"I'm sorry, Auntie… I can't take you with us."
Uchiha Izumi apologized profusely, her voice trembling. The woman's eyes went wide with shock before she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"You—"
"The enemy is coming. Cut the chatter. Let's go." The figure in the black robe cut her off, his tone freezing the air around them.
Izumi quickly checked her clan member; she wasn't dead, merely knocked out. Steeling herself, Izumi placed the baby she was holding into one of the large wooden tubs.
There were two tubs in total, now holding nearly a dozen infants. Arranged in a tight circle, the makeshift vessels were crowded but sufficient. Some of the babies had woken up during the transfer, only to be gently knocked unconscious again to ensure silence. One, however, couldn't stop crying.
"These are all orphans," Izumi explained, her hands moving quickly. "Their parents either died in the war or succumbed to illness early on. It's better to take them away than—"
"Protect them."
The black-robed figure wasted no more breath. His hands flashed through seals.
Water Style: Wild Water Wave!
Although it was a C-rank technique, under his control, the flow was nothing short of perfection. He didn't just unleash a torrent; he manipulated the physics of the wave, using each surge to propel the two wooden tubs outward with incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the duo was riding the crest of the wave, surfing toward the outskirts of the village.
But their escape was short-lived. A violent gust of wind tore through the air.
From above, a figure descended, landing directly in their path. The moment his feet touched the ground, a hurricane-force gale swept outward, cushioning his landing while simultaneously blasting the surrounding area.
Bandages covered a quarter of his face, and his solitary visible eye radiated intense killing intent.
"And just where do you two think you're taking Konoha's villagers?"
"It really is you!" Izumi's eyes blazed with fury as she recognized the intruder. "Konoha? Do you even consider us people of Konoha?"
"Stupid. Naive."
Danzō Shimura offered her a single, cold glance, too lazy to waste another second on a mere girl. His gaze locked onto the black-robed figure. "You're the one who saved Shisui last time, aren't you?"
"It's been a long time, Danzō," the black-robed man chuckled lightly.
Danzō narrowed his eye. "I don't recall having an old acquaintance like you."
"On the battlefield, a general rarely notices a nameless pawn, but the pawn always remembers a legend like you," the man replied, his voice calm and mocking. "Time is precious. If you have nothing else to say, I'll be taking my leave."
Chakra surged, and the surrounding water roared to life.
"Obstinate fool!" Danzō barked. "If you had surrendered, I might have spared the children. But now—"
He sneered, his hands forming seals with practiced speed despite his age. He opened his mouth and exhaled a sphere of high-pressure wind.
Wind Style: Pressure Damage!
The compressed air mass expanded instantly into a terrifying hurricane. The moment it manifested, the vortex began to tear at the environment, sucking everything into its destructive center.
Izumi's face went pale. Such a terrifying Jutsu... there's no way to block this! It's over!
Although she had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, her arsenal was limited mostly to Taijutsu. Against a high-level wide-range Ninjutsu like this, she was helpless.
However, the man standing in front of her didn't panic. He didn't even change his hand seals. He maintained the simple seal for the Water Style technique, his palm pressed against the surface of the water as if brewing something beneath the chaos.
Just as the Pressure Damage began to wreak havoc, a sickening crack echoed from the earth.
The gale tore up clumps of soil, widening the fissures in the ground. Then—
Whoosh!
A massive geyser of water erupted from beneath Danzō's feet.
Danzō's brow twitched. Sensing the anomaly, he instinctively retreated two steps. In that split second, a blur of motion shot out from the water—so fast it was barely perceptible.
'Who is this?'
Startled, Danzō executed a Body Flicker to retreat further, simultaneously spitting out a barrage of air bullets to intercept.
Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!
But in the darkness of the night, the enemy's silhouette vanished into thin air, reappearing directly in front of him instantly.
'So fast!'
Abandoning any pretense of reserve, Danzō pulled the hand he usually kept hidden within his robes.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing against bone rang out.
Danzō focused his gaze. It was another black-robed figure—a Shadow Clone? No. The difference was the weapon. This one held a short, razor-sharp bone blade protruding from his palm.
Before Danzō could react, the attacker's left hand swept over the bone blade.
The weapon fractured and disintegrated, transforming into countless microscopic bone needles that shot toward Danzō's face.
'!!!'
Danzō's heart skipped a beat. He leaped backward, explosively releasing chakra from every tenketsu in his body to deflect the barrage. He managed to scatter most of them, but several needles still pierced deep into his right ribs.
The moment the bone needles entered his flesh, they didn't stop—they splintered further, fragmenting inside his body.
Intense pain radiated from his wrist and ribs. The agony was so sharp it disrupted his joints, making it difficult to even form hand seals.
Gritting his teeth, Danzō slashed with a kunai. The black-robed figure blocked the blade, but Danzō had imbued his weapon with wind chakra, slicing through the defense and cutting the attacker's arm.
However, the moment the skin broke, paper tags fluttered out from the wound.
'Explosive tags?!'
Danzō retracted his blade and dropped into a defensive stance, scanning the distance. But the battlefield was empty. The Shadow Clone, Uchiha Izumi, and the two tubs of orphans were nowhere to be seen.
Even the attacker in front of him blurred into a phantom.
The real black-robed mastermind was already fleeing through the distant forest.
Danzō wanted to give chase, but the pain in his ribs and arm flared violently. Cursing, he rapidly wove signs. A Shadow Clone burst from his side, grabbing his main body and throwing him clear of the blast zone.
Simultaneously, the clone inhaled and expelled a massive sphere of wind.
Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!
The highly compressed wind chakra collided with the exploding clone. The blast fire was swept up by the gale, directed straight into the ruptured water vein the enemy had created earlier.
BOOM!
Wind, fire, and water collided in a catastrophic explosion. The unstable ground collapsed further, causing groundwater to flood the crater, but there was no sign of the fugitives.
"Lord Danzō—"
Toge arrived at the scene a moment too late. Seeing the devastation, the Root agent swallowed hard, looking at his leader in disbelief before snapping to attention. "I'll go after them!"
"Don't bother," Danzō said, his face dark and his mood foul. "You won't catch him."
"Who was it?" Toge asked, shocked. For someone to slip away from under Danzō's nose—and leave the elder looking this ragged—was unheard of. He lowered his head, daring not to stare.
"A remnant of the Kaguya clan," Danzō said coldly.
"The Kaguya clan?"
Toge was surprised, but the order to stand down made sense now. The Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku granted them terrifying Taijutsu capabilities and defense. If a master of that clan wanted to run, a standard pursuit team would never catch up.
Unless Danzō went personally.
But seeing Danzō clutching his side, Toge wisely kept his mouth shut.
"What is the situation on your end?" Danzō demanded.
"I noticed the commotion here and came immediately. I don't know the status of the other team," Toge replied.
"Go. Check the other side."
Danzō began to walk faster, but his brow furrowed deeply. Every movement caused the bone splinters in his ribs to shift, slicing into muscle and digging deeper with each step.
"Sir, are you unwell?"
"Capturing Shisui is more important." Danzō forced himself to ignore the pain, accelerating his pace.
Fortunately, Toge didn't let Danzō suffer the trek for long. Halfway to the destination, Toge's kikaichū beetles returned with intel. His face fell.
"Lord Danzō... you should go to the hospital first. The situation there..." Toge hesitated for a split second before gritting his teeth and delivering the news. "They failed to encircle Uchiha Shisui. He escaped."
"Trash! You are all useless trash!"
Danzō cursed viciously, his face turning an iron-gray shade of fury.
He could tolerate letting a few random Uchiha civilians escape; their loss was negligible. But Shisui was not even seventeen. His potential was limitless. If he was allowed to mature, his power would be incalculable.
To be hated by such a man...
Konoha will never know peace.
For a fleeting moment, regret gnawed at him. If he had been more meticulous... if he had swallowed his pride and coordinated with Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shisui would never have escaped.
"Furthermore," Toge continued, seemingly shrinking under Danzō's aura, "regarding the Uchiha clan... our headcount shows many are missing. The fire is too intense to determine if they are merely unaccounted for or if they were extracted."
Danzō was silenced by the sheer scale of the failure.
After a few seconds of heavy silence, he asked, "And our harvest?"
"We have secured most of the corpses from the Police Force headquarters. Also, Sasuke is rushing back from the Academy." Toge paused, looking at Danzō for instructions. "Itachi is currently at his home. Should we...?"
"Do not touch them. Dispatch Root and Anbu to hunt down Uchiha Izumi and the orphans she took."
Danzō's voice was pure ice. "Lock down the borders. They cannot have gone far!"
"Yes, sir!"