As Kirito plunged deep into the silent night of the dense forest, the sound of dry leaves rustling underfoot suddenly echoed steadily right behind his back. That sound was extremely familiar and sharp, precisely the footsteps of the pursuing Shinobi just moments ago.
This left Kirito somewhat surprised and secretly astonished at the opponent’s persistence and top-tier tracking capability.
Without a moment of hesitation, his body quickly slipped to hide behind a dense roadside bush, holding his breath to wait for the moment to counterattack.
But the rival Shinobi was no less cunning. Instead of searching on the ground, he had anticipated the movement. From atop the canopy of a towering ancient tree directly overhead Kirito, a dark figure suddenly lunged down, the katana in his hand pointing straight ahead with an extremely lethal force.
Swoosh!
Lightning-fast reflexes helped Kirito twist his body to dodge by a hair’s breadth. The razor-sharp sword tip only managed to graze past, tearing the fabric of his clothing at the shoulder. Instantly, Kirito took advantage of the momentum to roll far away, standing firm on the carpet of dry leaves with a gaze full of vigilance. He clearly understood that this was truly a life-or-death battle where only one would survive.
"You’re quite good at tracking my trail all the way here," Kirito spoke in a low, cold voice.
The Shinobi gave a faint, cold smirk from behind his cloth mask, replying with a voice full of pride:
"Having accepted a mission yet letting the target or enemy escape is the ultimate humiliation for a Shinobi. Therefore, you must die here today."
Finishing his sentence, Kirito did not say another word, reaching out to draw the katana hidden behind his back. Under the dim moonlight piercing through the foliage, the two dark figures lunged fiercely into each other.
Clang! Clash!
The harsh sound of clashing weapons echoed throughout the forest corner. But the exact moment the two blades touched, Kirito’s left hand readied a vicious trick, unexpectedly launching a poison needle hidden inside his sleeve.
Thud!
The needle drove straight into one of the opponent’s eyes. The Shinobi cried out in pain, instinctively stumbling backward. Seizing the opportunity, Kirito swung his leg hard, delivering a thunderous kick straight to the opponent’s chest.
Thud! The immensely powerful kick sent the Shinobi flying backward, his body rolling multiple turns on the ground. Right at that moment, two small explosions rang out, and two smoke bombs instantly detonated densely, blanketing the entire space around his body in a thick cloud of white smoke.
Kirito immediately retreated to guard against any unforeseen contingencies.
Yet from within the dense smoke, despite being injured in one eye, the Shinobi lunged to close the distance from behind with terrifying speed.
A flurry of shuriken tore through the air from the dark. Kirito continuously contorted his body to dodge, twisting around to retreat and avoid a fatal slash from the opponent’s blade sweeping across his chest.
Seeing that his opponent defended tightly, the Shinobi changed tactics. He lunged forward, flicking his hand to scatter a handful of white poisonous powder straight toward Kirito’s eyes to blind his vision.
But Kirito was extremely quick-witted, swiftly drawing a special Shinobi folding umbrella from his waist, snapping it open to shield everything in front of him and completely blocking the hazardous white powder.
And the exact moment the umbrella popped open to obscure vision, hundreds of sharp shuriken ingeniously hidden inside the umbrella frame suddenly launched backward in unison, embedding themselves densely into the body of the opposing Shinobi. His eyes widened, his body covered in fresh blood before collapsing straight to the ground, dead on the spot.
Standing to look at the final fallen opponent, Kirito panted heavily, awe welling up inside him at the formidable strength of the fellow just defeated. He bowed his head to look at the opponent’s corpse, silently praising:
"I offer you the respect of a true Shinobi."
Following the life-or-death battle, Kirito returned to the original Hian castle. He moved lightly, hanging his body upside down from the roof ridge of the lord’s mansion like a bat resting in the shadows.
Inside the study, the Hian castle lord was still sitting by the lamplight studying strategic maps. Kirito’s cold, low voice echoed in from above:
"Mission accomplished."
The castle lord raised his gaze, nodding with satisfaction that the target had been eliminated. After all, in this underworld, Shinobi always worked for wealth and someone else’s commands; the generous reward in the end would ultimately find its way back to his master’s hands anyway.
Yet Kirito didn’t care about those things at all. He had entered the path of a Shinobi simply to satisfy his thrill and passion for life-or-death challenges.
Having finished speaking, the teenager’s figure swiftly blended into the pitch-black night, vanishing without a trace.
After completing the mission and leaving the lord’s mansion, Kirito quietly returned to his quarters located deep within the servant quarters area. His room was inherently a special architecture designed underground in a secluded corner, completely devoid of ground-level entry doors, accessible exclusively through a secret passageway leading straight up from the rooftop.
This was the meticulous defense measure of a true Shinobi to avoid the prying eyes of enemies or any potential traitors. Daily, when assigning missions, the castle lord would use carrier pigeons flying straight into the room via the rooftop route. As for his outward daily life, Kirito was still permitted to move freely within the castle; after all, when executing missions, he always wore the pitch-black face-covering cloth, so once removed, not a single person here could recognize his true face.
Stepping into his room, Kirito quickly stripped off the blood-stained night attire with its torn shoulder corner from the life-or-death battle. He carefully folded the old outfit and headed to the corner of the room, where a long wooden pipe connected straight upward.
This wooden pipe was not only used for ventilation but also served as a special communication system to request supplies and items for the Shinobi when necessary. He shoved the torn outfit inside the pipe along with a signal requesting a brand new set of garments.
Having changed into a neat everyday outfit, Kirito sat down on the edge of the bed, his mind suddenly drifting back to the intensely stimulating moment prior. Although the battle just now was arduous, the carnal delight and supreme satisfaction brought by the woman named Ayako still lingered persistently in his mind.
"That feeling... truly feels amazing..." Kirito muttered, the corners of his lips curling into a wicked smirk.
Previously, a Shinobi’s life to him was merely a series of executing emotionless commands, existing without clear direction or purpose. Yet at this moment, standing amidst the brutal world of war and power conspiracies, Kirito felt a new source of vitality burning fiercely within.