Ready for a Fight?

Yongye released her arm and slipped both hands back into his pockets. Moonlight fell across his face, making the smile at the corner of his mouth unmistakable.

He did not answer. He did not need to.

The facts had already given her the answer. She simply found it too hard to believe.

Yakushi Nonō stared at his face, her pupils slowly contracting.

The Eight Gates Release, multiple Shadow Clones, Sharingan Genjutsu, medical techniques of unbelievable power—and now the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God.

Any one of those abilities would have been enough to make a ninja famous throughout the Shinobi World. This man had them all.

She swallowed and exclaimed, "You... you really are a dragon!"

Her voice was steadier than before, but she could not suppress the awe that seeped into her bones.

At that moment, her loyalty was no longer born entirely of coercion. She genuinely felt some of it.

The strong commanded respect. That had always been the way of the Shinobi World.

From the day she first picked up a Kunai, that truth had been carved into her bones. Danzo was powerful, so she had no choice but to bow her head.

But Danzo's power was the viciousness of a man hiding in the shadows, the underhanded kind that could never stand the light of day.

The man before her was different.

He still had many hidden cards no one knew about.

Yet the strength he had already shown was enough to make all of Konoha bow its head. Even the Hokage could do nothing about him.

She looked at Yongye's handsome face in the moonlight. Her lips parted as she prepared to say something flattering to draw closer to him.

Yongye spoke at an unhurried pace.

"Kneel down now..."

Yakushi Nonō froze.

Yongye said mockingly,