Danzo Still Wouldn't Give Up, Sending a Large Force of Assassins to Surround Him

Beneath Konoha Village lay the dark, damp Root base.

Dim candlelight flickered across the walls, illuminating Danzo's face, so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

"Three days!"

Danzo violently smashed the teacup in his hand, scattering scalding tea across the floor.

"I sent out three entire elite squads! Every last one vanished into thin air!"

He glared at Yamanaka Fū, who was kneeling on one knee before him, the fury in his single eye nearly enough to set the man ablaze.

"And you tell me there was no ANBU protection? You call that little brat uncontrollable?!"

Yamanaka Fū trembled so badly that he barely dared to breathe.

"Please calm your anger, Lord Danzo... This subordinate, this subordinate bribed an informant inside the Hokage Building and confirmed it repeatedly."

"Lord Third truly did not assign additional ANBU to personally protect Sen Senju. Even the routine surveillance was withdrawn."

Danzo snorted coldly and paced back and forth through the secret chamber, his cane striking the floor like the beat of a death drum.

"No ANBU protection? Then how did those three squads disappear?"

"Don't tell me that six-year-old brat swallowed them whole?!"

Danzo stopped, and a chilling ruthlessness flashed through his eye.

"So that old fox Hiruzen is playing an empty-fort strategy with me."

"He deliberately removed the visible protection to lure me in, then secretly eliminate my men!"

Convinced that he had seen through Lord Third's scheme, Danzo sneered repeatedly.

"Fine! Since you, Hiruzen, want to play, I'll play big with you!"

He spun around, his gaze fixing on Yamanaka Fū like a venomous snake.

"Immediately select twenty expendable men proficient in coordinated formation tactics, and bring the highest-grade barrier scrolls!"

"Doesn't that brat go to the forest outside the village every weekend for his 'extra training'?"

"This weekend, catch him while he's alone."

Danzo gritted his teeth, each word seemingly forced out through the gaps between them.

"I want you to lay down a net from heaven to earth! Even if you have to turn that forest upside down, you must bring him back alive!"

"If you fail again this time, bring your own heads to see me!"

"Yes! This subordinate understands!" As though granted a reprieve, Yamanaka Fū hurriedly accepted the order and withdrew.

On a weekend afternoon, the sunlight was just right.

In a remote forest outside the village, a breeze rustled through the leaves.

Because it lay close to the edge of the Forest of Death, villagers and ninja rarely came here. It was so quiet that only birdsong could be heard.

Yet today, that tranquility was shattered by an unwelcome visitor.

Atop a towering tree so large it would take three people to encircle it.

Sen lay sprawled across the thickest branch, a large leaf covering his face to block the sun as he slept soundly.

"Snore..."

Ever since he had Naruto buy explosive tags for him last time, he had treated this forest as his private "afternoon nap sanctuary."

No one bothered him here, and the sunlight was good. Photosynthesis was far more efficient than it was on the school rooftop.

As for those explosive tags, he had buried them all around the tree, setting up simple trigger traps.

Their power was not great, but they were more than enough to serve as alarms and scare off wild beasts or oblivious passersby.

"What nice weather..."

Sen smacked his lips in his sleep, rolled over, and adjusted into a more comfortable position.

Then, at that moment.

"Bzz—"

An extremely faint, nearly imperceptible hum spread through the forest air.

Immediately after.

The bright sunlight seemed to be abruptly swallowed by something, and the surrounding light instantly dimmed.

It was as though someone had suddenly drawn a thick purple curtain in broad daylight.

The leaf on Sen's face was blown away by a cold gust.

He abruptly opened his eyes, his dark pupils contracting at once.

Before his eyes, the sky above the forest had turned a strange dark violet!

From every direction, a translucent curtain of purple chakra rose up. Like a gigantic inverted bowl, it completely sealed off the hundred-meter stretch of forest, along with the tree on which he lay!

Four Violet Flames Formation!

An A-rank barrier ninjutsu capable of cutting off sound and chakra fluctuations—one that not even a fly could escape!

"So you're serious?"

Sen did not panic. Instead, he slowly sat up and yawned.

He looked around. The once-quiet forest was now filled with murderous intent.

Figures had silently appeared all over the surrounding tree trunks and bushes.

Twenty in total.

They all wore black bodysuits and pale animal masks, gripping gleaming short blades in their hands.

Like a pack of black spiders that had lurked in wait for ages, they coldly looked down upon the prey seated on the branch.

A thick, nauseating smell of blood filled the air.

It was the scent possessed only by expendable men who had spent years walking the line between life and death.

"This lineup is much better than those three crooked melons and rotten dates from last time."

Sen brushed bark dust from his backside, stood up, and looked down at the masked men.

"Danzo sent you, didn't he?"

No one answered.

These Root expendable men were like emotionless killing machines.

The instant the barrier was completed, the captain leading them suddenly waved his hand.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the twenty Root ninja transformed into twenty black afterimages and lunged at the tree where Sen stood from every direction, like a dense downpour.

Their movements were perfectly coordinated, cutting off every possible route of escape.

Above and below, dazzling blade light filled the air!

"Kid, surrender obediently!"

The captain's voice was icy and piercing as the short blade in his hand shot straight for Sen's throat.

However.

Faced with this inescapable, lethal encirclement.

Sen neither formed hand seals to defend himself nor even moved.

He simply stood on the branch, watching the twenty approaching afterimages as an intensely mocking smirk curved his lips.

"Didn't you look where you were stepping just now?"

Sen raised his right hand and snapped his fingers sharply.

"Snap!"

Almost at the exact instant the snap rang out.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

More than a dozen deafening explosions erupted in succession from the soil around the giant tree!

They were the explosive tags Sen had buried in advance!

Though they were all cheap, low-quality goods, too weak to kill a chunin.

The sudden explosions instantly threw the twenty Root ninja's coordinated formation into disarray!

The fire and thick smoke from the blasts immediately swallowed their figures.

"Damn it! A trap!"

"Spread out! Reform the formation!"

Slightly panicked shouts from the Root ninja rang out from within the smoke.

Just as they tried to steady themselves against the shockwaves and organize another assault.

"Too late."

Sen's cold voice pierced through the thick smoke and rang clearly in every ear.

Those low-quality explosive tags had never been meant to blow people up.

They were meant to...

Create blind spots and openings for Wood Release!

Standing on the branch, Sen suddenly clasped his hands together before his chest.

The chakra of the Divine Tree Origin surged wildly into the towering tree beneath his feet like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

"Wood Release!"

Sen shouted in a low voice, a dangerously green gleam flashing through his eyes.

"Thorn Killing Technique!"