Coming for the Sand shinobi?
The Sand Village jōnin's expression darkened. This guy looked bizarre—neither human nor ghost. Better test him first.
His fingers twitched, then he flicked his hand. The puppet under his control creaked as its jaws snapped open and shot toward Akashō.
Akashō had just been about to run when he saw the incoming puppet and froze for a moment.
What the hell is that… a puppet?
Instinctively, he spread his right hand and activated his Blood Demon Art. A long blade burst out from his palm.
Under Kokushibo's almost instinctual state of Total Concentration—Moon Breathing—a layer of pale pink aura instantly wrapped around the blade, while countless yellow crescent slashes spread across it.
With a single swing, the blade's wind slashed into the incoming puppet. In the blink of an eye, it was split in two. Then the crescent slashes in the blade wind shredded it into fragments, and the faint blue threads connecting it to the Sand shinobi's fingers dissipated into the air.
"Nani!?"
The Sand Village puppet-master jōnin stared in shock, not even processing what had just happened.
The other Sand shinobi nearby—and even the Leaf ninja who had been silently watching—weren't any better. All of them wore stunned expressions.
The Sand jōnin's lips trembled. "The puppet I spent so much money and effort on… it's just… gone?"
"Come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself yet."
Akashō shifted his gaze from the shattered puppet, all six of his eyes turning toward the Sand shinobi.
"My name is Kokushibo, Upper Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons, the Moon Sword Demon. I've come to take revenge on your Sand Village."
Then, two blades of grass lifted beneath his feet, and his entire body turned into an afterimage as he rushed toward them.
"Fall back! Retreat now!!!"
Another Sand jōnin's pupils shrank. Reacting the fastest, he immediately stepped forward to intercept Akashō, trying to buy time for his teammates to escape.
He formed hand seals, about to use a jutsu—
—but was instantly cut in half by another blade wind from Akashō. Moments later, he was shredded into pieces just like the puppet.
The remaining Sand jōnin's eyes nearly split apart in rage. His puppet being destroyed instantly was one thing—but a jōnin getting killed in a single strike? That was absurd!
"Scatter and retreat!"
He roared, no longer caring about the others as he turned and sprinted away.
The rest of the Sand shinobi snapped out of their shock and immediately followed, fleeing in different directions.
On the other side, the Leaf ninja watched the Sand shinobi escape in all directions, their hearts stirring with the urge to pursue.
"Captain, should we chase them?"
The Leaf chūnin who had spoken earlier looked excited as he asked the Leaf jōnin.
But the Leaf jōnin's face was grave, his brows tightly furrowed.
"No. We can't. Those are his prey. If we interfere, we might provoke his hostility."
In the time it took them to speak, Akashō had already slashed out twice more, effortlessly shredding two Sand shinobi.
The Leaf jōnin's eye twitched. What a brutal way to kill.
"We should leave too. If we're unlucky and he takes it out on us, we're done for."
With that, the Leaf jōnin turned and left. The other three hurried after him.
Akashō glanced at their retreating backs but didn't care.
He didn't even bother chasing the remaining three Sand shinobi.
After all, what he truly needed was reputation. If he killed them all, who would spread his name?
"Ninja and samurai… looks like samurai are stronger. Well, Kokushibo is a demon, but his brother was even stronger than a demon."
Akashō retracted the blade made of his own flesh and looked at the piles of gore on the ground. Suddenly, an intense hunger rose from his stomach.
So the condition of the original body and the template body is shared? I'm actually craving something this disgusting…
He remembered he hadn't eaten for an entire day. In this small country, food was already hard to come by—and now there was a war going on.
He glanced again at the gore. Not that he was actually planning to eat it… but since ninja were the main fighting force in this world, they should carry food with them during missions, right?
Unfortunately, these guys had been shredded into paste.
Akashō shook his head and sighed.
Tch. I acted too fast. I shouldn't have used the breathing technique.
Oh well… let's see if I can find another way.
He looked around and resumed wandering, hoping to find food before the night ended.
As for whether his appearance might scare someone to death if seen—well, that would be Kokushibo's doing. What did it have to do with Akashō?
This was a battlefield, not daytime. Without Kokushibo's state, he felt slightly uneasy.
...
While Akashō continued searching for food—and perhaps a few more Sand shinobi to kill to spread Kokushibo's name—the fleeing Sand shinobi had already returned to their camp one after another.
"What's going on? Two jōnin together, and instead of killing the enemy, you couldn't even escape? Did you run into Uchiha Fugaku? Then how did you make it back?"
Rasa, with his short brown hair, frowned slightly as he looked at the Sand jōnin before him, dissatisfaction in his eyes.
The Sand Village had always followed an elite-soldier strategy. Every ninja was a valuable resource—especially jōnin, the backbone of their forces.
"It was a monster—a monster!"
At the mention of it, the Sand jōnin immediately grew agitated. "We ran into a monster!"
"A monster?"
Rasa raised a brow. "The Nine-Tails jinchūriki?"
"No! Not a jinchūriki—no jinchūriki is that terrifying!"
The Sand jōnin clutched his head.
"Six eyes… called himself Upper Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons, the Moon Sword Demon. He destroyed my puppet with one strike—and then killed Sumo with another!"
"He even said… he came to take revenge on our Sand Village…"
Seeing the jōnin's shaken state, Rasa stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Six eyes… Upper Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons… Moon Sword Demon… at minimum, near-Kage level strength…"
"Wait—he said he came to take revenge on the Sand Village?"
"That's right."
The Sand jōnin nodded. "I don't know what kind of grudge it is. We were about to fight the Leaf ninja, but he didn't even glance at them—he came straight for us."
"If we hadn't split up and run, none of us would've survived."
"You're sure he didn't say a single word to the Leaf ninja from the moment he appeared?"
"I'm sure."
Rasa nodded in thought. No matter what, it wasn't the Nine-Tails jinchūriki, and it wasn't someone from the Leaf. That was good news.
"Alright, I understand. Go get some rest. I'll have people track down this 'Moon Sword Demon.'"
Rasa waved his hand, dismissing him. This was a critical time in the war with the Leaf—whether he could successfully rise to become Kazekage depended on it. He had no time to deal with unrelated matters.
If that monster stopped targeting the Sand Village, he wouldn't bother provoking trouble.
"Oh, right—he said his name was Kokushibo."
As he was leaving, the Sand jōnin remembered and added.
"Kokushibo… what a strange name."