The Art of Turning the Tables: Sosuke's Deadly Bait

"Heh... Hahahaha!"

A low laugh abruptly rang out in the stifling office. At first, it was only a few quiet chuckles spilling from his throat, but it gradually grew louder, carrying an utter madness that had torn away all pretense.

Sosuke slowly straightened. He did not look at the four ninja blades pressed against the back of his heart and throat. Instead, he casually raised a hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The black eyes that had once feigned panic and despair now looked down upon Shimura Danzō across the desk.

It was the gaze of one in power looking at a clown hopping about onstage. Utter contempt. Utter mockery.

The four Root elites were jolted by that invisible pressure, and the fingers gripping their swords inexplicably stiffened for a moment. Having lived in darkness for years, their sense of danger far surpassed that of ordinary people. At that moment, they caught from this seemingly frail Senju orphan a vicious, murderous aura a hundred times more terrifying than Danzō's.

"What are you laughing at?!" Fugaku was enraged by Sosuke's reaction and strode forward. "You're about to die, yet you still dare play these tricks!"

"What am I laughing at?" Sosuke ignored Fugaku and took a step forward.

The sharp ninja blade instantly sliced through the skin of his neck, and a thread of blood trickled down the blade. Yet he did not even furrow his brow. He pressed forward against the edge of the sword, walked up to the desk, and snatched up that so-called "top-secret intelligence report."

"I'm laughing at the lofty leader of Root. To deal with a half-dead cripple like me, you actually made such a crude forgery." Sosuke held the letter between two fingers and waved it beneath the glaring incandescent lamp. "Lord Danzō, have those rats under your command, the ones who only know how to hide in sewers, gone so long without seeing the sun that they've forgotten even basic common sense?"

Danzō's eye abruptly narrowed, and the fingers around his cane clenched. "Utter nonsense! You're at death's door and still dare to quibble!"

"Quibble?" A cold, sinister curve pulled at Sosuke's lips. "First, the Land of Rain suffers constant downpours and has an extremely damp climate. The ninjas under that old poison Hanzo use coarse hemp paper mixed with reeds and waterproof grease to transmit intelligence. Yet this one you brought out..."

Sosuke suddenly twisted the paper between his fingers. It tore with a crisp rip.

"The texture is fine, the fibers are even. This is birch-pulp paper, a specialty of the Land of Fire! And the surface is coated with Root's distinctive moisture-proof saltpeter powder. Are you telling me a Hidden Rain Village spy crossed half the ninja world, came to Hidden Leaf's black market, specifically bought Root's exclusive paper, and used it just to write me a secret letter?!"

The moment those words fell, the only sound left in the office was Hiruzen Sarutobi puffing on his pipe.

Fugaku stood frozen in place, staring at the torn scraps of paper without being able to say a word for a long time.

The old face hidden beneath Danzō's bandages darkened to the extreme. He had calculated everything, yet never expected that Sosuke—a lowly kid who had always served as cannon fodder on the front lines—would know the details of Hidden Rain Village intelligence so thoroughly!

"Second." Sosuke gave Danzō no chance to catch his breath. He pointed at the complicated chakra seal at the bottom of the letter, his voice suddenly rising, each word as sharp as a blade. "You keep claiming this is the secret mark of my Senju main family. Lord Danzō, are you so old that your brain no longer works properly?"

"To guard against Hidden Sand Village puppet masters stealing intelligence, the Senju Clan's chakra mark had its internal Yang-nature chakra arrangement completely reversed three years ago, by Tsunade herself! Your so-called irrefutable evidence uses an outdated mark from five years ago!"

Sosuke suddenly flung the worthless paper into Danzō's face. The scraps slid down Danzō's grim old face.

"You want to pin the charge of betraying the village on me with a piece of garbage forged on Root's exclusive paper and stamped with a seal invalidated five years ago? You want to openly confiscate everything my Senju Clan owns?!" Sosuke planted both hands on the desk and leaned forward, his pitch-black eyes boring into Danzō's single eye. "Danzō, isn't the way you eat just a little too ugly?"

It was an absolute crushing of intellect, a logical dismantling laid out step by step.

Not only had Sosuke avoided the trap of proving his own innocence, he had instead used the bare facts to tear Danzō's carefully woven killing scheme to shreds.

Hiruzen Sarutobi exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his brows tightly furrowed. He knew Danzō had always been ruthless in his methods, but he had not expected him to leave behind such a huge and elementary flaw this time.

"Enough!" Danzō slammed his cane against the floor, forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart as he roared, "Even if there are problems with the paper and the mark, that does not clear you of suspicion! Who knows whether you deliberately used these methods to muddy the waters? Men, seize him and take him back to Root for strict interrogation!"

The four Root ninjas closed in again.

"Still trying to brazen it out?" The mockery in Sosuke's eyes completely transformed into icy killing intent.

Since he had dared come alone to the Hokage Building, how could he have prepared only a shield for defense? What he wanted was a spear that would kill in a single blow!

"You want evidence? Fine. I'll show you real irrefutable evidence!"

Sosuke thrust a hand into his wide sleeve. Thinking he was about to draw a weapon, the four Root members instantly swung their blades at his limbs.

"Get lost!" Sosuke shouted. The vast vitality and blood of his beginner Sage Body erupted without restraint. Though he did not use Wood Release chakra, that pure, terrifying life force belonging to the Senju Clan burst forth like a tangible gale, sending the four Root elites stumbling back several steps.

Smack!

Sosuke pulled two items from his sleeve and slammed them heavily onto the redwood desk before Hiruzen Sarutobi.

They were two metal identification tags stained with dark brown blood. On their reverse sides was the miniature totem of Root's unique Tongue-Curse Eradication Seal.

Along with the tags, he had also slapped down half a parchment secret order soaked in blood.

"Lord Hokage, since Elder Danzō likes talking about evidence, why don't you take a look at this?" Sosuke stared coldly at Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Half a month ago, at the edge of the Land of Rain battlefield, I found these on two 'Rain ninjas' who tried to stab me in the back."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze landed on the half-scroll, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Without waiting for the Third Hokage to speak, Sosuke loudly read the surviving contents of the secret order, his voice echoing throughout the office. "...Recover Senju Sosuke's corpse at all costs. If the target is not dead, kill him on the spot. Be sure to bring back his eyes and spinal tissue..."

Boom!

Those words were no different from dropping a massive bomb into the office.

Fugaku staggered back two steps in horror, his eyes filled with disbelief as he looked at Danzō. He might hate Sosuke, but he had only wanted to suppress the Senju Clan. Danzō, however, had actually issued an order on the battlefield to dissect and eliminate a Hidden Leaf comrade!

"And that's not all." Sosuke pulled a delicate black glass vial from his robes. "This was left behind by an assassin who infiltrated my Senju Clan Grounds last night. A Root-made neural paralysis toxin. Colorless, odorless, and fatal upon contact. If I hadn't been lucky, I would already be a cold corpse."

Sosuke pushed the vial toward Hiruzen Sarutobi, his tone anguished and resolute. "Lord Hokage! My Senju Clan fought and bled on the front lines until only one cripple remained. I dragged this broken body back to the village, yet instead of flowers and applause, I was met with Root's endless assassinations, poisonings, and today's utterly absurd accusation of betraying the village!"

"Elder Danzō isn't hunting a traitor. He covets the bloodline of my Senju Clan! He wants to dissect me alive to satisfy his unspeakable ambitions!"

At that moment, the situation underwent a heaven-shaking reversal.

The prey that had been cornered instantly transformed into the fiercest hunting hound and bit down on the hunter's throat.

Danzō's old face twisted completely. He stared fixedly at the tags and the secret order on the desk, unable to understand how Sosuke—crippled trash who could not even refine chakra—had obtained those items. The two Root elites sent to carry out the assassination had clearly been instantly shredded by an utterly terrifying ninjutsu, their corpses reduced to chunks of flesh!

"Hiruzen! This is slander! He forged all of it!" Danzō roared hysterically, pounding his cane against the floor with loud bangs.

"Whether it's forged or not, wouldn't the truth come out once the ANBU interrogation unit checks the identification numbers on those tags?" Sosuke sneered, pressing forward step by step.

Sitting in his leather chair, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt the blood throughout his body rush toward his head.

This had grown far too serious. Irrefutable evidence of Danzō's attempt to assassinate a Senju orphan had been thrown in everyone's faces. If this got out, every civilian ninja in Hidden Leaf would lose heart, and the foundation of the Hokage faction's rule would be shaken.

He had to suppress this immediately. He absolutely could not let the matter escalate any further.

"Sosuke, calm down first." Hiruzen Sarutobi drew a deep breath and forcibly put on an expression of grief and indignation. He picked up the tags and secret order from the desk and slipped them into his sleeve in one smooth motion, so quickly that it left no trace.

"There are indeed many suspicious aspects to this matter. Danzō's methods may have been overly aggressive, but his intentions may not necessarily have been as vile as you claim. After all, intelligence work during wartime inevitably leads to misjudgments..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi began employing his most practiced art of smoothing things over, trying to use both pressure and placation to classify this vicious political murder as a "work error."

"As for the assassination you mentioned, I will personally form an investigation team to verify it. Until the investigation results are out, the matter between you and Mikoto will be put on hold. Return to the Senju Clan Grounds and reflect behind closed doors. Without my order, you are not to step outside the gates."

He was going to forcibly confine Sosuke, effectively placing him under house arrest, all to clean up Danzō's mess.

An icy glint flashed through Sosuke's eyes. He knew Hiruzen Sarutobi was hypocritical, but he had not expected the old man to be this shameless. With irrefutable evidence laid out before him, he still wanted to protect Danzō.

However, Sosuke did not care about Hiruzen Sarutobi's attitude at all.

Because when he had set this trap and cast out these baits, the person he had truly been waiting for had never been the Third Hokage.

"Lord Hokage, aren't you taking Danzō's side a little too obviously?" A strange smile curled across Sosuke's lips.

Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned and prepared to invoke his authority as Hokage to issue an order by force—

BOOM—!!!

A deafening blast suddenly erupted.

The heavy solid-wood door to the Hokage's office, along with its sturdy frame, was kicked into splinters by an indescribably terrifying force. A violent wave of chakra swept inside like a hurricane, scattering the documents on the desk through the air.

Through the swirling dust, a tall golden figure stepped over the wreckage and strode in, carrying enough towering fury to overturn the entire Hokage Building.