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Chapter 54 – No Mercy for Parasites
🕑 Added 2025-06-30 03:47:33 +0000 UTCChapter 54 – No Mercy for Parasites
The forest blurred past them, branches, leaves, and roots flying by in streaks of green and brown as Team Shikamaru sprinted through the woods with urgency and purpose. Their mission was crystal clear: retrieve Sasuke from Orochimaru’s clutches before he crossed the threshold into darkness.
Every heartbeat mattered.
They had barely caught their breath after the brutal display Hajime unleashed upon Kidomaru. Even now, the scorched scent of burned silk and chakra residue lingered in the air, as though the lightning itself still haunted the trees. No one spoke, but tension laced every step.
Ino ran near the rear of the group, keeping pace with surprising grace. Her eyes drifted now and then, subtle, cautious, toward Hajime, who ran just ahead of her, his halberd strapped to his back. He didn’t look back once. Muscular, broad-shouldered, silent. His presence was like a silent promise of destruction.
Ino quickly snapped her gaze forward again, cheeks pink. Focus.
Shikamaru ran at the front beside Kiba and Naruto, muttering just loud enough for Neji to hear. “If they throw another one of those Sound Four freaks at us, I’m not even sure what we’re supposed to do at this point.”
“Run?” Kiba offered, his voice winded but serious.
Naruto growled. “No way. I’m getting Sasuke back even if they send an army.”
Shikamaru gave a sideways glance toward Hajime. “...At this rate, we might not need to.”
And then it happened.
A large boulder exploded ahead of them with a thunderous boom, showering them with fragments and dust. From within the rubble emerged two figures, conjoined at the shoulder and back, shifting and squirming like something that shouldn’t exist. Sakon and Ukon.
“No one’s getting past us,” Sakon said with a grin, stretching his arms as though preparing for a casual warm-up.
“Especially not you little brats,” Ukon sneered from within his brother’s body. “We’ll break your legs first, then drag you back screaming.”
The squad halted instantly.
Choji and Neji dropped into defensive stances. Naruto’s fists clenched, ready to charge. Ino flinched slightly, eyes darting from one twisted body to the next.
But they didn’t attack.
All eyes turned to one person, Hajime.
He stood in the center of the group, calm and unreadable. There was no twitch of a muscle, no tremor in his breath.
Even the Sound brothers paused, sensing the shift in atmosphere.
Shikamaru didn’t say anything, but his glance toward Hajime was clear: Should we even bother?
Hajime gave a faint nod.
“I’ll handle it.”
His hand reached up to grasp the halberd on his back, the psychic-forged weapon humming softly as it slid free, its edge faintly glowing in the soft forest light.
The sheer weight of his presence pressed down like gravity.
Sakon hesitated. “Oi… maybe we should”
And then Hajime vanished.
Not a blur. Not a flicker.
One moment, he was walking. The next, he appeared in front of them like a thunderclap of force. The earth cracked under his feet, leaves blew outward in a burst, and wind howled from the vacuum he left behind.
“Huh—?!”
Before either Sound ninja could react, Hajime raised his halberd with one arm, muscles tightening, veins bulging beneath his sleeve.
Then, with a single swing
Shhkraaaaack!
he cleaved down between Sakon and Ukon in a perfectly calculated diagonal arc. The blade passed cleanly through flesh, separating them with brutal precision.
Both screamed as their bodies were torn apart mid-merge, flesh splitting, bones snapping, blood bursting in a fountain of red.
They hit the forest floor in two twitching halves.
Silence reigned.
Hajime turned without a word, halberd gleaming with fresh crimson. He walked back toward the team, already sheathing the weapon back across his shoulder.
Neji blinked. “...Is that it?”
Shikamaru squinted at the unmoving bodies. “I think”
And then Hajime stopped.
Behind him, chakra surged.
He turned slowly to see the impossible. The Sound brothers, still alive. Limbs regrowing. Flesh knitting. Ukon’s severed torso stretched out like a worm, fusing with roots from the ground, feeding on something unseen.
“Regeneration,” Hajime murmured. “Natural energy… carved into their bodies. A seal? No… a passive source.”
The twins laughed, rising like monsters reborn from ash.
“You think that’s enough to stop us?! We’ve died before and came back!”
Hajime didn’t move. His voice was calm.
“No… but this is.”
He raised his left arm. Lightning coiled around it in dancing serpents of blue fire. His eyes lit up, not with chakra, but psychic power, drawn directly from the Warp’s purest threads in this untouched world.
The air hummed.
A flicker of heat warped space around his hand.
Then, Smite.
A bolt of psychic lightning, massive and fast, burst from his hand with thunderous force, so sudden and bright it was blinding. It didn’t arc. It didn’t weave.
It struck.
BOOOOOM.
A vertical column of white-blue energy crashed down from the sky and swallowed Sakon and Ukon whole. The forest trembled. Trees nearby vaporized. The ground turned to scorched glass where the blast touched.
The Sound brothers’ final scream didn’t even echo, it was devoured in light.
Then silence.
Hajime exhaled softly, lowering his hand. Static still danced on his fingertips.
He stared at the scorched hole in the earth for a few seconds longer, then turned and walked back to the team.
Ino’s mouth opened slightly. Her face pale.
Choji whispered, “They didn’t even have time to fight…”
Naruto’s jaw dropped. “W-what the hell was that?”
Neji stood still, silent, watching Hajime return like a god descending from the clouds.
Shikamaru, voice low and dry, muttered, “I don’t think we’re backup anymore. We’re just… here for the ride.”
Hajime approached them again, his expression calm, but his voice carried a hint of amusement. “Regeneration’s only useful… if you live long enough to use it.”
He chuckled quietly, barely loud enough to hear.
And then he began running again, halberd on his back, eyes fixed forward.
There was still one more Sound ninja left… and Sasuke beyond them.
The team followed.
No one questioned him again.
End of Chapter 54 – No Mercy for Parasites
