Sen stood at the edge of Kage Rock's sheer cliff.
The evening wind howled.
It buffeted his old clothes, faded and yellowed from washing.
They snapped in the wind.
He could clearly feel the life essence he had just absorbed from more than a hundred Root operatives sworn to die for their cause.
Inside the Divine Tree's space, it pulsed merrily.
Expanding and contracting, it became fuel for his next level.
His experience bar crept forward another small notch.
But Sen's mood was foul.
His face, usually wearing a lazy smile, was cold and hard now.
"Sending flies to disgust me every damn day."
Sen muttered under his breath.
The freezing wind scattered his voice, cold as shards of ice.
"Swatting these small fry is as easy as crushing ants, but even my patience has a limit."
All he had wanted was to work quietly as a groundskeeper in Konoha and live out his life in peace.
But that old dog Danzo clearly had no intention of giving him that chance.
In that case.
What was there left to hesitate over?
"The old man's still clinging to your old friendship. He won't finish you off."
Sen slowly drew his hands out of his pockets, the green light in his eyes frighteningly deep.
"Then."
"I'll do it myself."
"Uprooting things is the proper way to plant trees."
Sen's gaze turned icy.
This time, he made no effort to conceal his chakra fluctuations.
He simply drove his toes hard against the edge of the rock.
Boom!
An incredibly deep, heavy sonic boom rang out.
His entire body became a dazzling streak of green lightning.
He leaped straight down from Kage Rock's nearly vertical cliff, dozens of meters high!
The wind roared in his ears as he fell, tearing apart the falling rubble.