The Anbu Ninja froze where they stood.
Four people, four animal masks, all facing the desk.
No one moved. The assassin's blood seeped into the wool carpet with a sticky, wet sound.
The Anbu squad leader rested his hand on the hilt of his Ninja Blade. His Adam's apple bobbed hard.
"L-Lord Third." The squad leader's voice cracked. "The Shimura Clan were founding elders of the village. To search them, you need a joint warrant from the senior advisers..."
Shu Shiraishi lowered his eyes.
He shifted his weight onto his right leg. The hard heel of his black military boot ground viciously into Danzo's shattered jaw.
"Urrgh-!"
A muffled, gurgling scream tore from Danzo's throat.
Shattered bone pierced straight through his gums. Blood and saliva sprayed from his nostrils and spattered the floor.
Danzo clawed desperately at the carpet with both hands, his legs kicking wildly as though he were being electrocuted.
Shu Shiraishi didn't look down. He stared at the Anbu squad leader.
"A warrant?"
Shu Shiraishi reached back and drew the Kunai the assassin had left on the desk. He tossed it casually.
The Kunai struck the squad leader's breastplate and clattered to the floor. The blue poison on its edge glimmered faintly under the light.
"An assassination attempt on the Hokage. That's your warrant."
Shu Shiraishi leaned forward slightly, the shadow of his Hokage hat covering most of his face.
"Do I have to repeat that order?"
The air in the room dropped to freezing.
Cold sweat burst out across the Anbu squad leader's back, soaking the lining of his uniform until it clung to his spine.
He snapped to attention and slammed his right fist against his breastplate.
"Yes, sir! Anbu First Squad, move out immediately!"
The four turned and ran. The last Anbu stumbled and nearly fell over the threshold, then scrambled into the corridor.
Shu Shiraishi moved his foot.
Danzo's head lolled to one side, and the pain knocked him unconscious.
Shu Shiraishi walked to the weapon rack by the door and drew a standard-issue Anbu straight sword. He hefted it twice.
A little light. Barely usable.
Outside the Hokage building.
Fifty Anbu Ninja stood in a dense mass on the street, which had just been washed clean by rain.
No one spoke. The only sound was water dripping from the eaves.
Shu Shiraishi came down the steps. His military boots left bloody footprints on the bluestone paving.
"Target: the Shimura Clan compound."
He walked past the formation. Fifty Anbu followed in silence.
At the eastern end of the village.
The Shimura Clan's mansion had high gray walls and a pair of heavy, iron-bound gates painted red.
Two guards leaned against the gateposts, yawning.
A rapid succession of footsteps came from the end of the street. Military boots splashed through puddles in unison.
The two guards snapped awake and reached for the ninja tool pouches at their waists.
"Who goes there? This is the Shimura-"
He never finished.
Shu Shiraishi stepped out of the darkness without breaking stride.
He drew his straight sword. Silver-white steel flashed in the night.
Clang!
The iron lock on the gate, as big as a man's head, was cleaved in two and crashed onto the steps.
Shu Shiraishi raised his right leg and kicked the gate.
Boom!
Both thick wooden doors burst inward. Jagged splinters flew into the courtyard like a torrential downpour.
The falling doors knocked both guards flying. They slammed into an ornamental rockery in the courtyard, vomited blood, and went still.
Shu Shiraishi stepped over the shattered wood and entered the courtyard.
"Search it." He pointed the tip of his sword at the Main Family's residence directly ahead. "Anyone holding a weapon, kill them on sight."
Black-clad figures poured into the compound like a tide.
A gong crashed out. A shrill whistle split the night sky.
"Enemy attack!"
Paper doors were flung open. Dozens of Shimura Clan ninja rushed into the courtyard. Some wore nothing but gray sleeping robes and clutched Kunai in their hands.
A Shimura elder in his fifties leaped onto a roof and rapidly formed Hand Seals.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A ball of highly compressed wind hurtled toward Shu Shiraishi.
Shu Shiraishi didn't dodge. He clenched his left fist and punched straight into the ball of wind.
Flesh met raging wind with a muffled thud.
The wind ball was smashed apart, turning into a gale that made Shu Shiraishi's black short-sleeved shirt snap and flutter.
The Shimura elder's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Shu Shiraishi bent his knees slightly and pushed off hard.
A broad web of cracks spread through the bluestone paving beneath his feet.
He soared into the air and landed on the roof, face-to-face with the elder.
He thrust his straight sword forward.
The elder raised a Kunai to block. The Anbu straight sword sliced through the Kunai's iron ring like tofu and drove into the elder's chest.
Shu Shiraishi pulled out his sword.
Blood sprayed across the gray roof tiles. The elder's corpse rolled down the roof and smashed the large water jar in the courtyard.
Screams rang out on all sides.
The Anbu carried out their orders without fail. The metallic clash of blades rang out all around.
Blood splashed across the white paper doors, painting them with broad, glaring red stains.
A young Shimura Genin, his eyes red, charged at Shu Shiraishi with a short sword raised.
Without even looking, Shu Shiraishi swung his sword across in a backhand slash.
The blade swept across both of the young man's knees.
Blood spurted. The young man screamed and fell to his knees in the muddy water, unable to stand again.
Ten minutes later, the fighting was over.
More than twenty Shimura ninja who had dared to resist lay in pools of blood. The remaining clansmen were herded into the center of the courtyard and crowded together.
Women and children huddled in the middle, stifling their sobs.
Shu Shiraishi walked out of the Main Family's ancestral hall. He threw a hefty ledger onto the steps.
"Open the vault," Shu Shiraishi ordered.
Two Anbu skilled in Earth Release walked to the foundations of the ancestral hall and slapped both hands against the ground.
The ground split open, revealing a heavy refined-steel door.
Shu Shiraishi walked over, severed the hinges with three strikes, and kicked the steel door away.
Box after box of banknotes. Stack after stack of gold bars. Wooden shelves filled with Ninjutsu scrolls.
The Anbu jumped into the cellar and carried the contents out, one box at a time.
"Three Wind Release secret technique scrolls," an Anbu reported.
"Throw them on the cart," Shu Shiraishi said.
"Fifteen property deeds for the commercial street in the east of the village."
"Confiscate them."
"Ten boxes of Explosive Tags."
"Take them."
The wealth and resources the Shimura Clan had accumulated over centuries were tossed roughly onto the carts outside like cabbages.
An old woman sitting in the mud beat her chest and wailed, "Bandits! You're bandits!"
Shu Shiraishi walked to the front of the crowd.
He stopped before a kneeling Shimura Chunin.
Shu Shiraishi reached out and grabbed the metal plate of the Forehead Protector on the Chunin's forehead.
He gave it a hard yank.
The cloth strap tore with a rip.
Shu Shiraishi casually tossed the Forehead Protector into a nearby puddle.
"From today onward, the Shimura Clan is stripped of its ninja status."
His gaze swept over the trembling crowd.
"Anyone who dares secretly refine Chakra will be executed on the spot."
The crowd fell deathly silent. The old woman's wailing caught in her throat. Only the sound of chattering teeth remained.
"Lord Third, the search is complete." The Anbu squad leader walked over. Three large carts were loaded to the brim.
"Good." Shu Shiraishi glanced at the traditional wooden buildings around him. "Tear them down."
The squad leader froze. "T-Tear them down?"
"Do my words mean nothing?" Shu Shiraishi planted his bloodied straight sword in the ground. "Anything taller than knee height, bring it down."
The Anbu Captain swallowed and immediately turned to give a hand signal.
More than a dozen Anbu formed Hand Seals at once.
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"
The ground beneath the entire Shimura mansion sank violently. The foundations broke apart.
Thick wooden pillars snapped with a deafening crack. Roof tiles came crashing down like waterfalls.
Dust billowed into the air, blotting out the night sky.
Shu Shiraishi stood amid the swirling dust. His white Hokage hat was spotless.
He watched the once-prominent noble family's estate turn into a flat expanse of ruins. Broken timber lay mixed with crumbled bricks.
"Take their clan head to the square."
Shu Shiraishi pulled his sword from the ground and turned toward the center of the village.
A pale light appeared on the horizon.
A thin mist rose over Konoha's streets.
An early-rising villager pushing a wooden cart to sell tofu stopped at the eastern end of the village.
He rubbed his eyes. The handles of his cart slipped from his hands and landed on his foot with a thud.
The sprawling red-gated compound was gone.
It had become a broad, level expanse of broken rubble. A charred roof beam was still trailing blue-gray smoke.
On a distant rooftop, several Hyuga Clan reconnaissance ninja stood rigid.
They held binoculars in their hands, which shook like sieves.
In the village center was a vast stone-paved square.
The morning light had just reached the ground.
Two Anbu Ninja approached, one in front and one behind.
They held a thick hemp rope between them. One end was tied tightly around a man's ankle.
The man was dragged over the rough paving stones like a dead pig. The clothes on his back had long since worn through, leaving a long trail of blood.
It was Shimura Danzō.
His head was wrapped in thick layers of white first-aid bandages. They had been tied crudely and were already completely soaked through with glaringly red blood.
The Anbu reached the very center of the square.
They let go of the rope.
Danzo lay face-down in the dirt at the center of the square like a pile of mangled flesh.