"Ptui!"
Blood sprayed everywhere, splattering the Root ninja's face and head.
But his eyes were filled with panic, with none of the joy of completing his mission.
His short blade seemed to have struck thick hide. What should have been a clean severing blow had been stopped midway.
He suddenly looked up and saw that the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had somehow awakened. Fiery red Chakra surged all over Naruto's body like boiling magma. Three long energy tails lashed wildly behind him, cracking the ground wherever they passed and sending shattered stones flying in every direction.
Their eyes met, and all he saw were beastly eyes filled with savagery.
There was no human emotion in those vertical pupils, only the most primal desire to kill.
The instant he was targeted, the Root ninja felt as if he had been locked onto by a natural predator. The blood throughout his body seemed to freeze.
This was bad!
The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had lost control!
"Die!"
He shouted and hurriedly threw his weight down, desperately pressing his short blade downward.
But the Nine-Tails Chakra around Naruto's body was like a solid shield, firmly keeping the blade away. No matter how much force he used, it would not budge.
Fresh flesh rapidly wriggled at Naruto's slashed-open neck wound, giving off wisps of white smoke as it healed in an instant.
"Roar!"
Naruto threw back his head and roared. With a wave of his small hand, a massive fox-shaped energy claw attached itself to his arm. It tore through the air with a piercing boom, moving so fast that it left only a red afterimage.
The Root ninja did not even have time to react before the fox claw pierced straight through his heart.
A crimson heart was clutched in the fox claw's palm, still faintly beating. After displaying it for a moment, the claw squeezed tightly.
With a wet pop, blood splattered everywhere, covering Naruto's face and head before sliding down his Chakra cloak and pooling into a small puddle on the ground.
"Howl..." Smelling the familiar scent of blood, the Nine-Tails inside Naruto could not help becoming excited and let out a wild howl toward the sky.
The howl was deafening, carrying the pressure unique to an ancient Tailed Beast. The surrounding trees shook violently under the sonic impact, their leaves falling like rain.
But once it finished howling and lowered its head, it saw a pair of familiar blood-red eyes staring coldly at it.
The Mangekyo pattern within those Sharingan slowly rotated, like an abyss seeking to pull its consciousness inside and make it feel once more that terrifying suppressive force etched deep into its memories.
"Damned Uchiha!!!"
The pitiful Nine-Tails had only cursed once. Before it could even pounce forward to fight desperately, its vision blurred, and it returned to its familiar cage.
"Ah... Uchiha again!!!"
Once again experiencing the helplessness of facing the Sharingan, as well as the contempt and disdain reflected in those eyes, the Nine-Tails flew into a rage. Like a beast gone mad, it charged at the cage door, clawing and biting at it.
But the Fuinjutsu Formula emitted a blinding red light, rendering all its attacks invisible and leaving only its powerless roars echoing through the mental space.
Outside, Naruto lost the protection of the Nine-Tails Chakra. His strength greatly depleted, his body swayed before he toppled over again and lost consciousness.
Watching the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki get instantly taken down, Uchiha An nodded in satisfaction.
With these eyes to assist him, collecting the Ten-Tails in the future should become much easier.
He had only known before that his clan's Sharingan naturally countered Tailed Beasts, but he had never tested it in practice. Now that he had tried it on a small scale, he knew its reputation was well deserved.
He turned back and looked at Yamanaka Fu, who had already collapsed from the backlash, then taunted him.
"Well, Yamanaka Fu, your plan was quite good. It saved me a lot of time."
"If you hadn't helped me, killing all six of you would have taken quite a bit more effort."
His voice carried icy mockery. The Sharingan glimmered with an eerie light in the shadows, as though he were admiring his prey's final struggle.
The flames around them had not yet fully died out, casting his figure like an envoy from hell.
Yet Yamanaka Fu was no longer capable of responding.
After suffering repeated backlash from secret techniques, even an elite Jōnin like Yamanaka Fu could not endure it.
He lay on the ground now, moonlight shining upon his deathly pale face. Those once-sharp eyes had begun to lose focus.
His body convulsed involuntarily as blood continually poured from his seven orifices. He could barely breathe and was not far from death.
But Uchiha An still did not withdraw Susanoo. Instead, he swung an arm from afar and smashed it down toward Yamanaka Fu. At the same time, his Sharingan watched Yamanaka Fu's every movement closely, afraid that he might suddenly use a Forbidden Technique like the Reaper Death Seal and take them both down together.
"Itachi, you really are cautious!"
Seeing that "Uchiha Itachi" would not fall for it, Yamanaka Fu sighed, his heart sinking.
What he was truly best at was the Body Mind Switch Puppet Curse Seal Technique, using puppets to ambush people in secret. Because the Jutsu Formula was so well concealed, it often had a devastating first-encounter effect against enemies from other villages.
But against someone from the same village like "Uchiha Itachi," who knew him inside out, he had not even had the chance to use it before suffering a crushing defeat.
All one could say was that in battles between ninja, intelligence was always the highest priority.
As a Root ninja, he was naturally not afraid of death. He only regretted that he had failed to complete his mission.
"Sorry, Lord Danzo. I can no longer continue following you."
A resolute gleam flashed in Yamanaka Fu's eyes, and a blinding red light suddenly began to shine beneath his ninja clothes.
It was the light of an Explosive Tag!
With a flash of firelight, his body rapidly swelled, turning into a huge fireball in the blink of an eye.
"Boom!"
The light instantly illuminated the entire night sky. The shockwave from the explosion swept outward in all directions, even ripping up the earth.
The scorching blast instantly carbonized the surrounding trees, while shattered stones scattered like a torrential rain.
Even Susanoo's descending Giant Palms were knocked away by the force of the explosion, failing to achieve anything.
Several breaths later, the explosion subsided. Only a huge crater remained, while Yamanaka Fu had been blown to pieces.
"Tch! Just as expected of Root's style."
Uchiha An swept his gaze around and only canceled Susanoo's protection after confirming that Yamanaka Fu was dead rather than having escaped with something like the Substitution Technique.
He searched the area carefully again, but found no method Root used to transmit information.
There were far too many ways to pass intelligence in the Ninja World. Even within the same village, he could not possibly know everyone else's methods.
Root in particular had always operated in secrecy, so intelligence transmission was naturally among its highest priorities.
Given Root's habits, the information should already have been sent back to the village by now, right?
Would they use insects, or ninja beasts?
Whatever.
As long as the intelligence was sent back.
He just wondered who the next wave of pursuers would be.
Now then, Uchiha Clan Ninjutsu, Uchiha Clan Genjutsu, Uchiha Clan Sharingan, Uchiha Clan Mangekyo, and Uchiha Clan Susanoo—who could say I was not Uchiha Itachi!
This was intelligence bought with six lives. Who would dare not believe it?
Well, Third Hokage, let me see whether you truly trust this other Uchiha that much!
Uchiha An briefly cleaned up the battlefield, then picked up the unconscious Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and continued toward the Land of Rain.
Before you continue