Orochimaru

To preserve the continuation of their bloodline limit, members of the Uchiha Clan generally married within the clan, but the requirements for ordinary people were not so strict. Whether marrying out a daughter or taking a wife, as long as they joined the Uchiha, even if their children awakened the Sharingan, they were still considered part of the Uchiha Clan.

Thus, down to the present day, the bloodline of the Uchiha Clan had never been lost to outsiders.

"Kaede-senpai, do we really have to do this?"

"Shisui, you must understand that handing her over to Root is definitely not a good thing."

"I... understand. I'll do as you say." Shisui's mood was low.

"Root is a dark place, even darker than the Anbu. Handing her over to Root is worse than ending her suffering ourselves. At least this way, she can have a whole body to be buried with."

The two walked in silence through the clan grounds, arriving at the home of the last person. They knocked on the door, and a young woman answered, a small child cradled in her arms.

Seeing Kaede and Shisui standing at the door, having already put away their masks, she spoke weakly. "Kaede-sama, Shisui-sama, is there something you need?"

Kaede and Shisui were now famous figures in the Uchiha Clan. After all, both had joined the Hokage's direct Anbu at a very young age. There were those in the clan who envied them, resented them, or made snide remarks, but that didn't stop them from being well-known.

"I... we..." Shisui looked at the child in her arms and couldn't bear to tell her the cruel truth.

"My apologies. Shisui, do it." Kaede snatched the child from her arms and held it, allowing Shisui, who was skilled in genjutsu, to undo the seal in her mind.

This time, Iwagakure's seal was extremely well-hidden. If Konoha hadn't captured a spy with jonin-level strength and learned the seal's formula, they never would have discovered it. After all, with a deliberate scheme against an unsuspecting target, Konoha might strictly guard against ninja entering the village, but it couldn't search the memories of every single ordinary person who came in.

Shisui quickly formed hand seals, his Sharingan appearing in his eyes. He sent a mental-impact genjutsu chakra at the woman, and combined with the unsealing hand seals, the memory seal in her mind was undone. She remembered who she really was.

"This... this... impossible. I can't be a spy. No... no." The woman collapsed to the ground, her mind in chaos. This scene was exactly the same as the previous few households.

These ordinary people being used as tools by the ninja villages was a fate they could not escape. When fate arrived, panic and helplessness devoured their reason and hearts, yet no one could pull them out of hell.

Kaede said, "You still have a child, you still have a husband. Don't cause them trouble."

The woman snapped awake instantly. Looking at her daughter held in Kaede's arms, tears streamed down her face. She stroked the sleeping child, not knowing if she would ever see her again.

"We've come to take you away. We're handing you over to Root. Come with us."

"Yes... yes, Kaede-sama."

Kaede looked at Shisui, who had already turned his head away, his eyes red-rimmed. He nodded.

They entrusted the child to a neighbor for care. Under the neighbor's confused gaze, Kaede and Shisui led the woman out of the Uchiha Clan Grounds and met up with the other nine. With this, all the spies had been caught—if they could even be called spies.

"Mission complete. We report back," Kabuto ordered. Sparrow led the way at the front, Shisui kept watch on the right flank, and Kaede brought up the rear.

But they had only walked a hundred meters when the last woman who had been caught broke away from the group, making a run for a small alley. The genjutsu hadn't worked on her.

"Hmph~" Seeing this, Kabuto's face darkened beneath his mask. He wondered if someone was playing tricks, and the most likely suspects were those two brats.

This woman was a member of the Uchiha Clan. Handing her over to the Anbu or Root for disposal would be a blow to the Uchiha Clan's reputation.

"Still trying to run? Lightning Release: Lightning Flash!" Kaede shouted from the rear. He pointed his finger, and a bolt of lightning compressed to its limit shot out from his fingertip, like a thin white thread, piercing through the woman's chest. She fell to the ground.

This no-hand-seal ninjutsu was something he had developed himself during his time in the Anbu to show off his talent, and he could use it openly.

Kabuto quickly used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside her, turning her over. He checked her breath and heartbeat. "No pulse. Fatal wound. The heart was pierced by Lightning Release. It's stopped beating."

"The Uchiha Clan produces a spy, bringing trouble to the village and shame to the clan. I struck in anger just now and hit too hard. My apologies, Captain."

"I'll deal with you when we get back." Kabuto scolded Kaede harshly as he obediently admitted his fault.

"Captain, since she's already dead, why not return the body to the Uchiha? It's just an ordinary person's corpse. There won't be any intelligence on it," Shisui chimed in from the side.

"This..." Kabuto hesitated. Was this the goal of those two brats? To get the body back, to take it back to the clan for burial?

"No. I refuse." A cold voice spoke, accompanied by snake-like vertical pupils and a habitual fake smile that made it seem even more sinister.

Of course, this was how Kaede, with his preconceived notions, saw Orochimaru. In the eyes of others, Orochimaru, as one of the Sannin and a disciple of the Third Hokage, was still very respected.

"Orochimaru-sama." The four bowed in greeting.

"A mission is a mission. Even a corpse must be delivered to Root for the mission to be considered complete." Orochimaru had been on a nearby rooftop observing his experiment subjects, but in the blink of an eye, one had been killed.

Losing a living subject had already pained him. Now these two scheming Uchiha wouldn't even leave him the dead one... This was too much.

"What's going on? All this noise." A low, authoritative male voice came from the opposite direction of the Uchiha Clan Grounds. Uchiha Fugaku, leading the Uchiha members of the Konoha Military Police Force, appeared at the entrance of the alley, as if they had just returned.

"Kaede, Shisui." Seeing the familiar Anbu gear, Fugaku spoke first.

"Clan Leader-sama." Their identities revealed, Kaede and Shisui put away their masks and showed their true faces.

"Orochimaru-sama. What a rare guest, appearing here. Would you like to visit the Uchiha?" Fugaku addressed Orochimaru as 'sama' only as a sign of respect for the Hokage's disciple.

"Clan Leader Fugaku. A visit won't be necessary. We're just carrying out a mission," Orochimaru replied to Fugaku.

"Then I won't disturb you." Fugaku prepared to leave. He had just finished patrolling the outskirts of Konoha with the police force and was tired, wanting to rest.

Just as he was about to leave, a police force member whispered in his ear, "Clan Leader, that dead woman seems to be one of our Uchiha."

"Are you sure?" Fugaku asked in a low, stern voice.

"I wouldn't mistake it. I've seen her before. Her little daughter often plays with my son."

Fugaku's expression instantly turned cold. As the clan leader, if he didn't intervene when a clan member died, where would his authority be?

"Orochimaru-sama, I need an explanation." Although Fugaku had to consider the balance between the village and the clan, the death of a clan member was enough for him to question Orochimaru.

"Hohoho! I didn't kill this person. The one who killed her is one of your Uchiha." Orochimaru showed no fear, his vertical pupils narrowing slightly as he gestured toward Kaede.

"Uchiha Kaede. Killing a clan member. Are you planning to betray the clan?"

"Clan Leader-sama, please wait. The situation is like this..." Shisui quickly began to explain to Fugaku. He knew that Kaede-senpai seemed to have some unpleasantness with the clan elders, and the clan leader was very strict with him.

The clan leader might not listen to his explanation, so it was better for him to explain.