An unusual event occurred on the eastern coast of the Land of Fire.

Some time ago, a kind of floating island was sighted in that direction. However, before the ninjas of Konoha could investigate further, the gigantic island disappeared right before their eyes, and, in its place, several people began falling from the sky.

Meanwhile, the one responsible for all of this was in an area of the eastern coast of the Land of Fire, surrounded by trees and people, including 23 women in torn clothes, ninjas from various villages, and even some civilians.

There were a total of 63 people that he saved from the fall.

"Okay, you're all safe now," Tanaka said with the voice and appearance of Killua, "Take care."

Before they could react, he simply disappeared before their eyes. After all, this was just a clone, one of many he used to save them all. Now that he saw they were safe, there was no reason to stay any longer.

"..."

"I wanted to thank him…"

One of them murmured while the rest nodded.

"That was… Konoha's Shadow Clone Jutsu," one of the captured ninjas speculated, "Maybe he's a ninja from there, although he wasn't wearing a headband."

"We're in the Land of Fire, after all, it wouldn't be strange…" Another ninja said, exhausted.

Until now, their chakra had been drained to power the airship. Even though they had been freed, the fatigue they felt from what had been done to them remained.

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1 minute and 40 seconds after Tanaka left, the Konoha ninjas, who had sensed the group saved by Tanaka, arrived.

Soon, these survivors were surrounded by nearly ten ninjas.

One who appeared to be the leader, wearing a bird mask, stepped forward and began interrogating them with a demanding tone.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you involved with that floating thing from earlier? What happened to it?"

The survivors looked at each other, and one of them stepped forward. He was a man with a robust build, brown hair, and light green eyes. He was actually a resident of the Land of Fire, and although not a ninja, he had a considerable chakra reserve.

"I'm Gin, from the Land of Fire, and I can explain what happened." When he said this, the attention of the Konoha ninjas focused on him.

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"Speak," the leader of the Konoha ninjas commanded, nodding with his chin.

"What I'm about to say is something incredible, something never seen before!" Gin spoke with great fervor as he spread his arms: "All of us here were captured by ninjas claiming to be from the Land of Sky. Then, after capturing us, they took us to a massive structure in the middle of the ocean using a strange technology capable of flying in the sky. They were like birds. Flying freely..."

He seemed dreamy, almost like a prophetic fanatic as he spoke.

The survivors who were also captured looked at him strangely, feeling an uneasy premonition about all of this.

Gin continued: "And then, they imprisoned us in a cell and stole our chakra, powering what they must have called the Sky Island. And although I was locked in the cell with the others, I'm sure that massive structure flew. And from what happened, though I'm confused about how or who, somehow, that structure disappeared, and we fell from the sky. Of course, not everyone was suitable to serve as fuel..."

"Is this true?" The ninja with the bird mask looked at the others, wanting confirmation.

"Yes, it's correct." They could only lower their heads as they confirmed.

It all seemed wrong, something smelled bad, and... they were right.

Gin looked with disgust at the group of women who, although dirty and ragged, seemed beautiful: "By the way, I said we were used as fuel, but not all of us were, as these particular women had another function in that place, if you know what I mean?"

"I understand." The ninja with the bird mask commanded coldly: "Okay, we know enough now, leave that one and kill the rest!"

"Yes!"

"No!" One of them shouted: "Why, just why?"

"Ha, what a foolish question." The bird-masked leader said coldly: "A bunch of random ninjas and civilians and even a bunch of whores want to question me? That's hilarious. Do it!"

However, as soon as he commanded for the second time, he realized that all those who had come with him had disappeared.

Soon, the sound of clapping echoed as a boy around 16 years old with spiky white hair approached.

"My God, you two put on quite a show."

"Who are you?" The ninja with the bird mask turned in the direction of the voice and asked defensively: "What did you do to my men?"

"Dead." Tanaka said coldly, as his eyes grew colder.

Soon, he disappeared and reappeared in front of the man named Gin.

"A worm like you doesn't need to live." Saying this, Tanaka severed Gin's head with his lightning-covered hand, cutting through his neck, making the head fly into the air while blood spurted from the torso like a fountain.

Then, he looked at the bird-masked ninja, who jumped back while holding a sword.

"Quite the courage you have, huh?" Tanaka didn't even bother to wipe the blood that had splattered on his face as he walked toward the bird-masked ninja. "Weren't you acting all high and mighty just now? Tell me, what are you going to do now?"

The sound of gulping echoed, accompanied by the startled cries of birds.

As Tanaka took slow steps toward the bird-masked ninja, the ninja himself took steps backward until his back hit a tree.

"You bastard, who are you?" The bird-masked ninja no longer seemed as calm as before, nor as indifferent. There was fear in his voice, but his arrogance hadn't disappeared: "Do you even know what you're doing? I'm an Anbu ninja of the Leaf Village!"

"And what does your origin have to do with me?" Tanaka shrugged as he put his hands in his pants pockets. "Do you really think saying that will make me spare your miserable life?"

"Lord Hokage Danzo will hunt you down, all the ninjas of Konoha will come after you!" Swallowing his fear, he shouted, gripping his sword as he continued until he was interrupted: "You will have nowhere to—"

Lightning crackled at Tanaka's feet, and then he moved so quickly that he instantly appeared in front of the ninja. His lightning-covered hand made a sharp, electric whistling sound as it moved at high speed, piercing the man's chest and pulling out his heart.

"Nowhere to run?" With the bloodied heart in his hand, Tanaka sighed, thinking it wasn't easy to mimic the original 'Killua,' but he didn't dwell on it as he continued speaking while the ninja still had a bit of life left in him. "Who said I need to run? And who are you to think you can tell me whether I could escape if I wanted to?"

Vomiting blood, the ninja swung his sword at Tanaka, who easily dodged. "You will die..." Soon, the bird-masked ninja fell forward:

"Thud."

When the body hit the ground, it produced only a low sound as the area fell silent.

The people behind him didn't know how to react to all of this. Should they celebrate, or should they fear for their lives?

However, their concerns were eased when Tanaka turned to them and said, "It seems I can't trust the current Leaf Village ninjas. Sigh... Since I went through the trouble of saving you twice, it won't hurt to at least take you to a safe place."

Hearing this, they began to kneel before him and thank him in dogeza.

"Thank you, thank you!"

The ones who showed the most gratitude were the women who had been called whores. They were innocent, they didn't do what they did because they wanted to, but because they were forced!

Putting the pinky finger of his clean hand in his ear, he said, "Okay, stop that. You don't need to be so formal, I'm not into that kind of thing."

||- Note -||

Chapter 79 is already released on Pa treon!

patre on.com/Tozoku