The instant their eyes met, the other man's pupils contracted sharply.
Chisen did not hesitate.
He lunged as though peeling himself off the stone wall, his footsteps almost silent, and closed on the man within three strides. The Allied Forces ninja opened his mouth to shout. Chisen clamped his left hand over the man's mouth and nose and drove his short blade diagonally up beneath his ribs, straight into his heart.
The blade went deep, but steady.
Only a brief, muffled grunt escaped the man's throat. His body stiffened violently, then went limp.
The waterskin dropped to the ground, rolled half a turn, and thudded against a broken brick.
Chisen caught the body with one arm and dragged it into the shadows behind the low wall, moving as swiftly as if he had done it a hundred times.
Shino had already followed him over. He crouched and scanned the man's forehead protector, waist, and cuffs.
"A roaming guard outside the patrol route, not a fixed sentry," he said.
"Did he get a shout out?"
"No."
Chisen released his grip on the man's mouth and nose, glanced at the smear of blood on his palm without so much as a frown, and asked only, "How long before someone comes looking for him?"
Shino looked at the waterskin beside the body. "If he slipped out for a break, no one will look for him for at least fifteen minutes."
"Enough."
Chisen dragged the body farther behind the collapsed wall. Half-fallen wooden beams and rotten straw mats were piled there, leaving just enough room to stuff him inside. Shino flicked his sleeve, and several insects crawled onto the body's collar and neck, apparently checking something.
"What is it?" Chisen asked.
"He has a newly issued sentry Wooden Token." Shino pulled a small wooden