Late-Night Yang Release Reward and the Red-Haired Witch Outside the Door

The Hokage's study was so quiet in the dead of night that only the faint crackling of candle flames could be heard.

The air still seemed to carry a faint, lingering scent of blood drifting in through the window, mixed with the stale smell of old paper from the ancient files on the shelves, creating a suffocating heaviness unique to the aftermath of a change in power.

Baishi sat upright behind his desk, his fingertips tapping rhythmically against the tabletop.

He was not handling any documents. He was simply waiting in silence.

Waiting for the butcher's knife he had personally handed over to complete its mission and be respectfully returned to him.

"Whoosh."

An ANBU figure wearing a pure white mask appeared soundlessly in the center of the study like a ghost melting into the shadows, dropping to one knee.

He held up a sealing scroll in both hands. A complex Sealing Formula had been branded in blood upon the scroll's clasp.

"Lord Hokage, the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans have completed the purge of the Finance Department. All who resisted... were executed on the spot." The ANBU's voice was hoarse and mechanical, devoid of emotion.

A cold curve lifted at the corner of Baishi's lips.

He raised his chin slightly, and the ANBU silently retreated into the darkness as though he had never appeared.

Baishi picked up the scroll and brushed his fingers lightly over it, undoing the seal.

The scroll unfurled. One item was the Finance Department's highest-authority seal; the other was a death list steeped in the stench of blood.

At the bottom of the list, the four characters "Shikaku Nara" had been written in blood, their glaring red seeming almost warm.

"Very good."

Baishi murmured, with no hint of pleasure or anger in his voice.

*Smart choice, Shikaku.