A man wearing a traveler’s coat bearing a single sword stood face-to-face with a man in a black vest with a sharp glint in his eye. Behind the man in the vest were dozens of his companions, but the man in the coat was alone.
Several tents had been pitched nearby. A hideout, surrounded by rocky mountains and sand. The tents were the color of sand and would have been hard to spot from above.
“Are you serious when you say that? That you’ll join up with us and commit acts of terrorism in Konohagakure?” the man in the vest asked.
The man in the coat nodded. “I am. Don’t make me say it a million times.”
“This is different from the story I heard. Didn’t you give up your hatred of the village and actually fight for it?”
“People change,” the man in the coat said, in an icy voice. “My hatred didn’t disappear. I thought it had for a minute there, but I was wrong. I intend to move again to crush that place.”
The man in the vest stared at him.
Today was the second time they had met. The first time they had quickly chased him off. The story he had told them was simply too fishy. But the man didn’t learn; he had come to see them again.
“Why d’you want to join up with us? Let’s hear your reasons,” the man in the vest demanded.
“I’ve heard the rumors about you,” said the man in the coat, without any expression on his face. “That you’re former Sunagakure ninja, that you’re a group of masters. That you, the leader, in particular, are fairly good with Wind Style. I’m counting on that power.”
“That doesn’t exactly answer the question. Do you know what kind of organization we are?”
“I do. You’re a terrorist group of rogue ninja from Suna who are dissatisfied with Suna’s current structure.” There was an echo of disdain in the way the man spoke, and the man in the vest was displeased.
“That’s right. We do want to reform the current structure of Suna. And it’s a fact that we’re looking for strong ninja to that end. But we don’t have any grudge against Konoha. Why should we join with you and attack them?”
“My power should be an advantage to your organization. With it, you’ll have no trouble staging a coup d’état in Suna. And I’m saying that in exchange, you need to help me bring Konoha down. Once Konoha is destroyed, I’ll lend my support to your terrorism in Suna.”
The man in the vest snorted and shook his head. “We need to help you. You’ll lend us your support. I think you might have the wrong idea here. Where do you get off talking down to us?”
“Because I’m obviously above you. Listen. You’re the ones who have the wrong idea here. I’m not making you my comrades—you’re my subordinates. That way’s better for you too, so that’s the way it should be.”
The man in the vest closed his eyes—a deliberate blink to quiet his anger. He opened them again, and said, “We have a breakdown in communication here. There’s no talking to you. Just get out of here already.”
“I see. Then I will indeed disappear. But…” He narrowed his eyes. “Now you know about my plan to destroy Konoha.”
The man in the vest immediately wove signs with both hands.
Wind Style! Wind Slash!
The slicing wind trampled down his opponent and severed all four limbs from his body.
“Good reaction.”
As the voice reached his ears, the man in the vest realized his own body had been pierced from behind by a sword. It had appeared as though he had struck the final blow with his Wind Style, but that had merely been a genjutsu show.
“Ngh!” Blood and an anguished voice spilled from his mouth. Ninja rushed in from all directions.
“No one move!”
The ninja charging in wore the masks of the Sunagakure Anbu.
The feeling of something foreign stuck in his stomach disappeared, and the man in the vest toppled over. His field of view now horizontal, he watched the man in the coat leap a great distance away from them.
“He’s getting away!” someone in the Anbu shouted.
The crashing sound of angry roars and ninja tools—the Anbu were fighting.
In the midst of the sandstorm, the vision of the man in the vest grew dark.