Genius Falls

All these thoughts took no more than an instant, but before Uchiha Keisuke could begin the first step and fire a kunai connected to steel wire—

In an instant, everything before his eyes turned white.

BOOM!

Dragon-like lightning instantly crackled and roared within the trap pit filled with water vapor.

Caught inside, Uchiha Keisuke had no time to react.

Faced with an attack at the speed of light, all he could do was instinctively gather Chakra around his vital organs for protection in that instant.

But that instinctive Chakra protection did little good.

The terrifying current surged through his body in an instant, and the resulting heat immediately vaporized the moisture in his epidermal cells, turning them into a layer of blackened carbonized gel.

At the same time, the high-speed current battered his brain. Even with Chakra protecting it, Uchiha Keisuke could not withstand it. It felt as though Mount Tai were pressing down on his head, and his wide-open Sharingan were filled with unwillingness and incomprehension.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"The power of this Lightning Release shouldn't be this great!"

"Mm... that's... iron filings!"

"Damn it!"

At the final moment, watching the glittering particles in the air, Uchiha Keisuke finally saw what they were—iron filings, countless fragments produced by the exploding kunai.

Mixed into the mist formed by the water vapor, these iron filings boosted the originally B-rank ordinary Lightning Release—Ground Walk—to the power of an A+-rank Lightning Release.

Having been directly struck by an A+-rank Lightning Release without any protection, Uchiha Keisuke knew he was finished.

Clearly, the enemy not only knew he was an Uchiha, but also knew that despite being a genius of the Uchiha Clan, Water Release ninjutsu was what he excelled at most.

From the very beginning, the attacker had based the plan on the fact that when faced with danger, his first response would be to use Water Release. On that foundation, they had set up a tactic of exploding kunai into iron filings to amplify the Lightning Release's power for a killing blow.

The attacker knew him extremely well. Whether it was using water vapor to create mist and suppress his Sharingan's observational ability, or choosing Lightning Release for the fatal strike—a ninjutsu so fast that he could not react in time—every step had targeted his weaknesses.

Such a specifically tailored and countering battle plan was not something Cloud ninja could have devised in such a short time.

After all, he had never revealed his combat abilities in the Land of Lightning.

Uchiha Keisuke believed that this attack could not possibly have been carried out by ninja from another hidden village.

Though he was a renowned genius of the Uchiha Clan, he had never attended the Ninja Academy. He had been trained within the clan as a clan ninja.

Moreover, there were already very few Uchiha Clan ninja who could take on ordinary missions, and before this, he had never represented Konoha on a mission.

As a result, the chances of his intelligence being leaked were extremely, extremely low.

Not to mention anyone being able to formulate such a detailed tactical scheme specifically against him.

Uchiha Keisuke believed that apart from the clan, only Konoha's upper echelons, who had always targeted the Uchiha Clan, could have gathered such detailed intelligence on his abilities.

And the information they possessed was surely far more extensive than that held by outside ninja. Only they could have created such a thoroughly targeted plan.

Thinking of this, Uchiha Keisuke was filled with rage.

But battles between ninja were like chess—one wrong move, and the whole game was lost. What was more, he had not lost by merely one or two moves. His opponent had seen straight through him, right down to his underwear. His defeat was not unjust.

In the end, Uchiha Keisuke lost consciousness with unwillingness and a trace of anger born from realization.

THUD!

A charred body fell from midair and smashed into the equally blackened ground.

By now, the trap contained no water vapor. The high temperature from the Lightning Release had evaporated it all.

Tap!

Suddenly, a figure descended from the air and landed beside the charred Uchiha Keisuke.

"What dangerous eyes."

Uchiha Keisuke's entire body on the ground had been reduced to charcoal, yet his open eyes alone remained completely unharmed. His three-tomoe Sharingan still gleamed with a dangerous crimson light, displaying the Sharingan's power.

Seeing this, Danzo could not help but sigh in admiration, while his eyes burned with desire.

Having witnessed Madara Uchiha's power and personally experienced the might of Kagami Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan, Danzo knew full well how powerful the Sharingan was.

In his view, the strongest powers in this world were undoubtedly the First Hokage's Wood Release and the Uchiha's Sharingan.

Now, the plan to restore Wood Release remained a distant prospect, with no hope of success in sight.

But the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan would belong to him from this day onward.

Danzo crouched down and took a bottle from his robes. It was filled with nutrient solution for cultivating cells, capable of effectively preserving the Sharingan's vitality for a long time.

Danzo personally dug out Uchiha Keisuke's pair of Sharingan and placed them into the preservation bottle.

As he watched the pair of three-tomoe Sharingan float and sway inside the transparent glass bottle, Danzo felt his body and mind relax completely in that moment.

"With this pair of Sharingan, that forbidden technique capable of changing reality can be performed."

Thinking of that terrifying secret technique of the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, Danzo's heart burned with excitement. He could hardly wait to implant this pair of Sharingan immediately.

However, the Sharingan was not so easy to control.

He would have to return and find a good solution first.

"Move."

Danzo put away the bottle containing the Sharingan, then gave the order for his subordinates to dispose of Uchiha Keisuke.

This was the border. Even though they had already determined that the patrol ninjas were currently at their farthest point away, who could guarantee there would be no accidents?

The best response was to leave as quickly as possible.

Uchiha Keisuke was not dead yet, but having lost the ability to resist, he was no different from dead.

Among the four-man Root team accompanying Danzo on this mission was a member of the Aburame Clan, skilled at controlling venomous insects whose poison possessed powerful corrosive properties—an essential tool for destroying corpses and erasing evidence.

Under the venom of his insects, Uchiha Keisuke soon died, his body dissolving into a blurred puddle of pus.

Then, with a Fire Release jutsu, the sludge was completely reduced to ash. Even if other ninjas came afterward, they would find no useful information.

Thus, the Uchiha Clan's genius ninja, Uchiha Keisuke, fell, all in less than ten seconds.

That was right—the battle just now had lasted less than ten seconds, and that even included the time Danzo spent digging out the Sharingan.

It had to be said that in the world of ninja combat, strength was the foundation, but intelligence was just as important.

Before long, Danzo led the Root team swiftly through the border canyon and toward the Land of Lightning.

Not long after Danzo and the others left, the border patrol ninjas who had received reports of violent Chakra fluctuations in the area arrived.

However, all they saw was a heap of ashes from a corpse and the clearly cleaned-up traces of a battlefield around it. They could not obtain much useful information.

They only knew that someone had died here. As for who had died, they had no idea.

They did, however, know that the killer had left beyond the border.

Thus, the border patrol dispatched a three-man assault team to pursue the killer.

The other party had killed someone within the Land of Fire. No matter what, it had to be connected to Konoha's interests. At the very least, they needed to find out who had crossed the border to commit murder.

The patrol's assault team followed the faint traces left by the killer all the way to the border of the Land of Lightning, then stopped.

Once they reached this point, they did not need to guess to know that the killer was definitely from Kumogakure.

The three returned, and a report regarding the incident was sent to Konoha.

Five days later, after combining the report from the border patrol with reports of unusual activity in Kumogakure, the Third Hokage announced to the Uchiha Clan that their genius ninja, Uchiha Keisuke, had died after failing a mission.

Two days after that, Danzo and his Root team returned to Konoha without a sound. No one knew they had ever left.