"Let's go."
Zabuza gave a low command and was the first to leap over the wall.
Haku followed close behind.
But the moment they landed inside, both sensed something was wrong.
A faint smell of blood hung in the air.
Muffled screams came from the distance, brief and abruptly cut short.
Zabuza's pupils contracted.
He tightened his grip on the Kubikiribōchō and crept forward along the wall.
Rounding a corner, he stopped dead at the sight before him.
Bodies lay everywhere.
Bodyguards, hired thugs, and even a few ninja.
Blood pooled into little streams beneath the moonlight, and the stench was thick enough to turn his stomach.
Among the bodies, a figure in black crouched beside a corpse, apparently searching it for something.
The man raised his head and met Zabuza's gaze.
Genya Uchiha.
He waved a stack of banknotes at Zabuza.
"Hey, what a coincidence. You here to rob the place too?"
Zabuza went rigid.
Haku instinctively stepped in front of him, already channeling chakra for his Ice Release.
Just then, another figure emerged from the shadows.
Uchiha Itachi. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan gleamed like two rubies in the darkness, and there wasn't a speck of dust on him, as though the slaughter had nothing to do with him.
"More accomplices?"
Itachi gave Zabuza a dispassionate glance.
"Should I dispose of them?"
Every hair on Zabuza's body stood on end!
He remembered the rumors circulating through the black market.
An unwritten rule had recently appeared on the underground bounty boards of several ninja villages.
"If you encounter an Uchiha, abandon the mission and retreat immediately. Your losses will be reimbursed."
At first, he had dismissed it as an exaggeration.
However powerful an Uchiha might be, he was still only one person.
But now, looking at these two young men radiating