Konoha Year 50, early February.
In the southeast of the Land of Fire, deep within a mountain forest of towering trees.
Two figures flashed swiftly from branch to branch, the stirred air making the emerald leaves hiss and rustle.
"Kogetsu, halt and rest a moment."
"We've opened enough distance. Kuriarare Kushimaru's squad shouldn't catch us anytime soon."
"Yes, Captain Aota."
They dropped from branches ten meters high, landed steadily, and each pulled white bandages from the pockets of their green flak vests to wrap their wounds.
"Captain, what do we do next" Kageyama Kogetsu asked, worry on his face.
He looked twelve or thirteen, a pale face beaded with sweat, his breathing a little ragged. Sweat dampened the dust and streaked his cheeks. Even so, it could not hide his striking looks. His features were sharp as if carved with blade and chisel, eyes like cold stars, brows like a drawn sword, a straight nose, thin crimson lips. His black hair was tied high in a ponytail with a red ribbon. He wore a black shinobi combat suit under Konoha's green vest, a short blade with a black hilt and red star strapped to his back. He looked lean and lethal.
"Damn it."
Captain Aota, a long horse-faced man, let out a heavy sigh and slammed his left fist against a trunk. Blood trickled down. His eyes burned with anger, suffocation, and unwillingness.
"Cursed Kirigakure, choosing this moment to strike just as Iwagakure is pushing into the Land of Fire."
"If even a portion of the village's top fighters and jonin could be spared, would the Seven Ninja Swordsmen be so brazen"
"Right now it's special jonin, chunin, and genin holding the line. It's brutal."
"Our deaths are nothing, but if the Seven Ninja Swordsmen lead Mist's main force rampaging through the Land of Fire, the impact on the war will be disastrous."
Kogetsu's mouth twitched. Easy for you to say our deaths are nothing.
"Captain, now's not the time for that. What matters is what we do next."
"Just the two of us, even if we stake our lives, we won't change much."
Aota wound the bandage around his left hand again and again, expression flat, eyes full of resolve.
"What else can we do"
"We link up with the squad behind us and move to block the Mist."
Kogetsu sighed. "Looks like the Kageyama family is going to be wiped out in this war."
Aota thought of Kogetsu's situation at home. Not long ago, the boy's grandmother died. Too many of her sons and daughters-in-law had fallen in succession, and grief finally broke her body. His grandfather was said to have died in the Second Shinobi World War. A family of true-blue loyalty, a household of heroes.
"Kogetsu, stay close to me when the fighting starts. I'll protect you as much as I can."
"And don't be too pessimistic. As far as I know, the Hokage has gone to negotiate with the great shinobi clans in the village."
"In a crisis this grave, the clans will bring out hidden strength, including the Uchiha clan and the Hyuga clan."
"If we can live until reinforcements arrive, we might live to the end."
Kogetsu smiled. "Living to the end. Sounds beautiful. I hope so."
"Enough talk. Let's recover stamina and chakra."
"Captain, here. Soldier pills."
"These are my treasured high-grade pills. Good effect, minimal side effects."
Aota nodded with a smile and took the pill Kogetsu handed him.
Two minutes later, as Aota sat cross-legged, his expression suddenly changed. His body pitched forward and he collapsed.
"Kageyama Kogetsu, you—"
He smelled grass and earth as weakness flooded his limbs. Eyes wide with rage, he forced the words through clenched teeth.
Kogetsu rose, drew the bright short blade from his back, and stepped to Aota's side.
"Captain, don't blame me. I'm trying to live to the end."
"For years I've endured, skirting death again and again."
He slowly pressed the tip of the blade toward the back of Aota's head.
"If I hadn't trained like mad, stayed cautious, dared to gamble, and kept my wits, the weeds on my grave would already be high."
"Now the timing is right. I won't endure anymore."
"The shinobi world is chaos. It is the perfect time for him to seek a vessel at will."
"His lifespan is not long. He must be growing desperate."
"I refuse to end as a cold string of letters on the memorial stone. Konoha and this world are not worth my selfless death."
"For one general's success, ten thousand bones dry. I refuse to be the bones. I want to be the general."
His voice rose and his handsome face twisted.
"You—"
Before Aota could spit his scorn and curses, Kogetsu, his pent-up pressure erupting, pressed down. A wet crunch. The sharp tip pierced the back of the skull. The sound cut off.
Kogetsu exhaled long. His expression returned to calm. He pulled out the little sword, drove it into the ground, wiped the red and white from the blade, leapt back, sheathed it, and formed hand seals.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
Orange-red flames roared from his mouth, swelling into a fireball more than three meters across. Waves of heat rolled as the blaze devoured Aota's corpse, reducing it to ash.
Kogetsu used Earth Release to erase the traces left by the fire, then sprang away.
He would either never set foot on this battlefield again, or return in an entirely new guise.
Otsutsuki Isshiki, I am coming.
By relying on his knowledge of the terrain and careful caution, Kogetsu ran into neither Mist nor Leaf, and slipped cleanly out of the war zone.
Once far from the fighting, he willed it, and two cards appeared from thin air.
They were the size of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but they shone with a faint purple-gold luster, regal and mysterious. The backs bore the same intricate purple-gold pattern. The front of the Plunder Card was a black hole. The front of the Divination Card showed a trigram.
They came from a card game his cousin's son played.
He had been visiting his cousin. After dinner he played with the boy, and when the child fell asleep a divorced young woman he'd matched with through WeChat's Shake feature suddenly invited him out for drinks. That divorcee's allure was intoxicating, and last time had not been enough. He went without hesitation, in a rush, and slipped the boy's deck into his pocket on his way out.
Maybe they went too wild that night, or maybe the Liuwei Dihuang pills were too strong. He woke up in this world.
After crossing over, only three cards remained from the deck, the three at the very bottom: two Divination Cards and one Plunder Card.
He had already used one Divination Card to divine the whereabouts of the Otsutsuki sacred tool named Li.
After learning its location, he used his leave, spent great effort and money, and acquired Li in its sealed state.
His savings were not enough, and he had no patience to earn money slowly through missions, so he chose to rob the rich and aid the poor. He targeted newly risen merchants who were both ruthless and insufficiently guarded.
Next, he pulled out a scroll and fed a thread of chakra into it.
A puff of white smoke. An object appeared, plain at first glance, like an oval jar made of clay.
"Only the power of the Otsutsuki can activate Li. I hope that even sealed, Otsutsuki Isshiki can sense it."
"And I hope the Plunder Card can work on Otsutsuki Isshiki. Otherwise I dare not imagine how I will die."
The information the Plunder Card conveyed was vague. Other than requiring a living target, it did not make the limits clear.
He did not idle. He smeared glue on the bottom of the jar and pressed the back of the Plunder Card onto it.
"Time to divine Otsutsuki Isshiki's location. Let it not be too far."
He looked at the Divination Card floating before him, slowly extended a finger to the center of the trigram, and gave it a clockwise flick.