"Dead men don't need to know so much."
The man disguised as the Kazekage spoke coldly as he slowly drew a short blade. He exchanged a brief glance with his companion, and in the next instant, both of them lunged at Yuji without hesitation.
The moment they moved, Yuji understood.
A true expert revealed everything in the first exchange.
Combined with the earlier moment, when the "Kazekage," who had approached him, suddenly turned and stabbed himself without the slightest hesitation, Yuji had already realized these two were far from ordinary shinobi.
They were not ninja from some minor village.
They were professional suicide operatives, trained to discard their lives without a second thought.
Their movements were crisp and efficient, every action stripped of unnecessary motion. The oppressive aura they radiated even surpassed many of the elite shinobi Yuji had encountered from Amegakure.
Whoosh
The Fake Kazekage's short blade slashed toward Yuji in a sharp arc, but his gaze remained fixed on Yuji's right hand, watching for even the smallest movement.
Yuji's lips curled slightly.
"You noticed?"
Sharp instincts.
His fingers twitched.
Ninjutsu: Blade Manipulation.
A scalpel shot forward under the control of an almost invisible thread, flashing through the air as it appeared beside the man's temple like a streak of cold light.
Clang!
The Fake Kazekage reacted instantly. His short blade reversed direction mid-swing, intercepting the flying scalpel with precise timing. Sparks burst from the collision.
"Watch out for his hidden weapons," he warned his partner.
Even as he spoke, the second assassin had already closed in behind Yuji. His kunai thrust forward without hesitation, aiming directly for Yuji's blind spot.
Yet Yuji shifted slightly, his body turning just enough to let the blade pass harmlessly by.
It was as though he had anticipated the attack from the very beginning.
Yuji chuckled softly.
"You're avoiding ninjutsu and relying on taijutsu instead… afraid of alerting Sunagakure's patrols?"
The two assassins said nothing, but their attacks grew even more relentless.
One in front, one behind, they coordinated perfectly, their blades striking in seamless succession as they attempted to overwhelm Yuji through close combat.
The three figures moved rapidly across the sand, their feet kicking up trails of dust as steel clashed again and again.
The Fake Kazekage's swordsmanship was particularly dangerous. With chakra flowing through his weapon, his strikes became faster and sharper, leaving faint afterimages in the air and creating the illusion of multiple blades attacking at once.
Yuji deflected the attacks while maintaining his composure.
He had already understood their plan.
This was still within Sunagakure's territory. Even on the outskirts, patrol units would eventually pass through. These assassins had to eliminate him as quickly as possible before reinforcements arrived.
Large-scale ninjutsu would create too much commotion.
That was why they had chosen taijutsu.
At the same time, the two assassins were growing increasingly uneasy.
They had infiltrated Sunagakure long ago to gather intelligence for their organization, and Yuji's name had appeared in their reports more than once.
Everyone in the village knew him as a talented Medical Ninja. But he had only graduated from the Ninja Academy a year ago.
He was still just a Genin.
He had only completed a single mission outside the village.
Even his participation in the war against Amegakure had been limited to rear-line medical support.
So how could he possibly be this strong?
This level of taijutsu alone was already comparable to a Chunin.
And his ninjutsu…
It was completely unpredictable.
Pfft!
Blood suddenly sprayed into the air.
One of the assassins groaned as a scalpel pierced his shoulder, the blade striking from an unexpected angle. His arm stiffened immediately, disrupting his movements.
The flying blade was extremely difficult to track.
And more importantly, Yuji wasn't controlling just one.
Several scalpels were moving silently through the battlefield, hidden and guided by his threads.
The Fake Kazekage's expression changed.
He leaped backward to create distance and spat out a senbon at the same time, his hands rapidly forming seals.
The senbon shot toward Yuji, suddenly split apart.
In an instant, dozens of needles filled the air, descending toward Yuji like a deadly rain.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But just before they reached him, every single senbon was knocked aside by an unseen force and fell harmlessly to the sand.
The Fake Kazekage's pupils shrank.
"Those threads again."
He finally understood.
Yuji's threads were not merely tools for controlling flying blades.
They were weapons themselves.
The threads extending from Yuji's fingers were thinner than ordinary steel wire, yet far tougher and more flexible. In daylight, they were already difficult to notice, but under the dim cover of night and during rapid combat, they became nearly impossible to track with the naked eye.
Several times already, the Fake Kazekage's short blade had been caught or deflected by those threads, forcing him and his companion to retreat and reposition instead of pressing their attack. They had encountered shinobi who used threads as weapons before, but none had wielded them with such precision and complexity.
The boy before them was different. These were not the chakra threads used by Sunagakure's Puppeteers to control puppets. They functioned more like an independent weapon, something closer to a specialized ninja tool than a conventional technique.
The two assassins exchanged a silent glance, their intentions aligning instantly.
They could no longer hold back.
They had to use ninjutsu.
Even if it alerted Sunagakure's patrols, even if it meant sacrificing themselves, their mission had to be completed. Their lives in exchange for Yuji's.
The wounded assassin quickly completed his hand seals, preparing to unleash his technique.
But before he could release it, Yuji had already moved.
He crouched low and sprang forward, crossing the distance in an instant. His arms rose as he leaped, spreading slightly behind him like wings as invisible threads trailed through the air.
The assassin's eyes widened in alarm, but before he could react, his vision suddenly blurred. His limbs stiffened, and his body refused to obey him.
"Poison…"
He realized it immediately. The scalpel that had pierced his shoulder earlier had been laced with poison, and now it was rapidly spreading through his body, shutting down his nervous system.
But by then, it was already too late.
Yuji was standing directly in front of him.
His lips moved slightly.
"Data capture complete."
The assassin could not understand those words. His vision dimmed as his strength faded, and he could only watch helplessly as Yuji's fingers began to move.
"Death Waltz."
Yuji did not form hand seals, nor did he use ninjutsu. Instead, the threads surrounding the assassin suddenly tightened under his control.
The Fake Kazekage, standing not far away, felt a chill run down his spine.
He was too late to stop it.
Under Yuji's control, the threads wrapped around the assassin's body from every direction. Then, with a single pulling motion, they contracted violently.
The man's body was torn apart instantly.
Flesh, bone, and blood scattered across the desert as he was shredded into countless pieces, leaving no intact remains behind.
Suppressing the shock in his heart, the Fake Kazekage immediately formed hand seals.
Snake. Dragon. Rabbit. Tiger.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
He inhaled deeply and expelled a concentrated stream of flames toward Yuji's back. The fire surged forward, growing larger and more violent as it traveled, illuminating the surrounding desert in blazing orange light.
When the flames finally dissipated, only scorched black sand remained.
Yuji was nowhere to be seen.
"You two… are from Konoha?"
The Fake Kazekage's body stiffened as Yuji's voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
He turned sharply and saw Yuji standing ten meters away, completely unharmed.
Yuji was smiling.
The opponent's swordsmanship and the senbon-multiplying technique had already triggered recognition within Yuji's mental database. After carefully recalling the relevant information, a name surfaced in his mind.
Shiranui Genma.
The similarity in combat style was unmistakable.
Of course, Genma himself was still a child and had not yet graduated from the Ninja Academy, so these two could not be him. But their techniques clearly originated from the same system.
If Kumogakure had once infiltrated Konoha and attempted to kidnap Kushina Uzumaki, then it would not be surprising for Konoha to send operatives into Sunagakure in return.
Compared to Konoha, Sunagakure's defenses were weaker.
More importantly, Konoha itself was divided into multiple factions.
Whose orders were these assassins following?
"It shouldn't be Hiruzen Sarutobi," Yuji said quietly. "Someone of my level wouldn't attract the Hokage's attention in the middle of a war. This style and these methods…"
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"…belong to Danzo Shimura."
Yuji looked directly at him.
"Are you from Root?"
The Fake Kazekage did not answer. Instead, he rushed forward without hesitation, launching a final desperate attack as if he intended to complete his mission even at the cost of his own life.
But to Yuji, that silence was already an answer.
In the distance, several chakra signatures were rapidly approaching.
Sunagakure's patrol forces had arrived.
The assassin's fate was sealed.