A god-tier reward: Yomotsu Hirasaka

"Hyuga!" As Sasuke finished speaking, the Hyuga ninja observing from a distance flipped down to the ground.

The man activated his Byakugan and looked toward the underground Old Well, veins bulging at his temples.

"I've scanned down to the third level... The chakra in front of the Snake-Patterned Door is chaotic. Captain Kakashi is still alive, and the police officers are there too."

Shikaku stared at the Sealing Spike on the ground. "Don't leave half the report out."

The Hyuga ninja went pale.

"A lot of Sealing Lines have extended through the gap in the door and wrapped around a police officer's feet. They're cutting the lines, but they're connected to his heart."

Sasuke turned and left.

Shikaku grabbed him. "Where are you going?"

"The Old Well."

"If you go, you'll fall into Danzo's trap."

Sasuke shook off his hand.

"If I don't, it's my people who die. Are you planning to write the compensation notices for me, Nara Clan Head?"

Rather than being silenced, Shikaku hurried after him.

"You can save him, but don't use your left eye to open the door."

Sasuke glanced at him.

"I'm not stupid enough to hand Danzo my eye."

The Yamanaka ninja put away his scroll and ran after them. "What about things here at the village entrance?"

Sasuke said, "Send the record we just made to the Hokage Building. Tell the Third Hokage that the Masked Man took Itachi and the Snake-Patterned Door at the Old Well has opened. Tell him to stop sending people to get in the way."

Two Uchiha guards followed close behind.

One asked, "Clan head, what about the Masked Man?"

"Put it on his tab."

Sasuke kept moving.

Barricades had already divided the streets between the Hokage Building and the village entrance into several sections. Civilians watched from beneath the eaves, but no one dared approach.

When Sasuke reached the entrance to the Old Well, Kakashi was standing at the Well Mouth, his left hand pressed against his forehead protector and his right eye fixed on the depths below.

Takaya knelt on one knee on a platform along the well wall, his arm slashed bloody by Sealing Lines.

A stifled groan came from below.

"Clan head!"

The moment Takaya saw Sasuke, his expression changed.

"Don't come down! The door recognizes your chakra!"

Sasuke stood at the Well Mouth and looked down.

On the third-level platform, a black door stood half a foot open. Snake patterns were carved into its surface, dried blood lodged in their grooves. A ninja from the Konoha Military Police Force was entangled in Sealing Lines that wound from his ankles to his chest and were burrowing into his skin.

Kakashi said, "We didn't touch the door. It opened on its own."

Sasuke looked at the door's surface.

The line written on it had changed.

Offer Sasuke Uchiha's left eye, and the list will reveal itself.

Now another sentence had appeared beneath it.

Refuse, and the one before the door will die in his place.

Shikaku reached the Well Mouth and swore when he saw the words.

"Danzo really knows how to set a test."

Kakashi asked, "Can you break it?"

Shikaku shook his head. "I could dismantle it with enough time, but this man can't wait."

The bound police officer gritted his teeth and shouted, "Clan head, forget about me! I'm Shinji Uchiha. Making it this far tonight was already more than I could ask for. Don't let Danzo get your eye!"

Sasuke looked at him.

"Shut up and conserve your chakra."

Shinji tried to speak again, but the Sealing Lines tightened into his chest, making him double over in pain.

Kakashi drew his short blade. "I'll try cutting the main thread."

The Hyuga ninja immediately shouted, "Don't cut it! The main thread is connected to his heart. Severing it will detonate the seal."

Kakashi's hand stopped in midair, sweat beading on his forehead.

The ANBU sent by the Third Hokage arrived as well, standing at the Well Mouth, not daring to descend.

"Lord Hokage has ordered us to protect Clan Head Sasuke and escort him out."

Sasuke turned.

"Tell Lord Hokage that I'm exercising my Temporary Deliberation Authority to handle evidence in the Danzo case on-site. Anyone who forcibly removes me will be recorded as obstructing the investigation."

The ANBU were left speechless.

Shikaku asked quietly, "Do you have a way?"

Sasuke did not answer.

He stared at the Snake-Patterned Door, and the notification voice only he could hear finally sounded in his mind.

[Clan Annihilation Deadlock broken. Uchiha Itachi has suffered a mental collapse. Emotion point settlement complete.]

[Skill acquired: Yomotsu Hirasaka.]

[Allows the user to drag a target's consciousness into the mental abyss, briefly severing their control over external chakra.]

The single tomoe in Sasuke's eye spun faster. An aching pain welled up deep in his eye socket, only to be suppressed by a cool sensation.

Shikaku sensed the change in his chakra and immediately took half a step back.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke raised a hand.

"Don't touch me."

He stepped onto the well wall and pushed off, landing on the third-level platform.

Takaya cried urgently, "Clan head!"

Sasuke stood before Shinji and pressed a hand against his forehead.

Shinji tried to pull away in fright. "Clan head, don't come close! The seal will recognize you!"

Sure enough, the Sealing Lines reacted. Several black threads emerged through the gap in the door and reached toward Sasuke's left eye.

Kakashi closed in with the Body Flicker Technique. "Get back!"

Sasuke turned his Sharingan on the Snake-Patterned Door.

At that moment, the chakra lingering behind the door seemed to be forcibly dragged out of water. A hazy mental projection appeared before Sasuke, its face wrapped in bandages and a cane in its hand. It was the consciousness Danzo had left within the seal.

Danzo's voice came from the door.

"Uchiha brat, offer your eye."

Everyone above the well paled.

Shikaku immediately shouted, "Record this! That's Danzo's own sealed consciousness!"

The Yamanaka ninja hastily unfurled his scroll.

Sasuke looked at the projection.

"Old dog, even hiding in a door, all you can do is beg?"

Danzo's projection raised its cane.

"Offer your eye, or he dies."

Shinji gritted his teeth. "Clan head, don't!"

Sasuke suddenly raised a hand and straightened his collar.

Kakashi's eyelid twitched.

Every time that gesture appeared, someone was about to suffer.

Within Sasuke's Sharingan, a new ocular power bore down on the projection behind the door.

"Yomotsu Hirasaka."

There was no explosive boom, no flash of flame.

An invisible force seized the mental projection Danzo had left behind, dragging it down as though pressing it into bottomless black water. For the first time, terror appeared on its face. Its cane stopped halfway up.

"What jutsu is this?"

Sasuke did not answer.

His right hand remained pressed against Shinji's forehead, while two fingers of his left hand touched a junction in the Sealing Lines.

"Kakashi, cut the third thread on the left."

Kakashi did not hesitate. His short blade flashed, severing the third thread.

Shinji let out a muffled groan, but did not die.

The Hyuga ninja immediately shouted, "The junction over his heart has loosened!"

Sasuke continued, "Takaya, burn the lower edge of the door gap with Fire Release. Don't touch the snake patterns."

Takaya formed hand seals, and flames swept along the lower edge of the gap.

The Sealing Lines began to retract.

Danzo's projection struggled in the mental abyss, its voice breaking up.

"Uchiha... How dare you..."

Sasuke sneered.

"Of course I dare."

He pulled outward with two fingers, extracting the last loop of Sealing Line from Shinji's chest.

Shinji collapsed onto the platform, gasping for breath.

Kakashi immediately dragged him away.

The writing on the Snake-Patterned Door began to twist, black smoke rising from the words demanding the eye.

Shikaku shouted down from the Well Mouth, "The door's going to destroy the evidence!"

Sasuke stared at the projection inside.

"You want to destroy it? Then I'll take it."

He activated his ocular power again, dragging Danzo's lingering consciousness deeper. The gap in the door was forced another inch open, revealing a row of sealing scrolls inside.

Takaya rushed forward and laid his hand on a scroll, but did not dare take it.

"Clan head, there's a trap!"

Sasuke said, "Don't take the red cord. Take the gray one."

The Hyuga ninja immediately confirmed it. "The gray cord has the weakest chakra!"

Takaya pulled out the Gray-Cord Scroll and tossed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi caught it and quickly sealed it away. "Got it!"

The Snake-Patterned Door gave a piercing screech, and its surface began to crack.

Sasuke released his ocular power. The seals within the door swallowed Danzo's projection back up, leaving only one last venomous remark.

"Inside the police force... I still have eyes..."

Sasuke's gaze darkened.

The door collapsed completely. Black smoke poured from the cracks, only to be suppressed by the ANBU with Water Release.

Shinji was carried up to the Well Mouth, where medical ninja immediately took over.

Fugaku arrived too. Only after seeing Sasuke standing on the platform did his expression ease.

"Are you all right?"

Sasuke leaped up to the Well Mouth. His left eye was visibly bloodshot, but he could still stand steadily.

"He's alive, and we have the scroll."

Takaya placed the scroll before Shikaku.

Shikaku did not open it privately. Instead, he applied seals from all three parties on the spot.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "That jutsu just now..."

Sasuke interrupted him. "Uchiha genjutsu."

Kakashi did not press him. He simply nodded.

"That's what I'll put in the report."

The Third Hokage also arrived under ANBU escort.

Seeing Shinji alive, the scroll sealed away, and the Snake-Patterned Door destroyed, his expression shifted several times.

"Sasuke, going down the well on your own was too dangerous."

Sasuke looked at him.

"If Lord Hokage had locked Danzo up sooner, I wouldn't have needed to take the risk."

The Third Hokage was left without a reply.

Shikaku presented the sealed scroll.

"The Gray-Cord Scroll retrieved from the Snake-Patterned Door at the Old Well. Its retrieval was witnessed on-site, and it has not been opened privately."

The Third Hokage reached to take it.

Sasuke held down the other end of the scroll.

"Open it here."

The Third Hokage frowned. "A sealing scroll requires a secure environment."

Sasuke looked at the still-wet blood on Shinji's body.

"The door said it needed a secure environment too. Then it demanded my eye."

Shikaku interjected, "Lord Hokage, we only need to open one corner here to confirm the type of contents. All three parties will record it, so nothing else happens in transit."

After a silence, the Third Hokage nodded.

A sealing specialist stepped forward and carefully undid the outer layer.

Only the first line of the scroll was visible.

Roster of undercover operatives in the Konoha Military Police Force.

A deathly silence surrounded the Well Mouth.

Takaya went pale. "The Konoha Military Police Force... undercover operatives?"

Sasuke took the recording pen from Shikaku and wrote down the time, location, and witnesses beside the scroll's cover.

"Notify my father. Seal every route into and out of the Uchiha compound. Everyone in the Konoha Military Police Force is to form groups of three. Anyone who strays more than ten paces from the others is to be detained on the spot."

The Third Hokage's expression changed.

"Sasuke, you can't make mass arrests before the roster has been verified."

Sasuke looked up.

"Lord Hokage, Danzo just admitted himself that he still has eyes inside the Konoha Military Police Force. Do you want to wait until those eyes make their move?"

Mitokado Homura hurried over from behind the crowd. Hearing this, he snapped, "You're using this as an excuse to purge your opponents!"

Sasuke turned around.

"You arrived remarkably quickly, Lord Advisor. You weren't here when the Old Well Gate opened, but now that the scroll is open, here you are."

Mitokado Homura's face turned ashen. "What are you implying?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He only stared at Homura's cuff.

A speck of black ash clung to it, exactly the same color as the ash left by the burning Snake-Patterned Door.

Shikaku noticed it too.

Kakashi slowly rested his hand on his short blade.

Noticing everyone's eyes on him, Mitokado Homura immediately pulled his sleeve back.

Sasuke spoke coldly. "Councilor, would you mind explaining where you picked up that ash from the Snake-Patterned Door on your cuff?"