An Agent Whose Faith Collapsed as the Truth Was Laid Bare

The rustling continued without end as fine sand rolled along the rock walls, while the wind howled through the canyon.

Still wearing the terrified expression expected of a wounded Hidden Stone Village shinobi, years of espionage allowed him to immediately control his emotions. The instant he heard that name, every muscle in Kabuto's body tensed as he knelt in the sand.

"W-what nonsense are you talking about?"

His voice carried just the right amount of tremor. As he continuously recoiled, Kabuto clutched his bloody wound tightly.

"What Root? What Kabuto? I don't understand any of that. I'm with the Hidden Stone Village medical unit... Don't, please don't kill me!"

That earlier remark had probably only been meant to bait him. He was gambling that Ye possessed only vague intelligence. It was a probe ingrained into an agent's bones.

Without even showing any intention of drawing a weapon, Ye stood three meters away, his hands hanging naturally at his sides.

A cruel smile appeared on his face as he watched Kabuto diligently play the part of a dying casualty.

"An orphan picked up after the battle at Kikyo Pass. Yakushi Nonō... the adopted son of the Konoha Orphanage director."

Ye exposed his past word by word.

"Later, Danzo took notice of you and forcibly placed you in Root. Your codename... medical spy."

Kabuto's fingers curled tighter beneath his sleeve as wind and sand swept between them.

"You infiltrated the Hidden Cloud Village, Hidden Mist Village, Hidden Sand Village, and Hidden Stone Village over the years. You really went everywhere gathering intelligence."

The fear on Kabuto's face faded a little with every word the other man spoke.

"Do you think secrets like these could be revealed through a casual bluff?"

Ye's piercing gaze fell upon those round glasses as he bent down and stared at him.

"Kabuto, your little disguise is nothing to me. You can't hide it at all."

His features were completely swallowed by shadow as Kabuto lowered his head. The last layer of his disguise had been torn away before his eyes.

Cold killing intent replaced every trace of pretense. His breathing vanished completely, and his shoulders sank slightly. When he raised his head again, the terror on his face had utterly disappeared.

Silence him immediately. If his identity had been exposed.

That was the survival instinct Root had carved into him.

A sharp blue chakra blade condensed over the left hand that had been covering his wound. He sprang up with force, kicking sand in every direction.

Capable of instantly severing the toughest nerves and muscles in a human body, the chakra gathered along the edge of his palm displayed pure destructive force. It had never been meant to save lives.

The blue chakra blade slashed straight for Ye's carotid artery. His left arm thrust out from an awkward angle as his body skimmed rapidly through the blowing sand.

As long as the invading chakra severed the cervical vertebrae, it would be instantly fatal. That was one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body.

He left himself no path to survival. This strike had completely cut off every retreat.

His feet had not moved even half a step from beginning to end. Dark eyes reflected the approaching light, yet Ye still had no intention of activating his Mangekyō Sharingan.

It had long surpassed ordinary human comprehension. This was the neural response granted by the Senju Immortal Body.

Ye's right hand moved later yet arrived first, just as the chakra blade came within three centimeters of his neck.

He firmly clamped down on that restless mass of blue chakra. With a crisp crack, his two fingers suddenly closed together.

Kabuto's wrist bones instead creaked under the pressure of those two fingers. No matter how hard he exerted himself, he could not advance even an inch, and he froze in midair with his eyes wide open.

All of its destructive force was dispersed layer by layer. The cutting power he took such pride in had struck the Yang Release power coating Ye's fingers.

"Too slow. Too weak."

Ye's left leg tore through the wind and sand, kicking him hard in the abdomen. Before Kabuto could react to the cold words that had just reached his ears, it was already too late to change moves.

Kabuto flew more than ten meters before slamming heavily into a thick rock. His entire body curled in agony as the dull impact reverberated through the canyon.

Broken stones rained down onto his shoulders and back, while huge cracks spread across the surface of the rock.

The agony in his internal organs nearly cut off his breathing. He slid down the rock wall and collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth and staining the surrounding sand. His fallen round glasses shattered into several pieces amid the grit.

The overwhelming gap in strength between them turned all resistance into a complete joke. In a single exchange, he had lost every ability to fight back.

Ye stopped in front of him and tossed down a bloodstained scroll of top-secret intelligence. It struck Kabuto's face before rolling beside his bloody hand. Ye had dug this backup out of a Konoha ANBU agent's mind just a few days ago.

"Don't be in such a hurry to die."

Kabuto's back went cold at that composed bearing as Ye looked down at him from above.

"Open your eyes and take a good look. You served Root for so long for the orphanage and for that Nonō. What exactly did you get in return?"

That bloodied hand struggled to undo the scroll's seal. After staring at Ye for a long while, Kabuto finally began reading the intelligence.

"Then take another look at the dead end your beloved Lord Danzo arranged for you tonight."

The hand holding the scroll froze stiffly in place. His breath caught in his throat the moment his eyes swept over the first line.

Danzo's plan was clearly recorded on the scroll.

Because Root constantly replaced the photographs, Nonō, who had spent years away on missions, would never recognize the grown-up Kabuto and would only see him as an unfamiliar enemy agent.

They would be guided to the border of the Land of Earth and made to slaughter each other. Root would then issue them separate orders to assassinate one another.

Never again would they be able to leak any secrets. These two outstanding operatives, who knew a great deal of Root's classified information, would ultimately die by each other's hands.

"No... Impossible... This is absolutely impossible."

The pages gradually crumpled to dust within his trembling hand, and every word Kabuto forced out scraped painfully at his throat.

Yet the doubts that had piled up in his mind for days now connected into a clear thread. He simply refused to believe this cruel intelligence.

There were now perfectly reasonable explanations for everything: the increasingly dangerous missions lately, the contact points being shut down one after another, and the surveillance that had never disappeared from the shadows.

Danzo had already decided to silence them.

"For the village... for the orphanage... I sold everything I had!"

Tears mixed with blood and mud as they streamed down his cheeks. A despairing roar burst from his throat, and Kabuto's fist slammed heavily into the sand.

"I lived so miserably in that darkness, and they... they actually wanted me to kill the director with my own hands!"

The belief that had sustained him through countless dark missions was torn utterly to pieces.

In exchange, he had received Konoha's most vicious scheme and the death trap Danzo had prepared. He had always thought he was silently protecting his family.

Kabuto's despairing cries echoed between the rocks before dispersing into the endless sandstorm. The canyon wind never stopped howling.

The last trace of his desire to live was extinguished from his eyes.

Without hesitation, Kabuto gripped the sharp kunai tightly and stabbed it toward his own chest.

Since every persistence had lost all meaning, it would be better for everything to end here.

With a crisp impact, Ye's foot swept in before the fatal blow landed, kicking the blade directly away.

The kunai spun across the sand and embedded itself in a distant rock, its handle still trembling violently.

Ye's tall figure stood firmly before him, cutting through the wind and sand. He gave Kabuto no room whatsoever to refuse and became the only lifeline this dying man could grasp.

"Want to die?"

His voice pierced through the howling gale and reached Kabuto's ears clearly.

"Then get up and come with me. First, let's kill that bastard supervising the battle."

There was not a shred of pity in Ye's dark eyes as he looked down at Kabuto's blood-smeared face.

"Then use your own hands to take your mother back!"

Kabuto's clenched fist began pressing against the ground bit by bit. He raised his head blankly, his unfocused gaze meeting those black eyes.

Deep hatred for Konoha and Danzo, accumulated over many years, churned endlessly within his chest. The desire for revenge flooded back into his eyes.

Using every ounce of strength in his body, he stood up and gritted his teeth as he steadied himself on the loose sand.