"Mangekyō Sharingan has an eye technique that can make a person feel endless, unending pain—and it lasts a very long ti… heh-heh. How does he know that so well?"
Sowhere in the Land of Fire, inside a secret human-experintation lab, Orochimaru lounged in a chair with one leg crossed over the other, mulling things over.
He'd learned about Uchiha Chizumi's dōjutsu during an Akatsuki "online" eting, from a masked mber.
Orochimaru didn't know who the masked man really was—only that his standing in Akatsuki wasn't low.
Vaguely, it seed on par with the woman called Konan.
Even as an Akatsuki mber himself, Orochimaru still saw a lot of unsolved secrets when he looked at certain people in the organization.
"Heh. He—or that pitcher-plant partner of his—must've clashed with that justice-obsessed brat Uchiha Chizumi. Maybe Chizumi used his Mangekyō on them."
"That pitcher-plant wasn't at this eting. Which suggests the one who got hit by the Mangekyō was the pitcher-plant. It's probably still suffering under the technique…"
Orochimaru quickly teased out so intel about the "masked man" and the "pitcher-plant."
He also reached a conclusion—the masked man was likely young, and not as deep a scher as he tried to seem.
If he'd been truly seasoned and older, he wouldn't have leaked so much self-damaging information just by talking.
And the way he spoke—forcing an old man's tone—only made Orochimaru more curious.
"What exactly are you hiding? One after another, all these people covering their heads and tails… This organization has more folks like than I expected!"
"Sha…"
"Their horizons—their creed—are all too small."
With a mocking curl of the lip, he rose to start another experint—when a strange tremor rolled underfoot and froze that smile on his face.
His brow creased.
The smile vanished.
An earthquake?
No.
This weird vibration felt more like…
Before the thought finished, screaming sirens blared through the lab, needling Orochimaru's eardrums, and the red warning lights above began to strobe like mad.
"Heh-heh…"
"So soone really is breaking in."
His snake-cold eyes narrowed. He didn't rush out to stop the intruder himself; after all, he kept plenty of underlings in this facility.
He wasn't about to personally handle every random cat or dog that slipped inside, was he?
Otherwise, what was the point of keeping so many subordinates unworthy of being his reincarnation vessels?
Charity?
Orochimaru strolled into the monitoring room and tilted his head at a bank of crude CRTs, their snowy, noisy feeds flickering.
Then, on one screen, he spotted a figure that genuinely surprised him.
Even he blinked.
At the sa mont, the figure in the feed seed to sense it. The man drew a ninja blade slowly out of a fresh, bloody corpse, then looked up toward the cara.
Their gazes t through the screen.
"Uchiha Chizumi…"
Orochimaru's fingers twitched; he licked his dry lips without thinking.
He knew him.
One of his most coveted vessels!
…
"Got you, intruder! Showed your hand, didn't you!"
A shinobi with no forehead protector grinned savagely, black curse-marks crawling over his skin, leaking an evil aura akin to Orochimaru's.
He flickered in behind Uchiha Chizumi. His forearms were thicker than normal, his skin ridged like rock.
He leapt, fists together, hamring down at the back of Chizumi's head.
A blow that looked like it could shatter tons of solid stone!
Chizumi turned back without expression and raised his left forearm to et it.
Thud!!!
A dull crack bood; dust puffed in a ring around Chizumi's feet—yet the arm that took the hit was unscathed. His magma-body didn't even bother shifting into an elental state.
His eyes t the attacker's.
He saw shock drowning the man's face.
Chizumi drove his right-hand blade straight back without hesitation.
The edge punched clean through the man's heart.
At the sa ti, several more shinobi surged in, all with their "cursed seals" activated.
In Chizumi's crimson gaze, every free-moving ninja in the base wore a glaring red fra and text over their heads.
In this entire human experintation facility—aside from the poor "test materials" locked up as lab rats—
Not a single innocent.
All of them red-nad scum.
"Wood Release…
"Tree Bind Flourishing Burial."
Chizumi's free left hand flashed through a one-handed seal, then slapped the floor. Instantly the ground roiled, and thick trunks punched up through the tiling.
Under the stunned stares of the cursed shinobi, the trunks wove into a wooden wall that blocked their rush.
Buds then swelled along the bark—and burst open in under a second.
Visible clouds of pollen billowed out.
The first man to catch it full in the face instinctively checked his charge—then smirked when he felt nothing wrong. "He's bluffing. This jutsu is—"
He didn't finish.
His expression twisted into a mask of agony.
He scread, clutched his lungs—
—and the shinobi behind him watched in horror as sothing inside his chest strained to burst free.
Pft—
Pft—
Pft—
Wet, piercing cracks: thorned vines and wooden spikes erupted from inside his lungs, lancing out through flesh. A forest of spikes tore from every part of him, turning him into a human pincushion—more like a blood-red barrel cactus at first glance.
"Bad!"
Faces blanched up and down the line—but too late.
More dropped to their knees, gripping their chests and howling.
Pft—
Pft—
Pft—
Bloody mist popped through the corridor in one bloom after another.
The copper stink rushed out in waves.
"…Wood Release?!"
Watching that blood-soaked hellscape on a corridor feed, Orochimaru's slitted golden pupils narrowed with a flicker of surprise.
"Tsk… another delightful surprise. Uchiha Chizumi, just how many treasures are hidden in that body of yours?"
"I don't know why you were in the Land of Rain one mont and here the next."
"But all I need to know is—you've brought yourself to my doorstep."
His hunger was almost past restraint.
He was the sort who, once he wanted sothing, would pay any price to get it.
Unless it was truly impossible.
Otherwise, he never smothered his greed.
He'd gone after the Rinnegan once for the sa reason.
…
anwhile,
Konoha.
Koharu Utatane sat in the Uchiha Police interrogation room with a thundercloud face, as if everyone present owed her millions.
Her Root subordinates had already been questioned.
Now it was finally the "mastermind's" turn.
Click.
The door opened.
Uchiha Fugaku stepped in, looking deeply burdened. He'd never imagined such a hot potato would be dumped squarely on the Police Force—and into his hands.
Worst of all, there was no one to bla, and nowhere to send the idol back to.
Because… the ones who had delivered Koharu were dozens of Police officers, one of the Legendary Sannin—Tsunade—and the ninja cat Jujirou.
And the person who ordered Koharu to "pay a visit" to the Police—
Was the Hokage.
When the news hit at noon, Fugaku had felt the sky falling. He gritted through the afternoon interrogating a pile of Root nin, bearing pressure that shouldn't have been his, until he was wrung out.
Now…
It was Koharu's turn.
"Heh." Koharu lifted her eyes to his strained face and said coolly, "Interrogating a village adviser must be the Uchiha clan's favorite dream, no? Well then, I'll grant it. And I'll rember exactly how this felt."
A prickle ran through Fugaku's chest.
That line wouldn't scare most Police officers; the ones who had already chosen Absolute Justice didn't care about her.
But it rattled Fugaku.
He sat opposite her, drew a bracing breath under the weight, and said, "The Uchiha clan doesn't have the ideas you just put in our mouths, Advisor Koharu.
"We're…"
"We're just doing our job." He could only drag Hiruzen into it. "We're following the Hokage's orders. Nothing more."
Koharu cut him off.
"Fugaku."
Her aged face was dark. "I have a question—have you decided to turn the Uchiha clan fully toward Absolute Justice?"
"Under your leadership, is the Uchiha clan going to abandon the Will of Fire that Konoha has carried for generations?"
"Answer , Fugaku."
He was supposed to be interrogating her—but now it sounded like she was interrogating him.
…
Outside, a one-way mirror let people watch the room—and hear through special channels what was said inside, while those inside couldn't hear the watchers.
Tsunade stared, a strange look on her face.
She glanced at a random officer and asked, "You sure that guy's your Clan Head? He was off the whole ti questioning the Root shinobi—felt like he was going through the motions."
"Now it's even worse. That old woman's flipped the table on him—she's got him under her thumb. Your Police Captain, cowed by a criminal?"
"This is how the Uchiha Police enforce the law?"
She wasn't sniping at the clan; she was just voicing what anyone would think.
Even so, the simple honesty of it turned faces outside red with sha.
The proud Uchiha didn't take well to "sincere questions." And Fugaku really was making them look bad.
This was their house—the Police HQ!
Back then, even the Third Hokage only ca here with a small army of Anbu.
But now…
Just Koharu, with a handful of Root ninja—and Fugaku was intimidated?
"How can he be this soft? Isn't his nickna 'Wicked Eye Fugaku'? What's wicked about him?" One officer couldn't watch any longer; he was so angry his nose looked crooked. To him, Fugaku's behavior was an embarrassnt to the clan.
He gritted his teeth and moved to barge in.
"Hold it."
A clear, cool voice cut him off.
Uchiha Izumi hurried in, slightly out of breath, dragging an unconscious Root shinobi she'd just beaten down.
Her clothes were torn, skin scraped—obvious signs of a fight.
She won, of course.
Izumi looked through the glass at Fugaku's performance.
She drew a long breath. "Let him keep being weak. Don't interrupt. What you should do is call every Uchiha here and let them see what their clan head is really like."
"Let them see his true face. Let those who still have a sliver of hope in Fugaku finally give up. And if, even after this, so still support and follow him…"
"Then it just ans cowards flock together."
She'd seen through Fugaku long ago—and given up on him.
And the way he occasionally tripped up Chizumi-senpai had only soured her further.
…
"Hokage-sama, I don't know if you can handle a fact you may find hard to accept."
Kakashi appeared before Hiruzen. For once, even with half his face covered, his expression was grave.
Hiruzen drew a deep breath.
"So… you've found sothing. Kakashi, you haven't failed ."
His face hardened. "I'm old, but not fragile. Say everything you need to say."
Kakashi paused a beat. "The Sealing Unit pulled a scroll from inside a ninja pigeon and cracked it. The cipher's deciphered. The one who released the pigeon to contact the outside was a Cloud spy."
"The ssage read: the plan to cooperate with a Konoha insider is proceeding. The Third Hokage has, as expected, lost most of his reason; there's a high chance the Konoha leadership will clash violently with Uchiha Chizumi."
"But there's bad news." Kakashi went on: "When we moved to capture the spy, he reacted instantly and took his own life—destroyed his own head with ninjutsu. The Yamanaka couldn't read him."
"…Cloud." Hiruzen's hand clenched the desk so hard the veins stood out.
The corner of the desk creaked under the strain.
Kakashi continued, plain and exact: "We can now confirm the Cloud spy's assets inside Konoha ca from your Sarutobi clan. And it wasn't just one person."
"Anbu grabbed a Sarutobi asset, but a seal had been placed on him. When we tried to read his mories, the seal triggered and he died. That's on us—our mistake."
"Hokage-sama, it's possible there's a second, a third, even a fourth Sarutobi asset for Cloud."
"We don't have a thread on them yet. Anbu still doesn't know who they are."
The words hit like hamr blows. Hiruzen went still.
In truth…
He had suspected so Sarutobi would be involved.
The clan's hatred for Chizumi was no secret. That's why he'd set Anbu to watch the clan.
What he hadn't expected was that every asset Cloud had developed… might all be Sarutobi.
Which would an his daughter-in-law Sarutobi Fusako's death had unfolded step by step right under his nose! He lived in the Sarutobi compound.
And certain clansn had hidden this from him—until now! "Hah…"
Shadow fell across his lined face. He'd braced for sothing—but hearing it from Kakashi still soured his heart.
"Keep digging."
He waved, weary.
"Yes, sir."
When Kakashi was gone, Hiruzen frowned and thought hard.
"So the current state is: a few Sarutobi colluded with a Cloud spy, trying to use to move against Chizumi. My stance toward Chizumi must have disgusted them, but they didn't dare say it to my face, so they chose an extre thod."
"Or…"
"The Cloud spy courted them, handed them a pre-baked plan for sowing chaos in the Konoha. In their hatred, they accepted it."
"Maybe the spy also downplayed the fallout—didn't tell them how bad it would get. It's hard to believe Sarutobi clansn would knowingly trigger disaster and still go along…"
He trailed off.
Because maybe they would. You can never underestimate how ugly people can be.
He'd already raised an "Orochimaru."
Who could swear so Sarutobi weren't the sort to treat lives and the village like playthings? "Cloud…"
His grip snapped off the corner of the desk.
Since the end of the Third Great War…
This was the Cloud's second provocation.
Last ti, they targeted the Hyūga—Hyūga Hizashi paid with his life to defuse that ss.
This ti, the Cloud had aid at the Sarutobi.
Or at him—Hiruzen Sarutobi.
….
Inside the Police interrogation room.
A click—the door opened from within.
Fugaku ca out first, face set.
Koharu followed.
He imdiately sensed sothing off: there were far too many people gathered outside—more than the entire Police Force.
He frowned, took a closer look—
—and saw that most of the crowd weren't Police at all, but ordinary Uchiha clansn. He blinked.
"Clan Head Fugaku, our clan's 'justice' must be really cheap—being all polite to a criminal who's about to be locked in a Konoha prison. And that criminal ordered her n to grab your own son."
An Uchiha with folded arms let out a cold laugh right in Fugaku's face. "Don't tell , to you, your only son is Uchiha Itachi, and not Uchiha Sasuke?"
"I've heard you've never been satisfied with the youngest—that he'll never asure up to that beast Itachi."
Fugaku's stern mask chilled to ice.
He looked straight at the man.
"Do you know what you're saying? Watch your place." His aura wasn't weak.
But then another voice cut in: "Instead of asking him that, ask yourself. Clan Head Fugaku, have you watched your own identity?!"
The voice was familiar.
He turned—
And found Uchiha Izumi.
Her small face was tight. In front of the gathered clan, she t Fugaku's eyes and said, "You're the clan head—and the Police Captain.
"Have you fulfilled the duties and responsibilities of the forr? Have you protected every clansman who hasn't done evil? Have you fought—within the law—for the Uchiha's interests?
"And have you upheld the justice required of the latter? What I saw was you bowing and scraping to a criminal in that room."
"You're a disgrace to the Police."
It was the first ti Izumi had gone at Fugaku this hard.
Her disappointnt in him had long since bottod out.
She'd kept quiet out of respect for the shelter the clan gave her under his tenure.
But the way he'd treated Koharu in the interrogation room—
—that was the last straw.
"I'd add this: you're a disgrace to Justice." She clenched her teeth. "You're unfit to be clan head—and unfit to be Police Captain!"
In the corner, Tsunade arched a brow at the little drama, clicking her tongue. "Didn't expect the girl to be this extre—calling out Fugaku like that in front of everyone."
"Looks like Chizumi's 'Absolute Justice' training has sunk all the way to the bone."
Jiraiya had sohow slipped into the crowd. He sidled up and cleared his throat. "If you know their thod is brainwash—"
"None of your damn business." Tsunade shot him a glare, and tossed an extra one at the toad sages on his shoulders.
Jiraiya: "…"
I didn't even finish my sentence!
Double standards much?
…..
—RUMBLE!!!
Elsewhere in the Land of Fire, blazing lava surged with the force of a volcanic blast, flash-vaporizing several twisted, curse-marked shinobi in an instant.
The flood rolled on, blanketing the entire corridor.
When it slamd into a bulkhead, it lted straight through the steel.
Lava snaked down passageways, racing to every corner of the base.
Orochimaru's precious instrunts—years of hoarding—lted to slag.
Plenty of his grood goons died along the way.
In the monitoring room, the stink of sulfur was already seeping through the door seam.
When he watched a high-end machine sag into molten iron, his eyelid began to twitch.
"Heh-heh… so crude it makes my killing intent boil."
His eyes went darker, aner. Watching his "tools" die to Chizumi didn't stir pity.
They existed for one purpose: to bleed out Uchiha Chizumi's stamina.
If their lives bought him one more jutsu cast, they had value.
As long as his hidden vessels weren't found; as long as his prized lab rats were alive—
The loss of tools wasn't enough to anger him.
But the mountain of ruined equipnt…
That was getting hard to sit through.
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