Chapter 53: The First Spark of Calamity
Three months passed by like fleeting shadows, slipping through his fingers without leaving a trace.
In a traditional Japanese wooden house, inside a dimly lit room where the faint scent of damp wood mixed with iron, the paper walls were stained in uneven patches, and overturned furniture lay scattered across the floor as if a struggle had taken place not long ago.
Another family lay tragically down in a pool of their own blood, their bodies twisted in unnatural angles. The child, whose innocent and bewildered eyes once held warmth, were now frozen wide open, the pupils dilated, reflecting nothing but emptiness. A thin trail of tears had dried across his pale cheeks, his small hands still slightly raised as if he had tried to reach out for something that never came.
It was safe to say during this time period Kenzo's blade had barely ever stopped. He had killed people like cutting grass, like a ruthless killing machine. He massacred everyone that stood in his way, or rather a more accurate description should be, he only killed the defenseless, the crippled, the broken. So in essence, he only targeted the weak. He never attacked any major slave or human trafficking organisation. All his targets were calculated with a bare minimum of risk involved.
Kenzo, on the other hand, moved on with practiced movements towards the door outside, like he had already done this a thousand times before, not even bothering to spare the corpses another glance.
Eight hundred and forty-three.
That was the total amount of people he had killed during this period, and he had remembered each one of their deaths by memory, not because their deaths were particularly important or anything, but because they were still useful data, and anything that is useful must be used to its fullest extent. That's how you show respect to your prey.
By the time Kenzo thought this, he had already arrived outside the house, taking in the surroundings for a brief moment, and before long a red oni masked shinobi appeared before him with a body flicker.
Without a second of hesitation, he bowed at a full ninety degrees for a few seconds before raising his head toward Kenzo, standing in front of him as if silently asking for permission. Kenzo, on the other hand, simply nodded without saying anything as he disappeared from his original spot at an extremely terrifying speed, appearing atop a distant tree branch. It was as if he had simply teleported. All of this happened in an extremely precise sequence without a single wasted movement. Clearly this had already been done many times before.
As Kenzo kept on moving deeper into the forest, he finally took out the previous map he was holding beforehand, but now it was covered in red markings from head to toe.
"Looks like all the safe spots have been dealt with within the Land of Rain."
"Now it was time to leave this place."
Kenzo finally stopped for the first time in a long while, sitting beside a tree branch for a moment to settle his thoughts. Besides the most basic minimum requirement for his body to function properly, he had been constantly moving without rest, without pause, without deviation… just moving forward.
Kenzo's gaze then drifted downward as he saw a small clear puddle on the ground. Even with a bit of distance, he could still see his reflection on the water clearly.
A black oni-masked shinobi with black clothing and abyss-like dark eyes.
Those eyes, however, looked slightly tired. A faint trace of fatigue had begun to show.
Kenzo was startled for a moment when he saw his eyes.
"This shouldn't be the case."
"I have been moving towards my goals with my full intent. Even if my body shows signs of fatigue, my eyes shouldn't show such an expression. Eyes are a reflection of the soul."
Kenzo thought internally.
Immediately after, he jumped down, removed his mask, and saw his full face. His features remained sharp and composed, just as before, but there was something different. His skin looked visibly paler, and faint dark circles had begun to form beneath his eyes. Kenzo looked at his face for a moment before dismissing it shortly after. Those were just natural biological reactions.
Instead, his focus returned to his eyes.
And indeed, there was visible fatigue.
After confirming this fact, Kenzo closed his eyes and without a single ounce of hesitation, he sat cross-legged on the cold muddy ground, not caring about his surroundings.
Other than the long-term goals, there were also many short-term goals for establishing his own organisation, and by far the two most important things were information and scouting. In the Land of Rain, it was extremely easy for any powerful shinobi to appear out of nowhere due to its chaotic political state, constant conflicts, and lack of centralized control, so to counter this Kenzo created a small scouting team which would surround him from all sides when he rested.
Though aerial attacks couldn't be countered effectively, and there was a very real chance powerful shinobi could slip through the scouts since they weren't trained for a long period of time, as long as there was even a clue, it was enough.
It wasn't about safety in the first place.
It was about efficiency.
The name of his organisation was "Kage Enkai".
On the surface, it meant "Shadow Banquet", something that sounded almost ceremonial, even harmless. But in reality, it implied a gathering that took place in darkness, where all participants were nothing more than offerings laid out for consumption. The name itself revealed nothing, yet hinted at everything. It was vague enough to avoid suspicion, yet symbolic enough to hold meaning for those within.
Kenzo never really cared about names too much. After all, it wasn't the name that made the Akatsuki famous, it was their strength. Any organisation that was strong enough, regardless of its name, would naturally thrive in the shinobi world.
As for the organisation's structure, since it was still small, he didn't make it overly complicated. A loose cell-based structure was implemented, where members operated independently with minimal direct contact with one another. Information was segmented, ensuring that no single individual held complete knowledge. Orders would pass through layers, often indirect, minimizing risk of exposure. This way, even if one part collapsed, the rest would remain unaffected.
As Kenzo thought this, he gradually began to enter a deep meditative state as all distracting thoughts drifted away like fallen leaves carried by a silent current.
While Kenzo was deep in his meditation, the shinobi world outside, however, wasn't so calm.
A new piece of news had begun to spread throughout the shinobi world about a missing-nin named Kenzo from the Uchiha clan and The world remained blissfully ignorant of how this single fragment of information, insignificant by all known standards, would go on to reshape the very course of the future and set into motion a catastrophic chain reaction that would echo across the ages.
(A.N) Skippable
Just to clear up any confusion, no chapters have been skipped. If you're wondering why Chapter 52 is missing, it's because the previous author's note I posted took up that slot.
To keep the numbering consistent with WebNovel's system, I continued with Chapter 53.