Chương 49: Slaughter II

"What's the play?" Hayate Gekko whispered.

"Do we storm the front?"

"We pick off the sentries first," Zhen replied.

"It stops them from bolting when the noise starts. Not that they could outrun us, but chasing them down is a headache I'd rather avoid."

"Agreed. Lead the way." Throughout the exchange, Yunmi Gekko trailed behind them in silence. This was their mission, their threshold to cross. He was merely there as a safeguard, acting like an emotionless NPC guide in some tutorial—a role common for Jonin assigned to lead new squads. Zhen led the team toward the next lookout.

The sensory perception granted by his white natural energy acted as a sophisticated scanning radar; it didn't just pick up chakra signatures but etched the very topography of the terrain into his mind. It wasn't quite as "broken" as the Hyuga clan's Byakugan—those X-ray-sighted specialists were essentially born with cheat codes—but it was more than enough. As they neared the position, Yugao Uzuki spoke up, her voice steady.

"Let me take this one. I can handle it." Zhen didn't object.

"Go. Just be careful. There are only two of them, and they're both civilians." The young girl tightened her grip on her hilt, took a bracing breath, and slipped into the cavernous shadows using the same silent approach Hayate had demonstrated earlier. By the time Zhen and the others entered, Yugao was trembling slightly, but she had successfully completed her bloody debut. Such was the life of a shinobi. From the day they entered the Academy, their psychological conditioning began.

Very few ever suffered a crisis of conscience over taking a life. If they did, their only options were early retirement or a transfer to a non-combat department. The first step was always the hardest, but once taken, the rest followed with grim fluidity. They spent the next hour systematically dismantling the perimeter guard. Finally, under Zhen's guidance, they converged on an unassuming, broad island deep within the Dog-Tooth Archipelago.

Before them lay a wide stretch of water where a large merchant vessel sat at anchor. A makeshift pier had been constructed at the base of the island, with a steep set of stone stairs carved into the cliff face leading toward a lit cavern entrance. Laughter and light spilled out into the night. This was the heart of the Sea Shark Syndicate. After silently neutralizing the outside guards, Yunmi Gekko finally spoke.

"Zhen, do you sense any ninja inside?"

"Two. Their chakra fluctuations are roughly on par with the Chunin instructors back at the Academy."

"Do you need me to step in?" Hayate intervened immediately.

"No, Sensei. Leave them to us."

"Fine. Go. Clean house." The three disciples exchanged a glance, drew their steel, and plunged into the depths. The tunnel opened into a massive, brightly lit hall filled with a cacophony of debauchery. It was a scene of Bacchanalian excess: men in mismatched, garish attire were deep in their cups, gambling, or passed out in drunken stupors. A group of young women in revealing clothing served them with hollow eyes, while civilian men, abducted as slaves, scurried about pouring wine and delivering platters of food.

Whenever a slave stumbled, he was met with a hail of kicks and blows, followed by the raucous, cruel jeering of the onlookers. To these brigands, this cavern was a paradise. Hayate and Yugao had never witnessed such filth. In that moment, any lingering hesitation vanished, replaced by a singular, cold intent: Kill them all. Compared to the other hidden villages, Konoha's shinobi generally possessed a more upright moral compass—a lingering legacy of Hashirama Senju's idealistic foundation.

Hayate and Yugao tore into the crowd like a gale. Blades rose and fell; the feast of laughter was instantly severed by screams of agony. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Zhen performed a swift hand seal, manifesting three Shadow Clones to sweep the auxiliary rooms. He then joined the fray, moving with electric speed. Every strike was surgical, his blade whispering across throats with practiced ease. Was it supposed to feel nauseating?

If so, Zhen didn't feel it. After the initial dissonance of his first kill, he now felt only a grim, efficient satisfaction. Watching the panic-stricken pirates fall, seeing them clutch their necks like fish gasping for air on dry land—it possessed a certain dark aesthetic. Is art an explosion? Is art eternal? No... art is the spray of crimson as steel meets flesh. Zhen realized with a start that once the gates of slaughter were opened, he might be a bit of a deviant.

The honest man who wouldn't have harmed a fly in his previous life apparently had a very different side buried deep within. When the violence finally ceased, the hall was a graveyard. The captives huddled in the corners, trembling as they watched the carnage. There were no sobs, only looks of vindictive relief as they stared at the corpses of their tormentors. For some, a quick death was too good for these bastards; they deserved days of agony. Zhen didn't care for torture.

He wasn't there for vengeance; he was there for a paycheck. His objective was the total elimination of the Sea Shark Syndicate within the Land of Fire's borders. Mission accomplished. Yugao, coming down from her adrenaline high, looked at the sea of bodies and felt a wave of revulsion, though it was quickly eclipsed by a sense of righteous justice. Hayate walked over to the survivors.

"Are any members of the Syndicate hiding among you?" The captives exchanged looks and shook their heads. No "clever" pirates were trying to play the victim today.

"Zhen, where are the two ninja?" Hayate asked, glancing at the surrounding rooms.

"In the stone chamber at the back. The one with the door still shut." The two pirate leaders had been watching through a peephole since the chaos began. They knew exactly who had arrived—only Konoha would send a cleanup crew like this. They had no intention of fighting, even if their opponents looked like mere children. Being a rogue ninja was about easy money and the high life, not throwing one's life away in a lost cause. They had decided to bolt.

Their crates of gold and valuables were already packed—two heavy chests of ill-gotten gains. Unfortunately for them, one of Zhen's clones had already cut off their escape through the secret passage. Zhen had no interest in witty banter. As the two leaders drew kunai to clear their path, he initiated with several bursts of Wind Style: Shadowless Blade. The invisible ripples of air were far beyond the capabilities of two rogue Chunin.

Before they could even register the danger, their hands—along with their weapons—were shredded by the razor-sharp wind chakra. Amidst their screams, Zhen lunged forward, delivering two powerful kicks that sent them crashing through their own door and skidding across the hall floor into the pile of corpses. Both were men in their late twenties, dressed in ordinary clothes but wearing headbands. One bore the mark of the Hidden Stone, the other the Hidden Sand.

Both headbands had a deep horizontal scratch through the symbol—the mark of the traitor. Zhen found the sight rife with irony. Why did these men continue to wear the headbands they had betrayed? Did they think a defaced Five Great Village symbol earned them more "street cred" in the underworld? Did being a rogue from a major village serve as a mark of quality? The hierarchy of discrimination existed even among criminals.

I might be a common thug, but as a Harvard dropout, I'm still better than a vocational school grad, or so the logic seemed to go. The real Zhen looked down at the two crippled ninja.

"I'm curious," he said.

"The Sand and the Stone are currently at war. How do you two traitors get along so well? Don't you hate each other?" The lanky Sand rogue spat derisively.

"That's the village's grudge. What does it have to do with me? Dying for some abstract cause... that's for fools."

"You certainly have a clear perspective on life," Zhen remarked. The burly Stone rogue, sensing an opening, chimed in.

"If you agree, then why bother with us, Leaf ninja? Let us go. You can have all the gold in that room. It's yours." Zhen felt his intelligence had been insulted. He stepped forward and silenced them both with two swift strokes. If I kill you, the money is mine anyway. Of course, being a polite young man, he kept that thought to himself. Saying it aloud didn't exactly fit the "Will of Fire." Yunmi Gekko walked in, producing sealing scrolls to store the bodies.

As rogue ninja, their heads were worth a bounty, and the Intelligence Division would want to rummage through their brains for any scrap of useful data. For a shinobi, the interrogation didn't necessarily require a living subject. Given their mediocre strength, it was unlikely they had any anti-interrogation seals placed on their minds.

"Is that the lot of them?" Zhen dispelled his Shadow Clones.

"Done, Sensei. I've cleared the auxiliary rooms. The cash and valuables are in the back office."

"Excellent. Have the survivors gather their things. We're taking that merchant ship directly back to Hama Port. We'll need the local officials to sign off on the completion of the mission—and they can handle the disposal of the vessel."