Chapter 19: The Path of Blood and Illusion
"What… are we even fighting?"
A quiet sense of despair crept into the ANBU's voice.
Another ANBU on his right snapped harshly.
"Focus!"
But even his voice carried a faint tremor.
They had been trained to face death.
Trained to suppress fear.
But this—
This felt different.
This felt like being hunted by something that no longer followed the rules of battle.
Kenzo watched them calmly from a higher branch.
The crimson tomoe of his Sharingan rotated slowly in the darkness.
From his perception, they were as clear as moths drawn toward a flame in the night.
He could see the quiet despair forming in their eyes.
Once despair settled into a battle—
It was already over.
Kenzo shook his head slightly.
And decided to end the fight.
Without any ceremony, he shifted his footing.
The faint sound of bark cracking beneath his sandal echoed softly.
Instantly the three ANBU reacted.
Two of them swung their blades upward, trying to predict his trajectory.
The third formed hand seals rapidly.
"Release!"
A pulse of chakra surged through his body as he attempted to break the lingering genjutsu.
In that moment—
His vision finally cleared.
The forest snapped back into focus.
And there—
Standing only a few branches away—
Was Kenzo.
The shinobi's eyes widened.
"Th—"
Before the warning could leave his mouth,
Uchiha Kenzo appeared beside him.
He leaned close and whispered into his ear.
"How can you be sure that you broke the genjutsu?"
His voice was gentle.
Almost too gentle.
Like a mother consoling a child who could not understand a simple problem.
In that moment, the ANBU felt true terror rise from the depths of his soul.
His body reacted instantly.
Training ingrained deep within his bones forced him to move.
Too bad.
In this situation, that training was more of a hindrance than a help.
Why?
Because it killed their creativity.
They followed rigid rules—forming hand seals, disrupting chakra flow.
But they forgot extreme measures.
Hurting themselves.
Breaking their own bones.
Even knocking themselves unconscious if necessary.
Kenzo understood why.
Their thoughts simply weren't fast enough for this kind of fight.
When every nerve was stretched thin—
When death could arrive at any second—
It was incredibly difficult for the human mind to form clear thoughts.
Kenzo finished the ANBU's miserable life before the man could even react.
His body collapsed silently into the darkness below.
The remaining two barely had time to react.
Kenzo moved like a shadow slipping between branches.
A flash of steel.
A quiet gasp.
Then silence.
They were already trapped inside his genjutsu.
In essence—
They were nothing more than sitting ducks.
After killing them and letting their bodies disappear into the darkness below, Kenzo stood quietly on the branch once more.
The forest had grown still again.
Only the faint rustling of leaves and the distant crackle of burning wood remained.
He exhaled slowly.
His Sharingan continued to rotate lazily.
Another faint surge of strength passed through his mind.
Small.
But noticeable.
Kenzo looked toward the dark forest stretching endlessly ahead.
More would come.
They always did.
He had already accepted that long ago.
For a brief moment, a quiet thought passed through his mind.
Like a line of poetry drifting through the night.
In silent woods where shadows creep,
The hunter walks where none dare sleep.
No prayer is heard, no mercy shown,
For those who walk the path alone.
Kenzo closed his eyes briefly,
letting himself savour those lines,
Before opening them again.
The crimson glow returned beneath the night sky.
—————
Konoha
In the dead of night,
Inside the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi — the Professor of Ninjutsu — had dark circles under his eyes.
He had been waiting.
Waiting for a report on this critical mission.
If the plan worked,
Then everything would be perfect.
If not—
Then he would have to give answers.
Answers he could not give during this critical period.
Answers that could cause significant losses to Konoha.
With another deep inhale of tobacco, he tried to calm his mind.
But the unease in his heart refused to fade.
Instead,
It deepened as time slowly passed.
The wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen slightly as no news arrived from the ANBU.
Even after the mission's deadline had passed.
He exhaled slowly.
And silently closed his eyes in pain.
Before reopening them soon after.
In those eyes,
Besides grief for the fallen,
There was another light.
Hope.
Desperately trying to hold on within those old eyes.
He stood up from his Hokage seat and looked down at the quiet streets and houses of the village.
"Danzo…"
"Let's see what your Root is capable of."
If not—
Then so be it.
A chilling light passed through his old eyes.
Even if he had to sacrifice more…
For the village's safety in the future,
He must eliminate this threat at all costs.
He had already deemed Uchiha Kenzo an extremely dangerous threat.
To be able to hide oneself so deeply.
And move purely for one's own interests.
With such a temperament—
Given time,
he would surely cause a calamity for Konoha.
Maybe even for the entire shinobi world.
At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood tall.
His back was straight.
His eyes were no longer dim.
What remained inside them was only one thing.
Resolve.
Even if it meant sacrificing everything—
He would protect Konoha.
——————
Root Headquarters
Deep beneath the village,
inside the underground base of Root,
Danzo Shimura sat in silence.
The first team he had sent out had not responded for a long time.
That could only mean one thing.
They were dead.
But his expression wasn't dark because of that.
It was dark because another team had already reported something else.
A red flare in the night sky.
And now they were moving toward it.
What did this mean?
It meant the first squad had failed spectacularly.
And even the second wave of shinobi—mainly sent by Hiruzen, who should have handled the job—had also failed.
The first one he could understand.
It had been meant as a probe rather than a decisive strike.
But the second wave?
That was practically impossible—unless the enemy had been hiding his strength very deeply for a long time.
To think…
He and that monkey had both been deceived so thoroughly by a single Uchiha.
Danzo's face twisted slightly at the thought.
But soon he calmed down.
A look of relief slowly spread across his face.
Thankfully,
He had heeded that monkey's advice and sent both his left and right hands as backup.
With two elite jonin,
A patrol of jonin,
And several special jonin,
He did not believe they could fail.
Besides,
Their target should already be injured or exhausted after enduring such pressure.
With that quiet thought,
Danzo relaxed considerably.
And went to rest.
Waiting for the good news tomorrow.