A Grand Gift! An Anbu Head Thrown onto the Tsuchikage's Desk

The howling whistle of something cutting through the air forcibly interrupted the gathering Dust Release.

Midair, Ōnoki's brows drew tight.

He stared fixedly at the enormous blood-red scroll hurtling straight at his face and snorted coldly.

"Trying to fool me with cheap tricks!"

Ōnoki kept the destructive white light in one hand while grabbing at the air with the other.

Invisible Earth Release chakra transformed into a massive palm, steadily catching the scroll in midair.

The instant it made contact, there was a muffled bang.

The seal on the scroll automatically released, and it abruptly unfurled in the air into a strip of white cloth several meters long.

The pungent stench of blood mixed with the dry, scorching wind of the Land of Earth, instantly filling the entire canyon.

Thud! Thud! Roll—

More than a dozen dark objects spilled out of the scroll, smashing onto the canyon rocks like dumplings dropped into a pot.

Several rolled down the slope and stopped right beside the feet of the Hidden Stone vanguard below Ōnoki.

A Hidden Stone chunin instinctively looked down and met a pair of clouded eyes that had refused to close in death.

"Mother of god! They're heads!"

A shrill, distorted scream instantly erupted through the crowd.

They were more than a dozen bloody severed heads.

The cuts were smooth, with flesh peeled back around them. They had clearly been cleanly decapitated in a single stroke.

Even more scalp-numbing was the fact that animal masks unique to Leaf Village Anbu still covered their faces.

Some of the masks had shattered halfway, exposing the terrified, twisted features beneath.

Ōnoki froze in midair.

He dispersed the white light of Dust Release in his hand and slowly descended, his gaze locked on one of the heads on the ground.

A blade scar ran across the bridge of that face's nose. Even in death, it carried an icy, vicious air.

"This is... Root's deputy commander, Fū Yamanaka?!"

A terrifying gleam burst from Ōnoki's cloudy old eyes.

He was a veteran Kage who had dealt with Leaf Village for years.

He had long since memorized the leaders of those hidden assassination units among Leaf Village's upper ranks.

Sweeping his gaze over the other heads, he found that every one of them was a recognizable elite squad captain from Leaf Village Anbu.

"These are Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzo's prized men."

Ōnoki's heartbeat began to race, his beard trembling faintly from the sheer shock.

He abruptly raised his head and looked at the black-haired young man opposite him in disbelief.

"You people killed all of them?"

Below in the canyon, Uchiha Yoru stood with both hands in his pockets, looking as relaxed as if he were taking a stroll through a market.

"I merely slaughtered a few stray dogs blocking the road. Forgive the spectacle, Lord Tsuchikage."

Yoru kicked aside a loose stone at his feet. His voice was clear, yet carried an indescribable arrogance.

"I told you before. This is a gift for our first meeting."

"From this day on, the Uchiha Clan and Leaf Village are completely finished."

The moment those words fell, another uproar swept through the Hidden Stone forces.

The foremost clan in the ninja world had truly defected?

Not only had they defected, they had slaughtered their former village's elite and used them as proof of allegiance?

What kind of blood feud did that take?!

Ōnoki's face remained stern, but his body honestly drifted several more meters downward.

"Words are not proof."

The old fox was highly vigilant. His gaze passed over Yoru and settled on Minato Namikaze behind him.

"Who's to say this isn't some act you staged with Leaf Village?"

"Using more than a dozen lives to set a trap—Hiruzen Sarutobi, that old monkey, is more than capable of something like that."

Yoru could not help laughing, utterly uninhibited.

"Lord Tsuchikage, you ought to get that paranoia treated."

He casually pointed at the Uchiha group behind him.

"An act? What kind of play brings along infants barely a month old and eighty-year-old grandmothers?"

"Take another look over there."

Yoru's gaze shifted toward Minato's family.

Minato wore a patient gown, his face white as paper as he leaned against a tree trunk and panted heavily.

Kushina held a blond infant in her arms, her eyes filled with wariness toward the road ahead.

"Minato Namikaze exhausted his life force sealing the Nine-Tails. He's so weak now that even a genin could beat him."

"The child in his wife's arms is the jinchuriki who was just sealed with the Nine-Tails."

Every sentence Yoru spoke struck Ōnoki's mental defenses like a heavy hammer.

"Leaf Village's upper ranks wanted to discard them once they had served their purpose and purge the Uchiha Clan. They even intended to raise the Fourth Hokage's orphan as a weapon of war."

"If you were in a rotten village like that, could you stay?"

Yoru suddenly stepped forward, his presence erupting in full.

"What I brought today is not only the Sharingan of the entire Uchiha Clan, but also the Nine-Tails jinchuriki."

"And, incidentally, the most critical deployment map of Leaf Village's border defenses is printed right here in my head."

"With this grand gift, I ask you, Ōnoki—do you dare accept it?!"

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Only the wind whistled through the canyon.

Ōnoki hovered less than two meters above the ground, staring hard into Yoru's deep black eyes.

He tried to find even the slightest flaw.

But there was none.

That young man's composure, confidence, and the bone-deep disgust that surfaced whenever he mentioned Leaf Village could not possibly be faked.

Then there was Minato's frailty, so extreme it looked like an illness, and the dozen genuine Anbu heads on the ground.

At last, the taut string in Ōnoki's mind snapped completely.

His suspicion and apprehension vanished in an instant.

Replacing them was an ecstatic joy, like a volcanic eruption, that he could not suppress at all!

Leaf Village's Hokage had run away!

Leaf Village's Nine-Tails had run away!

Leaf Village's strongest clan, the Uchiha, had come to defect to Hidden Stone Village with their highest-level secrets!

This was like a miracle tonic falling from the heavens and landing straight in Ōnoki's mouth!

Hiruzen Sarutobi, you old childless bastard, so you have a day like this too!

Ōnoki's wrinkled old face instantly blossomed into a radiant, old chrysanthemum of a grin.

He did not even bother maintaining the Light-Weight Rock Technique. He dropped straight to the ground and strode toward Uchiha Yoru.

"Accept it! What is there for this old man to fear?"

Ōnoki was so excited that even his beard shook violently as he rubbed his hands together.

"Those idiots from Leaf Village may not want such geniuses, but this old man will worship you like ancestors!"

He grabbed Yoru by the arm, greed and ambition blazing in his old eyes.

"Come! Return to the village with me right now! This old man will throw you the highest-level welcome banquet!"

Ōnoki paused, and his tone suddenly turned incomparably chilling, carrying an impatient killing intent.

"Once we've eaten and drunk our fill, you'd better tell this old man all about that Leaf Village deployment map..."

"When do we go blow open Leaf Village's gates?"