Root reached out too soon

"Should we arrest him?"

Those words never reached the burning streets, yet an invisible net seemed to descend from above the alley entrance.

Uchiha Gen had not heard the black-clad ninja's report.

But he had seen it.

His Sharingan caught the man's hand pressing against his ear, and another black-clad ninja circling toward the rear of the shelter.

They had not given up.

They had simply chosen a better place to act.

"Makoto, separate the records."

Uchiha Gen spoke abruptly.

Uchiha Makoto froze. "Separate them?"

"One copy of the rescue list, one of Takuya Yamashiro's testimony, and one of the unusual traces at the South Street Entrance. Don't let one person carry all of them."

Uchiha Makoto's expression shifted slightly. He immediately understood.

If all their opponents wanted was to seize the records, the simplest method was to grab one person.

But once the records were scattered, they would have to strike in several directions at once.

That would look very ugly.

Uchiha Ryo asked quietly, "Are they going to make a move?"

"They already are."

Uchiha Gen looked toward the temporary shelter.

A medical ninja was stopping Takuya Yamashiro's bleeding. Inoue Shin leaned against a wall, holding the jet-black senbon, while two other Konoha ninja recorded the traces at the South Street Entrance.

The witnesses, physical evidence, and records were all here.

And precisely because they were all here, Root would not wait until dawn.

"Ryo, go to Takuya Yamashiro."

"Toru, take the two senior clan members and guard the records."

"Makoto, come with me."

Uchiha Makoto stared. "You're going out again?"

"I'm the one they're watching."

Uchiha Gen wiped the half-dried blood from the side of his face.

"If I stay put, they'll go straight for the evidence. If I move, they'll try to grab me first."

Uchiha Ryo frowned. "You want to lure them out?"

"Not lure them out."

Uchiha Gen looked at the growing number of civilians and Konoha ninja in the shelter.

"Make them reach out in front of enough witnesses."

With that, he turned and walked toward the alley entrance.

Uchiha Makoto gritted his teeth and followed.

The moment they left the shelter's immediate vicinity, three dark figures landed beneath a broken streetlamp ahead.

Black clothes, masks, silence.

Their positioning was precise.

One blocked the path ahead, while the other two cut off retreat to either side.

There was no killing intent, yet they felt colder than killing intent itself.

The man in front spoke. "Uchiha Gen, you led clan members away from the Konoha Military Police Force's defensive line without authorization. You are suspected of disrupting village deployments during the Nine-Tails' attack. Come with us."

Uchiha Makoto's face instantly tightened.

Uchiha Gen, however, seemed to have been waiting for those very words.

"Who are you?"

"You don't need to know."

"Whose orders are you acting on?"

"The village's orders."

"Which village official?"

The black-clad ninja's voice grew colder. "You have no right to ask."

Uchiha Gen nodded.

"In other words, you haven't identified yourselves, you have no written order from the Hokage, and you have no notice of coordination with the Konoha Military Police Force."

He took half a step forward, then stopped as though afraid.

"Then I can go with you, but I need to confirm one thing."

The black-clad ninja said nothing.

Uchiha Gen turned to Uchiha Makoto.

"Write this down. Three unidentified ninja, outside the temporary shelter on South Street, demanded that Uchiha Gen, who was participating in rescue efforts, come with them on the grounds of village orders. They presented no written order and did not state their affiliation."

Uchiha Makoto suddenly caught on, and his charcoal pencil immediately touched the paper.

The black-clad ninja's gaze turned icy.

The man on the left moved with the Body Flicker Technique, lunging straight for the records in Uchiha Makoto's hands.

Uchiha Gen did not block him.

He could not.

But he had already guided Uchiha Makoto two steps toward the shelter.

So the instant the black-clad ninja struck, at least a dozen pairs of eyes saw him.

"They're trying to steal the records!"

Uchiha Makoto shouted.

His voice cut through the chaos of the burning streets.

Uchiha Toru charged out first, drawing his short blade and forcibly blocking the hand reaching for the records.

Clang!

The crash of metal rang out at the alley entrance.

Uchiha Ryo rushed over from the other side as well, shielding Uchiha Makoto.

"Didn't I tell you to guard Takuya Yamashiro?" Uchiha Gen asked quietly.

"Inoue Shin went over."

Uchiha Ryo stared at the black-clad ninja, his tone icy.

"He saw it too."

Sure enough, Inoue Shin stood at the shelter entrance, supporting his injured arm, his expression utterly grim.

"Who exactly are you people?"

He was a Konoha ninja.

He could remain wary of the Uchiha, but he could not pretend he had not seen someone trying to steal rescue records.

The black-clad ninja in front finally realized something was wrong.

Uchiha Gen had not been surrounded by them.

He had deliberately walked to a spot where everyone could see him.

"Take him."

The black-clad ninja gave the order quietly.

The man on the right closed in on Uchiha Gen in an instant, reaching to press his palm against his shoulder.

He was fast.

Uchiha Gen's Sharingan could see his movements, but he still could not evade them all.

He only had time to shift half a step sideways, making the man's palm slide from his shoulder to his arm.

A sharp pain struck.

A cold, sinister force suppressed his chakra, and his entire right arm instantly went numb.

Sealing Jutsu.

Root really had come to capture him alive.

Uchiha Gen did not struggle head-on. Instead, he used the momentum to retreat, kicking up a broken roof tile.

The tile struck a half-collapsed wooden frame nearby.

The frame shook, and an iron sign hanging from it crashed down with a piercing clang.

This was the signal they had hastily agreed on earlier.

Two adult Uchiha charged out from behind the shelter.

And they were not the only ones.

Farther away, several clan members from the Konoha Military Police Force looked over as well.

For the first time, the black-clad ninja's movements faltered.

That was exactly what Uchiha Gen had been waiting for.

He ducked sharply, drew a kunai with his left hand, and sliced through a length of binding along the outside of the man's cuff.

The binding fell to the ground, exposing a faint mark on the inside of the black-clad ninja's wrist.

It was not a standard Anbu identification number.

It was a covert marking Root used internally to identify squad affiliation.

Uchiha Gen did not reach for it. He merely raised his voice.

"Senior Inoue, did you see that clearly?"

Inoue Shin's pupils contracted.

Of course he had seen it.

And precisely because he had, his expression grew even grimmer.

Root.

This was not an ordinary Anbu unit responding to an emergency.

On the night of the Nine-Tails' attack, Root had bypassed normal deployment procedures and tried to take away an Uchiha boy who was helping with the rescue.

"Enough!"

A stern shout came from the other side of the street entrance.

Several members of the Konoha Military Police Force arrived, the adult clan member leading them livid.

"The Nine-Tails is still in the village, and you're arresting people helping with the rescue?"

The black-clad ninja did not answer.

They knew perfectly well that once the Konoha Military Police Force arrived, continuing to act would no longer be a quiet arrest.

The man in front gave Uchiha Gen a cold look.

"You will pay for your unauthorized actions tonight."

Rubbing his numb right arm, Uchiha Gen said calmly, "Write that down too."

Uchiha Makoto immediately added it.

The black-clad ninja's gaze grew colder still, but he did not strike again.

The three figures swiftly retreated into the thick smoke.

This time, they withdrew even faster than before.

Uchiha Toru wanted to pursue them, but Uchiha Gen stopped him.

"Don't chase them."

"They already attacked us!"

"If we chase them, we'll be the ones initiating a confrontation."

Uchiha Gen looked at the severed binding on the ground, then at Inoue Shin.

"Letting others see they were here is more useful than capturing a Root ninja who refuses to talk."

Inoue Shin remained silent for a long time before finally saying quietly, "I'll include what just happened in my report."

Uchiha Ryo looked at Uchiha Gen's numb right arm and frowned. "Did you plan all this from the start?"

"No."

Uchiha Gen shook his head.

"I just knew that the sooner they reached out, the more they would expose."

In the distance, the arriving clan members from the Konoha Military Police Force had already sent someone back with the news.

Amid the firelight, a ninja crow took flight from a rooftop and swept toward the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The Uchiha Clan Compound.

Uchiha Fugaku stood on high ground, watching the flames soar from the center of the village, his expression as dark as the night.

A ninja from the Konoha Military Police Force knelt on one knee and swiftly reported everything that had happened on South Street.

The rescue records.

Takuya Yamashiro's testimony.

The unusual spatial traces.

Root's interception.

Uchiha Gen had deliberately made them expose themselves in full view of everyone.

By the end of the report, Fugaku's gaze finally changed.

This was not merely a boy acting on impulse.

Nor was it a handful of young clan members who could not hold back from rushing out to save people.

Someone was using the Night of the Nine-Tails to set a trap for the Uchiha.

And that boy named Uchiha Gen had actually spotted the net before anyone else, amid the worst of the chaos.

"Send the order."

Fugaku spoke in a deep voice.

"Have Uchiha Gen return to the Clan District."

"I want to hear his explanation in person."