Night had settled over the land.
A little over ten kilometers from Konoha, Uesugi Kaito stopped outside the mouth of a natural cavern.
Although he had technically defected to the Hokage’s side, he made no attempt to seek Sarutobi Hiruzen’s protection yet.
Instead, he entered the cave and retrieved a gleaming glass vial from one of his hiding places.
Under the moonlight, the milky-white fluid inside could be seen writhing continuously.
God’s Blood Type II.
With this in his possession, Kaito was certain his future was guaranteed.
He stood at the cave entrance with a triumphant grin.
Tap.
A soft footstep sounded behind him.
Kaito instantly became alert.
“Who’s there?!”
He spun around and saw two figures approaching, one tall and one small.
“Long time no see, Captain Uesugi.”
The older of the two was a young man with short, tousled black hair and black-rimmed glasses.
“Uchiha Riku?!”
Kaito’s brows drew together.
Without changing his expression, he slipped the vial into his pocket.
“What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.”
Riku smiled.
Kaito stared at him.
“What?”
Waiting for him?
How could Riku possibly have known he would come here?
“You can only maintain Hollowfication for about thirty seconds right now.
That isn’t nearly enough to fight Lord Danzō head-on.”
Riku spoke at an unhurried pace, his smile never fading.
“That means you had no choice but to defect to another faction.
Unfortunately, with nothing more than special jōnin-level strength, neither the Hokage nor the leader of another hidden village would consider you especially valuable.”
Riku glanced toward Kaito’s pocket.
“So if you wanted to secure yourself a comfortable future, you needed something valuable enough to bargain with.
Naturally, that meant coming back here for the stolen research material you hid away.”
“You…
How could you possibly—”
“Know?”
Riku’s smile widened slightly.
“Because when you stole it from Root’s Laboratory Six, I was watching.”
“That’s impossible!”
Kaito roared and tore a kunai from his pouch before lunging straight at him.
Whoosh!
The kunai plunged cleanly through Riku’s chest.
Then Riku’s entire body dissolved like a fading illusion.
Slash!
Blood sprayed through the cavern entrance.
A blade had pierced Kaito from behind, running straight through his abdomen.
The pain drove the former Root squad leader to his knees.
He gasped heavily, his entire body trembling.
“What you call impossible is merely the limit of your own perception, Captain Uesugi.”
Riku casually flicked the blood from his sword and returned it to its sheath. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Y-You bastard…”
Kaito clenched his teeth against the pain.
“When did you realize I was going to betray Danzō?”
“From the beginning.”
“W-What?!”
“Was I unclear?”
Riku’s voice remained gentle.
“Your betrayal was part of my plan from the very start.
Did you never wonder why someone like you was able to obtain Root’s most important experimental material so easily?”
Kaito’s face went deathly pale.
“You mean…”
“That’s right.
I deliberately placed it where you could find it.”
A breeze stirred Riku’s dark bangs, while the lenses of his glasses reflected the moonlight in silver.
“I even arranged for the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on you to be removed.”
Crack.
The words were spoken quietly, yet they struck Kaito like thunder.
Every step he had taken had been anticipated.
No—it was worse than that.
Every step had been arranged for him.
From the moment he believed he had begun acting on his own, he had merely been a puppet dancing on strings held by the young man standing before him.
“Why?”
Kaito genuinely could not understand.
What had he ever done to Riku that warranted a trap this elaborate?
Back when they had served on the same squad, Kaito had even treated the younger boy fairly well.
Surely this could not be revenge simply because he had tried to frame Riku at Root headquarters earlier.
“Do you remember the Land of Grass two years ago?” Riku asked calmly.
“The family of four hunters you murdered because you were angry?”
“The Land of Grass?
Hunters?”
Kaito looked genuinely confused.
“Their little girl gave me a piece of candy that day.”
Riku’s voice remained quiet.
Kaito stared at him.
“That’s why?”
“That’s why.”
“You—”
Kaito tried to continue, but a mass of milky-white fluid suddenly spilled from his mouth.
Riku watched without surprise.
“So you’ve finally reached the limit.
About when I expected.”
Kaito’s breathing became ragged.
“What…
does that mean?”
“The God’s Blood you treasure so much is nothing more than an unfinished experimental substance.”
Riku looked down at him.
“Over time, it gradually Hollowfies both your soul and your body.
Eventually, nothing human will remain.
You’ll become an animal capable of nothing but roaring and killing.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“That’s impossible!
You’re lying!”
Kaito glared at him desperately.
“If God’s Blood really had a flaw like that, why would Danzō spend so much effort researching it?!”
“Because I needed him to produce useful results for me.”
Kaito froze.
“W-What…?”
His eyes widened in horror as realization struck.
“You mean…”
“Exactly what you’re thinking.”
Riku regarded him with open contempt.
“God’s Blood was my technology from the beginning.”
Then he turned away.
“Goodbye, Captain Uesugi.
At least before the end, I gave you the opportunity to take a little revenge on Danzō.”
With that, Riku left with Uchiha Itachi following beside him.
“B-Bastard!”
Kaito stared after him, his features twisting with hatred.
“UCHIHA RIKU!
YOU FUCKING BASTARD!
I CURSE YOU—!”
The milky-white substance continued crawling across his face.
It swallowed his head, then rapidly spread over the rest of his body.
ROAR!
A bestial howl tore through the night.
Whatever remained of Uesugi Kaito’s human mind disappeared beneath the transformation.
His hands lengthened into vicious claws.
Layers of bone-like scales spread across his body, and a thick tail pushed out from the base of his spine.
Within moments, he resembled an enormous lizard standing upright on two legs, radiating mindless bloodlust.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Figures appeared from every direction and surrounded him.
At their head stood Sarutobi Hiruzen, dressed in a black combat uniform and carrying his massive black staff.
The Third Hokage stared grimly at the creature that no longer resembled a human being.
“Danzō!
Look at what you’ve done!”
“This traitor stole and misused Root’s classified research on his own,” Shimura Danzō replied from behind his old friend, utterly composed.
“His actions have nothing to do with me.”
“Lord Third, should we—”
An ANBU shinobi with short brown hair and a silver-gray flak jacket had barely begun to speak when Uesugi Kaito vanished.
Squelch!
The ANBU froze.
His eyes widened as one of Kaito’s bone claws punched completely through his chest, spraying bright red blood across the ground.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Even Sarutobi Hiruzen stared in disbelief.
A jōnin serving in ANBU had been killed in a single clean strike.
He had not even had time to react.