A/N: please don't forget to leave a review for the story. thank you.
[ JINICHI WATARU ]
The grand gala hosted by the Land of Tea's wealthiest merchant kicked off without a single hitch, masking the deadly political undercurrent beneath layers of expensive silk and overflowing champagne.
The vaulted ceiling of the estate's main ballroom was adorned with massive crystal chandeliers, casting a warm, golden glow over the sea of foreign dignitaries. Laughter and polite applause filled the air as the string quartet began their second set of the evening.
Tenka looked completely in her element, standing gracefully by Kazuto's side as his designated "plus one" for the evening. If she was terrified of the impending assassination attempt, she hid it perfectly behind a polite, aristocratic smile.
Our infiltration, on the other hand, required a bit more elbow grease and a lot of Kisuke's questionable chemistry.
Earlier in the evening, Kisuke had successfully slipped a colorless, odorless laxative of his own design into the water supply of the estate's private security barracks. It hadn't taken long for a sizable portion of the guard detail to become severely incapacitated, clutching their stomachs and rushing for the latrines.
Taking advantage of the sudden staff shortage, Aoi and Kisuke had swiftly incapacitated two of the remaining guards, stashed them securely in a broom closet, and utilized the Transformation Jutsu to take their places.
Currently, Aoi was stationed near the western exit, looking incredibly stiff in her security uniform, while Kisuke monitored the upper balcony, his sharp eyes sweeping the crowd for any hidden wire traps.
Shohei-sensei had taken the most crucial role. Transformed into an elite, heavily armoured samurai, he stood rigidly just two steps behind Tenka and Kazuto, his hand resting casually on the hilt of his katana.
As for myself, I had drawn the short straw in the disguise department. I was currently suffocating in a crisp, black-and-white servant's uniform, balancing a silver tray of expensive hors d'oeuvres on my fingertips.
"More champagne, sir?" I asked a passing nobleman, dipping my head into a polite bow as he snatched a glass from my tray without even acknowledging my existence.
I turned away, expertly weaving through the dense crowd of partygoers until I was perfectly positioned to pass directly behind Tenka.
As I walked by, I subtly brushed my open palm against the trailing edge of her expensive silk shawl. Without breaking my stride, I released a small amount of highly metal dust from the gourd hidden beneath my servant's vest, embedding it deeply into the fabric of her dress.
It was a contingency plan. If we got separated in the chaos, I could use my chakra to track the unique magnetic resonance of that specific metal dust anywhere in the city.
Confident that the tracker was securely in place, I adjusted my grip on the silver tray and began making my way toward the refreshment tables to restock.
"Excuse me," a quiet, childish voice called out from below my elbow.
I paused, looking down. Standing near the edge of a towering ice sculpture was a young boy, completely out of place among the towering adults. He had messy, light pink hair that clashed violently with his dark, formal clothing.
But it was his eyes that instantly set my nerves on edge. They were a vivid, piercing green, completely blank and entirely devoid of the innocent curiosity you would expect from a kid at a party.
"Can I help you?" I asked, forcing a polite, customer-service smile onto my face as I knelt down slightly to meet his eye level.
"I would like a plate of those," the boy said, his voice flat and perfectly even, pointing a pale finger at the assortment of glazed meat skewers on my tray.
"Of course," I replied, carefully transferring three of the skewers onto a small porcelain plate and handing it to him. "Enjoy the gala."
The pink-haired boy didn't say thank you. He just took the plate, his blank green eyes locking onto mine for one chilling, elongated second before he turned and melted back into the bustling crowd.
A cold shiver ran down my spine, but before I could relay the strange encounter to Kisuke through our hidden earpieces, the entire estate plunged into absolute darkness.
The transition was instant. Every single chandelier and wall sconce shattered simultaneously in a shower of sparks, followed by the heavy, echoing thud of the estate's main doors being violently kicked open.
Chaos erupted immediately. The polite chatter morphed into deafening screams of panic as the wealthy nobles shoved each other blindly in the dark, desperate to escape the sudden ambush.
The distinct, metallic clash of kunai against steel rang out from the center of the room. The attack had begun.
I didn't hesitate. I dropped my silver serving tray, letting the expensive crystal and porcelain shatter against the marble floor as I formed the seal of confrontation with my right hand.
Closing my eyes, I pushed my chakra outward, actively searching for the magnetic resonance of the metal dust I had planted on Tenka's shawl.
'There.'
The signal pinged violently in my mind, but it was already moving incredibly fast, completely ignoring the frantic bottleneck of people at the exits. It was heading toward the eastern corridor.
I pushed through the terrified crowd, my servant uniform tearing as I squeezed past panicking merchants, keeping my internal compass locked onto that signature.
Bursting through the heavy velvet curtains into the eastern hallway, the moonlight streaming through the shattered windows illuminated a horrific sight.
A massive, scar-faced ninja was sprinting down the corridor. Slung effortlessly over his broad shoulder was Tenka, her body entirely limp and unconscious.
"Hey!" I roared, drawing a kunai from my concealed holster and sprinting after him.
The scar-faced ninja didn't even break his stride. He kicked the hallway window outward, sending glass raining down into the courtyard below, and leaped out onto the sloped ceramic roof of the estate.
I vaulted through the broken window frame right behind him, the cool night air hitting my face as my boots slammed against the roof tiles. The chase was on.
My target was fast, leaping effortlessly from chimney to chimney, but he was heavily burdened by Tenka's weight. I focused my chakra, mentally reaching out to the tiny speck of metal dust embedded in her shawl.
Expand! I commanded silently.
The microscopic pinch of metal dust violently erupted into a dense, solid spike of iron, rocketing backward from the fabric and aiming straight for the captor's unarmoured throat.
The sudden, lethal threat catching him completely off guard, the scar-faced ninja cursed, twisting his body mid-air to dodge the metallic spike. To preserve his own life, he was forced to release his grip, dropping Tenka onto the sloped roof.
She rolled lifelessly down the tiles, but before she could slide over the edge, I reached into my vest, pulled the pin on a standard red signal flare, and shot it high into the night sky to broadcast my exact location to Aoi and Kisuke.
Simultaneously, I uncorked the primary gourd at my waist. A thick stream of iron sand poured out, surging across the roof and wrapping securely around Tenka, encasing her unconscious form in an impenetrable dome of solid metal.
With the client secure, I turned my full, undivided attention to the scarred ninja.
I manipulated the remaining dust from my first gourd, launching a trio of hardened iron spears directly at his chest.
He scoffed, his body blurring with terrifying speed as he effortlessly dodged the first spear, weaved completely under the second, and casually swatted the third aside with a heavy kunai.
He didn't just evade; he used the momentum of his dodge to instantly close the massive gap between us, appearing directly in my guard with a vicious, horizontal swipe of his kunai aimed perfectly at my throat.
I dropped my center of gravity, narrowly slipping the lethal attack as the blade cleanly severed the collar of my servant's uniform.
Using the momentum of my evasion, I channelled my chakra directly into my legs and torso, executing the prototype taijutsu technique I had been developing.
'Spinjutsu!'
planting my hands on the tiles and violently twisting my entire body into a rapid, momentum-fuelled, sweeping tornado kick, heavily augmented by my chakra.
My reinforced heel slammed brutally into the ninja's ribcage. The immense physical force lifted him entirely off his feet, launching him backward across the roof.
He skidded hard across the ceramic tiles, coughing violently. As he attempted to stand, a thick cloud of white smoke suddenly puffed outward from his body, his transformation jutsu completely shattering under the blunt-force trauma of my kick.
When the smoke cleared, the towering, scar-faced ninja was gone.
Standing in his place, clutching his bruised ribs, was the pink-haired boy from the gala, his blank green eyes glaring at me with raw, unfiltered malice.
"You're a persistent nuisance," the kid spat, his voice no longer hiding behind a childish facade.
I didn't waste breath on banter. I extended both hands, condensing my metal dust into dozens of high-velocity, jagged bullets, and unleashed a merciless hailstorm of shrapnel directly at him.
The boy's speed was unnatural. He flipped, twisted, and rebounded off the chimney stacks, completely evading the lethal spread of iron bullets as he bounded toward me.
Before I could recall my sand to defend myself, he was in my face. His hand darted forward, and a cold, sharp pain erupted in my right arm as his blade sank deeply into my bicep.
I gritted my teeth, perfectly timing my hand seal.
'Substitution Jutsu!'
In a puff of smoke, my body was replaced by a red clay brick, but I had intentionally left a parting gift attached to the brick—a primed paper bomb I had slipped from my pocket during my hailstorm attack.
[ *BOOM* ]
The explosion was deafening. The concussive blast blew the boy backward, shattering the surrounding roof tiles and completely engulfing the entire section of the roof in a thick, choking veil of black smoke.
I landed safely on a higher tier of the roof, clutching my bleeding arm. I squinted through the heavy smoke, waiting for his silhouette to emerge, but the roof was completely empty.
The pink-haired boy had vanished entirely.
Pierce.
Pierce.
Pierce.
I gasped, my eyes going wide as three sudden, sharp stings erupted across the left side of my body.
I looked down in absolute horror. Three long, impossibly thin senbon needles were buried deeply into my left thigh and my left shoulder, having struck me from a completely invisible angle. The senbons were laced in a purple looking substance.
'Poison!'
I tried to pull them out, but my left arm entirely refused to respond. Panic seized my chest as the toxin aggressively locked down my motor functions in the blink of an eye.
The poison wasn't just paralyzing; it burned. It felt as though literal, boiling magma was violently injected directly into my veins, searing my muscles from the inside out and forcing a ragged, agonizing scream from my lungs.
Operating purely on adrenaline and survival instinct, I uncorked my second gourd of metal dust.
The iron sand surged aggressively around me, forming a thick, spherical layer of impenetrable defense to block any further invisible projectiles.
But it was for naught. The poison was already inside me, rapidly creeping toward my heart, and hiding inside a metal shell was only delaying my inevitable death.
If I couldn't see him, I couldn't hit him. And if I couldn't hit him, I was going to die on this roof.
Fighting through the excruciating, blinding pain, I repurposed the metal dust actively swirling around me. Instead of maintaining the defensive shell, I forcefully propelled the entire cloud straight up into the night sky.
'Rain'
I commanded, my vision swimming as I forced my remaining chakra into the technique.
The massive cloud of iron dust lost its cohesion, falling back down onto the rooftop in a widespread, inescapable downpour of fine, dark powder.
The dust coated the tiles, the chimney stacks, and more importantly, it coated an invisible, humanoid silhouette standing less than ten feet to my right.
The camouflage jutsu was flawless, but the boy couldn't hide the physical metal powder settling perfectly onto his shoulders, hair, and arms.
Realizing his position was completely compromised, the boy lunged, rapidly bouncing from location to location across the roof to blur the metallic outline and hide his true point of attack.
Despite the poison reducing my body to a trembling, agonizing mess, I watched the shifting, metallic phantom like a hawk.
He vaulted off a chimney, diving straight toward my blind spot with his blade drawn.
'Got you.'
Instead of moving my paralyzed body, I simply clenched my right hand. The metal dust that was already coating his invisible face instantly hardened, forcefully clamping completely shut over his mouth and nose in a suffocating gag.
The boy panicked, his hands immediately flying to his face to claw at the iron binding his airway, completely abandoning his mid-air strike.
It was the exact distraction I needed. Using the dust coating his pants, I violently snapped his legs tightly together, entirely ruining his landing.
He crashed heavily onto the roof tiles, completely immobilized.
With the very last ounce of strength in my body, I manipulated a heavy chunk of the iron sand, condensing it into a massive, dense metal hammer directly above his head.
I brought it down without an ounce of mercy.
[ *THUNK* ]
The metallic thud echoed sharply as the hammer connected cleanly with the boy's skull, instantly knocking him completely unconscious and breaking his invisibility jutsu.
I let out a ragged, shallow breath, using the remainder of my iron sand to securely bind his arms and legs to the ceramic tiles.
My vision began to tunnel, the excruciating fire of the poison finally overwhelming my failing nervous system.
Just as the world began to fade into a terrifying black void, the frantic, rushing silhouettes of Aoi and Kisuke burst onto the rooftop, calling my name.
Knowing they had arrived to secure the client, I finally let go, allowing the darkness to completely consume me.
[ KISUKE YOROI]
The crimson light of the signal flare bathed the ceramic rooftop in a harsh, bloody glow as Aoi and I burst through the shattered corridor window. The scene before us was an absolute disaster of cracked tiles, scorched architecture, and scattered metal dust.
My eyes immediately snapped to Jinichi. Our teammate was swaying dangerously on his feet, his skin taking on a sickening, ashen pallor before his eyes rolled back completely. He collapsed heavily against the sloped roof, his body seizing up as he hit the tiles.
"Jinichi!" Aoi yelled, sprinting forward with her weapons drawn.
My tactical assessment took a fraction of a second longer, sweeping the environment for immediate threats. I registered the impenetrable, spherical dome of iron sand near the edge of the roof—Tenka was secure. Then, my gaze locked onto the small, pink-haired figure pinned tightly to the tiles by dense, heavy clamps of Jinichi's metal dust. The child assassin was bruised, bleeding, and seemingly unconscious.
As Aoi dropped to her knees beside Jinichi, her hands hovering helplessly over his violently shuddering body, I drew a kunai and approached the bound boy to ensure he was fully incapacitated.
That was my mistake. I underestimated the sheer, terrifying resourcefulness of a cornered rogue.
The boy's blank green eyes snapped open. There was no grogginess, no disorientation from the blunt-force trauma to his skull. He had been waiting for us to drop our guard.
Before I could even shout a warning, the kid bit down hard on a hollow tooth hidden in the back of his mouth. A terrifyingly loud hiss erupted from his jaw, followed instantly by a violent burst of thick, highly corrosive purple gas. The chemical vapor reacted aggressively with Jinichi's chakra-infused iron sand, rapidly superheating and melting the metal clamps binding the boy's limbs.
"Aoi, cover your face!" I shouted, leaping backward and throwing my arm up to shield my eyes from the caustic fumes that threatened to sear my lungs.
The boy didn't waste a single millisecond. With his restraints dissolved into useless slag, he contorted his small body with impossible, serpentine agility, slipping entirely out of my striking range. He slapped a handful of explosive tags at the base of the nearest chimney stack the stack crashed with a loud Crack! The makeshift rubble acting as a barrier between him and us, instantly leaping backward into the thickest part of his toxic smoke screen.
Aoi snarled, her fierce, unyielding protectiveness flaring as she vaulted over Jinichi. She gripped her kunai tightly, fully prepared to dive through the rubble and hunt the kid down for what he had done to our teammate.
"No! Let him go, Aoi!" I commanded, my voice sharp and authoritative enough to cut directly through her blinding battle rage.
"He's getting away, Kisuke! Look at what he did to—"
"And he will kill Jinichi if we don't act right this second!" I interrupted, pointing sharply down at our friend. The veins on the left side of Jinichi's neck and arm were bulging, turning a terrifying, necrotic shade of dark violet. His breathing had devolved into wet, ragged gasps. "The poison is aggressive, it's already attacking his nervous system!"
Aoi froze, her eyes widening in genuine horror as she truly registered the lethal severity of the toxin coursing through Jinichi's body. Her desire for vengeance instantly evaporated, replaced by pure, desperate urgency.
"The assassin's escape is a secondary concern," I stated rapidly, dropping my tactical pouch onto the tiles and ripping open my portable chemistry kit.
"Our primary directive is the client, and our immediate priority is Jinichi's survival. Focus, Aoi! You need to crack open that iron dome and secure Tenka. I need to synthesize a broad-spectrum coagulant to slow this toxin down before his heart completely stops!"
Aoi swallowed hard, her jaw tightening as she nodded once, firmly shoving her weapons back into their holsters and rushing toward the metal dome.
"Got it. Save him, Kisuke."
The pink-haired boy was gone, swallowed entirely by the sprawling, chaotic city below. I plunged a sterilized syringe into a vial of clear liquid, drawing the emergency serum with steady, practiced hands. I found a pulsing, uncorrupted vein in Jinichi's right arm and injected the chemical cocktail directly into his bloodstream.
For an agonizing moment, nothing happened. Then, the terrifying, dark violet necrosis creeping up his neck finally stalled, the aggressive spread halting just inches from his jawline. His ragged breathing didn't normalize, but it stabilized into a slow, shallow, consistent rhythm.
I let out a shaky breath, wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead, but the tight knot of anxiety in my chest didn't loosen.
"Is he... is he cured?" Aoi asked over her shoulder, her hands desperately prying at the iron sand dome holding Tenka.
"No," I replied grimly, packing my medical supplies away and preparing to lift his dead weight. "This was just a heavy nerve blocker and a localized coagulant. It won't cure him; it just slammed the brakes on the toxin's progression. It bought him time—maybe a few hours—for me to analyze the reaction and draft a proper, specific antidote from my reserves."
I hoisted Jinichi's limp arm over my shoulder, bracing myself under his weight.
" We need to get him to a safe location so I can unpack my herbs and brew a real cure, if not… he'll die."