Outside Windmill Village, the night wind howled through the trees, rustling leaves like whispered warnings. The forest nearby stood still and desolate, cloaked in shadows. In the distance, the village glowed faintly, flickers of warm light dancing like fireflies on the horizon.
"Laugh it up! Drink, drink!"
"This time those fat sheep were really dripping with oil..."
"Yeah! Come on, let's eat chicken tonight!"
Raucous voices echoed from the outskirts of the village, slurred with drink and dripping with arrogance. From his concealed position, Kadoya watched the gathering bandits, drunk off their latest plunder, celebrating without a care in the world.
Judging by their chatter, they had just pulled off a major heist. Their guard was down.
Kadoya bit his thumb, drawing a thin line of blood, and formed a hand seal.
"Summoning Jutsu."
With a puff of smoke, a large number of snakes, each half a meter long, slithered into existence. Silent and slick, they vanished into the tall grass and crept toward the village, infiltrating from every angle.
Without lingering, Kadoya turned and sprinted back through the woods, tracing a path marked earlier by subtle signs. He moved carefully, avoiding hidden traps, until he reached a secluded cave. A large stone sealed the entrance. With practiced ease, he shifted it aside and slipped inside.
The cave was dimly lit, the only source of light a single kerosene lamp. No fire, smoke risked drawing attention.
Kadoya stepped in and sat beside Nawaki, who immediately leaned forward.
"Well?" Nawaki asked, his voice low, eager.
"Wait a bit," Kadoya replied, eyes narrowing. "Shirohebi's still linking with her White Snake Legion. The intel's coming through now."
A few moments passed in silence, broken only by the faint flicker of the lamp.
Then, his eyes sharpened. The snakes had returned the message.
"Orochimaru-sensei was right. There are a lot of them. Four sentry posts, two men at each."
He grabbed a stick and began sketching a rough map on the cave floor.
"Estimated total: around a hundred inside the village."
Nawaki's face tightened. "So… what's the plan? We just charge in?"
"Of course not," Kadoya shook his head, although he could probably just storm the place and kill everyone all by himself. His sensei has already mentioned that one of his faults is that he usually carries too much work.
So even if he storms this place, he won't take all the work and leave his teammate picking up the scraps.
"According to Sensei's intel, the biggest issue is we don't know the strength of their leader," Kadoya said, his brows furrowed. "Orochimaru-sensei was vague. All we know is that a Special Jonin was killed by him."
"So, worst case, the guy's a full-fledged Jonin," Saiguu analyzed, arms crossed.
"If that's true," Nawaki sighed, "we should start packing, buy some local snacks, and quietly get the hell out of here."
He shook his head dramatically. "Look, I may be a genius, but I'm also realistic. I'm nine. Killing a Jonin isn't exactly on my resume."
Kadoya stared at him.
Since when did the class dunce become a genius?
Still, he didn't say it out loud. He wasn't about to sound like some hypocrite who only preached the Will of Fire when it was convenient.
Instead, he smirked. "Honestly, Nawaki, I'm impressed. I was worried you'd get overconfident, think you're the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths, and go charging in like an idiot."
Nawaki's eye twitched. "...Thanks for the vote of confidence."
Saiguu broke in. "So just to summarize, Orochimaru-sensei gave three academy students an assassination mission with a possibly Jonin-level target?"
She gave him a deadpan look. Kadoya just shrugged before speaking nonsense again.
"It's like a beggar patting you on the shoulder and going, 'Hey, I see your chakra is unique, your aura glows, and your face screams Hokage! Take these S-rank jutsu and go save the ninja world!' Would you believe that?"
"Absolutely," Nawaki nodded without hesitation. "That's me to a T!"
Kadoya: "..."
Saiguu: "..."
"...You're even more shameless than him," Saiguu muttered, gesturing to Kadoya.
The cave filled with quiet laughter, easing the lingering tension. It wasn't the same as their bond with Minato, but Nawaki, this fake-Minato, made a decent placeholder for now.
"That leaves us with two possibilities," Saiguu continued. "One, the intel is wrong. Two, Orochimaru-sensei is planning to handle the Jonin himself."
"Right," Kadoya nodded. "Which means our job is to handle the underlings. And considering we're technically still underlings ourselves... well, it balances out."
He glanced outside the cave. "They're drinking now. The best time to strike will be deep into the night. Once the alcohol sets in, most of them will be sluggish, easy targets. Even the ones who wake up won't be at full strength."
"I've also come up with a brilliant plan," Nawaki declared suddenly, puffing out his chest.
Both Kadoya and Saiguu raised their brows. That kind of confidence coming from Nawaki was... dangerous.
"What kind of plan?" Saiguu asked.
Nawaki pulled out a handful of exploding tags, fanning them out like a rich man showing off his wallet.
Kadoya frowned. Is this idiot trying to blow himself up?
"Should we be worried you'll trip and turn yourself into fireworks? How many of those do you even have left?"
Nawaki clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Can't you ever just say something encouraging?"
"If he starts being nice, it usually means someone's about to get hospitalized," Saiguu deadpanned.
She remembered the last time Kadoya said something kind. And someone, mostly Minato, ended up suffering because of it.
Nawaki let out a dry chuckle but went back to rummaging through his bag.
"Not a lot left. We used quite a few against Orochimaru-sensei last time," he admitted. "But it's enough. I just need a few to make things chaotic. Give them a taste of their own mess."
Despite their planning, a nervous silence settled over them again. No matter how well they prepared, this was still their first kill mission.
Plans rarely went exactly as expected. In the end, adaptability was key.
If things went smoothly, great.
If they didn't, Kadoya would be ready.
He would use the cards in his deck to protect the people at his side.
Because the mission could fail. But the lives of his comrades? Non-negotiable.
"Remember what our teacher said. Act within your limits. If it gets out of hand, fall back. Don't get cocky and try to take on ten people alone."
Although the last part was probably meant for him, Kadoya still decided to use his teacher's words and direct them toward his teammate.
He gave them both a firm look, repeating it like a mantra.
...
It was well into the dead of night, around three in the morning. The hour when even the most alert minds dulled, when the world was at its quietest... and most vulnerable.
Shrouded in darkness, the three figures moved like shadows, silent, precise, coiled like vipers waiting to strike.
"Ahh haaah~~"
At one of the sentry posts, two bandits stood guard, yawning miserably.
They were the unlucky ones tonight, stuck with the graveyard shift while the rest of the gang got drunk off their latest haul.
The older bandit was trying to pass the time by droning on with his brand of philosophical nonsense.
"I'm tellin' ya... in Windmill Village, only the real tough ones survive. Gotta be ruthless. But not just loud, stupid ruthless, nah, you gotta be smart ruthless. The kind that makes people scared of you for life."
He leaned back lazily, smirking. "Back in the day, a beggar once patted me on the shoulder and told me I was the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths-"
The words died in his throat.
Literally.
There was no warning, just the soft flutter of leaves behind them, though there hadn't been any wind... or trees nearby.
Then, blood welled at the corners of their mouths.
Twin glints of moonlight caught the edges of something, razor-thin blades of water piercing straight through the throats of both men. They hadn't even realized what hit them.
They crumpled to the ground in eerie unison.
Kadoya stood over the two lifeless bodies, their blood soaking into the dirt beneath them. He stared in silence, his expression unreadable, eerily calm, yet hollow.
According to the memories of his other soul, he had harmed people before… but he had never taken a life with his own hands.
Until now.
But in the world of shinobi, killing was as natural as breathing, no, as necessary as breathing.
He had known this.
He told himself this.
Konoha was peaceful, sure. A haven, maybe. But the ninja world beyond its borders? Brutal. Unforgiving. Merciless.
If he wanted to protect himself… protect those precious to him… then this was a path he had to walk.
He had prepared for this. Repeated the words like a mantra:
"Killing is simple."
He'd even practiced on wild animals to numb himself to the feeling.
But standing here, now that it was real…
He exhaled, trying to slow the wild rhythm of his heartbeat.
"I killed someone," he murmured under his breath.
And then it hit him.
A wave of something hot and cold all at once. Something twisted. Unfamiliar.
His vision swam.
His thoughts unraveled.
Where was he?
What was he doing?
His heart pounded like a drum. His body trembled. The thick, metallic scent of blood clung to his face, making his stomach churn.
Anxiety gnawed at the edges of his mind, clawing for control.
He grit his teeth.
"Damn it…"
Snap!
With a sharp crack, he snapped one of his fingers against the other, jarring himself back to reality. The pain cut through the fog, grounding him. Just enough.
Enough to steady his breathing.
Enough to look again at the two corpses at his feet.
Their eyes were still open.
But he didn't look away.
This was his choice. His burden. His path.
"Enemy attack, there's an enemy!" Suddenly, a loud alarm sounded in the village.
The battle at the three hidden posts finally alarmed the fourth hidden post.
The whole village was like a pot exploding.
Countless lights began to turn on in the rooms. Instantly, the light illuminated the entire village. People rushed out of their doors.
Kadoya forced himself to calm down. He quietly approached a door, his hand forming hand seals before he calmly placed it on the gate.
Black seals began to run across the door, before he quickly took a few steps back.
As soon as they tried to open the door, the seals were triggered, and from the ground, a massive water wave floated in, pushing them back inside.
Kadoya quickly approached the now-soaked gate, his hands blurring through seals.
"Lightning Style: Wild Charge!"
Kadoya places his electrified hands on the water, and the spark of electricity runs through the trail left by his water-trapped.
Unlike Chidori, which was created to do piercing damage, Wild Charge focuses the lightning chakra nature on the user's palm, intensifying it to a higher level than Chidori.
Since he doesn't need to model the lightning into a pointed shape to do piercing damage, he could just increase the amount of electricity he is generating for maximum damage.
Combined with his previous ninjutsu mix fūinjutsu, the "Water Style: Flush Gate Trap" using a clever trick he learns to help him generate water even in the sandy Land of Wind.
Basically, he used a sealing scroll, tossed it into the rivers while passing through the Land of Rivers. And when needed, he just make a seal directly connected to that scroll somewhere deep in the rivers to recreate the effect of a Flush Gate.
Painful scream, and the sound of high electric voltage ran across the village, combined with the attack his teammate created on the other side, sending the whole village into chaos.