Ryuha’s gaze turned slightly cold.
He no longer held back.
Reaching out with his right hand, he locked onto Torune’s blade-wielding wrist with precise accuracy and twisted hard.
*Crack.*
A sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed through the air.
The short sword slipped from Torune’s grip and clattered to the ground.
At the same time, Ryuha drove his left knee upward, slamming it heavily into Torune’s chest.
*Bang!
Crack!*
The sound of snapping ribs was brutally distinct.
Torune flew backward like a torn sack of grain, snapping a tree trunk as thick as a bowl before rolling violently onto the dirt.
He coughed up mouthfuls of blood, unable to rise again.
From start to finish, the entire battle had taken less than a minute.
Two Root elites with the strength of Special Jonin had been utterly crushed without even touching the hem of Ryuha’s clothes.
Ryuha clapped his hands clear of dust, walked over to Torune, and crouched down.
Beneath his mask, Torune’s visible eyes glared at Ryuha, bloodshot and filled with rage.
Shock, resentment, and a faint, barely perceptible trace of dread swirled within them.
“What…
what kind of jutsu…
did you use…” With every word he uttered, blood bubbled from the corner of his mouth.
Ryuha didn’t answer.
He simply reached out and removed Torune’s mask.
Revealed underneath was an ordinary face belonging to a man in his thirties, marked by a ferocious, cruel glint in his eyes.
“Go back and tell Danzo,” Ryuha said smoothly, his voice calm yet carrying a chill that cut to the bone.
“If he wants to test me, send someone stronger next time.
Trash like this—”
He stood up and stomped hard on Torune’s head, grinding his face into the dirt.
“—doesn’t even deserve my full attention.”
Torune let out a muffled grunt of humiliation, completely powerless to resist.
Ryuha withdrew his foot, cast a final glance at the two collapsed figures, and turned to leave.
After taking a few steps, he paused without turning back, leaving behind a light, offhand remark:
“By the way, pass one more message to Elder Danzo for me: the roots hidden in the shadows can never see the light of day.
If he insists on reaching out too far…
I don’t mind helping Konoha prune a few unnecessary branches.”
With that, Ryuha’s figure flickered several times and vanished into the depths of the forest.
Only the two severely injured Root ninja remained, struggling to breathe amid the swirling dust and thick stench of blood.
[Defeated Root Ninja.
Causality Points +500]
…
Half an hour later.
Root Base, Stone Chamber.
“Useless!”
Danzo slammed a palm onto the stone table, causing the hard granite surface to fracture with a loud crack.
Before him knelt Torune and Fu, covered in bandages, their aura feeble and defeated.
“Two grown men, ambushing a ten-year-old brat—and not only did you fail to gather any intelligence, but you were beaten into this state using nothing but taijutsu?!”
Cold light glinted in Danzo’s lone eye.
“You are Root, not useless trash from the Ninja Academy!”
“Lord Danzo…” Torune spoke with difficulty, his voice hoarse.
“That Ryuha Uchiha…
what he used was not the Body Flicker Jutsu.
There were no hand seals, no chakra fluctuations.
His speed was so immense that…
we couldn’t even track the trajectory of his movements.
And…”
He swallowed a blood-tinged mouthful of spit, lingering terror flashing in his eyes.
“His fighting style…
was far too calm.
So calm that he didn’t feel like a child at all.
It felt more like…
he was playing with us.”
“Playing with you?” Danzo narrowed his eyes.
“Yes,” Fu added weakly.
“He didn’t use a single ninjutsu throughout the fight, nor did he use genjutsu—at least, not the kind that ‘controls the five senses.’ He suppressed us completely using only taijutsu and that strange speed.
Furthermore…
he seemed intimately familiar with our combat style.
Every movement he made cut into our blind spots, and every strike hit our weakest points.”
Danzo fell silent.
With his hands behind his back, he paced slowly through the stone chamber.
The rhythmic tapping of his cane echoed with chilling clarity in the quiet space.
“Familiar with Root’s combat style…
Is it because the Uchiha Military Police Force holds intelligence on us?
No, impossible.
Root’s tactics are top secret.
Then…
battle instinct?
No, no matter how sharp an instinct is, it couldn’t possibly account for this degree of precision.”
“Unless…” Danzo stopped in his tracks, a sinister glimmer flashing across his lone eye.
“He saw right through everything you did.”
A Kekkei Genkai that controls the five senses…
If even the enemy’s intent, chakra flow, and signs of muscle exertion could be “perceived” and “predicted”…
Wouldn’t that mean all tactics and moves were completely useless before him?
“Ryuha Uchiha…” Danzo Shimura muttered the name softly, his tone dripping with deep apprehension and intent to kill.
“Pass down my orders.
Secretly spread news of his Kekkei Genkai.”
This youth could absolutely not be allowed to live.
But he couldn’t move against him just yet.
Fugaku had already taken notice of him, and the Third Hokage had likely received word as well.
Brazenly assassinating a newly emerging Uchiha genius who had earned the Clan Leader’s favor was far too risky.
“Dismissed.
Tend to your injuries,” Danzo waved a hand, his tone icy.
“I don’t want to see either of you for the next month.”
“Understood.” Relief washed over the two as they stumbled out of the room.
Danzo was left alone in the stone chamber.
He walked to the wall and pressed a hidden mechanism.
The stone wall slid open, revealing a massive glass container behind it.
Submerged within the container were crimson eyeballs with spinning tomoe.
The Sharingan.
“Uchiha…
Sharingan…” Danzo caressed the cold glass surface, his lone eye glowing with ravenous, fanatical desire.
“A Kekkei Genkai that controls the five senses…
If I could obtain it, if I could combine it with the Sharingan…”
He whispered under his breath like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
“Ryuha-kun…
we will meet again.”
…
Meanwhile, at the Uchiha Clan Compound, Training Ground 3 behind the mountain.
Ryuha Uchiha sat cross-legged in the middle of the newly arranged training area, a newly acquired B-rank ninjutsu scroll spread out before him.
But he wasn’t reading it.
He was reviewing the recent battle in his mind.
*Shunpo consumes less energy than expected, but it puts a heavy strain on the body.
With my current Spiritual Pressure and physical constitution, using it five times in a row is my absolute limit.*
*The Root ninja were indeed capable, coordinating well and striking with lethal intent.
If Shunpo’s speed hadn’t completely shattered their comprehension, paired with Kyoka Suigetsu’s sensory prediction, winning wouldn’t have been this easy.*
*Still…*
Ryuha pushed up his glasses, a contemplative glint flashing in his eyes.
*Danzo Shimura won’t let this go.
This was merely a probe.
Next time, he’ll send true elites.
I need to speed things up.*
He raised his head and looked toward the center of Konoha.
There were still three months left until the White Fang incident.
To get close to that hero of Konoha, he needed an appropriate opportunity.
An opportunity that wouldn’t arouse anyone’s suspicion.
Ryuha closed his eyes as a map of Konoha surfaced in his mind, along with the intelligence he had gathered regarding Sakumo Hatake over the past few days.
*The izakaya he frequents…
his routine walking path alone after completing missions…
and that white-haired boy who trains alone in the training ground until late at night…*
A plan gradually took shape in his mind.
He stood up, walked to the edge of the training field, and gazed off at the stone faces of the past Hokage carved into Hokage Rock.
“A hero shouldn’t meet his end that way,” Ryuha murmured softly to himself.
“Especially not at the hands of…
the very people he protected.”
He tightened his grip on Kyoka Suigetsu at his waist.
The blade vibrated faintly inside its sheath, as if responding to its master’s resolve.
…
“Graduation team placement should be in two days.
Hopefully, I’ll get a reliable squad captain.”