A ship laid tilted on its side in the seawater.
Black Sail slowly crawled out of the ship's hull.
He wiped his face; his face and hands were covered in blood.
The sacrifice ritual was over. Lord Hidan had presided over his initiation. He was now a devout believer of the Three Gods Religion.
Black Sail stared at the blood on his hand, feeling a strange sensation—this blood didn't seem to be his own.
His soul had left his body. The body was merely a vessel for the soul. No matter how damaged the body became, he would not die.
According to Lord Hidan, his soul and blood had been sacrificed to the Great Evil God, who had bestowed immortality upon him.
Inside the cabin, Hidan said weakly, "Black Sail, go. Seek suitable sacrifices, please the Evil God! Do not fear death. I will search for your body after the battle. No matter your condition, even if your head is chopped off by a ninja, you will not die."
Black Sail nodded heavily and left the tilted cabin.
Hidan felt some regret. He hadn't tested his Eight Gates tonight.
Sacrificing was too time-consuming—preparing the ritual, committing suicide—each sacrifice took over ten or even tens of minutes.
His eyes closed heavily. The recovery ability granted by his immortality was repairing his mangled body.
Hidan had long discovered that the more souls he sacrificed, the faster his wounds healed.
He had sacrificed a total of 100 offerings, allowing him to quickly recover from wounds that would cause 100 drops of blood loss—roughly 5 milliliters.
Tonight, he must have lost over 800 milliliters of blood. It would take all night to fully recover.
Black Sail jumped into the sea. The water reached his chest as he waded slowly toward the shore.
Three corpses floated towards him. Black Sail turned them over one by one.
Two were dockworkers; one was the uncle who sold liquor on the docks.
Ninjas knew a technique called Transformation Technique. To prevent enemy village ninja from using it for ambushes, ninja would clear the area immediately when fighting, killing anyone they saw.
Black Sail stared at the liquor-selling uncle. This man always shortchanged people. His father had been cheated by this uncle several times and had said he would teach him a lesson.
Now, his father was dead, and this uncle was also dead.
Black Sail continued towards the shore, seeing a dark mass of corpses piled there.
There were dockworkers' corpses, samurai corpses, ninja corpses.
Pushing aside the heavy, layered bodies, Black Sail climbed onto the shore.
Lord Hidan had only granted him immortality, but his strength was still weak—he was still that sailor who knew no ninjutsu.
Silently repeating the sacrifice ritual steps, Black Sail walked towards the battlefield.
The battle had advanced into the cluster of port buildings.
The tallest inn, also Shapo Port's most luxurious inn, had been half-collapsed by a Water Release technique. The building looked as if sliced open, revealing its cross-section.
Black Sail saw a legendary spring mattress hanging from a broken floor slab. Heard that kind of mattress was incredibly comfortable to sleep on, much better than a ship's deck.
Black Sail hurried towards the inn's rear courtyard.
In the inn's rear courtyard, over a dozen corpses lay in disarray.
The first familiar figure Black Sail saw was a young kitchen maid who had often checked his deliveries to the inn's kitchen. Every time, Black Sail had kept his head down, not daring to look at the somewhat pretty young maid.
Now, the young maid was dead, her death unseemly, no longer her former somewhat delicate appearance.
Straightening the young maid's broken limbs, Black Sail looked at her face up close for the first time.
Even with dilated pupils, even with a face pale as ice, Black Sail still thought the young maid was beautiful.
Black Sail heard a strange sound. Looking down, he realized his monocular vision had long blurred. Tears fell to the ground, making a dull thud.
This body was so bizarre, yet it could still cry. How strange...
In the building ruins, hidden in the shadows, Fox watched from a distance as Hidan's new believer.
After a brief moment of sorrow, the young believer picked up a kunai from the ground and continued into Shapo Port.
Fox thought to himself, Hidan is so reckless. He didn't even teach this young man chakra control before sending him out to sacrifice.
Black Sail circled several collapsed buildings, swam across a large lake created by a Water Release technique, and finally reached the edge of the battlefield.
Suna-nin and Kiri-nin fought fiercely, contesting house by house. Screams sounded intermittently.
Black Sail didn't dare enter the thick of the battle, but he was familiar with the terrain.
Soon, he found a trail of blood. The blood trail, intermittent, led to a basement.
Black Sail crawled on the ground, slowly approaching the basement's high side window.
Sure enough, a wounded ninja was insidethe basement! However, Black Sail underestimated a ninja's reflexes.
A kunai flew out, passed through the high side window, and embedded itself in Black Sail's forehead.
Black Sail quickly rolled backward.
After a moment, he realized he wasn't dead. His brow bone was pierced; the intense pain and bleeding were real, yet he wasn't dead.
Black Sail's heart was already dead. He wasn't afraid of this bloodshed and pain at all.
He lay on the ground, licking the bloodstains at the basement entrance. After tasting the blood, Black Sail crawled into the neighboring basement.
Lowering his head, he let the blood from the wound on his forehead drip onto the ground, drawing the Evil God's ritual array—a circle enclosing a triangle. Black Sail began the sacrifice.
Without any psychological preparation, Black Sail stabbed the kunai fiercely into his own throat.
His body was in agony, but hearing the screams from the ninja next door, his spirit felt immense pleasure.
Losing too much blood, Black Sail fell unconscious.
Fox appeared via Body Flicker Technique and placed a hand on Black Sail's throat.
Using Hydrification Healing Technique, the wound on Black Sail's neck rapidly healed.
But these people were too reckless, abusing their immortality and pushing their luck to the limit.
A while later, Fox regrouped with the Leaf Monkey Squad to scout the battle between Kiri-nin and Suna-nin.
Before the noble estates, Suna-nin were desperately resisting the Kiri-nin assault.
Fewer than fifty Suna-nin remained, while the Kiri-nin still had over two hundred.
In the street, Scorch Release fireballs danced up and down, repelling another Kiri-nin charge.
Hōzuki Mangetsu and Hoshigaki Kisame were very strong.
Fox saw Pakura showing clear signs of exhaustion. She was his "Little Six," and Fox had important plans for her. Pakura couldn't die here. He wanted Pakura to be his spy in Sunagakure.
A kunai slipped from his sleeve into Fox's hand. He said, "We cannot let the Kiri-nin take Shapo Port. That doesn't serve Konoha's interests. Both sides are sufficiently weakened. It's time to intervene."
Leaf Monkey quickly produced several Suna-nin Anbu masks, distributing them. Especially for Lord Fox—the fox mask was too conspicuous. Once the fox mask appeared, everyone would know the Konoha Anbu Commander had arrived.
After changing into Suna-nin Anbu masks, the group rushed toward the battlefield.
Using only Taijutsu and kunai, Fox and his team began clearing Kiri-nin from the periphery.
Like Uchiha Madara charging into the Shinobi Alliance, Fox's movements were economical and precise. Every swing of his arm was unerring, taking down a Kiri-nin.
A few minutes later, Hoshigaki Kisame sensed something was wrong and shouted, "Retreat!"
Hōzuki Mangetsu was engaged with Scorch Release Pakura using the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei, having already destroyed the noble estate's wall, when he suddenly heard Hoshigaki Kisame shouting retreat from the rear. Though unwilling, he had no choice but to withdraw.
On the retreat, Hoshigaki Kisame looked at Hōzuki Mangetsu and said, "I thought you might resent me for obtaining the Great Sword: Samehada, defy my orders. I didn't expect you to be so obedient."
Hōzuki Mangetsu replied, "Kisame, I will become the Fourth Mizukage. I should set an example in obeying battlefield commands, not cause chaos because of my young clan leader status. Don't you think?"
Hoshigaki Kisame was taken aback. Was this young man so arrogant? With Kirigakure so internally chaotic, he dared claim he would become the Fourth Mizukage?
"However, Jonin Kisame, why did you order the retreat?"
Hoshigaki Kisame looked back towards the side of the noble estates, a lingering fear in his voice. "Several Sunagakure Anbu arrived. One among them was extremely powerful. His Taijutsu alone was at a Kage-level ninja's standard! He slaughtered the flanking Kiri-nin with concise, lethal efficiency. I had no choice but to order a retreat."
"A Taijutsu Kage-level ninja?"
Hōzuki Mangetsu was astonished. Did Sunagakure have such a figure?
***
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