Ninja World: I, Kisame Hoshigaki, am no longer human!

When Kisame arrived, he found that the defenses here seemed unusually lax. Although Hoshigakure had never been invaded by outsiders, it was still an important place within the village, yet there wasn't even a single gatekeeper.

He encountered no obstacles and simply pushed open the door and walked in, passing through the courtyard and soon arriving at the main hall where the meteorite was enshrined.

Once he got there, Kisame understood everything.

The base that should have been used to enshrine the meteorite was now empty, covered only by a thick layer of dust.

The meteorite was stolen, and it wasn't recently.

Seeing this, Kisame frowned slightly. Just then, he noticed someone in the next room.

Clang.

Kisame pushed open the door and immediately saw more than a dozen ninjas. The oldest was only about twenty years old, and the youngest was only a little over ten. However, none of them had any youthful vitality and they were all lying on hospital beds.

"Cough cough..."

These people coughed incessantly, spitting out black blood from their throats. They all looked extremely pained, and some had even fallen into a coma, their fate unknown.

Roll your eyes, open.

Kisame activated his Byakugan, seeing through the bodies of these Hoshigakure ninjas. Sure enough, he found that their meridians were disordered and their chakra was activated to the limit, making it impossible for their bodies to withstand it.

These are symptoms after being exposed to meteorite radiation.

Kisame knew at a glance that these people were beyond saving, so the other villagers left them there to die—this was the price mortals paid for stealing the power of the Ten-Tails.

He walked up to the nearest patient, grabbed the latter by the collar, lifted him off the bed, and asked in a deep voice:

"Hey, you're not dead yet? Tell me, who stole the meteorite?"

Intimidated by Kisame's imposing aura, the man hurriedly replied with a look of terror, "They are the village's Jonin, Natsumi and Hotaru. They stole the meteorite and were expelled from the village by the Third Hoshikage's orders."

Oh?

Upon hearing these two names, Kisame frowned, recalled the plot again, and finally remembered.

During the reign of the Third Hokage, a once-in-a-century genius female ninja appeared in Hoshigakure, named Natsumi.

With her extraordinary talent, she mastered the Peacock Technique to its fullest extent, but it was during this process that she discovered that meteorites could cause enormous damage to the human body.

Her husband, Firefly, was a victim; he contracted a serious illness from the meteorite's radiation and was nearing the end of his life.

Under these circumstances, in order to prevent the meteorite's power from harming more innocent villagers, the couple made a decision to steal the meteorite from the village and seal it away.

It seems Kisame arrived a step too late.

However, he speculated that the couple must not have gone far, and might even be near Xingren Village.

After all, Firefly was already seriously ill and not far from death; she couldn't withstand a long journey. Besides, if the two of them left the Bear Kingdom with the meteorite, they would probably be targeted very quickly.

So they had no choice but to stay and hide.

However, the Land of Bears isn't particularly large, but it's not small either. Finding the Summer Couple in such a vast sea of ​​people would definitely be no easy task.

Unless you go to find the Third Hokage.

This person must know where the couple is, because, as far as Kisame knows, it was he who deliberately let them go.

Thinking this, Kisame released his grip and tossed the terminally ill Hoshigakure ninja back onto the sickbed. All the patients in the room stared at this uninvited guest in alarm.

“Look me in the eyes.”

Before leaving, Kisame had a sudden thought and spoke to the group of patients. Then, he used his Mangekyou Sharingan to unleash a deadly genjutsu.

In an instant, all the patients who met Kisame's gaze trembled, then slowly closed their eyes, smiles on their faces, as if they had entered a sweet dream.

Kisame ended their suffering prematurely, allowing them to die in bliss.

boom.

He pushed open the door and headed straight for the Star Ninja Village.

As night fell, the lights in Xingren Village were sparse, and many villagers had already gone to sleep.

A figure bypassed all the guards and silently slipped into Xingying's office.

"Who?!"

An elderly man who was working at his desk suddenly looked up and was shocked to find a mysterious person wearing a cloak and a mask in his office.

This person is the Third Hoshikage, who has lived for over a hundred years and is the oldest person in the entire Hoshigakure village.

"For the sake of your men's lives, I advise you not to call for help, otherwise there will soon be more than a dozen corpses in this office."

Kisame saw through Hoshikage's intention and said calmly, "You don't need to know who I am. Just know that I came for the meteorite."

Upon hearing this, Xingying quickly calmed down. He shook his head and said in a deep voice, "It's a pity you're too late. The meteorite has already been stolen by the rogue ninja in the village, and its whereabouts are unknown."

"You're talking about Summer and Firefly, right? Didn't you deliberately let them go, Third Hoshikage?"

Kisame stared intently at Hoshikage, and his words immediately caused the latter's expression to change.

Yes, he deliberately let the couple go.

This was because the third-generation Star Shadow had discovered the drawbacks of cultivating the Peacock Technique when he was young. He wanted to stop this cultivation in the village many times, but as a Star Shadow, he hesitated for a long time and could not make up his mind.

When the Summer Couple stole the meteorite, Star Shadow realized his opportunity had come and expelled them under the pretext of protecting the village.

In this way, he could legitimately stop the villagers from practicing the Peacock Magic Technique, since even the meteorite had disappeared.

I don't understand what you're talking about.

Faced with Kisame's questioning, the Third Hoshikage tried to play dumb.

Unfortunately, Kisame saw through his deception the very next second.

"You could have ordered someone to kill them and steal the meteorite, but you didn't. Instead, you used the two of them to take the meteorite away from the village. Your purpose was actually the same as theirs: to protect the villagers from the meteorite, right?"

Kisame not only exposed Hoshikage, but also revealed the latter's true intentions in a single sentence.

Upon hearing this, Xingying was shocked and immediately stood up, stammering, "You, who exactly are you?"

"Never mind who I am, old man. Have you ever thought that if you want to stop practicing the Peacock Technique, will those who have tasted the power give up so easily? To solve this problem once and for all, you still need me, the great benefactor, to help you escape this sea of ​​suffering."

As Kisame was talking, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Ten minutes later.

He quietly left Xingnin Village and flew into the night sky.

After patiently and earnestly "persuading" Xingying, he got the information he wanted.

Fifty kilometers to the southeast, in the mountains, lies a hidden cave. According to Xingying, the Summer Couple and the meteorite are hidden there.

call out.

Kisame spotted the direction, flapped his wings, and sped away.

……

In the distance, the outlines of the mountains were faintly visible in the night.

Kisame arrived above the location Hoshikage had mentioned. Although he didn't immediately discover the cave, he heard a considerable commotion coming from the woods below.

Ninjas are fighting.

Kisame activated his Byakugan again and looked down, only to find more than a dozen ninjas of unknown origin besieging a woman.

The woman had long red hair and delicate features; she was a great beauty. Moreover, she exuded a strong chakra fluctuation, indicating that she was at least a Jonin.

She is Xia Ri, a genius who appears only once in a century in Xingren Village.

"Hand over the meteorite!"

The group of ninjas surrounding Xia Ri shouted angrily and pressed closer to her.

"You want to take the meteorite? Too bad you don't have the ability."

Xia Ri said coldly, and as soon as she finished speaking, she quickly formed hand seals. Solidified purple chakra surged from her body and formed a beautiful shape behind her like a peacock's tail.

This is the Peacock's Wonderful Method.

Its principle is to combine the energy absorbed by the ninja from the meteorite with his own chakra, and then conjure peacock tail feathers behind the caster to unleash powerful energy.

However, from Kisame's perspective, the tail feathers behind Natsumi look more like the Ten-Tails than a peacock's tail.

"drink!"

At that moment, Summer let out a clear shout, and as she clasped her hands together, the tail behind her transformed into ferocious beasts. These chakra-form beasts, baring their fangs and roaring, charged towards the enemy.

After a series of screams.

Under Xia Ri's dazzling ninjutsu counterattack, all the enemies fell to the ground, none escaping, turning into cold corpses.

"Humph."

Xia Ri snorted softly, moved the corpses into the large pit she had dug earlier, buried them, then wiped the sweat from her forehead and breathed a sigh of relief.

Neither she nor the ninjas who fought her were aware that a ghost was watching everything from the night sky above.

198. I will take care of your wife and children.

In the woods under the cover of night, a battle in which the enemy and our side were vastly outnumbered and fought on one side quickly came to an end.

However, the side with fewer people ultimately won.

"These guys are really persistent."

After cleaning up the scene in the summer, she muttered to herself. Ever since she and her husband, Firefly, took the meteorite out of Star Ninja Village, somehow the news had leaked out, attracting the covetous eyes of many.

This was the sixth group of enemies she had taken down.

There was no way around it; the allure of the meteorite to ninjas was simply too great. Almost everyone knew that this meteorite contained immense energy, and whoever obtained it would gain power surpassing all living beings.

Even if it costs one's life to obtain that power.

This meteorite has driven countless people crazy.

Fortunately, this was within the territory of the Land of Bears, where a valley filled with poisonous gas isolated it from the outside world. Otherwise, if the five great ninja villages had received the news and sent their elite forces, it wouldn't have been something Xia Ri alone could have resisted.

She rested for a while and regained some of her strength. Then she looked around warily until she was sure there were no enemies hiding in the shadows before turning and walking into the depths of the woods.

The night sky was covered with dark clouds, obscuring the moon and starlight.