The voice that rang out behind them gave the three Anbu ninja a terrible feeling, setting alarm bells screaming in their minds.
Their pupils contracted, and they tried to scatter at once.
But their fields of vision suddenly tilted.
The figure of a young Uchiha girl appeared in their increasingly blurred sight, but before they could make out her face, all three heads had rolled off their necks.
[Ding! You have successfully killed three "red name" evildoers! Your chakra has increased slightly! Congratulations, you have obtained: ① Shuriken Throwing Technique Experience Book ×7; ② Water Style: Flowing Blade Technique; ③ Prostitute Appraisal Technique Experience Book ×4!]
The crimson frames hovering above the three Anbu ninja's heads slowly faded.
But killing them was only the beginning. The earlier commotion had already alerted the entire secret base.
That was fine, though.
It saved Uchiha Chisen the trouble of dragging everyone out.
When more Anbu ninja arrived,
they found several corpses on the ground, along with an Uchiha ninja holding a bloodstained ninja sword, murderous intent rolling off him.
Though they had no idea what exactly had happened, the sight shocked them into immediately sounding the base's alarm.
"Wooo-wooo-wooo-"
The piercing alarm even alerted Sarutobi Shinosuke.
"An enemy intrusion?!"
Sarutobi Shinosuke frowned beneath his Anbu mask. Since this Secret Experimental Base had been established, no outside enemy had ever invaded it.
Why did this crap have to happen just when the old man left me in charge of the secret base?
What puzzled Sarutobi Shinosuke even more was who would have the nerve to invade a secret base near Konoha.
If a base could be built near Konoha, that meant it had close ties to the village.
Didn't the intruder know that?
Or...
Did they simply not care about Konoha?!
"All combat personnel, assemble!" Sarutobi Shinosuke's expression grew grave as he issued his orders. "Head immediately to the location where the alarm was triggered. The intruder..."
If this secret base were exposed, it could very well damage the old man's reputation.
A murderous gleam flashed through Sarutobi Shinosuke's eyes.
"Whoever the intruder is, kill them on sight!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
Under Sarutobi Shinosuke's command, an entire Anbu squad mobilized together-the secret base was originally guarded by two Anbu squads.
One squad was tasked with keeping watch outside the base, patrolling inside, and transporting supplies; the other was responsible for eliminating anything that threatened the base.
Both Anbu squads answered to Sarutobi Shinosuke alone.
Sarutobi Shinosuke suspected that something had already happened to the first squad!
And the intruder's strength could not be underestimated!
Otherwise, the enemy could never have slipped into the base unnoticed.
"Wait!"
Sarutobi Shinosuke stopped one of the Anbu and ordered him, "You don't need to come with us. Return to Konoha immediately and tell the old man what happened. If the village doesn't receive word from the base within fifteen minutes, that means something has gone wrong here. Tell the old man he'd better bring plenty of people."
"Yes, sir!"
Just as Sarutobi Shinosuke was about to continue toward the source of the alarm, a sudden sense of danger made his heart lurch.
Almost instinctively, he shouted, "Stop!"
At that same moment, he suddenly noticed a faint orange-red glow on the metal-reinforced wall to his right. He could even feel scorching heat coming from it.
-BOOM!!!!
Terrifying heat instantly melted a massive hole through the metal-reinforced wall. A volcanic blast sent molten iron spraying everywhere, and an invisible wave of heat struck them head-on.
The Anbu ninja immediately bent their knees to steady themselves, staring in horror at the hole melted through the wall.
"That's..."
Sarutobi Shinosuke's pupils contracted. Beside the hole, he saw "half" a person lying on the ground.
The other half of that person's body was nowhere to be seen.
But judging by his clothing, he was also an Anbu ninja.
His mask had fallen off, and an expression of unspeakable terror was frozen on the remaining half of his face. A single glance sent chills through anyone who saw it.
Drip-
Drip-
A strange dripping sound reached their ears.
The smell of sulfur filled their nostrils.
The name of an Uchiha Clan ninja he utterly despised suddenly surfaced in Sarutobi Shinosuke's mind-Uchiha Chisen!
The thought had barely formed when a figure with magma slowly flowing over his body stepped through from the other side of the hole.
"-It's Uchiha Chisen!!!" an Anbu ninja behind Sarutobi Shinosuke exclaimed in shock.
"Long time no see, Shinosuke... sensei."
Magma dripped from Uchiha Chisen's body. Its molten light could not obscure the bloody scarlet of his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Looking straight at Sarutobi Shinosuke, he said, "As one of the Third's right-hand men, you haven't been seen for the past two years. I thought you were dead. So the Third stationed you here, Shinosuke-sensei."
Sarutobi Shinosuke's fists instantly clenched.
His expression darkened beneath his mask, and he said through gritted teeth, "The moment you killed your two teammates, you stopped being my student, and I stopped being your Jonin instructor! Uchiha Chisen! What exactly have you come here to do?"
The half-corpse on the floor made Sarutobi Shinosuke feel even worse. He fixed Uchiha Chisen with a fierce stare. "So you really can't suppress the demon inside you anymore? You're planning to go on a killing spree in Konoha and murder these innocent people?!"
The other Anbu ninja behind him were rather surprised.
So Shinosuke and Uchiha Chisen had a history like that. He had actually been Chisen's Jonin instructor!
Uchiha Chisen asked calmly, "Too many of the shinobi world's evildoers have died by my hand. Which two do you mean?"
Sarutobi Shinosuke nearly stopped breathing.
"You... have you completely forgotten even your own teammates?"
"I don't go out of my way to remember villains I've already killed."
The veins on Sarutobi Shinosuke's forehead twitched.
"Shimura Reiya! Uzuki Saku! Surely you remember those names! Back then... they were my Genin students, just like you!"
Sarutobi Shinosuke could not help recalling the incident in which teammates had turned on one another, shaking him to his core.
After that incident, he had never again served as a Jonin instructor for any Konoha Genin.
"Oh... I think I remember now."
Uchiha Chisen said, "Shimura Reiya bullied someone at the Ninja Academy until the victim, whose complaints went unanswered, committed suicide. Uzuki Saku was Shimura Reiya's accomplice. Even after the victim died, Uzuki Saku continued spreading malicious rumors about them throughout the village."
"I did kill those two. However, they attacked first, so Lord Fourth Hokage classified the incident as excessive self-defense and did not hold me accountable."
Sarutobi Shinosuke listened to Uchiha Chisen's utterly emotionless tone, as though his "teammates" had meant nothing to him.
Fury surged through him. "They didn't deserve to die!"
Uchiha Chisen said, "Then did the person they bullied deserve to die?"
Every step he took left a molten pit in the floor.
"In my eyes, those two students of yours had already been corrupted by the shinobi world's 'evil' into unforgivable villains. I merely baptized the shinobi world's unforgivable 'evil' in scalding magma. Nothing more."
"Shinosuke-sensei."
Uchiha Chisen's scarlet eyes settled on the crimson frame hovering above Sarutobi Shinosuke's head.
"Now you..."
"Have fallen into the abyss too."
Before you continue