Anko’s wariness eased slightly after hearing that, and she nodded to Shinya.
“I’ll pass your message along.
But whether Sensei agrees to meet you or not isn’t up to me.”
Ever since losing the competition for the position of Fourth Hokage, Orochimaru seemed to have seen through a great many things.
These days, he spent nearly all his time shut away in his laboratory, doing who knew what.
Even Anko, his direct disciple, rarely got to see him anymore, let alone anyone else.
“Thanks.”
Before leaving, Shinya even paid for Anko’s dango.
Seeing how polite he was, Anko lowered her guard a little more.
Apparently, not every Uchiha was arrogant enough to look down on everyone through their nostrils.
After parting ways with Anko, Shinya decided to wander around for a while longer and, while he was at it, fulfill some of his responsibilities as Chief of the Konoha Police Force.
But as he continued walking, he suddenly noticed something strange.
There seemed to be fewer and fewer people around him.
Before long, the entire street had become deserted.
Shinya immediately stopped.
His three-tomoe Sharingan activated at once.
“ANBU…
or Danzō’s Root dogs?”
The street remained completely silent.
There was no response whatsoever.
Shinya abruptly spun around, his hands rapidly forming seals.
“Chidori!”
The instant the jutsu was completed, a masked figure suddenly appeared behind him, driving a kunai straight toward Shinya’s heart.
But the moment the attacker finished his Body Flicker Technique, he realized that Shinya was even faster.
A piercing sound erupted, like the cries of a thousand birds all shrieking at once.
Brilliant lightning gathered around Shinya’s hand.
Despite moving second, Shinya struck first.
He seized the attacker’s wrist with one hand, stopping the kunai cold, while his lightning-covered other hand plunged directly through the man’s heart.
At that exact moment, several more shinobi appeared around Shinya.
Some held kunai.
Others were already forming hand seals for ninjutsu.
Not a single one of them attempted to save their dying companion.
Instead, they intended to exploit the instant when both of Shinya’s hands were occupied and kill him on the spot.
The moment Shinya saw their methods, he understood.
Root.
Only Danzō’s dogs fought like this.
To any normal person, Shinya appeared to have been driven into a desperate situation.
Instead, the corner of his mouth curled upward.
Several ninjutsu struck his position at once.
Boom!
The street shattered beneath the combined attacks.
But when the smoke dispersed, the Root shinobi discovered that the only thing they had hit was a wooden log left behind by the Substitution Jutsu.
The real Shinya had already used the Body Flicker Technique to appear on a nearby rooftop.
The three tomoe within his Sharingan slowly rotated.
With a single glance, he saw through the chakra flow inside each attacker’s body and roughly estimated their strength.
“Three jōnin and five chūnin…”
Shinya chuckled and casually flicked his right hand, shaking the blood from his fingers.
“Danzō really spared no expense just to kill me.”
Shinya still wasn’t especially proficient with Chidori.
But he had to admit that the technique was almost perfectly suited for an Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan.
It was extraordinarily fast and nearly impossible to dodge.
Combined with the Sharingan’s dynamic vision, its killing power in a straight-line charge was terrifying.
Its only major weakness was that changing direction during the charge was extremely difficult.
But that didn’t mean the technique couldn’t be developed further in the future.
Eight shinobi remained before him.
Including the chūnin Shinya had just killed, Root had dispatched a total of nine operatives.
Every one of them was among the coldest killers under Danzō’s command.
Standardized masks concealed their faces.
Their attacks were ruthless and decisive.
They fought without the slightest hesitation, even treating their own comrades as bait or shields if doing so improved their chances of completing the mission.
There was no doubt about it.
Only someone like Danzō could train shinobi into tools whose entire existence revolved around completing missions.
There had always been a saying in the shinobi world regarding Uchiha who had awakened the Sharingan.
In a one-on-one fight, run.
Two against one, and you might survive.
Three against one, and only then could victory be considered certain.
That alone showed just how formidable the Uchiha clan’s combat ability was.
Danzō had dispatched nine shinobi, including three jōnin.
Clearly, he intended to ensure Shinya died here.
But if Danzō thought this handful of people was enough to kill him…
Then Shinya had truly been underestimated.
Fugaku listened seriously to Shinya’s advice.
But it definitely wasn’t because Shinya’s words were always especially reasonable.
At their core, the Uchiha were all the same.
They respected those stronger than themselves.
The instant that thought crossed Shinya’s mind, the three calmly rotating tomoe inside his left eye suddenly accelerated.
The three tomoe raced toward one another within the crimson iris.
They twisted.
Merged.
And finally transformed into an eerie, intricate pattern radiating overwhelming pressure.
Mangekyō Sharingan!
“…!”
The Root shinobi had never seen the Sharingan undergo such a transformation before.
But that didn’t stop them from realizing that Shinya’s entire presence had changed.
It felt as though an invisible terror originating from the depths of their souls had locked onto them.
Like being watched by an enormous predator—
No.
Like being stared down by their natural enemy.
The eight remaining Root shinobi immediately raised their guards beneath the gaze of those scarlet eyes.
But their vigilance was meaningless.
The moment Shinya’s left Mangekyō Sharingan activated, an invisible world of genjutsu enveloped everyone present.
From the Root shinobi’s perspective, reality suddenly shattered like glass.
Their target, Shinya— the buildings— the street— everything around them warped beyond recognition.
They knew they had fallen under a genjutsu.
Yet no matter how violently they disrupted the chakra flowing through their bodies, they couldn’t break free.
“What…
is happening?”
Fū Yamanaka stared as his subordinates died one after another before his eyes.
Their enemy constantly changed form.
No matter how they attacked, every strike seemed to pass straight through an illusionary shadow.
Then Shinya Uchiha’s voice echoed from every direction at once, accompanied by open, mocking laughter.
“Didn’t Danzō teach you?”
“When fighting an Uchiha shinobi, the most important rule is never to look directly into their eyes.”
Only a few minutes passed within the illusion.
By the time it ended, all seven Root shinobi other than Fū had collapsed to the ground, utterly lifeless.
Even the jōnin among them had been completely incapable of escaping the genjutsu!
Fū Yamanaka was the only one left standing.
Shock, fury, and fear filled his expression as the world around him gradually returned to normal.
Shinya Uchiha stood in front of him.
The Mangekyō pattern still remained in his left eye.
Fū gripped his kunai tightly, but despite himself, his hands were trembling.
Was that really a genjutsu?
He hadn’t sensed even the slightest trace of his own chakra being manipulated.
And if he couldn’t detect how the genjutsu affected him…
Naturally, he had no way to break it.
Shinya looked at the terrified Fū and smiled.
“So?”
“What did you think of my genjutsu?”
Even before this, Shinya had been one of the Uchiha clan’s shinobi who specialized in genjutsu.
So when one of the abilities awakened by his Mangekyō Sharingan turned out to be an illusion technique, it was hardly unexpected.
But at that moment, Fū suddenly began forming hand seals at tremendous speed.
“Mind Body Switch Technique!”