Dead Man's Trap, Living Man's Play

Mikoto's hand settled on Nawaki's arm.

"I'm going back to the village to kill him."

Her tone was as flat as if she were saying she would buy groceries tomorrow.

Nawaki did not turn around. He folded the secret letter, dried the paper with chakra, and tucked it into the inner lining against his chest.

"Kill who?"

"Danzō."

"And then?"

Mikoto froze for a moment.

"After you kill Danzō, the Third Hokage will wipe out your entire clan on the grounds that 'an Uchiha missing-nin committed murder.' Your parents, cousins, even your neighbors—none of them will be spared." Nawaki crouched beside the Chunin's corpse and carefully collected the bamboo tube fragments from its hidden compartment. "If Danzō dies, there'll be another Danzō. Killing him won't solve anything."

Mikoto's hand fell to her side.

"What I want isn't his life." Nawaki stood and dusted off his knees. "What I want is for everyone in the village to see with their own eyes what kind of thing he is."

He turned around and looked over the trees filling the valley.

Moonlight fell over the white petals, making the entire valley look like one enormous funeral hall.

"Mikoto, where do you think those two Root Anbu will go after they escaped?"

Mikoto reacted quickly. "They'll come back to collect the bodies."

"Right. Danzō went to all this effort to set up this trap; he wasn't just trying to kill me." Nawaki patted the spot over his chest where the secret letter was hidden. "What he wants is my corpse. A living Nawaki Senju is trouble to him. A dead Nawaki Senju, on the other hand... is raw material."

Mikoto clenched her teeth.

Nawaki crouched down and pressed both hands against the ground.

Chakra surged out, and faint, rustling sounds began to rise from the soil beneath their feet.

A minute later, a wooden puppet nearly identical to Nawaki in build grew out of the ground. Its wood grain gleamed pale yellow beneath the moonlight. Its facial features were blurred, but the proportions of its limbs were exact.

Nawaki formed a seal with one hand.

"Transform."

Smoke dispersed, and the puppet turned into a mangled "corpse" of flesh and blood. Its face had been "blown apart" beyond recognition, but its height, build, and scraps of clothing all matched. Even the Senju Clan crest on the ceremonial robe had been half-burned away, exposing torn fabric beneath.

Mikoto stepped closer for a look, then took a step back.

It was too lifelike.

"This thing... can fool Root?"

"Root aren't forensic examiners." Nawaki dragged the fake corpse beside a pile of Hidden Stone ninja remains in the center of the valley and arranged it into position. "They only need to verify the build and clan crest. Besides—"

He took out a small piece of branch from his robes, crushed it, and kneaded it into the fake corpse's chest cavity.

A faint trace of Wood Release chakra seeped from the broken branch, blending into the residual chakra that filled the valley.

"This will keep releasing a tiny amount of Wood Release chakra. When they scan it with sensory techniques, the chakra attribute will match, and they won't think twice."

Mikoto did not ask anything else.

Nawaki pulled her up the cliff wall on the right side of the valley and found a rocky ledge hidden beneath the canopy. The two lay low in the darkness as Nawaki spread out his Sage Body senses, covering the entire valley and the three hundred meters around it.

They waited.

Mikoto leaned against the rock wall, the wound on her left leg still throbbing faintly. She glanced sideways at Nawaki's profile.

When he quieted down, he seemed like a completely different person from how he was in battle.

When he killed fifty-three people, he had been like an emotionless machine. Now, lying on the rocky ledge waiting for prey, he was like a cat lying in ambush.

"What are you thinking about?" Mikoto asked.

"I'm thinking about Danzō's expression when he receives my 'corpse.'" Nawaki did not turn around. "It should be pretty entertaining."

"...You really are something."

"Hmm?"

"You're terrifying."

Nawaki tilted his head toward her and grinned. "Thanks for the compliment."

Three hours later.

The Sage Body's sensory net caught two familiar chakra signatures.

They were approaching swiftly from the northwest side of the valley, keeping close to the shadows along the cliff wall. Their movements were professional and silent, their breathing suppressed to the lowest possible level.

Root operatives. The same two who had supposedly "died in battle" earlier.

Nawaki held up two fingers to Mikoto.

Mikoto nodded, and her Sharingan activated without a sound.

The two shadows landed in the valley.

They stopped at the entrance for a long time.

The trees and flowers filling the valley left them completely stunned. One of them took several deep breaths in a row; the panting beneath his mask was so heavy that it could be heard from fifty meters away.

"What the fuck..."

"Shut up. Find the target first."

The two moved deeper into the valley, keeping close to the tree trunks. Hidden Stone ninja corpses hung from branches, were embedded in tree trunks, and lay buried beneath the roots. The sight was one of complete devastation.

When they reached the center of the valley, the one in front stopped abruptly.

"Found him."

He crouched and turned over a mangled corpse. The scorched ceremonial robe, the remaining Senju Clan crest, the body shape matching Nawaki's height.

The other took out a sensory ninja tool and swept it over the corpse.

"Residual Wood Release chakra... confirmed. It's Nawaki Senju."

"So Nawaki-sama really didn't survive." The man in front sounded conflicted, but his hands moved efficiently—he took a sealing scroll from his ninja pouch, unrolled it, and moved with practiced ease.

"Hurry. Danzō-sama said the head and spine can't be damaged."

"I know."

The fake corpse was sealed into the scroll.

The two rose and exchanged a look.

"Withdraw."

The two shadows returned the way they had come and vanished through the valley entrance.

On the rocky ledge, Nawaki brushed the dust from himself and stood.

"The fish took the bait."

He jumped down from the ledge and landed without a sound. Mikoto followed behind him, and the two moved like shadows, trailing the Root operatives from three hundred meters away.

After merging with the Sharingan's ocular power, Nawaki's dynamic perception and night vision had risen by an entire level. Every change in direction and every footprint left by the two Root operatives was precisely recorded in his mind.

They ran for around forty minutes.

The two were not heading toward Konoha Village.

They turned southeast.

Nawaki narrowed his eyes.

Southeast. That was not Konoha headquarters. It was a hilly region deep within the Land of Fire.

He marked the route on the system map.

"A Root outpost," Nawaki said softly.

Mikoto caught up to him. "Are we going in?"

"Not yet." Nawaki stopped and watched the two shadows disappear beyond the tree line in the hills. "The location of the outpost matters more than what's inside it. We can dig into it slowly after we get back."

He patted Mikoto on the shoulder.

"Come on. Back to Konoha. We need to show ourselves before certain people do."

"Certain people?"

"Fugaku." Nawaki turned and headed toward Konoha, his pace unhurried. "Guess how he'll report to the Third Hokage after he gets back?"

Mikoto fell silent for two seconds.

"...He'll say we're dead."

"Smart."

Konoha, Hokage Building.

At the same time.

Fugaku Uchiha knelt before Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk.

His left arm hung in a sling of bandages, and three untreated abrasions marked his face. Half of his field cloak had been torn away, stained with mud and dried blood.

He looked miserable.

In truth, he had inflicted all of those wounds on himself during the journey back to the village. Rich details increased credibility. Uchiha geniuses were meticulous in everything they did.

"...The mission encountered an ambush by Hidden Stone's main force. Their numbers far exceeded the intelligence estimates." Fugaku's voice was sorrowful yet restrained. "I led the team in a forced breakout, but Nawaki Senju and Mikoto Uchiha on the right flank were surrounded by a large number of enemy forces. I attempted to return and support them—"

He paused, closed his eyes, and put on an expression of utter pain.

"I was one step too late."

Behind the desk, Hiruzen Sarutobi held a pipe in his mouth, his expression unreadable.

In the shadows behind him, Danzō stood leaning on his cane. His single eye was half-closed, and the muscles at the corners of his mouth did not move at all.

But the hand wrapped beneath his bandages clenched and loosened twice.

"So that means—" the Third Hokage exhaled a cloud of smoke, "Nawaki Senju and Mikoto Uchiha have both been confirmed dead?"

"This subordinate did everything in his power, but still failed to—"

"Fugaku."

The voice came from the doorway.

No.

It had not come from the doorway.

It had come together with the door.

Boom!

The office's wooden door flew out of its frame as though slapped by a ghost, spinning through the air before crashing onto the floor. Splinters sprayed across Fugaku's face.

Tsunade stood in the empty doorway.

She had not been drinking today.

That was the most terrifying part.

When Tsunade was sober, every step she took across the floor made the entire building tremble.

Her gaze passed over the Third Hokage, passed over Danzō, and fixed on Fugaku's back as he knelt on the ground.

"Say that again."

Tsunade's voice was not loud, but the temperature in the office dropped by ten degrees.

"Who died?"