At the other end of the Forest of Death.
Shisui Uchiha had planned to take a detour through the Forest of Death on his way to see the Hokage. He walked slowly, his brow furrowed, torn by indecision.
Kotoamatsukami could alter a person's thoughts, but...
Would changing Fugaku's thoughts really save the Uchiha and the village, as he hoped?
In the past, Shisui would never have thought this deeply. But after spending these past few years with Sasuke, he had unknowingly begun thinking things through more carefully, looking at problems from more than one angle.
"What am I supposed to do...?"
A sudden waft of fragrance interrupted his brooding.
That smell... had Sasuke come to the Forest of Death?
Why would he come here? It was on the outskirts of the village. Training ground or not, it still had plenty of wild beasts and poisonous insects. This was no place for a six-year-old.
This...
Shisui Uchiha glanced toward the Hokage Building, then gritted his teeth. Using the Body Flicker Technique, he decisively turned around and raced toward Sasuke.
As he drew closer, a series of booms reached his ears, seemingly mixed with the sounds of fighting and explosions. Shisui Uchiha's expression shifted, and he couldn't help recalling the incident several years ago when Kumogakure had tried to abduct Miss Hyuga.
Oh no! Someone was after Sasuke!
Red light flashed in his eyes. Shisui accelerated again, vanishing from the spot.
Boom!
Flames and raging winds completely swallowed Sasuke. The three close-range Root operatives withdrew after their strike. Niu Er, the only genuine ANBU there, had been knocked back by the shock wave and pounded the ground in anguish. At the last possible moment, he had charged into the flames and snatched out Naruto, who had stood there without moving. But it was already far too late to save Sasuke.
He didn't dare imagine what would happen next. The enraged Uchiha would throw everything aside and go to war with the village. If not for what Sasuke had said earlier, he wouldn't even have realized what was happening.
There had only been a handful of words, but the sheer amount of information packed into them had left his head spinning.
Lord Danzo had actually...!
Then next...
Niu Er whipped his head around to look at Naruto, gritted his teeth, and shielded him behind his back, assuming the sight of Sasuke's gruesome death had scared him senseless.
"Run! Mourning your friend isn't the priority right now. Go find Lord Hokage! I'll hold them off!"
Watching the five men advance on him, Niu Er had already prepared himself to die.
Nothing could happen to the jinchūriki!
"Huh? Mister, haven't you got something wrong? Is that what it sounds like when ninjutsu hits someone?"
Naruto tilted his head and stayed right where he was, merely pointing at the clearing shrouded in smoke.
"What?!!" ×6
Tap, tap, tap.
"In my moment of greatest peril, I prayed to the Gods, and the only one who answered was myself.
Sorry I couldn't give you what you wanted."
Accompanied by crisp footsteps, Sasuke emerged from the smoke completely unharmed. His black hair fluttered, and he had actually grown taller, now looking like a boy in his teens. What stood out most, though, was how brimming with vitality he seemed. It was as though... he was more than just Sasuke now.
"You! Impossible! What jutsu is this?!" The lead Root operative's eyes filled with disbelief, but even as he exclaimed, he swung his sword and attacked again.
"Heh heh heh heh. Playtime's over. I gave you a chance, and you still couldn't make it count.
Sweetie... Blue Silver Entanglement!"
Sasuke sneered. Two purple rings of light abruptly appeared beneath his feet, and countless blue-and-gold vines erupted from the ground.
As the two rings shone brilliantly, the forest seemed to resonate with Sasuke. Natural energy and vitality flowed ceaselessly from the vegetation into his body.
Sasuke felt as though his vitality and chakra were now inexhaustible. He clenched his fist, pouring vast amounts of vitality, chakra, and the forest's natural energy into the blue-and-gold vines in his hand. In an instant, the vines bursting from the earth bound all five men, leaving them unable to move.
"W-Wood Release?!" ×2
"Mmph... mmph?!" ×5
Despite his professional training, Niu Er couldn't help crying out in shock.
How was this possible? The Uchiha could use Wood Release too?!
But... why had there been two cries of shock?
Turning his head, Niu Er saw someone standing beside him.
It was Shisui, who had just reached the battlefield.
"Hahaha! Shisui, you're just in time! Come here, take a look at what's on these guys' tongues!"
"..."
Shisui looked at the ANBU, Naruto, the clearing ravaged by wind and fire, Sasuke-who seemed to have aged several years in the short time since he'd last seen him-and the five expert ANBU whom Sasuke had effortlessly subdued with something resembling Wood Release. Utterly bewildered, he covered his forehead.
What the hell was going on?
His head was a mess... none of this made any sense!
Sasuke was usually mischievous, but he would never pick a fight with the ANBU... and then there was the Wood Release...
No, wait.
Something on their tongues?
Shisui's brow immediately furrowed, and he instinctively turned toward Niu Er.
A short while later.
"Say it! Danzo is a piece of shit!"
"Uh... put away your Wood Release, and I'll say it. Danzo is a piece of shit..."
Satisfied to see Niu Er raise his hands in surrender and repeat the words, Sasuke dispelled his current state under Shisui's peculiar gaze and shrank back into a little kid. He went from meeting their eyes to looking up at them again.
Pleased by the vast reserves of vitality and chakra still lingering inside him, Sasuke grinned, then pointed at the suspended Root operatives nearby, whom Naruto was poking with a twig.
Sasuke had whipped them furiously with a vine earlier, and now they were spinning like tops.
"See? It's just one sentence, and none of those guys will say it. Do we really need to ask whose side they're on?"
Root's Tongue Curse Eradication was rather interesting. No matter what, they couldn't reveal any information about Danzo. Perhaps Sasuke had spent too long around lunatics, because the mere thought of that restriction made him itch to experiment.
Unfortunately, all five were men. Sasuke sighed inwardly. Otherwise, he could have gotten really creative-ideally with something right in front of Danzo... ahem.
Shisui: "..."
Shisui opened his mouth, then stopped. Looking at the spinning tops, he struggled for a long while before finally sighing.
There were too many absurdities and too many questions. He didn't even know what to say.
He knew Sasuke was unusual, but he'd never expected anything this outrageous.
That was Wood Release!
And... a child not even seven years old had defeated five elite Root operatives in an instant?
"Shisui, do you still have a mission?" Sasuke casually picked up the vine whip and gave the slowing tops another boost. Narrowing his eyes, he looked up and asked.
If Shisui still intended to go lay his cards on the table with the Third Hokage and Danzo, then he couldn't blame Sasuke for following Danzo's example...
Sasuke eyed Shisui's eyes with ill intent. Sensing the one remaining statue deep within his mind, he felt a little eager to try it out.
"...No."
After a moment of silence, Shisui shook his head.
His thoughts were in complete turmoil. He would go back and discuss everything he'd seen and heard today with Itachi before deciding what to do next...
But the sight of those vines was more than he could resist. They reminded him of certain forbidden experiments from the past...
"Sasuke, that ninjutsu just now..."
"First of all, I, Sasuke, am not cheating." Sasuke shook his head decisively and presented Shisui with a fine view of the back of his head, signaling that they could discuss it once they got home.
After a moment of silence, Shisui nodded helplessly. There had simply been too much to take in today...
"Then let's call it a day. I'm going home to sleep. Do whatever you want with those tops." Sasuke jerked his chin casually, then turned and walked away. He would leave the rest to the professionals and give that old Third Hokage something unpleasant to think about.
"..." ×2
Niu Er and Shisui exchanged glances, each seeing the same helpless confusion on the other's face.
This...
"All right, I'm leaving too. Still haven't fed the fox at home. I think the milk I bought is about to expire." Seeing Sasuke leave, Naruto wasted no time either. He hoisted the half pig left over from their meal onto his shoulder and spoke as he walked away.
The thought of going home to nearly expired milk and instant noodles made him miss Sasuke's cooking already. It wasn't that he couldn't afford better food; he mainly bought things by the boxful, then couldn't finish them and hated wasting them. Relying on his sturdy constitution, he simply treated expired food as a way to keep his bowels moving.
"Fox?" The ANBU exchanged a look with Shisui, a vein twitching at his temple.
"People call me Demon Fox every day. Doesn't that make going home to eat feeding the fox?" Rolling his eyes, Naruto pulled a fox mask from his waist and put it on, then swaggered away.
He didn't want to suffer more hostile looks on his way home. Sasuke's idea really was brilliant. For the past few years, he'd simply stopped showing his face in public. If people wanted to curse the Demon Fox, they had to see the Demon Fox first. Otherwise, it was just an urban legend...
"..." ×2
This...
After the two kids left, only two men and five spinning tops remained, staring at one another.
After a long while, Niu Er finally spoke.
"Shisui, sir, what should we do now?"
"I'm a little lost too... take these tops to Lord Hokage?"
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