Hidden Shadow Snake Hands

Two medical ninja carried the stretcher. Nawaki Senju was about a meter away from the blast-ravaged gangplank.

He'd survived last time when the blast went off just over twenty centimeters away. Surely he'd survive this time from a meter away... right?

The fireball from the explosion was over ten meters across. At least ten Explosive Tags had gone off, instantly hurling Nawaki Senju and the two medical ninja into the air.

Three figures flew out of the smoke in different directions.

One medical ninja flew toward the shore, while the other flew toward the Tower Ship. Their fates were unknown.

Seigetsu Senju leaped anxiously into the air to catch Nawaki Senju.

Green medical chakra had already appeared in her hands.

But the assassins didn't want Seigetsu Senju to save Nawaki Senju.

Four figures leaped out from the Tower Ship and the river. They wore identical black cloaks and carried the same ordinary long swords. None had identifying features like a Forehead Protector.

Kawadera Uchiha had been training hard in Taijutsu lately. At a glance, he could tell that all four had Taijutsu skills at least on the level of Special Jonin.

They moved incredibly fast.

Kawadera Uchiha noticed that their hoods were oversized. The one facing him kept his brim low, while the one in profile had his hood pulled over his entire head. He couldn't see their eyes.

He understood at once: they were targeting him, and his Sharingan Genjutsu was useless.

The assassins knew there was a genjutsu specialist from the Uchiha in Seigetsu Senju's squad. They'd picked their positions carefully, making sure not to meet Kawadera Uchiha's gaze.

He had to do something. Otherwise, Seigetsu Senju, his most important connection, would die.

"Third Gate! Gate of Life! Open!"

Kawadera Uchiha leaped high into the air.

The black-cloaked man nearest to Kawadera Uchiha turned his head slightly, startled to find him right in front of him.

He narrowed his eyes and avoided looking directly at Kawadera Uchiha.

His long sword clashed against Kawadera Uchiha's short blade.

What was going on?

The intelligence said Kawadera Uchiha was a genjutsu specialist. Why was his Taijutsu so fast?

Before the long sword could fully gather momentum, the Uchiha's short blade had blocked it, just short of the black-cloaked man's body.

Then the man saw the Uchiha ninja vanish, using the force of his own sword thrust.

When he spotted the Uchiha again, he was bringing a long leg down in a kick, aiming his hard heel at the man.

A midair downward kick—only Taijutsu experts used a move like that.

Caught off guard, the black-cloaked man took a heavy blow to the head and crashed back down onto the water.

Kawadera Uchiha formed Hand Seals in midair, facing another black-cloaked man beside him.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball shot straight toward the second man.

With his momentum in midair, there was no way he could avoid crashing into it.

There weren't many opportunities in midair. Taking out two men was the best Kawadera Uchiha could manage.

He hoped Ken Aburame, Kureya Inuzuka, and the other Konoha squad aboard the Tower Ship could deal with the remaining two enemies.

A cloud of insects flew into the air and swarmed the third black-cloaked man.

The Konoha squad leader aboard the Tower Ship leaped into the air too.

But the squad leader's jump was slightly off. In midair, he kicked Seigetsu Senju!

"No!"

As Seigetsu Senju was knocked backward, she raised her hands in horror. The green medical chakra in them flickered uselessly.

Her almond-shaped eyes were wide open. In her pupils, she saw the final moment of Nawaki Senju's death!

The black-cloaked man swung his long sword down, cutting Nawaki Senju in half at the waist!

Blood sprayed through the air, painting it red.

His organs flew everywhere, plopping into the river.

The two halves of the body fell like sacks. One landed on the pier, the other in the river.

The Tower Ship Squad's two surviving black-cloaked men used the Body Flicker Technique to reach the shore, where they stared down the four members of Seigetsu Senju's squad.

They clearly meant to kill them all and silence them.

Kawadera Uchiha was ready to open the Fourth Gate, Gate of Pain, and run for it.

The squad leader who had come from the Tower Ship was powerful, with better Taijutsu than Seigetsu Senju.

Seigetsu Senju was a Taijutsu specialist at the Special Jonin level. The leader had to be a Jonin.

As chakra surged toward the Fourth Gate, Gate of Pain, Kawadera Uchiha's brow twitched. He forcibly stopped himself from opening it.

The green steam would give him away. He should protect his secrets as much as possible, because...

Mucus seeped from the half of Nawaki Senju's body lying on the pier.

The sword had cut through Nawaki Senju's abdomen, leaving the lower half of his torso and both legs.

A black-haired figure silently slithered out of the severed body, like a snake.

It was a little creepy...

Orochimaru stood up without a sound, mucus streaming down his body and washing away the blood and bits of organs.

Even as Orochimaru stared at the Tower Ship Squad and the black-cloaked men, none of them noticed him.

Kawadera Uchiha thought, Nawaki Senju had already been targeted once. Tsunade and Orochimaru were both on guard. Of course he wouldn't die so easily.

Dozens of snakes shot out.

Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!

Only the squad leader, who was at the Jonin level, reacted in time. He turned his head, trying to dodge.

But his movements were a little sluggish.

Kawadera Uchiha seized the moment and disrupted him with his Sharingan Genjutsu.

The others were bitten on the backs of their necks before they could even turn around. The squad leader turned just in time to be bitten in the throat.

In an instant, all of them turned blue and purple from the snake venom.

The snakes slid out of Orochimaru's sleeves and coiled around the assassins.

Thud, thud, thud. One after another, they collapsed to the ground.

Orochimaru said to Seigetsu Senju's squad:

"Nawaki has already returned to Konoha by another route. Take these men to our camp in the Land of Grass. I'll interrogate them myself.

"I want to know who keeps trying to assassinate my student."

With that, Orochimaru slowly dissolved into a puddle of mud.

Seigetsu Senju and Kawadera Uchiha exchanged glances.

Kawadera Uchiha said, "No wonder the young clan leader Nawaki barely said a word the whole way. That wasn't the real young clan leader Nawaki."

Seigetsu Senju also relaxed. "The adults certainly thought things through. We were just a decoy, but that was frighteningly convincing."

Kawadera Uchiha went over to the fake Nawaki's severed body. He used a wire Shuriken to pull the other half out of the water, examined it carefully, then said:

"It wasn't just convincing. This was a living person. I just don't know what Lord Orochimaru did to make him look like the young clan leader Nawaki.

"His height, face, and build were all exactly the same.

"Look closely, though, and you can spot some differences. His expression was rather dull. He didn't have the young clan leader Nawaki's... heroic air."

At last, he'd found the right words: heroic air.

As the current child of destiny, Nawaki Senju had an aura unlike anyone else's.

Ken Aburame was also examining the scene. When he finished, he said, "It's a shame about the two medical ninja..."

Seigetsu Senju looked at their bodies. "They... they were members of the Senju Clan too."

Kawadera Uchiha thought, Orochimaru really is willing to do anything. He'd even used ninja from the Senju Clan as sacrifices to catch the culprit.

Seigetsu Senju said, "We need to be extremely careful on the way back to camp too. Someone might try to take these assassins away, so they don't end up in Lord Orochimaru's hands."

Kawadera Uchiha said, "Maybe Lord Orochimaru did it on purpose. He's making us carry six people back to camp so he can keep drawing the enemy out..."

The others all looked at Kawadera Uchiha, then had to admit that the truth was always this cruel.