Root Interception? Max-Level Kamui Will Teach You a Lesson!

"Bzz—"

A barely perceptible ripple spread through space.

Yoru directly used his max-level space-time ninjutsu, taking Minato's family of three and vanishing from the special care ward in an instant.

When they reappeared, they were already before Leaf Village's towering iron gates.

The air still carried the faint weightlessness left behind by the spatial jump.

"Yoru!"

Fugaku held a bloodstained ninja blade as he paced back and forth anxiously.

Seeing Yoru return safely, he let out a long sigh of relief. Just as he was about to step forward, the figures behind Yoru startled him so badly that he jolted.

"Lord Fourth?!"

Fugaku's eyes widened as he stared at Minato Namikaze, clad in a hospital gown, as if he had seen a ghost.

The Uchiha clansmen behind him, burdened with bags and preparing to flee, were equally dumbfounded.

We're defecting!

How did you bring the Hokage's entire family along?!

"Clan Head Fugaku, don't call me Hokage anymore."

Minato gave a bitter smile and shielded Kushina and the sleeping Naruto behind him.

"I am no longer the Hokage. From this day onward, Minato Namikaze has nothing to do with Leaf Village."

The Uchiha clansmen instantly erupted into an uproar.

Even the Hokage had been forced to flee. Just how rotten were Leaf Village's higher-ups?!

"Enough. Save the catching up for the road."

Yoru coldly cut through the commotion, his icy gaze fixed on the front of the gates.

"A few annoying flies are blocking the way."

The moments before dawn were the darkest.

Leaf Village's two heavy iron gates were tightly shut.

And on the broad street a hundred meters ahead of them, a dense mass of figures surged forward like a tide.

There was utter silence, save for the synchronized sound of footsteps.

Several hundred Root operatives, wearing animal masks and wielding standard ninja blades, were already waiting in battle formation, completely sealing off the only path out of the village.

At the very front of the formation.

Shimura Danzo leaned on his cane, his gloomy old face half-hidden in the darkness.

When his single eye spotted Minato Namikaze and the infant Naruto among the defectors, he was first stunned, then overwhelmed by uncontrollable ecstasy.

What a stroke of luck!

The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, the Fourth Hokage's Flying Raijin, and the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.

They were all here!

As long as he captured them all, Shimura Danzo would become Leaf Village's undisputed savior!

Even that old fool Hiruzen Sarutobi would have to obediently surrender the position of Hokage!

"Good! Excellent!"

Danzo's voice trembled with excitement as his cane struck the stone pavement with loud thuds.

"The Uchiha Clan intends to rebel and has even abducted the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki!"

"This is the grave crime of betraying the village. They deserve nothing less than death!"

He abruptly raised his uninjured left arm and roared himself hoarse.

"At any cost, reclaim the Nine-Tails and the Sharingan!"

"Fire the arrows! Use ninjutsu! Leave none alive!"

The instant the order was given, the hundreds of Root operatives moved without the slightest hesitation, attacking as one like precise killing machines.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!"

Multi-colored chakra lights instantly illuminated the night sky before dawn.

An overwhelming barrage of ninjutsu, mixed with countless explosive-tag kunai, poured down wildly upon the Uchiha formation like a world-ending storm!

The terrifying display drained the faces of many young Uchiha clansmen, who instinctively shut their eyes.

"Protect the elderly and children! Prepare to counterattack!"

Fugaku roared, his three-tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly as he prepared to step forward and withstand the assault.

"Everyone, stand back."

Yoru's calm voice sounded utterly out of place amid the roaring explosions.

He neither drew his blade nor formed hand seals.

With both hands tucked into his pockets, he simply stepped forward and walked unhurriedly toward the torrent of ninjutsu powerful enough to destroy an entire street.

"Yoru! Have you lost your mind?!"

Fugaku was shocked and reached out to stop him.

Minato also panicked, forcing his weakened body to prepare a Flying Raijin barrier.

"Don't waste your effort."

Without turning around, Yoru waved a hand, a mocking sneer curving across his lips.

"You dare show off such pathetic tricks?"

Before his words had faded.

Yoru's right eye suddenly opened.

His crimson Mangekyo Sharingan glowed in the darkness like a burning star.

Max-Level Kamui, activate!

There was no need for an elaborate wind-up, no need to gather ocular power.

In that instant, the space around Yoru's body twisted bizarrely.

Boom! Boom! Boom—!

Fireballs filled the sky, savage wind blades, heavy earth dragons, and countless kunai crashed mercilessly into Yoru's body.

Yet.

There was no explosion.

No blood.

Every attack, the instant it touched Yoru's body, passed through as though it had struck an intangible phantom.

Fire Release passed through his chest, and wind blades swept past his neck.

Sharp kunai even pierced directly through his skull before embedding themselves in the open ground dozens of meters behind him.

Yoru strolled leisurely through the heart of the destructive storm, completely unharmed.

Not even a corner of his clothes was scorched.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze.

The Root operatives remained in their casting stances, their eyes beneath their masks bulging so wide they nearly popped out.

What had they just seen?

The ninjutsu... passed through him?!

How was that possible?!

"Genjutsu? No, there's no chakra fluctuation!"

Danzo's ecstatic expression instantly froze as he stood behind them.

His lone eye locked onto Yoru as though he had seen a ghost, and even his voice changed pitch.

"Impossible! What kind of sorcery is this?!"