"...fuck..." - these were Hayate's last words before dropping down.

He used his last ounce of strength, but couldn't take 42 down.

Before he was slashed, 42 covered his whole body with an earth armor.

Jonin are generally able to use two types of elemental chakra, but Hayate was a Tokubetsu Jonin.

He got this status, because of his superb kenjutsu skills.

But like most Tokubetsu Jonin, even though they excel in one specific area, they lack all-around Jonin skills, this was also true for Hayate.

He could only use one type of elemental chakra, and his chakra nature was fire like most of the shinobis in Konoha.

Using fire chakra on his sword isn't really beneficial, so he relies on his pure kenjutsu.

Most of the time it's enough to take down any of his opponents, but shinobis who excel in defense are his natural counters.

That is why Hayate was defeated by Baki in the original timeline.

Anyway with Hayate down, 42 started to select his next target.

And Eiji, who was watching this fight, was in complete disbelieve that Hayate was defeated so fast.

'Shit! Why is this happening?! Wasn't this supposed to be a normal mob mission? Why did it turn out this way...'

Eiji was also experiencing true fear for the first time.

He started to doubt if he can even take on 42, meanwhile 42 looked at Kotaru emotionlessly.

"Hmm, looks like you are next..."

Kotaru, who was normally energetic and confident, was completely frozen out of fear.

42 retracted his earth armor and started to walk towards him in a normal tempo since in his eyes his enemies lost the will to fight and he doesn't need to exert himself unnecessarily anymore.

But unbelievable in this hopeless situation, the usually most fearful Arina started to prepare her attack.

She didn't say anything, but her eyes showed pure concentration and she used the clone technique to summon 4 afterimages of her.

She and the afterimages rushed towards 42.

"Using such a basic technique is really insulting for the opponent you know..."

42 looked bored and he covered his arms with the earth armor again and with just one swing he hit all the afterimages.

Arina was hit too, but she anticipated that attack and let her right arm break to evade the rest of the attack while using the other hand to grab into her shinobi bag.

She used a smoke bomb.

"Hmm, you really are underestimating me..."

With just one swing of him, the whole smoke vanished.

"!"

But 42 didn't expect to see himself surrounded by a huge amount of bombs.

"You crazy bitch! You will only kill yourself and your nearby mates with this!"

The normally apathetic 42 was slightly panicked and he instantly summoned an earth armor to cover himself fully.

...

He waited but nothing happened.

The bombs were just duds, not meant to explode!

But this was enough time to toss Kotaru out of 42's range and grab Hayate.

Arina started running.

42 was still bewildered, not believing that he was easily fooled by a rookie.

"..."

Arina was still running, when 42 composed himself.

"Hmm, this is really different from the fights I'm used to, but now I will use all to kill you once and for all..."

The earth armor covered himself fully again, and he prepared to launch.

'At this rate, everyone will die...FUCK! Why does my body not listen to me!!!'

After seeing Arina's superb performance, despite her being way weaker than him, he started to feel shame.

He wanted to help too, but his body didn't listen to him.

It was his first life and death fight, and even though he was an adult in his last life, his current body didn't care about any of that and continued to behave like the body of a child.

42 looked at the running Arina and aimed his charge direction at her.

He would shot out like a bullet, and with the hardiness of his armor, the damage will be devastating!

'Fuckin shit, this shitty body won't stop me!'

Eiji bit on his lips so hard that blood started to flow.

"BOOOOMMM!!!!"

42 charged like a bullet, but he hit nothing!

"Jo shithead, sorry for letting you wait..."

Eiji dropped Arina and Hayate next to him and held the sword on one of his shoulders.