This wooden spike's sneak attack came at exactly the right moment!
Because this had been Akihara Kagura's trap from the very beginning!
The wooden spike Akihara Kagura had thrown was aimed precisely at the instant when the Mysterious Masked Man released his body through a Space-Time Ninjutsu and could not fight back!
The Mysterious Masked Man lowered his head to look at the wooden spike embedded in his body, his voice somewhat muffled. "I thought I would never be injured in this false world again..."
How long had it been since he had last been hurt?
The last time he had been injured should have been during the Nine-Tails' Rampage, right?
The last time, he had been trying to kill Naruto Uzumaki's father behind him. This time, he had been injured to protect a little brat like Naruto Uzumaki...
This world was so false that it felt almost ironic.
The Mysterious Masked Man naturally believed that he was protecting Naruto Uzumaki—protecting the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki from being killed and ensuring that the Moon Eye Plan suffered no mishaps.
[Wood Style: Impaling Technique]!
Akihara Kagura raised a finger!
The wooden spike inside the Mysterious Masked Man's body instantly began to grow!
A bizarre scene suddenly unfolded. The growing wooden spike did not harm the Mysterious Masked Man's body at all. It even suddenly fell out of his body and landed on the ground.
The Mysterious Masked Man's body had just seemed to turn transparent and intangible!
This was the Mysterious Masked Man's Space-Time Dojutsu. He could place his body within a Kamui space, preventing himself from being harmed in the real world!
"A bizarre technique... and a Sharingan!"
Akihara Kagura's gaze fell upon the Mangekyō Sharingan exposed by the Mysterious Masked Man, and his expression gradually turned cold. "A member of the Uchiha Clan—state your identity. Why are you skulking around here in the middle of the night?"
"You don't need to know who I am."
The Mysterious Masked Man stared at Akihara Kagura and spoke coldly. "I came here only to prevent the blond brat behind me from being killed..."
How did this brat have the nerve to ask that?
Wasn't he here because of this crazy little brat?
He was actually trying to kill Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki just to frame someone. A Konoha Anbu ninja was even more extreme than him, Konoha's enemy!
"How did you know someone wanted to kill Naruto Uzumaki..."
Akihara Kagura narrowed his eyes slightly and stared hard at the Mysterious Masked Man, as though trying to see through the secrets he hid. "Even I, an Anbu member, didn't know about this..."
"Oh? You didn't know?"
The Mysterious Masked Man's questioning voice carried a chilling edge.
If this brat had not suddenly wanted to kill the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, how could he possibly have exposed himself by rushing over? What the hell was Kakashi Hatake doing, letting such a dangerous brat into the Anbu?!
"Now I know!"
"I'm Konoha Anbu. I'll protect him!"
"You're the enemy trying to hurt Naruto, aren't you?!"
Akihara Kagura sneered and suddenly shouted, "Naruto Uzumaki, get behind me! That guy might be an enemy!"
"Huh?"
Naruto Uzumaki was a little confused.
Without a doubt, in Naruto Uzumaki's mind, Akihara Kagura had to be one of his own. The little blond hurriedly ran toward Akihara Kagura.
"Don't go over there!"
The Mysterious Masked Man raised his hand and threw a black rod, stopping Naruto Uzumaki in his tracks. "Naruto Uzumaki, don't get close to him. He wants to kill you!"
"An intruder slandering Konoha Anbu?"
"Has this world become too absurd?"
Akihara Kagura swiftly controlled a vine that burst out of the ground. The vine quickly reached for Naruto Uzumaki, seemingly trying to protect him!
"This false world existing at all is absurd enough!"
The Mysterious Masked Man instantly appeared beside Naruto Uzumaki and kicked him away from the vine. The little blond was sent tumbling backward through the air!
The Mysterious Masked Man did not trust Akihara Kagura at all!
In an instant!
Naruto Uzumaki saw the Mysterious Masked Man's face head-on!
A flicker of red appeared in Naruto Uzumaki's eyes. Wild crimson chakra instantly swept over his body, cloaking him in a layer of chakra!
Naruto Uzumaki glared fiercely at the Mysterious Masked Man. As if he had lost all reason, he lunged at him!
"The Nine-Tails..."
"Still refusing to learn its lesson?"
The Mysterious Masked Man glanced at the irrational Naruto Uzumaki and swiftly raised his palm. A black rod shot from his sleeve in an instant, piercing the little brat's shoulder and pinning him directly to the ground!
The Mysterious Masked Man had plenty of methods to deal with the Nine-Tails, let alone controlling a young Jinchuriki merely draped in a little of the Nine-Tails' chakra!
"Now it should be my turn to find this interesting, shouldn't it?"
Akihara Kagura tilted his head, seemingly quite curious about the scene before him. "Why would Naruto Uzumaki react like this after seeing you? No, it should be—why would the Nine-Tails inside Naruto Uzumaki react like this after seeing you?"
"..."
The Mysterious Masked Man suddenly clenched his fist!
Ever since the Nine-Tails' Rampage six years ago, there had never been any problem with the Nine-Tails inside Naruto Uzumaki. Yet it had suddenly become violent upon seeing his mask this time!
Well, now everyone knew something was wrong!
He had clearly only come to protect the Nine-Tails from being killed, yet the Nine-Tails' rampage had exposed a small secret from the past!
"Let me guess..."
Akihara Kagura stroked his chin and began working backward from the known result. "The Nine-Tails could not have gone berserk for no reason. The last time it went berserk... during the Nine-Tails' Rampage, you were involved too, weren't you, intruder?"
"You really are clever..."
The Mysterious Masked Man offered a compliment against his will.
"Your Sharingan isn't bad either..."
Akihara Kagura returned the compliment and slowly continued, "The Uchiha Clan's Mangekyō Sharingan can control Tailed Beasts. If I'm not mistaken, it was you who controlled the Nine-Tails six years ago..."
"Not bad."
The Mysterious Masked Man slowly nodded.
"You hate Konoha?"
Akihara Kagura's questions suddenly sped up.
"That's right."
The Mysterious Masked Man did not deny it.
"You don't like this world either?"
Akihara Kagura sounded as though he were asking a meaningless question.
"That's right."
The Mysterious Masked Man felt that this question was quite meaningful.
If Akihara Kagura kept talking like this, the Mysterious Masked Man would not mind letting the little brat understand his thoughts. He even wanted to lure the brat into agreeing that the false world needed to be changed.
However...
Akihara Kagura's questions gradually became strange. "If we hate this world, there must be a reason. It seems your family has all died?"
"That's right."
Before the Mysterious Masked Man could thoroughly instill in Akihara Kagura the idea that this world was a mistake, the question suddenly made him think of the grandmother he had not thought of in a long time.
"Did you kill Aburame Ryoma?"
Akihara Kagura abruptly asked a question.
"That's right."
The Mysterious Masked Man abruptly told the truth.
"Brat..."
The Mysterious Masked Man's pupils suddenly contracted as he realized he seemed to have fallen for it. "You deliberately distracted me just to find out that?"
"Rather, that's the only thing I could ask about."
Akihara Kagura folded his arms, the fingers of his left hand lightly tapping his right arm. "The person who once caused the Nine-Tails' Rampage has too many secrets. Killing one Aburame Ryoma seems too insignificant, so I was able to ask about it..."
"However..."
"It doesn't matter anymore..."
"After tonight, none of this will remain a secret..."
Chakra rapidly surged around Akihara Kagura's body as vines burst out of the earth one after another. "All I need to do now is hold you here. Then all that remains is to wait for Anbu reinforcements!"
First update!
Working backward from the result is the best way to solve problems!
Before you continue