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Chapter 6: The Charcoal-Selling Youth
Deep in the forest at night.
A burly, middle-aged male demon was leaping and bounding nimbly between the tree trunks.
Terror filled his eyes as he fled forward recklessly.
It was obvious that he was in a dire situation, as if some devil were chasing him.
He ran with all his might, and gradually, he began to feel safe.
He turned to look back.
Suddenly!
A cold glint flashed right in his face, accompanied by the piercing sound of wind breaking!
The middle-aged male demon's head was instantly severed by a sharp blade.
His headless body, still in mid-leap, twisted erratically before crashing to the ground, spraying foul-smelling blood everywhere.
"Eh?"
"What happened?"
The middle-aged male demon's head, still spinning in mid-air, was filled with confusion.
He hadn't even clearly seen the person who swung the blade...
Before his head could hit the ground, a kunai nailed it to a tree trunk!
Only now did the demon finally see the newcomers clearly.
They were two black-haired men, both with eyes emitting a dark, blood-red glow.
These two were the Uchiha clansmen dispatched by Uchiha Tetsu on an investigative mission.
Uchiha Inabi.
Uchiha Kazuomi.
They had been out for some time. Tonight, while passing by a small village, Inabi had sensed the presence of a demon.
This demon was clever; he had sensed danger before even seeing them and planned to make a run for it.
But how could this demon possibly escape?
The one who had just attacked was Uchiha Kazuomi, and his strike was incredibly clean and decisive.
This made Inabi applaud him.
"Good job, kid. Looks like you haven't gotten rusty."
"You have to be decisive when dealing with these demons."
"But remember, even if their heads are cut off, their headless bodies and bodiless heads can still move."
"You handled the head well."
"Don't ignore the body."
As Inabi spoke, he threw out a steel wire from his ninja pouch, binding the demon's corpse to a tree.
Kazuomi, who had learned a lot from Inabi these past few days, nodded:
"Thanks for the pointer, Brother Inabi. I'll do better next time!"
Inabi looked satisfied and sneered at the demon's head pinned to the tree:
"Ugly bastard, I'm asking you."
"What kind of existence are the demons with writing in their eyes?"
"What does 'Lower Rank' mean among you demons?"
"And who is the mastermind behind you?"
The demon's eyes were filled with fear, but not all of it stemmed from Inabi.
Seeing this, Inabi's temper flared instantly. He used his straight-bladed sword to gouge out the demon's eyeball!
"I'm asking you a question!"
"Are you deaf!?"
"What exactly does 'Lower Rank' mean among you demons!?"
"What is the thing that turns you into demons!?"
As he spoke, Inabi carved several bloody wounds on the demon's face with his sharp blade. The scene was extremely gruesome!
In a sense, Inabi was more terrifying than the demon.
However, Kazuomi watched all of this with a calm expression.
Because in the ninja world, this level of violence was nothing.
But no matter how Inabi interrogated him—even splitting the demon's head in half at one point—it was to no avail.
Inabi looked helpless:
"Is it like this again?"
"Forget it."
"These demons are weak as hell, but their mouths are harder than rocks."
"It's still a long time until dawn. Waiting for the sun to kill him is too slow."
With that, Inabi glanced at the demon with his three-tomoe Sharingan.
"Genjutsu: Sharingan."
"Tell me, who is your leader!"
The moment Inabi asked this question, the demon, who had been dazed by the Genjutsu, suddenly started acting strange.
He let out an extremely painful, whimpering growl, his expression twisted as if he were about to cry.
Bang—
With a muffled sound!
The male demon's body exploded and died!
The scene was excessively grotesque and disgusting.
The surroundings were filled with the pungent stench of blood.
This was the first time Kazuomi had seen this happen.
Inabi flicked the blood off his straight-bladed sword, sheathed it, and explained:
"Whenever these demons are asked that question, they grit their teeth and refuse to speak."
"If you use Genjutsu to force them to answer, they end up exploding like this."
"It saves a lot more trouble than waiting for the sun."
Kazuomi nodded obediently, indicating he had learned something new.
"So, Brother Inabi, what do we do next?"
"I feel like we really lack a clear target."
Inabi naturally knew this:
"Nonsense."
"Didn't the Clan Leader send us out to investigate these things?"
"But those demons with writing in their eyes are hard to find."
"After staying in the wild for these few days, we're practically becoming savages."
"We need to find a town to rest properly and eat a normal meal."
Kazuomi agreed wholeheartedly. They had been out for several days, hunting demons almost every night and eating soldier pills when hungry.
He was about to forget what real food tasted like.
Balancing work and rest was important.
"Winter has already started, right, Brother Inabi?"
"The weather has been a bit cold lately."
Inabi nodded; he felt it might snow these days:
"Yeah."
"So we need to eat some hot food to warm up our bodies."
The two agreed and headed toward a nearby town.
However, the area they were in was very remote, and it took them several more days to find a small town.
.....
Since the day before yesterday, the snow in the town had not stopped falling.
It was now afternoon, and snow had accumulated in the town.
Snowflakes drifted down from the gray sky like fine feathers, silently piling up on the sloped roofs and dark window lattices of the wooden buildings.
Japanese-style buildings lined both sides of the street. Icicles hung from the gabled roofs, glistening faintly in the twilight.
Old-fashioned gas streetlamps were lit early, emitting a warm yellow glow from within their glass covers, interweaving with the flying snow to form a hazy veil, adding a touch of warmth to the cold dusk.
The contours of the distant mountains were blurred. The snow-covered hills and the town's houses merged into a vast expanse of silver-white, with only ink-black branches protruding from the snow, sketching a desolate silhouette.
The dirt roads on the streets had become dry and hard from the cold.
Some shops in the town had closed early, but the izakaya was very lively.
The izakaya was full of drinking customers and very noisy.
The stove in the center was burning fiercely.
Inabi gulped down sake. After a few mouthfuls, his whole body became warm, so comfortable that he couldn't help but sigh:
"Ahhh!"
"Life has been too tough lately."
"Now this is living~"
"You're not having any, kid?"
Kazuomi, sitting across the table, shook his head:
"No thanks, Brother Inabi."
"I'm not of age yet."
Hearing this, Inabi held his sake cup and laughed out loud:
"You're a serious one, aren't you?"
"I was surprised that Reina came here with you."
"I never asked before, is she your girlfriend?"
Kazuomi instantly became shy and waved his hands hurriedly:
"No, no!"
"I just know her..."
Inabi downed another mouthful of sake, his face clearly showing signs of intoxication as he continued to tease Kazuomi:
"Look at you, look at you, getting all embarrassed."
"Still so innocent~"
"Looks like you definitely like her!"
Seeming to recall something, Inabi suddenly became serious:
"Then make sure you seize the opportunity in this life, kid."
"Don't let yourself have regrets..."
Kazuomi and Reina were Inabi's juniors in the clan back in the day; they knew each other before coming to this world.
Feeling exposed, Kazuomi's face was now even redder than the drunk Inabi's.
But hearing the second half of Inabi's words, his expression became somewhat subtle...
The shop owner came to serve their dishes, interrupting their conversation.
Taking advantage of the moment the owner was serving food, Inabi asked:
"Boss, are there any inns with hot springs in your town?"
The owner was a man approaching middle age. Facing Inabi's question, he nodded and replied:
"Yes, guest."
"There's one at the end of this street, but it's not very big."
"It's so cold today, I don't know if it's fully booked."
Inabi thanked him:
"Mn, thanks."
The owner said there was no need to be polite and went back to being busy.
Just then, the door of the izakaya was slowly pushed open.
The newcomer was a young boy with a scar on his forehead.
The boy's face and tone were both very gentle:
"Uncle Owner, I'm here."
"The charcoal you asked me to save for you is all here."
.....
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