Killing (Two-in-One)

When Kakashi and the others found Ning Qi, he was sitting on a tree branch, looking down at everyone as though he had been waiting for a long time.

On the ground lay the severed limbs and mangled corpse of the Uchiha Clan's patriarch—Uchiha Fugaku.

This powerful ninja had endured in silence his entire life, only to suddenly raise the banner of Uchiha rebellion today, holding off half of Konoha by himself. His death was especially gruesome.

Only the head that had rolled to everyone's feet still wore a calm, faintly mocking smile, despite its empty eye sockets.

Many people frowned.

"The masked man actually let you go." Ning Qi glanced at Kakashi.

"Ning Qi... Last night, you led us to Madara Uchiha. Was it just so he could kill me?" Kakashi took a deep breath as he asked, his eyes scanning the surroundings for traps.

He had no idea what Ning Qi was plotting. But since Ning Qi dared to wait here alone instead of fleeing, were they supposed to be afraid to make a move?

After confirming there was nothing set up nearby, several figures in the darkness slowly circled around behind Ning Qi.

"No. The main reason I led you there was because I didn't want him interfering with my plan. Using his hand to kill you was only meant to weaken Konoha." Ning Qi dusted off his backside, rose to his feet, and spoke indifferently.

The shade of the tree blocked the starlight, leaving Ning Qi's entire upper body shrouded in darkness. Yet his pale, ghostly eyes radiated a brilliant glow in the night.

"Your plan?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes. His companions were closing in, and he needed to stall for as long as possible, so he asked casually, "To wipe out the entire Hyuga clan?"

Kakashi had already learned of the Hyuga clan's tragic fate. Although the culprit was still under investigation, after Ning Qi had stolen the Sharingan and attempted to assassinate Danzo, the true identity of the murderer pointed all too clearly at this Hyuga Branch Family ninja, who had already gone nearly insane in Kakashi's eyes.

"Strictly speaking, my goal was only to gain freedom. Destroying the Hyuga clan was merely a means of achieving that goal indirectly. As long as there are no Hyuga Main Family members left who possess the secret command, the so-called Caged Bird is nothing more than a pretty tattoo."

Ning Qi swept his hair back, revealing the blue mark on his forehead. His smile was warm.

Like an adolescent boy showing off his favorite toy to a friend.

Everyone's expressions abruptly darkened.

The faint sound of blades cutting through the evening breeze trembled through the woods.

Perhaps sweat had dampened his bangs, causing the hair that once hung before Ning Qi's brows to fall along the side of his face. His formerly refined, scholarly features suddenly seemed sharp and unrestrained.

They had long realized the truth was likely right in front of them, but hearing Ning Qi admit it himself still left those beneath the tree—his former seniors and comrades—wearing stunned expressions. The way they looked at Ning Qi became unfamiliar, absurd, and... impossible to understand.

For freedom, he had slaughtered his own kin...

Kakashi shook his head.

As his eyes flickered, his gaze upon Ning Qi became utterly dangerous.

His voice was cold.

"Then... the Uchiha Clan rebellion had something to do with you too, didn't it? And Madara Uchiha wasn't really an outside ally of the Uchiha Clan?"

Like he was introducing a carefully crafted work of art to guests, Ning Qi's smile remained gentle, though his tone rose slightly.

"Everything is interconnected."

"If I wanted to destroy the Hyuga clan without dying alongside them, then naturally I couldn't consider only the Hyuga clan. I also had to weaken Konoha. The best way to weaken Konoha was to incite internal unrest, so the Uchiha Clan's rebellion was inevitable. As for the Nine-Tails, that was the Uchiha Clan exercising its own initiative. It had nothing to do with me."

Though releasing the Nine-Tails was, even in the original plot, the only choice the Uchiha Clan could make.

He offered no further explanation, but everyone present already understood that every disaster Konoha had suffered today was inseparable from the bastard before them.

The surrounding ninjas slowly moved closer to Ning Qi.

"How could you bring yourself to do it?" someone asked. It was unclear whether they were trying to distract Ning Qi or genuinely seeking an answer from him.

"As long as I think about breaking free from the Main Family's control, not only can I do it, I can even draw my blade faster." Ning Qi curled his lips slightly, deliberately provoking them.

Draw his blade faster?

...What a beast.

"Are you really Ning Qi?" Kurenai Yuhi looked at Ning Qi and could not help asking.

Kurenai Yuhi had always been on good terms with the Hyuga Family. She had held the same hopes and approval for Ning Qi, this genius who had risen from the Hyuga Branch Family, that one might have for a promising junior. If Ning Qi had not advanced so quickly, she had even wanted him to be among the first genin students she taught after her promotion.

Though they had never formally become teacher and student, Ning Qi's passion for genjutsu not long ago—his tireless daily visits to discuss the workings of different genjutsu with her—had earned Kurenai Yuhi's admiration.

Ning Qi was already an outstanding genius, yet he could still work so hard. He had become the perfect example Kurenai Yuhi could use to encourage her other students.

Even while hurrying here, despite Kakashi repeatedly warning that Ning Qi was extremely dangerous and might even have defected from Konoha—that Ning Qi was the true culprit behind the destruction of the Hyuga clan—Kurenai Yuhi had still clung to a sliver of hope.

However...

Kurenai Yuhi raised her head and looked at the familiar face wearing that warm smile. It all felt especially unreal.

That quiet and reserved Ning Qi, that diligent and eager Ning Qi, that kindly smiling Ning Qi... could he really be the inhuman villain capable of such atrocities?

Could someone truly switch between truth and falsehood so effortlessly?

"The method of distinguishing illusion from reality was something you taught me, Teacher Kurenai... What, can't you tell them apart now?" Ning Qi replied with a smile.

So the Ning Qi before her was the real one, while the Ning Qi of the past had merely been a false human mask, something like genjutsu?

The image of the former Ning Qi surfaced in her mind again—his sincere and humble face, following behind her to learn genjutsu, blushing as he called her Teacher Kurenai again and again.

She did not know whether she was disappointed or furious over the loss of such a wonderful boy.

Kurenai Yuhi lowered her eyes, and even the hand gripping her kunai was trembling.

Although word of the Hyuga clan's extermination had begun to spread among a small number of people, secrecy remained tight. Shikaku had not allowed anyone else into the Hyuga Clan Head's Estate, so they had been unable to witness the scene firsthand. But the words "clan extermination" alone in the report were enough to reveal how horrific it had been.

Her voice was suppressed.

"I don't care whether this is genjutsu or reality. I only hope that when this kunai pierces your heart, it feels more real."

More real than reality?

Ning Qi smiled faintly. "Then I may have to disappoint you."

The evening breeze of June passed through the forest, carrying the fresh scent of wild grass. Insects clung to the tree trunks and chirped.

A green leaf drifted down. It was as though a foot had lightly stepped on it, producing a creak as its veins snapped.

"Now!" Kakashi suddenly shouted.

A black shadow streaked across the night sky.

The next instant.

Ning Qi, standing smugly on the branch, suddenly grimaced in pain. Then he lowered his head in a daze, only to see two large blades piercing through his abdomen!

Blood poured out continuously, impossible to stop even with his hands.

Chain: Twin Fang Slash!

Izumo Kamizuki pressed close to Ning Qi's ear and said, "You were too careless, Ning Qi." Then he grinned and shouted.

"Kotetsu, we're done! Don't let him die!"

"Listening to that bastard talk just now nearly made my lungs explode!"

"We have to lock him alive in the Torture Division and interrogate him properly!"

Seeing Ning Qi turn with an incredulous expression, Izumo Kamizuki grew even more smug. He laughed.

"You should save your strength. Whatever you want to say, you can say it after we get back to the Torture Division."

"...Run..." Ning Qi's voice was faint, and for some reason, Izumo Kamizuki found it strangely familiar.

He turned toward the clearing beneath the tree and saw Kakashi and everyone else staring at him in shock. Kurenai Yuhi was still shouting something at him, yet Izumo Kamizuki could not hear a thing.

The world seemed to have fallen into a silent ocean.

Yet the sounds reaching him still drifted through the water.

Izumo Kamizuki stared blankly at everything.

It was only when Ning Qi suddenly appeared behind Kurenai Yuhi, and Kakashi desperately blocked Ning Qi's descending blade, that Izumo Kamizuki realized it too late.

—If the one standing there was Ning Qi, then who was the person beside him whom Twin Fang Slash had pierced?

Izumo Kamizuki seemed to realize something. He turned his head in confusion and saw that the Ning Qi before him had somehow become his trusted partner, Kotetsu Hagane. His blade had pierced Kotetsu's abdomen.

How could this be?

The two Explosive Tags stuck to Kotetsu's body were about to detonate. Enduring the pain, Kotetsu shouted, "...Run!!"

Then he stretched out his hand and violently shoved Izumo Kamizuki away!

Boom!!

A violent explosion erupted. Chunks of flesh splattered across Izumo Kamizuki's body as the massive shockwave hurled him away. He rolled into the forest, his fate unknown.

Outside the world that had deceived Izumo Kamizuki, a fierce battle that swiftly reached its climax had only just begun!

"It's a mass genjutsu! Everyone fall back and widen the battlefield!" Kurenai Yuhi shouted, then leaped backward!

She did not know the exact effect of Naraka of This Realm, but she understood the basic principles of most spatial genjutsu. As long as they left the area covered by the mass illusion, the technique would be difficult to use.

Watching the nearby Konoha ninjas retreat one by one, Ning Qi calmly looked at Kakashi, who was locked in a struggle of strength with him. "You're getting in the way of my killing."

The effect of Naraka of This Realm became especially poor at "altering" things when Ning Qi was killing someone. It had been the same when he slaughtered the Hyuga clan—from the moment he killed Hyuga Ling onward, everyone could see that he was killing people, not pigs, sheep, or anything else.

Forcing the "alteration" would infinitely increase the chance of Naraka of This Realm being exposed.

Therefore, when slaughtering the Hyuga clan, Ning Qi had only used Naraka of This Realm to alter his own appearance and change the layout of the entire Hyuga Clan Head's Estate. He had not chosen to forcibly alter the act of killing itself.

The same was true here.

The difference was that the people before him were not the relatively peaceful and naive Hyuga clan elders, who had been watching a junior show off his skills. They were deeply wary of Ning Qi himself.

There was even a genjutsu expert like Kurenai Yuhi watching from below.

Ambushing Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane while they prepared to sneak attack had already made Kakashi and the others realize something was wrong. After Ning Qi failed to ambush Kurenai Yuhi, she immediately identified the existence of Naraka of This Realm.

That was the awkward reality of this genjutsu in actual combat.

After all, it was a genjutsu Ning Qi had specially designed to deal with the Hyuga clan, a technique made specifically to counter the Hyuga clan. Its difficulty had indeed reached S-rank, but demanding broad applicability from such a specialized technique was asking too much of Ning Qi.

Fortunately, Ning Qi had anticipated this long ago.

"Is this why you're so fearless?" Kakashi's expression was grim. Kotetsu Hagane's death and Izumo Kamizuki's severe injury had taught him a harsh lesson. No wonder Ning Qi had dared remain here after trying to assassinate Danzo, even talking to them for so long.

It was not just Kakashi who had been lowering Ning Qi's guard. Ning Qi had clearly been lowering theirs as well!

After a clash, Kakashi borrowed the force to leap back and landed beside Kurenai Yuhi.

"How far does the genjutsu extend?" he asked.

"Just here... Hm?" Kurenai Yuhi frowned and looked up. Seeing Ning Qi form hand seals, she paused, then changed her words. "He canceled that genjutsu..."

Ning Qi slowly walked toward them, a warm smile appearing on his face. "The reason I'm so fearless isn't because of genjutsu."

"It's because of strength—"

The next moment.

Ning Qi suddenly appeared beside Kakashi.

Earth Sword Technique: Mountain Collapse!

A brownish-yellow blade shadow slashed down. Kakashi raised his sword to block it, but his eyes suddenly widened.

What tremendous strength!

Whoosh!

Kakashi was sent flying by the overwhelming force of that strike!

Yet even as he flew away, the shuriken in his hand shot toward Ning Qi.

Shuriken: Shadow Clone Technique!

Eight Trigrams Sword: Heavenly Rotation!

A blue ring of light surrounded Ning Qi and knocked away every shuriken clone.

While Ning Qi defended himself, he failed to notice that Kurenai Yuhi beside him had already formed her hand seals.

Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!

Looking at Ning Qi's figure, trapped in the illusion space and unable to move beneath the binding branches, Kurenai Yuhi's expression turned cold.

"It's over!"

Ning Qi was no longer that shy, eager-to-learn boy from before... Or rather, that had never been his true nature.

This man was nothing more than a demon willing to massacre his own clan and incite chaos for the sake of freedom!

Remembering what had happened to Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki just now, her eyes turned icy as she thrust her kunai toward Ning Qi's chest.

"I think so too. It's time to end this." Ning Qi, bound by tree branches, gave Kurenai Yuhi a faint smile.

The next second, Kurenai Yuhi suddenly discovered that she could no longer move. Looking down, she saw that the person bound by the demonic tree had somehow become herself!

It was Reversal Genjutsu...

But... when?!

Squelch!

Before Kurenai Yuhi could think further, Ning Qi drove the kunai in his hand straight through her chest.

The sharp blade pierced her ribs and shredded her heart.

After the intense pain came an icy numbness in her limbs.

Her lips parted slightly. She felt as if she could no longer breathe, while her vision rapidly blurred.

Her mangled organs began to fall apart.

Ning Qi smiled and leaned close to Kurenai Yuhi's ear, speaking gently.

"...It really does feel real."