In front of the thatched hut, Sarutobi nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.
Empty!
Konoha's years of accumulated resources had been swept clean.
Gritting his teeth, Sarutobi turned and demanded furiously, "Who on earth did this?!!"
Of the Anbu squad responsible for guarding this place, only three remained alive.
Kito, who had withdrawn at the start, the severely wounded captain, and Hanako, who had used the Yamanaka Secret Technique on Haruma.
Without its caster controlling it, the Hell Cataclysm Seiten had unleashed
would only lock onto targets' life force and target living creatures that moved.
Hanako, who had suffered a backlash from her secret technique, had passed out as soon as a branch pierced her lower abdomen. Luckily, she had survived.
The badly wounded captain hurriedly dropped to one knee. "Lord Hokage, the intruder wore a Root ninja uniform!"
"The Wood Release Ninjutsu he used was tremendously powerful! I was no match for him and couldn't stop him!"
The captain then reported all the information from the battle to Sarutobi, one detail after another.
"Get up."
Sarutobi's brows knitted tightly. Though furious, he was not about to take his anger out on others indiscriminately.
Almost an entire Anbu squad had been killed or wounded, yet they had not even managed to buy time.
The attacker was at least a Kage Level powerhouse.
Only five minutes had passed between his appearance and departure.
"Another unknown Kage Level!"
"Wood Release!"
Sarutobi paced, muttering constantly.
His aged face twisted into a knot.
Lately, one headache had followed another. It was truly exhausting.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
A one-eyed Ninja Dog suddenly began barking.
Tsume Inuzuka looked at the Ninja Dog. "What's wrong, Kuromaru?"
"Woof!"
Tsume Inuzuka translated, "You're saying there's still a scent left?"
"The scent hasn't faded. The culprit might not have gone far." Sarutobi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly told Tsume Inuzuka, "Go after him!"
Kuromaru took the order and sprinted away from the Sarutobi compound!
The recuperation area, Haruma's cottage.
The room was so full of scrolls that it could barely hold them all.
Haruma sat cross-legged among the scrolls, grinning like a creep.
Fugaku glanced at Haruma in disgust and quietly moved a little farther away.
"Sarutobi must be absolutely furious this time."
Every so often, Fugaku picked up a couple of scrolls containing forbidden techniques. "But these won't be easy for us to sell," he said quietly.
Haruma chuckled. "Itachi's about to defect, and we've got Shisui outside too."
"Let's keep this big business deal away from Konoha for now."
"If that doesn't work, having Orochimaru help handle it wouldn't be bad either."
Fugaku nodded, tacitly agreeing to the suggestion.
"Oh! Right!" Haruma said to Fugaku. "I'll have to rely on you to make a hundred million backup copies of all this stuff."
Fugaku's brows and eyes twitched wildly as he surveyed the roomful of scrolls.
He had something to say, but wasn't sure whether he should...
Still, these things really could not be exposed.
They could leave some hidden within the clan.
As for the rest, the more copies they made, the more they could sell.
Given how greedy this brat was...
Everyone with money in the Shinobi World would probably have a copy of everything in this room someday.
With a dark expression, Fugaku silently calculated how long copying a roomful of scrolls would take, and whether he should ask his wife to help.
Meanwhile, Haruma was still grinning foolishly, imagining the carefree life he would have after selling this roomful of goods.
Suddenly,
Haruma frowned as he sensed the Third approaching with a large number of people.
He had originally deployed the Mayfly Technique so nobody would disturb him while he counted his spoils at home.
It was a precaution against Obito and Black Zetsu, who might show up during this time.
Instead, he detected Sarutobi and his people rushing over.
Wait,
the one leading them this time didn't seem to be Sarutobi...
A dog?
"A Ninja Dog? This is bad!"
Haruma cried out and instantly vanished with Flying Thunder God.
Fugaku stood there, bewildered. What was bad?
"A Ninja Dog?"
After standing there blankly for a moment, Fugaku seemed to realize something, and cold sweat poured down him!
"Oh no!"
Fugaku cried out too and hurried out of the courtyard to find people to move the stolen goods!
Konoha's Hokage Rock.
"That was close!"
Haruma looked relieved. He had nearly been caught red-handed.
His strength had risen too quickly lately, and he was no longer as cautious as before.
He had to fix that!
Earlier, facing a mere dozen or so Anbu, he had exposed a major weakness!
Now he had actually forgotten the Inuzuka Clan's tracking Ninjutsu, nearly letting people find his hideout!
For Haruma, who had always prided himself on being the sneakiest man in the Shinobi World, this was rather embarrassing.
After some self-reflection, Haruma gazed down at the group following his scent.
"I saw plenty of people walking dogs in my last life, but a dog walking people? That's pretty rare."
Haruma watched the spectacle below and offered his commentary. "And it's walking a whole pack of them."
"Since you've come looking, I'll show you a good time." With that, Haruma disappeared again.
Kuromaru braked so abruptly that he nearly sent the people behind him tumbling!
Amid billowing dust, Kuromaru kept sniffing, abruptly changed direction, and continued sprinting.
Behind him, Sarutobi grew anxious!
When the Ninja Dog had first headed toward the Uchiha Clan compound, killing intent had already stirred within Sarutobi.
But the emotions he had finally worked up collapsed the instant Kuromaru changed course toward Hokage Rock.
Another change of course!
This time... it was the Hyuga Clan!
Sarutobi could not tell whether the enemy had discovered the pursuit and was deliberately circling around to toy with them.
Or whether he was making a few detours before returning to his destination to guard against being followed.
But intent on recovering the scrolls, Sarutobi could only follow Kuromaru while constantly ordering the Anbu to send more people.
Sunset, dusk.
Kuromaru panted heavily, drool streaming from his mouth.
The dog had certainly gotten his fill of running!
Behind him, Sarutobi and the others wore grim expressions.
They seemed to realize they were being played.
After an afternoon of frantic running, they had practically carved a winding mountain road through Konoha.
And their leader was a one-eyed dog!
They had run past practically every ninja clan, changing direction each time they nearly arrived.
After all that frantic running, Sarutobi's anxiety had instead settled into calm.
"Woof!"
Kuromaru changed direction again and looked back at the group.
A little embarrassed, Tsume Inuzuka asked Sarutobi, "Um... Lord Hokage, are we still following?"
Sarutobi hesitated briefly before finally saying mildly, "Follow."
Sarutobi had thought about many things on the road that afternoon.
Root's dealings with the mysterious man, the exposure of the human experiments, and the unknown Kage Level fighters appearing one after another!
The Root uniform, the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai. All the evidence seemed to point to Danzo.
Yet it was all too coincidental.
Somehow, Sarutobi felt as though a hidden hand in the shadows was controlling everything.
Distracted, Sarutobi noticed everyone stopping and habitually turned.
Then he leaned forward, ready to keep running...
"Lord... Hokage."
An Anbu behind him cautiously reminded him.
Coming to his senses, Sarutobi could not help blushing.
Damn it,
after a whole afternoon, I'd almost gotten used to being walked...
Only when Sarutobi looked up did he discover that Kuromaru, their leader, had been stopped.
The people blocking him wore the same sort of clothing as the Anbu. This was an entrance to the Root Base!
Stopped in his tracks, Kuromaru barked furiously at the entrance!
Even without Tsume Inuzuka translating, Sarutobi understood what Kuromaru meant.
The source of the scent was inside!
Sarutobi strode forward and fixed the two Root ninja with an imposing stare. "Am I not allowed to take my people inside?"
The two Root nobodies,
faced with the Hokage like this, could not help swallowing before stepping aside.
In those few seconds, they had already sent word back to the base using a special Ninjutsu.
Having done that, stepping aside was enough to fulfill their duty.