Hunted

"Susanoo? And he's already beyond its initial form, at his age... Far stronger and more dangerous than I imagined, Shisui Uchiha."

At that moment, in a corner no one noticed, a man wearing a Mask quietly watched everything unfold through the single crimson Sharingan concealed behind his Mask.

Shisui Uchiha's performance had shocked him somewhat.

Konoha was covered by a barrier year-round, and no outsider could enter or leave without being detected.

But it had no effect on him, because he was a genuine native of Konoha—just one who had already "died."

Naturally, neither the vast barrier nor the Barrier Sensing Division hidden within Konoha could detect him. Free to come and go, he had entered the village again.

Just as on his previous visit to Konoha, when he had happened to follow Uchiha Itachi's squad on a mission. He had killed Itachi's teammate, forcing Itachi to awaken the Uchiha kekkei genkai, the Sharingan.

He held a measure of hope for the Uchiha, stemming from Madara Uchiha, the man there at the beginning of Konoha's Uchiha Clan. Could the Uchiha Clan, which produced one genius after another, once again offer the strength to journey with him to the New World...?

But this time, his return to Konoha was unplanned.

According to the plan he was carrying out, he should have already secured a foothold in Kirigakure. Instead, he had suffered an unexpected setback there. From what he had known, his opponent should not have possessed enough power to resist him.

Yet the power his opponent unleashed far exceeded his own current strength. If not for his Sharingan's unique Space-Time Ninjutsu, he would have nearly met his end before getting anywhere.

In short, a series of unforeseen events had prevented his plan from proceeding smoothly, and he had come to Konoha in search of an "ally" who could help.

Shimura Danzō, for instance. If he leaked a few interesting details about Kirigakure's current situation to that ambitious man, even without showing himself, Danzō would likely orchestrate a few incidents that would throw Kirigakure into utter chaos.

By sheer coincidence, he had arrived just in time to witness this scene. But he had not approached too closely. Root had no shortage of sensory-type Ninja, and being discovered would be troublesome.

"Wh-what is that?" The Root Ninja stared at Shisui Uchiha's enormous Susanoo in utter shock. Fear and dread—human instincts they had trained since childhood to suppress—surged into their hearts. But they were barely given time to remain stunned.

Susanoo's attack arrived in an instant.

Boom!

The enormous palm struck down just once.

Several Root Ninja who had been forming hand seals or attempting to engage him at close range were smashed straight into pulp!

"Run!" The remaining Root members made their decision immediately, but it was already too late. The moment the thought of fleeing crossed their minds, Shisui appeared before them with the Body Flicker Technique.

Along with his godlike Susanoo!

Only one fate awaited them.

Death.

Uchiha Itachi had already reached their agreed meeting place. In his haste, he had barely checked for Shisui's markings along the way.

That battered crow had filled Uchiha Itachi with terror. He recognized it as Shisui's ninjutsu, a signal Shisui had once told him about. There was only one circumstance in which he would use it—

His life is in danger.

Whoosh.

As the last Root member collapsed unconscious, Shisui could no longer sustain Susanoo. He clutched his eyes in pain and gasped for breath.

The Root Ninja were even better trained than he had imagined. Even Susanoo's power had failed to eliminate them all immediately, and the last one had nearly exhausted what little strength he had left.

This only reinforced his judgment: the forces truly hidden within the village were far more formidable than they appeared. Once civil strife broke out, the fighting would never stop.

It was not just the Uchiha Clan. Even as a trusted confidant of the Third Hokage, he had never known that Danzō's Root concealed so much undisclosed strength. He now realized that Danzō was another source of the coming turmoil. If civil war broke out, Root, supposedly the organization protecting Konoha from its deepest shadows, would likely support neither side, but enter the conflict as a third force.

What is Danzō's ambition? What is he after—the whole of Konoha? Or perhaps... Shisui suppressed his doubts. At that moment, as a Konoha Ninja, he had only one unshakable purpose—to complete his mission.

His figure vanished once more. The Masked Man, who had been watching from the sidelines all along, appeared in his place. The space around him warped, and then he cleared away all the flesh and corpses strewn across the ground.

He gazed thoughtfully in the direction Shisui had disappeared, his eye holding both wariness and anticipation.

But he did not dare pursue him, because he did not know what ability Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan possessed. Even during his fight with those Root ninja, Shisui had not used it.

Perhaps no one in this world understood better than he did what effects and unforeseen changes a Mangekyō Sharingan's ability could bring.

"Shisui?"

When Shisui Uchiha dragged his utterly spent body before Itachi, Itachi hurried forward to support him. When he noticed the blood still streaming from Shisui's eye sockets, his expression turned horrified.

"What happened?" Itachi asked urgently.

Yet Shisui did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked behind him with intense vigilance, then kept shifting his gaze up and down, as though searching for something.

Seeing Shisui act this way, Uchiha Itachi activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan without hesitation and joined him in searching for signs of an enemy. Yet wherever he looked, he found nothing unusual—not even a small animal that could have been used as a proxy to watch them.

But Itachi did not doubt Shisui's actions. He knew Shisui's character. Keeping his Sharingan active, his expression grew increasingly grim. Once he confirmed that he could not find any trace of the enemy on his own, he stopped searching, took hold of Shisui, and vanished from the spot with him.

With the two Uchiha gone, absolute silence settled over the area. Even the occasional sound of insects crawling through the grass seemed piercing.

A long while passed.

"So vigilant." Space twisted in the empty air, and the Masked Man's body gradually spiraled out of nothingness like a ghost. Behind his Mask, his crimson Sharingan slowly changed from the shape of three blades back into three tomoe. There was a hint of resignation in his voice. "Even after I was so careful to keep my distance, he still noticed me. I could only stay in the alternate dimension. There's no way to follow them now."

"A pity I didn't bring Zetsu along. He can't slip through Konoha's barrier undetected on his own, either. I nearly missed something so interesting. But if I stay any longer, I might be discovered... It seems this isn't the time to look for the jinchūriki or those fools." The Masked Man glanced at the dense woods behind him. Through the gaps, he could just make out a red roof.

Konoha's Hokage Office.

"Hokage... Hmph." The Masked Man gave a derisive chuckle.