Naruto: Wolf of the Hidden Leaf

The night was quiet, almost too quiet.

The full moon hung high above the forest, casting a soft silver light over everything. A cool breeze moved through the trees, brushing against my skin like a whisper. The air was humid but not uncomfortable. If you weren't in the middle of a battlefield, you might even say the weather was nice. Peaceful.

But my skin crawled.

I didn't know if it was the full moon, the smell of blood still fresh on my clothes, or just the tension in the air. Maybe it was all of it. Maybe it was something deeper. Something that had been building up inside me. My instincts were sharper than ever. My eyes scanned the shadows, my muscles moved without hesitation, and my grip on my sword felt natural, like the weapon was part of me.

I moved fast. Too fast for the eye to follow. It would have looked like teleportation to anyone watching. One moment I was there, the next I was gone, flickering between trees like a ghost.

Every step was calculated. My body stayed low, my breathing steady. I didn't waste a single movement. My sword was drawn, its edge catching the light. Blood still clung to the blade. I could see it clearly, even in the dark.

The blood didn't bother me. I had killed earlier tonight

I have been quite curious about how it felt to take a life for quite some time. And now that I have done it, I didn't feel much different. Not much different at all.

Maya would most definitely say 'I told you so' if she met with me tonight. Remembering Maya out of nowhere was a bad omen. A very bad omen. I have tried not to remember her for quite some time in this life. Those beautiful sets of hazel eyes haunt me still. No matter how much time had passed.

I metaphorically slapped myself to reality. It was go time. My enhanced senses along with the shared vision with Umbra feeding me with information in real time.

I was the controller of this battlefield and I will win.

I have left a shadow clone and Umbra with Sayuri and Daigo. Sayuri and Daigo was already familliar with their fighting styles and they've had experience in mock battles. Me being there personally won't help them as much as I would've liked. At the same time, leaving them alone to deal with more than ten opponents was akin to signing their death sentence.

So, I sent a shadow clone and Umbra with them to give them support using genjutsu, and genjutsu only. Using ninjutsu was chakra depleting and I had no desire to waste any chakra than it was absolutely necessary. Specially considering one of the chakra signature I had sensed.

A jonin level chakra signature.

Now, I might be the strongest genin in Konoha right now, but I still had my limits. If facing a jonin wasn't enough, there was an entourage of four chunins beside him that wasn't at all leaving his side. Even when all the others had left to attack Sayuri and Daigo. This made it clear that they were not barbarians. They might be bloodthirsty cultists, but they were still trained. Specially the jonin leading them. The 'supposed bandit leader' we we going to meet. The missing nin from Kumogakure.

He was much younger than I expected him to be. His skin tone was dark, his eyes blue and his hair mimicked the colour of clouds. He was wearing the official shinobi jonin dress of his village.

Wearing the uniform of the country you betrayed to join a literal blood cult. What a joke. Maybe this is why I couldn't feel anything different about myself when I had killed tonight. Not after I had seen what they had done.

How can I feel bad about killing a bunch of monsters? I was doing them a favor after all.

I was taking the long route and coming from the back of the group. If I can kill only a couple of enemies in a surprise attack, then I would consider that a win for me.

At the same time I couldn't take a chance if me being discovered by a sensory ninja. So, with great effort and use of multiple genjutsus, I had made my presence minimized. So much so that I had truly become one with the night.

I had no sound of my footsteps, no vision of my torso and no smell of my body. It's as if I wasn't even there.

I slowly and carefull took my position right behind the group, right above the entrance of the tunnel they had come out of minutes prior. Most of their attention was towards the battle in front of them.

The missing nin from Kumokagure was instructing his four personal guards regarding how the battle was unfolding on the other side.

"Look at their teamwork. It's quite embarassing that our forces are like this. They're fighting like they are drunk or something. Clearly the wolf boy is using genjutsu." He said with a displeased voice. "Have none of you even learned how to use Kai? Does your lord not teach you of basic survival skill?"

Hearing his displeasure one of his guards spoke up,

"Do not talk lightly about our religion, outsider!" One of the 'bodyguards' barked up at the missing nin.

"You are a glorified security guard. Nothing more, nothing less. Do not dare slander our Lord's name. Otherwise, I just might slip and tell the prophet about your blasphemy." He said with a grin.

Yeah, he definitely did not like their new boss. Eavesdropping on their conversation had given me some key information that might be useful for me later on.

But now, I needed to kill some cultist.

I jumped from my spot right towards the group. To keep my stealth active as long as I could, I didn't even coat my sword with chakra. Not that I needed to. Why would you even need a sword, when your punches can literally blast someone's body off?

My first target, the annoying one who was threatening the cloud ninja to report to the Prophet. Being a snich was not cool.

Hasn't he ever heard the saying, snitches get stiches?

I straightened my left palm and dived right towards his windpipe. Before anyone can understand what happened, blood and gore showered everywhere as they experienced first-hand what a simple chop can do in the hands of a person with unbelievable level of chakra control.

The snitch gurgled out blood through every pore of his body as he fell down instantly. Although I have crushed his throat throughly, t seemed that he wasn't going to get a quick death.

I didn't have time to lament my ability to kill instantly as I brandished my sword with quick precision. The sword, infused with raw chakra moved towards the bodyguard to my right.

But I was in a crouched position after landing from the jump, so I didn't exactly have the ability to go for his head.

But, his legs were fine enough though. The blade cleaved through one leg cleanly, but slipped on the second as his collapsing body twisted away, saving it barely

Tens of kunais and shurikens were thrown at me instantly as I dodged them at the same time as I fell back towards the treeline.

Quicky stabbing my sword to the ground, I performed multiple hand-signs and slapped towards the ground.

Earth Style: Mud Wall

I did not have enough time to rest after performing the ninjutsu as a volley of fireball was thrown at me. I used my sword to deflect most of them and dodged the others.

The ground started shaking as the Mud Wall erected right where the entrance of the tunnel had been.

This was the only ninjutsu I had learned from Kurenai. A sort of compensation for the blunder she did on the first night we met.

One B-rank jutsu.

One which was proving to be extremely useful for me right now.

"Trying to stop us from going in the tunnel so that we can't attack with a home field advantage." The cloud ninja said in a sort of impressed tone, "Smart really. It seems that the leaf had not yet stopped sending children to battles. I really wish they would've done that already. After all, I really hate killing kids."