Ranmaru's wide glowing eyes peered into Arthur's cold ones as Raiga froze.
"Ranmaru!" cried Raiga.
"Don't even think about it," Arthur warned, bringing the tip of the sword to the boy's eye. "Drop the swords and step away. Slowly…"
Raiga struggled with the command. But when he saw how serious Arthur's eyes were, the swords were eventually let go of and clattered to the ground. He then took a step back as his eyes never left the terrified Ranmaru.
Suddenly, one of the remaining Kurosuki members materialized behind Arthur to launch a sneak attack. But before their blade could connect, a figure blurred between them: it was a tall, masked Anbu ninja from the Leaf Village, and he kicked the attacker away.
"I wouldn't try that again," the Anbu said in a gravelly voice.
Arthur was genuinely taken aback. Why was an Anbu from the Leaf here of all places? There could only be one logical explanation: Hiruzen had secretly sent him to watch over Arthur.
The Anbu cast a brief glance at the Kurosuki members before turning his attention to Raiga.
"Arthur," he said without looking at him, "I was under orders to make sure your journey was safe. But to think the situation took a dire turn for the worse."
Arthur may have been right, but how could he be so stupid as to think that the Hokage would send a Genin with no experience out alone on their first mission?
He should have known better. But at least he hadn't done anything truly reckless like revealing any of his secret techniques.
Arthur thanked the Anbu for arriving when he did. Granted, there was no need for the save. The earlier sneak attack would have been handled, no doubt.
"It seems you had the situation under control until now," the Anbu continued. He then stared down at Raiga. "You're someone wanted from the Mist Village. Raige Kurosuki, I presume?"
Raiga ignored the newcomer since Ranmaru was still in immediate danger. "I dropped the swords like you wanted. Now leave Ranmaru alone and let us walk away."
"Unfortunately for you," the Anbu replied, "I'm taking you into custody. Dead or alive..."
Raiga's face contorted in fury as he said, "You think you can handle me, a Seven Swordsman of the Mist?!"
"Raiga, no!" Ranmaru screamed. "Don't get hurt for my sake!"
The Anbu ignored both of their cries and pulled out a short sword. Arthur watched the standoff unfold without saying a word.
This was not at all part of the plan.
Raiga picked up his weapons again and clashed with the Anbu. Yet Raiga hesitated in every action because of the captive Ranmaru.
Hand signs formed at a rapid rate as he unleashed his technique: "Water style: water dragon jutsu!"
"Water style: water dragon jutsu!"
Two gargantuan water serpents surged from their person and met head-on.
Ka-splash!
The spray created a temporary fog.
Arthur narrowed his eyes; he had to do something.
With another technique unleashed, the Anbu sent a second water dragon to engulf Raiga in a torrent.
"Argh!" the latter screamed before crashing to the earth.
The Anbu quickly moved to apprehend him, ending the fight.
As he glanced back at Arthur, he said, "Apologies for the delay. Let's get you…" Yet Arthur was nowhere to be seen. What surprised the Anbu more was a single, crimson line that marred Ranmaru's pale forehead. "What?!"
The boy had been stabbed.
It made the Anbu freeze in place. He then raced to Ranmaru's dead body. But the moment he reached it, a strange phenomenon occurred: a stream of gray smoke swirled into his seven orifices.
'Body oxidation jutsu…'
Disoriented, the Anbu spun around. But it was too late.
He coughed before his eyes widened in shock. Then he clutched his throat as his breathing became increasingly erratic. Not long after, his eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground, dead.
Smoke seeped out of his body before slowly reverting into Arthur's physical form. There was no laugh, no smile—only the shadowy features of his face.
The three remaining Kurosuki members, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, stared at Arthur in disguised horror.
"Ra… Ranmaru," Raiga tried. Arthur walked toward him and picked up the Boltswords. "Wh… Where's Ranmaru?" When Arthur heard the faint question, his eyes darted to the defeated man. "Please… don't hurt Ra—"
Shank!
Arthur had stabbed him in the head with no remorse.
After swiping the blood off, he then tucked the weapons into his waist.
The ruthlessness; it was beyond anything the Kurosuki members had ever witnessed.
With the Anbu eliminated and Raiga killed, the canyon fell into an eerie silence. Arthur, however, wasn't finished. He had loose ends to clean up.
'Water style: surface slice...'
A sharp, thin blade of water carved through the air and sliced through one of the Kurosuki member's neck. A single gurgle was heard before his body went limp, causing the remaining members to flee in fear.
Arthur remained impassive.
Since the Anbu, in his last moments, had uttered Arthur's name within earshot of the Kurosuki members, that made them potential witnesses. And if there was something Arthur knew to do during these types of missions, it was to leave no witnesses behind.
Arthur sprang into action while using the High-Speed Movement technique, allowing him to block their escape.
"Don't kill us!" the smaller one yelled. "We were forced to be Raiga's henchmen; we won't tell anyone."
"As if I'd believe that," Arthur responded.
He knew better than to trust those words. The first time he tried helping anyone in this world, he was lied to and thrown in prison.
A few moments played out, and he easily disposed of them like flies.
When he was done with them, he finally returned to the Anbu's body. There was a small pouch containing the man's identification. To make sure this wasn't a fake, he removed the man's mask, only to see that they were identical.
Yet Arthur still never seen this Anbu before.
Leaving the Anbu's body for scavengers or worse was unthinkable. Raiga's body, too, needed to be hidden. It wouldn't do for a member of the Seven Swordsmen to be found in such an undignified state.
The first thing he did was make his way to Ranmaru's body and sling the corpse over his shoulder. The boy was just as light as the bag Raiga had carried him in. So he did the same with the other corpses.
Leaving the area, he eventually used what tools he could find, dug a hole deep enough, and disposed of both bodies by burying them miles away in a remote forest clearing.
The location was marked in his mind as a mental note in case he ever needed to retrace his steps.
Now, there remained the final piece: Ranmaru.
Arthur hid the body and moved elsewhere. He needed medical supplies: bandages, IV bags, syringes, ointments—anything that could help with the next task at hand.
Katabami Town, a small, neutral trading post, was his closest option.
The journey was uneventful as he navigated the trails by utilizing the map.
Finding a small apothecary tucked away in a back alley, he performed the Transformation technique and exchanged a few coins for the supplies he needed.
Things were brief and impersonal—nothing he hadn't done before. No questions were asked, and no suspicions were raised.
When all was said and done, he returned to where he had hidden Ranmaru's body.
Now came the most delicate part of the operation: he needed to perform a complicated surgery to acquire this boy's Kekkei Genkai.
Unlike before, when Yukimi Iburi's blood was all that was needed, this task would be daunting. Arthur needed Ranmaru's blood and eyes. Without the former, he'd never be able to deactivate the Kekkei Genkai, forever having his chakra drained without covered eyes.
That was why ninjas like Kakashi and Ao, a ninja from the Mist Village, had to constantly keep one of their eyes hidden: because their Kekkei Genkai had been transplanted into them.
Arthur, however, knew better than anyone.
First was blood transfusion.
With the medical tools he'd purchased, he carefully siphoned Ranmaru's cells into his own veins while mixing them into a precise chakra-infused solution.
The merged blood, circulating from Ranmaru's body, began the arduous task of fusing with Arthur's own cellular material. That allowed for new cells to slowly be produced.
Thanks to chakra, the whole process proved to be exceptionally effective. But now came the intimidating task: the eyes.
Relaxed, Arthur channeled chakra into his fingertips. They glowed faintly as he carefully reached towards Ranmaru's left eye. Precise control was key. So without hesitating, he severed the optic nerve connecting the eye to Ranmaru's brain.
This was only the second time Arthur had seen an eyeball outside of its socket before. The first was during his moments dissecting one on earth for his school's lab experiments. To think the second would be from a boy.
As blood spilled from Ranmaru's sockets, Arthur felt no remorse whatsoever.
Using his other hand, he channeled chakra into his fingers and carefully raised it up to his own eye.
'Body activation jutsu…'
Activating this technique allowed him to effectively numb the area he was about to sever. Any misplacement could leave him permanently blind.
Squish!
His own eye was ripped from its socket.
The feeling was abnormal, but nothing compared to what he had experienced in the past. And he did it so swiftly to reduce the pain.
With trembling hands, he carefully placed Ranmaru's still-warm eyeball into his own empty socket. It felt alien, like a foreign object wedging into his skull.
Then came the true test.
Using a refined version of his Healing technique, he meticulously reconnected the optic nerves to the mangled remnants of his own. The combined blood facilitated fusion as he channeled his chakra by focusing on coaxing the nerves.
All this was to knit together the cells so that his body would recognize the foreign tissue as his own.
This was nothing like Shisui Uchiha ripping his eye out, or Madara Uchiha reinserting his Rinnegan in a matter of seconds. This was a painstaking, agonizing process.
Minutes passed as sweat slicked Arthur's face and body. His head was aching in protest that he could barely quell despite having prepared himself.
The first sign of progress came as a throb. Then a quick twitch under his eyelid slowly filled him with a sense of relief.
When he deactivated the Healing technique, he removed his palm from his face and opened his eyes. Things were blurry, but he could see.
Arthur allowed himself a moment to catch his breath as his body continued to tremble from the ordeal. But there was no time for a full rest. The second eye needed to be transplanted and merged with the same precision.
With the same amount of focus, he repeated the steps by severing his own right eye, transplanting Ranmaru's, and then fusing the optic nerves again.
Finally, after what felt like hours, he finished.
His body ached; his chakra reserves were low. But as he closed his eyes to rest at the base of a tree, a grim sense of contentment filled him.
✟
The next morning.
When Arthur awoke, it was to the chirping of birds.
He cracked open his eyelids and blinked away the blurry vision. Things felt strange, but he sat up and cautiously rubbed his eyes.
Slowly but surely, chakra began emanating from them. He could more than just feel it; he could see it—he could truly see it!
Birds that soared high above had vibrant blue chakra against the clear sky. Insects scurried on the forest floor from quite a distance away, and yet, their movements were as predictable as the small chakra inside their shells. Even the leaves seemed to glow with a faint emerald light.
Arthur could both see and sense everything for miles. To describe what he was witnessing would be hard in words. It was like the world around him was bound together by threads made of chakra.
This was the power of Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai. Now it was Arthur's to do as he pleased.
Raising his hand to his face to further confirm things, he perceived the red glow emanating from his own eyes.
While an incredible gift, this power was also his secret; he couldn't afford to let anyone know.
The very act of transplanting someone else's Kekkei Genkai, since the others from earth knew Ranmaru was the only one in the world with it, would cause a lapse in his plans.
As he turned his head to take in everything for miles, something registered in his mind: this Kekkei Genkai never had an official name. So a name surely had to be given to it.
After a moment, he thought of something quite befitting.
Crimson Gaze, the only eyes in the world that could pierce the veil.