Betrayal

The desert's scorching wind carried grit like countless tiny blades scraping against the ANBU masks.

Arai Hayato stood beneath a dune, his mask gleaming with a cold white light beneath the sun, as though boundless killing intent lurked within it.

He raised a hand to signal the team to halt. His leather glove creaked as it rubbed against itself in the silence.

"Captain, Lord Kazekage has strictly forbidden 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 of a middle-aged shinobi.

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

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

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

From the corner of his eye, Arai saw Mukade adjusting his puppet strings. This shinobi, who always wore a humble smile, now reminded him of a scorpion waiting to strike in the desert.

The sand at his feet was flowing in unnatural patterns, as if countless tiny things were moving beneath it.

Arai paused, then continued, "I let them in for two reasons. First, Princess Tsunade's status is what it is. If a conflict breaks out, we will be the ones at a disadvantage regardless of the outcome. Second, I intend to see whether the mastermind bold enough to steal a scroll within the village can still sit still. I want the venomous snake hiding in the dark to crawl out on its own."

There was another half to his words that he did not say aloud: he wanted to see which faction within the village was undermining its stability from behind the scenes.

"Do not let me catch any trace of you. Otherwise, even if you are an elder, I will chop off the claw you dared to extend."

Arai Hayato silently swore to himself.

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

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

He heard the sharp twang of taut threads and smelled the suddenly strong scent of snake gall herb in the air—the mark of poison used exclusively by puppet masters.

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

"Pfft!"

Only when a blade tip pierced through 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 expose 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 wondering 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 ungrateful wretch! I taught you so many puppet techniques. What else could you possibly be dissatisfied with?"

"Hehehe... How many puppets can one person's chakra control? What I want is a puppet army. I want every great nation in the Ninja World to crawl beneath my army, hahahaha..."

"Capture him!"

Hayato clutched his chest and gave the order.

"Too late. After all, I spent every idle day figuring out how to kill all of you. How could I let you resist so easily... Hehehe, die! Letting you die without pain is already my greatest mercy!"

As he spoke, his ten fingers moved slightly. Chakra threads that had appeared at some unknown time twisted deep beneath the sand, and the desert suddenly began to boil.

In an instant, thousands of miniature puppet scorpions burst from beneath the sand. Their tails glimmered with an eerie purple light—the deadly poison was mixed with Sand Village's secret toxins.

The ANBU had barely cut free of the threads binding them when the suddenly lunging scorpion puppets pierced their throats. The venom froze their screams into strange, breathy sounds.

"Ah..."

"You're despicable, Mukade!"

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

Wave after wave of screams rang out. Hayato watched, his eyes splitting with rage, as his subordinates fell one after another. Trembling, he prepared to launch an 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, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end, only hoarse gurgling sounds emerged. The light in his eyes gradually faded.

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

Mukade sheathed the cleaned blade. The desert wind suddenly stilled for a moment, as though even nature were mourning this betrayal.

He crouched down and tore the ANBU token from Arai Hayato's corpse, his fingertips brushing over the Sand Village emblem carved into it.

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

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

The sand writhed like a living creature and instantly swallowed the metal whole.

"This laughable fate, this miserable village—it is so rotten that it makes me sick. Heh... Sand Village? It is nothing but a decaying cage."

Mukade stood amid the raging wind and sand, his mask long removed to reveal a face made ferocious by twisted ambition.

He lowered his head to look at his palm. Puppet strings coiled around his fingers, like the desires now growing wildly within him.

He kicked Arai Hayato's corpse, grinding his boot into the blood that had yet to congeal 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 technique scrolls hidden in the elders' private chambers..."

A low roar, suppressed for years, rolled from his throat. "Why can only the great clans learn them? Why can I, Mukade, only be some menial laborer repairing puppets?!"

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

He raised his head toward the gloomy sky. The rolling sandstorm reflected in his pupils, as though he had already seen the puppet army under his control 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 in response, spraying venom over the gathered Sand Village corpses. The bodies immediately began to hiss, and within moments, their original features could no longer be seen.

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

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

"Betrayal? No... Sand Village betrayed me first." The fragment was crushed into powder and sifted down through his fingers.

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

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