Nonō didn't fully understand Kei, she only knew that there was such a person in the Analysis Team. But after their first encounter, her impression of him was at least… Competent?
The Kedōin clan's nearly undetectable facial expression techniques, the stealth techniques that even she, despite her vigilance, failed to notice, and the Mind Body Disturbance Technique that rendered her unable to resist in an instant.
It seemed that he was indeed well-suited for high-difficulty assassination missions.
"Why is there an outsider at the meeting location?"
Nonō slightly furrowed her brows and questioned the situation inside the room. Spies hated unexpected situations the most. They also hated unrelated people appearing.
All of these things increased their risk of exposure.
"The place you chose is like a drugged-up love nest. I hid in a corner for two hours, and at least eight pairs of wild lovebirds came through. If I didn't create some disturbance, everyone would just keep coming here."
Kei rolled his eyes in annoyance. Two hours ago, when he had just arrived to scout the area, he heard noises from the corner—someone was busy with some "intimate business."
He finally waited for them to finish and leave, but in just a few minutes, another couple arrived!
They were about to get started. In a hurry, he used genjutsu to send them to a nearby alley.
But then, another pair came. So, he had no choice but to summon two White Zetsus to stir up some chaos—otherwise, the place wouldn't stay empty.
Nonō glanced around the room and emphasized the key point again.
Kei spread his hands. White Zetsus, apart from looking human, weren't actually human anymore. Calling them "dead people" wasn't wrong, was it?
Nope, no problem at all.
"… Can you use Water Release?"
Having witnessed the darkness of the ninja world countless times, she was no stranger to using "disposable tools" .
Even though she instinctively disliked this way of doing things, she was a qualified ninja. The only thing she could do was restrain herself from using such methods.
Beyond that, she was powerless.
"Uh, I know a little."
"What about Earth Release?"
"That one, I really only know a little."
"The ones I can use proficiently are probably only about twenty jutsu. The rest, I can barely manage."
Seeing Nonō's skeptical look, Kei had no choice but to tell the truth.
He didn't even have an actual affinity for Earth Release. If it weren't for the boost from the Sage Body, which made him an all-attribute ninja… And improved his affinity for earth… His Earth Release techniques would probably be unusable in real combat.
Of course, in his definition of "real combat," the opponents had to be at least jonin-level.
If it was just fighting weaklings, he'd have no problem.
"Pick one of the two—clean up the scene."
Nonō unbuttoned the front of her coat, reached inside, and pulled out a small scroll the length of a finger.
She tossed it to Kei. After handing it over, she glanced at Kei's face before turning to leave.
Greasy, sleazy, sloppy, and shady…
Mm, Osoi's face was very memorable.
Kei caught the scroll, which still carried some warmth, and felt a little uneasy. This scroll… She hid it pretty deep.
Watching Nonō leave the alley, Kei opened the scroll and tilted it toward the dim moonlight to see its contents. Realizing it was merely a diary, he smirked in frustration.
The ANBU really loved doing things this way.
Something that could be explained in a single sentence—why did they have to go through all this effort?
Without the cipher book, he wouldn't even know what it said.
He examined the hidden encoded arrangement on the scroll and found the corresponding cipher book in his memory palace, then started decrypting it word by word.
"Rai… second lieutenant… jonin… support… attack… Kiri? 26 years old, skilled in Lightning Release and swordsmanship…"
On the small scroll, the target's personal information, daily schedule, and the procedure for their next meeting after mission completion were all clearly noted.
Kei rubbed his slightly sore eyes.
A small Rasengan quickly formed in his hand, reducing the scroll to dust.
"Damn, even when I was cheating on exams, I never wrote notes this small."
Muttering complaints under his breath, Kei was about to enter the courtyard to retrieve the two controlled White Zetsus. But just then, a middle-aged man, impatiently unbuckling his belt, dragged a seductive woman into the alley in a hurry.
They saw Kei, who was about to open the door and enter. Hearing the indecent sounds coming from the courtyard, the two froze for a moment before exchanging strange looks.
Even the most chaotic red-light districts in the Land of Fire were more reserved than this.
Seeing the faint excitement hidden in the middle-aged man's silence, Kei lost it.
He immediately hit both of them with a genjutsu combo and sent them on their way!
This place was cursed—definitely!
He quickly retrieved the two White Zetsus, which had been under both sealing and genjutsu control, screaming for over an hour.
Feeling a growing irritation, he turned and melted into the darkness. He already knew the assassination target.
It didn't matter when he took action.
The sooner he finished, the sooner he got his reward—and the sooner he could go home.
Half an hour later, after verifying his identity at the gates of Kumo and chatting briefly with the 'familiar' gate guards, Kei used the excuse of "going home early to see the kids" to say goodbye to them and smoothly infiltrate the village.
Reading the memories of this borrowed face, Osoi, he barely put in any effort before tracking down his assassination target, Rai, drinking with a few jonin at a bar.
Kei took two seconds to consider how to pin this on Kiri. Then, he stealthily released a faint killing intent toward Rai. Ninjas who constantly hovered between life and death were highly sensitive to killing intent.
Rai's hand, which held a sake cup, paused ever so slightly, but in the blink of an eye, he resumed drinking and chatting with his companions as if nothing had happened.
He casually slung an arm around one of them, pretending to reminisce while discreetly exchanging information.
In less than five minutes, the seemingly drunk Rai got up, bid farewell to his companions, and staggered out of the bar.
He hadn't walked far before he turned into a secluded alley. His behavior clearly indicated he was using himself as bait to lure the assassin.
Kei added another layer of Transformation Jutsu disguise before gripping a kunai and launching a surprise attack from the alley's shadows.
The drunken look on Rai's face vanished instantly.
He swiftly drew the ninja blade on his back and met the incoming enemy head-on.
The next second, his blade passed through Kei's Hydrification Technique-transformed body without resistance.
Their figures crossed paths.
A severed head, its eyes wide open in shock, tumbled to the ground.
"Rai! Damn it! It's the Hydrification Technique!"
The Kumo jonin following closely behind Rai roared, forming seals at high speed.
Golden spheres of electricity rapidly sealed off the alley. Seeing that his objective was complete, Kei crashed through a nearby house wall, dodging the Lightning Release trap before using the Body Flicker Technique to escape.
Even though the Kumo jonin gave chase, when Kei dived into a well connected to an underground river, they could only grit their teeth and bombard the water with Lightning Release techniques.
Using the Hydrification Technique and Wave Riding Jutsu, he swam in circles to shake them off before silently emerging from another well—back inside Kumo.
By now, all the streetlights that had previously been half-lit were fully illuminated. Every house perched atop rocky pillars was brightly lit.
Alarms blared across the village.
Numerous ninjas, roused from sleep, rushed anxiously toward the area where Lightning Release techniques repeatedly flared into the sky. Maintaining his facial expression concealment technique, Kei casually blended into the crowd, watching the chaos unfold.
"What's going on?" A soft, sweet voice came from beside him.
Kei turned and looked down at the little girl, who was even shorter than Kurenai.
When he saw her face clearly, he instinctively took a step back.
A loli version of Yugito!