A Root ninja had just finished a patrol and stopped at the handover point to take a short break.
He leaned against the cold wall, his face weary beneath his mask.
Suddenly, he felt a chill in his chest.
It was not the searing pain of being pierced, but an eerie cold that spread rapidly, as though it had frozen his blood and heartbeat in an instant.
He looked down in shock and saw a crystalline longsword embedded in his chest. He had no idea when it had struck.
"Wh... at..."
He tried to shout, only to find his voice frozen in his throat.
An instant later, ice crystals erupted from within him.
Fine spikes of ice pierced his organs, blood vessels, and muscles in an instant, even bursting through his skin. They "detonated" him from the inside, turning him into an ice sculpture frozen in a pose of astonishment. Then he shattered silently into glittering powder scattered across the floor, without leaving so much as a trace of blood.
In the last moments before life faded from his eyes, his pupils reflected only a fleeting, indistinct figure with black hair and black robes, wearing an eerie fox mask, and a brief glimpse of the mask's hollow eyeholes in the darkness.
Naruto did not pause for even a moment, nor did he glance back at the "ice sculpture" that had vanished in an instant.
Drawing out his ice blade, Naruto melted into the darkness again and sped toward the next chakra signature he had locked onto.
The hunt had begun.
This dark purge, unfolding unknown to anyone in the deepest reaches beneath Konoha, was advancing silently with astonishing efficiency and ruthlessness.
And he had only one target throughout: Danzo, who was dreaming of becoming Hokage.
*That old bastard wasn't on