Chapter 28: I Heard Someone Wants to Kill Me?

Kurosuki Raiga had two quirks.

The first was that he liked to hold funerals for friends and comrades.

During the funeral, recalling past days with friends, crying while feeling sorrow, that sensation intoxicated Kurosuki Raiga.

Yagura's Blood Mist Village policy just happened to satisfy Kurosuki Raiga's particular quirk. He was one of the few ninjas who had no thought of defecting from the village.

The second quirk was that he liked men.

Kurosuki Raiga had a wife and a daughter, but precisely because he had them, he came to understand that he was never truly interested in women, he had only gone with the flow, gotten married, had children, nothing more.

As soon as he heard there was an extremely beautiful young boy, Kurosuki Raiga immediately became interested. With a wave of his hand, "No need to trouble yourselves. I'll go see for myself."

After speaking, he lifted his wine cup and stood up.

Seeing this, Magistrate Senmura took the initiative to lead the way.

The four of them walked toward the side courtyard where the villagers from Falling Snow Village were imprisoned.

Snow was falling from the sky. More than forty people sat in the open courtyard, covered with straw mats barely thicker than paper.

Many faces were pale, hands and feet were purple, it was clear they were frostbitten.

Haku and his family of three huddled together, using each other's body heat to stay warm. The man, as the father, had taken off his own clothes to cover his wife and daughter.

"I'm not cold. Honey, you wear it." Haku's mother said. She truly wasn't cold.

Inside her body, she harbored a power colder than the wind and snow.

But Haku's father didn't care. He forcibly draped the clothing over her shoulders, eyes full of concern, "No way, you just recovered. You can't relapse again... Don't worry, we'll definitely make it back home."

When the words "go home" were heard, even amidst cold and hunger, a glimmer of hope flashed in the dazed villagers' eyes.

"Can we really go home?"

No matter how foolish a person was, by now they had guessed the fate awaiting them.

"We definitely can!"

Haku clenched his tiny fists, "Big Brother Ryosuke will definitely come save us!"

'Ryosuke.'

Hearing that name, hope flickered in the villagers' eyes. But, "No one can save you."

"Who said that?" a villager reflexively asked.

"I said it."

Magistrate Senmura entered the side courtyard.

He had never trained in ninjutsu, was short and average-looking, and didn't even try to appear fierce or terrifying. Yet just one glance across the crowd carried a soul-shaking force, no one dared meet his gaze. One after another, they lowered their heads.

The villagers didn't know what this power was.

But the one walking behind, Momochi Zabuza, understood.

The power of authority.

'Truly enviable.'

Zabuza thought, and as his gaze swept over the group, he quickly locked onto Haku.

No reminder was needed. With one look, he could confirm, that was the extremely beautiful boy the man had described.

Forget someone like Kurosuki Raiga, even Zabuza himself was moved for half a second.

But then he remembered the boy was a male, and Zabuza shrugged, losing interest. He turned to look,

Kurosuki Raiga's eyes were glowing, as if he had seen a rare and precious treasure.

"Not bad."

He licked his lips, and said again, "Not bad at all."

Kurosuki Raiga strode forward, reaching out to grab Haku's shoulder.

"What are you trying to do to my child?!" Haku's mother shouted.

Magistrate Senmura scolded her, "Wench! Get out of the way. Don't ruin Lord Raiga's mood. This is a great honor for your family. If you serve Lord Raiga well, I may consider letting your whole family go."

"No! No one can touch him!"

Kurosuki Raiga's gaze turned cold.

A ninja rushed forward and slapped Haku's mother across the face.

"If you really want to die, I'll kill you right now!"

Kurosuki Raiga snorted coldly and, without explanation, grabbed Haku's hand, just then, a streak of frost shot from Haku's mother's body.

The ice forced Raiga back. Behind him, Zabuza raised a brow.

'Kekkei Genkai?'

It seemed... strong?

"I said, no one touches my child."

Zabuza gripped the handle of his Kubikiribōchō. Magistrate Senmura gave a polite smile and made a calming hand gesture.

"Ma'am, you do know that privately possessing a kekkei genkai in the Land of Water is a major crime, right?"

Haku's mother's face was pale. The power inside her, repressed for too long, had suddenly erupted, causing severe backlash. Her blood vessels, muscles, even her bones felt like they were freezing solid.

But what made her truly suffer wasn't her body, it was the way her husband and the villagers looked at her, like she was a monster.

Under Fourth Mizukage Yagura's policies, kekkei genkai users were heavily suppressed.

Only a tiny few were allowed to possess kekkei genkai. For others, especially those not from Kirigakure, once exposed, they usually faced brutal, inhumane purges.

These purges targeted not just individuals, not just families, but entire villages.

"One person hides a kekkei genkai, then the whole village pays the price. That's the rule."

Magistrate Senmura drew a katana from a nearby guard's waist and threw it before Haku's father, "But I'm soft-hearted by nature. I can't bear to see rivers of blood."

"If you kill your wife and then willingly hand over your son, I might think of a way to help suppress this matter."

"After all, this happened under my jurisdiction. As your magistrate, I really don't want to kill you."

He looked down on Haku's father and smiled, "One person dies, or the whole village dies, you should be able to make the right choice, right?"

Haku's father picked up the sword from the ground and slowly stood.

The villagers stood behind him.

His eyes toward his wife no longer held concern or love, only thick disgust. It was as if the moment Haku's mother used her kekkei genkai, she had turned into a man-eating monster.

"Papa!"

Haku shouted, trying to wake his father.

Haku's father raised the blade and walked toward his wife.

"Don't blame me. Like Lord Senmura said, this is the rule."

He lifted the sword high.

Even though she had a kekkei genkai powerful enough to repel the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, she still couldn't bring herself to strike her husband. Haku's mother stared blankly at the raised blade.

"Die, monster!"

That was Haku's father's roar.

"Die!"

That was the villagers' shout.

Magistrate Senmura opened his folding fan, covering his smile. His eyes were full of contempt.

Fools were fools.

Kurosuki Raiga seemed moved, a trace of sadness appearing in his eyes, but beneath the sadness was deep pleasure.

Only Zabuza snorted.

'If you're going to kill, then kill.' He was straightforward by nature, he disliked these drawn-out torments. A useless waste of time.

The cold gleam of the blade fell.

BOOM!

The wall collapsed.

A black shadow came crashing through, smashing the wall. At the exact moment the sword fell, it severed Haku's father's hands.

"Aaaahhhh!!!"

Blood gushed from both arms. Haku's father screamed and fell to his knees.

But no one's attention was on him.

Everyone looked toward where the black shadow had landed.

It was a sword.

A sword without a sheath, wrapped in bandages, a massive, terrifying sword.

The Kubikiribōchō was already enormous. But this sword, it was even thicker and heavier than the Kubikiribōchō.

The blade had smashed through the wall, sliced off two arms, and still hadn't lost momentum, it stabbed deep into the brick ground.

To be able to wield such a heavy sword, one could already be considered a strong ninja. But to throw it like a kunai…

Zabuza and Raiga looked at each other, a trace of dread flashing in their eyes.

'What kind of strength is this?'

"Who's there?!"

They snapped their heads toward the direction the sword had flown from.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Rapid hoofbeats approached, loud like war drums.

From the end of the street, Ryosuke rode his horse full-speed toward the shattered wall. As he reached the edge, he yanked the reins.

The horse neighed shrilly, its front hooves raised high. Ryosuke's cloak billowed, sending snowflakes flying. Under the moonlight, they sparkled like a silver waterfall.

The purple Ripple energy twined around the sword's handle. With a strong tug, the sword shot back even faster.

Ryosuke caught it one-handed. His eyes swept over the courtyard.

"I am Ryosuke."

"I heard, someone wants to kill me?"

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