Chapter 15: Information
It's said that a shinobi's battle is a battle of information.
And they wouldn't be wrong in saying that.
That holds absolutely true in almost every battle.
Knowing someone's information is like reading an open book.
You can counter them however you please.
A shinobi who knows nothing about his opponent is like someone walking into darkness without a torch. Every step becomes dangerous. Every movement becomes uncertain.
Kenzo was in a similar situation right now.
By having a god's-eye view of almost the entire shinobi world, he could make strategies and have ample time to prepare them against another shinobi.
Very few people had such an advantage.
Most shinobi entered battle relying on instinct, experience, and fragments of gathered intelligence.
Kenzo, however, had something far greater.
Kenzo used a similar trick here.
In the show Naruto, Itachi Uchiha once used his Sharingan to implant a small genjutsu in a brief moment of eye contact during many fights.
The victim would not even realize when the illusion had begun.
Kenzo simply copied the same trick into his own repertoire.
The system was ultimately just a tool to further his own goals.
He never considered, even for a second, showing any sort of gratitude toward it.
For its so-called kindness, as most people would see it.
Unfortunately, most people failed to realize that kindness is, in itself, just kindness.
When people do a good deed, they often seem to have some kind of expectation for the other party to show gratitude toward them.
They believe that when they show kindness to someone, that person should feel indebted to them.
Thinking:
I showed him so much kindness in the past. He shouldn't turn away when I ask for help, right?
They seem to forget that kindness is something you do when you don't expect anything in return.
They mistakenly believe kindness to be a transaction.
There were many such people in his previous life.
Fools who believed kindness should always be repaid.
Not realizing that kindness is just kindness.
Not anything more.
Nor anything less.
I am kind because I choose to be.
Not because you deserve it.
Not because I expect anything in return.
But because it is my choice.
That is what kindness truly is.
That is why Uchiha Kenzo never thought of the system as some sort of creditor.
Because there was no transaction to begin with.
He never asked for any so-called system.
It simply appeared.
So why should he treat it like some kind of creditor?
Meanwhile, on the battlefield…
Under Uchiha Kenzo's vast ocular Sharingan genjutsu, all of the ANBU had their eyes fall into a daze behind their masks.
The battlefield seemed to fall into a momentary silence.
Even the crackling sounds of the burning forest seemed distant for a brief moment.
The ANBU who weren't maintaining the lightning net also froze for a moment.
Not because their teammates had been caught in a genjutsu.
No.
Far from it.
They were trained shinobi who had experienced multiple life-and-death battles throughout their lives.
Many of them had stood on battlefields filled with corpses.
Some had fought during wars where entire squads vanished in a single night.
But because of the killing intent radiating from Uchiha Kenzo.
All this time, Uchiha Kenzo had been suppressing his chakra.
Making others believe he was merely a high-ranking jonin.
From the village until now, he had always been suppressing his chakra.
Even in life-and-death combat where there was a chance of death, he never went all out.
To most people, this would seem like nothing but madness.
What's the point of hiding your strength if you die?
They would say.
But in Uchiha Kenzo's eyes, they were never people who could kill him to begin with.
In his eyes, they were nothing more than fresh flesh and blood sent to feed him.
In essence—
He saw them as nothing more than prey.
And now, faced with his full killing intent, many of the ANBU present were paralyzed with fear.
Not because they had never felt killing intent before.
But because they had never felt the killing intent of someone like Uchiha Kenzo.
It wasn't cold, suffocating, and predatory like Orochimaru.
Nor was it filled with raw, naked malice like Kurama.
If it could be described with one word—
Then it would undoubtedly be pure.
It was the most primitive form of killing intent.
With nothing added to it like Orochimaru's or the Nine-Tails'.
It was as if it existed for only one purpose.
And one purpose alone.
To kill.
But that single purpose was undoubtedly more terrifying than all the others combined.
The air around him seemed heavier.
Even the wind passing through the burning trees felt tense.
One of the more experienced ANBU finally snapped out of it.
Years of battle experience forced his mind back into focus.
He shouted loudly,
"Snap out of it!"
That shout immediately broke the ANBU from their momentary fear.
Training took over.
Muscles moved.
Hands tightened around weapons again.
But by that time—
It was already too late.
Kenzo had already approached the remaining ANBU who stood on the canopy of the trees.
Silent.
Unseen.
The lightning net had already dissipated after they were caught in his genjutsu.
Because the lightning net required constant chakra to maintain.
And the moment their concentration broke—
The technique collapsed like a thread that had been cut.
Above the battlefield—
Among the dark branches of the burning forest—
Uchiha Kenzo moved.
And death moved with him.