A Gentleman's Gift

Kakashi Hatake stared gravely at the Cloud Shinobi jonin before him. More than ten cuts of varying sizes marked his body. Though the wounds were shallow, most having barely broken the skin, he had still been injured.

The frigid north wind roared through the forest with murderous force, like sharp blades piercing through his jonin vest and making the exposed wounds sting.

The goateed Cloud Shinobi jonin held his blade across his body, his expression twisted as he panted heavily.

"Kid from Konoha, you're really something..."

Kakashi had landed a solid kick beneath his ribs, seemingly breaking several of them. He forced himself upright, but every breath sent a dull ache through him.

The entire forest was gloomy. The fallen trees seemed to have opened a round lid over the hidden woods, revealing thick, murky grayish-yellow clouds overhead.

Both of them watched every movement the other made. At that moment, even the sound of breathing seemed like a crime.

"Whoosh!"

The branches swayed in the gale, rustling with falling leaves, and Kakashi and the Cloud Shinobi jonin vanished in an instant.

Gripping the hilt with both hands, Kakashi bent his knees slightly and burst forward, cracking the ground beneath his feet as he charged at the Cloud Shinobi jonin like a hawk skimming the earth.

The Cloud Shinobi jonin swiftly raised his Kunai to block, but Kakashi's short blade had already reached his face in an instant.

"So fast! Damn it!"

The white-haired brat before him seemed to have unleashed unparalleled potential, becoming even faster. Startled, the Cloud Shinobi jonin quickly shifted his stance and used his Kunai to fend off Kakashi's attacks.

Blocking was naturally faster than slashing, and a Kunai was much lighter than a short blade. The Cloud Shinobi jonin's Kunai tangled with the blade, and the experienced Cloud Shinobi jonin did not let down his guard in the slightest.

A relentless barrage descended like a storm. The Cloud Shinobi jonin's Kunai danced through the air, continuously colliding with Kakashi's short blade.

"Earth Style: Rock Spikes!"

The instant the short blade and Kunai collided again, sharp stone spikes suddenly erupted from beneath the Cloud Shinobi jonin's feet. Unable to dodge in time, he could only stomp down hard and leap back more than ten meters.

Only after landing did blood slowly seep from the cut on one side of his cheek where the blade had grazed him.

"Konoha really does produce endless geniuses..."

The Cloud Shinobi jonin had roughly gauged Kakashi's strength. A boy of merely twelve or thirteen was faintly suppressing him; he was undoubtedly one of Konoha's geniuses.

"Your captain has probably dealt with Daiko by now. Looks like I'll be falling into your hands today..."

The mention of his companion's death did not stir much emotion in the Cloud Shinobi jonin. He merely glanced around covertly. Tiny insects had already crawled all over the gray-brown trees. As far as he knew, the Aburame Clan jonin leading the team was lurking nearby, guarding this young genius.

He seemed to have become the whetstone for this boy!

Only then did Kato Xu shift his attention from Kakashi's battle with the Cloud Shinobi jonin to the Cloud Shinobi girl before him.

The Cloud Shinobi girl gripped her Kunai, her nerves taut as she stared fixedly at the hooded boy concealing his face, searching for even the slightest opening.

"May I know your name?"

"That way, when I cut you apart, slice you into strips mixed with blood and whatever else, I'll know what name to put on the label..."

"So you won't die with regrets..."

The hood slowly fell away, revealing Kato Xu's sinister smile. The howling cold wind slipped into the Cloud Shinobi girl's collar. Whether from the cold or something else, her body shuddered for no reason.

"I once heard a story. It had a rather interesting punishment..."

"You carve a piece of sandalwood into the shape and size of a sword. Then, holding the sandalwood in one hand and a large wooden mallet in the other, you hammer it into a person through their anus, pierce their entire body, and let it emerge from their mouth."

"That isn't even the most important part. The important part is avoiding every vital organ, so the punished person will not die immediately. They remain alive in agony, worse than death, until they can only watch their entire body rot and fester with maggots before dying in unbearable pain."

"Of course, I won't let anything so disgusting grow on you. I'll suspend you in the air and use the sharpest blade to cut the tender flesh from your entire body, slice by slice, turning you over again and again, cutting without end."

"I'll cut off your nose, cut off your ears. Your face is so beautiful—I'll peel it off layer by layer, perfectly intact, so your beauty can exist forever..."

"Oh, right. I'm also a medical ninja. I won't let you die... I'll let you watch your own flesh being stripped away, and that stark white skeleton will be my final gift to you. A beautiful lady deserves some gentlemanly manners, and that naturally includes a carefully prepared gift..."

"Come, beautiful Cloud Shinobi girl. Let me present my proudest masterpiece. You'll surely be moved to tears..."

Blue ghostly fire flickered through the dark forest as the cold wind howled. Kato Xu hid within the darkness, wearing a cruel, eerie smile.

The Cloud Shinobi girl's throat bobbed as her foot shifted slightly with a creak. It felt as though raindrops had fallen on her forehead, yet all she saw passing before her eyes was vivid red. Drip, drip—dark crimson blood kept falling from all over her body.

Crows also began cawing from the treetops overhead...

"This is a genjutsu!"

"Release!"

The world spun, and the Cloud Shinobi girl suddenly let out a breath of relief. But before she could react, she discovered that her entire body was unable to move. An intense pain shot from her body straight into her brain, as though something inside her was burning hot.

"What?!!"

Her pupils suddenly contracted as though she had seen something unbelievable. Her entire body had been pierced through and hung between two enormous boulders. Sharp blades swept across her body, carving away strips of soft pink flesh stained with blood.

"Feel the pain!"

In her eyes, a figure like a towering giant slowly appeared from the horizon. It was the Konoha boy who had stood before her moments ago!

He swung an enormous long blade across her body. The pain was like having her soul torn apart, making her whole body tremble.

The pain felt like her flesh was being slowly torn apart bit by bit, yet never completely severed, until the skin and flesh of every part of her body hung from her like tangled threads, while her nerves transmitted every inch of pain to her brain.

Time slowly passed. With white bones already exposed, she could no longer endure it. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

"How fragile..."

Looking at the girl before him, tears welled at the corners of her eyes from the agonizing pain. A smile also appeared on Kato Xu's face.

"It seems no one can avoid being moved to tears by such a beautiful gift..."

This was his first time using genjutsu. The girl, who did not seem weak, had fainted merely under his gaze. It appeared that the layered genjutsu enhanced by soul power was quite effective.

"But it's such a pity she didn't get to appreciate the ending..."

Kato Xu chuckled softly and quickly began forming hand seals.

"Soul-Extinguishing Blade!"

The hand seals, which were not particularly complicated to begin with, had been reduced to only three by Kato Xu. The Soul-Extinguishing Blade was essentially just a type of Sealing Jutsu, except what it sealed was an ability.

A faint phantom of a long blade appeared in Kato Xu's hand and slowly pierced into the Cloud Shinobi girl's brow.

"Soul Extraction!"

The Soul-Extinguishing Blade was filled with an aura of greed and plunder. The girl's phantom slowly emerged from her body, transforming into strands of pure soul energy that merged into the blade. As he felt his spirit body steadily filling out, Kato Xu frowned instead.

"This is... false memory!"

As someone proficient in soul techniques, he could sense that the girl's memories concerning those dozen or so Konoha ninja had been completely altered. They were false memories layered over the originals.

If the Soul-Extinguishing Blade had not dissected every strand of soul energy, even he might have mistaken the subtle differences for the girl's original memories. Whoever had constructed those false memories possessed extraordinarily skillful methods.

"If it wasn't them, then who was it?"

"Why implant false memories in them?"

"Could it be... someone had planned all this from behind the scenes? All to provoke Konoha's fury?"

The girl's false memories made Kato Xu's heart sink. The ability to silently alter the memories of these Cloud Shinobi was no trivial matter and involved far-reaching consequences. It was as though he had once again touched upon some hidden darkness within the Shinobi World.

There seemed to be some force hidden in the shadows interfering with the entire war, yet neither Konoha nor the Cloud Shinobi had noticed its existence.

"Anyone orchestrating such a grand performance must have an ulterior motive..."

"What exactly does the mastermind behind this want?"

As he carefully considered every detail of the matter, Kato Xu detected not the slightest anomaly. Had he not happened to discover the girl's false memories, even he would have harbored no suspicion.

"Creak..."

A sudden sound rang out, and Kato Xu, lost in thought, abruptly turned around!