The message carried by the Message Hawk came from Takigawa. Fugaku had discussed it with him beforehand, and the two had devised a fairly complete plan.
Gravely injuring Sanada and Hitoshi was not the goal. The point was to fight them for real and gauge their strength, resilience, and what was on their minds.
Only by facing life and death could a ninja truly look into his own heart. Fugaku intended to put both men through that ordeal and shake them to their core.
In a forest in the Land of the Moon, Takigawa and the other two stopped behind a large tree.
"We're searching too slowly together. Let's split up. Sanada, search west. Songren, take the north. I'll search east. If you find the enemy, fire a signal flare immediately," Takigawa said.
Sanada and Songren nodded. Both had some confidence in their abilities.
Unless one of the Shinobi World's strongest fighters came to ambush them, neither worried about his safety.
Sanada and Songren headed off in different directions and vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.
Takigawa watched them go, a sinister smile spreading across his face.
Only Fugaku and Takigawa knew about this operation. They hadn't even told Uchiha Jin.
Takigawa did not head east. He hid behind a large tree, took off his Uchiha uniform, and put on a cat-faced mask. Then he slowly followed the direction Sanada had taken.
A cloud of Black Mist concealed Fugaku, and he vanished in an instant. Only faint footsteps sounded in the forest; no one was visible. But branches to the west stirred without wind, as though someone had brushed against them.
Uchiha Sanada had activated his Sharingan as soon as he parted ways with Takigawa, pushing its perceptive power to the limit.
He scanned his surroundings without