Root's Attack

Hong Dou's wariness lessened somewhat at those words, and she nodded to Xuanye.

"I'll pass your words along, but whether he'll see you isn't up to me."

Ever since losing the competition for Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru seemed to have seen through many things. He shut himself away in his laboratory every day, and no one knew what he was tinkering with.

Even Hong Dou, his direct disciple, did not see him often, much less anyone else.

"Thank you." Before leaving, Xuanye casually paid for Hong Dou as well.

Seeing how polite Xuanye was, Hong Dou lowered her guard a little more.

Not every Uchiha was so arrogant and looked down on others.

After parting ways with Hong Dou, Xuanye planned to take a few more laps around the area and fulfill his duties as a member of the Security Division while he was at it.

But as he walked, he suddenly noticed that the people around him seemed to be gradually dwindling. Before long, the entire street had become deserted.

Xuanye immediately stopped and activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"Anbu, or Root's dogs?"

The streets around him were empty and utterly silent.

Yet Xuanye abruptly turned around and rapidly formed hand seals with both hands.

"Chidori!"

The instant Xuanye completed the seals, a masked figure appeared in a flash, thrusting a kunai straight at Xuanye's heart.

But just as his Body Flicker Technique ended, he realized that Xuanye was even faster than him.

Amid a shrill chirping like a thousand birds clamoring, brilliant lightning appeared in Xuanye's hand.

Though he moved later, Xuanye struck first. He seized the attacker's wrist, blocking the attack, and in the same instant, the Chidori in his other hand pierced straight through the man's heart.

At that critical moment, several more ninja appeared around Xuanye. Some held kunai, while others formed hand seals, preparing to use ninjutsu.

Before they attacked, not a single one intended to save the comrade about to die at Xuanye's hands. Instead, they planned to kill Xuanye while both his hands were occupied.

The moment he saw their methods, Xuanye understood. These were Root's dogs.

What seemed like a desperate situation to any normal person only brought a faint smile to Xuanye's lips.

Several ninjutsu struck where Xuanye had been standing, blasting the street's pavement to pieces.

But after the smoke cleared, the Root ninja discovered that all they had hit was a log created by the Substitution Technique.

The real Xuanye had used a Body Flicker Technique to appear atop a building. The three Tomoe in his Sharingan slowly spun as he immediately saw through the flow of chakra within the attackers' bodies.

At the same time, he roughly gauged the strength of the Root ninja who had attacked him.

"Three jonin, five Chunin... It seems Danzo is truly willing to spend a fortune to kill me." Xuanye chuckled and lightly flicked his right hand, shaking off every trace of blood.

Xuanye was still not very proficient with Chidori, but he had to admit that it was an extremely suitable technique for Uchiha clansmen who had awakened their Sharingan.

It was fast and nearly impossible to evade.

Combined with the Sharingan's dynamic vision, its straight-line killing power was utterly terrifying.

Its only flaw was that it could not turn once activated, but that was not something that could not be further developed later.

There were eight ninja at the scene. Including the Chunin Xuanye had just killed, Root had dispatched a total of nine ninja.

They were all the coldest-blooded Root ninja under Danzo's command. Standard masks covered their faces, and their attacks were ruthless and decisive. They fought without restraint, even willing to use their companions as bait and shields.

Without question, only someone like Danzo would train ninja into nothing more than tools for carrying out missions.

A saying had always circulated through the Ninja World: when facing an Uchiha ninja who had awakened the Sharingan, flee in a one-on-one fight; two against one might preserve your life; only three against one guaranteed victory.

That alone showed how formidable the Uchiha clan's combat strength was.

Logically speaking, since Danzo had deployed so many people, including three jonin, he was clearly determined to succeed.

But if Danzo thought this handful of people could deal with him, then he had truly underestimated him.

Fugaku had listened to him seriously not because what he said made perfect sense.

The Uchiha were all the same. They only respected those stronger than themselves.

The instant his thoughts stirred, the three Tomoe rotating calmly in his left eye suddenly accelerated!

The three Tomoe rapidly converged, twisted, and fused within his scarlet pupil, finally transforming into a Mangekyō Sharingan with an eerie pattern and overwhelming presence!

"!"

The Root ninja had never seen an Uchiha Sharingan undergo such a transformation, but that did not stop them from sensing that Xuanye's aura had completely changed.

It felt as though they had been locked onto by a terrifying pressure born from the depths of their souls. The remaining eight Root ninja, stared down by those scarlet eyes, immediately became alert, like prey watched by a massive predator... no, by their natural enemy.

But that vigilance was useless, because the instant Xuanye's left Mangekyō opened, an invisible Illusion Technique space enveloped everyone at the scene.

To those Root ninja, the world seemed to shatter like glass. Their target, Xuanye, and even everything around them became utterly unrecognizable!

They knew they had fallen under an Illusion Technique, but no matter how they disrupted the chakra within their bodies, they could not dispel it.

"What exactly... is going on?"

Yamanaka Fu watched his subordinates die one after another before his eyes. The enemy before him changed endlessly, and their attacks seemed to pass straight through a phantom.

Uchiha Xuanye's voice came from all directions, carrying unrestrained, mocking laughter.

"Didn't Danzo tell you that when fighting Uchiha ninja, the most important thing is never to look directly into their eyes?"

Only a few minutes passed in the Illusion Technique world, yet aside from Yamanaka Fu, the other eight Root ninja had all fallen, devoid of breath.

Even jonin had no chance of breaking free from such an Illusion Technique!

The sole surviving Yamanaka Fu was shocked and enraged as he watched the world slowly return to normal. Uchiha Xuanye appeared before him, one eye still maintaining the Mangekyō pattern. Fu's hands clutching his kunai trembled slightly with fear.

Was this still an Illusion Technique? He had not sensed the slightest trace of his chakra being controlled.

Without being able to detect any trace, he naturally could not find a way to break the Illusion Technique.

Xuanye looked at Yamanaka Fu, who faced him as though confronting a great enemy, and smiled. "What do you think of my Illusion Technique?"

Back in the Uchiha clan, Xuanye had been the type of ninja who excelled at Illusion Techniques. Unsurprisingly, one of his awakened Mangekyō abilities was an Illusion Technique.

But just then, Yamanaka Fu suddenly formed hand seals at high speed.

"Mind Transfer Jutsu!"