"Who are you looking for?"
"You."
Despite facing this extremely dangerous mastermind, Neiki remained relaxed.
"Are you Danzo's man?" The masked man studied Neiki, his gaze lingering on those pale eyes for a long time. He seemed to recognise him, and his already cold voice dropped even lower.
"Hyuga… Neiki."
Neiki was slightly surprised but quickly understood. This wasn't wartime; the great ninja villages were fairly closed off. The fame of Konoha's Twin Stars wasn't truly global. He had never interacted with Tobi before, so it was likely that information about him had reached Tobi through Danzo's Root, then filtered out via Zetsu, who excelled at gathering intel.
Skipping any self-introduction, Neiki nodded and smiled pleasantly.
"Yes. I'm here to propose a deal. You help me destroy the Hyuga clan, and in return, I'll join the Akatsuki and work under you. How does that sound?"
"…"
The masked man tilted his head and looked him over.
"You?"
Not Danzo proposing cooperation, but a branch-family puppet?
A strange laugh came from behind the mask, mocking the Hyuga clan's internal strife—and Neiki's audacity.
A tool discarded by the main family—what value could he possibly bring to an alliance?
The laughter faded. The masked man regarded Neiki with a relaxed air, as if chatting with an old friend.
"How did you know I'm connected to Akatsuki?"
His voice was calm, but the question went straight for the throat.
Neiki blinked.
At this point in time, although he had already pushed Nagato to rebuild Akatsuki and begin hunting the tailed beasts, Tobi's own identity as an Akatsuki member was not public.
He had attacked Konoha, unleashed the Nine-Tails, and—according to the "original story" Neiki remembered—would soon help Itachi massacre the Uchiha clan. None of that happened under an official Akatsuki banner.
On paper, this masked man had no ties to Akatsuki.
Which made Neiki's offer to "join Akatsuki under him"… very interesting.
"Trying to come up with an excuse?" the masked man said.
He stepped toward Neiki.
Neiki pursed his lips, deciding not to just stand and wait. He drew the short blade from his back and levelled it at the masked man.
"I wouldn't recommend getting too close," he said calmly.
The masked man waved a hand dismissively.
"If you can't think of a reason, don't force it."
"Let me help you."
As he took another step, Neiki's expression tightened.
"Wind Sword Technique: Breeze Slash!"
A gentle wind rose. Overlapping sword-shadows flashed, thrusting toward the masked man—only to pass through an invisible barrier and slice harmlessly through the air.
The masked man didn't even flinch. His hand was already reaching toward Neiki.
"Lightning Sword Technique: Lightning Strike!"
Neiki moved like a thunderbolt, slipping past the hand and reappearing behind him. A nearby tree trunk split cleanly in half. Lightning crawled over the short blade in Neiki's hand; the cut clearly severed the masked man's waist.
Yet his body remained perfectly intact.
He retracted his hand, slowly turned, and regarded Neiki with a hint of appreciation.
"Not bad swordsmanship. Abandoning the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist wasn't such a bad choice."
Blending kenjutsu with chakra elements was unusual enough. Mastering both wind and lightning attributes on top of that spoke volumes about Neiki's talent.
What a pity.
"Just not good enough," Neiki murmured, eyes narrowing. His misty Byakugan quietly tracked every detail of the masked man's body.
A rare opportunity.
He had to test it.
"Wind Sword Technique: Storm Slash!"
Neiki's figure blurred into the wind, his blade whipping up a howling vortex that crashed down on the masked man.
"Is that all you've got?"
"I'm getting bored."
The gale tore through the masked man without resistance. As he took another step forward, Neiki's eyes flashed.
Weak Point Insight.
"Deceptive Sword Technique: Decay!"
Neiki lifted his short blade high. A thick, eerie black light wrapped around the steel like a shroud.
All around them, plants wilted and rotted in an instant.
The masked man felt his skin shrivel, his limbs grow heavy and stiff.
He frowned.
Genjutsu?
If it was, why couldn't the Sharingan dispel it?
He didn't have time to puzzle it out. A crushing sense of danger closed in on him.
He had two seconds until his next phase of intangibility.
This Neiki had already grasped the rhythm of his ability. As expected from the Byakugan—its insight surpassed even the Sharingan in some ways.
And yet, even now, the masked man stayed outwardly calm.
Neiki held too many secrets. He planned to wring them out of him later.
In the final second, the blade finished charging. Neiki brought it down at incredible speed. The black aura shrieked like a laughing demon as it split the air.
With his body aged by the technique, the masked man still didn't let it disrupt his movements. His palm was already pressing to the ground, ready to trigger Uchiha Flame Formation and block the strike.
But before he could complete the hand seals—
Crack.
The black-cloaked blade shattered, exploding into fragments.
The illusion snapped. The masked man's "aged" skin and body returned to normal.
Both men went still.
…So it was an incomplete technique after all.
With the blade broken, Neiki stared at the useless hilt in his hand, momentarily stunned. The masked man shook his head and laid a hand on Neiki's seemingly exhausted shoulder.
"You're still far behind," Neiki muttered, as if evaluating the gap between them.
"We'll talk later," the masked man said lightly.
He had no intention of letting Neiki die before he pried out the truth.
A tremendous suction roared from the hole in his mask. Space twisted into a spinning vortex in front of Neiki.
"That will be a long time from now," Neiki replied calmly, finishing his last sentence:
"I brought you a little gift."
"Do me a favour and get rid of them all."
The masked man frowned, not understanding where this confidence came from. He tightened his focus, ready to drag Neiki into his personal dimension.
In the next instant—
Thunk.
Neiki's head dropped. His body collapsed into a short blade and fell to the ground.
An A-rank ninjutsu.
Sword Clone.
Inspired by the concept of the Lightning Release Shadow Clone, the technique consumed half of the user's chakra and retained most of their combat ability.
The difference was that a Lightning Clone could only use lightning-style jutsu—while the Sword Clone could only use sword techniques.
The masked man didn't know the jutsu's origin, but he understood one thing very clearly.
He'd been tricked.
No wonder the brat fought so recklessly. It was only a clone.
The Mangekyō Sharingan behind the mask darkened with killing intent.
You used me as a test dummy for your sword technique?
He stooped and picked up the short blade. A tracking seal glowed faintly along its hilt.
He looked up. Under the moonlight, dark shapes flickered as birds flew through the trees.
Someone was coming.
It had to be Konoha ninja following the tracking mark.
Remembering Neiki's "gift," he snorted.
"Trying to use me as your hitman?"
Neiki's play was obvious: enrage him and let him wipe out the Konoha squad chasing the trail.
Despite the spike of murderous intent, the masked man held himself back. He didn't want to dance to Neiki's tune.
The encounter had been an unpleasant surprise. Neiki had potential, but his power still didn't match his ambition.
Just as the masked man was about to retreat, he sensed something, stiffened, and turned back toward the blade in his hand, repeating Neiki's word under his breath.
"A 'gift'…"
Neiki had wanted to use him as a weapon—but he hadn't realised that what he'd delivered was also a very tempting gift.
To accept it…
Or not?
…
Not far away, Kakashi suddenly clutched the eye beneath his forehead protector.
"What's wrong, Kakashi? The tracking mark Neiki left is right ahead. We have to hurry to support him."
"Let's go. It's nothing," Kakashi said, shaking his head and suppressing the unease in his Sharingan.
Their target was the so-called Uchiha Madara. Killing him was crucial to controlling how the coming battle between Konoha and the Uchiha unfolded.
That was the entire purpose of the special strike team.
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