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"Lord Danzo!"
When they saw Danzo get punched flying by Hayato, the other Root ninjas were shocked. They quickly rushed forward and stood in front of Hayato, trying to block him and stop him from chasing after Danzo any further.
But to Hayato, those ninjas throwing ninjutsu from a distance might have been annoying but manageable. What really frustrated him was these fools blindly stepping right in front of him, like they had no clue what they were up against.
His huge green fists—each about the size of a basketball—were covered with bulging, powerful green muscles. No matter who stood before him, he just pounded them with his fists, no hesitation.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Anyone who got hit by Hayato's fists was blasted flying. Blood and shattered organs sprayed from their mouths as they flew through the air. When they crashed to the ground, their bodies were mangled beyond recognition, bones shattered—like broken rag dolls, dead beyond any doubt.
In just a blink of an eye, out of the twenty-plus ninjas who came with Danzo, nearly half were already killed by Hayato.
"Stop! Damn it, all of you, fall back!" Danzo shouted. Though wounded, his injuries weren't too serious. After all, he was a ninja of the highest rank in this world—an elite whose power ordinary ninjas couldn't compare to, not even jonin could match him.
As the leader of Root, Danzo had plenty of subordinates, but at the start when they were in Konoha, Hayato had already killed a few. Then, during the chase, he wiped out over ten more. Now, counting all the remaining Root ninjas, they were under fifty in total.
This time, Danzo had even brought half of them along—over twenty. Nobody expected Hayato to be so brutal, wiping out nearly half of them in the blink of an eye.
It was heartbreaking—really heartbreaking. Root had only been set up not long ago. Being Root, their reputation wasn't exactly good. They had to use all sorts of dirty tricks to build up their numbers.
And yet, just one Hayato had managed to slaughter almost half of Danzo's men. How could he not feel pain over that?
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullets!" Danzo quickly formed hand seals and spat out one air bullet after another, shooting them nonstop at Hayato. He even tried to anticipate Hayato's dodging direction and aimed there, hoping at least to force Hayato to retreat.
But what happened next made Danzo want to spit blood out of frustration. Hayato didn't even dodge the attacks—didn't even flinch.
He just stood there with his chest out, taking the Vacuum Bullets head-on. Danzo's carefully planned countermeasures meant nothing at all. This was maddening beyond words.
The air bullets hit Hayato's body with pock pock sounds. His muscles were way tougher than Danzo expected.
Most of the bullets were blocked by Hayato's green skin and muscle, only leaving tiny white marks that quickly vanished. Even when a bullet broke through, leaving a shallow wound, it healed instantly in the blink of an eye.
Hayato didn't even step back from the attack—he kept moving forward, swinging his arm carelessly. Boom! He struck a ninja in the waist, sending him flying hard into the ground. The ninja was dead before anyone could even blink.
Seeing Hayato's brutal strength, Danzo's face darkened. But the more he saw Hayato's power, the more Danzo wanted to capture and control him, to make him a tool for his own use.
His eyes grew greedier and greedier as he looked at Hayato.
"....."