GA: Chapter 213 – Armament Haki; The Battle That Was Hardest to Forget
The blood-red scythe screamed through the air, aimed straight at Chen Yu's throat.
Chen Yu could even feel the edge of that crimson blade—the icy killing intent raising the hairs on the back of his neck.
"Die!"
Hidan's violet-crimson eyes blazed with madness. At this distance, in the entire shinobi world—save for that King—no one could dodge it. Not even someone with time-based ninjutsu.
Even Kakuzu, watching this unfold, felt the tension drain from him. He almost found it funny that he'd taken this man so seriously.
He'd thought this might be some terrifying powerhouse—an opponent worth his full attention. Turns out he was just a fool standing there.
Even if this person somehow survived Hidan's strike, he would be wounded. And wounded meant only one outcome.
But what happened next made both Hidan and Kakuzu's expressions change completely.
Chen Yu simply stood where he was. His expression didn't shift. His body didn't move. He just watched, with complete calm, as Hidan's blood-stained scythe descended toward his throat.
Clang.
A sound like metal meeting metal—not loud, but it rang through Hidan and Kakuzu's minds like a thundercrack.
How was this possible?
How could a human body be this hard?
No—wait.
Kakuzu stared fixedly at the space between scythe and throat. Covering the surface of Chen Yu's neck was a layer of something—black, hard as iron.
What was that?
"Weak."
Chen Yu felt the sensation of Armament Haki against his neck, and spoke with mild disappointment.
"Even a swordsman's slash would do more. Shadow-class shouldn't be this limited."
"Oh—I suppose I forgot."
"Setting aside that bizarre ability of yours, your actual combat strength isn't much better than a standard jōnin."
"After all, your greatest asset is taking hits."
Not that it was Hidan's fault he couldn't break through. Chen Yu's Armament Haki had been developed to an extreme depth. Breaking his defense required something on the level of an Admiral or a Four Emperors.
The stronger you became, the fewer worthy opponents remained. The only battles that left a real impression existed now in memory.
The one that lingered most from his time in the One Piece world was his clash with Kaidō, one of the Four Emperors.
A monster versus a monster. Both had pushed their physical bodies and Haki to their absolute limits.
At the time, he had already consumed the Dark-Dark Fruit, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and developed all of them to a considerable degree. But Kaidō's development of the Azure Dragon Fruit ran deeper than any fruit he possessed.
In offensive power he surpassed Kaidō. But in regeneration and raw constitution—he couldn't match him.
That battle had gone on for a long time. In the latter stages, Kaidō had him on the back foot. And yet he had still won.
He killed Kaidō and claimed the Azure Dragon Fruit's power.
After that, his physical constitution grew stronger and stronger, until there wasn't a single weakness left to exploit.
Within the Navy, there were those who surpassed Kaidō—but by that point, he had already passed them. So in terms of the pressure a fight had placed on him, Kaidō left the deeper impression.
With his current constitution combined with Armament Haki, he could stand perfectly still and let Hidan wail on him all day without a scratch.
Hidan's only standout qualities among shadow-class were his bizarre methods and his immortality. If he weren't so loud—if he exercised a bit of caution—there wouldn't be many in the current shinobi world who could escape him.
At minimum, without prior knowledge of his ability, the kage-class of the five great villages wouldn't be particularly threatening to him.
His memory of Naruto's story had faded over those years in One Piece, but he still remembered: Hidan's curse required getting the opponent's blood with the scythe, and that triggered it.
With no time limit, this ability was perfectly suited to facing enemies at a distance—get their blood, immediately retreat, wait for the right moment, and apply the curse. The target's death wouldn't even point toward him, let alone suggest anything about his ability.
Even with a time limit, there was no reason to perform the ritual openly in front of the target. Doing so was handing them the answer.
Chen Yu shook his head slightly. The Evil God's curse was interesting as a concept—but it held no practical use for him.
Hidan stared at Chen Yu, completely unharmed, then looked at his scythe, expression blank.
What just happened?
His most certain strike hadn't even broken through the man's defense?
Was he serious?
Could a human body really be this hard?
He had failed to land the hit—so he swiftly retreated back to Kakuzu's side and muttered under his breath:
"What's going on with this guy? Did you figure anything out?"
"No."
Kakuzu's tone was dark, his wariness spiked to its limit.
"What I can confirm is that he's using a technique we don't recognize—something that creates a powerful defensive layer on the surface of his skin. But I felt no chakra fluctuation."
"This technique is strange. It might not even be a ninjutsu. Be careful."
Hidan blinked, then his expression shifted to something uncomfortable.
If it wasn't ninjutsu—it wasn't chakra-based. That meant it could be used infinitely, with no resource cost. And that was extremely unfavorable for how his own ability worked.
His ability was powerful, but it required getting the opponent's blood via the scythe. If the enemy's defense couldn't be broken—this was going to be a problem.
"Are those the only tricks you have?"
Chen Yu stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking at Kakuzu and Hidan with mild curiosity.
He had just arrived in the Naruto world. Though the story was still in his memory, the anime wasn't reality—he wanted to see this world's ninjutsu, physical arts, and genjutsu firsthand.
Genjutsu especially.
For years people had speculated whether Naruto's genjutsu could affect people from the One Piece world—whether Observation Haki or Conqueror's Haki, both tied so deeply to willpower and spirit, could resist genjutsu's influence.
He himself believed that genjutsu would have no effect on someone with sufficiently powerful spiritual force—especially those with strong Observation or Conqueror's Haki.
But that was speculation without testing. It had no verified truth.
Kakuzu and Hidan were shadow-class and genuinely formidable within that tier—the former with five hearts and the ability to swap them at will, the latter immortal with bizarre methods. Their combination gave Chen Yu a perfect lens through which to examine the shinobi world's high-end combat.
But right now, Kakuzu and Hidan were simply watching him warily, showing no intent to attack despite his provocation.
Chen Yu looked at them, mildly disappointed.
"Fine."
"I had planned to let you both live a little longer—but since neither of you will move, you may as well die."
RUMBLE—