Deliberately Left Behind Lightning

In the forest, Lie Yang still had his eyes covered.

The Shadow Clone had a short sword strapped to its back and walked on his right.

Neither moved quickly, but their steps did not hesitate in the slightest.

Suddenly, Lie Yang stopped.

At the same instant, the Shadow Clone gripped its sword hilt.

The surroundings were quiet.

Yet killing intent had already come from ahead, to the left, and above the treetops.

"They're here."

Lie Yang spoke only two words.

The next moment, several kunai shot out from the leaves.

The Shadow Clone drew its sword.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks burst in rapid succession.

Almost simultaneously, three Root figures lunged out from different directions.

They had already read Lie Yang's intelligence report and received news of the Flowing Moon Squad's total annihilation. There was no probing whatsoever—their first move was a killing strike.

But when they saw that Lie Yang's eyes were still covered, while the Shadow Clone beside him had its Three-Tomoe Sharingan open, all three hesitated briefly.

"Why is the original covering his eyes?"

"Don't lose focus!"

With a low shout, the Root captain charged the Shadow Clone first.

The clone's three tomoe suddenly spun.

The Root captain met those eyes for only an instant before the branch beneath his feet seemed to turn into iron chains, tightly binding his limbs.

"Genjutsu!"

The Root ninja at his side immediately disrupted his chakra.

"Release!"

The illusory chains instantly shattered.

Just as the Root captain regained his senses, his vision was filled with lightning.

Dazzling blue-white currents covered the short sword, then spread from the Shadow Clone's arm across its entire body.

Crackle!

A dense series of explosions rang through the air.

"Lightning Release?"

The Root captain's pupils constricted sharply.

There had been no record whatsoever of Lie Yang possessing lightning-nature chakra!

Lightning suddenly exploded beneath the Shadow Clone's feet.

Lightning Body Flicker!

Its figure vanished directly from the three Root ninjas' sight.

It was not that they could not see its movements clearly.

Their eyes simply could not keep up at all!

Relying entirely on instincts forged through years of battle, the Root captain raised his kunai and blocked to his left.

Clang!

The lightning-wreathed short sword came crashing down.

A notch instantly broke into the kunai.

Violent currents surged through the metal and into his arm. Half the Root captain's body was paralyzed on the spot, his fingers lost control, and the blade tore a bloody gash across his shoulder and chest.

He staggered backward, unable even to keep his footing.

"Captain!"

One Root ninja rushed in from the side to assist.

The Shadow Clone did not look back.

Its blade stabbed backward with a reverse grip, precisely piercing through the man's raised arm before entering his throat and exiting through the back of his neck.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed out.

The first man died on the spot.

Just as the other Root ninja brought his hands together, the Shadow Clone vanished again.

Lightning streaked across several meters.

The flat of the blade struck his wrist first, forcibly interrupting his hand seals, followed by a kick to the chest.

Crack!

His ribs broke.

The Root ninja flew backward and slammed into a tree trunk, blood gushing wildly from his mouth.

Two wounded, one dead!

From the first exchange to all three losing their combat ability, only a few breaths had passed.

The Root captain knelt on the ground, half his body still twitching.

He stared fixedly at the sword-bearing Shadow Clone approaching him and understood for the first time why the Flowing Moon Squad had been wiped out.

Swordsmanship.

Lightning Release.

Body Flicker Technique.

The three flowed without the slightest pause, as though they had long since fused into one.

That special jōnin in Konoha's records, with average taijutsu and a specialty in Fire Release and genjutsu, had been a lie from beginning to end!

"So that's how it is..."

The Root captain forced himself to raise his head, deliberately slowing his speech.

"You hid yourself for so many years just for today?"

He was stalling for time.

The numbness was weakening.

If he could buy a few more breaths, he would have a chance to launch one final counterattack.

The Shadow Clone did not answer.

The Root captain continued, "You can't leave the Land of Fire."

"If you kill us, there will be ANBU, Root, even the Uchiha Police Force after you."

"The more abilities you reveal, the more seriously the village will take you."

"If you turn back now, perhaps there's still a chance..."

Lightning erupted again.

The Root captain's voice abruptly stopped.

The Shadow Clone had appeared behind him.

The short sword swept sideways.

Splurt!

His head rolled to the ground.

The headless body remained kneeling where it was, only pitching forward after a moment.

The Root ninja who had crashed into the tree struggled to raise a hand.

His breastbone was shattered, and every breath brought up blood, yet he still stared fixedly at the lingering lightning beneath the Shadow Clone's feet.

"That kind of Body Flicker..."

"What is your relationship with Shisui Uchiha?"

The Shadow Clone did not stop walking.

The Root ninja tried to form hand seals again, but the lightning-wreathed blade had already pierced his heart.

His body convulsed violently, and his fingers fell limp.

The entire forest returned to silence.

Lie Yang had remained where he stood all along.

He never removed the cloth over his eyes, nor had he personally made a move.

The Shadow Clone flicked the blood from its blade and began handling the battlefield.

It collected items that could prove their Root identities, then checked the Lightning Release traces and sword marks on the ground again.

Lightning Release, Lightning Body Flicker, and swordsmanship had already been exposed.

But how much intelligence Konoha obtained would be up to him.

Lie Yang had never intended to hide the killer's identity.

Since Root had sent people to hunt him down, he would kill them head-on and make Danzo understand exactly who had caused this loss.

But admitting to murder did not mean handing over all his trump cards.

The Gene Lock, Hyperintuition, the Mangekyō Sharingan, and the original body's true close-combat ability still could not be exposed.

The Shadow Clone formed hand seals.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

A massive fireball blasted into the battlefield.

Flames instantly engulfed the corpses and trees.

The footprints, sword marks, and Lightning Body Flicker landing points left on the ground were quickly covered by the blaze.

The two did not linger and turned to leave the forest.

That night, the Root ninjas' bodies were sent back to Konoha.

Danzo stood in the morgue, looking at the mangled corpses with a terrifyingly cold expression.

Another Root squad had been wiped out.

Two elite teams.

Two jōnin captains.

Not a single survivor.

This was no ordinary loss.

Uchiha Lieyang had forcibly severed a portion of Root's tracking force within the Land of Fire.

"Bring someone from the Yamanaka Clan."

Not long afterward, a Yamanaka ninja skilled in mental secret techniques arrived at the morgue.

After examining the corpses, he said quietly, "Their brains suffered trauma at death. Their memories will be incomplete."

"Read whatever you can."

"Yes."

The Yamanaka ninja placed his palms on either side of the Root captain's head and closed his eyes.

The mental secret technique activated.

Fragmented images rapidly flooded into his consciousness.

A silent forest.

Uchiha Lieyang with cotton cloth covering his eyes.

The Shadow Clone standing beside Lie Yang, holding a short sword.

A scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

A fleeting genjutsu.

Then, dazzling lightning covered the blade.

An extreme-speed Body Flicker tore through his vision.

A kunai shattered, currents flooded the body, and a blade cut through a throat.

Though every image was fragmented, they all clearly reflected the same face.

The Yamanaka ninja suddenly opened his eyes, breathing rapidly.

Danzo stared at him.

"Who was it?"

The Yamanaka ninja raised his head.

"Uchiha Lieyang."