Inside the Hot Pot Restaurant, the people eating heartily beside Watanabe Ichiro sprang into action.
They covered for one another, using their bodies to block the view as they spirited the unconscious Watanabe Ichiro away without anyone noticing.
Kagami Uchiha followed behind them, his expression grim.
He pulled back the clothing over his arm. A pitch-black Cursed Seal pulsed on his left arm, its runes slowly crawling as though alive. He sighed silently.
Hopefully, there was still a way to turn things around.
Smuggling a living person out of Konoha was no easy feat, unless a faction intimately familiar with the village was throwing open every back door for them.
And this time, the clan opening those back doors was the Uchiha Clan, one of the village's two founding clans.
Watanabe Ichiro was fitted with the Chakra-Suppressing Restraints, his hands and feet bound. Devices that obstructed chakra flow were inserted all over his body, leaving him looking rather pitiful.
The wine he had drunk was laced with a Secret Drug that targeted only Uchiha. It was originally meant to punish clan traitors, but the elders had abused their authority to siphon off a considerable supply through various means.
After all, the elders had managed the Uchiha for years and accumulated considerable resources. The trump cards they held were far beyond those of a young clan head like Watanabe Ichiro, who was still inexperienced and estranged from his clansmen.
Still, they had their doubts. Watanabe Ichiro was half Senju, and they did not know whether the drug would work on him. What would they do if it failed, or its effects were weakened?
But even after racking their brains, they could not come up with another way to subdue Watanabe Ichiro on such short notice. So they simply dumped their entire stockpile of the Secret Drug, accumulated over many years, into his wine.
Worried that he would notice the different taste, the elders arranged for plenty of ordinary people who knew nothing of the plan to drink the wine as well. They only wanted Watanabe Ichiro to mistake its flavor for the restaurant's special brew and remain unsuspecting.
Fortunately, Watanabe Ichiro was not especially vigilant within the village. He drank it without hesitation-and had several cups.
The Secret Drug did not take effect immediately, however. The elders waited anxiously nearby. If it failed, they would have to find another way to lure Watanabe Ichiro out of Konoha.
That would be difficult. Watanabe Ichiro had few attachments in Konoha. If they could not lure him out, they would have to act within the village.
Remembering the pair of Mangekyo they had seen a few days earlier, the elders could not help trembling.
No, absolutely not!
Let them settle their grudges outside Konoha. We haven't lived long enough yet!
Fortunately, Uchiha blood still flowed through Watanabe Ichiro's veins. Halfway through his conversation with Kagami Uchiha, he collapsed, slumping motionless over the table.
When they approached to examine him, his breathing was rapid and his face pale. He had already fallen unconscious.
The drug worked surprisingly well-a little too well, in fact.
As the elders' trusted men bound his hands and feet and fitted him with all manner of chakra-inhibiting restraints, he did not even struggle instinctively. Only the faint rise and fall of his chest showed that he was still alive.
"Why don't we take advantage of his weakness and kill him right now?!"
The elder who had shouted at Watanabe Ichiro a few days earlier, only to receive a round of interrogation for his trouble, was in a foul mood. Staring at the pale-faced Watanabe Ichiro, he stepped forward and viciously jabbed him several times with his cane.
Those youngsters really hadn't known when to stop. I'd been bedridden for days before I could get up, and I still needed a cane to walk. Honestly.
"Hey, hey, stop touching him! If you kill him, are you going to explain it to... that man?"
"His obsession with Uchiha Ichiro runs pretty deep."
"But I get the feeling he isn't obsessed with Ichiro himself, but with losing that Clan Head Position Challenge..."
"He wants to defeat him head-on, doesn't he? Why else would he tell us to lure him out rather than kill him?"
"Young people care so much about saving face. Unlike us-we're already old and only want to enjoy a peaceful retirement."
"Hey! He's coughing up blood! What are you doing?! He's going to die!!!"
Watanabe Ichiro's condition took a sharp turn for the worse, leaving the elders frantic. They even found a remedy and poured it into his mouth. Only after considerable effort did they stabilize him, then send him away that very night, their hearts pounding with fear.
As for the various checkpoints along the way, bypassing them took only a little effort for the Uchiha Clan, which had personally helped build Konoha.
Several people rushed Watanabe Ichiro away with all possible speed, and nothing untoward happened along the way.
For the moment, all the chaos had come to an end.
Kagami Uchiha watched Watanabe Ichiro disappear from view with a complicated expression, indescribable emotions welling up inside him.
He turned back, his manner respectful.
"Elder, may I ask about my little brother..."
"Relax. He's sleeping soundly."
The elder waved a hand, and a young child was carried out. His eyes heavy with sleep, he murmured, "Big brother."
Kagami Uchiha's expression immediately softened. He checked his brother repeatedly, confirming that he was unharmed and mentally well. He had merely been taken away and confined for a while.
"As for that Cursed Seal on your arm, we'll have a proper talk about it once this matter is settled."
"This thing on my arm? It doesn't matter."
Kagami Uchiha smiled and created a Shadow Clone, handing his little brother over to him. The Shadow Clone immediately vanished with the Body Flicker Technique, heading straight for the Hokage Building.
"Stop him!"
Kagami Uchiha reached into his Ninja Tool Pouch. Several shuriken with explosive tags attached collided in midair, blocking everyone present who tried to give chase.
Amid the thunder of successive explosions, Kagami Uchiha's expression turned fierce, and he severed his own left arm with a single slash.
Once the arm was separated from his body, the black Cursed Seal instantly dissipated, deprived of its host's supply.
"Now I have nothing holding me back. Elders, let me properly thank you for taking such good care of my little brother!"
A few days earlier, Kagami Uchiha had sensed that something was very wrong with the atmosphere in the clan.
Tobirama Senju had not assigned him to escort duty at the Five Kage Summit, so he had quietly stayed in the Uchiha District, practicing shuriken throwing with his little brother.
But starting one day, the elders seemed to have collectively changed their ways, shutting themselves indoors.
Kagami Uchiha approached several times under the pretense of passing by, only to be politely ushered away by the elders' guards.
Everything seemed normal.
But that was precisely what made it so suspicious!
The elders had always been arrogant and overbearing, and their guards had always looked down their noses at everyone else. For them to suddenly become so accommodating, something had to be wrong!
Kagami Uchiha could not suppress his curiosity. He was also worried that the clan elders might stir up trouble during the Five Kage Summit. As a guard of the Second Hokage, he had a responsibility to nip that danger in the bud.
So he began investigating in secret.
He discovered that the clan's ninja hawks were being dispatched unusually often. The elders seemed to be contacting someone outside.
Were they planning to betray Konoha?
Unable to put his concerns to rest, Kagami Uchiha slipped out in secret, following the ninja hawks to find whoever the elders had been contacting lately.
Who was it?
Or was it a faction from another country?
But he never would have imagined that the trail would lead him to Uchiha Kagami, the clan's former third-in-command and now a traitor to the Uchiha.
After taking a brutal beating from Uchiha Kagami, who had awakened his Mangekyo, and fleeing in disgrace, he immediately realized that his little brother, who should have been in the safest place of all, was surrounded by wolves.
To keep his brother alive, Kagami Uchiha returned to the Uchiha District covered in injuries. Under the elders' threats and promises, he submitted and took sole responsibility for drugging Watanabe Ichiro and coaxing him into drinking it.
Watanabe Ichiro's relationship with the Uchiha Clan was hardly good. Kagami Uchiha, the only one who could exchange a few words with him, was already about as close to him as anyone got. With no better option, the elders could only resort to this scheme.
However, Kagami Uchiha had not followed their plan entirely. He had taken a great risk by giving Watanabe Ichiro a warning-
He never addressed Watanabe Ichiro as "Clan Head." He always called him "Lord Ichiro."
I really don't know whether he understood my hint.
His weapon gripped tightly in his right hand, Kagami Uchiha spared a sliver of attention to worry about Watanabe Ichiro as he fought a desperate, life-or-death battle against the elders' guards.
Lord Ichiro, you have to come back safely.
Before you continue