___________ POV Narration___________

A year passed by without anything 'exciting' happening.

Life was slow in the Dark Brotherhood compound.

All of the members were diligently training and getting used to their new circumstances.

Since the Brotherhood had stopped expanding, the bonds of the members grew tighter and tighter. Time passed and true friendships were born.

Ken didn't discourage such friendships, especially among children. But he would have to teach them to keep a level head eventually.

He didn't plan to send any of the children to their deaths, but it was inevitable for all of them to face death if they ended up pursuing his line of business.

Relationships that were forged and strengthened over time fell apart at a moment's notice, all it took was a moment's mistake, and years of bonds would crumble apart under the weight of the cruel world they lived in.

Ken was now wise enough to understand that, and he didn't want any of his disciples to blindly chase revenge like he had that day...

Yet, he was also underestimating his recruits. They had all faced death already. Not one of the children training under him didn't know what loss was.

In the end, Saburo ended up being the one to reassure him. After all, one could become desensitised to loss as well...

Other than that, Ken's training produced great results.

By the time his 12th 'birthday' rolled around, he had already gotten the hang of hitting his Tenketsu properly.

The secret he had discovered was to only restrict the flow of chakra in his arm, instead of clogging it completely.

It wasn't a difficult conclusion to reach, but actually putting it into practice felt near impossible at first.

Thankfully, Ken's control over the energies that resided within his body was always monstrous.

He had grown even further in that regard, to the point where he was sure that his control was already on par with the greatest.

The Partial Transformation was mostly a completed technique.

Ken didn't even need to physically touch his Tenketsu anymore, as he could simply clog them using the Chakra that already flowed constantly in his body.

Unclogging them was even easier since it was his own chakra. He only needed to send a jolt of energy through the pressure points and his arm would turn back to normal in seconds.

Overall, Ken's training was a massive success, he had grown much stronger.

The Blind Assassin had also grown much taller in that short year. He was already standing at around 1.7 meters(5.6 feet), and he had to repeatedly get new clothes for himself as he grew taller through the months.

He still showed no signs of stopping, it seemed that he had rather decent genes when it came to height...

Now, one could argue that it wasn't optimal for an assassin to be overly tall.

And that would certainly be true for the most part... At least in Ken's old world, being tall didn't help him much, it really only got in the way, and made him easier to spot.

But with the advent of Nature Energy and Chakra, Ken was confident that he could remain undetected even if he was a giant...

His sudden growth spurt did raise a rather interesting issue though...

'Others are bound to notice that I grew taller...'

His identity as a child assassin was definitely going to be exposed. At best, they would think him a teenager.

But even that wasn't ideal. Ken knew that people in high positions would always look down on those younger than themselves that are entering a similar field.

The Land of Iron's delegation had thankfully not noticed his height increase, as Saburo had taken it upon himself to deal with them appropriately.

The Second Blade knew how to properly manage relations, and knew how to put up a proper front each time the delegation came to check up on them once more.

Thankfully, the Land of Iron never actually ran a proper check-up on the compound. They didn't venture farther than the streets.

The check-ups themselves were more of a formality. Especially since the Daimyō still owed Ken a favour.

Even if they saw something strange, the Daimyō was unlikely to call Ken out on it.

Well... Not all things could be ignored. But they didn't need to know about the overwhelming amount of human experimentation going on in the underground laboratory.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It wasn't important knowledge. And Ken didn't see anything wrong with it (cuz he can't see at all) since it was being done on criminals anyway.

Overall, everyone advanced quite a bit during that year. Even the recruits.

The oldest among them was already at the level of a chunin, having also mastered a few jutsu from their open libraries.

The library was still not as full as Ken wanted it to be, but it allowed their recruits to read a bit more and gain a bit more insight into the world.

That was also where they stored most Jutsu under the C rank. The higher-ranking jutsu was still accessible if the recruits were deemed talented enough though.

And they had plenty of talent in their organisation already.

Besides the chunin-level assassin, the rest were mostly at the Genin level.

Most of them had gotten the hang of taijutsu at a very basic level.

They also were trained in Kenjutsu and different techniques, such as trap laying, hunting and survival skills that Ken thought would serve them well while out on missions.

They were all still children, of course. Not anywhere near the level where they could be sent out on missions or to collect bounties.

Ken was still actually against using child soldiers. So he planned to wait for them to at least be within the 14-16 range before sending them out on missions under supervision.

That meant they had more time to train within the safety of the Dark Brotherhood compound.

And the compound was becoming safer and safer, as the Blades had now become true powerhouses... At least in Ken's opinion.

Saburo had always been one, his clones were technically carrying the Brotherhood on their back.

Tosho was arguably just as strong as Saburo, but he lacked the numbers. He also went out on difficult missions occasionally, hunting A-ranked Shinobi/criminals by himself.

He was not yet at the level where he could hunt S-rank Shinobi by himself, but that was fine. His progress was outstanding regardless.

But the Dark Brotherhood did have another person besides Ken that could hunt down S-ranked criminals... And that was the Third Blade, Akira.

He had already gotten completely used to his 'situation'.

Being immortal was certainly a great boon to his strength and combat ability, he instantly became the second strongest person in the Dark Brotherhood, right behind Ken.

Saburo helped him greatly by torturing the 'Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood' out of their immortal prisoner, who was still 'alive'.

The Second Blade had to use a variety of Genjutsu and torture methods in order to squeeze out that information from the depths of the insane immortal's mind, but it was all worth it.

With it, Akira was strong enough to hold his own against most people.

It was a technique so powerful that even Ken learned it. Though he was not going to be able to use it as casually as Akira. Stabbing his own heart was something that he could still die from...

But that was not the case for their resident immortal, the Third Blade.

There were only two viable ways of fighting Akira. One was to widdle him down by repeatedly injuring him until he went mad with hunger.

If Akira managed to complete his cursed technique, then that strategy went off the table.

And the other was to seal his movements somehow. Catch him in a trap or in a seal that he could not escape from, and let him starve to death.

But that wasn't going to be easy in the first place.

In the past year, Akira's combat prowess grew exponentially, to the point where Ken was sure he would be able to give A, the Third Raikage's son, a run for his money.

He was far above the other immortals he had met in the Cult of Jashin that day...

But there was still one HUGE problem that the Brotherhood was currently facing... That was their lack of defences.

Sure, they had decent numbers in Saburo. They had powerful fighters in Tosho and Akira... But they still lacked something that most other Hidden Villages had...

Formations and Seals around the compound.

Ken was able to detect whenever anyone came by. But it was not good to just rely on him. What if he decided to go on a mission? Would others just be able to sneak into their compound?

It was a rather concerning thought. Especially now that the Dark Brotherhood had built quite the reputation.

They had already become well-known headhunters in the Land of Iron as well as the surrounding Lands.

That renown made it easy to find work, but it also planted somewhat of a target on their back.

Plenty of Hidden Villages showed interest in them, especially after news of the Raikage hiring the 'Red Dot' spread.

There had also been 'convenient' recruits popping up on their doorstep. Claiming to be from nearby orphanages and asking to join.

Ken was able to deduce that they were spies, at least most of them.

Regardless, he sent them all back. The brotherhood was not recruiting anymore. They were already stretched thin enough in trying to train over 80 recruits.

But the appearance of spies from nearby hidden villages was a bad omen.

No one in the Dark Brotherhood had true mastery over Fuinjutsu. Which was a rather large issue...

Ken wanted to change that, but even then, he had no clue where to find more techniques related to the art of sealing...

All he had were the ones he had stolen from other Shinobi.

The very basic jutsu that he used for storage and transportation. That was about it.

Saburo knew a few more seals, he had used them to lock up a few entrances in his laboratory. But they weren't powerful seals.

At most good enough to cause an explosion of similar size to a paper bomb, but quite useless against someone with significant strength.

As always, Saburo was able to enlighten Ken as to why Fuinjutsu was so hard to come by... And the reason was also quite simple... Monopoly!

The more powerful techniques were all in the possession of one clan.

They held all the leverage and kept their techniques close to their chest. Which was understandable, as Fuinjutsu was their bread and butter.

'The Uzumaki Clan are renowned for their mastery over Fuinjutsu, as well as their absurd Chakra reserves.

Their Clan is thought to be on par with the Great Hidden Villages, and they are believed to be in good relations with the Leaf Village...'

That was most of the gist of what Saburo was able to tell Ken in regard to the Uzumaki Clan.

Their general location was common knowledge, as none of the 'Hidden Villages' were actually 'Hidden'.

So, now the leader of the Dark Brotherhood had to make a decision... Either try to strike a deal with the Land of Whirlpools or try to steal some techniques from them.

It had been a while since he had done a diplomatic outing. His reputation still held up though, he was likely going to be given an audience with the Uzukage without much issue...

Ken decided to depart as soon as possible... After all, the Raikage had already warned him of an upcoming war.

It had already been a year, so the Blind Assassin could safely assume that war was right around the corner.

'Better hurry to the Land of Whirlpools before the war... Large-scale conflicts like that will make getting an audience with a leader much harder...'

And so, the Blind Assassin donned his mask, armour plates and large coat.

He put on a large straw hat with strips of fabric going down all sides.

He was going to go incognito for the most part, as he didn't want the other Hidden Villages to try something funny in his absence.

'... I should make the journey in a week or two. If nothing goes wrong, of course...'