Obito, Another Reason to Take You Down

At that moment, White Zetsu said with a hint of malicious amusement, "Madara, you can't act on impulse at a time like this. You don't want the Moon Eye Plan to fail, do you?"

"Hmph, you don't need to spell it out. I know what to do."

Obito snorted. A vortex appeared in his right eye, and he quickly vanished.

"After all these years, Obito is still just a brat. He hasn't improved at all," White Zetsu said cheerfully.

"Brats are easier to control."

"Enough. We've wasted too much time. The Patrol Ninja will be here soon, so we need to clean up the scene quickly."

Black and White Zetsu finished dealing with the scene and left. Not long after—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!

Amid a series of piercing sounds, four Patrol Ninja appeared at the devastated training ground.

The Special Jonin leading them stared at the large pool of blood on the ground, his expression turning grim.

Judging by the amount of blood, it was enough to take an adult's life.

"This is bad. I'll report to Lord Dodai. C, I'm leaving this place to you."

The Special Jonin gave the only sensory ninja in the team a grave instruction, then used the Body Flicker Technique to leave.

Meow!

After Neji left Kana's house and was preparing to head home, a cat suddenly meowed from the roof.

Looking up, he saw a Maneki-neko racing toward him.

It was the ninja cat contracted by Yugito.

"Meow, Hyuga Neji, Lady Yugito is looking for you. It's an emergency."

The Maneki-neko shook its head and spoke in a frantic rush.

"An emergency? Could Root have been exposed?"

Muttering to himself, Neji scooped up the Maneki-neko and sprinted in the direction it indicated.

Before long, Neji arrived at the training ground.

The training ground was already surrounded by a group of powerful masked ninjas.

They were the Fourth Raikage's personal Anbu.

Neji ran up to Yugito and asked, "Captain, what happened?"

Yugito patted Neji's shoulder and sighed. "Not long ago, Yozuki Rei was attacked by a mysterious powerful enemy. His whereabouts are unknown. I'm afraid the odds are against him."

"Yozuki Rei?"

Neji's brows furrowed slightly.

He had thought the Anbu had discovered the Root ninja hiding in Kumogakure.

He hadn't expected Yozuki Rei to be the one in trouble.

"Where is Lord Raikage?" Neji asked.

Yugito replied, "Lord Raikage is furious. He's currently leading the Yozuki clan members in a house-to-house search for suspicious individuals. Lord Dodai instructed us to investigate the scene and see whether we can find any clues."

Neji rubbed his temples and nodded slightly.

Yozuki Rei was a genius of the Yozuki clan's younger generation.

He had been ambushed by a mysterious person inside the village, and his chances of survival were slim.

It was no different from receiving a resounding slap across the face.

And the Root ninja hidden within the village were naturally the primary suspects.

Neji took a deep breath. "Captain, let's begin."

Yugito waved a hand, and a blond Patrol Ninja walked over.

"His name is C. He's a sensory ninja from the Patrol Team and was the first to arrive at the training ground after discovering something was wrong."

Neji sized C up.

He looked around seventeen or eighteen and had short blond hair.

His features were handsome enough to make him Kumogakure's poster boy.

At this point, he had yet to join the Fourth Raikage's Kage Guard.

Yugito asked solemnly, "C, tell us what you found."

"Yes!"

C reported rapidly, "Lady Yugito, after hearing the explosion of Lightning Release, we rushed over immediately. It took less than a minute in total.

What's unbelievable is that by the time we reached the training ground, the battle had already ended.

Yozuki Rei had vanished. There was no one suspicious nearby, and there was only Yozuki Rei's lightning-nature chakra signature in the air."

Then, near the training grounds, I found a forehead protector destroyed by Lightning Release."

After saying that, C took out the forehead protector sealed in a plastic bag and handed it to Neji.

Neji accepted it and examined it intently.

Although the forehead protector had been destroyed by Lightning Release, the Byakugan faintly revealed half of a leaf emblem.

Yugito waved for C to withdraw, then asked, "Neji, did you find something?"

Rubbing the forehead protector with his fingers, Neji said solemnly, "This is a Konohagakure forehead protector."

"Then that settles it. The one who attacked Yozuki Rei was a Root ninja."

Yugito struck her fist into her palm, thinking she had found the answer.

Neji frowned deeply, not daring to jump to conclusions.

He had personally experienced Yozuki Rei's strength.

Yozuki Rei might have lost to Neji with apparent ease.

But an ordinary jonin was absolutely no match for Yozuki Rei.

To kill him successfully, one needed to be far stronger than Yozuki Rei at the very least.

Moreover, after killing Yozuki Rei, the attacker had calmly taken the body away before the Patrol Team arrived.

Among all the Root ninjas, not even Aburame Ryoma, their second-in-command, could have done that.

Neji activated his Byakugan and carefully inspected the entire training ground.

The next moment, he seemed to spot something. Turning toward the dense forest beyond the training grounds, he strode over.

A long sword was buried deep in a tree trunk, with only its hilt exposed.

This was Yozuki Rei's treasured Chakra Blade.

Neji's expression shifted slightly as he blurted out, "I see... I see..."

Yugito eyed the hilt suspiciously, then looked at Neji. "What did you find?"

Neji let out a long sigh. "I've fought Yozuki Rei before. His swordsmanship was sharp and fierce, enough to easily cut through a large tree. Do you know why he didn't cut through this tree?"

Yugito asked, "Why?"

Neji said, "Because this was his final strike before death."

Yugito narrowed her eyes. "His final strike didn't cut through the tree, which means he didn't injure his enemy."

Neji shook his head. "His final strike wasn't meant to attack the enemy. It was meant to preserve this sword. He was waiting for me."

Yugito said in surprise, "But he's already dead. Why would he wait for you?"

Neji stroked the hilt and said, word by word, "Because he had last words to tell me."

Yugito froze, asking in disbelief, "You're saying he had last words for you?"

Neji nodded.

Slowly, he pulled the Chakra Blade from the tree.

"You already know what he wanted to say?"

"I already know."

"..."

"But he was already dead when you arrived."

"The dead can speak too."

Yugito glanced at the gleaming blade but found nothing unusual. She asked in confusion, "Then why can't I hear the last words he left behind?"

Neji sighed deeply. "Only I can hear them in all of Kumogakure, because only I have the Byakugan."

As soon as he finished speaking, chakra flowed through the meridians in his arm and into the long sword.

Before dying, Yozuki Rei had poured all the chakra in his body into the sword.

After his death, that chakra had not completely dissipated.

As Neji's chakra flowed into the sword, a pattern condensed from Black Lightning suddenly appeared on its gleaming blade.

It was an oval, with a small dot near the right side inside it.

The moment he saw that pattern, Neji understood everything.

Obito, I have one more reason to kill you!