Betrayal

The scorching desert wind carried grit with it, scraping across the ANBU masks like countless tiny blades.

Arai Hayato stood beneath a dune, his mask gleaming with an icy white light beneath the sun, as though boundless killing intent lay hidden within it.

He raised a hand to signal the team to stop. His leather glove made a creaking sound as it rubbed in the silence.

"Captain, the Kazekage strictly forbade anyone from entering the ruins!"

One ANBU member could not help lowering his voice, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the hilt of his kunai. "That missing Dragon Vein scroll might have been taken by Konoha—"

"Foolish."

Arai's interruption was as heavy as iron sand. He pulled back his ANBU cloak and removed his mask, revealing the weathered face unique to a middle-aged shinobi.

"When Konoha's shinobi sealed the Dragon Vein twenty years ago, Sand Village could not even assemble a decent sealing squad."

As he turned his head, sunlight cut a sharp shadow across the scar on his cheekbone. "If they wanted the information, they would not have needed to steal it."

A faint metallic clink came from the rear of the group.

Out of the corner of his eye, Arai saw Mukade adjusting his puppet strings. That shinobi, who always wore a humble smile, now reminded him of a scorpion lying in wait in the desert.

The grains of sand at his feet were flowing in unnatural patterns, as though countless tiny things were moving beneath the surface.

Arai paused, then continued, "I let them in for two reasons. On one hand, Princess Tsunade's status is there for all to see. If a conflict broke out, we would be the ones at a disadvantage no matter the outcome. On the other hand, I wanted to see whether the person behind the stolen scroll dared to keep sitting still. I wanted that venomous snake hiding in the dark to crawl out on its own."

There was another half to his thought that he did not voice: he wanted to see which faction within the village was sabotaging its stability from behind the scenes.

"Do not let me catch you slipping. Otherwise, even if you are an elder, I will chop off the claw you have extended."

Arai Hayato silently vowed.

Yet lost in thought, he failed to notice the faint glimmer that suddenly flashed beneath Mukade's mask.

The moment Arai turned around, time seemed to stretch out.

He heard the twang of tightening threads and smelled the sudden, heavy scent of snake gall herb in the air—an unmistakable sign of poison used by puppet masters.

His body reacted before his mind, but he was still half a step too late.

"Pfft!"

Only when a blade tip emerged from his chest did Arai Hayato cry out in fury.

"Mukade, how could it be you? Are you betraying the village?"

"Ah! I did not want to reveal myself this early, but a few troublemakers showed up."

Mukade's voice suddenly shed all pretense, like a dull blade scraping against bone.

With a twist of his wrist, countless puppet strings burst from the sand, instantly wrapping around the other ANBU members' joints. "But this works out nicely. I was just worrying about how to get away. Kill all of you and frame Konoha. Then no one will pay attention to an insignificant little nobody like me!"

"You treacherous wretch! I taught you so many puppet techniques. What else could you possibly be dissatisfied with?"

"Hehehe... How many puppets can one person control with their chakra alone? What I want is a puppet army. I want all the great nations of the Ninja World to crawl beneath my army! Hahahaha..."

"Capture him!"

Hayato clutched his chest and gave the order.

"Too late. After all, I spend every day thinking about how to kill you all. How could I let you resist so easily?... Hehehe, die! To die so painlessly is already my greatest mercy!"

As he spoke, his ten fingers twitched. Chakra threads that had appeared at some unknown point wound deep beneath the sand, and the desert suddenly began to boil.

In an instant, thousands of miniature puppet scorpions burrowed out of the sand. An eerie purple glow flickered from their tails—the venom was mixed with Sand Village's secret poison.

The ANBU had barely cut through the strings binding them when the scorpion puppets lunged forth and pierced their throats. The venom froze their screams into strange, rasping gasps.

"Ah..."

"You're despicable, Mukade!"

"Qianji Poison... It's actually Qianji Poison! Ah! I hate this!"

Screams rang out one after another. Hayato watched his subordinates collapse one by one, his eyes nearly splitting with rage as he trembled and prepared to attack.

"Shh~. All right, go in peace! In your next life, do not meet me again!"

As he spoke, Mukade's blade instantly pierced Hayato's heart.

Hayato stared blankly at him, as though he wanted to say something. Yet in the end, only hoarse gurgling sounds escaped him, and the light in his eyes gradually faded.

Mukade wiped the blood from his blade and looked coldly at Hayato's corpse on the ground. He muttered to himself, "What did you want to say? That you had treated me well? That my ambitions were too great? That I would not succeed?"

Mukade sheathed the cleaned blade. The desert wind suddenly fell still for an instant, as though even nature were mourning this betrayal.

He crouched down and tore the ANBU token from Arai Hayato's corpse, his fingertips stroking the Sand Village emblem engraved upon it.

"The elders' pawn, the Kazekage's loyal dog... You will never understand."

He sneered softly and casually tossed the token toward the dune.

The sand wriggled like a living thing and instantly swallowed the metal whole.

"This ridiculous fate, this pitiful village—it is so rotten it makes me sick. Heh... Sand Village? It is nothing but a crumbling prison."

Mukade stood amid the raging wind and sand. His mask had long since been removed, revealing a face made grotesque by twisted ambition.

He lowered his head and looked at his palm. Puppet strings coiled around his fingers like the desire now growing wildly within him.

He kicked Arai Hayato's corpse, his boot grinding into blood that had not yet congealed in the sand.

"You think teaching me a few basic puppet techniques counts as a favor? What I want is Sand Village's secret [Crimson Secret Technique]! Those forbidden scrolls hidden in the elders' chambers..."

A low roar suppressed for years rolled from his throat. "Why are only the great clans allowed to learn them? Why can I, Mukade, only be a menial who repairs puppets?!"

The wind and sand suddenly grew violent, scattering his tied-back long hair.

He looked up at the gloomy sky. The rolling sandstorm reflected in his pupils, as though he had already seen the puppet army under his command sweeping across the battlefield.

"What are the Five Great Nations? Once I obtain the Dragon Vein's power, even the Tailed Beasts will kneel before my puppet formation! When that time comes—"

He suddenly snapped a puppet string. In the distance, a scorpion puppet exploded, spraying venom across the gathered Sand Village corpses. The bodies immediately began to hiss, and in the blink of an eye, their original features could no longer be seen.

"I will make Sand Village's elders watch with their own eyes as this 'insignificant little nobody' they despised crushes this village with the puppet techniques they are most proud of!"

He bent down and picked up a fragment of an ANBU mask, his fingertips brushing over its mottled scratches.

"Betrayal? No... Sand Village betrayed me first." The fragment was crushed into powder, trickling through his fingers.

"From today onward, I am no longer Mukade of Sand Village. I am the king of the Puppet Empire—An Lushan!"

Amid his wild laughter, the sand behind him suddenly split apart. A colossal three-meter-tall centipede puppet burst from the earth, its segmented body covered in densely packed venom needles glowing purple, offering the most frenzied tribute to this act of betrayal.