "this many" people in the Hidden Mist Village!
If they were to proceed with the massive cleansing Ikeizumi Uchiha spoke of.
Gensui couldn't bear to imagine how many ninjas would be left in the Hidden Mist Village in the end.
Would there even be five hundred ninjas left?
Five hundred might even be an overestimation!
"You are just a Konoha ninja! What right do you have to dictate the domestic affairs of the Hidden Mist Village!" A Hidden Mist ninja, his eyes bloodshot, gritted his teeth and shouted, interjecting loudly: "We, the Hidden Mist Village, don't nee