The instant Shinmi completed his hand seals, the earth beneath his feet suddenly sank. A hand covered in wet mud burst through the soil, clamping around his ankle like an iron vice.
"Damn it!"
Pupils contracting sharply, Shinmi's body was dragged down by tremendous force. The earth swallowed him like a living thing—in the blink of an eye, only his head remained above ground.
He watched helplessly as the "Shūji" pierced by poisoned senbon dissolved into white smoke in the morning breeze.
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!¹
And also...
Shadow Clone!
Jōnin²?!
As earth compressed his body, Shinmi struggled frantically, yet sharp, intense pain suddenly erupted from his waist and abdomen.
"Ugh ah..." His face contorted. Several hardwood spikes pierced through internal organs, growing wildly inside his body. Wood fibers spread through blood vessels, organs skewered. With each heartbeat, new shoots drilled from the wounds.
"Koff—"
Blood gushed forth, staining the ground before him. Crimson seeped from all seven orifices, droplets running down his chin to strike the earth.
"Puppet techniques, poisoned senbon, Sunagakure style." Shūji's figure appeared before Shinmi's head, looking down at him. "Rogue ninja?"
Shūji's voice remained calm: "What the Shirakawa villagers took was just the small change, right? Where did you hide the rest? On your person... doesn't seem like it."
"Got any last words? Like your reason for defecting? Convenient for writing the report." Shūji showed no concern. "Of course, if you don't say anything, I'll just make something up."
As the shoots inside deepened their strangling grip, Shinmi's eyeballs bulged, bloodshot spreading. He desperately opened his mouth, only spewing blood foam, throat emitting broken "heh heh" sounds.
"Too... too..." The hoarse voice was like grinding gravel. "Exhausting... saw no... hope..."
The sandstorms grew worse each year. Commissions showed no increase, yet the Wind Country Daimyō's military budget kept shrinking. War, endless war. Yet those weak merchants lived more stable and prosperous lives than shinobi like him.
Why? The powerful honed themselves desperately, still struggling on the brink of life and death, while ordinary people enjoyed peace... Unbearable...
He escaped the village during the Third War's³ chaos. Patiently waited for the ANBU⁴ confirming deaths to leave, for the heat to die down. Carefully built a team, screened targets, accumulated enough money to live out his days.
Then, dispose of these followers. They were seeds of unrest. To retire peacefully, he had to clean things up thoroughly... When he discovered Shirakawa Village residents couldn't restrain themselves and decided to act, he went with the flow. Everything should have been seamless.
"Why..." Why, just before the finish line.
Those damned villagers actually concealed that trackers were shinobi. If... if he'd known earlier they were shinobi, he wouldn't have been so careless...
Why, if they were shinobi, why were ordinary people the ones who came up the mountain to handle bandits? That wasn't shinobi style. For shinobi pursuing bandits, they'd only need to investigate traces along the trade route to discover clues, then his warning puppets would detect them approaching the mountain, not be triggered by those ordinary people...
Land of Tea... The memory was vivid: endless green fields, warm sunlight, mountain camellias swaying in the wind. He would build a villa there, white walls and red roof, breathing the salty sea breeze every morning...
Now, everything had become bubbles. Vision blurred, Shūji's figure merged into a black silhouette in the morning light.
Cold light flashed. The head fell. Double Suicide Decapitation Technique complete.
Shūji extracted a scroll from his chest pocket and unrolled it, placing Shinmi's head upon it. He formed hand seals. The scroll flickered with faint light—the head vanished, leaving only sealing script that flashed once then faded. When encountering rogue ninja from other villages, standard procedure after elimination was bringing back the head. The Intelligence Division would attempt to extract information. Sufficient value earned special rewards; even without gains, basic compensation was provided.
The instant sealing completed, Itachi's figure appeared at the settlement entrance.
"Negotiations settled?"
"Yes. Per senpai's instructions, I completed negotiations with Shirakawa Kisuke and the decision-makers. Clearly informed them that Konoha will maintain silence on Shirakawa Village matters per agreement, and externally claim we eliminated the bandits." Itachi produced a cloth bundle. "These are the assets they surrendered, collected as instructed."
Shūji received and stored the bundle: "Clean up the scene. See if this Sunagakure rogue ninja left anything else behind."
"These corpses—let the villagers handle them later." Shūji added. Originally preserving corpses served as physical evidence to prove mission completion to the Land of Rivers. No longer necessary. A Sunagakure rogue ninja's head sufficed. The Intelligence Division would confirm him as the mastermind; Konoha guaranteed mission completion.
For a mere C-rank mission, killing a shinobi already far exceeded mission requirements.
Itachi walked toward the dismantled puppet on the ground, not rashly approaching the main body. He rapidly formed seals, creating a shadow clone. The shadow clone cautiously approached the wreckage. The moment fingers touched the wooden surface, the contact point immediately turned purplish-blue. The poison wasn't virulent enough to disperse the shadow clone. Itachi controlled it to accelerate movements, carefully extracting a scroll from inside the puppet's chest cavity.
The scroll itself wasn't poisoned. Itachi remained cautious, having the shadow clone unfold and inspect it, confirming no trigger traps before the original body approached for closer examination.
"Senpai, this is a sealing scroll."
"Tool sealing type." Shūji nodded knowingly. "The remaining assets should be inside." He wasn't skilled in unsealing techniques—could only bring it back to the village. He extracted a specialized small sealing tube, collected some of Shinmi's blood, and carefully sealed it. This was the key to breaking the seal.
Chakra was a mixture of spiritual and physical energy.
Once shinobi learned to refine it, their body's cells would retain fixed residual chakra. Therefore, shinobi could use their own blood as a summoning medium.
By the same principle, before blood completely lost vitality, it could also be used to break seals set by its owner—though this required experts proficient in sealing techniques.
Storing the sealing scroll in his shinobi tool pouch, Shūji carefully searched the entire settlement once more. Confirming nothing remained, he dusted off his hands, turning toward the young man beside him, relaxed smile appearing on his face: "Mission's basically wrapped up. Just waiting to return to the village and submit the report."
Seeing Itachi standing quietly in place, Shūji suddenly blinked: "Oh right, before heading back, want to visit Koizumi Town?"
"Visit?" The eight-year-old Uchiha tilted his head slightly, a trace of incomprehension crossing his eyes.
"Mission's all done—how can we not properly relax?" Shūji smiled, reaching out to lightly pat Itachi's shoulder.
"Yes... senpai." Itachi's voice was steady.
Shūji crouched down, bringing his gaze level with Itachi's: "This isn't an order. So don't say 'yes'—just say whether you yourself want to go or not."
Uchiha Itachi fell silent for a moment. Morning wind swept across the ruins, carrying blood scent not yet dispersed and fresh vegetation fragrance. His gaze seemed to cross the broken palisade, directed toward the faintly visible trade route below the mountain.
"...Dango?" he asked softly.
"Good idea!" Shūji stood, stretching his muscles. Morning light outlined his sharp contours. "Then let's try Koizumi Town's dango. Rare to be out—might as well bring back some local specialties too."
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild