A wet rip.
The kunai slid free.
Eiya looked down at Satō crumpled at his feet.
He let out a long breath. A lightness spread through him, thoughts running clear.
Satisfying.
On the road back to Konoha, he had already decided—
Satō had to die.
Abandon the mission and leave a comrade behind?
He had no objection. Shinobi work was cruel.
But to survive by turning your subordinates into bait, then flee back to the village like a beaten cur?
Call that whatever you want.
If this blew up, his career as a shinobi was finished. Even if the Konoha leadership let it slide, no one would dare take missions with him again.
If Eiya's strength had been any weaker, he would have died on the border like Shio.
Satō would still be a respected Konoha jōnin.
By a twist of fate, Eiya had shed his skin, grown stronger, and lived.
Yet the moment he returned, before he could act, Satō struck first—framing him as a Cloud spy.
Likely afraid he'd reveal the truth.
What Satō never imagined was—
That a mere chūnin would butcher a jōnin right here in front of the Hokage and the elders.
And now, Eiya had won.
He had bet right.
[Ding! Indulgence successful.]
[As a chūnin, the host killed in front of the Hokage and elders with utter lawlessness. Indulgence level: SS.]
[Issuing reward…]
[Obtained: Flying Thunder God, mastery.]
[Obtained: Lightning Release mastery, ten techniques learned.]
In the next instant, seals, nature transformation, shape transformation—
A flood of ninjutsu knowledge poured into his mind.
Lightning Release: Shadow Clone.
Lightning Release: False Darkness.
Lightning Release: Sixteen-Pillar Restraint.
He saw names he knew well: Liger Bomb, Lightning Tyrant Horizontal Thousand-Hand Dance, Hell Stab: Four-Finger Thrust.
A bead of cold sweat slid down Eiya's brow.
Really?
Those were the Raikage's signature arts.
Anyone who didn't know better would think he was the Third Raikage's heir.
Add Flying Thunder God and the Sharingan. Once his chakra rose a bit more, even facing the A–B duo wouldn't end in a simple stalemate.
Eiya was stunned by the lavish rewards.
Everyone else, stunned moments ago by the four Cloud heads, now stood frozen, staring at Satō's body in its spreading pool.
Their minds blanked.
One second. Two.
Slowly, every gaze turned to the Uchiha youth with the bloody kunai.
Incredible.
Incomprehensible.
No one here was weak—
An ANBU captain, a village elder, the Uchiha clan head—
And the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, famed as the strongest.
Konoha's top tier, gathered.
Yet this chūnin with no presence had caught a fleeting opening under their noses—using the heads to draw their eyes for a heartbeat—and one-shot a jōnin.
If they hadn't seen it, they would never have believed something so outrageous.
No one had imagined anyone would think this way. Even Danzō was stunned.
Then their eyes changed.
Shock curdled into anger. Killing intent poured out, unchecked.
A kunai dug hard between Eiya's shoulder blades.
"Are you insane!"
Uchiha Fugaku's voice cracked behind his ear—rage, shock, and a faint tremor.
In recent years the hardliners in the clan had only grown louder.
The Uchiha had been edged out, pushed to the margins.
Fugaku had twisted himself in knots to keep a balance between clan and village.
And now—
A no-name youth from the clan had, in the Hokage's office and before everyone, openly cut down a Konoha jōnin.
Madness. Provocation.
Or a declaration of war.
Fugaku didn't know what to call what he felt.
One thing was clear—
This boy made him feel fear from the marrow.
"Quiet."
Hiruzen lifted a hand. His voice wasn't loud, yet the office fell still in an instant.
His face stayed calm, unreadable.
"Uchiha Eiya."
Smoke curled from the pipe as his gaze turned to a blade's edge.
"Explain these Cloud heads. And—"
"Why you killed your captain."
Under every eye in the room, Eiya recounted the border in full.
Silence followed.
They were shinobi. They had taken missions, even gone to war. They all knew what a "comrade" like that meant.
Kakashi stood in shadow, his mask hiding his face.
Eiya still saw it.
The one-in-ten-thousand prodigy, the unfeeling ANBU machine—his hands trembled.
After a long moment, Hiruzen exhaled a stream of smoke.
"If what you say is true… Satō was unworthy of the name shinobi."
His voice was low, edged with weariness.
"Three years ago, in the war against Kumo and Iwa, Satō's squad was ambushed and wiped out."
"He survived by inches until support arrived."
"Perhaps that made him into what he became."
Danzō's cane cracked the floor.
"Whatever his sins, Konoha should have judged him, not you."
"A chūnin who ignores village law and acts on his own—"
"Ridiculous," Eiya cut in with a cold laugh, eyes on Danzō. "I was framed the moment I returned. If they'd sent me to T&I, would I have lived to speak?"
"This wasn't judgment. It was a private vendetta."
"I didn't seek trouble. It was the second time he tried to kill me."
"And in the end, I won."
Danzō narrowed his eye and said nothing.
Hiruzen shook his head.
"Konoha still lost a jōnin."
Eiya nudged the Cloud heads with his toe. "These aren't the only trophies I brought back."
He drew a scroll from his pouch and tossed it over.
Hiruzen caught it, scanned it, and his eyes hardened.
Geography of the Land of Lightning.
Cloud troop deployments.
The Raikage's strategic posture.
And fresh intel on the two jinchūriki.
The Third closed the scroll slowly and drew a deep breath.
"This is valuable intelligence. Well done."
"It is enough to offset your offense."
"This matter ends here."
Eyes narrowed all around, expressions shifting.
The Hokage had smoothed it over with a word.
What was written on that scroll?
Hiruzen tucked it away with care.
"Enough. The issue is settled. You can go."
"Fugaku, lower the kunai."
Fugaku stood stiff, the blade still at Eiya's back, as if dreaming.
Cut down a jōnin before everyone—and now nothing would happen?
What earthshaking intel had this invisible clansman brought?
Eiya didn't move to leave.
He looked around the room and suddenly smiled.
"Hokage-sama, there's something I can't make sense of."
Hiruzen tapped his pipe and nodded slightly.
"Since the founding of the five great villages, Konoha has been the strongest. Bar none."
"Yet the Land of Fire is riddled with enemy ninja. They come and go as they please."
"Have you nothing to say?"
Hiruzen's eyes sharpened.
Eiya didn't care. "If you ask me—"
He stopped. Saying it now felt pointless. It wasn't free. It wasn't indulgent.
"Forget it."
He gave a cryptic shake of the head, flared Lightning Release: Armor, and vanished from the office.