Run, I'm Coming to Kill You!

"Hiruzen! You can't open it!"

The Third Hokage wanted to open the scroll at once and see what intelligence Uchiha Itachi had sent, and what had happened in Amegakure.

But Shimura Danzō, his old comrade, stopped him with a furious shout, his neck flushed red.

Danzō sounded agitated. His agitation was contagious, and Hiruzen Sarutobi felt himself growing impatient too. Still, he kept his temper and asked quietly:

"Danzō, why can't I open it?"

"Just now, you were telling me to make a decision quickly. You didn't even give me a moment to think before you wanted your people to take Sasuke Uchiha into custody."

"Because it could be a trap, Hiruzen!" Danzō said through gritted teeth.

"You can't open an unchecked intelligence scroll!"

Passing intelligence between ninja was not complicated. It came either by scroll or by word of mouth. Scrolls were fast: messenger pigeons or crows could carry them, and they would certainly reach the Hokage before a person could.

But scrolls had a drawback. They did not necessarily contain intelligence. They could contain something else, like a trap.

Amaterasu lunged at the man who opened the scroll. The scroll itself was not destroyed. It fell to the floor, writing still visible on it.

The Third Hokage turned it over in his mind. Did this count as announcing a murder in advance? The scroll had contained a trap, but beneath it, where the intelligence should have been, there was only a taunt and a warning.

But someone reacted faster. Shikaru Nara immediately tore open the Fire-Sealing Scroll in his pocket and pressed it toward the Third Hokage's face.

There was not enough time for the flames to burn the Third Hokage to death. But injuring him—even leaving the aging Hokage unable to fight or remain in office—was entirely