บท 1: The Light Goes Out
On the fourteenth day of the eighth month of the forty-third year of Konoha, a suffocating heat enveloped Bell Hill.
Five shadows silently glided between the trees, all wearing identical uniforms and cat masks.
Suddenly, the world seemed to freeze for an instant.
And then…
BOOM!
A deafening explosion occurred near them.
"Shit!" The muffled voice of one of the ANBU was barely heard over the ringing left by the detonation.
"We've been ambushed!" another shouted urgently.
In the blink of an eye, the five masked ninjas quickly dispersed.
Four of them managed to move away from the epicenter of the explosion, but the fifth…
A flash, a choked scream, and then the sound of torn flesh.
The lagging ANBU couldn't dodge in time. His body was reduced to pieces. His head, still with the intact cat mask, bounced against the ground before becoming motionless, his eyes behind his mask empty, staring at the merciless sky.
The four survivors didn't even spare a glance at their fallen comrade. Death was a constant companion in their profession. With coordination, they instantly regrouped, placing themselves back to back in a perfect defensive formation.
Focusing all their senses on the surroundings in search of the slightest sign of movement.
~~~~~~~
The silence that followed the explosion was almost tangible, broken by the wind.
The tension grew with each passing second, sweat running beneath their masks.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The air was suddenly filled with a cutting sound.
In an instant, more than ten black shadows materialized around the ANBU, their movements so fast that they seemed to have emerged from nowhere.
The sunlight reflected off their forehead protectors, revealing the symbol of Sunagakure engraved in the metal.
The Sand ninjas, dressed in their characteristic uniforms with shoulder pads, formed a perfect circle around the four ANBU.
The dust slowly settled, revealing the scene in all its tension. The two groups studied each other. The silence stretched on.
Finally, a figure separated from the Sunagakure group.
A woman who emanated an aura of power and confidence typical of a Jōnin. Her brown eyes shone with amusement and contempt, like a predator who knows it has its prey cornered.
She took a step forward. Her long green hair was tied up in a high bun, with two orange-tipped strands framing a face that spoke of sensual beauty. She wore a short sleeveless dress that hugged her hourglass figure, adorned with bandages placed on her body.
"Look what we have here..." Her words had a mocking tone. "It seems we've caught something more than just fish, haven't we?" Her eyes fixed on the cat mask of the tallest ANBU. "Luo Lei, Konoha's famous rising star. The prodigy who became ANBU sub-commander when others were still playing at being ninja."
A predatory smile curved her lips. "Along with Minato Namikaze, they call you 'the light of the commoners' in your village. How poetic..." She paused dramatically, savoring the moment. "But I'm afraid today, your legend will fade on this forgotten hill."
The Suna Jōnin smiled with satisfaction. The Sand ninja had received confidential information. The sub-commander of Konoha's ANBU, Luo Lei, would personally lead a team to reinforce Konoha's troops in Kikyoyama. It was an opportunity they couldn't pass up.
The ANBU remained motionless. One of them, who finally broke the silence, had a voice full of disbelief.
"How... how is this possible?" The question hung in the air.
Another ANBU added: "Our movements were secret. How the hell did they know we'd pass through here?..."
"There must be a traitor," murmured the third, paranoia seeping into his tone. "Captain, you're the best. If you cover us, maybe we can..."
But before he could finish, a subtle change in Luo Lei's posture made them all fall silent. The ANBU sub-commander remained silent for a moment, his cat mask hiding any emotion he might be feeling.
"A desperate situation, you say?" The bitterness in his tone was palpable. "Cover you so you can escape?" He let out a short laugh, devoid of humor.
Under his mask, Luo Lei smiled ironically. He wasn't surprised, not really, but frustration burned in his chest. From the moment he accepted the mission to reinforce Kikyoyama, a sense of unease had accompanied him.
"So this is what my instinct was warning me about," he muttered.
'Captain Sakumo,' he thought bitterly, 'when they assigned me to ANBU to work with you, I really lost this damn opportunity they offered me.'
Fate was strange, it had played with him. Luo Lei, having been torn from his world and thrown into Naruto's ninja universe, had done many things to survive.
Orphaned since childhood, without a powerful lineage to back him up, he had given himself to brutal training. Endless nights, torn muscles, blood and sweat spilled. All to become someone, to be more than another corpse in a world that devoured the weak.
And he had succeeded. His talent, nurtured by an unbreakable will, had elevated him to the level of genius.
Comparable even to the prodigy, Namikaze Minato. But that's where fate showed its cruelest face.
Team assignments. A moment that should have been the springboard to greatness. Minato was handed to Jiraiya like a gift wrapped in gold paper. And Luo Lei... was thrown at Sakumo Hatake's feet.
At first, it seemed like a blessing. The "White Fang of Konoha", a name that made entire nations tremble. Prestige, power, respect. Luo Lei joined ANBU, became Sakumo's apprentice, and rose to sub-commander at a dizzying speed. Everything a young ninja could desire.
How naive they had been.
Luo Lei, with future knowledge, had tried to change destiny. Subtle warnings. 'Captain, perhaps too much attention in Konoha isn't good. Maybe we should look for other opportunities.' Words ignored by a man blinded by his own righteousness.
The "Will of Fire", that empty mantra that Konoha used to justify any atrocity. Sakumo had embraced it with religious fervor, a blind loyalty to a system rotten to the core.
And then came the final betrayal. The Konoha elders, those snakes, sent someone to tempt Luo Lei. "Betray Sakumo," they whispered, "and we'll give you everything you desire".
Rage burned in his chest remembering that moment. How dare they?! How dare they ask him to stab in the back the man who had taken him in, trained him, treated him like a son?!
His refusal was instantaneous, without doubt. And with that decision, he sealed his fate.
Disaster wasn't long in coming. The failed mission, comrades saved at the cost of success. And Konoha, that hypocritical village that preached about companionship and loyalty, showed its true face. Repudiation, contempt, abandonment.
Luo Lei closed his eyes under the mask, reliving that last encounter with Sakumo. His master, his father figure, reduced to an empty shell. The eyes once full of determination, now dull, dead in life.
"I'm sorry," Sakumo's last words echoed in his mind. "...But you have to keep living".
That same night, the legendary "White Fang of Konoha" took his own life, abandoned by the village he swore to protect.
And now, what was left? An ANBU sub-commander relegated to the shadows, surrounded by the Third Hokage's spies disguised as comrades. A reinforcement mission that reeked of a trap.
On the chessboard of politics, he was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn. There was no justice or injustice, only the cruel indifference of power.
Some were ruthless by choice. He was by necessity.
His only sin: loyalty. Being Hatake Sakumo's apprentice had marked him. Refusing to betray his mentor had condemned him. Now he was a pariah, discarded by all.
But did he ever really have a choice?
Namikaze Minato, the golden prodigy, was handed to Jiraiya as a gift. He, on the other hand, was thrown at Hatake Sakumo's feet like a bone to a hungry dog.
The decisions that defined his life were never his to make.
Now, standing on the edge of the precipice, with the weight of impossible expectations on his shoulders, he realized a heartbreaking truth: his destiny had always been written by other hands.
Powerlessness consumed him like a slow, corrosive poison. Each beat of his heart was a silent scream against a world that had condemned him even before giving him the chance to live.
Under his mask, he suddenly opened his eyes and a macabre smile formed on his lips.
Chakra enveloped his short sword, illuminating it with a white light. Luo Lei realized, with painful clarity, that his destiny had never been his to mold.
"Captain, are you going to cover us?" asked one of the ANBU, eyes bright with naive hope.
Feeling bile rise in his throat. The irony was so bitter he could almost taste it.
These ANBU, these pawns of the Third Hokage, looking at him with admiration, believing he was willing to sacrifice himself for them.
How pathetic. How nauseating.
He could see it in their eyes, hidden behind the masks. They secretly rejoiced, convinced that the captain was a good person after all. Worthy apprentice of Sakumo Hatake, willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the mission, for the good of his comrades.
'How brave', they would think. 'When we return, we will definitely inform the Third Hokage of his heroism'.
The rage that had been bubbling inside him reached its boiling point.
Heroism? Sacrifice?! Had they learned nothing from what happened to Sakumo? Did they still believe in those lies?
At that moment, Luo Lei made his decision. If the ninja world wanted a villain, he would become one. If Konoha demanded blood, he would spill it in abundance. But it wouldn't be his.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The movement was so fast that no one present could see anything.
The Chakra Short Sword became a blur of white light, cutting through the air.
SLASH!
Three rays of white light, pure manifestations of chakra and fury, severed the necks of the three ANBU. There was no time for screams, for pleas, for understanding the betrayal.
In an instant, they were alive, full of false admiration and blind loyalty.
The next, their lifeless bodies fell to the ground, their ANBU masks rolling away, revealing faces frozen in an expression of eternal surprise.
________
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