The wind in the Land of Earth always carried the taste of rock and death. It hissed through the barren canyons, as cold and merciless as the shinobi of the Hidden Stone Village themselves. For Kageyama Kenji, a Jounin from the Hidden Leaf, this wind had been a reluctant companion for the past three weeks.
He pressed himself behind a large rock outcropping, his body nearly one with the twilight shadows. Kenji's sharp eyes scanned the valley below, where a Hidden Stone transport convoy was moving cautiously. They weren't carrying weapons or supplies. Kenji knew that well. They were transporting something far more valuable in times of war: information. Secret scrolls detailing the locations of strongholds, attack plans, and lists of the Hidden Leaf's undercover shinobi.
His mission was simple, yet borderline suicidal: seize those scrolls and return safely.
"Simple," Kenji muttered with a wry smile. Down below were at least thirty Hidden Stone ninja, including two he recognized as elite Jounin. One against thirty? Foolish. But Kenji was never truly alone.
He formed a hand seal. A single seal, as familiar as breathing.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique!)
There was no loud "poof" like the younger shinobi often made. Instead, from the shadows surrounding Kenji, fifty figures silently detached themselves from his own. They didn't move, didn't breathe, simply standing like living statues, awaiting orders.
This was Kenji's specialty, the very reason the Third Hokage had entrusted this mission to him. Kenji didn't just create many clones. He was a master of controlling them with perfect precision. Each clone was an extension of his will, another pair of eyes, another pair of ears. While Naruto would later use this technique to overwhelm with sheer numbers, Kenji had turned it into a living intelligence network.
"Ten of you, spread out to the eastern flank, search for traps," Kenji's mind commanded. Instantly, ten clones rushed off without a sound. "Ten to the western flank, prepare kunai and wire traps." Ten more clones moved out. "Twenty of you, prepare for a diversionary attack from the front. Cause as much chaos as possible." "The remaining nine, with me. We will be ghosts."
Kenji took a deep breath, feeling his immense chakra being divided. It was a sensation few could withstand. Maintaining fifty clones simultaneously, each performing a complex task, required terrifying focus and a tremendous amount of chakra. But for Kenji, it was as natural as breathing. He didn't come from a famous clan, nor was he a Jinchuriki. His chakra was purely the result of relentless, punishing training.
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted at the front of the convoy. Kenji's twenty clones had made their move. They burst from behind boulders, throwing kunai with explosion tags attached and shouting to draw attention.
"ENEMY ATTACK!" a Hidden Stone ninja screamed.
Instantly, their formation fell into disarray. The escorting shinobi quickly arranged themselves to protect those carrying the secret scrolls in the center.
This was the moment Kenji had been waiting for.
"Go," he ordered the nine clones with him.
In the chaos, ten black shadows zipped forward like the wind. They didn't target the shinobi. Their sole objective was the wooden boxes containing the scrolls. The eastern clones reported through the mental link: "Eastern flank is clear, no traps." The western clones also reported: "Traps are set. Ready to block their retreat."
Kenji and his nine copies closed in on the target. A Hidden Stone Jounin, a large man with a long scar on his face, sensed something. He whipped around. "We're being infiltrated from the rear!"
Too late.
Five of Kenji's clones charged the Jounin. The man swung a massive club, smashing two clones into puffs of white smoke. But the remaining three managed to tie him down, one grabbing his legs while the other two relentlessly attacked with kunai.
Meanwhile, Kenji and the four other clones had reached the box carriers. In the blink of an eye, they took down the weaker Chunin-level shinobi and seized the three wooden boxes.
"Withdraw!" Kenji commanded through his mind.
All fighting clones, whether for diversion or engagement, acted in unison. They threw a volley of smoke bombs, blanketing a large area. Under the thick smoke screen, Kenji and the clones carrying the spoils quickly retreated to the west, where the traps had been laid.
When the smoke cleared, the Hidden Stone ninja saw only an empty battlefield. The three most important boxes were gone.
"AFTER THEM! THEY CAN'T HAVE GOTTEN FAR!" the scarred Jounin roared in fury.
Kenji, now a full kilometer away, set the boxes down. He dispelled all his clones, recovering their remaining chakra and the memories and experiences they had just gained. The entire flow of the battle, every viewpoint, every sound, all converged in his mind. He analyzed it all in an instant.
"They'll give chase to the northwest," Kenji murmured. It was the shortest path back to the Land of Fire's border. But it was also the most dangerous.
He formed the seal again. This time, one hundred clones appeared.
"Fifty of you, take these empty boxes and run northwest. Make your trail obvious," he commanded. "The other fifty, spread out in all directions and erase my tracks. I will head south."
It was a gamble. Heading south would lead him deeper into enemy territory, but it was the direction no one would ever expect.
As the hundred clones began their tasks, the real Kenji slung the three boxes over his shoulder, took a deep breath of the cold Land of Earth air, and silently vanished into the night.
On the road back to the Leaf, he would no longer be an army. He would be a single, lone ghost. A ghost carrying the hope of victory for an entire village. And in his mind, he thought briefly of the young shinobi back home, of a new generation that he and those like him were fighting to protect. He wondered if this war would ever end.