"This is my Shikon Jewel shard! I will become an immortal sage!"
Seeing Uchiha Kasage reaching for the shard, the Peach Fruit Man's eyes turned wild and ferocious. Enduring the overwhelming pain, he forced his body to move, raising the peachwood staff in his right hand.
Power gathered into the staff as he tried to launch one last desperate attack.
Kasage's lips curved into a cold, almost cruel smile.
"Wouldn't it be better… to just lie still and die quietly?"
Before the staff could fall—
His foot came down.
*CRACK—!*
The sharp sound of bone shattering mixed with the violent cracking of the ground.
"AAAH—!!"
A piercing scream tore through the air. The Peach Fruit Man's body convulsed violently, his eyes bloodshot from the agony.
Kasage slowly lifted his foot.
The man's right arm was completely destroyed—reduced to a mangled mass of flesh and bone. The peachwood staff, now splattered with blood, rolled away uselessly across the shattered ground.
Kasage didn't even spare him a second glance.
He bent down calmly—
And reached straight into the man's abdomen.
In one swift motion, he pulled out the Shikon Jewel shard.
A faint glimmer of light flickered as it left the body.
Instantly—
The Peach Fruit Man's aura weakened.
---
"This one… is no longer human."
Kikyo stepped forward, her gaze cold as she looked down at the pitiful figure.
"The stench of death around him is overwhelming."
She accepted the shard from Kasage, her brows slightly furrowed.
Kasage nodded faintly, his eyes shifting toward the nearby human-faced fruit tree.
"His aura feels the same as that tree," he said thoughtfully.
"They're connected."
He glanced back at the Peach Fruit Man, who was still writhing and groaning despite everything.
"…Still alive, even after losing the shard."
A hint of surprise crossed his eyes.
"Strange."
Kikyo observed carefully, her expression calm but focused.
"It may be related to the so-called 'immortals.' I don't sense any true yokai aura from him… and the Shikon Jewel didn't amplify him much."
Kasage gave a slight nod.
"That makes sense."
The energy within the Peach Fruit Man was indeed unusual—beneath the thick death aura, there was something mixed within it.
Something unnatural.
Not purely yokai.
Not spiritual power either.
---
"Wood Release: Tree Binding—Eternal Burial!"
Kasage's hands moved rapidly through a series of seals.
The moment his voice fell—
The ground beneath the Peach Fruit Man exploded.
Thick wooden vines burst forth like countless serpents, wrapping around his body in an instant.
They tightened.
Restricting every movement.
Then—
The vines expanded and fused together.
Within moments, a towering tree rose from the ground, its trunk thick and unyielding, its branches spreading wide.
The Peach Fruit Man was completely bound within it.
Only his head remained exposed.
---
"W-What… what is this?!"
Panic filled his eyes as he struggled desperately.
But it was useless.
The tree held him firmly, draining his strength.
"Stay there for now," Kasage said calmly.
"I'll deal with you later."
This Wood Release technique would continuously absorb his energy.
There was no escape.
---
"You monster! Let me go!" the Peach Fruit Man screamed hoarsely.
"I am an immortal from Peach Blossom Village! I can grant you immortality!"
Kasage frowned slightly, clearly annoyed.
"…You're loud."
With a thought—
A thin branch extended from the tree and wrapped tightly around the man's mouth.
His cries were instantly reduced to muffled, helpless sounds.
---
"…Are you someone who escaped from a bonsai tree?"
A weak voice suddenly echoed nearby.
Kasage turned his head.
While he had been dealing with the Peach Fruit Man, Kikyo had already moved toward the human-faced fruit tree.
Now she stood there, bow raised, arrow drawn—aimed at something beneath the tree.
A small ceramic pot.
Inside it—
A withered dwarf peach tree stood, its branches thin and frail, bearing only a few yellowed leaves.
Yet blooming from it was a single, enormous peach blossom.
And within that blossom—
An old man's head.
White hair. White beard.
A deeply unsettling sight.
---
Kikyo did not lower her guard.
Her arrow remained steady, pointed directly at him.
"Who are you?" she asked coldly.
"Are you connected to that man?"
The head sighed weakly.
"To my shame… I was once his master."
"His master?" Kikyo's eyes sharpened.
"That thing—covered in death—has a name?"
"He is called the Peach Fruit Man," the old voice replied.
"And I… am the Peach Immortal of the Peach Blossom Spring."
---
Kikyo's expression turned colder.
Her grip tightened on the bow.
"As a sage… you allowed such a creature to exist? Countless innocent lives have been lost because of him."
"It was not I who made him into an 'immortal,'" the Peach Immortal said slowly.
"It was the human-faced fruit tree."
---
"What do you mean?"
Kasage stepped beside Kikyo, his sharp gaze fixed on the old man.
Kikyo lowered her bow slightly—but did not relax.
She remained ready.
---
"This happened one month ago…" the Peach Immortal began, his voice heavy with memory.
"At that time, the Peach Fruit Man found a fragment of the Shikon Jewel beneath the human-faced fruit tree… and accidentally dropped it onto the tree itself."
"With that fragment, the tree's power increased greatly."
"It awakened."
"It spoke… and it deceived him."
---
"He ate the human-faced fruit."
"And from that moment—his will was no longer his own."
"He became a puppet."
The old man's voice trembled faintly.
"He followed the tree's commands… and turned me into nourishment."
"So that it could bear the fruit of immortality."
---
Kasage narrowed his eyes slightly.
"And yet… you're still alive?"
His tone carried a hint of impatience.
"If you were turned into fertilizer, how are you speaking to us now?"
---
For a brief moment—
A subtle glint flashed in the Peach Immortal's eyes.
Gone just as quickly.
"To achieve true immortality… the fruit alone is not enough," he said slowly.
"It must be refined into medicine."
"And only I know how."
---
"I see…"
Kasage nodded slowly.
A faint, unreadable smile appeared on his face.
Then—
He stepped forward.
Toward the ceramic pot.
---
Kikyo glanced at him, but didn't follow.
She remained where she stood, bow still in hand, watching carefully.
---
"Thank you… for defeating the Peach Fruit Man," the Peach Immortal said, forcing a smile.
But his eyes betrayed tension.
The man before him smiled gently—
Yet his gaze was cold.
Empty.
Unsettling.
"There is a path down the cliff," he continued quickly.
"You may leave from there."
---
Kasage crouched down in front of the pot.
His eyes locked onto the old man's.
Calm.
Unwavering.
"Then what about you… Sage?" he asked quietly.
"Do you want me to save you?"