Eliminating Danzo's Two Bodyguards

Bang! Bang!

The two unfamiliar ninja tangled in the trees suddenly turned into puffs of white smoke. They had been Shadow Clones.

And those so-called trees were nothing more than Kurenai Yuhi's Genjutsu.

But the next instant, the enemy's right hand touched Kurenai's right shoulder.

The shoulder immediately turned black, and the discoloration spread rapidly across the rest of her body.

Poof!

Kurenai also vanished in a puff of white smoke. She, too, had been a Shadow Clone.

That was how cunning ninja could be. When facing unfamiliar enemies, few used their real bodies to fight from the start.

The fact that these two strangers had used Shadow Clones meant they had spotted Naruto and Kurenai ahead of time. One of them had to be a sensory-type ninja!

Naruto had already guessed who they were!

The two had caught up from behind his team, taken a detour to get ahead of them, then disguised themselves as Otogakure ninja.

Their goal was to hide their true identities as Root ninja!

One of them felt, to Naruto's senses, somewhat like Shino. There was no doubt he was Torune Aburame, one of Danzo's two bodyguards.

To avoid exposing his identity, Torune had used a Shadow Clone instead of an Insect Clone.

But against Naruto, all that caution was useless.

Naruto had been less certain about the other man. Now that he knew one of them was a sensory-type ninja, though, he could make a good guess: Yamanaka Fū.

Of course, there was a small chance he was wrong.

Either way, Naruto flew straight into the air, out of reach of Torune's terrifying Nano Insects.

Naruto could sense that the other enemy had taken Sakura and continued running. Torune had stayed behind to hold them off.

Clearly, the mission always came first for a