Danzo's Apprehension

"When we meet again, it's anyone's guess who'll win." Uchiha Gray said coolly.

Then Uchiha Obito's final words echoed through the forest.

"Our organization is far beyond your imagination. There's a god among us!"

Uchiha Obito vanished completely.

Uchiha Gray wore a faint, knowing smile.

Kamui's time limit had simply run out.

If the fight had continued, Uchiha Obito would have been seriously hurt. Besides, their battle had already attracted the attention of some of the Leaf's ninjas.

Through his Sage Body's senses, Gray felt more than a dozen ninjas rushing toward them!

"Gray, what happened?"

Uchiha Shisui was always the first to arrive.

Uchiha Shisui's pupils contracted. What on earth had happened here?

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of trees had been burned to ashes.

Every patch of grass on the ground had been scorched, and countless trees were still burning in the forest!

No ordinary ninja had that much chakra. There was no doubt that this destruction had been caused by Gray's ninjutsu!

"A masked ninja showed up while I was training. He wanted to recruit me, but I refused."

Uchiha Gray spoke calmly.

"Then we fought. He had an extremely strange ninjutsu that let him slip into the void, making him impossible to hit. So I had no choice but to keep using ninjutsu until I drained his chakra."

Uchiha Gray made it sound like nothing.

But Uchiha Shisui was instantly stunned, completely dumbfounded.

"You kept using ninjutsu just to drain his chakra?"

Uchiha Shisui was at a loss for words.

Only someone like Gray, with his terrifying reserves of chakra, could use ninjutsu so recklessly. For an ordinary ninja, ninjutsu was their greatest weapon and their means of deciding a battle.

Every ninja had to wait for the right moment and choose the best way to use their ninjutsu.

But Gray could use it whenever he felt like it.

Uchiha Gray calmly checked the chakra inside him. Good—his reserves had already fully replenished.

"Let's go!"

Uchiha Shisui sounded a little helpless.

With that, the two of them vanished in an instant.

Both of them had mastered the Body Flicker Technique, and Uchiha Gray also had access to Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit abilities.

Evading more than a dozen Chunin and several Jonin was child's play for him.

The search team swept the area in a tight net, but they couldn't find Uchiha Shisui or Gray.

The two of them leaped away and disappeared in an instant.

"What on earth happened here?!"

The ninja wearing a fox mask stared in shock. No human could have caused this kind of damage.

It was as if the very terrain of the Forest of Death had been reshaped!

"Could a human really have this much chakra?" Kakashi felt the meager chakra inside him and couldn't help feeling a little envious.

"This is the kind of chakra only a Kage Level fighter could possess. And this battlefield is clearly no work of an ordinary ninja. We need to report this to the Third immediately." Hatake Kakashi analyzed the situation calmly.

After searching the area, he found no vital clues.

The ninjutsu used here had been so powerful and wide-ranging that even if there had been clues, they would all have been burned away.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!"

The sound of bodies cutting through the air rang out.

Several ninjas appeared, their bodies radiating a chilling chakra.

Their eyes were cold, like those of the dead. They surveyed the area in silence, then immediately left.

Kakashi glanced at them.

They were Root ninjas—Danzo's subordinates.

They were all powerful, but had no thoughts of their own.

Naturally, they had no concept of comrades, either.

He sighed. Hadn't he once been the same?

But this clearly wasn't the time to dwell on that. Kakashi collected himself.

He hurried toward the Hokage Building.

Root.

The Root ninjas returned and knelt before Danzo, reporting respectfully, "Danzo-sama, we've inspected the scene. There are no clues left behind."

"However, according to our surveillance of the Forest of Death, Uchiha Gray has been going in and out of it!"

"Following your orders, we've been keeping him under constant surveillance. We saw him enter the Forest of Death, but we never saw him leave. We've just searched the forest, too, and found no sign of Uchiha Gray."

"So whatever happened in the Forest of Death may have been caused by Uchiha Gray!"

Danzo's eyes were sinister and vicious. "Uchiha Gray is an unpredictable factor!"

He had originally doubted Uchiha Shisui's strength, which was why he had informed Orochimaru that Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Gray had left the village.

But a few days later, not only had Uchiha Shisui returned unharmed, but Uchiha Gray had too.

Danzo knew Orochimaru's strength well. He was a veteran Kage Level fighter, and Danzo had to admit that even he couldn't beat Orochimaru.

Yet Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Gray had returned safely!

The Root ninjas Danzo had sent, however, hadn't come back!

That shrouded the whole affair in a haze of uncertainty.

Orochimaru, Uchiha Shisui, and Uchiha Gray were all alive, but Danzo's Root ninjas were dead. Why?

Before he could think it through, Orochimaru had sent him a terrifying message in a fit of rage.

Because Danzo had deceived him, he had to pay Orochimaru ten billion!

Otherwise, Orochimaru would refuse to make the Wood Release Sharingan Arm for him!

That man Orochimaru was practically bleeding him dry!

But whoever controlled the technology held the upper hand, and Orochimaru was also terrifyingly powerful. Danzo had no way to threaten him.

Left with no choice, Danzo had to hand over the ten billion.

But that only made him hate Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Gray even more!

"Could that brat have been hiding his strength during the Genin exam?!"

Danzo's eyes shifted. That was the only explanation that fit perfectly!

"Uchiha Gray must have awakened his Sharingan. He may even have awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan!"

"Although Orochimaru didn't reveal much about Uchiha Gray, this is the only way he could have escaped from Orochimaru!"

As he continued to speculate about Uchiha Gray, cold sweat ran down Danzo's back.

Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Gray, Uchiha Itachi.

The Uchiha Clan now had three genius ninjas.

Uchiha Shisui was already a Kage Level fighter, while Uchiha Gray and Uchiha Itachi would both become at least Elite Jonin.

If Uchiha Gray and Uchiha Itachi were allowed to grow stronger,

then no one in the entire Leaf would be able to stop the Uchiha Clan. And Danzo would never become Hokage.

"That must never happen. Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Gray, Uchiha Itachi—you three all deserve to die!"