In a forest slept a boy. He had short, black hair, pure green eyes, and was clad in a blue-white robe. He was sleeping on a moss-covered rock a couple meters away from a path, with a fruit-filled basket laying by his side.

Suddenly, the boy, who was in a gentle sleep, jolted awake and looked around him, then began slowly looking up at the sky,

"It's late..."

A soft, nearly feminine voice came out of his mouth, he reached down to the basket and pulled out a yellow fruit with red markings on it. After looking at it for a few seconds he threw it into his mouth, chewed it a bit, and then swallowed it. As he swallowed the fruit he began feeling a warm sensation coming from the fruit, warming every part of him and energizing his body.

He picked up the basket and began walking in the direction of the path. Strangely the moment he took his first step, it was as though he had disappeared. The boy seemed about 14 years old, but despite his fragile appearance, he was extremely fast, easily running faster than a horse.

This boy was a once in a 1,000 year genius from a ninja clan, the Ryuu clan, and his name was Ryuu Sasaki. The reason he was considered such an amazing genius was that despite merely having practiced for 7 years, he managed to reach the Yellow Mask stage.

As a Shinobi, his levels of cultivation ranged from White Mask, Red Mask, Orange Mask, Yellow Mask, Green Mask, Blue Mask, Indigo Mask, Violet Mask and Black Mask, with the White mask being the weakest and the Black Mask being the most powerful.

As he was running along the path he was using a Ninja Tactic, known as the Stacked Speed Tactic. This was an elementary Tactic used by most of his family that let him transform 1 step into multiple steps depending on his mastery of the Tactic. Since he had reached its 4th layer of the Stacked Speed Tactic, he could turn 1 step into 4.

As Ryuu Sasaki was running along the path back towards the Ryuu clan, he began silently muttering,

"Why is it...? Why do I have this awful feeling? Is it a coincidence...?"

Although he said this, he knew full well that with his strength, the odds of him having a wrong feeling were very low, and so he sped up even more.

All of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks,

"Hmm? Why haven't the sentries appeared yet."

As he got closer, he saw the family dwelling appearing in the distance. After stopping, he gradually began becoming transparent. He became more and more transparent until he seemed completely invisible, then he started slowly sneaking up to the clan dwelling. It didn't take long before he arrived.

"!!!"

Ryuu Sasaki yelled in surprise, right ahead of him laid a corpse. Despite only being 14 years old, it wasn't the first time he had seen a corpse, as the genius of the Ryuu clan he already had his fair share of kills under his belt, but this corpse was different,

"Second cousin!"

Ryuu Sasaki was very familiar with the dead girl, it was his second cousin. He ran over to the dead girl and carried her in his arms. After confirming that she truly was dead he gently put her back on the ground, tears welling up in his eyes, he roared furiously,

"Who! Who would dare to trifle with my Ryuu clan!!"

As he did so, he marched into his clan, his eyes spitting fire. Then, it was as though he had been doused with cold water.

As he entered his clan his entire view was filled with corpses, each one of them he knew well. To his left laid the second greatest genius of the clan and his arch-rival, Ryuu Kiyoshi. On the practice ground laid Ryuu Mami, the girl he secretly had a crush on. By his house laid his mother and father.

Filled only with despair, Ryuu Sasaki fell to his knees and began sobbing,

"W - wha - what happened? *Hic*, Why? Why did *Sob* this happen?"

It was only after hours of mourning that Ryuu Sasaki came to his senses and yelled out to the heavens above,

"I don't know who did this, but whoever it was, I will have my vengeance! Otherwise, my name isn't Ryuu Sasaki!!"

After having vented his anger with this shout, he got to work. First, he began burying the corpses of his family. One after one, he dug holes in the ground. With his level of cultivation, this amount of work didn't tire him physically, but inside his emotions were a mess.

When all of the holes were dug he started to carry his family over to the holes and gently placed each of them into a hole. It was hard for Sasaki to see his family gone.

3 hours passed before he finished burying the last member of the Ryuu Clan. Among the ones buried, was his grandfather. He was 96 years old and the most powerful member of the clan, with his cultivation level being Indigo Mask, yet despite his strength, he too was killed.

This made Ryuu Sasaki slightly nervous, after all, if his enemy was capable of killing his grandfather, then what sort of a chance did he stand against this enemy?

"No!"

He shouted to himself,

"I can defeat him! Even if not right now, I will become more powerful until I can!"