Seeing the carnage left behind, the remaining buyers—those who had scoffed at the boys earlier, thinking them just another pair of foolish, self-righteous ninja—finally grasped the truth. Panic took over. They turned to flee, desperate to escape the slaughter.
But Renji was faster.
Using Shunpo, he appeared in a blur at the passage entrance, his blade already drawn. With effortless precision, he cut down several who tried to push past him. His movents were casual, efficient—completely devoid of hesitation.
He stood before the terrified group, his eyes like ice.
"We gave you a choice," he said coldly. "You chose to stay. Now your ti is up... so accept your death."
So among the crowd cried out in protest.
"This is unfair!"
"You can't stop us—we didn't do anything wrong!"
"We're not criminals!"
But Renji didn't respond. He didn't care for their excuses. Their cowardice and convenience had already made their choice for them.
anwhile, Gildarts approached the pot-bellied man, who had fallen back, wheezing and trembling but still alive.
Gildarts crouched down slightly to et the man's eyes. "Alright," he said, voice calm but dangerous, "I'll give you a chance to live."
The man blinked, confused.
"If you want to live, tell where the controller of this black market is," Gildarts continued. "Because from the intel I received, from the description in our mission objective... you're not him."
The man gave a hollow laugh. "Really? You expect to believe that?"
Gildarts smiled faintly, eyes hard. "You don't have a choice but to believe . I don't make promises I won't keep—and I'm a man of my word."
The pot-bellied man sighed in resignation. "Alright, alright... I'll take you to our boss."
Gildarts gave a short nod. "Good. You lead. I'll be right behind you."
Then he turned to Renji. "Renji, I'm going to deal with the leader of this black market. Can you handle the rest of them?"
Renji gave a confident nod. "Yes, Onii-san. These fifteen remaining worms... they'll be crushed like bugs."
Gildarts smirked faintly, satisfied with the answer, and began following the pot-bellied man down a corridor carved into the rock.
Left behind, the remaining survivors looked at each other in terror. They knew. There would be no rcy.
One of them, trembling with fear but desperate, suddenly shouted, "Everyone! Attack him! We won't get out of here unless we fight! He's going to kill us either way!"
Spurred on by panic, the rest followed his lead. They grabbed anything they could—broken weapons, loose stones, even pieces of debris—and rushed at Renji with a mix of rage and desperation.
Renji didn't flinch. His expression remained blank, detached.
He raised his sword and vanished from sight—Shunpo.
The next mont, blood sprayed into the air as he moved through them with surgical precision, cutting them down one by one. His strikes were clean, without hesitation. They didn't even have ti to scream properly—just gasps, gurgles, and then silence.
The one who had incited the charge had hidden behind a pile of crates, breathing heavily, thinking he might escape.
But Renji was an Uzumaki, and fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately for his enemies—he had awakened the clan's rare sensory ability: Kagura's Mind Eye.
He closed his eyes for a brief mont, extending his senses. Every chakra signature within range painted a clear map in his mind. No one could hide.
Without a word, he vanished again. A brief flash of steel, a muffled cry—and the last man fell.
With the area now silent and soaked in blood, Renji cleaned his blade and sheathed it. Then, without looking back, he turned and began walking toward Gildarts' direction, calm and silent as ever.
As Renji made his way toward Gildarts' location, he noticed the trail of corpses lining the corridor—broken, crushed, and scattered across the floor. It was unmistakably Gildarts' handiwork.
When he finally entered the main chamber, he found only two people still alive: Gildarts and the pot-bellied man.
Renji's gaze shifted to a body slumped beneath the grandest seat in the room—clearly the main throne. The man under it was dressed in luxurious robes, but his skull was crushed, and his blood pooled beneath him. Without a doubt, this was the boss—the controller of the underground black market.
Gildarts, slightly bloodstained but calm, looked over his shoulder at Renji and said, "I've killed the boss. With that, this black market base is officially destroyed."
He then gestured to the pot-bellied man. "He also told about the hidden escape routes used by the black market mbers. Luckily for us, they underestimated us. They thought we'd either be dead or captured, so they stayed put—too relaxed, too confident."
Gildarts glanced at the corpses strewn throughout the chamber. "By the ti the news of the guards' deaths could've reached them... they were already dead. That's why none of them escaped."
Renji nodded in understanding. Then, his eyes shifted toward the pot-bellied man. "Onii-san, what about him?" he asked coolly, his hand hovering near his sword.
Gildarts turned toward the man and answered calmly, "I gave him my word that I wouldn't kill him. And I'm going to honor that promise."
Renji nodded, imdiately understanding the unspoken cue.
In a blur, he moved behind the pot-bellied man, his sword now unsheathed and resting coldly against the man's neck.
"My Onii-san promised not to kill you," Renji said in a low voice. "But I didn't."
Before the man could even form the word "No," Renji's blade flashed. Blood spurted as the man's head separated cleanly from his body, collapsing to the floor with a dull thud.
Gildarts didn't flinch. He had expected this outco.
Without a word, the two brothers began sealing the key corpses—those whose identities were crucial to verifying the mission's success: the black market boss, a few high-ranking guards, and notable traders. They left the rest behind. There was no need to seal every body; the state of the place spoke for itself.
Once they were done, they walked away from the underground base, leaving behind a trail of destruction and the stench of blood—the black market of the Land of Hot Water, now nothing more than a ruin.
----
Sowhere else, deeper inland within the Land of Hot Water, Todoroki Uzumaki and Guy Uzumaki stood at the edge of a quiet village.
The moonlight cast long shadows over the dirt path leading in. The village itself was deathly silent—too silent for this hour of the night.
Guy glanced at Todoroki and said, "Todoroki, you rember what Onii-san—Shanks—told us, right? About being careful around evil ninja?"
Todoroki nodded seriously. "Yes, Onii-san, I rember. Shanks Onii-san warned us—never let an evil ninja cut you or injure you. So of them use blood rituals... they could kill us without us even realizing it."
He paused, his voice lowering.
"Especially the elite ones. And the problem is, we won't always know who those elite mbers are."
Guy nodded gravely. "Exactly."
With that, they both stepped forward into the village.
The place was quiet—too quiet. No dogs barking, no windows lit, no chatter from hos. Just the sound of wind moving between the narrow alleys. The stillness wasn't peaceful—it was eerie, tense, unnatural.
And under the cold night sky, it felt like sothing—or soone—was watching.
----
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