Soul Firefly Technique

"What happened to those who failed their missions?! Tell me!"

The Root ninja standing on the high platform wore a mask Kato Osamu had never seen before. His voice was not loud, but it carried an iron-blooded chill.

A-Three had died a year ago. This man wearing an unfamiliar mask was also called A-Three.

"Mission failure means suicide to atone!"

Below the platform stood twenty children of eight or nine, their voices cold and uniform.

Most of them had a vicious glint in their eyes. Though still young, they were already not to be underestimated.

For children like them, who had never known what was right or wrong, their standards for judging things had been entirely shaped by the teachings they received.

Kato Osamu remained expressionless.

Over three years, he had learned how to perfectly hide his emotions and wear the proper mask.

Coldness was the mark of a Root ninja, and it was also the mask Kato Osamu had chosen for himself.

"Very good. You have one hour. In one hour, I want to see a prey in every one of your hands."

"Earth Release—Iron Prison!"

The Root ninja on the high platform began to use ninjutsu.

"Rumble..."

The earth began to shake. Earthen walls rose from every direction, forming a circular enclosure roughly a hundred meters across.

Kato Osamu looked at the Root ninja on the platform and understood that someone capable of effortlessly using such ninjutsu was at least a Jonin.

Meanwhile, criminals sent from Konoha Prison were led into the Iron Prison one by one.

"Eight, nine, ten..."

Staring at those criminals, Kato Osamu understood what this meant. He simply had not expected it to come so soon.

At most, fifteen people would survive.

He turned his head and swept his gaze around.

They were only eight or nine years old, yet they were already scrutinizing the people beside them. Some had even begun to grow wary of one another.

"Enter!"

The Root ninja on the platform gave a low shout, and everyone vanished in an instant.

Those who could stand here were all elites among their peers. Those who had failed to endure had long since become dry bones.

The Three Basic Techniques, the foundations of ninja taijutsu, kunai and shuriken, even some low-level ninjutsu—everyone had already mastered them proficiently.

When their lives were threatened, people always unleashed incomparable potential.

The prison formed by Earth Release was not particularly large, yet it was now eerily silent, filled with killing intent and desolation that permeated every inch of air.

"Other than the high platform in the middle, there are ninja presences on the earthen walls to the east, south, west, and north as well..."

Kato Osamu chose a concealed tree and quietly hid behind it, sensing every movement around him.

The first things he noticed were the Root ninjas atop the four walls, openly radiating powerful presences.

"Looks like this assessment isn't ordinary..."

Without dwelling on it, he shifted his attention to the other hidden corners around him.

Forests, bushes, rocky outcrops—enemies could be hidden anywhere within the Iron Prison.

Every person was someone he needed to watch out for.

Spiritual light emerged in Kato Osamu's hand. Like tiny fireflies, it slowly drifted away. Their glow gradually faded until they became transparent, flying into the forest and vanishing as they searched in every direction.

These little tricks were one application of his Spirit Transformation Technique. During his three years in Root, he had experienced many similar trials, yet he had never used the Spirit Transformation Technique even once.

Though this secret technique was an excellent tool for assassination, its drawback was obvious. Once his soul left his body, his body could not move. Without a hidden place to store it or someone he absolutely trusted to guard it, he would merely be placing himself in the most dangerous situation possible.

He could only seek another path. Fortunately, he seemed to possess some special talent regarding souls, allowing him to successfully develop several small techniques.

Clusters of Chakra containing a trace of his spiritual awareness dispersed. Without deliberate control, they scattered randomly through the forest and quietly concealed themselves.

"Ah!"

A sudden scream shattered the forest's silence.

"Soul Firefly Technique!"

Upon hearing it, Kato Osamu activated his ninjutsu. The Chakra clusters lurking throughout the forest were instantly triggered, transmitting images of their surroundings back to him before dispersing without a trace.

In an instant, he located seven or eight people.

Aside from the criminals who had never cultivated Chakra, anyone with even slightly sharper senses detected the Chakra fluctuations the instant the Soulfire Insects activated and realized they had been exposed.

Noises began rising and falling through the forest, punctuated by occasional screams.

The children who had hidden themselves began spotting one another as they leaped about, choosing either to flee or launch surprise attacks.

Only those bold criminals who did not understand what was happening remained quietly in ambush.

In Kato Osamu's perception, two men in their forties wearing prison clothes were hiding behind a large tree.

He quietly approached them.

Fools were foolish no matter when or where they were. It was hard to imagine that people who had lived in this world for so many years still judged differences in strength by age and physical size.

As he silently came up behind them, Kato Osamu did not expect the two criminals to still be watching a girl.

"Even if I die, I'm taking someone down with me."

"Hehe, this little girl is pretty cute..."

Kato Osamu narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the girl in the distance...

"D-Five..."

She was the only girl among the remaining twenty and also the strangest one—she possessed a warm, gentle smile.

Even in such harsh Root...

Kato Osamu had never provoked her. If he could not understand someone, he stayed away. Someone who smiled like that was certainly not as simple as she appeared.

Just as he was about to leave, D-Five suddenly turned around. A kunai skimmed past the tree beside Kato Osamu.

"Come out. I know you're there..."

D-Five drew a kunai and gripped it in her hand, watching her surroundings vigilantly.

"Won't you come out? Or are you going to keep avoiding every battle with your sensory abilities and hide until the end of every trial like before...?"

"I don't avoid every battle..."

Kato Osamu pushed off the ground and revealed himself. Two shuriken shot forth, piercing the two criminals' throats.

These criminals were merely ordinary people. Even if they were a little stronger than average, the gap between them and ninjas was far too great.

"So it was you, Wei..."

D-Five silently watched the two criminals collapse. She merely glanced at them without moving, but Kato Osamu could clearly sense that she had become more serious than before.

"Don't be nervous. I have no interest in doing meaningless things, especially meaningless battles."

"These two should be enough to pass this trial."

D-Five looked at the black-haired youth before her, his entire body wrapped in a black cloak. Then she suddenly smiled softly and lowered her kunai.

"Wei, who only knows how to run away—your reputation truly precedes you..."

"Not worth mentioning. I only did it to survive."

"Because you were afraid others would join forces and kill you, you desperately developed sensory ninjutsu. What a genius you are, Wei..."

Kato Osamu gave D-Five a surprised look. The girl showed him her signature gentle smile again.

"Just insignificant tricks. Not worth mentioning..."

Kato Osamu quietly gathered Chakra beneath his feet and swiftly threw out a kunai. In the instant D-Five dodged, he shot into the forest and vanished.

Kato Osamu fled without even taking the prey he had killed. He could sense that the emotions this girl displayed seemed full of light and gentleness. Over the past three years, he had also come to roughly understand his talent for sensing souls.

Other than certain exceptionally powerful beings, from whom he could not sense any information at all, few could disguise the fluctuations of their souls so flawlessly.

This girl truly isn't simple...