The Water Jutsu that had just been used to attack Hozuki Mangetsu now became his best way to stay hidden.
Guess that's how it goes—those who die end up paving the way for the ones still alive.
Mangetsu had a slightly long samurai sword on his waist, and he was holding a kunai backward in his hand.
The kunai wasn't ideal, but going head-to-head with Hatake Satoru was impossible. Mangetsu had no choice but to try sneaking in close for an assassination.
"Pretty good use of the surroundings. Learned that from a lot of real fights, huh~?"
Hatake Satoru didn't look serious at all. With his hands still in his pockets, he casually hopped back and easily put some space between them.
Then he spun and kicked Mangetsu hard. *Splash*—Mangetsu's body instantly turned into a puddle of water and hit the ground.
The water moved quickly across the ground, rushing toward Hatake Satoru's ankle, trying to grab hold of his leg.
But the hands formed from the liquid stopped just short of touching him.
Still in his liquefied state, Mangetsu was completely stunned.
What's going on?!
It wasn't that he didn't want to grab Satoru—his hands just couldn't get any closer past a certain point.
That had never happened before.
Was this one of his powers too?!
"Too slow, Mangetsu-chan~"
"At this rate, you'll never be able to beat me—even in your next life!"
Satoru's cheerful voice rang out.
While Mangetsu was still frozen in shock, Satoru quickly moved his hand, releasing a soft blue mist.
The liquid Mangetsu had turned into suddenly floated into the air, slowly forming back into a human shape beneath Satoru's hand.
*Click.* Mangetsu hung in midair, trapped by Satoru's blue aura. His other hand rested on the hilt of his samurai sword.
His hand gripped the handle tightly—he could draw the sword and stab Satoru at any second!
"——??"
But Mangetsu forced his hand to stop, pressing it down hard on the sword's hilt. A drop of sweat slid down his cheek.
Floating beside him was the kunai, its tip aimed straight at the side of Mangetsu's neck.
Just the slightest wrong move, and it would pierce right through his throat.
The fight was over.
Shisui held his breath the moment he saw Mangetsu's hand on the sword.
At that range, there was no way to dodge.
That kunai was the same one Hatake Satoru had just used to kill a student inside the school building.
"But when did it move over here…"
Shisui turned to glance inside the school. The body that had been nailed to the wall had only just fallen down.
The Sharingan could see through all kinds of Ninjutsu—but whatever Satoru was using wasn't something it could see through.
The scattered students watching nearby went completely silent for a moment the fight ended, then quickly started whispering in shock.
"That genius?! Hozuki Mangetsu lost in less than five minutes?!"
"The teacher didn't even look serious!"
"Yeah! He was just chatting with him the whole time!"
They had all been hunted down by Mangetsu before, barely staying alive. For him, killing them was as easy as chopping vegetables.
That's why they were hiding in the school, waiting for a chance to kill him.
But now, this teacher had taken Mangetsu down in under five minutes?!
"You're amazing!!!"
"Teach me! Please teach me all of that!"
As soon as Hatake Satoru put away Blue, Hozuki Mangetsu suddenly hugged his leg, eyes sparkling as he looked up at him.
Did the kid get so shaken by the quick loss that it messed with his head?
Hatake Satoru raised an eyebrow, grabbed Mangetsu's shirt, and gently pulled him off his leg.
"I'm your teacher now~ Teaching you won't be a problem."
"But in return, you—and all of you—have to keep your promise."
Hatake Satoru glanced around at the nearby school buildings.
Soon, students started coming out little by little from the stairwells and windows.
"Yeah!!"
Hozuki Mangetsu nodded hard, staring at Hatake Satoru with full admiration.
When he fought Shisui, he felt like losing to genjutsu wasn't really fair.
But Hatake Satoru fought him head-on, and even then, he still couldn't win.
Too strong!
Whether it was speed or strength, he could beat Mangetsu in five minutes without even trying.
Trying to surpass someone like that felt impossible.
In that moment, Mangetsu completely gave up on his earlier plan of learning from and then killing Hatake Satoru.
Now he had only one goal:
Next time they fought, he wanted Hatake Satoru to take him seriously!
"…I really don't wanna be looked at by a guy like that."
Hatake Satoru scratched his head, a little annoyed. First Naruto, now Hozuki Mangetsu—it was always like this.
Couldn't just one girl show up and look up to him for once?
Shisui shook his head and started organizing the students from the school building, leading them into a big classroom.
Most of them had been scared of Hozuki Mangetsu before and were always on edge.
Now that someone could keep Mangetsu in check, they obediently followed Shisui's instructions and headed inside.
Just as Hatake Satoru was lost in thought, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his head.
*Ding~*
[Congrats, Host! Your Sync Rate has reached 50%.]
[You've received a special reward: Cursed Speech.]
[You can now control others through your words. But the power of this ability depends heavily on your own strength.]
[Right now, you can only control simple actions. It's not very strong in fights, so please work hard to get stronger.]
The system message quickly faded, and Hatake Satoru was left a little stunned.
Reaching 50% sync was good news.
But this reward—this ability? It wasn't even Gojo Satoru's.
Cursed Speech belonged to Inumaki Toge. It worked by turning words into curses, but using strong ones burned a lot of energy.
In *Jujutsu Kaisen*, Inumaki avoided cursing people by accident, so he usually spoke using rice ball ingredients.
But thinking about it like that—didn't that mean he couldn't talk normally most of the time!?
Hatake Satoru awkwardly touched his own lips.
Just as things had quieted down, the system popped up again.
[Host, please use Cursed Speech with confidence. Any negative effects have been adjusted by the system to be controllable.]
Oh? So the system could upgrade stuff too?
Then this ability was no problem at all!
Hatake Satoru quietly nodded to himself.
"Well, let's head to the classroom first."
Hatake Satoru blinked and looked into the classroom, which was already filled with students.
For some reason, he felt like taking care of kids was something Shisui would actually be good at too.
Hozuki Mangetsu followed right behind Hatake Satoru, bouncing along like a little sidekick.
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