Little Mouse

"Mmgh—"

Under the crushing grip of Susanoo's giant hand, more than half the bones in Kakuzu's body shattered.

Even Kakuzu, a Kage-level powerhouse with an extraordinary tolerance for pain, could not help letting out a muffled groan.

"Mangekyō Sharingan—you awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!"

His face twisted in pain as Kakuzu stared in shock at Uchiha Fugaku within Susanoo, his gaze fixed on those eyes bearing bizarre patterns.

Having lived through the era of Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara, he naturally knew that within the Uchiha Clan, aside from the ordinary Sharingan, there was another kind of eye that stood above it—the Mangekyō Sharingan.

With those eyes, Uchiha Madara possessed strength nearly equal to Hashirama Senju's. He too had been a formidable figure feared in that era.

Had he known earlier that Uchiha Fugaku had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, he never would have chosen Uchiha Fugaku as his prey.

Having experienced that era, he understood the terror of the Mangekyō Sharingan better than anyone else.

Unfortunately, there was no such thing as "if" anymore.

"Sharp eyes. But there's no reward. Without a secret technique or a Kekkei Genkai, you aren't qualified to leave behind an intact corpse."

Uchiha Fugaku spoke indifferently.

As he spoke, Susanoo's giant hand suddenly tightened. Kakuzu's body was completely crushed, turning into mangled flesh.

Two hearts shattered at once, leaving him with no possibility of resurrection.

If Kakuzu had possessed a secret technique or a Kekkei Genkai, making him worth using Corpse Melting on, then he would have been qualified to leave behind an intact corpse.

Unfortunately, Kakuzu had neither.

As for Kakuzu's forbidden technique, Earth Grudge Fear, he had no interest in it. He had no desire to alter his own body into something neither human nor ghost like Kakuzu.

"He's dead?"

Several hundred meters away, Yamanaka Fu's face was filled with shock.

Kakuzu, the infamous S-rank rogue ninja known throughout the ninja world, had actually died—at the hands of someone Yamanaka Fu would never have expected before this.

"Kakuzu possessed Kage-level strength. If Uchiha Fugaku could kill him, then doesn't that mean Uchiha Fugaku also...?"

The thought left him utterly shaken.

Rumor had it that Kakuzu possessed Kage-level strength.

However, as a Root member with access to vast intelligence networks, he knew this was no rumor. It was true—Kakuzu truly possessed Kage-level strength.

And yet, someone like Kakuzu had died at Uchiha Fugaku's hands. Didn't that mean Uchiha Fugaku's strength had not only reached the Kage level, but surpassed that of an ordinary Kage-level ninja?

"What was that enormous skeletal upper body? Could it be... could it be...?"

He thought of a possibility, one that deeply shocked him.

After Uchiha Madara, the Uchiha Clan had gradually declined, and no formidable powerhouse had emerged among them again.

The reason was that no one in the Uchiha Clan had ever again become a Mangekyō Sharingan wielder like Uchiha Madara.

The strength Uchiha Fugaku had displayed, surpassing that of an ordinary Kage-level ninja, along with that bizarre skeletal upper body, made him unable to stop himself from suspecting that Uchiha Fugaku had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, just as Uchiha Madara had back then.

"I must report this news to Lord Danzo immediately!"

With that thought, he took out a slip of paper and quickly wrote down what he had seen and his suspicions.

Then, he took out the carrier pigeon he kept on him, tied the note to its leg, and released it.

The carrier pigeon flew into the sky with the message, heading toward Konoha.

Suddenly.

Pfft—

A kunai shot toward the carrier pigeon in the air, burying itself deeply in its body.

The pigeon fell from the sky and landed on the ground with a thud.

"Who...?"

Yamanaka Fu hurriedly looked toward the direction the kunai had come from, and cold sweat immediately broke out across his body.

Uchiha Fugaku had appeared there at some unknown point.

Blood tears streaked from his eyes, making him look somewhat disheveled, but the aura he gave off sent an icy chill through Yamanaka Fu.

"So there really was a little mouse following behind me!"

Uchiha Fugaku looked coldly at Yamanaka Fu.

After leaving Konoha, he had vaguely sensed someone following and watching him from behind.

After all, he was not a sensory-type ninja. Moreover, the other party had used various animals for surveillance, so he had been unable to pinpoint their location.

However, when he had fought Kakuzu earlier, the other party had been shocked by the sight of Susanoo, and their aura had leaked out for an instant.

That allowed him to lock onto the other party and determine their location.

"Those clothes... are you Anbu, or Root?"

Uchiha Fugaku's gaze fell on Yamanaka Fu's mask.

Root members dressed much like Anbu members. The difference was that Anbu members wore only animal masks, while Root members wore animal masks but were not limited to them.

Besides animal masks, there were all manner of demon and monster masks.

"Not good!"

Seeing that the person who had appeared was Uchiha Fugaku, the target of his surveillance, Yamanaka Fu was horrified.

He kicked off a thick branch beneath his feet, his body darting nimbly through the forest like a monkey as he fled at high speed.

The mission to tail and monitor Fugaku had already failed. The only thing he could do now was escape and report what he knew about Fugaku.

"Futile."

A sneer appeared on Uchiha Fugaku's face.

Even Kakuzu, a Kage-level powerhouse, had been unable to escape his grasp. Much less a little rat like this one.

Whoosh—

In a flash, he appeared in front of Yamanaka Fu and kicked at him.

Bang—

Yamanaka Fu hurriedly raised both arms to block, stopping Uchiha Fugaku's kick.

He flipped backward, dissipating the force from Fugaku's kick, and watched Uchiha Fugaku warily.

"Who sent you to watch me?"

Uchiha Fugaku did not immediately attack, instead questioning him.

"Mind Transfer Jutsu—"

Yamanaka Fu did not answer. Instead, he rapidly formed hand seals and performed his clan's secret technique.

Having learned such a secret, he did not believe Uchiha Fugaku would let him go.

The only thing he could do now was take advantage of Fugaku's lack of understanding of him, use his clan's secret technique to control Fugaku, and escape that way.

Swish—

A surge of spiritual energy invaded Uchiha Fugaku's body, seeking to strip Fugaku of control over his body and seize it for itself.

"Hmph—"

With a cold snort, Uchiha Fugaku's formidable spiritual energy as a Kage-level powerhouse, bolstered by the Mangekyō Sharingan, slammed into that invading spiritual energy.

Before that powerful spiritual energy, the spiritual energy that had entered his body was immediately repelled and forced out of Uchiha Fugaku's body.

"Ah—"

Yamanaka Fu, who had been performing the secret technique, suddenly screamed. Blood flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears as his body staggered violently.

His secret technique had been shattered by Uchiha Fugaku, and he suffered severe backlash.

"Mind Transfer Jutsu? So he's from the Yamanaka Clan!"

Uchiha Fugaku looked at Yamanaka Fu, who had suffered severe backlash, with an intrigued expression in his eyes.

The Yamanaka Clan, the "Ino" in the Ino-Shika-Cho combination, was a fairly renowned clan of secret technique users in Konoha.

Members of this clan possessed unusual physiques and exceptionally strong sensory abilities.

He was quite interested in sensory abilities.

Compared to Kakuzu, this Yamanaka Clan member before him was actually a more suitable target for Corpse Melting.