Arrest

"Bang." The shadow clone that had launched the lightning sphere dissipated completely, its memories returning to the original body. He had no time to appreciate the beautiful fireworks of the roaring thunder.

The shadow clone's memories merged back into the original. Kaede lowered his head, pretending nothing was wrong, letting out only a slight pained grunt to make the others believe his shadow clone had been killed.

Right after Kaede's shadow clone vanished, Shisui's shadow clone was also destroyed. At this point, he was not yet the legendary Body Flicker Shisui, lacking the might to cut through an army and retreat with a single sword stroke.

"These two kids usually keep it hidden, huh. Showing your true strength when it counts." Kabuto teased them. Shinobi couldn't be judged by common sense; what did a few secrets matter? Everyone had them.

"Alright, enough modesty. Getting back to the village quickly is the real priority. We're not far from the battlefield just now, and the enemy might pursue us." Kabuto stopped the two sly brats—he knew what they were about to say the moment they moved. Two dishonest little ones.

The squad traveled at full speed for several days before returning to Konoha. The Land of Fire was vast, and they had chased all the way to the border; making it back this quickly was already very fast.

As soon as they returned to Konoha, squad leader Kabuto had to report to the Hokage Building to debrief the mission. The remaining three headed back to the Anbu base to rest. Though exhausted from days of travel, they didn't actually rest—their keen instincts smelled trouble brewing.

There couldn't be only one Iwagakure spy captured in the village, nor just one contact. Now that Konoha had a live spy in hand, there were plenty of ways to make him spill every secret.

By evening, Kabuto returned with a grim expression.

"The village has decided on a covert purge, targeting Iwagakure's planted spies. The captured Jonin spy has been controlled by the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques, with Root's jutsu support to remove the self-destruct seal in his mind. The Anbu have extracted all his secrets."

"A purge? Did Iwagakure send that many spies to Konoha?" Kaede asked in confusion. Shinobi weren't cabbages; espionage was mostly a one-way trip. Was Iwagakure that generous? As expected of a major village with a large shinobi force.

"Most are just ordinary people, and that's where the real trouble lies. Most of these civilians were implanted as children with sealed memories and mixed into Konoha. Now they've grown up, started families, and become villagers. Until the seal is broken, they don't even know they're spies." That was why Kabuto's expression was so dark.

Even if ordinary people became spies, they couldn't obtain truly critical intelligence. This was just Iwagakure casting a wide net—all major villages did the same.

Normally, once such civilians were identified, as long as they hadn't harmed Konoha, they'd be imprisoned for a few years at most. But the problem came from the meeting just now: Root's elder Danzo proposed executing all spies. That was going too far.

Such harsh punishment for ordinary people who had no way to resist and didn't even know their true identities was too cruel. But he was Anbu; he had to follow orders.

"Our mission is to assist Lord Orochimaru in arresting all Iwagakure spies, then hand them over to Root." Kabuto gave the order sternly.

"Yes!"

Tonight, Konoha was still brightly lit, but in a house tucked away in a street corner, heart-wrenching cries went unheard by anyone.

Because the Anbu had set up a barrier in secret before arriving, cutting off all connection between this place and the outside. No matter how loudly the people inside screamed, no one would hear.

Kaede stood on the rooftop keeping watch, watching as Sparrow forcibly took the man of the house away. Shisui used genjutsu to alter memories. They worked together smoothly, as if they'd rehearsed many times—this was the ninth house. One more, and tonight's operation would end perfectly.

The man lowered his head, tears blurring his vision. He didn't dare look at his wife and son, who had already collapsed on the ground. From tomorrow on, they would no longer remember him. They would only recall that he had gone to another country for business and wouldn't return until he'd made money.

That was what the short Anbu had explained to him. Since the seal in his mind was broken and he understood he was originally an Iwagakure spy, he had no courage to plead innocence. It was all true.

The man was taken to a dark place to join the other eight. They would head to the tenth house, where the last spy was.

Kaede lingered at the back, watching the nine people stumbling forward like puppets under genjutsu control. He knew these ten ordinary people, arrested on espionage charges, were likely just test subjects for Danzo and Orochimaru's human experiments. That was why they were being handled so seriously.

The conviction was proposed by Danzo, Orochimaru was in charge of the operation, the Anbu did the dirty work, and in the end, the prisoners were handed over to Root for interrogation. Going around in circles like this, once Danzo submitted some intelligence to the Third Hokage, the whereabouts of these ten people would be forgotten.

The reason they sent Kaede's squad to carry out this mission instead of Root handling it directly was that the last spy had a special identity: she was the wife of an Uchiha.

Root couldn't and wouldn't brazenly enter Uchiha territory to arrest someone, even with solid evidence. Konoha's premier clan had its pride to uphold, didn't it?

Only by sending Kaede and Shisui, both Uchiha themselves, into the Uchiha Clan Grounds to make the arrest would the Uchiha not resist and actually hand the person over.

But Kaede, who knew what Danzo and Orochimaro were up to, understood perfectly why they were going through all this trouble to get these ten people into Root. If it were just for interrogation, what was the Anbu interrogation unit for?

In the current Konoha, with the Uchiha still controlling the Military Police Force, the village's defenses were very strong. Smuggling ten live, fresh test subjects from outside the village wasn't easy.

"Shisui, wait..." Kaede moved close to Shisui and whispered.

"Senior, you..." Shisui seemed to hear something terrifying, his voice rising unnaturally. Kaede clamped a hand over his mouth, putting a finger to his own lips to signal silence.

"Why do this?"

"Do you trust me?"

"I... I do." Shisui hesitated, then nodded. Over the past few months, Senior Kaede had been teaching him constantly. He knew Senior Kaede wouldn't lie to him.

"Then listen to me. I'll explain when I have time." Kaede tapped Shisui's forehead and returned to the back of the line.

"Captain, Sparrow, you two wait here. We'll go in and bring the person out." Stopping at the entrance to the Uchiha Clan Grounds, Kaede spoke up.

"Alright, be careful." Squad leader Kabuto knew how domineering the Uchiha Clan was, so he didn't think about following 'Hikari' and 'Tong' into Uchiha territory to make the arrest.

"Don't worry. Just going home. Nothing will happen." Kaede waved back, leading Shisui as they gradually disappeared into the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

On a distant rooftop stood a shinobi with long black hair, golden vertical pupils, purple eyeshadow extending to his nose, pale skin, and blue-green magatama-shaped earrings. He gave off a sinister, snake-like impression.

"Uchiha... the Sharingan. Not bad test subjects."