Inside a small room at the Sleeping Dragon Squad's training base, Ryuken was about to lie down and sleep.
Suddenly, he sensed an unusual feeling. Carefully attuning his perception, he realized it was a message from the Ninja Ravens Clan he had recently contracted with.
"The personal mission the captain mentioned?"
With that thought, Ryuken immediately understood the summoning beast's purpose.
In a flash of smoke,
Puff!
The smoke cleared, revealing a pitch-black ninja raven standing before him.
He lit a candle in the room and noticed the envelope hanging from the raven's beak.
"Hand it over!"
The raven nodded slightly and passed the letter to Ryuken. It then spoke, "Are you Uchiha Ryuken?"
Ryuken smiled and nodded. A talking summon usually meant decent power.
The ninja raven continued, "Before undertaking the real mission, you must first pass a trial set by Aozora-dono. This letter contains your specific target."
Without hesitation, Ryuken opened the envelope. The note inside recorded only the mission location, time, and objective — very concise.
One Special Jonin and two Chunin. Even for him, this would still pose quite a challenge.
Finally, the raven added, "Successfully complete this trial mission, and you'll gain Aozora-dono's recognition and qualify for the Sharingan Awakening Ritual."
Ryuken's eyes sparkled with excitement as he confidently replied, "Mission accomplished!"
The ninja raven nodded once more before disappearing into a puff of white smoke.
"Now those are handy critters! Bet they're good for more than just messages—recon and even battle support too."
The thought of being able to summon ninja ravens into battle himself made Ryuken smile.
Shaking off stray thoughts, he carefully unfolded the letter again, rechecked all the details, and then burned it.
The next morning, Ryuken picked up his supplies early before heading out alone.
He moved swiftly along the road and arrived just as dusk fell, slipping into hiding within the nearby forest.
"Who exactly is my mission target? And why must they be eliminated directly?"
Though Ryuken hadn't been at the ninja academy long before being taught absolute obedience to authority, he couldn't suppress a bit of curiosity rising in his heart.
As darkness deepened and the moon slowly rose into the night sky, Ryuken began growing anxious.
"If the targets don't show up tonight, does that mean my mission will automatically fail?"
Just as he was worrying, Ryuken suddenly heard faint rustling sounds. In the distance, three dark figures came into view.
"Finally arrived!"
Down the dim forest path, three individuals wearing unmarked gray cloaks and masks were stealthily heading toward Konoha.
"Just as suspected — something's definitely wrong here!"
Without further hesitation, Ryuken swiftly formed hand seals.
[Fire Release – Great Fireball Technique]
In an instant, a massive fireball erupted from the dense foliage, its crimson glow illuminating the dark night like the sun.
Caught completely off guard by this sudden attack, the three intruders were left utterly stunned. Only their leader managed to dodge aside while the other two were instantly struck by the fireball, sending them flying backward through the air.
Using the Uchiha clan's signature ninjutsu to deal with weaklings, Ryuken's chakra instantly erupted beneath his feet.
Shua!
After a sharp whistling sound, Ryuken charged forward with his blade and appeared directly in front of the enemy leader.
The gray-robed ninja raised his sword and demanded, "Who are you?"
"The one here to end you!"
Before his words could finish echoing, Ryuken had already drawn his sword and rushed toward the gray-robed ninja.
Seeing this, the gray-robed ninja didn't even bother speaking again. He immediately drew his own blade to clash with Ryuken's.
Clang! Clang! Clang!—
In an instant, flashes of sword light danced like snowflakes, sparks flew everywhere, and the metallic ringing of blades colliding never ceased from their ears.
As they fought, Ryuken felt increasingly shocked—he sensed something oddly familiar about his opponent's Sword Technique. However, in such a life-or-death battle, he had no time for deep thoughts, only continuously swinging his long sword desperately, hoping to gain even the slightest advantage by making his strikes just a bit faster.
Soon dozens of moves passed, yet Ryuken still hadn't gained any advantage. Instead, gradually pressured by his opponent's experience, he was pushed into a defensive position.
Knowing he had encountered an expert, and unwilling to drag the fight longer than needed, Ryuken immediately activated his Sharingan.
Upon seeing the blood-red eyes with a single black Tomoe within them, the enemy hesitated slightly, momentarily stunned.
As an elite Chunin, Ryuken wouldn't miss a chance like this. Instantly, his long sword transformed into a sharp white beam slicing across the enemy's chest.
Hua! Ding!
Under the moonlight, countless droplets of blood sprayed into the air, while the pendant on the enemy's chest shattered from the strike of Ryuken's blade.
Within his Sharingan vision, everything in the world seemed to slow down.
Each droplet sparkled crystal-clear, while the broken pieces of the pendant shined with a faint green glow under the moonlight.
Ryuken locked his eyes on that pendant—because he himself wore an identical one around his neck, a graduation gift from his mother.
If he remembered correctly, the other pendant had always been worn by his father, buried permanently on the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War.
Gazing at the gray-robed ninja lying on the ground, whose chest continuously poured out blood, small cracks appeared upon Ryuken's white eyes. His red pupils looked as if smeared with fresh blood.
Voice trembling, he whispered, "You… who are you?"
The fallen gray-robed ninja ignored him, feeling his vitality slowly slipping away. His voice was filled with bitterness and sorrow.
"I've hidden my name for eight years… I just wanted to return and see my child… Why couldn't even that be allowed?"
As he spoke, Ryuken watched helplessly as the eyes of the man before him turned red too, two dark Tomoe forming beside the blood-colored iris.
"I have never betrayed the Clan… Then why is the Clan treating me like this?"
After these last words, the gray-robed ninja completely lost all signs of life, leaving only those eyes—an awakened Two-Tomoe Sharingan—staring up at the night sky, accusingly reflecting the darkness of the ninja world.
Listening to the dying words below him, Ryuken's body began to tremble uncontrollably. The long sword slipped unconsciously from his grip, and his legs gave way as he knelt beside the gray-robed ninja.
With a trembling right hand, he reached toward the ninja's mask, slowly lifting it off. Indeed, the face revealed beneath bore a six- or seven-fold resemblance to his own.
"Could it be… I have killed my own father?"
At that moment, everything became clear to him.
Maybe the Sleeping Dragon Squad wasn't just a myth… Maybe his father had once been part of a previous generation of its members.
He found his father's sword techniques familiar because traces of the Uchiha sword style still remained within them.
This time, his father had clearly grown restless and wanted to return to the village to visit his mother and him.
Yet fearing that his father knew too much, the new captain of the Sleeping Dragon Squad had sent him here to kill his own father.
"Noooo—!"
Realizing the truth in an instant, Ryuken let out a gut-wrenching scream. At the same time, his eyes began to change.
Violent chakra surged wildly into his eyes. Blood streamed from Ryuken's eyes as his ocular power surged violently.
Within Ryuken's eyes, first two black tomoe formed diagonally across from each other. Then these two black tomoe slowly expanded, rapidly spinning.
After several breaths, the two black tomoe surrounding Ryuken's crimson pupils—previously aligned at 180 degrees—no longer existed. Instead, three black tomoe now arranged themselves evenly around his pupils, spaced at 120-degree intervals.
[When his eyes displayed this Three Tomoe pattern], Ryuken suddenly noticed the corpse before him seemed illusory.
Looking around again, he realized both the "father" in front of him and the two defeated "minions" felt somewhat unreal.
Suddenly, realization struck. He gasped in shock, "[Genjutsu?]"
And just as this thought crossed his mind, the chakra flowing into his eyes abruptly stopped, and the Three Tomoe ceased their spinning.
"Is it over?"
A soft whisper sounded. Then Ryuken witnessed all three corpses transform into raven feathers, slowly vanishing into the air. The world before him shattered like glass into countless fragments.
When he opened his eyes once more, the moon remained the same, and the forest remained unchanged.
Only now were the three corpses gone. Standing before him was Aozora—the captain of the Sleeping Dragon Squad.
<><><><><><><><>
Thank you for reading! Your support will keep me updating!
~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** this weekend!
<><><><><><><><>
~ 100+ Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!
~ More *Free* Chapters and Books Available on Patreon!
patreon.com/Tansnovel
<><><><><><><><>