After a day shrouded in thin mist, deep night fell over Dawn City.
After the bustle came unrestrained release, and swaying figures filled the streets.
Even the hazy lights in the drizzle seemed drunk, their oval white glow blurring from far to near. Several people could vaguely be seen tangled together in the distance.
"Y-you... hic! Can you even walk by yourself?"
"B-bastard! Don't look down on me! No matter how much I drink, I won't get drunk! Hic!"
Under the streetlights, several workers supported one another, yet none of them could stand steadily. Clutching liquor bottles, they staggered along the roadside, looking from afar as though they were doing some strange dance.
In the end, the one swaying the worst even wrapped both arms and legs around a streetlamp, rubbing his face against it as he drunkenly muttered.
"Give me more booze! I... hic! I'm happy today! I'll have a wife soon... hic!"
"Hahaha! He was so smug after winning that drinking contest, but now that he's offstage, he's showing his true colors! Hahaha!" The others leaned against the streetlamp as well, pointing at his miserable state and laughing.
The blurred light fell over their flushed, drunken faces. Their scorching breaths merged into a visible wave of heat that rose into the sky, scattering even the cold tide of the rainy night with the surging air of their unrestrained desires.
But just as they laughed and fooled around—
"Ugh!" The man clinging to the streetlamp abruptly stopped mumbling and vomited.
One of them failed to dodge in time and got splattered with vomit. He lowered his head and cursed, "You old bastard..."
"Shh!" Another quickly covered his mouth, pointing toward the black building in the distance as he softly warned, "We somehow ended up in front of the Administrative Department. Lord Yun Chuan might still be working."
Gah!
The laughing, bickering group instantly fell silent. Their drunken haze cleared a little from fright, and they all looked up toward the distance.
But when they saw that the top floor of the building was already dark, their faces immediately darkened as they turned angrily toward the one who had laughed.
"You dare joke about Lord Yun Chuan? Get him!"
"Wait! What about this old drunk?"
At that, they turned back, only to see that he had already begun snoring, muttering meaningless sleep-talk under his breath.
"Wife... kiss..."
Several black lines immediately appeared on their faces. One of them sighed and volunteered, "You guys go on ahead. I drank the least today, so I'll take him home."
"Fine, fine. We should've made him drink less."
"How is that our fault? Who knows what got into him, drinking like he wanted to die."
A moment later, two swaying figures entered a small wooden house.
"Whew! You old bastard weigh as much as a pig!"
He laid the man on the bed, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and couldn't help muttering a complaint.
Standing by the bed, he remained silent for a long time before asking in a low voice, "Was it worth it?"
But the man looked drunk enough to be dead, as if he had not heard a word. Instead, he mumbled someone's name, tears glistening beneath his faintly trembling eyelids.
Creak...
As the door gradually closed, the light shining in from outside was blocked away, and the room slowly sank into darkness.
Only soft snores could be heard in the small room. Yet before long, even the snores vanished, until the place was swallowed by complete darkness and deathly silence.
Only the clamorous wind gently beat against the windows, concealing everything.
Within that dim room, a faint shadow rose and silently swept through the darkness.
"Coo... coo..."
At the highest point in all of Dawn City, atop the bronze bell of the administrative building—
Several white pigeons pecked raindrops from their feathers, their dark-red eyes reflecting the uninvited guest below.
Inside the administrative building, the two people on night duty chatted idly. Gradually, however, their voices began to soften, and their exchanges became less frequent.
Soon, only vague, indistinct replies remained between them, like perfunctory responses from people exhausted to the limit.
At the intake vent inside the ventilation system, colorless, odorless mist spread out. An irresistible drowsiness eroded their feeble consciousness and replaced it.
Click.
The administrative building was silent in the dead of night as its main doors opened a crack without a sound.
A faint breeze stirred up the dust on the floor as the doors moved. Then, a thick black shadow slipped inside like a ghost, hanging upside down from the ceiling of the guard room like an owl, its figure flickering in and out of sight without making a sound.
The man wore a half-mask that covered his mouth and ears, making anyone who saw him instinctively think of a red-faced, fanged bat.
He glanced at the two people below, confirmed that they were completely asleep, then formed hand seals with both hands. His lips moved silently, as though he were talking to himself.
"I'm in. How is it on your end? Are you ready to receive me?"
A moment later, he heard a vague reply.
"Lord Yun Ch... Tsukimiri Yun Chuan hasn't made a move. At this hour, he should be at evening training..."
The voice on the other end suddenly stopped, making the man's expression tighten. Thinking something had gone wrong, he quickly asked, "Saburo! What happened?"
"...Nothing. And don't call me by my name, Bat."
The faint connection formed by their secret technique had not been severed. Soon, the man heard his companion's voice by his ear. "That idiot brat who came today went looking for Tsukimiri Yun Chuan. You haven't been discovered yet, so move quickly."
Hearing that, the man quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and his heartbeat and breathing gradually slowed.
He had absolute confidence in his ability to play a role and infiltrate places, because he had used this method to sneak into countless dangerous, confidential locations. He had even successfully infiltrated the Daimyo Estate where the Lord of the Land of Fire lived.
That time, he stole Konoha's military strategic deployment plans and sold them on the black market for a large sum of gambling money.
Unfortunately, he soon gambled it all away, and the Lord's people found him.
But that Lord had also taken a liking to his skills and wanted him to infiltrate the various nations to gather intelligence.
And his first test was this newly established regime—Dawn City.
Normally, this mission should have been as difficult as his previous ones, perhaps even safer than the places he had infiltrated before.
Yet he vaguely felt a sense of unease.
Tsukimiri Yun Chuan felt approachable, yet capable. He was nearly flawless in both conduct and action, definitely not a simple man.
And this infiltration had gone far too smoothly.
Even if it should have been this way...
"Owl."
Thinking of that, the man instinctively called out, as he always had when he lost his sense of security, hoping to hear the words, "I'm here."
But no one answered him. Only deathly silence replied.
Drip...
Within the silent, deathly still guard room, that faint sound seemed especially heavy, even though it was as soft as falling rain.
Without the slightest hesitation, the man pressed a hand to the hilt at his side and whirled around in alarm, his gaze searching for a possible enemy.
The next instant, a flash of cold light appeared, making his body shudder.
Driven almost purely by instinct, he turned his head aside in terror.
He heard only a shrieking gust slice past his ear, followed by warm, wet blood flowing from his cheek to his jaw.
"Ghk!" The man's face became asymmetrical. He clutched his ear and forcibly held back a scream, though the agonizing pain twisted his features.
He glared ferociously ahead, only to see a thin, small figure seeming to emerge from the shadows.
"Were you looking for him?"
A childish yet icy voice entered the man's ears. Under his horrified gaze, the figure tossed a round object at him.
It was unmistakably a man's head, a black kunai driven through its temple.
Because the wound had pierced the brain, it was tightly blocked, and blood did not spill freely. It merely dripped slowly, one drop at a time, pooling into a puddle of blood on the floor.
The sound he had mistaken for raindrops had been the sound of blood dripping.
And the owner of that head...
"Saburo..."
For a moment, the man was dazed as a chill crawled from his spine to his neck.
Then he saw the brat raise a hand toward him, gripping a short blade with a clear, cold sheen.
"Bat..."
He spoke the man's codename, then shook his head and said coldly, "No. I should call you Mist Capital."
"Now, you will be executed for espionage."
Nagato's blade reflected Mist Capital's travel-worn face.
But that familiar face was now filled with terror and horror.
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