Rin? Root Makes Its Move

The Root squad captain lowered his voice and flashed several crisp tactical hand signals to his subordinates behind him.

Since Uchiha Ye was an immovable iron plate, they needed a different approach.

Squeeze the softest persimmon!

Kidnap their frail medical ninja directly!

Use her as leverage. Then Uchiha Ye would have no choice but to hand over those Mangekyo eyes.

Four black shadows skimmed along the ground and silently slipped into the crater.

At that moment, all of Obito and Kakashi's attention was firmly locked onto the terrifying one-man massacre ahead, like the descent of the Night God.

That near-miraculous, dimensionality-crushing assault had completely overloaded their brains. They had no spare attention to guard against the blind spot behind them.

Rin stood alone at the very back.

Her eyes were wide as she clutched the strap of her medical bag, her gaze fixed on the black afterimage ahead.

Suddenly, an icy gust swept across the back of her neck.

Before she could react, a hand had clamped tightly over her mouth and nose, its fingertips precisely striking an acupuncture point on her neck.

"Mmph..."

Rin only managed a brief muffled groan before her vision went black and her body went limp.

The four Root ninja moved in perfect coordination, lifting her by her limbs and shooting out of the crater at nearly teleportation-like speed, plunging into the darkness deep within the bamboo forest.

The entire home-base raid took less than half a second.

Three seconds later.

Obito's ear suddenly twitched.

That incredibly faint muffled groan stabbed into his nerves like a needle.

He whirled around.

The spot where Rin had been standing was empty.

Only half of the medical bag's strap, severed by a blade, hung alone from a bamboo root, swaying gently.

"Rin?!"

Obito's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his