Chapter 160: Sarutobi-sensei, you're such a hypocrite!
Sakura stood there, stunned. Maybe it wasn't that Sasuke was becoming childish from hanging out with Naruto, but that Ino was growing up far beyond her years. Even though Ino said nothing had happened, Sakura felt she was hiding something. It was because they no longer lived in the same world that Ino wouldn't tell her the truth.
Sakura fell silent.
"Ino Yamanaka, the only daughter of the Yamanaka clan head. She's a new addition to my list of potential Children of the Prophecy this morning."
A short distance away, Jiraiya stood behind a tree, speaking to the two toad sages. "That's because her Yamanaka clan is very close to Uchiha Izumi. In fact, you could say their relationship is inseparable."
"Do you think Ino Yamanaka could be the Child of the Prophecy?"
Shima-sama, squatting on Jiraiya's left shoulder, stroked her chin. "The Child of the Prophecy who can bring peaceful change to the ninja world must possess a talent far beyond the average person. Is this Yamanaka child a genius of Konoha?"
Jiraiya shook his head. "From my observation, her talent is only average to above-average. Her future peak will probably be a normal jounin."
"Then it's not her," Shima-sama said. "A Child of the Prophecy with poor talent can't reform the ninja world."
Jiraiya nodded. He shifted his attention from Ino to another student who had just left the academy and walked past the motionless Sakura.
Jiraiya said, "Neji Hyuga is also on my list of potential Children of the Prophecy. This boy is very talented, considered the top genius at the academy. Even as a second-year, he can already fight a sixth-year to a standstill. Although he hasn't had much contact with Uchiha Izumi, he's spent a lot of time with Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki."
"Neji Hyuga..."
Fukasaku-sama held the list Jiraiya had compiled, stroking his whiskers as he looked at Neji in the distance.
"We can try to approach him first," Fukasaku-sama said.
Meanwhile, at a Konoha inn, a man disguised as a traveling merchant walked into his room. After closing the door, he bit his thumb and slammed his palm onto the ground, causing black cursed seal-like patterns to spread out. With a poof, a puff of white smoke appeared, revealing a black python as thick as a man's leg.
The man spoke to the snake. "Tell Lord Orochimaru that the spies he arranged in Konoha have all disappeared without a trace. It's highly likely they've been captured or killed."
"However..." he paused, then continued, "I haven't figured out how they were exposed. Logically, the few of them didn't know each other's identities and had no way of contacting one another. Even if one of them was caught, the others shouldn't have been exposed, but they all vanished."
The black python's cold eyes stared at the man, it flicked its tongue, and then with another poof it vanished.
At a secret laboratory somewhere in the Land of Fire, Orochimaru received the information in less than half an hour.
"Hehe, no wonder no new information has come from Konoha."
Orochimaru's golden eyes narrowed slightly. The man who had summoned the black python in Konoha was a new spy Orochimaru had placed in the village, with the purpose of gathering intelligence on Uchiha Izumi. Ever since Zetsu had come to him, Orochimaru had realized that there must be something about Uchiha Izumi that made the Akatsuki wary. It could be an item, a secret, or a powerful new jutsu.
"Hehe, I want to know the secrets you're after, too! If I can find them before you do, maybe I can use them to take control of the Akatsuki? Even if I can't, holding them as leverage would be quite nice."
Orochimaru extended his long tongue, licking his lips. As if he would ever cooperate obediently with the Akatsuki's orders? He was far too cunning for that.
"However..." Orochimaru's sinister grin suddenly faded, a hint of admiration in his eyes. "Uchiha Izumi is growing even faster than I imagined! He's even killed Danzo Shimura, and even Hiruzen-sensei's two own sons."
A look of derision appeared on Orochimaru's face. "He killed your two sons, but you can still tolerate him. Yet for me, who only performed some necessary experiments for my own purposes, you've tried every way imaginable to stop me and even kill me."
"Hiruzen-sensei... you have one standard for me, but a completely different one for Uchiha Izumi, don't you?"
"Hehe..."
A flash of anger sparked in his eyes, then vanished.
Juzo Biwa had finally made his decision. He didn't want to offend either Uchiha Obito or Konan. He would keep the secret he heard today buried deep within his heart. To the outside world, he would simply claim he had failed the mission.
After all, Konan had only said that if he completed the mission and brought back useful information, he would become a core member. She hadn't said anything about being expelled from the Akatsuki if he failed. Juzo also decided to leave Konoha tonight! He didn't want to stay in this cursed place for another second. The presence of Uchiha Izumi filled him with a sense of unease.
"That guy knows too many secrets. Does he also know a lot about me? Am I just a target he could kill in one hit at any time, just like how he knows the weakness of Uchiha Obito's phasing ability?"
"Phew! I feel like every day I stay in Konoha, the danger to my personal safety increases exponentially."
Juzo's expression was grim. Uchiha Izumi... he was definitely the man he feared most, besides Might Duy. He instinctively didn't want to be his enemy.
So, as night fell, Juzo ignored the other Rain Village ninja and fled Konoha immediately, disappearing into the forest outside the village.
But barely ten kilometers away, Juzo suddenly sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. He immediately stopped, his eyes cautiously scanning his surroundings. He had already unstrapped the Kubikiribōchō from his back and gripped it tightly in his hands.
The dim moonlight was completely blocked by the dense tree branches, making everything a deep black. He couldn't see anything in the shadows. But the ominous feeling brought on by years of combat experience made Juzo's brows furrow. He didn't relax his guard for a second.
A cruel smirk formed on his lips as he spoke coldly to the empty air in front of him. "You little rats hiding in the shadows, you've been waiting for me for a long time, haven't you?"
Juzo questioned them. "How did you know I would leave Konoha tonight? Do you have a spy in the village?"
Suddenly, a voice reached Juzo's ears, and his pupils contracted slightly. "You found us. You're living up to your name as one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. That sense of danger is one of a kind in the ninja world."
Juzo didn't hesitate. He pulled two kunai from his waist and instantly threw them in the direction of the voice. At the same time, his murderous gaze fixed on that spot. But in the next moment, Juzo was shocked to see his kunai pass right through a figure's body. The kunai didn't stab into flesh but instead came out the other side, embedding themselves in a large tree behind it with a loud thud.
Two deafening explosions and a flash of fire erupted. The unlucky tree was blown in half and collapsed with a crash. It was clear that the two kunai had explosive tags attached.
Juzo used the flash of light to get a good look at the figure's clothes and appearance—a member of the Akatsuki wearing a bizarre mask and a black cloak with red clouds.
"Madara-sama, it's not that he's sensitive; it's that you're leaking your killing intent. In this situation, any well-trained, battle-hardened ninja would notice something was wrong."
Suddenly, another voice sounded from a different direction. Juzo turned to look, and saw another man in a black cloak with red clouds. This one was even more bizarre. He had two grotesque protrusions on his shoulders that looked like pitcher plants, and his face was half-white, half-black.
"Madara-sama..."
Juzo considered the special title for a moment, and his palms began to sweat slightly. He glanced at the masked man. "...You're 'Uchiha Madara'?!"
"It seems that even though I haven't been very active in the ninja world these past few years, the younger generation still remembers my name."
The masked man's voice was hoarse but steady. "Since you know who I am, and you still haven't thrown down your weapons, you have a lot of nerve."
"Ha, maybe I was just born brave," Juzo said, feigning nonchalance, his hands already clammy with sweat.
Damn it!
Uchiha Madara... no, Uchiha Obito! How did he end up here? Was he lying in wait, just waiting for Juzo to show up? Did he already know that Juzo had had contact with Uchiha Izumi and heard some of his secrets, and was now here to kill him to keep him quiet? Or was this just a bluff? If he acted normally, maybe nothing would happen?
A sliver of hope remained in Juzo's heart.
"Juzo Biwa, you've made a bad choice." Obito's cold, rasping voice shattered his hope. "No matter what you've learned, the moment you accepted that woman's mission and came to Konoha, your fate was sealed."
Zetsu had nothing to say. He wanted to speak, but he was getting tired. Obito's words just made it obvious that Uchiha Izumi had a secret that could threaten him, and he couldn't let anyone else know about it. Oh well. Juzo was going to be killed anyway, so as long as he died, it would be as if Obito never said that.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Juzo sidestepped, inching backward without attracting attention. He watched both the masked man, who he thought was Uchiha Madara, and the pitcher-plant man, who he'd never seen in the Akatsuki before.
He took a deep breath, trying to stall for time. "We're both members of the Akatsuki, isn't this a little much? Besides, aren't you curious about what I heard from Uchiha Izumi? I might have some information you'd be interested in."
"Not interested."
With that murderous remark, Obito shot towards Juzo like an arrow from a bow. A sharp ninja blade materialized out of thin air in his right hand! In an instant, he was on Juzo, swinging the blade at his throat.
The clang of metal rang out. A grim-faced Juzo barely managed to raise the Kubikiribōchō to block the attack. In the next second, Juzo felt the ground beneath him shift. Before he could even look down, over a dozen thick vines, each thicker than a human thigh, burst from the ground. They wrapped around Juzo's ankles like snakes, swiftly climbing up his body, trying to crush him.
Bang!!!
Juzo's body exploded into a cloud of water droplets instead of a shower of blood! The Kubikiribōchō fell to the ground with a clang.
"A water clone?" Zetsu's eyes narrowed, his gaze fixing on a spot in the distance. "He even threw away his weapon just to distract us?"
"After him!" Obito commanded. "He's escaping towards Konoha! Don't let him get there!"
With that, Obito went after him.
"What is this kid doing, sneaking out to the edge of the village so late at night?" Jiraiya, who had been following Neji, suddenly wondered.
Yes, Jiraiya had been secretly following Neji for over three hours, the purpose being to let Fukasaku-sama and Shima-sama observe whether this child could be the Child of the Prophecy.
Fukasaku-sama said, "It seems he's been asking random people for directions. He's not just aimlessly wandering; he's looking for something."
Shima-sama then said, "My dear, young Jiraiya, this kid seems to want to sneak out of Konoha. It means whatever he's so desperately looking for is outside the village."
Jiraiya frowned. "He can't possibly get past the patrolling ninja. Even if he could sneak out, he wouldn't get more than a few hundred meters before they caught him."
Fukasaku-sama chuckled. "We can help him with that."
With that, he hopped off Jiraiya's shoulder. In a single bound, he vanished.
"He left Konoha... and if the last person I asked wasn't lying and remembered correctly, then the direction he went in is this way. If I just keep going in this direction, I should be able to catch up with him."
In the moonlight, Neji Hyuga took a deep breath. He took out a white cloth bandage and silently tied his long hair back, keeping it out of the way.
"Neji Hyuga..."
"What are you doing?"
This wasn't a question from someone else, but one Neji asked himself.
"There's no need for this."
"But..."
Neji gritted his teeth. "If I don't do something that stands out, how can I leave a deep impression on that man? How can I make him realize how determined I am? How can I make him understand how desperately I desire justice?"
What Sasuke had said to him that morning didn't discourage him; it only fueled his determination.
"Two first-year students can believe in Absolute Justice. Why can't I? I'm not doing this just for power. I'm choosing Absolute Justice because I want to get justice for my father."
After muttering to himself, Neji quietly snuck out of the village. He was a little shocked when he had run for two kilometers and found that no one had stopped him. He used the moonlight to glance back, only to find no one there.
He had expected he would have to play a game of cat and mouse with the Konoha patrol ninja. If he had bad luck, he'd be caught and yelled at. But he hadn't expected it to go so smoothly. It was as if the patrol ninja had all vanished.
At the same time, not far behind Neji...
"This kid seems to be looking for Izumi..." Jiraiya muttered.
"Izumi..."
"Did he leave the village?"
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