Dusk deepened. Mist sank low and heavy.
In the autumn woods, fallen leaves had withered to a brittle yellow. The giant trees stood stripped bare, thick limbs exposed, lending the forest a strange, hushed stillness.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Masked figures cloaked in black swept across the treetops at high speed. Their pitch black capes billowed like wings in the wind, faintly flashing a blade like chill.
Silent. Elegant and...
Boom! Boom!
Smoke roared upward. The earth shuddered.
Birds burst into the sky in terror, beating their wings hard. Beasts bolted on frantic hooves, scattering in every direction.
At the front of the dust cloud, a slender, almost delicate figure was sprinting across the ground.
Boots struck the earth and flipped it over with sheer force. Soil and leaves mixed with surging air pressure and exploded outward, spraying in all directions.
Brutal. Frenzied. Like a savage beast charging through the jungle, completely opposite the light, cold discipline of the Root operatives above.
Aburame Ryuma frowned as he watched the small girl running below.
Whether Root or ANBU, even an ordinary shinobi learned the first rule early: conceal yourself, never expose your trail.
She could not do it.
A body weight over five hundred jin, paired with the insane speed of a shinobi forced march, meant every footfall carried power that had to be measured in tons.
Fragile branches could not bear it. Even the ground cratered under her steps, leaving deep pits and an unmistakable path carved straight through the forest.
For someone who specialized in infiltration and reconnaissance, it was a nightmare to watch.
A freak like that belonged on the front line of a siege, or on an operating table in the research division, not in an organization built on assassination and intelligence.
Rumble!
Crackling thunder erupted.
With Lightning Release Chakra Mode active, Konome Taketori rammed straight into the massive tree blocking the way and snapped it in half.
Her inertia was simply too great. Once she accelerated, it was easier and less exhausting to smash obstacles apart than to waste strength on sharp turns.
Rumble, rumble...
The trunk, thick enough for ten people to wrap their arms around, blackened where lightning scorched it. The vast crown slammed into the ground and kicked up choking dust.
Whoosh!
Ran, about to leap onto a branch, slammed on the brakes when he saw the giant tree collapse ahead and barely managed to hop to a neighboring tree.
Then he looked forward.
The girl, wreathed in electric light, kept surging ahead through rolling smoke. Trees toppled one after another, as if she were cutting a road through the forest by force.
Ran's eye twitched. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
Pat, pat.
Iwakuma landed beside him and patted his shoulder.
Understanding the message, the usually arrogant Ran finally gave a reluctant sigh and continued forward with him.
The injury he'd taken last time had only healed a few days ago. He did not want to return to the research division for treatment again.
One of the nurses who had bandaged and changed his dressings told him Konome had been studying medical ninjutsu under Chihaya Tōru in the lab and improving at a terrifying pace. If he got hurt again, the doctor treating him might very well be that monster.
He could not afford to offend her.
Just imagining Konome with a cold face, wearing a white coat while stitching him up made the ribs on his right side go icy, a prickling pain stabbing in like a side stitch.
"Stop."
Aburame Ryuma's voice cut through the motion.
Everyone halted instantly, standing still and waiting for orders.
Boom!
Konome tried to brake and ended up knocking over another tree before she finally managed to rein in that heavy body. She shook the splinters off her cloak. The ground beneath her was already a landscape of trenches and gouges.
Is she an elephant in human form?
Chō felt utterly helpless inside, not knowing what to even complain about anymore.
Ignoring the monstrous girl below, Ryuma raised his head and glanced at the dim sky. Countless insects crawled out from his clothes and buzzed outward. From a distance, it looked like a black cloud.
"Chō. Check the surroundings."
Chō nodded, closed her eyes, and formed the Rat hand seal at her chest.
Silently, Konome's own perception shifted as well. Her vision spread into a three hundred and sixty degree godlike panorama, expanding outward without limit.
No matter how loud her running was, no matter how blunt her fighting style seemed, she had never forgotten what she truly was: an outstanding sensory type.
In the chakra vision of the Byakugan, Chō's body emitted waves of blue chakra like ripples. Each wave spread outward and, the moment it struck an object, formed a distinct trace before returning to its caster.
A sonar like sensory technique. The precision was unclear, but the range looked about four to five hundred meters, far inferior to the Byakugan.
Konome quietly filed the technique away.
Her own view continued expanding.
Within a kilometer, there was no one but them.
With the way she ran, even wild beasts and venomous snakes had already avoided the area. The withered yellow forest felt even more deathly still.
The Land of Lightning was far from the Land of Fire. Even after a full day of forced marching, they were still within Fire Country borders, barely past its central region. It was hard to run into anything dangerous here.
At this pace, they needed at least two more days just to leave the Land of Fire.
And if they wanted to avoid towns and patrol lines to reach the Land of Lightning's southwestern border, they would have to exit through Fire Country's northeast, pass through the Land of Rice Fields, then cross a vast stretch of uninhabited primeval forest.
That alone was another four days.
Reserve two days to execute the mission. Ten days total to return to Konoha.
The experiment using Sharingan ocular power to "filter" life force could only be done by her. She had no idea whether the original body had made any progress with Hashirama cells.
"Captain, no abnormalities detected."
Chō drew the chakra she'd released back into herself.
Ryuma nodded. This was caution more than expectation. With their lineup, ninety nine percent of danger in the shinobi world would crumble like straw dogs before them.
Besides...
He glanced at Konome.
Even if there were something lurking, it had probably fled from that terrifying presence.
"Everyone. Rest in place."
"Yes."
The group scattered immediately, each doing their assigned work.
Five tokubetsu jōnin began setting steel wires, traps, and seal triggered formulas in the surrounding forest. Two leapt into the canopy to find higher ground for lookout. The remaining five erased the traces left by their passage to prevent tracking.
They said nothing. They did not complain.
They simply used ninjutsu to fill in the deep pits Konome had left, smoothing the ground as if her path had never existed.
Iwakuma formed seals and slammed his hands onto the earth. A yellow stone house rose up from the ground.
Isn't that Yamato's two bedroom one living room technique?
Konome's eyes lit up.
She had thought it was a Wood Release specialty. Instead, it was apparently a common Root technique. With Iwakuma's Earth Release and Yamato's Wood Release, the two together had turned into full blown civil engineering.
Rumble...
The stone house was not as fancy as Yamato's wooden structure. It was just a square block with a roof.
A doorway like opening was carved into the front wall. A square hole on the right served as ventilation and a window.
While the others continued erasing Konome's overly obvious trail, Ryuma and Iwakuma entered first. With nothing else to do, Konome, Ran, Chō, and the rest followed.
It was already late. Inside, it was even darker and more primitive, practically bare walls and nothing else. But in the wilderness, where there wasn't even shelter from wind and rain, it might as well have been a mansion.
Ran pulled a scroll from his sleeve.
"Release."
Pop.
Four candles appeared in his hands. He lit them and placed them in the corners. The stone room brightened at once.
Then Iwakuma's trio sat against the wall, familiar and practiced as they pulled out soldier pills and water. Ryuma took out a map and spread it on the ground, studying it carefully in candlelight.
"You're not eating?"
Chō removed her mask. Her face was so ordinary it would vanish in a crowd. She tipped a soldier pill into her mouth and chewed.
Ran and Iwakuma swallowed theirs with cold water, faces calm, clearly long used to the unpleasant ration.
"Don't feel like it."
Konome looked at the soldier pills and felt something twist in her gut.
After waking on the battlefield of the Taketori clan's extermination, she had survived by scavenging soldier pills from the corpses of her own people, forcing down a little chakra so she could live long enough to kill two Kirigakure ANBU and crawl out alive.
Back then, she had been like a stray dog, clinging to life with the "rotting flesh" of her kin.
Now, not even half a year later...
She had devoured Tailed Beast chakra twice. She had mastered the Eight Gates, Lightning Release Chakra Mode, the five elements, sealing arts, medical ninjutsu.
She no longer had to live like a cornered wolf.
Byakugan scanning outward, Konome stood and headed for the door.
"During a mission, Night Ferry cannot leave the team without authorization."
Ryuma lowered the map. His violet eyes fixed on her, cold and hard.
"I'm going to get something people can actually eat."
"Khh..."
Ran choked on his water mid swallow. Chō and Iwakuma froze with soldier pills in their hands, suddenly unsure whether to keep eating or stop.
Ryuma nodded without looking up.
"Bring me some."
Konome waved a hand and walked straight into the forest.
Chō and Iwakuma exchanged a glance, then quietly tucked their soldier pills away and closed their eyes, pretending they were already full.
Only Ran remained, still chewing with a puffed cheek and a disturbingly clear expression.
Outside, twelve Root shinobi were still cleaning up the devastation Konome had left behind.
They erased boot marks from branches, used Earth Release to fill in craters, covered them with grass. Fallen trees could not be restored, so they cut down nearby trees too, mixing the scene to confuse trackers.
Konome opened her Byakugan to the limit and swept the area.
Every piece of prey within ten kilometers was under her sight.
She chose the largest wild boar.
Not wanting to create more work for the ones erasing traces, she carefully controlled her strength and slowed down. A few bounds later, she reached the boar.
Lightning coiled around her fingertip. She tapped the boar's head lightly.
Crackle.
The boar, head lowered as if foraging, went rigid. All four legs straightened. Eyes closed, lips curling into a mysterious smile, it toppled like a log.
The electric arc faded.
Wind threads sprayed from the tenketsu in her hand, peeling the skin in clean strips. She opened the belly and removed the organs.
Water streamed through, washing out the stink and pulling the blood clean. She took out salt and seasonings she had prepared in a sealing scroll and sprinkled them evenly.
Pat.
Konome patted the meat.
Wind Release slipped in through the pores, shredding the tough membranes that made meat hard to chew. Then scorching Fire Release chakra, delivered with a rending, piercing strike, penetrated the boar from within.
Sizzle.
The skin tightened instantly. Fragrant fat ran out in shining rivulets.
Pat, pat, pat, pat.
She worked over the entire carcass with rapid strikes.
In minutes, the Fire Release heat had cooked the meat evenly from inside out.
She tore off a piece.
The heat was perfectly balanced. Bubbling fat popped at the surface, juices running free. The aroma of meat mixed with salt and spice, enough to make anyone's mouth water.
Konome removed her mask and bit down. Her eyes brightened instantly.
The meat was tender and overflowing with juice, nearly melting on the tongue. The rich fat and clean saltiness filled her mouth. It had the texture of lean meat, yet the softness of something far more decadent.
Fire. Seasoning. Texture.
Perfect.
Once she killed Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, she would set up a barbecue stall right next to Ichiraku Ramen.
A comfortable lounge chair. Skewers in hand.
And she could sit there watching Naruto's kids save the world.
That didn't sound bad at all.
She carried the hundreds of jin of roasted meat back to the stone house.
The Root members outside had finished cleaning up the traces. They had removed their masks and sat beneath the trees, chewing soldier pills.
Root's hierarchy was no joke.
So young.
Konome looked at their faces. Most were only teenagers, boys and girls alike.
Her Byakugan saw their chakra still vigorous, yet their green life force was already dim, like a lamp about to go out.
Root's brutal training did two things. It forged obedience. And, based on the same logic as the Eight Gates, it squeezed life force through harsh conditioning, forcing rapid combat power.
It was easier than mastering the Eight Gates, but far cruder and far more cruel.
After years of that kind of extraction, their bodies were already riddled with damage. Most would not live past their thirties before everything collapsed.
"Eat this."
She set the roasted meat down with one hand.
The twelve teenagers spat out their soldier pills without hesitation, drew kunai, and carved the meat apart.
They tore into the slices with fierce bites, as if it were the sweetest thing they had ever tasted.
Konome fell silent.
Not because of gratitude.
Because their heads held no emotion at all.
Only cold emptiness, like machines with their souls stripped clean.
They were not accepting her kindness.
They spat out the soldier pills because she had ordered it.
They were executing the vice captain's command: Eat meat.
This was Root.
Konome shook her head, took what remained of the roast, and went inside.
Inside the stone room, a stone table and four stone stools stood ready.
Chō, Iwakuma, and Aburame Ryuma sat around the map spread across the table, expressions grave, as if it hid some earthshaking secret.
Ran curled alone in a corner, back hunched, feigning sleep.
When Konome walked in carrying steaming roast, Ryuma's nose twitched. He smoothly rolled up the map and tucked it away.
All three looked up at her at once.
"The table's been cleaned already," Chō said, licking her lips with a smile.
Iwakuma remained quiet, but his throat bobbed once, betraying hunger.
"Tch."
Iwakuma had earned his share by building the shelter. Chō was the one who could speak. Ryuma was the captain.
Konome didn't know what to say.
She set the hot roast down and sat naturally on the stool that had been prepared for her.
The four of them ate in silent understanding.
After the first bite, Ryuma and the other two froze for a heartbeat, then their cutting and swallowing sped up noticeably.
The rich aroma filled the stone room.
Ran, pretending to sleep, frowned and turned his head away.
The soldier pills in his stomach had swollen in water, filling him to the brim. Hunger and fullness crashed together, a nauseating contradiction that even the exhaustion of a full day's march couldn't suppress.
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