Konoha, deep underground.
There was no sunlight here, only dim yellow lamps casting wavering, ghostly shadows on the stone walls.
The air was damp and cold, with an unpleasant smell.
Shimura Danzō sat alone in the stone chamber, his one remaining eye fixed on the scroll in his hand.
The ink on the scroll was still wet. It detailed everything that had happened the day before at the Ninja Academy and the Uchiha Compound.
Uchiha Ryūha, an unknown Kekkei Genkai, Complete Hypnosis, Fugaku's summons...
"Uchiha..." Danzō murmured, his thin lips forming the word as though he were chewing on something foul. "That family just won't stay buried."
He set down the scroll and ran his gaunt fingers along the armrest, disgust filling his eye.
"Uchiha Fugaku wants to use this branch-family boy as a pawn? Hah, how naive." Danzō sneered.
"The Sharingan is trouble enough. Now another Kekkei Genkai that can control all five senses has appeared... The Uchiha bloodline should never have existed in Konoha."
He raised his head and looked toward the two figures standing motionless in the shadows like statues.
"Torune, Fu." Danzō's voice echoed through the chamber. "Go and 'make contact' with this new Uchiha toy.
"I want to know exactly what his Kekkei Genkai can do—and how to counter it."
"Remember, show no mercy.
"If necessary, bring back the body—if those eyes are still worth studying."
The two figures in the shadows bowed without a sound.
"Yes, Lord Danzō."
"..."
The following morning.
Uchiha Ryūha stepped out of his newly renovated home, holding the requisition slip Fugaku had approved. He was on his way to collect that month's training supplies from the clan's supply office.
A thin mist hung over Konoha in the early morning, and villagers were already busy along the streets.
A woman selling breakfast lifted the lid off her steamer, and warm steam billowed out.
Ninja on patrol moved silently across the rooftops.
A few children chased one another past a street corner, their laughter bright and clear.
It was a peaceful scene.
But Ryūha felt himself tense slightly.
Not because of the curious, assessing glances that occasionally fell on him, but because—
[Warning: Two highly concealed hostile chakra signatures have locked on.
Threat assessment: Special Jonin.]
The system's alert rang in his mind, cold and clear.
Ryūha adjusted his glasses and discreetly swept his gaze across the surroundings.
In the shadow beneath the eaves to his left, a silhouette was almost indistinguishable from its surroundings.
Behind a trash can in the alley to his right, someone had suppressed their breathing until it was barely audible.
Anbu? Or...
Ryūha recalled the organization hidden in Konoha's shadows in the original story—Root.
Of course.
He had revealed his Eye of the Heart in front of everyone the day before.
With Danzō's obsession with the Uchiha and his greed for Kekkei Genkai, it would have been strange if he hadn't sent someone to investigate.
Ryūha kept walking, not even speeding up, making his way toward the edge of the compound at an unhurried pace.
The supply office and his designated training ground were both in that direction, so his route made sense.
But Ryūha deliberately took a detour, turning into a quiet stretch of woods.
This was an abandoned training ground on the outskirts of the Uchiha Compound. Few people came here, making it an ideal place for "contact."
The instant he stepped into the woods, two sharp gusts of wind shot toward him from behind!
There was no warning, no probing attack. They went straight for the kill.
Two poisoned kunai flew at Uchiha Ryūha's back and neck from tricky angles, leaving him no room to dodge.
At the same time, two figures materialized like phantoms in the air to his left and right.
One formed Hand Seals and spat out several wind blades, which tore through the air with a shrill whistle.
The other flung three Senbon rigged with Explosive Tags, aiming straight for Ryūha's legs.
Their coordination was flawless, their killing intent unmistakable.
A cold glint flashed in Ryūha's eyes.
Flash Step.
Whoosh.
His figure vanished from where he stood.
This wasn't the afterimage left by the high-speed movement of the Body Flicker Technique. It was genuine instantaneous displacement.
The poisoned kunai, wind blades, and Senbon all missed.
They collided and exploded where Ryūha had been standing, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The two Root shinobi's pupils contracted.
"He vanished?!"
"Where is he?!"
Their gazes darted frantically about. They pushed their sensory abilities to the limit, yet couldn't detect a trace of chakra.
No, that wasn't right.
It wasn't that there was no chakra. The signature was simply too faint, too well concealed.
As if... as if this person simply didn't exist.
"Left!" The Root shinobi codenamed Torune suddenly shouted, hurling three shuriken behind him.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A kunai knocked the shuriken aside with pinpoint accuracy.
Ryūha's figure had somehow appeared on the trunk of a large tree to the left.
He stood on one leg atop a slender branch, his body swaying gently with the breeze as if he weighed nothing.
"Decent reaction," Ryūha remarked blandly, as though he hadn't just been attacked.
"Fu, restrict his movement!" Torune growled.
The Root shinobi codenamed Fu rapidly formed Hand Seals—Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent gust burst from his mouth, not aimed at Ryūha but sweeping across the entire area.
The wind sent leaves and dust flying, obscuring their vision. At the same time, the disturbed air would reveal the enemy's movements.
It was a clever tactic.
Too bad for them, they were up against Flash Step.
Ryūha lightly tapped the branch with the tip of his foot.
His figure vanished again.
Rather than disappearing, he moved so fast that he left no afterimage at all.
"Behind you!" Fu's senses finally picked up a trace, but it was too late.
Ryūha's figure appeared behind him like a ghost, and a precise chop struck the back of his neck.
"Ugh!" Fu grunted and crumpled, but before losing consciousness, he used every last ounce of strength to throw a poison-smoke bomb.
Purple smoke spread in an instant.
"Got him!" A flash of delight crossed Torune's eyes.
A single breath of this poison would paralyze the nervous system within three seconds and render its victim unable to fight within five.
But in the next instant, his delight froze on his face.
Ryūha was standing outside the cloud of poison, though no one knew when he had moved. Not even the hem of his clothes had brushed the smoke.
He looked down at Fu, sprawled on the ground, and shook his head.
"Poison doesn't work on me."
The moment the poison smoke burst, Ryūha had used Flash Step to put distance between himself and the cloud.
The whole sequence flowed smoothly, as if he had rehearsed it a thousand times.
"How is that possible..." Sweat beaded on Torune's forehead.
What kind of speed was this?
There had been no Hand Seals, no sign of a chakra burst, and his movement was so strange that it was impossible to predict.
One moment he was in one place, and the next he was ten meters away, with no "movement" in between.
It was... it was just like Space-Time Ninjutsu!
But wasn't that a technique developed by the Second Hokage? Where had this kid learned it? And how could he even use it?
Besides, Space-Time Ninjutsu produced obvious spatial fluctuations. What the boy had used wasn't a ninjutsu at all!
Was it Taijutsu? What kind of Taijutsu could do something like that?
"What the hell are you?!" Torune ground out, forming Hand Seals again—more complex ones this time.
But before he could finish, a figure was already right in front of him.
So fast!
Torune hadn't even seen how Ryūha had moved. All he saw was a pale hand rapidly growing larger before his eyes.
Thud!
A clean, powerful punch slammed into his abdomen.
"Urgh!" Torune's eyes bulged. Stomach acid mixed with blood sprayed from his mouth as his body doubled over like a shrimp.
But Root training had given him extraordinary willpower.
He endured the pain, slid a poisoned short blade from his sleeve, and stabbed backward toward Ryūha's ribs.
A desperate move meant to take them both down.
Before you continue