Two hours later, three figures descended into the mountains.
The Root captain in the lead raised his right hand, and the other two immediately stopped.
A vast stretch of trees lay toppled ahead, while the ground was covered in scorched cracks. The earth blasted up by the explosion had not yet fully settled, and the air still carried the pungent stench left by burning explosive tags.
One of the members crouched and pressed his palm to the ground.
After a moment, his voice turned grave.
"There's no chakra from any living person."
Another member took out a summoning scroll and confirmed that no new message had appeared on it.
"The Flowing Moon Squad is already two quarter-hours past the agreed time, yet they still haven't activated their timed summoning."
"Communication has been cut off, and there are no survivors on the battlefield."
"They ran into trouble."
The captain did not respond and walked straight into the battlefield.
The first corpse was quickly found.
Its chest had been completely crushed inward, and its body bore burns from explosive tags. Only half of its mask remained.
The member responsible for the examination reached for the corpse's neck, then shook his head.
"Dead for at least an hour."
More than ten meters ahead, the second corpse lay beneath a tree, its throat sliced open by a short blade. The wound was clean and precise.
The third corpse had half its body pinned beneath shattered rocks.
The three of them swiftly searched the entire battlefield.
There were no survivors.
The Flowing Moon Squad had been wiped out!
The Root ninja in charge of scouting approached a patch of raised ground and brushed aside the rubble.
Several broken stone pillars jutted diagonally out of the earth.
"Earth Release: Earth Rising Spears."
He then discovered a collapsed patch nearby.
"There are traces of underground movement here as well."
"Judging from the residual traces of the technique, it should have been the Double Suicide Decapitation Technique."
Another member landed among several broken trees and looked up at the blade marks on their trunks.
The cuts varied in depth, but their directions were incredibly dense.
One of the trees, so thick that two people would need to link arms to encircle it, even bore a clear indentation in its trunk.
That had not been caused by ninjutsu.
Someone had been slammed into the tree with tremendous force, then broken free in an instant and continued fighting.
"Captain, come take a look."
The captain walked beneath the tree and ran his hand over the edge of the indentation.
The bark had burst inward.
There were also countless footprints in the surrounding ground. The soil had been repeatedly crushed beneath them, and several footholds sank as deep as half a foot.
"A high-intensity taijutsu clash."
The member said quietly, "And they were extremely fast. Many of the footholds were only a few feet apart, yet the ground had burst open at the same time. Both sides must have used high-speed Body Flicker several times."
"The Flowing Moon captain excelled at close combat, but he couldn't possibly have left behind this many traces."
The other man looked at the scattered corpses around them, his breathing growing heavy.
Flowing Moon was a Jōnin.
The other three members were all Root elites as well.
This squad had carried out missions together for years. Their scouting, control, ninjutsu suppression, and close-combat coordination had almost no flaws.
Even against Konoha's long-famous elite Jōnin, they would have been confident of escaping intact.
Yet there was not a single survivor before them.
No one had even managed to activate the timed summoning!
The scout crouched beside one of the corpses. After examining its wounds, he raised his head.
"There was more than one type of fatal wound."
"Some died to explosive tags, some were killed by short blades, and others suffered heavy blows before being finished off."
"Their formation was broken apart head-on."
That statement silenced the other two at once.
A Root squad's greatest strength had never been any individual, but their coordination.
To break apart the Flowing Moon Squad head-on meant that the enemy not only possessed astonishing strength and speed, but had also completely seen through their tactics.
The captain swept his gaze over the battlefield again.
Earth Release.
An underground decapitation technique.
Explosive tags.
Large-scale collisions between ninja tools.
And taijutsu traces far beyond those of an ordinary special Jōnin.
Uchiha Lieyang's profile quickly surfaced in his mind.
Fire Release, Wind Release, Genjutsu, ninja tool throwing.
Moderate taijutsu.
There was no Earth Release in the file, nor any record of such terrifying close-combat ability.
"It wasn't one person."
The captain finally spoke.
The two members looked at him simultaneously.
"Uchiha Lieyang fought here, but someone else assisted him."
"Someone from another hidden village?"
"Impossible to confirm for now."
The captain looked at the corpses.
"Uchiha Lieyang alone, based on the intelligence we have, could not have wiped out the Flowing Moon Squad."
"Anyone capable of this was at least an elite Jōnin. There may even have been more than one."
One member asked, "Should we suspend the pursuit?"
"We can't."
The captain took out a summoning scroll and quickly wrote down the battlefield situation.
"The Flowing Moon Squad has been wiped out. If Uchiha Lieyang truly colluded with ninja from another village, we must identify them as soon as possible."
He bit his finger and pressed it against the center of the scroll.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
White smoke burst forth.
A small summoning beast used for transmitting messages appeared atop the scroll.
The captain sealed the intelligence and tied it to the summoning beast's back.
"Take this back to Root headquarters."
The summoning beast nodded, then vanished in a puff of white smoke.
The captain rose to his feet.
"Continue the pursuit."
"Maintain maximum vigilance."
"This target is no longer an ordinary special Jōnin."
The intelligence quickly reached the Root base.
After reading the scroll, Danzo's fingers slowly tightened around his cane.
The Flowing Moon Squad had been wiped out.
One Jōnin and three elite members, with no survivors left behind.
Jōnin were not ordinary ninja one could find anywhere.
Training a Jōnin required talent, resources, extensive mission experience, and repeated battles between life and death.
Even Konoha had only a limited number of Jōnin.
Flowing Moon had been a Root elite personally selected by Danzo, skilled in close combat, assassination, and battlefield command. The other three had followed Flowing Moon for years, and their coordination had long become instinctive.
Even if such a squad encountered a renowned elite Jōnin, they should not have been wiped out so quickly.
Yet they had died within the Land of Fire.
They had died without a sound!
"Uchiha Lieyang..."
Danzo picked up the basic intelligence report from the desk.
Taijutsu: moderate.
Ninjutsu: primarily Fire Release.
Highest recorded achievement: killed two Chunin alone.
No record of Lightning-nature chakra, nor any record of Earth Release.
Danzo reread the field report.
Numerous traces of taijutsu exchanges.
Earth Rising Spears.
An underground decapitation technique.
A close-range explosive tag detonation.
None of it matched the original intelligence.
"Hidden strength?"
Danzo quickly rejected that conclusion.
Hiding one kind of ninjutsu was easy.
Concealing part of one's taijutsu ability was not particularly difficult either.
But to overwhelm the Flowing Moon Squad, Lieyang's true strength had to be at least at the level of an elite Jōnin.
Could a twenty-year-old Uchiha have hidden that level of strength flawlessly under the long-term surveillance of ANBU and Root?
Impossible.
Then only one explanation remained.
"Someone was helping him."
Danzo stared at the map of the Land of Fire as Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure flashed through his mind.
Anyone capable of silently infiltrating the Land of Fire and working with Lieyang to wipe out an elite Root squad was no ordinary ninja.
Yet no unusual activity had been reported along the borders recently.
Konoha's intelligence agents stationed in every nation had also detected no large-scale movements.
If they truly were elites from another hidden village, why would they risk helping an Uchiha defect?
Danzo could not understand it.
The less he understood, the greater the anger in his heart became.
"Keep investigating."
His icy voice echoed through the underground chamber.
"No matter who killed the Flowing Moon Squad, they must pay the price."
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