Juzo Biwa was covered in blood as he hacked his way out of the encirclement.
Jinin Akebino ran farthest ahead.
Fuguki Suikazan ran while glancing back again and again, only finally relaxing a little once he was certain the Sand shinobi had stopped chasing and they were close enough to Kirigakure's main army.
But his face remained incomparably ugly.
This plan had failed from beginning to end.
Not only had they failed to kill Pakura—
they had failed even to wound her seriously.
Instead, the Kirigakure shinobi he had brought were almost entirely slaughtered in the Sand pursuit.
Only he, Juzo, Jinin, and a small handful of others had escaped.
Fuguki did not blame himself for their deaths.
What enraged him was that they had died for nothing.
Their deaths had become ironclad proof of his plan's failure.
Once word reached Kirigakure, he would inevitably be punished.
And for someone like Fuguki, who obsessed over climbing higher, that was the outcome he least wanted to see.
"Hozuki Gengetsu. It's all Hozuki Gengetsu's fault!"
But Hozuki Gengetsu was already dead.
That stifling anger had nowhere to go.
"This Hozuki Gengetsu was very wrong."
"Either he had something wrong in the head…"
"Or he did it on purpose."
Fuguki narrowed his eyes.
He had no intention of letting the matter end there.
Hozuki Gengetsu might be dead—
but perhaps there were still people in Kirigakure he cared about.
Just then, a familiar figure entered Fuguki's line of sight.
He recognized him immediately.
This was the captain of the squad Hozuki Gengetsu had belonged to earlier.
"What's your name?"
"In reply, Fuguki-sama, my name is Kojima Ichio."
Kojima Ichio was nervous.
Normally, he might not have been.
But Kirigakure had just suffered a failed operation. Dozens of elite shinobi had died.
And the plan had been Fuguki Suikazan's.
Kojima did not for a second believe Fuguki's interest in him meant anything good.
"Kojima Ichio. How much do you know about Hozuki Gengetsu?"
Kojima chose his words carefully.
"In reply, Fuguki-sama—Hozuki Gengetsu was usually pretentious. He acted as if the Hozuki Clan were still what it had been in the days of the Second Mizukage. He didn't even show proper respect to me, his captain."
"Lazy. Greedy for credit."
Kojima painted Hozuki Gengetsu as utterly worthless.
Fuguki narrowed his eyes.
"So in your opinion, Hozuki Gengetsu rushed out first and shouted those things because he was trying to seize credit?"
Kojima nodded at once.
"Yes, Fuguki-sama. That's exactly the sort of person Hozuki Gengetsu was."
Just then, another figure approached.
It was one of Kojima Ichio's squad members—Hozuki Gengetsu's teammate.
"Fuguki-sama, I have something to report."
"Speak."
Fuguki turned toward him.
At once, Kojima felt a bad premonition rise in his chest.
"Fuguki-sama, I wish to report Kojima Ichio. While serving as Hozuki Gengetsu's captain, he repeatedly targeted him, suppressed him, and verbally abused him."
"Hozuki Gengetsu was treated like that for so long that his mind had already become unstable."
"I often saw him muttering to himself, his eyes vacant."
Kojima's face changed drastically. He turned to glare at his squad member, wishing he could strike him dead on the spot.
But then he noticed Fuguki standing right beside him, staring coldly.
Kojima did not dare move.
"Fuguki-sama, it's not like that. He's lying."
"He's talking nonsense. He's framing me. He's slandering me!"
Fuguki's expression darkened.
At last, he understood.
Now he finally understood why Hozuki Gengetsu had acted the way he had.
The boy had not been insane.
His mind had not broken.
He had done it on purpose.
He had sabotaged Kirigakure out of revenge.
Because he hated Kirigakure.
The decline of the Hozuki Clan was one reason—
but more important still was the long-term bullying, suppression, and humiliation inflicted by his captain, Kojima Ichio.
"So that's it."
"So this is where it started."
Fuguki stared at Kojima with terrifying calm.
"Fuguki-sama…?"
Fuguki had not changed expression.
He had not even said much.
Yet Kojima still felt a chill crawling over his back in waves.
"Kojima Ichio. Do you know how long I prepared for this plan?"
"Do you know how much effort I poured into it?"
"Because of you, my plan failed."
"Dozens of elite shinobi died for nothing."
"Kojima Ichio… you are a sinner of Kirigakure."
"This is all because of you."
Terror flooded Kojima's face. He hurriedly tried to explain.
"Fuguki-sama, it wasn't my fault! It was Hozuki Gengetsu's fault!"
But Fuguki was no longer listening.
All the fury he had been forced to swallow from the moment the operation failed until now had finally found a true target.
As he looked at Kojima, his eyes filled with cold, murderous intent.
"Die."
Kojima had no chance to react.
Fuguki gripped Samehada's hilt and hacked downward with savage force.
Puchi!
Samehada's razor-like scales instantly tore away flesh, biting deep into Kojima's body.
At the same time, a tremendous suction force engulfed him.
Samehada's monstrous chakra-draining power almost stripped him dry in a single instant, leaving him collapsing to the ground, limp and powerless.
After all, Kojima Ichio was only a chunin.
But Fuguki was still not satisfied.
He swung again, this time straight at Kojima's neck.
Puchi!
A head flew into the air.
Eyes wide open, filled with disbelief and unwillingness.
"No…"
Kojima Ichio could never have imagined he would die because he had bullied Hozuki Gengetsu.
But in the current Kirigakure… wasn't the fallen Hozuki Clan there to be bullied?
Only then did Fuguki turn to the young man beside him.
"What's your name?"
"In reply, Fuguki-sama, my name is Kaguya Aruga."
Fuguki nodded.
"From today onward, you are the captain of Squad Thirteen."
"Yes, Fuguki-sama!"
Aruga straightened at once, chest puffed high.
He glanced at Kojima's corpse, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Farewell, Captain."
"Oh, no… now I'm the captain."
…
…
Sunagakure.
Rasa's consciousness returned to his own body.
He could not help touching his neck as he recalled the final scene Hozuki Gengetsu had experienced before death.
"My wife really doesn't hold back when she strikes…"
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