Chapter 169: What Is Hidan Best Suited to Do?
"Have you not already become a follower of my god?!" Hidan looked devastated, like an innocent kid who had just realized he had been tricked.
Kenichi almost laughed.
This was Hidan in a nutshell. He was a shinobi, and not exactly young, yet he acted naive and childish in a way that made Kenichi want to sigh every time he looked at him.
This poor idiot had been thoroughly brainwashed.
"Yes," Kenichi said calmly, pointing down at the motionless body below. "But look, I've already apostasized. And I even killed the High Priest."
The old man had been fierce, but that was all.
"So where's your omniscient, omnipotent god?" Kenichi spread his hands, smug satisfaction all over his face. "Why hasn't he struck me down with divine punishment?"
He had not angered any so called god. Honestly, he had been looking forward to it. But he did anger Hidan.
Hidan's face twisted. He yanked the weapon from his back, a unique scythe with an exaggerated shape.
Kenichi recognized it immediately.
The Triple Blade Scythe.
Its most distinctive feature was the three blades, which felt redundant, but it matched Hidan's fighting style well enough. All Hidan needed was blood. Once he got a target's blood, he could use his ritual to threaten them directly.
It looked unsolvable, but it had an obvious weakness.
No blood, no technique.
Kenichi suspected the method was connected to the soul. Blood acted as the medium, allowing damage inflicted on Hidan to be transmitted back to the victim with perfect fidelity.
Whether that was the truth still required verification.
"I'll kill you, you blasphemous heretic!" Hidan roared and charged.
Kenichi's disappointment flickered for a moment. He had thought his earlier words might shake the kid.
Instead, Hidan had been soaked in this madness for too long. Talking was pointless now.
In that case, Kenichi would simply take him.
Since Hidan could not die, he was an extremely valuable test subject. Kenichi wanted to know whether someone like this could endure the erosion of Hashirama cells.
His teacher would be delighted.
"You call yourself a believer," Kenichi laughed, deliberately fanning the flames. "Then why doesn't your god step forward and punish me?"
Hidan's eyes reddened with rage.
"You need blood to use your ability, right?" Kenichi asked lightly, watching Hidan swing the scythe toward his neck.
Hidan froze mid motion.
How did this man know?
Hidan was certain he had never used his special technique in front of him.
"That's impressive." Kenichi smiled. "Shall we test something?"
The three tomoe in Kenichi's eyes flashed.
Hidan's body stiffened as the Sharingan illusion took hold, but he broke free almost immediately.
Kenichi was not surprised. He had not pushed his full strength, and Hidan was not incompetent. Escaping a shallow genjutsu was within reason.
The Scythe came for Kenichi's neck again.
Kenichi vanished.
Hidan's pupils contracted.
A shadow clone.
Hidan slashed behind him in one smooth motion, but hit nothing. When he looked up, Kenichi was already crouched on a nearby tree trunk, chin resting on his hand like he was watching a performance.
"I might not know your ability yet. A taijutsu specialist might have trouble with you," Kenichi said evenly. "But if I do know your ability, there are plenty of ways to deal with you."
Was Hidan strong?
Of course.
But he was not extraordinary in the usual sense. His greatest strength was psychological. He could trade blows without hesitation because he believed he would not die, while his opponent could not afford that luxury.
In the future, Hidan would kill Asuma largely because Asuma had never faced anything like him. One misstep in gathering information was all it took. Once Hidan got blood, the trap closed. With Kakuzu pinning him down at the same time, Asuma's death was inevitable.
"Do not underestimate my god!" Hidan snarled, biting his finger and starting to draw a symbol across his body.
Before he could finish, lightning pierced through him.
A bolt punched straight through his stomach, leaving a clean hole.
"You're despicable!" Hidan cursed, still roaring with fury.
Kenichi stared at him in silence.
Reality was not an anime. Enemies did not politely wait for you to finish a speech or complete your ritual. Battles were decided by speed and brutality, not turn based courtesy.
And yet…
"He's really not dead." Kenichi's eyes gleamed.
Hidan's body was pierced through. The wound looked half cooked by the lightning, the edges charred. Most people would already be gone.
Hidan was still alive, still moving, still trying to attack.
Perfect.
A flawless test subject.
Kenichi clapped his hands together. Lightning gathered, and he pulled a sword forged from that lightning out of his left hand with his right, gripping it firmly.
"I'm going to cut you into five pieces and take you back."
Shadow clones split off around him.
Hidan resisted desperately, but he was no trouble at all for Kenichi at this point.
Soon, the fight ended.
Hidan was chopped into five pieces. His head rolled across the ground, and even then he kept cursing.
Kenichi ignored the impotent rage.
He had considered recruiting Hidan, but the boy was too far gone. Kenichi had no interest in playing caretaker for a fanatic.
So he would cut Hidan's path short now. If Hidan ever truly awakened later, he could be used then. Until that day, he would serve as experimental material and a tool to study the so called evil god.
Once Kenichi figured out how the special properties of the Flight segment were produced, he could mass produce his own. At that point, the importance of that segment would drop sharply.
"Now… where did I put my money?"
Kenichi opened the entrance to the sacrificial site and headed underground. Following the natural energy mark he had left on the money, he quickly found the hidden vault.
The vault had been opened.
Inside, many shirtless men and women in black robes were carrying valuables out.
Kenichi's heart actually ached.
"That's my money!" he cursed, rushing in.
One slash at a time, he cut down the followers of the church. Those who tried to resist were crushed immediately.
Compared to the High Priest, these people were nothing. At best they were trained ordinary folks. They could threaten civilians, but against Kenichi they were paper.
He stepped into the storeroom and looked over the piled wealth, finally smiling with satisfaction.
Even he could not believe it.
This tiny church had amassed an absurd amount of money.
By his rough estimate, there was at least six hundred million ryo in cash alone. For a large village like Konoha, it was manageable. For a small cult, it was enormous.
Of course, they had all changed surnames now, sharing the same surname as Kenichi.
While he was there, Kenichi also brought down the bodies of his two unfortunate colleagues. Nagato had sent him to investigate missing members. He needed proof to bring back.
After stripping the place clean, Kenichi returned to Yugakure.
By then, there were hardly any people left in the village. The moment he surfaced, he heard Hidan still cursing nonstop.
"To be honest, this is kind of horrifying," Kenichi said, staring at the head lying on the ground by itself, still swearing like nothing was wrong.
In his previous life, someone like Hidan would have been sent straight to a dissection table.
Here, it would be the same.
"You evil heretic!" Hidan spat.
Kenichi stuffed Hidan's mouth with his own clothes, shoved the head into a bag, and carried it away.
On the way back to the Land of Rain, Kenichi took the opportunity to study him.
Even dismembered, Hidan's blood did not flow out. Through the cuts, Kenichi could see muscle fibers writhing. Subcutaneous fat and deeper tissues remained active, as if the body refused to accept the idea of "dead."
"If you were sent to medical school, they'd pamper you every day," Kenichi chuckled, looking down at Hidan's head. It was the perfect living model.
Hidan's eyes were wide open, burning with rage. Every time he tried to speak, he got silenced, so all he could do was glare.
"Hidan," Kenichi asked pleasantly, "do you think your god will save you? After all, he's omniscient and omnipotent, right?"
Hidan glared harder, eyes firm.
His faith was unshaken.
Kenichi waited the entire journey, expecting something, anything. The evil god's followers had claimed miracles. Hidan swore his god was watching.
Kenichi did not even encounter a stray shinobi, much less a god.
When he finally arrived in the Land of Rain, Pain, controlled by Nagato, descended in front of him.
Hidan was still not saved.
Pain's Rinnegan gaze settled on the bag in Kenichi's hand.
"What is that?" Nagato asked, voice flat, genuinely puzzled.
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