The alley lay along the boundary between a residential district and a commercial area.
Closed shops lined both sides, leaving the narrow passage shrouded in darkness.
Yakumo and Yasuko walked one behind the other, covering roughly two-thirds of the alley without encountering a single passerby.
Naturally, they hadn’t encountered any Hidden Mist spies, either.
“See?
I told you.
How could I possibly be that unlucky?”
Yakumo sighed in relief.
Just then, a middle-aged man approached from the opposite direction.
He had a weathered face, oil stains covering his clothes, and a bag of food in his hand.
Yakumo recognized him.
He was Hiratsu, the cook at a fried chicken shop not far away—a kindhearted uncle who was usually quite friendly.
Yakumo stepped aside to let him pass.
Uncle Hiratsu smiled warmly and walked by.
But at that very moment, a sliver of moonlight slipped through a gap between the rooftops, illuminating something on the ground.
Tiny drops of crimson blood appeared at regular intervals, spaced a few meters apart.
The nearest drop lay right beside Yakumo’s foot.
Something’s wrong…
Yakumo’s right hand shot toward the ninja pouch strapped to his thigh.
He drew his short blade and spun around.
Behind him, the usually amiable uncle had become completely expressionless.
A kunai, concealed by the darkness, was already upon him.
“Well, fuck me…”
Hit!
Blood began seeping from Yakumo’s chest.
The force of the attack sent him falling backward.
In that instant, he saw Yasuko’s face, filled with grief and fury, as two streams of tears slid down her beautiful cheeks.
Uncle Hiratsu paid no further attention to the collapsing boy.
In his eyes, Yakumo was merely a timid, weak first-year student at the Ninja Academy.
Even if he somehow survived the attack, he would be completely incapable of fighting back.
Beneath the moonlight, the Hidden Mist shinobi drew a short blade from beneath his arm and lunged toward Yasuko.
Yet Yasuko didn’t dodge.
Instead, she clenched her fists, preparing to meet him head-on.
Then—
The boy who should have been lying helplessly on the ground suddenly launched two spheres of water.
In the confined alley, the enemy had almost no room to evade.
BOOM!
BOOM!
The unexpected attacks struck the Hidden Mist spy squarely in the back, instantly throwing him off balance.
Carried forward by his own momentum, he crashed into the wall, leaving a slight depression where his back struck.
The spy groaned in pain.
But he didn’t give up.
Despite his severe injuries, he struggled to get back on his feet.
He still refused to surrender.
Yakumo regained his balance in an instant.
His will and mind became one.
His gaze sharpened until it resembled a blade being drawn from its sheath.
The concealment seal inside his body disintegrated in an instant, and his chakra surged as his blood raced through his veins.
Fortunately, the enemy was right there beside him.
All those days of pretending to be weak hadn’t been wasted.
His disguise had successfully led the spy to underestimate his true strength.
Some mistakes could only be corrected with one’s life.
Chakra erupted through Yakumo’s body.
His legs drove against the ground with explosive force.
Beneath the moonlight, his blade gleamed like a polished mirror.
As it cut through the air, it emitted a faint, tiger-like hiss.
Yakumo attacked without the slightest hesitation.
His ninja blade slipped upward through a gap between the vertebrae at the back of the Hidden Mist spy’s neck—a point described in books as one of the most lethal locations in the human body.
From below to above.
Schk!
The tip of the short blade emerged through the spy’s mouth.
He didn’t even have time to struggle before his breathing stopped completely.
The moonlight gradually disappeared behind the clouds.
Yakumo turned his gaze toward Yasuko and saw a solitary tomoe in the crimson depths of her eyes.
What a fascinating world this was.
The secret his childhood friend had been hiding…
It was certainly beyond anything he had expected.
Yakumo took several deep breaths and shook his aching arm.
Then he pulled a packet of trace-erasing powder from his ninja pouch and tossed it to Yasuko.
“Don’t ask me anything.
We’ll talk about it later.
For now, spread this powder around the area.”
He crouched beside the body, drew out his blade, and laid the corpse flat before quickly searching it.
He continued rummaging through the man’s belongings until he finally found two scrolls and some banknotes issued by the Land of Fire.
Only then was he satisfied.
Yakumo raised an entire bottle of body-dissolving fluid and poured it over the corpse.
A foul stench filled the alley as the Hidden Mist spy’s body slowly dissolved beneath the corrosive liquid.
Yasuko had finished scattering the trace-erasing powder, but she could only stare in stunned silence.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go!
How could Yakumo be so proficient at this?
He shouldn’t have been this proficient!
In the space of a few short seconds, the boy before her had become a complete stranger.
From the moment the attack began, to his sudden, overwhelming counterattack, to the cold precision with which he finished off the enemy—
Was this really the childhood friend she had known all her life?
“All right.
Let’s go home separately and take a bath.
We’ll discuss everything tomorrow.”
Yakumo dusted off his hands as though he’d just finished an ordinary chore.
“Oh, right…
Mori Yasuko, remember to hide your Sharingan.”
A kunai was still embedded in his chest.
“Are you really okay?” Yasuko asked, pointing at the weapon.
“Pfft…”
Yakumo simply pulled the kunai out.
A fresh spray of blood burst from the wound and splattered across the ground.
“It’s just a fake blood pack.
I had a wooden board tucked inside my clothes.”
He explained the matter as calmly as if he were discussing the weather.
Then he turned and hurried toward home.
He couldn’t afford to relax yet.
“No wonder…” Yasuko muttered, quickly following him.
Over the past few days, she had noticed that Yakumo’s upper body looked somewhat bulky.
She had assumed he was wearing several layers of clothing.
Now everything made sense.
The two quickened their pace, scattering the remaining trace-erasing powder along the way.
Within three minutes, they finally reached their homes.
“Yakumo, I need an explanation for what happened tonight.
Tomorrow.”
After saying this, Yasuko hurried back inside.
Clearly, she didn’t want her father discovering that she’d been wandering outside so late.
Yakumo opened his own front door and immediately removed the thick wooden board strapped against his chest, along with the fake blood pack.
He also peeled away the two layers of sheet metal wrapped around the board and placed them in a basin to soak.
Then he washed the remaining fake blood down the drain.
Next, he took a metal basin, threw in the clothes he’d worn that evening along with the strips of fabric used to secure the wooden board, and set everything alight.
Finally, completely naked, he lowered himself into the bathtub and carefully washed every part of his body that might have come into contact with blood.
Half an hour later, Yakumo sat curled up in the tub, hugging his knees and trembling slightly.
There was no excitement in him.
Only fear.
Before his blade had entered the enemy’s body, he had felt the Hidden Mist spy’s struggle and his desperate desire to survive.
But the moment the weapon penetrated the man’s flesh, that struggle and desperate will to live had abruptly ceased.
A living person had become a corpse.
His life had been taken away.
Gone meant gone.
Death didn’t require grand, elaborate words to describe it.
It was simply the loss of life: a person who had once been able to breathe becoming a body that gradually grew cold.
Yakumo raised his head.
His eyes gradually filled with determination.
He would never deliberately seek to harm others.
But if his own life was threatened, he would strike without hesitation or reservation, killing his enemy as quickly as possible.
He opened the mission panel.
After a moment’s hesitation, he assigned all his free attribute points to Constitution.
A surging wave of heat flooded through his limbs and organs.
This time, the energy was several times more powerful than anything he had experienced before.
Attribute Breakthrough!
Congratulations, player!
Constitution has exceeded 10 points.
Effects of the breakthrough
Increased stamina limit.Improved resistance to various forms of harm.Enhanced stamina recovery.Faster recovery after sustaining injuries.
Three minutes later, Yakumo opened his eyes and drew a deep breath.
The sensation was wonderful.
He could clearly feel the changes taking place within his body.
His hearing and eyesight had sharpened.
It was as though he had undergone an evolution.
He slowly clenched his fist, feeling the vigorous vitality surging through his body.
For the first time since killing another person, Yakumo felt certain that he could face what lay ahead.