Land of Cats

Early morning.

Sasuke Uchiha dragged his exhausted body out of the ANBU Building.

After being inexplicably arrested last night, he had been interrogated by ANBU for the entire night.

"Breaking into the ANBU Building."

Thinking of the crime ANBU had accused him of, Sasuke was furious.

Before this, he had not even known where the ANBU Building was!

"Those useless idiots in the village let that bastard Itachi escape, and now they're framing me too. Damn it!"

Inside the ANBU Building.

Two ANBU stood by the window, watching Sasuke gradually disappear into the distance.

The ANBU wearing a Hawk Mask hesitated before asking, "Is it really all right to release him now?"

The ANBU in the Dog Mask answered calmly, "He was probably framed."

By investigating injuries, alibis, and other methods, ANBU had screened all the suspects over the course of last night.

Although Sasuke had been carrying the intruder's mask when he was arrested, that alone was not conclusive evidence.

"Who could have done it?"

"Hard to say!" After a pause, the ANBU in the Dog Mask continued, "That Root member who blew himself up with Explosive Tags outside the Sunagakure compound last night was supposedly sent by Lord Danzo to monitor Shinji Uchiha."

The ANBU in the Hawk Mask froze for a moment, then immediately understood. "Someone is targeting the survivors of the Uchiha Clan?"

"Yes, that is also the higher-ups' judgment. Overnight, Sasuke Uchiha was framed, and the Root member monitoring Shinji Uchiha was assassinated. The other side did not bother hiding their purpose—they wanted to see whether we in Konoha trusted the surviving members of the Uchiha Clan."

In truth, the ANBU in the Dog Mask had not said everything.

He suspected that their real goal was to uncover the truth behind the destruction of the Uchiha Clan, Konoha's foremost noble clan!

The ANBU in the Hawk Mask was no fool either. He quickly realized this and said indignantly, "This is outrageous! What do they take Konoha for?"

The ANBU in the Dog Mask sighed.

The village had yet to completely emerge from the shadow of the Nine-Tails Attack, and now it had lost dozens of powerful Bloodline Ninja from the Uchiha Clan.

On the surface, Konoha was still the foremost of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

But only those within the village knew just how weak Konoha had become.

That was why, despite the string of incidents last night, the higher-ups had not ordered the Fireworks Festival to be canceled. At times like this, they needed to show that they still had the situation under control.

Ninja Academy.

"What? You want to leave the village?"

Teacher Iruka was startled when he heard Shinji's request.

Shinji nodded. "Yes, I want to use the Ninja Academy break to visit the Land of Cats and contract a ninja cat."

"The Land of Cats?"

Iruka considered it.

The Land of Cats was not far from Konoha and often issued missions to Konoha. It was a close ally with a cooperative relationship with the village.

Thinking of the Uchiha Clan's special relationship with the Land of Cats, he checked his schedule. "How about this? I'll go with you the day after tomorrow."

Shinji knew this was Iruka's kindness, but he still shook his head. "Teacher Iruka, I can manage on my own!"

After Shinji repeatedly insisted, Iruka finally agreed to his request and issued him a temporary pass to leave the village.

With the temporary pass in hand, Shinji immediately returned to his apartment, packed his things, and set off.

Last night, although he had found many witnesses to account for his time.

The Root ninja who had been monitoring him had still died under mysterious circumstances. No one could say for sure whether Danzo would seize on that as an excuse.

So this trip out of the village was both preparation for taking Fugaku's pair of Mangekyō Sharingan in the next step and a test for Danzo, to see whether he would use the death of that Root ninja to make trouble for him.

If he remained in the village.

Once Danzo made his move, he would either have to surrender without resistance and place his life in the other man's hands, or fight with his back against the wall and leave his fate to chance.

But if he was outside the village.

Even if Danzo acted against him, it was unlikely that he would send Jonin-level ninja to hunt down an eight-year-old Ninja Academy student.

So even in the worst-case scenario, Shinji still had the option of dealing with Danzo's assassins first, then defecting from the village while the opportunity presented itself.

With that in mind, he moved swiftly and reached the village gate in no time.

Huff.

After letting out a soft breath and steadying his emotions, Shinji walked toward the checkpoint at the gate.

If Danzo intended to make a move against him, this would be the best place.

Yet after he presented his temporary Ninja Academy pass, the ninja at the checkpoint merely asked him a few simple questions before letting him through.

"It was that easy to get out?"

Even after passing through the village gate, he could hardly believe it.

Many of the countermeasures he had prepared never came into play. A temporary pass he had asked Iruka for had solved everything.

"Could Danzo be planning to deal with me silently outside the village?"

Shinji became secretly vigilant.

He could never overestimate Danzo's integrity. That man had no such thing as integrity!

Then he unfolded a map and confirmed the route to the Land of Cats once more.

After putting away the map, he took a breath and thought, Total Concentration!

This was a long journey, making it the perfect chance to train his Breathing Technique.

The physical development offered by the Breathing Technique would allow him to control every ounce of strength in his body more effectively.

In the world of Demon Slayer, the frail physical structure of ordinary people meant that there was inevitably a limit to training the Breathing Technique.

Even when trained to the extreme, gaining the legendary marks was merely an ultimate form of bodily strain.

It was a forced enhancement of the body at the cost of one's life.

But the shinobi world was different!

Because of Chakra, all kinds of miraculous ninjutsu, secret techniques, and even Kekkei Genkai gave ninja physical strength far beyond that of ordinary people.

Therefore, for ninja who possessed Chakra, the upper limit of the Breathing Technique was far higher than that of the swordsmen in Demon Slayer.

Thud.

With a muffled boom, Shinji shot toward the Land of Cats like an arrow loosed from a bow!

A journey that would take an ordinary person three or four days took him only half a day at full speed with the Breathing Technique empowering him.

And when he walked through the streets of the Land of Cats, every ninja cat on both sides stopped to look at him, their gazes fixed on the Uchiha Gunbai clan crest on the back of his clothes.

The Uchiha Clan had always been partners of the Land of Cats.

From contracting ninja cats to customizing ninja tools and gathering intelligence, the two sides had extensive cooperation.

Therefore, an Uchiha clansman appearing on the streets of the Land of Cats should have been completely ordinary.

But Shinji's appearance today was somewhat unusual.

Because he was the first Uchiha clansman to set foot in the Land of Cats since the Uchiha Clan was destroyed.

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