Chapter 6

He backed away just in time to avoid a tanto that swung at his chest. With a flick of his wrist, a kunai with a tag attached at its end appeared in his hand.

With a grimace, he tossed it as hard as he could into the sea of incoming root ANBU. They all managed to lean out of the way only for a puff of smoke to be released from the tag as well as a small number of similar white tags.

"Is that-?!"

With the narrow hallway they were currently in there wasn't a lot of space to dodge. Kaito smirked as he held up a hand seal, disappearing from sight as the tags exploded at the same time.

*BOOM!*

-[Kaito]-

Appearing in his 'room', he let out a breath of relief. Most people never thought of using storage seals in a fight but he could see the appeal.

He was only mildly surprised when notifications popped up in his sights.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

'It looks like only a few died from that.' He thought as he assigned 10 of his newly gained points to Dex, 16 to Str and the remaining 4 in Vit.

•••

[Perk Earned for reaching 200 Dex]

[Unnatural Grace]

Movement and attacking speed is increased by 75%

[Perk Earned for reaching 100 Str]

[Troll's Strength]

All physical damage is increased by 25%

•••

'That's enough points in Dex for now.' He thought as he took the scrolls in the room, throwing them in his inventory.

He had already noticed the effectiveness of his increased speed in the short spat he had in the hallway moments ago. With the new perk, his speed should be more than enough to handle himself for the moment.

Spreading his perception with [Mind's eye of the Kagura], he rushed out of the room. He felt a large number of Root ANBU headed towards his direction.

'They must have a sensory ninja.' He thought as he made his way through the twists and turns of the base.

He paused as an ANBU turned the corner in front of him, already forming hand seals. Already sensing him before he showed up, Kaito already had another tag in his hand, bringing it up as the ninja exhaled a large amount of water towards him.

Not stopping his charge, he formed a hand seal as the water was violently sucked into the tag.

"What?!"

In a show of speed, Kaito was in front of the ninja, plunging the kunai into his heart. A puff of smoke briefly obscured his vision as a log of wood replaced the ninja who revealed himself a few feet behind Kaito.

His reprieve only lasted a moment as Kaito appeared in front of him, once again stabbing the kunai through his heart, actually getting him this time.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

He didn't waste time with the body, letting it drop to the floor as he continued running. He didn't stop until he got to the only exit he was aware of.

That exit was also right above the meeting point. Upon arriving at the bridge to the center platform, he found multiple root ANBU waiting for him.

Without a moment wasted, they made their move. Kaito ducked under a kick aimed for his head only to roll forward to dodge a tanto that came striking down towards him.

Twisting his body out of the way, he parried a punch, spinning around his opponent and out of the way of a kunai that sailed past his previous position.

[Unarmed Combat Proficiency has leveled up]

As he dodged a slash at his chest, one of them landed a hit on the back of his knee, forcing him to stumble forward. He just barely moved out of the way of a kunai that scraped his face, leaving a deep cut from his ear to his nose.

He grimaced as he looked around. 'Even if I'm faster than them, they're too many and I'm almost down to my last kunai.' He thought grimly.

A kunai appeared in his hand as he disappeared, immediately appearing in front of a ninja he had marked moments earlier, quickly slashing forward and cutting their throat.

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

They showed no feeling at the loss of one of their own which made things a lot harder than they could have been.

[Flying Thunder God Jutsu has leveled up]

[Dagger Proficiency has leveled up]

Just as he stared at them cautiously, they too observed him carefully as they surrounded him. From in front of him, the ninjas cleared a path as Danzo walked forward.

"Kanoe, what is the meaning of this?!" Danzo questioned.

"It's not too complicated. I'm letting myself out." Kaito answered, a wry grin on his face as the man frowned.

"Foolish boy. You think that you can do whatever you want just because you learnt a new jutsu? We are the shadows of Konoha, we exist to bring the village to its rightful glory!" The man spoke confidently, to which Kaito nearly scoffed.

"It's more of the fact that I'm not fond of the idea of being someone's pet. Nothing personal…yet." He added almost silently.

-[Danzo]-

Silence reigned as both parties tensed in preparation.

How could it have gone wrong?

What could have caused this foolish rebellion?

Everyone in root was completely loyal to him and him alone so the possibility of it being his one ninja who influenced the boy was practically nonexistent.

That wasn't the only problem. Not even two weeks and the boy had learnt the second Hokage's teleportation jutsu. That alone brought a lot of problems.

There was also the fact that he displayed speed and strength that he had never shown during his training.

'Was he hiding it or was it a side effect from his awakening? What is this child?' Danzo questioned internally.

His eyes widened as he looked to Kanoe's face which now lacked the cut he gained moments ago. No…he caught sight of it just as the wound closed up.

'Such natural regenerative capability...he's even more valuable than I thought.'

"It seems I'll have to re-educate you on your purpose in this world." Danzo said.

'This should deal with it.' He thought as his stolen mangekyo sharingan pulsed under the bandages as he made eye contact with Kaito who stilled.

A smirk emerged on Danzo, as he saw that it worked. 'Kotoamatsukami, the ultimate genjutsu that will bring this boy back into my control.'

"Stand down. He is under control." He said, the root ninjas obeying without question as they sheathed their weapons. "Tsuchinoto, take Kanoe back to his room."

The ninja in question gave a sound of acknowledgment before moving towards the boy.

Danzo's smirk quickly faded as he saw the slight twitch of the boy's lips. Before he could do anything, there was a white tag in the boy's hand.

A brief puff of smoke was emitted just before a violent torrent of water shot out of the scroll, engulfing them all.

The water wasn't strong enough to do anything more than hamper them for a moment but that moment was enough. As the water died down, the boy was nowhere to be found.

'How?! Why didn't it work?! Did he somehow break free of Kotoamatsukami?!' Danzo's mind ran rampant at the thought as he turned to his ninja. "Go out and find him! Don't let him leave the village!"

"Yes sir!"

-[Kaito]-

[Mental Intrusion blocked by Gamer Mind]

He grinned, looking at the notification in front of him as he crawled out of the exit. He had released the water ninjutsu he had sealed earlier to create a diversion for him to throw a marked kunai up towards the exit and teleport to it.

'So I'm basically immune to genjutsu.' He thought, the grin not leaving his face as he took off as fast as he could without turning back.