One Piece: Silent-Silent Fruit

Rosinante had no idea whether the two of them had actually listened.

But he didn't continue saying anything.

He knew that with someone as arrogant as Madara, the more you lectured him, the more likely he was to do the exact opposite out of sheer stubbornness.

At this point, Rosinante was already starting to regret bringing them along.

He absolutely did not want to see the two future gods of the ninja world get themselves killed before they had even fully grown.

And more importantly...

They had come out with him.

If something really happened to them, and afterward the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan came knocking for answers...

That would be a real headache.

But things had already reached this point.

All he could do now was take it one step at a time.

The three of them slipped into Taiichi City under cover of night.

The Nara Clan's abilities were based on shadow techniques.

And shadows required light.

To avoid any unnecessary complications, and because there was a very real chance he would be dealing with the Nara, Rosinante chose to make his move at night.

"Alright," Rosinante said when the three of them reached the outside of the lord's residence. "You two keep watch here. I'll be back in a moment."

Then, after casually tossing out those words to Hashirama and Madara...

He strode openly toward the front gate of the city lord's mansion.

"What is Tsubasa doing?"

Seeing Rosinante walk straight toward the main gate of General Fujimitsu's residence as if he owned the place, Hashirama stared in confusion.

Although it was already nighttime, it still wasn't late enough for the city to have gone to sleep.

The area in front of the residence was brightly lit.

There were still pedestrians passing by.

And the gate itself was heavily guarded by a large number of soldiers.

If Rosinante just walked up there like that...

Wouldn't he alert the entire residence?

Madara was equally baffled.

Wasn't this supposed to be an infiltration assassination?

If you just swagger right up to the front gate like this, then what kind of infiltration is that?

Just as Madara was beginning to wonder whether Rosinante had somehow confused "stealth assassination" with "frontal assault"...

Rosinante had already reached the entrance to the residence.

At that moment, Madara blinked.

Just a single blink.

And when he looked again—

Rosinante had vanished into the crowd.

Hashirama's mouth dropped open.

"You... you saw that just now, right?!" he said in shock.

"O-Of course I saw it!" Madara replied at once.

There was no way he was going to admit that he had merely blinked for an instant and lost Rosinante completely.

"Just now, Tsubasa disappeared in a flash," Hashirama said, still staring. "He really disappeared. It wasn't just speed. There was no sound. No presence. I couldn't even detect his chakra. It was like... in that instant, he had simply vanished from the world."

The Senju Clan possessed incredibly strong sensory abilities.

Although Hashirama had not awakened anything like the Kagura Mind's Eye, he had been born with astonishingly powerful perception.

But just now...

He had clearly felt Rosinante's presence, his sound, even the flow of his chakra—

And then all of it vanished at once.

Even with Hashirama's natural senses, he couldn't detect Rosinante at all.

In the world of ninja, many shinobi could conceal their aura.

But sound?

That was much harder to erase completely.

A living body had a heartbeat.

Even if you could suppress your footsteps, the movement of your body through the air should still create disturbances.

That was why, in the eyes of an experienced ninja, it was nearly impossible for someone to completely erase all traces of themselves.

And yet, in Hashirama's perception just now...

Rosinante had disappeared utterly.

Even the faint sound of air splitting around his movement had been gone.

"No way..." Madara's expression changed slightly. "You're not seeing things, are you?"

"How could I see wrong?" Hashirama shot back. "I'm not like someone. My eyes didn't blink even once."

He turned to look at Madara with deliberate emphasis.

Clearly...

He had already noticed that Madara had blinked just now and missed Rosinante's disappearance entirely.

"You—!"

Faced with Hashirama's sharp tongue, Madara felt a surge of irritation he couldn't quite vent.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

Rosinante moved in a swift flash and had already entered General Fujimitsu's residence.

The mansion was brilliantly lit.

Patrols moved through the grounds constantly.

Guards were everywhere.

But none of that posed the slightest obstacle to Rosinante.

He made no attempt to crouch, hide, or slink through shadows.

Instead...

He walked through the residence openly.

Calmly.

Naturally.

At one point, Rosinante even passed right beside a patrolling guard.

And the most astonishing thing was—

The guard didn't notice him at all.

It was as if Rosinante simply did not exist.

Could he turn invisible?

Was he silencing the surrounding light itself, bending it somehow?

No.

He didn't need to do anything that complicated.

Against ordinary people, Rosinante only needed a simple combination:

Silence their perception of sound.

Silence his own aura and chakra.

And use Observation Haki to stay one step ahead.

With just that, he could walk openly through the residence, and no one would ever notice him.

His steps alternated between fast and slow with perfect precision.

When no one was looking in his direction, he simply walked naturally.

But the instant someone's gaze swept toward him—

He would take a single step, flash away, and appear in the blind spot of their line of sight.

So despite the heavy security...

Despite the constant patrols...

Despite the entire lord's residence being under strict watch...

Not a single person realized that someone had just walked straight into the General's Residence.