Chapter 116: Running for His Life
If he'd had any choice in the matter, An Zhaoxie would have butchered the idiot who gave them their intel.
Weren't Minato and Hiruzen supposed to be the only real threats? Wasn't the hidden boss Orochimaru supposed to NOT BE in the village?!
And yet here was "Orochimaru," not only standing right in front of him, but demonstrating power that left him feeling utterly helpless. Even Imiao Ichirō was dead at this person's hands.
Why "Orochimaru" had targeted him, An Zhaoxie had no idea. He still couldn't figure out the motive.
Not that he cared anymore. Understanding motives was a luxury for people who weren't sprinting for their lives.
An Zhaoxie had enough self-awareness to know exactly where he stood. He was strong by Reincarnator standards—top ten among all known veterans.
But against the hidden final boss of the Naruto world? His "top ten" meant nothing. He'd be beaten in under ten minutes. Probably much less.
Imiao had been only slightly weaker than him, and he'd been obliterated. If An didn't run now, the window would close.
He drew a hard breath and forced his legs to move faster. His feet burned from the punishment, but he didn't care. Compared to dying, pain was trivial.
* * *
After covering what felt like a considerable distance, An Zhaoxie's Sharingan—both tomoe spinning with fear—couldn't resist a glance backward.
Nothing behind him. Empty.
Did I… lose him? God—that was Imiao Ichirō's fault! He nearly got me killed!
An Zhaoxie exhaled hard, suddenly aware that his back was drenched in cold sweat.
He gradually decelerated, then finally stopped. Eyes darting, scanning every direction.
No threats detected.
He collapsed onto the ground, too drained to care that the dirt was filthy. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his expression grim: "Losing one teammate… this is bad. With just two people left, finishing the mission is going to be exponentially harder."
Wait. If that really was Orochimaru…
He thought back to the Nine-Tails battle still raging in the distance.
If Orochimaru fights at that level…
Am I actually sure I lost him?
Oh no.
Oh no.
* * *
The sound of steel shearing through air.
An Zhaoxie's expression froze. His hands rose, trembling, to his neck. Where they found something wet.
He looked at his palms. Crimson.
Blood seeped through the cracks between his fingers, dripping onto the mud below. A thin red line materialized across his throat, growing sharper by the second.
Blood traced its way from the cut down to his collarbone, his chest.
His head slid from his shoulders.
It hit the ground with a dull thud.
On the severed face, an expression of disbelief—shock, incomprehension, a terror that would never resolve—had already frozen solid.
In the final instant before his consciousness winked out, he saw, through dimming eyes, something blurred and familiar. A headless body. His own.
The thought didn't finish forming before everything went dark.
* * *
Ryū looked down at the corpse with flat eyes, mentally triggered the recovery command, and watched the strange black Reincarnation Watch on An Zhaoxie's wrist dissolve into nothing.
Then he turned and walked toward the last remaining signal.
Three Rogue Reincarnators. Two down. Two Watches recovered.
One left.
These Reincarnators are kind of weak, honestly. "Veteran" status and they're roughly on par with a standard Konoha jōnin. Maybe… around Kaguya Shinomiya's level?
Actually, Kaguya might be stronger. She'd participated in a Group Quest, earned close to ten thousand Points, and had been collecting daily Sign-In Points for months.
That alone would have given her a massive power spike.
So three "veteran Reincarnators"… might not even beat Kaguya? Is this Lord God a bit of a pushover? Or is it possible these three are the weakest of the veteran roster?
Hmm. That second possibility is pretty likely.
* * *
The last one is nearby. But this one noticed something was wrong and bolted. Currently fleeing at full speed…
Ryū's eyes narrowed. The ground beneath his feet cratered inward, and he vanished—accelerating past the threshold of naked-eye perception.
* * *
Ragged breathing. Lungs burning like a bellows.
Jin Sheng-lü—the last of the three Rogue Reincarnators—had been running for his life from the moment he saw Imiao's body.
Unlike An Zhaoxie, he hadn't lingered. Not for a single second. He'd taken one look at the corpse, turned on his heel, and sprinted without a backward glance.
Because in their squad, close-combat was his dead last skill. Jin's specialty was poison. In a straight fight, he was barely chūnin-tier.
If Imiao—the team's best hand-to-hand fighter—had died that brutally, Jin had zero chance. Running was the only rational option.
Reincarnators, as a species, were extremely attached to living. They'd clawed their way into the Lord God system and secured a shortcut to the peak of existence. Who wanted to throw that away? As for teammates in mortal danger… when your own life was on the line, that concern evaporated.
But Jin's combat stats were the weakest of the three. Even at a full sprint, he hadn't covered much ground before his breathing turned heavy and labored.
Can't stop. Imiao was the best close-quarters fighter we had, and he died horribly. This mission is falling apart. I don't know what happened to An Zhaoxie.
An Zhaoxie is faster than me, so he should have arrived at the rally point first. Maybe he can buy me time. By the time An goes down, I could already be outside Konoha's walls.
Or maybe An will actually win. But… that's unlikely. Either way—running is the play.
Jin's internal monologue raced, and his feet never slowed.
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