Ōmori Kawa's face was full of fear. He was terrified.
Moku Kairen's tone grew cold:
" I said, again!"
"Okay, okay!"
Ōmori Kawa handed the blade over, then swung it down hard, chopping off Kairen's head once more.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Ōmori Kawa with a sword, EXP +20!"
Kairen let Ōmori Kawa kill him twice more, gaining a total of 65 EXP.
Ōmori Kawa's terror reached its peak. Trembling, he gripped his blade, not daring to look directly at Kairen.
Blood spattered all over his body from Kairen. That gruesome image made Ōmori Kawa think of unpleasant things.
The legends said that wandering spirits of the battlefield lingered in the world, seeking out the living to devour their essence...
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. He was nothing but an ordinary ninja of Sunagakure, who had only just been promoted to Chūnin not long ago.
Because he had offended his superior, he had been sent here to scout information.
Kairen slowly walked toward him. Ōmori Kawa's voice trembled:
"Y-you! Don't come any closer—"
Seeing the other man so utterly petrified, Kairen smiled faintly and kept walking.
Ōmori Kawa spun around and bolted. Kairen gave chase, and with a single Body Flicker, kicked him square in the back.
Ōmori Kawa rolled forward in a mess. When he scrambled back to his feet, he suppressed his fear, quickly forming hand seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent gust erupted from Ōmori Kawa's mouth, the raging blades of wind like countless sharp knives.
Kairen simply stood there calmly, resting a hand on his hip, his white shirt loose at the chest, his posture lofty and arrogant, yet dazzling in its allure.
The storm of wind blades approached. Kairen didn't dodge.
Heh! I won't dodge—just for fun!
The blades slashed across his throat, blood spraying. Kairen slowly toppled over.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Ōmori Kawa with Wind Release, EXP +40!"
Ōmori Kawa seized the chance and bolted forward like a terrified rabbit.
When Kairen resurrected, a mocking smile tugged at his lips before he vanished into the night forest like the wind.
...
Ōmori Kawa's breathing grew ragged, his chest rising and falling in panic. Still, he desperately kept fleeing.
As he leapt onto a tree, suddenly a shadow appeared before him—hanging upside down from a branch, stretching out a blood-red tongue.
That tongue was hideously long, and the blood-smeared face was unmistakably Kairen's.
"Ah—!"
Ōmori Kawa's heart skipped a beat. He screamed, stomping through the branch beneath him and tumbling down.
Kairen dropped down, drifting eerily toward him.
Ōmori Kawa lay on the ground, face twisted with terror, frantically scrambling backwards, legs kicking uselessly.
"Don't... don't come any closer—"
"Use ninjutsu on me!"
"Okay, okay!"
Utterly broken with fear, Ōmori Kawa immediately refined chakra and formed seals, his cheeks puffing up.
"Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!"
He spat out a condensed mass of violent wind. Though not as massive as Shukaku's attacks, its tearing force could easily shred flesh apart.
The gust tore straight through Kairen's chest, ripping apart his internal organs.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Ōmori Kawa with Wind Release, EXP +45!"
This Wind Release was powerful—Ōmori Kawa's strongest ninjutsu.
When Kairen resurrected again, he didn't immediately rise. He decided to toy a little more with this ghost-fearing Sunagakure ninja.
Ōmori Kawa lay frozen on the ground for a long time. Seeing Kairen's corpse unmoving, he finally exhaled sharply.
"Don't be afraid. You're already a Chūnin, a pillar of the village!"
Regaining some confidence as a Sunagakure Chūnin, he stood and cautiously approached Kairen.
Kairen's face still bore the expression of his death—eyes bulging, mouth wide open.
"Is this... man or ghost?"
Ōmori Kawa crouched slowly, hesitating before moving his hand closer.
The instant his fingers brushed Kairen—Kairen's eyes snapped open, blood-red and ghastly like a vengeful specter.
"Ghost—ghost!!!"
Ōmori Kawa screamed until his throat tore, whirling around and fleeing blindly into the dark forest.
"Heh heh..."
Kairen chuckled darkly, then instantly Body Flickered after him, deliberately luring him into casting more ninjutsu.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Ōmori Kawa with Wind Release, EXP +30!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Ōmori Kawa with Wind Release, EXP +20!"
...
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Ōmori Kawa with a flurry of punches, EXP +10!"
After resurrecting, Kairen looked at Ōmori Kawa—his eyes already vacant, hollow.
Kairen walked toward him slowly. Ōmori Kawa, as if utterly broken, clawed at the dirt, trying to dig his way into the ground to escape.
Standing over him, Kairen said softly:
"Scared witless. The quality of Sunagakure ninja really is lacking."
Of course he'd be frightened witless. Any normal man, facing someone drenched in blood who never stayed dead, would be terrified.
And Ōmori Kawa was especially afraid of ghosts. With Kairen constantly pulling cruel pranks and haunting him, his mental defenses had been battered again and again—until he finally snapped.
Kairen shook his head. His accumulated EXP now reached 205.
He had wrung every bit of fear from Ōmori Kawa, guiding him to attack over and over. After an hour of effort, he had only gathered this much—less than he could get from a single Jōnin casting ninjutsu.
Seeing Ōmori Kawa still scratching at the dirt, truly broken and no longer a threat, Kairen's figure flickered as he returned to his own post.
Leaning back against the boulder from before, he opened the Infinite Resurrection System interface and checked his Chūnin template.
He invested all the EXP into strengthening his body.
He added two points to Spd and two to Str.
When he stood, waving his hand, he felt the strength in his body was now no less than many grown men—perhaps even greater.
And his speed had reached the higher levels of Chūnin rank, as light and swift as the wind.
After savoring the changes, Kairen activated the Eight Gates, pushing his chakra refinement into overdrive. With his boosted physique, he could now create 125 Shadow Clones.
Drained of chakra, he lay flat on the ground, sending his clones to train while he alone slept upon the rock.
...
The next morning, the sound of exploding tags woke Kairen.
He opened his eyes lazily. The sun was already high in the sky, the whole world bathed in dazzling light. Having lived in darkness so long, Kairen almost felt uncomfortable.
Soon, a figure appeared below in a flicker. Kairen recognized him immediately—one of Shimura Masao's two guards.
Jūjirō carried a ninja blade on his back, the scent of gunpowder lingering on him from triggering one of the traps earlier.
Seeing Kairen, still unscathed, white-clad and calm as ever, Jūjirō was surprised.
"Didn't expect you to still be alive."
His words were blunt, with no concern for Kairen's reaction.
Kairen sneered:
"So eager to collect my corpse?"
"Brat, I'm a Special Jōnin—your superior. Watch your tongue when speaking to me."
Kairen curled his lip:
"I've dared to step on the Hokage's own son. What's one dog of the Shimura clan to me?"
"What did you say?!"
Kairen enunciated every word:
"I said you're the Shimura clan's lackeys."
"Courting death!"
Jūjirō lunged forward, aiming a punch at Kairen's chest. At his speed, a Genin would never dodge.
But Kairen spun suddenly, kicking Jūjirō on the shoulder, using the force to leap back onto the boulder.
From above, Kairen looked down at him as though at a crawling insect.
Jūjirō couldn't stand that gaze—it was like Uchiha Sasuke's. His teeth gnashed in fury.
After a long moment, he forced a cold smile, loosening his clenched fists.
"With taijutsu like that, no wonder you've survived. But from here on, that might not be the case."
Kairen sat cross-legged again, still staring at him with icy calm.
...
The chapter for the review. Thank you so much