As the entire group except for Eiji and the mist shinobi left the cave. The bat above the cave flew in a different direction in the forest and disappeared. Yami was already waiting for the bat to come. He had sent the bats to spy on the other leaf spies as well but except one all had returned. The only one left was the one had was following Eiji.
Yami understood that Eiji must be the one who had betrayed them but Yami didn't want to take any action before he is absolutely sure about it. Yami was almost sure that there is a traitor among the spies when Hideki's house was discovered and he wanted to flush out the rat before the day of the main conflict.
A traitor could turn the tide of battle and even kidnap or kill the leaf shinobis taking advantage of the chaos… in the end, Yami decided to jeopardize his plan to take care of the rat. The only way was to provide such important information to the spies that they will be forced to go to their contact in the Mizukage faction.
At first, Yami thought of providing information about Kakashi and others' arrival to the spies but that could force Moji and the others to change the plan of the prison exchange. Yami didn't know what exactly was going to happen that day but seeing the movements and Zabuza's report, he knew something big is going to happen that day.
So in the end Yami decided to use his own identity as the Genjutsu demon as the bait and lure the spy.
As Yami was waiting in the jungle he did sense a lot of people going to the meeting place. He was now sure that the remaining person, Eiji had sent these people here. 'I don't care much about these people but I need to get my hands on Eiji. I would have even ignored these people but I am sure Kakashi and the others will come for the meeting and as they know that the person sending the letter is me, they might lower their guard. This might not be the same for the mist shinobis, but let's not take a chance when we have already come this forward.'
Yami then saw the last bat coming to him, as the bat came flying and sat upside down tugging on his sleeve, it squealed a few times telling Yami everything it had seen. It couldn't mention things in specific as they had happened inside the house but the fact that Eiji went deep inside the Mizukage faction and met someone, was more than enough for Yami to confirm that he is the traitor.
"Good work...you did better work than any other spy of the hidden leaf." Yami said as he caressed the bat a few times and then the bat squealed once and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Yami then looked at the meeting place and then at the cave where the bat had last spotted Eiji and Yami's body flickered out.
In the cave, Eiji was sitting in the corner counting the gold ingots that Hari had given him. "Haha…Hari wasn't lying when he said that the gold in this scroll is more than enough to pay for the information he wants.
After getting out of here, I can easily settle anywhere…especially in the land of Iron which is neutral and is never attacked by the other villages. Only the one with more money has power over there. I won't have a problem setting up a business there. I have a lot more information to sell…Don't know why I listened to my stupid father and joined the ninja academy rather than going into business…hehe"
As Eiji was dreaming while rubbing the gold ingots with love, the mist shinobi was standing at the entrance of the cave. The only instructions Hari had given him were to stop Eiji from leaving and cripple him if he tries. Hari had warned the mist shinobi that no matter what happens, Eiji must be alive as he is a treasure of information and was yet to be used to its full extent.
Just as the mist shinobi was looking around, he sensed an attack coming toward him. He quickly jumped to the side and pulled out two hammers which were hung on either side of his waist. He then saw that the place where he was standing had a kunai in it but the odd thing was, a small kunai had created a small crater with spider web-like cracks on the ground.
'A normal kunai shouldn't be able to do so much damage to the hard ground' he thought…He looked around and quickly shouted "Whose there? Who dared attack a member of the blood squad?"
His shout was heard by Eiji who became alert and started stuffing the ingots back into the storage scroll. Right now the scroll was more important than anything in this world.
Outside the cave, the mist shinobi sensed someone coming from above him. Instead of dodging the attack like last time, the mist shinobi decided to face the attack head-on and swung the hammer toward the one coming at him.
He expected the hammer to hit the person but just as the hammer was about to touch the weapon his enemy was holding, the attacker swerved to the side. The mist shinobi was astonished when he saw that it was impossible to change direction mid-air like that but as someone who had some control over the wind around him, this was nothing too difficult for Yami.
The very next second, before the mist shinobi could move his stretched-out hand back and stabilize himself, Yami appeared in front of him and sliced the hand clean off from his body. The mist shinobi could suddenly not feel his hand or the weight of the hammer in his hand looked in front and saw the bright red eyes amid the blood that was sprayed in the air. He was stunned as he saw this...he realized that this was the man his entire squad had gone to ambush. He wanted to scream and call his squad mates but Yami slashed his sword again and cut the mist shinobi's head clean off from his body.
As the mist shinobi's body collapsed on the ground, Yami glanced at it once. He had heard a few things about the atrocities the blood squad had committed against the bloodline clans. Now that Yami had fought one of them, he understood that these guys really were a step above normal jonins. They were the reason why instead of the hidden mist filled with so much internal conflict was never attacked by others. The people in the blood squads were all trained to kill and had started training that way since they were in the academy. Each one survived after killing all their classmates.
Yami looked up inside the cave and saw Eiji standing there. He had just come out running from inside the cave. Just as he saw Yami and his red eyes he understood which clan the kid was from.
"A Sharingan? You are from the Uchiha clan?" Eiji asked but he didn't waste any time and pulled out his sword. Nothing was going to stop Eiji from keeping that scroll and even if he had to kill a kid from his own village, he would do it.
Eiji came running at Yami with his sword and slashed it toward him but instead of the sword going through flesh, it passed through the air. Eiji was confused as to why it happened but he saw Yami's body disintegrate into numerous bats and flow behind him. The bats merged again and formed Yami.
"Can I ask you something?" Yami asked calmly. Seeing his casual attitude frustrated Eiji to no end as he shouted "ARE YOU GOING TO ASK ME WHY I BETRAYED THE HIDDEN LEAF? BECAUSE I WANTED TO...BECAUSE IT PAID A LOT OF MONEY. I DON'T THINK I MADE ANY MISTAKE SO DON'T..."
As Eiji was saying, Yami signaled him with his hand to stop and surprisingly Eiji stopped as well. He expected Yami to show some anger after hearing that like any other shinobi but Yami said "Your mistake wasn't doing something unethical for money, your mistake was getting caught. Your mistake was you were against me and when you are against me, it doesn't matter if you are right or wrong...you die." Just as Yami said the last word, he waved his hand, which sent numerous small wind blades toward Eiji.
Eiji who didn't see or feel anything was suddenly hit with all of them. For a second, he thought that he was going to die but the pain wasn't as much as he expected the pain was sharp and coming from all over his body. He wanted to see his own wounds but his body fell on the ground and his eyes were wide open and he saw Yami walk toward him.
"Don't worry, the wind blades only targeted your joints and some of your muscles so that you lose control over your body. You won't die..." Yami said as he crouched down and looked at Eiji with those bright red eyes of his.
---------------------
To read 16 extra chapters go to my Patreón
https://p@treon.com/lazarus898/
Link in the synopsis as well.