Split Up and Act

Futami Uchiha, the second son of the Otoha Family, is fifteen years old and Chunin.

She is currently working as Katsuki's secretary.

Although his combat skills were not outstanding as a ninja, and although he successfully awakened the Sharingan, he was stuck at the single Tomoe level and could not advance further.

Six months ago, he was seriously injured during a mission. Since then, Nishiki gradually lost his competitive spirit and eventually chose to switch careers to become an office worker. He was found by Katsuki to serve as her secretary.

"Uncle, no... Principal, the map is here."

Nishiki, carrying the long scroll, walked to the wall and pinned it to the bare wall with thumbtacks.

The latest map of Konoha, produced by the Geography and Surveying Team two months ago, clearly marks every street and alley. Because Konoha's reconstruction and expansion projects have been in full swing, new versions of maps are released every three to five months. Katsuki's office has accumulated two large boxes of old maps.

Katsuki stood in front of the map, took the red pencil that Nishiki had brought over, and began to draw circles on the map.

"Cough cough!"

Katsuki coughed lightly and looked at Orochimaru and Itachi.

"Lord Hokage, Itachi, these—" Katsuki slapped his hand on the map, "One of these circles I drew marks Sasori's location."

Orochimaru squinted, counting the red circles on the map; there were about forty of them.

"These places are all covered by barriers, isolating my senses." Katsuki pressed the red circle. "Itachi, shouldn't Root have records of the barriers set up in the village? Compare them with these things, remove the ones that can be removed, and what's left is Sasori's location."

Konoha's management of the village is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Things like barriers are not allowed to be set up arbitrarily. Short-term barriers are not required, but any long-term barriers need to be reported to Root. In other words, the major clans are not restricted within their own territories. However, Katsuki does not believe that Sasori would go to the territory of these major clans to cause trouble.

Compared to villages, each family manages its own territory more strictly.

Furthermore, putting himself in Scorpion's shoes, if he wanted to target Shuyuan, he would choose a relatively secluded public area on the way to and from school.

However, the Uzumaki Clan's territory is actually quite far from the Ninja Academy. There are six places along the way that are covered by barriers, and to be on the safe side, he marked out all the places near the Ninja Academy that have barriers.

"I'll get it done right away."

Itachi nodded, beckoned to the masked Root ninjas, and quickly relayed orders. The figures darted out of the Ninja Academy and headed towards the Root building not far away.

It happened very quickly, in just five minutes.

His subordinate brought the documents Itachi needed. He walked to the map, took the black pencil from Nishiki, and began to draw circles on the map.

The red and black circles overlapped one after another, until only three bright red circles remained uncontaminated.

"Three locations? That's much smaller than expected!"

Katsuki pinched her chin.

"How about... one for each of us?"

Fortunately, Orochimaru, Katsuki, and Itachi were all inside, so the distribution was just right.

"Leave this to me."

Orochimaru was the first to grab a pen and tick the bottom circle, then turned and left with a flourish, leading a large group of his fierce and ruthless Anbu to charge forward.

"Lord Katsuki, please go first..."

"Don't be shy, Itachi, just choose whatever you like!"

Katsuki forcefully shoved the pen into Itachi's hand.

"In that case, please forgive me for being impolite."

Itachi drew a checkmark on the map, which happened to be the location of the park.

"Then the last one is mine."

Garden.

"Boom!!!"

The fiery tornado dried up the cascading waterfall, shattered the massive plateau, and sent Taiseki raining down like meteors, causing the earth to tremble.

"Scorpion, this is too much of a commotion. If you can't deal with that brat soon, we're leaving."

The cold, ruthless voice in his ear made Scorpion's eyes narrow, and his expression turned extremely ugly.

"Hey, this isn't what we agreed on. Weren't you guys supposed to be strong? Why are you cowering in front of Konoha? How can you talk about changing the Shinobi World like this? Are you kidding me?"

"Hmph, don't give me that. I'll give you three minutes, then I'll dispel the barrier."

The voice in the shadows ignored Scorpion's provocation and calmly announced its decision.

Scorpion's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot, his teeth grinding together in a loud clatter. He wanted nothing more than to wipe out this bunch of cowardly cowards. What could they possibly do in three minutes? That little monster on the other side was incredibly resilient; even ten more minutes wouldn't be enough to take it down.

Twenty minutes have passed since the beginning.

However, Sasori still didn't have a chance. Uzumaki Shuyuan's strength far exceeded his expectations. He felt like he was fighting a smaller version of a natural disaster, rather than torturing a student from a Ninja Academy as he had imagined.

The difficulty of the battle gave him a headache.

His Human Puppet, his trump card, displayed formidable offensive power, completely overwhelming Shuyuan. However, it was merely an overpowered attack; although Shuyuan was forced to flee in disarray, he achieved no substantial results.

The park had undergone a dramatic transformation during the battle. The sandpit, swings, flower beds, and surrounding trees and shrubs were all gone. The steel climbing frames had been melted by the flames. As far as the eye could see, the scorched earth was riddled with pits and cracks, the dark pools of water emitted a pungent smell, and the air was thick with dust.

"That's terrible!"

Standing on the mound, Shuyuan rubbed his nose; the air was too full of impurities, making his nose itchy.

Looking at the desolate state of the park, his lips twitched, and he unconsciously clenched his fists.

He was about to collapse, protecting Naruto, Sasuke, and Suzuran against Sasori's relentless attacks. It was more exhausting than he had imagined. He had mastered the Ninjutsu of the five elements, but mainly C-rank Ninjutsu, and had only learned a few B-rank Ninjutsu. He lacked powerful methods, whether for offense or defense.

They had struggled for a long time relying on the power of combined Ninjutsu, but now they were gradually running out of tricks.

"No... This won't do. These Human Puppet are too damn stupid. It feels like fighting an entire army of Sand Ninja. Top-tier Puppet Master are truly insane." Shuyuan's true form was hidden behind a rock, while her Shadow Clone were desperately resisting Sasori's attacks.

Looking at the three people lying in front of her, Shuyuan scratched her head in frustration. If all else failed, she would have to resort to her last resort.

"Magnet Release, Quicksand Waterfall."

In his perception, a remarkably powerful Chakra surge suddenly erupted.

Immediately.

A rumbling sound reached his ears, and the ground beneath him trembled. Many more memories flooded his mind, from different clones, of how their resistance was crushed and they were submerged by the surging quicksand.

Raise your head.

High, cascading waves of quicksand slid over the rocks and then plunged down. (To be continued)