The gap between elite ANBU from a great village and nameless rogue shinobi…
Could not be bridged with numbers.
Ren didn't want to expose his Kaguya bloodline, so he kept to basic taijutsu and an unfamiliar kunai—
Even so, the dozen-plus rogues lasted less than five seconds.
He walked through them as if strolling through rain.
A step, a flick, a cut.
And life left bodies so cleanly that some didn't even realize they'd died until they tried to move again.
To the surrounding civilians, it looked like this—
Ren calmly stepped out of the encirclement.
The rogues lunged, missed, turned—
And the moment they moved again, heads separated, torsos split, bodies collapsed in grotesque silence.
Ren's clothes didn't catch a single drop of their blood.
Even people who'd been abused by rogues for years broke under the sheer wrongness of it.
They clamped hands over their mouths, terrified of even letting out a scream in front of a shinobi.
Ren shook his head.
The people of this land were past rebellion.
They'd been trained into submission so thoroughly they feared making noise.
Pathetic.
He flicked the now-dulled kunai away, and with a casual throw finished the tall brute who had still been writhing on the ground.
Then he stepped into the wrecked shop and checked the swelling power in his own body.
Dark Harvest stacks +1. Current stacks: 2
Dark Harvest stacks +1. Current stacks: 3
…
Dark Harvest stacks +1. Current stacks: 17
Dark Harvest stacks reached two digits. Soul strength increased. Genjutsu resistance increased. Yin chakra strengthened.
A cool clarity spread through his mind like meltwater from a mountain peak, flowing into every cell.
Ren nodded faintly.
Choosing Dark Harvest was the right call.
After I finish the actual mission… I'll farm here a bit more before going back.
No one will miss these human-shaped piles of rot.
A stammering voice pulled him back.
"Sh-Shinobi-sama… i-if there's anything you need… anything this lowly one can do…"
Ren looked up.
The shopkeeper was trembling, keeping his daughter behind him as if he could shield her from a storm with his body.
Ren reined in his killing intent and asked quietly—
"You said two nights ago you gave four passing shinobi most of your wealth."
"Tell me what they looked like. Their build. Their manner."
"And where they went after."
The shopkeeper visibly flinched at the mention of shinobi. Instinctively, he tried to shrink away, to answer vaguely and offend no one.
Then his eyes flicked to the corpses outside.
He shuddered and abandoned that plan immediately.
This one was worse.
"They… they wore common civilian clothes from the Land of Fire. No forehead protectors… but they were very strong."
"And they were… nervous. Extremely. Like something was chasing them."
He swallowed hard.
"They looked down on the other shinobi who come to town… spoke about them like they were nothing."
"And… when I brought them the money… I heard them mention 'Uzushio'… Uzushiogakure…"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"As for where they went after leaving… I don't know."
"I-I don't know if that helps—"
Ren turned his head away, unwilling to look at the man's groveling face.
"It helps enough," Ren said flatly. "I won't charge you for cleaning up the trash outside."
"T-Thank you, shinobi-sama!" the shopkeeper gasped, dropping to his knees and pulling his daughter down with him, bowing again and again.
The girl's round face stared up with the same fearful, worshipful submission.
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly.
When I become Mizukage… this place will be my first expansion target.
They already live under shinobi rule.
They won't care which village the shinobi come from.
Not long after—
A Konoha ANBU squad crossed into the Land of Whirlpools and linked up with Konoha's local intelligence.
"How is it?" the ANBU squad leader, Hyūga Munekata, asked. "Any confirmed trail?"
"Yes," the agent replied. "They're panicked. They've left multiple traces. Our analysis suggests their destination is the ruins of Uzushiogakure… though we don't know why."
Then the agent hesitated, shifting tone.
"But we also found something that may relate to Mist's pursuit unit."
"Mist's pursuers?" an ANBU from the Inuzuka clan repeated, interested. "Explain."
The agent handed over a scroll, ink still slightly wet.
"A suspected Mist pursuer entered alone. Appeared in a town controlled by rogue shinobi."
"He killed every rogue in the town after a verbal clash, questioned a shopkeeper who'd been extorted, then left. His current location is unknown."
"That's all we have. You'll need to judge for yourselves."
"Tch—Munekata-taichō, Mist sure is arrogant," Inuzuka Seo said, pounding a fist into his palm with excitement. "To hunt down ANBU deserters in another country with only one person? They that confident in him?"
Munekata's voice stayed calm and heavy. "It may not be confidence alone."
"It may be that for Mist… the fewer who know about this operation, the better."
"If so, then those deserters have more value than we expected."
He looked each of them in the eye.
"From now on, keep Minato-sama's Flying Thunder God kunai where you can reach it instantly."
"The moment we secure the targets, we activate the kunai and call Minato-sama to retrieve them."
"And if you encounter Mist's pursuer alone…"
"You are authorized to activate the kunai immediately."
"Your priority is survival."
"Understood?"
"Is that really necessary?" Seo grumbled. "We're the Hokage's ANBU. If we call for help over every little issue, won't we look useless?"
"Seo's right. Mist doesn't have anyone like Minato-sama who can scare an entire country alone. Even if they did, why would he be some random pursuer?"
"Being careful isn't wrong," someone muttered. "Mist hasn't fought a big war in years. With their bloody system, who knows what kind of monsters they've produced…"
Munekata inhaled slowly, then snapped—
"This is my judgment."
"It's an order, not a discussion."
"I do not recall teaching you that you can question a superior's orders based on your personal preference during a mission."
"…Understood."
Some still looked unconvinced.
But they obeyed.
At least on the surface.
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