Chương 7: Battle

The instant Nobuya completed his hand seals, the earth beneath Shuji sank violently. A hand covered in wet mud burst through the soil, locking onto his ankle like an iron vise.

"Dammit!" Shuji's pupils shrank to pinpricks as a surge of brute force dragged him straight down. The earth swallowed him like a living creature, leaving only his head exposed above the surface. Before his eyes, the "Shuji" pierced by poison-laced senbon dissolved into a plume of white smoke, drifting away in the morning breeze. Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique! And... a Shadow Clone! A Jonin?! As the dense soil crushed his chest, Nobuya thrashed frantically. Then, pain tore through his abdomen.

"Gah...!" His face twisted in agony. Sharp wooden spikes ruptured his internal organs, growing with terrifying speed inside his body. Wood fibers spread through his blood vessels, piercing organ after organ. With every frantic beat of his heart, new shoots burst forth from his wounds.

"Cough...!" Blood sprayed from his mouth, staining the dirt red. Crimson fluid seeped from his eyes, nose, and ears, dripping down his chin into the soil.

"Puppet jutsu, poisoned senbon... Sunagakure's style," Shuji said, standing over Nobuya's exposed head and looking down.

"A rogue ninja?" Shuji's voice was flat, almost casual.

"The loot the Shirakawa villagers took was just small change, wasn't it? Where is the rest? Not on you, by the look of it."

"Any last words? A reason for deserting, maybe? It'll make writing the post-mission report easier," Shuji added without showing a single emotion.

"Of course, if you stay quiet, I will just make something up." Inside Nobuya's body, the wooden branches twisted deeper. His eyes bulged, bloodshot and wide with agony. He struggled to open his mouth, but only bloody foam came out, his throat emitting a wet, broken rattle.

"Too... too..." His voice sounded rough and painful.

"Exhausting... There was... no hope..." The desert winds had grown harsher every year. Mission requests never increased, yet the Wind Country Daimyo cut the military budget year after year. Endless, meaningless war. Meanwhile, weak, useless merchants lived richer, safer lives than a shinobi ever could. Why? Why did the strong have to bleed and scrape on the thin edge between life and death while ordinary weaklings enjoyed peace? He could not accept it.

He had used the chaos of the Third Shinobi World War to desert his village. He waited patiently, hiding until the Anbu units sent to confirm his death gave up and the danger passed. He built a crew, picked his targets, and accumulated enough wealth to live out the rest of his life in comfort. Then came the final step: cleaning up his followers. They were unstable variables. To retire in peace, every loose thread had to be cut.

When he noticed the Shirakawa villagers reaching their breaking point, he pushed the situation forward. Everything should have been flawless. Why...? Why fall right at the finish line? Those damn villagers. They concealed the fact that the pursuers were real ninja. If he had known... if he had known a shinobi was coming, he never would have been this careless. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Why would ordinary civilians be sent up the mountain to deal with bandits if a ninja was involved? That was not how ninja operated. A normal shinobi taking a bandit task would simply track the trade route, find the trail, and head up the mountain, where his warning puppets would stop them before they ever got close. They were never supposed to be triggered by ordinary peasants. The Land of Tea... His mind drifted to the memory. Endless green fields, warm sunshine, and wild tea plants swaying in the breeze.

He was going to build a villa there, white walls and a red roof, waking up every morning to smell the salty ocean air. Now, every dream is shattered. His vision blurred, and Shuji's silhouette faded into a dark outline against the morning light. A sudden flash of cold steel cut through the air. The head separated from the body, completing the technique. Shuji pulled a scroll from his vest pocket, unrolled it, and placed Nobuya's head upon the parchment. He did a quick sequence of hand seals.

The scroll flickered with a faint glow, and the head vanished, replaced by a dark seal mark that pulsed once before fading. Standard protocol for rogue ninja from foreign villages: recover the head. Konoha's Intelligence Division would extract whatever secrets remained. If the intel was valuable, there would be a bonus; if not, at least a standard bounty credit. Just as the seal set, Itachi appeared at the entrance of the outpost.

"Settled?" Shuji asked.

"Yes," Itachi replied.

"As you requested, I finished negotiations with Shirakawa Takasuke and the village leaders. I made it clear that Konoha will honor the agreement, remain silent about Shirakawa Village's internal matters, and officially report that we wiped out the bandits." Itachi held out a cloth bag.

"This is the wealth they surrendered. I accepted it per your instructions." Shuji took the bag and tucked it away.

"Clear the area. Let's see if this Sunagakure rogue left anything else behind."

"Leave the corpses for the villagers to get rid of it later," Shuji added. Originally, keeping bodies was necessary to prove to the Land of Rivers that the task is complete, but now it was no longer needed. A Sunagakure rogue's head was more than enough proof. Intelligence would confirm he was the mastermind, and Konoha would guarantee the mission's completion. For a simple C-rank task, killing an enemy ninja was already far beyond expectations.

Itachi walked toward the shattered puppet on the ground, keeping his distance. Without rushing near, he formed a seal and created a Shadow Clone. The clone carefully approached the wooden remains. The moment its fingers touched the wooden surface, the clone's skin turned a mottled blue-violet. The poison was not strong enough to instantly dispel the clone, so Itachi commanded it to move quickly, carefully pulling a scroll from deep inside the puppet's chest cavity. The scroll itself was free of poison.

Still, Itachi remained cautious, having the clone unroll and inspect it for traps before approaching himself.

"Senpai, it is a sealing scroll," Itachi reported.

"Item storage type," Shuji noted, nodding.

"The rest of his loot must be inside." Shuji was not a specialist in unsealing complex formulas, so it would have to wait until they returned to the village. He pulled out a small, specialized seal vial and carefully collected a sample of Nobuya's blood. This would serve as the key. Chakra was a blend of physical and spiritual energy. Once a ninja learned to extract it, traces remained fixed within their cellular structure. That was why blood could serve as a medium for summoning contracts.

By the same principle, before the blood lost its vitality completely, it could be used by a Sealing Specialist to bypass the owner's storage seals. Putting the scroll into his bag, Shuji swept through the rest of the outpost one last time. Satisfied there was nothing else left, he clapped the dust from his hands and turned to the boy with a relaxed smile.

"That wraps up the mission. All that is left is turning in the report back home." Noticing Itachi standing silently in place, Shuji blinked.

"Hey, before we head back, want to take a detour to Koizumi Town?"

"A detour?" The eight-year-old Uchiha tilted his head slightly, a rare flicker of confusion in his eyes.

"The job is done. What is the point if we cannot unwind a little?" Shuji smiled, reaching out to pat Itachi on the shoulder.

"Yes... Senpai," Itachi replied, his voice calm. Shuji crouched down until he was at eye level with the boy.

"That was not an order. You do not need to say 'yes', just tell me if you actually want to go." Itachi stayed silent for a moment. The morning breeze swept over the ruins, carrying away the lingering smell of blood and leaving behind the fresh scent of mountain trees. His gaze drifted past the broken wooden fence, looking down toward the distant trade road below.

"... Dango?" he asked softly.

"Great idea!" Shuji stood up and stretched his arms,"let's try the dango in Koizumi Town. Since we are out this far, we might as well pick up some local treats to bring back."