Fireworks Bloom

Aside from the Root ninja who had left, the three Root ninja originally assigned to surveillance shifted their focus from monitoring the Uchiha clan in general to keeping a close watch on Uchiha Yu.

The captain in charge even sent one person to make preparations at Uchiha Yu's home.

The Root ninja chose Uchiha Yu's house as the ambush site. There were other Uchiha nearby, so they needed to set up seals in advance to block sound and light.

At a ramen stall in the night market, Uchiha Yu patted his full belly in satisfaction. After saying goodbye to everyone, he headed straight home.

The Root ninja followed behind him.

The farther they got from the market, the closer the Root ninja drew. They even stopped deliberately concealing themselves.

When they reached Uchiha Yu's house, the Root captain spoke.

"Remember, don't hold back. Test him with everything you have."

"Should we kill him?"

"Kill him! If he has awakened the Sharingan, then he's a dangerous element and should be killed."

"If he hasn't awakened the Sharingan, then this Uchiha has no value to the village. Keeping him alive is a waste of resources, so he should be killed too."

"Yes!"

The Root ninja spoke quietly. Miwa Masayo, hidden beneath the illusion, did not hear them, but Uchiha Yu, who had crept over from the direction of his house, heard every word.

Hearing the Root ninja's words, he could not help but rise from underground and sigh. "Doing this is basically saying that the Uchiha deserve to die."

The moment he spoke, killing intent flooded the scene. Both Root ninja drew their weapons, and one even took out an Explosive Tag.

The captain who had issued the orders was even more alert. He immediately pulled out an Alarm Flare and an Explosive Tag.

Both Root ninja understood that their current mission had not been recorded. If Uchiha Yu killed them, Danzo would not even know who had done it.

And the situation was worse than their worst expectations. Uchiha Yu was a ninja who had hidden himself deeply. Not only did he possess jonin-level strength, but he was also proficient in Earth Style.

Too dangerous!

It was already impossible to pass this information on to Lord Danzo, but even if he died, he had to place Uchiha Yu on the list of suspects!

Someone who hid himself like this could not stay hidden forever once Lord Danzo became suspicious.

A ninja who concealed his strength could never withstand a detailed investigation!

The Root captain fiercely yanked the flare's pull cord, but the flare did not fly out. Just as he lowered his head in horror to see what was wrong, his vision suddenly vanished.

His thoughts stopped soon after. He was dead.

Before speaking, Uchiha Yu had already activated his Sharingan and used Sharingan Genjutsu to attack the five senses of the two Root ninja.

The first sense he controlled was touch. Humans were less sensitive to changes in touch, while being highly sensitive to hearing and sight. Tampering with those two senses could easily alert the target.

He then controlled their sense of smell and taste. The instant he succeeded, Uchiha Yu released poison gas.

The poison was extremely potent. Not only could it paralyze muscles, but it could also induce hallucinations. A ninja who inhaled it would die within a dozen seconds.

Yet such a useful thing had a fatal flaw: its smell was incredibly pungent.

Alert ninja could notice it in advance and hold their breath, never inhaling enough to cause meaningful harm.

But after Genjutsu had controlled the enemy's sense of smell and taste, things were different.

The two Root ninja had not drawn any weapons, Explosive Tags, or signal flares. That had merely been the Genjutsu's effect, aided by the hallucinations caused by the poison gas.

In reality, the moment they heard Uchiha Yu speak, their entire bodies had already gone numb. He immediately dragged them underground, where they quickly died from the poison.

While Uchiha Yu killed efficiently here, Miwa Masayo, wearing his illusion, calmly returned home.

When she pushed open the courtyard gate, Uchiha Yu also emerged from underground with two corpses.

The man and cat worked together to give the four corpses some preliminary treatment. They wrapped every one of them in oilcloth, then coated them in thick wax to keep the smell of the corpses from leaking out.

There were quite a few Konoha ninja sensitive to smells. Only complete sealing could cut off all clues for tracking.

After finishing everything, the Tabby Cat collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion and said weakly, "There's no problem for now, meow. I've suppressed the seals on them too, but it won't last until dawn."

Uchiha Yu held Miwa Masayo in his arms and gently stroked her soft fur. "Your handiwork is amazing. When will Rika-chan turn into a catgirl?"

"I'm not Rika-chan, meow! And I don't want to become a catgirl! It'd be so ugly!"

"That's only because I'm bad at drawing. Rika-chan would definitely be beautiful as a catgirl."

"You're so annoying, meow. If you won't talk business, I'm going home!"

"Fine. Can Cat Granny help with this?"

"No, meow. These corpses have several kinds of Root seals on them. There's no way to take them away through Summoning Jutsu, and Konoha's barrier will detect them if they get close."

"Then we can only burn them."

"Burn them? Wouldn't that expose us immediately?"

"Hehe, as long as I burn them fast enough, we won't be exposed."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Like this, then this, and then that..."

"...Forget it if you don't want to say. I'm going home, meow."

"Just wait a little longer. It'll be quick."

"Fifteen minutes, meow."

Uchiha Yu circulated Earth-Attribute Natural Energy, causing the ground to part like water and form a smooth, downward-sloping passage. After tossing the four large wax seals into it, he jumped in after them and rapidly headed toward the Forest of Death within the village.

Dragging her exhausted body, Miwa Masayo scrambled onto the roof in a few quick movements. She sat down, watched the tallest tree in the Forest of Death, and quietly waited for her litter-scooper's performance.

More than ten minutes later, four circular holes suddenly appeared in the ground of the Forest of Death, dark and bottomless. Then flames surged from the holes. Accompanied by four muffled explosions, wax-sealed bodies blackened by fire shot into the sky from the openings.

The Anbu ninja and Military Police Force ninja on night watch heard the explosions. They stared in surprise at four faint trails of fire rising into the sky, having no idea what had happened.

The Uchiha of the Military Police Force mobilized quickly, each heading toward different residential districts in the village to prepare for any chaos that might erupt.

The Anbu ninja rushed toward the Forest of Death in squads. Their duty required them to reach the scene immediately, uncover the truth as quickly as possible, and provide the Hokage with accurate intelligence for his decisions.

Just as the wax seals were about to touch the village barrier, the Fire-Attribute Natural Energy hidden inside the corpses erupted.

The erupting Natural Energy transformed into scorching heat. The corpses were instantly heated to over a thousand degrees. Their moisture evaporated, fat melted, muscles carbonized, and bones became charred and brittle.

Boom, boom, boom, boom

Expanding gas tore the corpses apart. Four brilliant fireworks exploded in midair, and the fragments, heated to over a thousand degrees, ignited violently upon touching the air, releasing bright lights of different colors.

In that instant, the entire Konoha was illuminated by fireworks. Tens of thousands of ninja were awakened, and startled ninja stood atop the roofs of every household.

Miwa Masayo stared at the sky, completely dumbfounded.

At some point, Uchiha Yu had sat down beside her. Taking advantage of the Tabby Cat's daze, he played with her adorable triangular ears.

Now that the corpses' ashes have scattered across all of Konoha, no one will ever be able to trace them back to me.