Chapter 34

Besides, Father had already set out with Captain Nagasawa and Captain Natsume just now. There shouldn't be any major problems. "Thanks, brother!"

Sasuke grinned in satisfaction and followed Itachi out of the house.

Uchiha Sasuke wasn't so bored that he had to tag along for the excitement.

The problem was—the system had shoved the task right in his face.

[Mission completion conditions [Mission completion conditions [Complete any one to pass.]

Fine. Now he couldn't just wait at home.

In the Hokage's office, Hihiko Sarutobi stood by the window, his eyes fixed on the direction of the village gate.

When Uchiha Fugaku came to him, the old man didn't hesitate much and approved the permit to leave the village on the spot.

That didn't mean he had suddenly come to trust the Uchiha Clan.

The key was—Shisui's eyes absolutely could not fall into Danzo's hands.

If an ocular jutsu of that level truly existed, then leaving it with Shisui was actually the safest choice for the moment.

At the very least, for him, the Hokage who was currently still somewhat leaning toward the Uchiha, it was the safest. "Kotoamatsukami..."

"I need to find a chance to get that thing..."

The calculations in Hihiko Sarutobi's heart quietly began to turn as well.

The scene shifted to the Uchiha group.

Uchiha Fugaku led the team, with Uchiha Natsume and Nagasawa Uchiha following on either side. The three of them shuttled swiftly through the dense forest, their speed stirring up a flurry of fallen leaves.

Uchiha Itachi brought Sasuke along, following close behind.

At this speed, they would be able to reach Uchiha Shisui's location in at most an hour.

One hour was not long.

But at this critical moment, they couldn't afford to waste even a single second.

At the same time, Shisui, who was waiting for Itachi to come, was spacing out in a clearing in the forest. "What's going on with Itachi?"

"He suddenly ran over to find me. Did something happen?"

Uchiha Shisui muttered inwardly, but he still obediently stayed where he was and didn't move.

After all, with the tacit understanding between the two of them, this much trust still existed. "Hm?!"

Suddenly, he sensed a chakra fluctuation.

Shisui slowly stood up.

At this time, anyone who could appear in this place was most likely someone from Konoha, right?

Soon, figures flickered.

A group of people emerged from the woods and surrounded him in a semicircle. "Lord Danzo?!"

"And—people from Root..."

Uchiha Shisui looked at the people in front of him, his brows furrowing.

Hadn't they gone to escort the chakra metal?

Judging by the time, it should have taken at least another month before they returned to the village, right?

Why would they appear here?

Still, they were all Konoha ninja, and this place wasn't far from the village.

Shisui didn't put up much guard. "Uchiha Shisui?"

"Your mission is over?"

"Why didn't you return to the village? Why are you squatting here?"

Danzo didn't give him a chance to ask questions and threw out the interrogation first. "Hm?"

"I'm waiting for someone here."

Shisui, this guy, really was an honest man. He directly revealed his own hand. "Waiting for someone?"

"In that case—the group of people who attacked the village earlier were let in by you working with them from the inside?"

"Uchiha Shisui, I remember you as a loyal ninja with a firm will."

"How could you do something like this?"

A nearly invisible smile hung at the corner of Danzo's mouth, and his tone sank.

After that string of words slammed into him, Shisui froze outright.

Him?

Betrayal?

Colluding with the enemy?

When had those words ever had anything to do with him, Uchiha Shisui?

Bang!

Just as Shisui opened his mouth and was about to explain, Danzo moved.

Danzo's target was plainly Shisui's pair of eyes.

Just as his hand was about to touch them, Shisui instinctively blocked the sneak attack, then immediately withdrew a large step backward. Suppressing anger in his voice, he shouted, "Lord Danzo, even if you want to investigate me, you should first take me back to the village for questioning, right? Since when can the Root Organization casually attack the village's ninja?"

Shisui was both shocked and furious inside, but his expression remained steady, and his question was still considered polite.

Danzo was expressionless, his voice cold as an iron sheet. "The Root Organization has the authority to directly deal with defecting ninja. Now that you're resisting arrest, I have every reason to eliminate you on the spot."

As soon as the words fell, the Root Organization ninja behind him immediately moved, pressing toward Shisui together.

Thoughts spun rapidly in Shisui's mind.

Resist? But he really did have that authority. If they truly fought, Shisui would instead lose the moral ground.

Not resist? Yet everything felt wrong no matter how he looked at it. Itachi had even specifically had someone bring a message, telling him not to leave, saying he would come find him.

Could it be...

The words Sasuke had said suddenly flashed through his mind—Danzo wanted to make a move against the Uchiha.

Before, he had still been half-believing and half-doubting. But with the situation before him now, there was no room left to hesitate. "Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Breakthrough!"

Shisui made his move.

He spat out a mouthful of fire, forcibly tearing open a gap in the encirclement, then drew the blade from his back with a reverse grip and charged straight into the crowd.

His taijutsu was absurdly fast, the insight of his Sharingan was ruthless, and his Body Flicker Technique was even more elusive. Coupled with his vast chakra, even without using the power of the Mangekyo, the Root Organization's people couldn't do anything to him for a while.

If Shisui hadn't kept holding back, unwilling to deal killing blows to people from the same village, several of them would have been lying on the ground already. "Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!"

"Wind Style: Shuriken!"

Seeing that his men couldn't suppress him, Danzo personally entered the fray.

Once he joined the battle, Shisui immediately had a much harder time. After all, none of the people Danzo had brought out were pushovers, and Shisui was holding back everywhere. By this point in the fight, the situation was already starting to collapse.

At that moment, Danzo spoke again, his voice resounding all around. "Uchiha Shisui betrayed the village and fled, colluded with outsiders, and intended to subvert Konoha. The Root Organization has been ordered to pursue him. Those who resist are to be killed without mercy."

The corner of Shisui's mouth twitched hard.

When it came to pinning crimes on people, Danzo's skill was definitely at Kage level. "Withdraw first."

He pulled away, formed a one-handed seal, and instantly activated the Body Flicker Technique.

In the entire dense forest, dozens of Shisuis appeared all at once, the true and false impossible to distinguish.

The Root Organization's people had seen how powerful this move was. For a moment, none of them dared to charge forward rashly.

But Danzo didn't panic. He directly raised his hand. "Wind Style: Great Vacuum Sphere!"

A violent Wind Style swept over, and all the clones exploded into white smoke within the blast, not a single one left.

Just as the corner of Danzo's mouth curved up slightly and he prepared to follow up with another move to force the man out, in the corner of his eye, a cold gleam abruptly enlarged. "Tch—"

Shisui's kunai stabbed fiercely into his left eye.

With one strike landed, Shisui didn't stop for even half a second. He turned and charged toward the direction of the village. "Lord Danzo!"

"Don't let him run! Chase him!"

"We absolutely cannot let him return to the village alive today!"

Danzo gritted his teeth, yanked off the long robe on his body, messily poured on medicinal powder, and pressed it hard against the wound. In a few movements, he wrapped up the ruined eye.

Chase.

Keep chasing Shisui.

Half an hour later, Uchiha Fugaku led his people to the location Itachi had specified. "There was a fight."

"Clan Leader, these traces were left by Shisui's best Fire Style."

"As for the rest... a Wind Style expert got involved. Most likely that old dog Danzo."

Natsume squatted on the ground and scraped through a few pieces of scorched earth, his voice pressed low and heavy.

He knew very well who the mission target was, but when he truly saw the devastation before him, he still couldn't help drawing in a cold breath.

With a fight like this, who would still believe it was a misunderstanding?

"Go. Hurry and give Shisui a hand."

"If this really was Danzo's doing today, then we'll leave him here."

Uchiha Fugaku narrowed his eyes, killing intent pouring straight out.

Inside the village, he had to keep up appearances and endure.

But this place was not Konoha.

If you, Danzo Shimura, dared tear away all pretense, then don't blame him for striking to kill.

The three of them continued forward along the traces of battle.

Uchiha Itachi had already brought Sasuke and gone after Shisui's direction one step ahead.

A crow perched on Itachi's shoulder, relying on it to exchange messages with Shisui. "Brother Shisui, we'll meet up in ten minutes at most."

"Father and the others aren't far behind either. They'll catch up to us in three minutes."

"If you're with me, holding off the Root Organization for three minutes won't be a problem."

"Mm, I'll be there right away."

Before long, Sasuke and Itachi arrived at a clearing.

The person standing in the distance was none other than Uchiha Shisui.

Shisui looked a little wretched right now. He had consumed a considerable amount of chakra, and his forehead was covered in sweat. "Brother Shisui."

"Eat this quickly."

Itachi took out a pill and handed it over.

In just a few seconds, Danzo's figure appeared not far away. "Uchiha Itachi?"

"Uchiha Sasuke?"

When Danzo saw the two of them, he first froze, then his face filled with joy.

Originally, he had only wanted to obtain Shisui's eyes. He hadn't expected Itachi and Sasuke to deliver themselves to his door as well.

This trip had turned into a massive profit. "Danzo, what right do you have to attack the Uchiha?"

Itachi stared at Danzo, anger suppressed in his eyes.

In his view, the things Danzo had done had already stepped over the bottom line of the village's stability. "Hey, how long are you going to hide?"

"Orochimaru?"

Danzo ignored Itachi completely and shouted directly. "Hehehe..."

"Itachi, Sasuke."

"They're mine. You take Shisui."

Orochimaru stretched out his tongue and licked his lips, slowly walking toward Sasuke and Itachi.

With every step he took, a pile of snakes appeared around him.

By the time they saw those snakes clearly, their numbers were already frightening. "Secret Art: Myriad Snake Shadows!"

Orochimaru quickly formed several seals, then lowered his entire body to the ground.

Countless snakes drilled out from every part of his body.

The tide of snakes surged forward like water. "Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Sasuke and Itachi spat out flames almost at the same time.

On Sasuke's side, he directly activated Lightning God Mode.

These snakes looked highly venomous at a glance.

They couldn't touch them, couldn't inhale anything from them, and absolutely couldn't let them bite. "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

After Itachi finished spewing fire, he flicked his hand and threw out several kunai.

The kunai stabbed straight into Orochimaru's body.

But those kunai all nailed into poisonous snakes. Orochimaru himself was completely unharmed. "Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

"Kusanagi Sword!"

One of Orochimaru's arms suddenly burst open, and countless snakes surged out from the broken end.

In each snake head's mouth, there was a gleaming long blade. "Don't be careless. That guy has far too many trump cards."

Uchiha Itachi dropped that sentence and charged straight up to block the Kusanagi Sword. At this time, his strength had not yet reached the point where he could steadily suppress Orochimaru.

Sasuke was just about to go over and lend a hand when he suddenly sensed something wrong—

There were still other people hiding around them.

And one of those auras was so familiar it couldn't be more familiar.

Obito Uchiha.

How had this guy gotten involved too?

Sasuke's mind exploded. Before he had time to think carefully, a black shadow descended from the sky.

A tall, burly man swung a giant club and smashed it fiercely toward Shisui.

Sasuke was all too familiar with the red cloud pattern fluttering on those clothes. "Akatsuki..."

He gave a bitter laugh. "This time, we're in big trouble."

The plot had long since been stirred beyond recognition by him, and Sasuke was already too tired to think about what the original version was supposed to look like. With the storm stirred up by a butterfly like himself, any ridiculous thing could happen. "You're Uchiha Sasuke?"

A hoarse voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

Sasuke whipped his head around—he had not sensed any chakra fluctuation at all.

The moment he saw who had come, his heart sank straight to the bottom.

Sasori of the Red Sand. "The leader, honestly. Why send me to do this kind of job?"

Impatience colored Sasori's tone.

Sasuke's guess was completely confirmed—the Akatsuki really had a hand in the Uchiha massacre. The original plot had not mentioned it; either they had not acted, or it had been deliberately cut out.

But with even Obito here, it was not that surprising for the Akatsuki to show up. "This kid looks like trouble."

As Sasori finished speaking, the spot at his tailbone suddenly lifted.

A huge tail needle snapped open, and a dense swarm of purple senbon shot over like a rainstorm.

Sasuke drew his practice kunai and blocked them all with a series of sharp clangs.

The senbon that missed stabbed into tree trunks and grass. The poison instantly evaporated, and the flowers and plants around them withered at a visible speed. A cloud of pale purple poisonous mist spread through the air. "Lightning God Mode!"

Sasuke activated Lightning God Mode without the slightest hesitation. Lightning exploded across his body, and all the poisonous mist that approached was blasted apart by the high-voltage current. Borrowing the explosive speed brought by the lightning, he pulled away in one breath.

He was already cursing in his heart.

He had not done anything so heinous, so how had saving Shisui's life suddenly turned into hell difficulty?