In the world of shinobi, kindness is praised by the strong and worshipped by the weak, yet beneath every noble word lies the old law of hunger, fear, and blood.
Ren was born with nothing. No clan. No name worth speaking of. No place in the village beyond the mud beneath its feet.
To others, he is a quiet child with gentle eyes, a fragile boy too soft for the cruelty of war. But behind that meek face hides a mind that watches, measures, and remembers. In the depths of a nameless grey fog, he walks a forbidden path of sacrifice, ritual, and refinement, turning flesh, sorrow, and deceit into strange Gu that should not exist in this world.
A demon who understands people too well, a false lotus blooming in filth, and a boy who will wear pity like sacred robes while climbing toward something far greater than power.
In a world of chakra, bloodlines, and war, Ren has only one faith:
Everything in heaven and earth has a price.
And he is willing to pay it with anyone’s life but his own.
Cover is not mine