The Root members were all elite ninja painstakingly trained by Danzo.
As such, both their tactical coordination and their individual strength were extraordinarily formidable and terrifying.
After receiving their captain's orders and confirming that Uchiha Gengetsu was their primary target, the dozen or so Root members switched targets without the slightest hesitation.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The dozen or so Root members rushed toward Gengetsu from every direction.
Some charged head-on, some flanked him, and others threw kunai... they had completely sealed off every route of retreat.
"Lord Fifth! Watch out!"
"Protect Lord Fifth!"
Seeing this, the surrounding Uchiha Clan ninja cried out and moved to support Gengetsu.
But the Root members' surprise attack was simply too fast, leaving no time for anyone to come to his aid.
Yet facing attacks from every direction, Gengetsu showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, his face was filled with disdain.
"A bunch of rats hiding in the shadows think they can kill me?"
"Dōjutsu-Heavenly Standing Long!"
As Gengetsu's icy voice fell, an extraordinarily strange and powerful surge of dōjutsu power erupted from his right eye.
Buzz!
In an instant, the entire world underwent a dramatic transformation in Gengetsu's vision.
Strange overlapping images appeared over the movements of the Root members charging viciously toward him.
No! These were not overlapping images at all!
They were the next movements these Root members would make over the coming few seconds!
This was the dōjutsu awakened by the Mangekyō in Gengetsu's right eye-Heavenly Standing Long!
This ability was an elevation of the Sharingan's original perceptive abilities, allowing Gengetsu to see clearly what would happen over the next few seconds.
It was an extraordinarily terrifying ability to foresee the future!
In a genuine life-or-death battle, predicting even one second of an enemy's movements was enough to turn the tide, let alone seeing several seconds into the future!
Through Heavenly Standing Long, Gengetsu seemed to gain a god's-eye view, instantly discerning every attack trajectory and change of move from the dozen or so Root members.
"I've already seen through your movements!"
Amid the rain of attacks, Gengetsu turned slightly sideways, easily dodging a thrust from a kunai's short blade.
Then Gengetsu lowered his head slightly, and two kunai grazed his hair as they flew into the distance.
Every movement Gengetsu made was utterly composed yet precise to the smallest fraction, as though these Root members were deliberately cooperating with his evasions.
Of course, as Gengetsu easily dodged every lethal attack, he did not remain idle. He drew his short blade.
Whoosh!
A streak of light flashed past.
Then came countless sounds of muscles being torn apart.
The next second.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Under everyone's shocked gazes, the Root members who had been brimming with killing intent suddenly stiffened. Blood gushed from their throats, and their bodies fell heavily to the ground like torn sacks.
In an instant, Gengetsu killed five Root members.
"What!? How... how is this possible!"
"What just happened! How did he dodge all of our killing blows!"
"..."
The remaining Root members stared at Gengetsu in fear and shock.
After all, Root had dispatched only a dozen or so members to intercept and kill Gengetsu this time.
In other words, in just that first exchange, half of them had been effortlessly slain by Gengetsu without so much as touching the hem of his clothes!
Faced with such an overwhelming disparity in strength, even the Root members felt a wave of fear.
"This is bad! The enemy is extraordinarily powerful! The intelligence was seriously wrong!"
"Retreat! Retreat immediately!"
Seeing this, the Root captain decisively ordered a retreat.
At his command, the remaining Root members turned and fled deeper into the forest without the slightest hesitation.
"Trying to run? Do you think you can get away!?"
Watching their desperately fleeing backs, Gengetsu's lips curled into a cruel sneer.
Since these people had dared to intercept and kill him, Gengetsu had never intended to let them go.
Gengetsu abruptly clapped his hands together.
"Fire Release-Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
Boom!
A mass of intensely scorching flames instantly formed before Gengetsu.
Then those scorching flames erupted directly into an all-encompassing sea of fire.
Like a colossal wave, the raging flames surged toward the fleeing Root members ahead, carrying terrifying heat that could incinerate everything.
Everything in the flames' path burned, and even the air began to distort.
The Root members fleeing ahead also sensed the disturbance behind them and instinctively looked back.
When they saw the all-encompassing sea of fire bearing down on them, every Root member's eyes filled with terror.
"What... what level of ninjutsu is this!"
"Are you kidding me! Isn't Fire Release on this scale way too terrifying!"
"Stop it! Use Water Release!"
The terrified Root members reacted extremely quickly, their hands rapidly forming hand seals.
"Water Release-Water Formation Wall!"
"Water Release-Water Dragon Bullet!"
"..."
Countless Water Release techniques were unleashed toward the terrifying incoming flames.
They hoped to exploit Water Release's elemental advantage over Fire Release to block Gengetsu's devastating, scorching flames.
But could they really block Gengetsu's flames!?
Obviously not.
Compared with Gengetsu's terrifying Fire Release, amplified tenfold in power, the Water Release techniques they unleashed were simply too insignificant and too weak.
Hiss!
The instant the Root members' Water Release techniques touched the flames, they were swallowed up and turned into steam.
Then, without pausing in the slightest, the scorching sea of fire surged toward the remaining Root members with undiminished force.
"Ah! No!"
"Help!"
Amid a series of utterly agonizing screams, the fleeing Root members were instantly swallowed by the raging sea of fire and reduced to ashes, without even a chance to resist.
Rumble!
When Gengetsu's Fire Release ended, the forest directly before him had completely disappeared.
The once-dense forest, the thick tree trunks, the hard rocks... all had been reduced to ashes by Gengetsu's Fire Release.
Gengetsu's Fire Release had forcibly cleared an enormous stretch of scorched ground hundreds of meters long in the dense forest!
The surrounding Konoha ninja, whether members of the Uchiha Clan or ninja from the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans, all stared dumbfounded at the sight before them, utterly stunned.
"So powerful! Is... is this Lord Fifth's true strength!?"
"That's terrifying! What level of Fire Release was that? A ninjutsu unleashed by one person actually cleared an entire stretch of forest!"
"All hail Lord Fifth!"
"Lord Fifth is invincible!"
After a brief, deathly silence, the Konoha ninja erupted into fervent cheers.
As ninja, none of them could help admiring someone powerful.
All the more so when that person was the Hokage of their Konoha!
At this moment, whether they belonged to the Uchiha Clan or the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans, their gazes toward Gengetsu were filled with fervent admiration and awe.
"All right, quiet down."
Gengetsu slowly sheathed his ninja blade and spoke calmly.
"Rest here for a while! Clean up the traces of battle around us and gather any useful intelligence!"
Gengetsu gave everyone their orders.
"Yes! Lord Fifth!"
Hearing Gengetsu's orders, all the ninja immediately snapped out of their shock and began moving.
They quickly spread out to clean up the surrounding traces of battle while examining the bodies of the enemies Gengetsu had killed in the first wave.
Just then, a Yamanaka Clan ninja responsible for handling the bodies suddenly cried out, his expression changing.
"Lord Fifth! Please come take a look at this!"
Hearing the call, Gengetsu immediately hurried over with Shisui Uchiha and the others and asked what had happened.
The Yamanaka Clan ninja pointed at the body of a Root member on the ground and spoke with an extremely grim expression.
"Lord Fifth, this man... I know him!"
"He's a ninja from our Konoha! I even teamed up with him on a C-rank mission before!"
"Why would he attack us wearing a mask?"
Hearing this, the other nearby Konoha ninja gathered around as well. Once they saw the man's face clearly, they all looked deeply confused and shocked.
"He really is a Konoha ninja!"
"Why would Konoha ninja intercept and kill Lord Hokage? Just whose orders were they following?"
Everyone discussed it, completely unable to understand.
Looking at the body on the ground, Gengetsu's lips curled into a meaningful sneer. "In Konoha as it stands now, who else do you think could bypass my orders and secretly mobilize so many elite Konoha ninja to intercept and kill me?"
Hearing Gengetsu's question, Shisui Uchiha, who stood beside him, shuddered and spoke with disbelief written all over his face:
"Could... could it be Lord Third!? No, how is that possible! Why would Lord Third send people to assassinate Lord Fifth!"
According to the teachings Shisui had received since childhood, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was the inheritor of the Will of Fire. He would never assassinate ninja from his own village, much less the Fifth Hokage.
Yet their reaction was completely different from Shisui Uchiha's disbelief.
Although a flicker of surprise crossed the faces of the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans' ninja present when they heard Gengetsu's words, not one of them stepped forward to refute him!
Or rather, as members of Konoha's major core clans, they had all received private instructions from their respective clan heads before coming and knew something of the village's political struggles.
Seeing Shisui's shattered worldview, Gengetsu patted his shoulder and said gravely, "Nothing is impossible, Shisui."
"That old man, the Third, simply doesn't want to relinquish the power he's held for decades..."
"Shisui, the real shinobi world is far darker than you imagine. You still have much to learn."
Gengetsu had once pinned the blame for the Nine-Tails' Rampage on Danzo.
Now, it was also very fitting for Gengetsu to pin the blame for the assassination attempt on the Fifth Hokage on Hiruzen Sarutobi.
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