Kawaki Aoba shielded Yuhi Shinku behind him, his icy gaze fixed on the shadowy figures before them. His voice was utterly calm, yet carried an overwhelming pressure. "Who are you? What organization do you belong to? Why did you ambush us?" One of the shadows gave a derisive snort, its hoarse voice once more filled with mockery. "You don't need to know who we are. You only need to know that today, neither of you will leave this place alive."
"That's quite a claim."
Yuhi Shinku stepped out from behind Kawaki Aoba, the chakra in her palm growing denser as her blade-sharp eyes narrowed. "Just the three of you dare talk like that? Those people we dealt with at the border before were probably your companions, weren't they?"
"Companions?"
The shadow paused, then let out a grating laugh. "Those pieces of trash were worthy of being our companions? They were nothing but altered pawns. Their deaths meant nothing.
"But you two managed to deal with those pawns, so you have some ability. You're worth our intervention."
Kawaki Aoba's brow furrowed deeper. He could sense that the chakra of these three shadows was far stronger than that of the mysterious ninja they had encountered before. Moreover, the flow of their chakra was strange. It did not seem naturally cultivated, but rather forcibly infused and altered. Such modification could raise a ninja's strength in a short time, but it would also strip away their self-awareness, turning them into machines that knew only slaughter.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Kawaki Aoba's tone grew colder. "Using techniques to alter ninja and turn them into killing machines without self-awareness—don't you think that's cruel?"
"Cruel?"
As though he had heard something utterly ridiculous, the shadow sneered again. "In this ninja world, the weak are prey to