Land of Lightning — Kumogakure.
Mabui delivered the latest intel to the Fourth Raikage.
"Uchiha Rokuro has arrived. He's only brought one companion with him—Uchiha Izumi, also ten years old."
The Fourth Raikage skimmed the document and frowned.
"That Uchiha Izumi… she awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan as well?"
Mabui nodded slightly.
"According to the information passed from Danzō, she indeed awakened the Mangekyō. Raikage… are you concerned the two of them won't be enough to deal with?"
"No. With the Amber Purifying Pot—and your strategic mind—even if those two are strong, defeat is inevitable. What concerns me is whether the Mangekyō might be mass-produced."
Even Mabui, sharp as she was, hadn't considered this. But the Raikage's words made her expression turn grave.
"It really can't be ruled out. According to the intel, that Uchiha Izumi had always been mediocre. She graduated early from the Academy, but her results were only above average—nothing like the brilliance of Uchiha Rokuro. Unless she was hiding her strength on purpose, then…"
"A child that age is at the most arrogant stage of life. No child hides power on purpose. Which means… the Uchiha may be hiding a way to mass-produce Mangekyō."
The Raikage rose to his feet, cracking his neck.
"I'll take the field myself. Mabui—design the strategy."
Mabui was shocked.
"Raikage-sama, that's too dangerous! Your power is overwhelming, yes—but your defenses against genjutsu aren't strong. And the Uchiha excel in genjutsu. If you—"
"That's precisely why you need to make a plan—one perfectly tailored to me. Those two Uchiha must not be killed. They must be captured alive."
Mabui instantly understood.
The Raikage wanted the Uchiha's techniques.
Whether mass-produced Mangekyō existed or not wasn't the point—Cloud couldn't afford to gamble. If this was an opportunity to seize that knowledge, they had to take it.
Capturing two Mangekyō users alive was far harder than killing them.
Thus—the Raikage would personally take the risk.
"I understand."
Kumogakure then altered the operation and informed Danzō immediately.
Of course, they only told him the Raikage would take the field.
The "capture alive" part was not mentioned.
Both sides were old foxes. They might cooperate during the battle, but the moment something valuable was secured… betrayal would be instant. Mangekyō Sharingan was something Danzō had coveted for years.
In short—an enormous net closed in around Rokuro and Izumi.
After entering the Land of Lightning, Rokuro and Izumi contacted the ANBU-arranged informant and bought information on Rerui.
Two days later, in a run-down shack, Rokuro and Izumi crouched by a broken window next to the informant, Tettō, gazing toward a small courtyard one hundred meters away.
The courtyard sat only a few dozen meters from the shore. A rotting fishing boat leaned against the outer wall—its hull cracked wide open, clearly unused for years.
Izumi frowned and turned to Tettō.
"Tettō… you didn't screw this up, right? How could Rerui live in a dump like this? Are you lying to us?!"
She drew a kunai and pressed it against his throat.
One push was all it would take to end him.
"Miss, wait! Let me explain! This is Rerui's house!"
"Liar! Rerui is an elite jōnin of Kumogakure! Even if he kept a house outside the village, he wouldn't live like this! Look at that boat outside—too broken to even burn for firewood!"
She pushed a little harder—blood beaded along Tettō's neck.
"Miss! Listen! The woman inside lives with a three-year-old kid. A year ago, her husband went out to fish and never came back—probably swallowed by the sea. That's normal for fishermen."
"After losing her husband, raising a child alone became impossible. So she… started selling her body. Still normal—better than starving."
"Get to the point."
Seeing Izumi's killing intent rising, Tettō rushed.
"Months ago, Rerui started visiting her. He gives her money every month. With that, she stopped selling herself and focused on serving him. She even quit fishing entirely."
He pointed at the ruined boat. Everything made perfect sense.
Rokuro confirmed it with the sensor tools—the courtyard indeed had three people.
One with jōnin-level chakra, two civilians—one with almost no chakra: the child.
When Izumi finally withdrew the kunai, Tettō exhaled with relief and slipped back into his streetwise demeanor.
"My job's done. Can I have the rest of the payment? You two are incredibly strong, sure, but Rerui isn't weak. If a fight breaks out, my tiny arms and legs won't make it far."
Rokuro nodded, and Izumi produced a scroll. A bag of money materialized, which she tossed to him.
Tettō counted it quickly and grinned.
"Doing business with Konoha shinobi is always a pleasure. Call me again anytime—good luck to both of you!"
He ran off. Izumi watched him go.
"You're letting him leave? He's almost certainly a Cloud shinobi. His chakra is at chūnin level—no 'informant' is this strong."
"I know. But because he's a Cloud shinobi, we can't kill him now. If we do, Cloud's pursuers will be alerted immediately."
Izumi understood, then looked toward the distant courtyard.
"Still… Cloud is really thorough. They actually found two real civilians. They don't value human life at all—especially that kid. Disgusting."
"They've done this before. Remember the two factories in the Land of Hot Water? Full of civilian laborers—all bait to lure Konoha shinobi. Cloud's tacticians are brilliant, but utterly cold-blooded. To them, civilian life is worth nothing."
Rokuro drew his blade and leapt from the window. Izumi followed.
"That child is also a seal placed on us. If we hesitate out of compassion, we're immediately at a disadvantage. Everything is connected. Don't underestimate the so-called heroes of the world—even if these people aren't heroes at all."
"Izumi—I'm counting on you."
"Leave it to me."
Rokuro flickered into the courtyard—combat erupted instantly.
Tiles shattered as Rerui burst through the rooftop, his dark skin and white eyes glaring. He was fully armed—as if waiting for them.
Rokuro shot after him, blade flashing like wind and rain.
Rerui blocked desperately with dual kunai, then dropped straight through the floor into the next room.
Screams erupted below.
Through the falling debris, Rokuro saw a beautiful woman clutching a small child in terror.
That brief hesitation—just a fraction of a heartbeat—was enough.
Rerui seized the opening and hurled kunai, then flashed through hand seals.
"Lightning Release: Lightni—"
Before he could finish, Izumi appeared like a phantom at his side.
Her three-tomoe spun into a pair of spiraling Mangekyō.
Rerui instinctively looked—his body froze instantly.
His jutsu collapsed mid-cast.
"Splurt."
Rokuro's blade severed his head in one smooth motion.
Before the head hit the floor, Rokuro caught it, plucked out the Byakugan, and sealed it into a small jar.
"How was that, Izumi? Your first real battle?"
Izumi stared at the corpse, shaken.
She had lived her life inside the Konoha Police Force—like a caged songbird. She had barely seen dead bodies, let alone decapitation and eye extraction.
Of course she was shaken.
But she was Uchiha—madness ran in the blood.
The discomfort faded quickly.
"…Not bad. But was this guy really a Cloud jōnin? He was so easy. Trash."
Rokuro chuckled, sealing away the jar.
"His taijutsu could match my three-tomoe for a short time. With Lightning Release, he was a true jōnin. But he faced both of us—especially you. Mangekyō-level genjutsu, even if not Tsukuyomi, can immobilize anyone instantly."
He thought of the original timeline—Obito controlling the Mizukage for years—and laughed.
"Forget a jōnin. Even a Kage would crumble under a Mangekyō genjutsu."
Just then, both sensed danger.
Izumi glanced toward the mother and child.
"They"
"Izumi. We can't afford to play saints."
Rokuro grabbed her hand and leapt upward.
At that exact moment
Fireballs detonated through the household, blowing it and its inhabitants to pieces.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire!"
"Wind Release: Vacuum Barrage!"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Fang!"
Three elemental jutsu smashed toward the two mid-air.
Hundreds of kunai and shuriken followed.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Unable to dodge mid-air, the explosion engulfed them, lighting up the fishing village, blasting everything within a hundred meters to rubble.
But when the smoke cleared, a colossal black Susanoo stood tall.
Rokuro and Izumi remained safe inside its ribcage.
Rokuro shouted angrily:
"Who are you?! Why are you attacking me?!"
He was still acting—perfectly.
The attackers charged.
A massive swarm of insects swept toward Susanoo, devouring its chakra.
Rokuro roared:
"Parasitic insects of the Aburame clan? You're from Konoha?!"
He raised Susanoo's fist to smash the Aburame.
But suddenly—inside Susanoo—Rokuro staggered. His eyes unfocused.
The twenty-meter tall Susanoo began to dissolve.
"Success! Full-force attack—destroy the Susanoo!"
Danzō emerged from hiding, launching two Wind Release: Vacuum Shuriken enhanced with shape transformation.
They sliced through Susanoo's chest.
Root forces—nearly a hundred elite operatives—unleashed their strongest jutsu in unison.
The explosion shook the coastline.
Before the smoke cleared
A black Susanoo blade carved through the crowd.
"Move!"
Several Root operatives dodged.
The impact sent out a shockwave, flinging three into the air.
In that instant—another Susanoo blade swept from behind
SLASH.
The man had been sliced cleanly in half, yet he still hadn't died.
He writhed across the ground in agony, dragging himself inch by inch, desperately trying to reach his lower body so he could reattach it using medical ninjutsu.
Unfortunately, he had no Katsuyu to perform high-level healing techniques for him
nor did he have the life-saving vitality of the Uzumaki clan to keep him alive.
When he finally crawled next to his severed waist, he exhaled his last breath and died.
A mocking voice came from above:
"You even used the Yamanaka clan's Mind Body Switch? Too bad you picked the wrong target. We Uchiha surpass the Yamanaka in Yin Release by miles—your jutsu doesn't work on me at all!"
From the sky, the black Susanoo's body suddenly began to expand—growing from twenty meters to thirty in height.
Armor-like plating formed across its limbs and chest.
It had evolved into the Third Form.
Danzō's expression hardened as he stared up at the newly strengthened Susanoo.
At the same time, Uchiha Rokuro spotted him and directed the Third Form to step forward.
"Danzō… you dare to assassinate me here? Was it that old bastard Sarutobi Hiruzen who sent you? Or did you make this decision on your own?"
Danzō snorted.
"Hmph. Does it matter? Uchiha Rokuro—ever since you awakened those forbidden eyes, your death was sealed."
He wasted no time.
Biting his thumb, he formed hand seals swiftly.
"Summoning Technique!"
With a burst of white smoke, a massive elephant-like beast—larger even than Rokuro's Susanoo—appeared beneath Danzō.
But unlike a true elephant, this creature had bear-like ears and short tusks.
It was Danzō's signature summon, the Tapir—Baku.
The moment Baku appeared, it opened its enormous mouth and unleashed a Wind Release technique.
Its tremendous suction ripped buildings from their foundations, pulling the structures of the fishing village into the extradimensional space within its gullet.
Even Rokuro's Susanoo staggered forward under the force.
He had to lower its stance, planting its feet into the ground to stabilize it.
But doing so meant Susanoo could no longer move freely
nor could it swing its blade.
"Attack its back!"
Following Danzō's command, dozens of Root shinobi—masters of long-range ninjutsu—circled behind the Susanoo and unleashed a barrage of elemental techniques.
With Baku's wind enhancing their attacks, the jutsu grew even stronger, and since Susanoo was pinned in place, it became a massive, unmoving target.
"Do you want me to step in?"
Uchiha Izumi stood calmly beside Rokuro, her eyes active in the three-tomoe state.
"With everyone's focus on us, if I cast Infinite Tsukuyomi now, we could wipe them out instantly."
"Can you use your Infinite Tsukuyomi repeatedly?"
Rokuro no longer cared about the name.
They had agreed that this term was private—never spoken before outsiders.
"Only once per day. Even if my eye power recovers, I can't use it again. But the normal Tsukuyomi? As long as I have enough chakra, I can cast it every five minutes. And I can alternate between my eyes."
Rokuro nodded slightly.
"No rush. Our guests haven't all arrived yet. If you kill Danzō's group instantly, the others might get scared and refuse to show themselves. We didn't spend all this effort fishing just to catch Danzō alone."
"Oh—and from this moment on, don't speak. Not a word. If you need to talk to me, use hand signs. If I'm right, Kumogakure is planning to deploy the Six Treasured Tools. Their sealing ability is extremely dangerous—to you."
Izumi opened her mouth, then closed it and signed a question:
Why can you talk?
Rokuro grinned.
"There are sealing techniques in this world that can restrain me—but none of them are in Cloud Village."
Though Root's full power was focused on them, Rokuro and Izumi chatted casually as if strolling through a garden.
They didn't even regard Root—or the Baku—as threats.
Danzō was furious.
He lunged behind the Susanoo personally, forming his own jutsu to tear open its back and drag Rokuro and Izumi out.
This move was the same one he used against Sasuke in the original timeline—and it had worked well.
Sasuke's Susanoo had been immobilized by Baku's suction; Danzō's Wind Release tore open its back.
If Sasuke hadn't reacted quickly with a Fireball to burn Baku's mouth, he might have lost then and there.
But Rokuro wasn't Sasuke.
He wasn't a boy with half-developed Mangekyō.
He wielded Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Is this it? Danzō, after all these years managing Root… this is your level? With such pathetic strength, you dare come to kill me?"
Rokuro laughed.
"Fine. Let me show you the might of the Uchiha—the clan once hailed as the greatest in the shinobi world!"
Susanoo's katana vanished.
Rokuro and the giant together formed hand seals.
"Earth Release: Hell Spear!"
Centered around the Susanoo, the ground within a two-hundred-meter radius erupted into a forest of earth spikes.
They were made of hardened rock—tougher than steel—and there were far too many.
Root shinobi were caught instantly.
A violent gust roared upward as Danzō reacted with blistering speed, launching himself skyward.
But four massive spikes shot toward his lower body.
Danzō infused chakra into his left foot and kicked one spike.
With a clang like metal on metal, he snapped its tip off, using the recoil to vault several meters higher—barely avoiding being skewered.
But as he searched for a landing point, something splattered across his face.
A warm, thick liquid.
And the metallic scent of blood.
He wiped his cheek and confirmed it—fresh blood.
Landing between two spikes in a mid-air split, he stabilized himself and finally saw the scene below:
Dozens of Root shinobi had been impaled.
At least forty bodies hung from the spikes, riddled through the torso.
Some unlucky ones were pierced by three or four spikes simultaneously, shredded into grotesque human skewers—dead instantly.
And those were the fortunate ones.
Others, pierced through the thigh or other non-vital areas, were alive—
thrashing, screaming, and spraying blood like slaughtered livestock.
Even Danzō's hardened heart clenched at the sight.
The air shook with agonized screams.
He looked up—and froze.
His treasured summon, Baku—too large to evade—had been impaled by hundreds of earth spikes at once.
Geysers of blood erupted from its wounds, flooding half the village with red.
"You… monster!"
"Danzō, don't act like some delicate maiden. This is a battlefield. You came here to kill me—did you expect mercy? They died because their leader is incompetent. If a demon exists in this world—it's you, not me."
Rokuro laughed wildly—resembling the legendary Uchiha madmen of old.
At that moment, Izumi tugged lightly on his sleeve and signed several gestures.
Rokuro nodded to her.
And then
Shouts erupted from behind them.
"Uchiha Rokuro! Your brutality will never be tolerated by the shinobi world!"
"Oh? Who's farting over there? Your words sound like a child who hasn't even graduated from the Academy."
The moment Rokuro spoke, a suction force far stronger than Baku's suddenly tore through the battlefield.
In an instant, Rokuro was yanked forward
even Susanoo could not resist.
Yet strangely, the suction did not affect Izumi at all.
But without Rokuro's Susanoo, she fell toward the ground as the giant construct dissolved.
"Got him!"
END OF CHAPTER
(Some chapters in patreon are double chapters)
3 IN 1 - BE A MEMBER, GET 3 ONGOING STORIES!!
35 CHAPTERS AHEAD!!
Forbidden Java Jutsu - MrBehringer's Secret
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer