Genjutsu! Genjutsu? Release!

"So you're heading back just like that? Aren't you going to bring your little boy a present, Yūya?"

"What a hassle~ I couldn't care less about that sort of thing~ My boy probably wouldn't even like it... But what about you, Futa? Your girl must be a handful."

"True enough. My boy's easy to please—as long as there's meat, he's happy."

"Oh, my, oh, my~ Shinpu, Yūya, what can I say? This is what they call the troubles of a happy life. My darling daughter isn't a handful at all~ Too bad you didn't have daughters. They're soft and sweet, and they call you 'Daddy' in the cutest little voice~ They're just adorable~"

"Yes, yes—we know~"

"Anyway, before we get back to the village, I'm going to pick up a present for my daughter on the way."

"No problem."

They weren't in any particular hurry as they made their way back to the village. They chatted and laughed along the road, and half a day passed without incident.

At a ninja's pace—especially a Jonin's—the distance from the Land of Fire's border to Konoha took only about a day and a half at full speed. They maintained a pace only slightly faster than a Chunin's, stopped briefly at a town along the way, and reached the outskirts of a valley in the afternoon. Beneath the rolling green mountains lay a vast, seemingly endless lake, its surface shimmering in the golden light of midday.

Outside the valley, a narrow path ran between mountains on one side and the lake on the other. Towering trees lined the road, stretching all the way to its distant end.

Suddenly, in the middle of their cheerful conversation, Yamanaka Fūta, the blond man, stopped dead on the road, wide-eyed with astonishment. The road was broad enough for two carriages to pass side by side.

A breeze swept across the lake and through the roadside woods, rustling the trees. Golden autumn leaves spun through the air.

They were no longer very far from the village, but they weren't close, either.

"What's wrong, Futa~?"

Nara Yūya and Akimichi Shinpu stopped as well and asked in surprise.

At the sound of their voices, the blond man's pupils narrowed. He stared intently at a large tree fifty meters ahead. A girl sat on a branch jutting out over the road.

She wore a plain, elegant white kimono. She had short black hair, a delicate, doll-like face, and scarlet eyes. She looked about twelve or thirteen. Sunlight filtering through the leaves cast dappled shadows over her face and clothes.

That girl... was their mission target!

The moment their eyes met, he saw the coldness in her gaze and instinctively looked away.

He'd fought the Uchiha alongside the Senju Clan during the Warring States period. The sight of red eyes still made him avert his gaze on reflex.

Confused, Fūta gestured ahead without turning around. "Can you two not see her?"

A chill crept through him. Genjutsu!? Since when?

The other two jolted in surprise. They raised their hands, formed Hand Seals, and shouted in unison.

"Release!"

Their chakra instantly fell into disarray. As they broke the genjutsu, they looked up warily and assumed the classic Ino-Shika-Cho battle formation.

Akimichi Shinpu stepped forward, his massive frame partially shielding the other two without blocking their ability to use ninjutsu.

Only then did they clearly see the hostile figure blocking their path, though they didn't dare meet her gaze carelessly.

The girl sat on the tree branch, her bare feet dangling in the air as she quietly watched the three of them. Yura tilted her head slightly, a flicker of confusion and understanding crossing her eyes.

She thought she'd been caught in a genjutsu? If she had, her response was reasonable enough. Yura gave a soft laugh. The timing was perfect: just as the two men dispelled the genjutsu and looked up, she drew their attention and ended her invisibility.

Her gaze fell on the blond man as she murmured to herself, "So ninja really can sense me... The Yamanaka Clan's sensory techniques..."

At the center of the formation, Nara Yūya crouched as if ready to form Hand Seals. Keeping his eyes lowered to avoid her gaze, he said solemnly, "Those eyes belong to the Yūhi Clan or the Blood Prison Clan. You used genjutsu to follow us. What's your purpose?"

All three were on high alert, prepared to attack at any moment.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You came looking for me. What's your purpose?" Yura replied, still relaxed as she sat on the tree branch and regarded them with amusement. She savored the tension and unease in their hearts.

At her words, their expressions grew even more solemn.

"You've misunderstood..." The mission was already over; there was no need to cause trouble. As their leader, Pineapple Head began to negotiate. "We're Konoha Ninja. The town mayor asked us to complete a mission requesting that you leave town. That's why we came to see you yesterday."

"So it's my fault, then," Yura said with a smile. "It's not as if I didn't pay for my meals."

"Explosive Tags aren't money," the big man said in a muffled voice.

"Enough!" Yūya immediately cut him off. "Your actions have caused the townspeople and the mayor a great deal of trouble. But our mission is over. If we offended you, please accept our apologies."

Looking at her portrait hadn't conveyed the full impression. Now, facing her in person, their hard-won combat instincts screamed a warning.

Danger! Extremely dangerous!

Everything about her radiated danger: her appearance, age, attitude, and bearing. During the Warring States period, any ninja who went into battle wearing ordinary clothes that restricted movement was either supremely confident in their abilities—or arrogant beyond measure.

"We of Konoha..." With a great tree at their backs, they could afford to be conciliatory, but Yūya was still applying pressure as he tried to de-escalate the situation.

Yura raised her left hand, cutting him off.

"You keep saying 'Konoha, Konoha'... Is Konoha really all that powerful?"

The three exchanged discreet glances, their expressions tightening as they silently prepared for a fight. The situation was on the verge of exploding.

"Come to think of it, I fought your First about half a month ago..." Yura smiled faintly and moved. Without any dramatic gesture, she stepped down from the branch, seeming to float like a feather as she descended lightly. She stopped two meters above the ground and looked at the three of them with scarlet eyes. "That bastard Senju Hashirama's Wood Release gave me a hell of a hard time..."

When they understood what she meant, their eyes widened in shock, disbelief surging through them.

As ninja who'd fought alongside the God of Shinobi since the Warring States period, they knew all too well what it meant to be the God of Shinobi, who Senju Hashirama was, and what Wood Release could do.

In their minds, once Hashirama entered a fight, no one could survive against him—not even Uchiha Madara!

The blond man and the big man swallowed nervously at the same time. Fūta's voice trembled. "Th-that can't be real..."

"No... The timing..." Pineapple Head said gravely. "It was right around when Lord Hokage returned to the village after attending the Five Kage Summit... What she said is probably true..." His voice was strained.

Yura's lips curled into a malicious smile.

So this was the joy Kakuzu felt...

What a delight.

Yura flicked her hand, summoning a Kunai. She twirled it deftly between her fingers like a butterfly, her malicious gaze sweeping back and forth across the three men.

Black Secret Technique: Outer Form—Sixteen Swallow Reversals

In a world the three men couldn't see, invisible strands of hair danced through the air. Eight transformed into sickles and hovered beside Yura; the other eight became jointed legs that silently braced against the ground, supporting her suspended body. It looked like she was flying by magic. Where the eight legs touched the ground, strands burrowed deep beneath the earth without a sound. Fine hairs silently sprang from the ground around the three men, fifty meters away, forming a crisscrossing cage of threads around them.

Black Secret Technique: Birdcage

The air suddenly turned murderous...

"She's about to attack! Watch out for genjutsu!"

Years of teamwork meant they didn't need a warning. The three were just about to attack when, in the next instant...

The killing intent arrived. A vicious wind tore through the air without warning.

Huh?

Yūya's eyes went wide with shock. Some invisible blade passed through him. A chill flooded his body. His mind raced, but his limbs were sluggish as rotting wood, unable to keep up.

What was it? A kunai?

His blurred vision fixed on the girl fifty meters away, clearly catching the kunai she was toying with in her hand.

When had she thrown it?

She hadn't thrown the kunai. Then what had cut him?

An invisible blade?

His gaze dropped. Time seemed to freeze as a huge, savage gash suddenly opened across his chest, from his right shoulder to his left hip. His body had been slashed diagonally in half. The two halves separated as they fell, drifting apart under their own weight.

Was he going to die? Was this genjutsu? How could that be?

What... was this...?

Endless confusion filled his mind.

As his vision went dark, one thought crossed his mind.

No wonder she could fight the God of Shinobi. She was far beyond anything he could handle...

Fūta and Shinpu stared, frozen in place, as their leader was cut in half. They were still forming the Hand Seals for their techniques, only one seal away—but it had happened too fast. Everything had happened too fast.

It was as if their opponent hadn't even moved, yet the attack had suddenly struck.

An invisible pressure peaked in an instant. Their minds couldn't keep up; instinct and experience took over.

"Yū—!!!" Amid a frantic cry of shock, Yūya's final sight was Fūta beside him...

Fūta instinctively reached out to save his childhood friend, but there was nothing he could do. He could only stretch out his hand as his pupils shook with terror...

In the next instant, Fūta's outstretched arm seemed to hit something invisible. It broke apart into chunks of flesh that dropped to the ground. In the air around his arm, blood gathered into a line along some unseen object, then slowly dripped down...

The strands were sharper than blades. They'd already sealed off the space around the three of them. Even a simple reaching motion was enough to dismember the arm that touched them.

This was the Black Secret Technique: Birdcage.

It sealed off the air, ground, and underground to prevent anyone caught inside from escaping.

A line of blood opened across Fūta's face. Realizing the area around him was filled with deadly threads, he froze, stopping himself from making a suicidal move. But in the next instant, a massive blade swept through the air with a vicious gust. His head was sliced diagonally like a watermelon, spilling red and white. The two bodies fell almost simultaneously.

From Fūta's ninja tool pouch, the beautiful doll he'd brought as a present for his daughter tumbled out, stained with blood...

Only three seconds had passed.

The thick smell of blood filled the air. Shinpu was the only one left.

He stared at the girl nearby, still idly playing with her kunai, his whole body trembling violently, his lips quivering...

In a single encounter, two experienced Jonin teammates had been killed instantly—cleanly, brutally, and without hesitation.

She was a demon! A downright evil demon!

What was this invisible attack!?

Was it genjutsu!?

Impossible!

What was it!?

Could he win!?

"Damn it—!!!" With a hysterical roar, Shinpu formed his final Hand Seal.

Multi-Size Technique

His body suddenly swelled several times over. At the same time, the invisible threads completely sealed every escape route around him. The moment his transformation was complete, the strands cut into his flesh. Countless dense slash marks opened across his huge body, crisscrossing over him as blood covered his skin.

If his thick layer of fat hadn't saved his life, he would already have been dead.

But he ignored it and continued his attack, roaring as he desperately tried to land one last blow.

Human Bullet Tank

He rolled on the spot, turning into a spinning ball of flesh. The Human Bullet Tank whirled at high speed, its movement kicking dirt backward as it scraped across the ground.

One second passed...

Two seconds passed...

Three seconds passed...

The Human Bullet Tank remained where it was. It couldn't move forward. The threads around it were pulled taut, wrapped around the ball and holding it fast against the earth. Deep underground, the other ends of the strands wound around the roots of trees stretching through the soil. To pull them out, he would need the monstrous strength to uproot an entire forest.

There was no way he could do that.

Fifty meters away, Yura watched with interest and remarked, "Not bad defense."

Without chakra infused into them, her strands were only as sharp as blades. They were enough to deal with ordinary, fragile ninja, but they had trouble piercing defensive techniques or similar means of protection.

The Multi-Size Technique offered a measure of defense against attacks.

Yura, suspended in midair, dipped slightly. The eight legs beneath her disconnected from the Birdcage. Then they thrust forward, carrying her body ahead like a flying machine. The fifty meters disappeared in the blink of an eye.

With speed and precision behind her explosive movement, the eight sickle blades retracted beside her body and rapidly transformed, gathering on her right side into a gigantic black fist.

The enormous fist was as tall as the Human Bullet Tank. As her long hair whipped about, chakra flowed into the strands and the massive fist appeared in midair. At close range, she raised it and slammed a heavy hook into the front of the ball.

Black Secret Technique: Outer Form—Demon-Slaying Strike

The savage blow lifted the entire Human Bullet Tank off the ground. The impact's shockwave rippled outward, and the crisp crack of breaking bones rang out. The strands yanked the ball tight, holding it suspended in midair. Yura sensed the violent waves of pain from her opponent suddenly cease as he lost consciousness. After holding him there for less than a second, she dismissed the Birdcage. The crisscrossing threads turned to ash and vanished, and the Human Bullet Tank shot away like a cannonball under the force of the punch.

It flew nearly a hundred meters before crashing into the roadside forest with a resounding boom.

"Ninjutsu is each ninja's signature means of attack, and their trump card. Once someone else learns it, it means their death... Too bad..."

The giant black fist hovered beside Yura. Its fingers spread, then clenched into a fist before transforming back into strands and retracting rapidly, leaving her with short hair. With the eight legs no longer supporting her, Yura drifted lightly to the ground. She glanced at the two bodies, then shifted her gaze to the bloodstained doll.

"I know all your techniques..."

As the kunai spun through her fingers, a strange look passed through her eyes. A moment later, strands shot out and hooked the ninja tool pouches, scrolls, and other supplies, pulling them into her hands. With a soft laugh, she walked away.

Behind her, two balls of eerie blue fire drifted down and turned into a blaze on the ground, burning everything to ashes.