"Undercover?"
Gojō Ryūsen almost thought he had misheard.
Holy Chovy!
He caught up to Cangyue as he traveled by Flying Sword, his voice rising.
"You've only just graduated from the Ninja Academy. You haven't even finished your first mission, and now you're planning to infiltrate an organization made up entirely of dangerous Missing-nin?"
Cangyue lay on his side on the Flame Sword.
"Why not?"
"Of course you can't!"
Gojō Ryūsen pushed off the treetops, keeping pace beside him.
"A normal infiltration mission requires a cover identity, passwords, rendezvous points, communication channels, and an extraction plan prepared in advance."
"The infiltrator also needs extensive training in disguise, intelligence gathering, and handling scrutiny."
"You don't just injure two of their members, get invited to join, and decide on the spot to sneak in and have a look!"
Cangyue looked thoughtful.
"So how long has Konoha been investigating the Akatsuki?"
Gojō Ryūsen faltered slightly.
"Most Akatsuki members wear Akatsuki cloaks."
"They're mostly dangerous Missing-nin from various villages."
"They've long taken on warfare, assassination, and bounty contracts in the underworld."
Cangyue waited a moment.
"That's it?"
"That's already important intelligence."
"How many members does the Akatsuki have?"
Gojō Ryūsen fell silent.
"What abilities does their leader have?"
Silence.
"Where's their base?"
More silence.
"Why are they gathering Missing-nin from different villages, and what's their ultimate goal?"
Gojō Ryūsen's expression grew darker and darker.
He couldn't answer a single question.
Cangyue sat up, took paper and a pen from his mission pouch, and spread the paper over the Flame Sword's sheath.
The Flame Sword flew perfectly steadily.
The pen touched down without the slightest wobble.
Gojō Ryūsen leaned closer to look.
Several large words were written at the top of the page.
Application for a long-term undercover mission.
Mission objective: investigate the identities, abilities, bases, and ultimate goal of the Akatsuki's members.
Risk level: unknown.
Operative: Kambara Sogetsu.
Gojō Ryūsen read on and soon spotted a line of small print in the remarks section.
The applicant has already received an invitation from the target organization and will soon infiltrate independently. Konoha is requested to complete the paperwork retroactively as soon as possible.
Gojō Ryūsen's eye twitched violently.
"Is this an application or a notification?"
Cangyue finished the final stroke.
"The paperwork can come later."
He blew the ink dry and handed the application to Gojō Ryūsen.
"Opportunities don't stand around waiting."
Gojō Ryūsen accepted the application, feeling for the first time that this thin sheet of paper was heavy enough to burn his hands.
He had to admit that Cangyue had a point.
Konoha had spent years secretly investigating the Akatsuki, yet still had only scattered scraps of intelligence.
Now that the Akatsuki's leader had personally invited Cangyue, this was indeed an opportunity that would be extremely difficult to reproduce.
But sending a twelve-year-old child deep into an organization like that...
It was far too insane, no matter how he looked at it.
[Valor Points +20]
"We're going back to Konoha first."
Gojō Ryūsen put the application away.
"Lord Hokage must decide this."
"The mission isn't finished yet."
"At a time like this, you're still thinking about the Land of Flowers mission?"
Cangyue looked ahead.
"If my first trip out of the village ends with a failed mission on my record, how am I supposed to pick high-level missions later?"
Gojō Ryūsen opened his mouth, but found himself unable to argue.
This kid was planning to infiltrate an organization of dangerous Missing-nin, yet his biggest concern before leaving was his mission record.
The two continued on their way.
Half a day later, a mountain road on the border of the Land of Flowers appeared ahead.
Shouts of battle carried toward them on the mountain wind.
A merchant caravan was trapped in the middle of the road.
Several wagons had overturned, and guards lay sprawled across the ground.
Some were already dead. Those still alive had been bound with ropes and could only watch as the bandits rummaged through the cargo.
Several wandering ninja stood on either side of the mountain road, blood still clinging to their ninja tools.
"Take everything valuable."
The bandit chief planted his foot on a merchant's hand and grinned. "As for the rest, leave no one alive."
The merchant's face was deathly pale.
"You can have everything. Spare the children..."
A blade was already raised.
A sword suddenly rang out overhead.
Humm-
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The purple Flame Sword held Cangyue suspended in midair, while the Thunder Sword floated beside him.
Gojō Ryūsen landed on a nearby treetop, his gaze turning cold at the sight of the bodies on the ground.
This wasn't their first ambush.
Bones lay scattered beside the road, half buried by windblown sand, and flags stolen from other caravans still hung from the wagons.
But the bandit chief failed to recognize them as Konoha ninja.
All he saw was a young boy lying on a sword, which he assumed was some expensive flying Ninja Tools.
"Another fat lamb."
He kicked the merchant aside and pointed his blade at Cangyue.
"Leave the swords and your money, and I'll give you a quick death."
Cangyue lowered his gaze over the mountain road.
The dead guards.
The bound merchants.
And the children hiding beneath the wagons, their hands clamped tightly over their mouths.
Cangyue wasn't bloodthirsty.
But neither would he ask victims to forgive those who swung blades at them.
Anyone who chose to block a road and murder people should be prepared to be killed in turn.
"Teacher Ryūsen."
Cangyue slowly sat up.
"What are the mission requirements?"
Gojō Ryūsen glanced over the intelligence scroll.
"Eliminate the wandering ninja and bandits occupying the mountain road."
"There's no requirement to capture them alive."
Before his words had faded, the Thunder Sword vanished.
Only a streak of blue lightning remained on the mountain road.
Slash!
The bowstrings snapped all at once.
Several bandits' Ninja Tools pouches slid from their waists.
The tripwires set up near the wagons were severed with a single stroke.
The bandit chief's expression changed sharply.
"Attack!"
Two wandering ninja immediately began forming hand seals.
Their fingers had barely crossed when lightning swept past them.
Blood sprayed.
Both pairs of hands fell to the ground.
Before they could scream, the Thunder Sword doubled back and pierced both their throats.
Thud!
The bodies fell.
The remaining ninja finally realized that the boy before them was no prey.
"Earth Release: Rock Bullets!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Earth, stone, and fierce winds blasted into the air together.
Cangyue didn't dodge.
The purple Flame Sword flew out from beneath his feet, tracing an elegant arc through the air.
The Violet Flame surged in the wind.
Far from extinguishing the fire, the Wind Release made it engulf the entire mountain road in an instant.
Boom!
The rock bullets exploded amid the Violet Flame.
The Flame Sword pierced the curtain of fire and drove through the caster's chest, then skimmed along the ground around the bandit chief.
A ring of Violet Flame rose in its wake.
Trapped in the center, the bandit chief's hair rapidly singed and curled in the scorching heat.
"Kill him!"
He roared in terror.
More than a dozen bandits charged at Cangyue at once.
Cangyue still hadn't touched the ground.
The Thunder Sword darted back and forth along the mountain road.
Every time the sword rang, someone fell.
Some had their hearts pierced.
Some had their throats slit.
Others turned to flee, only to make it a few steps before purple swordlight pierced their chests from behind.
No drawn-out struggle.
No mercy.
Lightning and Violet Flame wove past each other like two roaming dragons harvesting lives.
[Valor Points +30]
The bandit chief completely panicked.
"Stop!"
"We surrender!"
Cangyue looked at him.
"Did you stop when they surrendered?"
The bandit chief froze.
The next instant, the purple Flame Sword thrust in from outside the ring of fire.
Its blade pierced his chest.
Violet Flame poured into the wound, and his scream lasted only an instant before cutting off abruptly.
The last few wandering ninja split up and fled toward the woods.
Gojō Ryūsen formed hand seals and slapped the ground.
"Earth Release: Rock Prison!"
The ground suddenly heaved upward, and thick stone walls sealed off both ends of the mountain road.
Before the fugitives could change direction, the Flame and Thunder Swords swept in from either side.
Violet and blue sword light crossed in a flash.
Several heads rolled to the ground.
The mountain road fell silent again.
From the first strike to the finish, only a moment had passed.
Cangyue guided the Thunder Sword to sever the ropes binding the merchants, then had the Flame Sword gather up the scattered violet flames to keep the fire from reaching the goods.
He did not save those bandits.
Nor did he leave them any so-called chance to reform.
Cangyue lay back down on his side atop the Flame Sword and slowly flew over the corpses strewn across the ground.
"Before you block someone else's path..."
The violet blade swept across the leader's longsword, cutting it in two.
"...ask yourself how much road you have left."
Everyone in the caravan looked up at him, speechless for a long time.
A child who had nearly been killed crawled out from beneath a wagon, his eyes filled with awe.
Gojō Ryūsen stood atop the stone wall, his grip on his sword slowly loosening.
He had originally intended to use the Land of Flowers mission to observe the choices Cangyue would make when facing real enemies.
Now he had his answer.
He did not kill indiscriminately.
But against enemies who had already killed and intended to keep killing, he showed no mercy.
He was more decisive than many ninja on their first mission.
[Valor Points +50] [Total Valor Points: 2636] [Currently Available Valor Points: 781]
Officials from the Land of Flowers arrived soon afterward.
After confirming that all the bandits occupying the mountain road were dead, they immediately sent people to treat the caravan's wounded, gather the bodies, and issue proof of mission completion.
Gojō Ryūsen handed Cangyue a Konoha emergency intelligence scroll.
"When you need to pass on intelligence, put the scroll in the dead drop at the Land of Fire's border."
"The Anbu will collect it at regular intervals."
Cangyue took the scroll.
Gojō Ryūsen was still uneasy.
"The most important thing about working undercover is keeping a low profile."
"Don't draw attention to yourself, and don't reveal your objective carelessly."
Cangyue nodded.
"I'll try."
The Flame and Thunder Swords rose into the air together.
A streak of violet light and a streak of blue flashed across the sky above the Land of Flowers.
People across half the nearby city looked up.
Gojō Ryūsen stood on the mountain road, silent for a long time.
He lowered his gaze to the infiltration application in his hand.
In the remarks field, the words "The applicant has already infiltrated on his own" were especially glaring.
A moment later, he took the mission completion certificate and the enemy corpses, then turned and headed for Konoha.
Meanwhile, Cangyue was already heading north using Flying Sword.
Dark clouds hung low ahead.
A curtain of rain that never ceased all year round gradually appeared at the edge of the horizon.
Before you continue