The cold, damp air carried the pungent stench of mold from years without sunlight, mixed with disinfectant, and seeped into the nostrils.
Beneath Leaf Village, at Root's base.
The light here was always a ghastly white. The icy metal operating tables reflected a chilling gleam. Shimura Danzō sat upon his chair built of solid ice and stone, the bandages on the right side of his face casting a savage shadow beneath the flickering lights.
Bzz—
An extremely faint, low hum that seemed to reach into the depths of the soul suddenly rose from deep underground.
This was no ordinary earthquake.
The stone slabs beneath the chair did not move in the slightest, and the kunai racks on the walls remained perfectly steady. Yet this tremor felt as though someone had struck the entire ley lines of Konoha Village with an invisible tuning fork.
Danzō's exposed eye narrowed sharply, and a wolfish vigilance flashed through his cloudy pupil.
For an instant, the chakra within his body fell into uncontrollable disorder.
"Hm?"
He extended a hand like withered bark and pressed it against the cold stone armrest, carefully sensing the abnormal fluctuation.
This fluctuation was strange. It was not the violent impact produced by a ninjutsu eruption, but more like... ripples caused in the surrounding space by an even higher level of energy spiraling out of control.
Space?
The word flashed through Danzō's mind, and his expression immediately darkened completely.
Just moments ago, the life plaques of the elite squad he had sent to ambush the Hyuga Clan, led by Yamanaka Wind, had shattered simultaneously!
The entire force had been wiped out!
They had not even managed to send back a distress signal.
And now, the source of this bizarre tremor was unmistakably the Hyuga Clan Grounds!
"Hyuga... what exactly are you