The night wind was a bit chilly, blowing away some of the dust in the air, but it couldn’t blow away that thick, dead silence.
Hundreds of Uchiha Ninja were all staring at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Hiruzen was puffing away on his pipe, the smoke obscuring most of his face.
His fingers holding the pipe were turning white at the knuckles.
He was stalling for time, and also suppressing the burning anger in his heart.
Frustrating.
It was truly too frustrating.
This kid, Red, had completely blocked off all his escape routes.
“Hoo…”
Hiruzen slowly exhaled a large cloud of thick smoke, looking at Red, the wrinkles on his face moving as he squeezed out another kind, bitter smile.
“Red, things aren’t as simple as you think.”
Hiruzen shook his head, his tone full of the helplessness and sighs of an elder in the Village.
“It’s not that I don’t agree with your point of view, it’s just that the Village has its own set of rules for dealing with spies from other Villages.”
Hearing the words “spies from other Villages,” the three Anbu on the ground shuddered violently, the last glimmer of light in their eyes completely extinguished.
They knew that for the sake of the big picture, Hokage-sama had no choice but to treat them as actual spies.
Hiruzen turned his head, looking at the Uchiha clansmen with their burning gazes around him, and said with an air of righteousness:
“The Ninja World has only just enjoyed a few years of stability. If we execute them publicly now, the ninja Villages behind them certainly won’t take it lying down. By then, it will very likely trigger a new Ninja World War! How many more people will die then?”
Kicking the ball towards the “big picture.”
Hiruzen looked at Red again, his eyes containing a hint of imperceptible warning, as well as naked temptation of profit.
“I will take them back to the Interrogation Unit for strict questioning. I guarantee that I will secure a very considerable amount of benefits from their Villages for our Konoha, and for your Uchiha Clan as well. I promise not to let you, or the Uchiha, bleed and weep.”
This was the bottom line Hiruzen had given.
It was also his compromise.
He was waiting for Red to respond.
If, under these circumstances, this brat named Red still refused to listen to reason, then he would have no choice but to harden his heart, go find Danzo later, and put the “complete solution” plan for the Uchiha on the schedule.
A Kage-level combat force that couldn’t be controlled and knew how to use the momentum to pressure others absolutely could not remain in the Uchiha.
Killing intent flashed and vanished in the old man’s eyes.
After listening to Hiruzen’s long-winded speech, Red didn’t speak immediately.
He just tilted his head, looking at Hiruzen with ease, his gaze like he was watching a clown performing monkey tricks.
The whole scene was deathly silent.
Uchiha Fugaku didn’t even dare to breathe loudly, his palms covered in sticky cold sweat.
After about half a minute.
Red suddenly laughed.
“Fine, since Hokage-sama has put it in terms of the survival of the Village, as an ordinary Chunin, how could I not understand the big picture?”
Hearing this, Fugaku and Itachi both let out a sigh of relief in their hearts.
Hiruzen’s complexion also looked a bit better.
But before Hiruzen could speak to take the people away, Red suddenly took half a step forward, looking at Hiruzen with a half-smile.
“However, Hokage-sama, in your words just now, you only said that not letting them die would be fine, right?”
As soon as these words came out.
The atmosphere, which had just eased up a little, instantly fell back into an ice cellar.
Hiruzen’s brows furrowed sharply, his heart sinking.
Bad.
Before he could make any move.
“Since they can’t die, then to prevent these spies from escaping, or committing suicide by taking poison…”
Red’s voice in the middle of the night was as cold as an iron block just fished out of an ice cellar:
“It would be perfectly reasonable for me to help Hokage-sama remove their claws first, right?”
The moment the words fell.
Red didn’t even bother to take his hands out of his pockets, just lightly flicked his right thumb upward.
There was no action of performing hand seals.
“Boom!”
That dark green Chakra belonging to Tyranitar inside Red’s body, carrying the purest destruction and malice, erupted from his body like a volcanic eruption.
The air was instantly dyed with a weird dark green, thick like sticky ink.
“Swish! Swish! Swish!”
Without any warning.
The gravel and soil on the ground were forcibly condensed and compressed by a terrifying force in this instant.
Twelve gray, sharp stones, over a meter long and pointed like blades at both ends, formed out of thin air.
Rock-type skill — Stone Edge.
“Puchi!”
“Ah—!!”
A dense sound of flesh being pierced by sharp blades, accompanied by hysterical screams, instantly tore through the night sky.
Blood, as if it were worthless, splashed across the small courtyard with a splash.
Those twelve Stone Edges turned into gray afterimages, pinning the two arms and two legs of the three Anbu to the ground with extreme precision.
The sound of bones shattering was so clear that the surrounding Uchiha Ninja felt their teeth ache.
The three Anbu convulsed violently, their clothes instantly soaked in blood, and mouthfuls of blood foam sprayed out from their mouths.
Their limbs had been crushed into pulp by Red using the most brutal force.
This bloody scene happened right under Hiruzen Sarutobi’s nose.
Hiruzen looked at the three subordinates on the ground who had almost become human sticks, his lips trembling, and those old eyes shrank to the size of needle points in this instant.
He hadn’t been able to stop it.
Or rather, the moment Red launched the attack, he didn’t have time to organize a defense at all.
“No-seal Ninjutsu…”
A monstrous wave rose in Hiruzen’s heart, and the way he looked at Red was like he was looking at a monster wearing human skin.
In the Ninja World, it wasn’t that there were no techniques that could be used without hand seals, such as No-seal healing, or certain Body Flicker techniques.
But to instantly change the shape of Chakra and create a Rock attack with such great power and speed out of thin air, without needing a single seal.
This was unheard of!
What made Hiruzen feel even more scalp-numbing was the dark green Chakra that erupted from Red just a moment ago.
That energy was too tyrannical, filled with a cruel will that didn’t belong to this Ninja World at all.
“This is not ordinary Earth Release… What kind of power is this?”
The hand holding the pipe was trembling slightly.
He thought he had estimated Red’s strength very highly, but now it seemed that the boy in front of him was still like a bottomless pool.
Today, Red crippled these three people in front of him, which was using the most iron-blooded means to slap him, the Hokage, in the face.
This was not just a demonstration.
This was using strength to tell the Konoha high-ups: The Uchiha are not fat sheep to be slaughtered.
Whoever wants to play hardball must be prepared to have their teeth broken!
And the surrounding Uchiha clansmen, after a brief shock, had eyes so Red they were almost dripping water.
Fanaticism.
Unprecedented fanaticism.
Red not only squeezed a “considerable benefit” out of the Hokage’s mouth, but also used the most ruthless means to cripple these lackeys monitoring them right in front of the Hokage.
This method was countless times stronger than their clan leader, Fugaku, who only knew how to smooth things over and make concessions!
For a time, the way all the clansmen looked at Red was no longer looking at an ordinary junior.
But looking at a true leader.
Fugaku stood not far away, looking at the fanatical eyes of the clansmen, a hint of bitterness appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Red moved his foot away from a blood-stained stone, didn’t even look at the three cripples on the ground who were about to faint from pain, and turned to grin at Hiruzen, revealing a mouthful of big white teeth.
“Hokage-sama, you can take the people away at any time. However, the ‘compensation’ for our Uchiha that we agreed upon just now…”
Red paused, his eyes cold and biting:
“You, as the noble Hokage, certainly wouldn’t go back on your word, right?”