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A/N: It seems I can't link the Discord link anymore.
Thanks to the webnovel feature update.
I will be removing it from previous chapters as well.
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LET THE CHAPTER BEGIN.
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"Art," Deidara said, as it began to glow ominously, "is an explosion."
The bird shot skyward—and burst.
Seiken stood in the aftermath, cloak fluttering as rain poured heavier now, soaking through the fabric. He hadn't moved, not visibly. But when the smoke cleared, there wasn't a mark on him.
He pulled his swords free with fluid precision.
No words. Just steel singing in the downpour.
Deidara launched another bird—this one larger. It swooped toward Seiken in a diving arc.
Seiken flickered. The explosion lit up the platform behind him.
Deidara's eye narrowed.
The swordsman reappeared at the edge of the broken stone bridge, eyes locked on him through the mask.
Flicker again—this time upward. Midair. A streak of motion.
He closed the gap in a breath.
Deidara hurled a clay spider straight into his path. Seiken slashed a horizontal arc with both blades—chakra lacing through metal.
A crescent of cutting force flew forward, bisecting the spider and detonating it midair.
Boom.
The concussive wave crashed against Seiken's cloak, but he flipped midair, riding the recoil, landing low and skidding with both swords out.
"Fast," Deidara muttered, "too damn fast."
He leapt back onto his clay dragon and took to the sky.
From above, bombs rained like ash from a volcano.
Seiken blurred into motion—Body Flicker again, dodging left, then right, then vanishing in a straight line that made the ground crack from sheer pressure. He appeared above the blast radius, spun, and hurled a chakra slash from his left sword, the energy blade slicing through four clay birds before they could even dive.
Each one burst in the sky, harmless above him.
Deidara laughed.
"Oh, you're flashy! But let's see you deal with this!"
The dragon's jaw unhinged, and a massive clay centipede erupted from its mouth, spiraling toward the ground, wrapping around a wide area.
Seiken stood still this time.
Waiting.
The centipede detonated.
A wall of fire swept the plateau.
The smoke cleared.
No sign of the masked swordsman.
Then—step.
From the smoke. Walking.
Still whole.
He had flash-stepped backward at the last possible instant—burns flickering out as his chakra-coated cloak suppressed the heat.
Deidara frowned.
"Tch. Hard to read."
Seiken appeared behind him.
Blade slash.
Deidara whipped his head back in time, barely avoiding the edge of the strike—his cloak slicing open at the shoulder.
He dove forward and kicked off the dragon's tail, flipping and landing a few meters away.
"Not bad," he said. "But I've still got my trump card."
He bit his thumb and slapped a seal onto his pouch.
A large humanoid clay clone burst forth—C3.
"Let's see you dance around this."
The clone launched high and began to swell.
Seiken's eyes sharpened behind the mask.
He flickered again—but this time upward, sword pointed toward the bomb. He formed a hand seal mid-flicker and swung.
A larger chakra wave burst from both swords—twin crescents of white light crashing into the clay titan.
It cracked. But didn't stop.
Seiken dove into a hard left Body Flicker—vanishing seconds before the bomb exploded in a mile-wide radius.
The bridge collapsed.
The canyon swallowed stone and flame.
Silence followed.
Then from behind a collapsed water tower, Seiken stepped out—cloak torn, one blade scorched, but grip firm.
Deidara blinked.
"You're still alive?"
No answer.
Just another flicker.
This one appeared below Deidara—Seiken shot up, flipped in the air, slashed downward, and carved clean through the clay dragon's neck.
Deidara fell.
Mid-fall, Seiken intercepted him—one sword at Deidara's back, the other pressed to his throat before he hit the ground.
Deidara froze.
"You win," he muttered. "But I better not find out later that you're a damn spy."
Seiken said nothing.
Deidara exhaled and glanced around the field.
Then he froze.
His own face looked back at him from the ruined stone and smoking dirt.
Clay pieces. Burn marks. Scorch lines.
A massive portrait.
"...You planned this?"
"What do you think?" Seiken smiled just a little, sheathing his blades slowly.
A pause hung in the air.
Deidara stared at the art he hadn't intended to make.
Then laughed—quiet, breathless.
"You son of a— Fine. You're in."
High above, hidden in the shadows, a pair of Rinnegan eyes observed the scene.
"Interesting," Pain murmured. "He turned the battle into a canvas."
Deidara didn't speak for a moment. His smirk faded into something unreadable as he stared at the battlefield-sized portrait carved in ash and crater.
He turned with a grunt.
"Come on then, sword-boy," he muttered, brushing soot from his cloak. "You'll want to say the right things to the boss. And probably not make another mural out of him."
Seiken said nothing.
They crossed the ruined sector in silence, only the wet clang of Deidara's footsteps and the hiss of rain off steel walkways filling the space between them. Seiken walked a step behind—always in the periphery, never truly beside him.
After a few turns through iron towers and scaffolded platforms, Deidara came to a stop at a steel door embedded into the cliffside.
He didn't knock.
The door creaked open with a low groan.
Inside, torchlight flickered down a narrow hall. The air turned heavy.
The chakra ahead? Oppressive.
Deidara flicked a look back.
"Don't talk unless spoken to. And if you feel like talking anyway—don't."
He pushed the door open wider and stepped through.
Seiken followed with measured steps.
The chamber was wide, circular, and dark. At the far end, raised on a broken slab of stone like a throne, stood Pain.
Orange hair hung in sharp lines around his face. Rinnegan eyes locked onto Seiken the moment he entered.
Deidara stepped aside with a shrug. "He says he wants to join."
Pain didn't respond right away.
He watched.
Measured.
Rain pelted the broken glass dome above, casting streaks of gray light down the room like a prison of sky.
"What do we call you?" Pain asked, voice low and even.
"Seiken," Aki replied through the mask.
"And what do you want from us, Seiken?"
Deidara crossed his arms, eye flicking between them.
Seiken stood still, unfazed under divine eyes.
"Resources. Access. Targets," he answered. "You operate without borders. That suits me."
Pain stared, unblinking.
"You aren't afraid of what we are?"
"I am. But I am willing to take the risk," Seiken answered.
Pain stepped down from the platform. Each step echoed like thunder off the stone.
"We are not a mercenary guild," he said. "We are not a coin purse for hire. What we are doing is necessary. Revolutionary."
"I don't care," Seiken said.
Pain stopped walking.
Deidara tilted his head slightly.
"Tch… bold."
Seiken's tone remained steady. "I don't care about your revolution. Or your gods. Or your peace."
"Then why?" Pain asked.
"For the money," Seiken said.
No hesitation.
No twitch. No bluff.
The rain hammered harder outside.
Deidara barked a short, surprised laugh. "You serious?"
Seiken didn't flinch.
"I don't care about causes. But I can fight. I can kill. And I don't break." He stepped forward, slowly, carefully.
"So if you're paying... then I'm staying."
Pain said nothing. His eyes, ancient and endless, bore into Seiken's mask like they were searching for a lie. They found none.
Pain stared a few seconds longer. The rain outside pressed harder against the dome.
"If money is your reason," he said, voice colder than before, "we'll see how far that loyalty goes when it's tested."
Seiken didn't blink. "You'll get your results. I'll get paid."
Pain turned away slowly. "We'll see if your price is cheaper than your pride."
He turned without another word, walking back toward his raised platform.
Deidara looked at Seiken like he didn't know whether to laugh or warn him.
Pain reached the center of the room and stopped again.
"Then we'll start with a test mission. Complete it. You'll get paid. And you'll get in." Seiken bowed his head once. "Understood."
Pain nodded slowly—only once—then vanished in a flicker of distortion and wind. The other figures melted into the shadows.
Only Deidara remained. He exhaled. "I can't tell if you're gutsy… or just dead inside."
Seiken turned and walked toward the exit.
Deidara followed with a tired shrug.
"Whatever. At least you're not Hidan."
Deidara's footsteps faded behind him. Aki thought, 'Damn, that was too easy.'
The thought hit like a quiet thud. No resistance. No interrogations. No tests of loyalty beyond a theatrical fight. The Akatsuki—infamous, relentless, paranoid—had welcomed him with open arms and a shrug.
So easy... I almost suspect they've got other plans for me.
The idea lingered, sour and sharp at the edges. But after a moment, Aki sighed through his nose and let it go.
'Doesn't matter. I don't plan on betraying them any time soon.'
And that was the truth. He had no reason to. Not yet. He needed them as much as they thought they could use him. Resources. Access. Intel. Time.
So, he pushed the doubt aside, rolled his shoulders, and walked deeper into the base with steady, quiet steps.
Time passed, and a quiet shadow was following Naruto and Team 7 as they embarked on their first big mission to the Land of Waves.
They encountered Zabuza along the way, who was saved by a hunter-nin later revealed to be Haku, Zabuza's assistant.
The Sixth Morning of Training
Location: Forest near the Land of Waves village outskirts
The early light bled gently through the canopy, casting golden dapples across the soft forest floor. Naruto lay flat on his back, mouth slightly open, snoring softly as birds chirped nearby—one even perched contentedly atop his forehead protector.
He didn't really need to train today, having mastered tree and wall walking in his academy days thanks to Aki. But there was something written on one of the scrolls that made Naruto come here.
Something about a meetup. Naruto waited and waited, then waited some more. There was no sign of Aki—his now sworn brother. Eventually, Naruto got so bored that he fell asleep.
He didn't wake as the soft crunch of footsteps neared.
Haku approached, wrapped in a simple cloak and carrying a small herb basket. His expression was gentle, calm—yet there was something faintly melancholic in his eyes as he looked down at the boy sprawled carelessly among tree roots.
"You'll catch a cold sleeping in a place like this," he said softly, kneeling beside him.
Naruto blinked awake, confused, squinting against the sunlight.
"Huh?"
A short exchange followed. Kind words. Awkward curiosity. They spoke of herbs, of morning routines, of strength and the people they cared about. Naruto didn't know this was Zabuza's right hand—only that there was kindness in Haku's eyes and sadness behind the smile.
"Do you… have someone who's important to you?"
The question lingered in the space between them like mist.
Naruto blinked. 'Huh? What is she trying to say?'
"?" Naruto looked at Haku in complete confusion. "What?"
"When a person has something important to protect," Haku explained, "that's when they can truly become strong."
These words reminded Naruto of Kakashi's 'I won't let my comrades die' and his first big moment—saving Iruka-sensei from Mizuki.
"Yeah!!" Naruto paused. "I know that very well."
Their conversation ended not long after. Promises to meet again someday. A warm farewell.
And then Haku turned away.
"Oh," Haku's steps paused as he clarified one last thing, "I'm a boy."
'No way!!! But you're cuter than Sakura-chan!!' Naruto's jaw dropped as he put his hands on his ears in an over-the-top reaction.
Haku soon left Naruto's vision. But he wasn't alone—a shadow was silently following him.
The wind shifted. Something cold passed through the trees. Haku felt it—just a whisper at first, then a chill sliding down his spine.
He paused mid-step, frowning.
That's when it struck.
Pillars of golden light erupted in a wide ring, catching Haku completely off guard. He staggered, but his expression calmed a second later.
Haku was still walking back to his compound, where he would be treating Zabuza.
Lightning-Flash Pillars.
A genjutsu designed not to blind or bind—but to still the mind. Graceful. Elegant. Devastating in the hands of a master.
Footsteps echoed between the trees. Calm. Unhurried.
Helen emerged.
Dark cloak brushing leaves, eyes cool and distant. No insignia. No expression. Only purpose.
She stepped directly in front of him and raised two fingers. "Byakugan." She activated her dōjutsu and entered Haku's mind.
Helen was now reading his memories.
Snow falling like feathers on cold rooftops.A boy, alone.Mirrors of chakra forming around him like a cage of light.Zabuza's voice, harsh but protective.A flash—Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. The jutsu that defines him.
"Found it." Helen smiled in satisfaction. "There wasn't just one jutsu in his mind."
Helen read it all: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, Certain-Kill Ice Spears, Ice Dome, and many more. She even found Hidden Mist's water jutsu, including but not limited to Water Clone and the Hidden Mist Technique.