Sealing Technique: Tiger's Gaze

"Divine Wind Sword: Chain Slashes!"

Several white chakra slashes stood out in the darkness, blocking the rogue ninja carrying the unconscious Chunin Xiao Gui.

The rogue ninja froze in place. Before long, streaks of blood began to seep through his blue flak jacket.

Then his body crumbled like an unstable stack of blocks, pieces tumbling to the ground one by one, until his life force vanished completely.

Just then, Touma emerged from the darkness. After checking Xiao Gui's breathing, he placed the Chunin directly into a scroll.

Ordinarily, a simple Sealing Jutsu couldn't seal a living person. A technique that altered their appearance through Yin Release nature transformation had to be used first to preserve them.

The famous "Four Black Mist Formation," for example, was a barrier Sealing Jutsu that could seal living people, formed by combining the "Black Sealing Method" with the "Black Mist Technique."

The "Sealing Technique: Tiger's Gaze" was another example. It was a technique for sealing living people, derived by using the "Character Binding Technique: Seal" in conjunction with "Super Beast Imitating Drawing."

Touma had simply organized the Sealing Jutsu Orochimaru had collected, extracted their key features, and simplified them into a technique for sealing living people that could be used with the Space-Time Warehouse. He called it the "Black Coffin Technique."

Anyone sealed inside the "Black Coffin Technique" fell into a deep coma. The technique suppressed their chakra, but it couldn't work on anyone who had something else sealed inside them—like a Jinchūriki, whose body housed another being with its own life and consciousness.

Of course, the "Black Coffin Technique" wasn't infallible. It could keep a person inside alive for no more than twenty-four hours. After that, even a ninja with the formidable vitality of the Senju Clan or the Uzumaki Clan would have a high chance of dying inside the seal.

So after sealing Xiao Gui, Touma summoned a Ninja Hawk and sent it to deliver the scroll to Kairan Village.

They had been able to accept this mission partly because the Umino uncle Kairan Village had sent was an old acquaintance, and partly because Kairan Village had specifically requested Team Shinku.

Kairan Village had made the request because Umino was familiar with them and could keep the information within a small circle, preventing it from spreading further.

The key information they wanted to keep under wraps was Xiao Gui's identity. Officially, Xiao Gui was a "he," but in reality, Xiao Gui was a "she." She was Matsukawa Katsumi, the only daughter of Matsukawa Daisuke, the leader of Kairan Village, and she was already engaged to Yuan Zeya, the only son of the former daimyo, Yuan Jiuxiong.

As Yuan Jiuxiong's only son, Yuan Zeya was practically guaranteed to inherit the daimyo's position. After the Sugiyama Clan incident, the current daimyo, Yuan Benxiong, had lost all interest in continuing his power struggle with his half-brother. Yuan Zeya's chances of inheriting the title were now almost one hundred percent.

If anything happened to the next daimyo's fiancée, Kairan Village would surely be blamed. The ninja who relied on the village as their home would once again be driven from their homes, and that was the last thing they wanted.

When the mission first came in from Kairan Village, Root had very nearly snatched it away. Danzo was extremely wary of the other two ninja villages within the Land of Fire.

Even with Sarutobi Hiruzen's public ban, Root had continued sending spies to Shin-Gaku Village and Kairan Village over the years.

The most notorious of them was the "Wandering Miko," who had nearly provoked an internal conflict in Shin-Gaku Village through her espionage. She was Yakushi Nonō, who was only a little over twenty years old.

The name "Wandering Miko" had been given to her by Shin-Gaku Village. Nonō had infiltrated so deeply that, within six months, she had reached the village's leadership and begun whispering in their ears, throwing its political situation into turmoil. All she wanted, though, was to obtain Shin-Gaku Village's "Closed Iron Gate" technique.

Because of this incident, Konoha had received its first public reprimand from the Daimyo's Palace since the village was founded. The palace demanded that Konoha compensate Shin-Gaku Village for its economic losses and hand over the culprit to face their punishment.

Of course, anyone who saw the bandage-wearing man still causing unrest and chaos in the village day after day could tell that Lord Hokage had vouched for him, keeping him from being handed over to Shin-Gaku Village.

In truth, even if Konoha offered to hand him over, Shin-Gaku Village wouldn't dare accept. The Shinobi World still respected strength above all else. If things reached the point where there was no room for compromise, it would probably mean Konoha was about to annex Shin-Gaku Village.

From the perspective of the village's interests, Touma certainly wouldn't agree to hand over Danzo, a core member of its leadership. Leaving aside how much intelligence he possessed, Konoha simply shouldn't back down on principle.

But from Touma's personal perspective, the sooner they dealt with this troublemaker, the better it would be for Konoha's development.

Konoha did need power in the shadows, but it didn't need Root—a force that wasn't even under the Hokage's control. During a recent break, while Touma was conducting research in Orochimaru's laboratory, Root ninja had come looking for him several times.

Touma was already publicly known as a ninja aligned with the Hokage. Even so, Danzo's desire to recruit him hadn't been deterred. He kept sending people to approach Touma every few days.

Touma had also used Orochimaru's intelligence network to inform Lord Hokage, but the harassment from Root hadn't decreased. It had only grown worse. They had now started targeting Touma's mother, Takako, who worked at Kan-Kuri-Kan. Clearly, Lord Hokage wasn't doing nearly enough to keep his old comrade in check!

It seemed Touma would have to keep holding back until this Hokage's advisor left the village in person. His departures had never followed proper procedure anyway. Even if he died out there, probably no one would investigate.

Of course, it wasn't realistic for Touma to kill Danzo just yet. Danzo had been trained by Senju Tobirama himself as a member of the Shadow Guard and was one of the Shinobi World's few top-tier fighters. He wouldn't dare cause trouble across the Shinobi World without confidence in his own strength.

So if Touma wanted to seize his chance and take Danzo down in one go, he'd have to plan carefully. What's more, based on the information Touma had pieced together from public sources, Kagami Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan seemed to be in Danzo's possession.

Yes, you read that right. Kagami Uchiha had not only awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, he had also failed to leave it to his son, Hideaki Uchiha.

Orochimaru had verified Touma's deduction. He had mastered a technique developed by Senju Tobirama specifically to sense the unique chakra of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Orochimaru had indeed sensed the chakra of a Mangekyō Sharingan on Danzo. But the eyes weren't implanted in Danzo's eye sockets. He had stored them in a sealing scroll inside his personal ninja tool pouch.

Danzo probably hadn't solved the problem of the Sharingan rejecting a new host yet. Replacing both eyes with a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan would take too much out of him. Even if he could use them, his strength might not match Kakashi's with just one Mangekyō Sharingan.

The mission to pursue and capture the target had gone very quickly. They had killed Shiba and his nephew, along with five other Chunin, and even returned Matsukawa Katsumi, the mission's primary target, to Kairan Village.

But both Shinku-sensei and Umino felt the mission had gone a little too smoothly. It was so smooth that they couldn't shake the feeling something else was about to happen.

Sure enough, just as the four members of Team Shinku and Umino Sadami were withdrawing from the Fire-Rain border, they were ambushed by a squad of Rain Ninja that had secretly infiltrated the Land of Fire through underground waterways!