Naruto: Azure Awakening Ch 176 - A Spiraling Suspicions

Kaoru didn’t wait for Shin’s orders. His gaze was already locked on the underground chamber, tracking each shinobi moving below. He singled out those with the strongest water affinity, marking them in his mind. These were the ones he thought were more likely to be from the Land of Water, and he would make sure to keep them alive. If they were going to uncover who was backing the rogues, or who Sako had sold his loyalty to, they would need prisoners to interrogate. Whether Konoha was directly involved or not, Kaoru was certain soone influential was pulling the strings.

Most of the shinobi underground were gathered together, likely playing cards or gambling away their nerves. He couldn’t see every detail, but the lazy posture and flickers of movent painted a clear enough picture. That mont of false peace ended as the first dark blue orbs materialized above them.

Kaoru's favorite water technique ca to life.

The water spheres shot downward, crashing into the chamber like heavy stones thrown into a pond. The initial panic was instant. The rogues scrambled, shouting over each other, weapons drawn, so attempting to dodge, others trying to parry. But it quickly beca clear that no matter how many orbs they avoided or blocked, more would form. The assault was relentless, tailored perfectly to herd them toward the exit.

Kaoru watched with faint amusent as the silhouettes stumbled, slipping on the wet stone beneath their feet, each new water projectile forcing them to retreat faster than they could process what was happening. He kept the projectiles blunt on purpose, flattening the edges, making sure none of them would die from a lucky hit. Killing them here might have complicated things, especially with the demand Asuma made. He’d leave that part to Shin, this was still Shin’s mission after all.

Finally, after a few chaotic minutes, the rogues burst out of the hidden entrance one after another, landing clumsily in the open field where Kaoru, Shin, and Uta were already waiting.

All eight of them.

Kaoru’s eyes imdiately locked onto Sako. Even without having t him before, there was no mistaking who he was. His resemblance to Senzui was uncanny, sa strong jaw, sa fra, only rougher, a beard covering his face and streaks of gray cutting through his otherwise dark hair. The traitor stood toward the back, sizing up the situation.

“We won’t surrender!” one of the rogues shouted, stepping forward with shaking legs as he drew a kunai. His gaze darted between Shin and Kaoru, clearly recognizing them. The nerves showed.

Of the eight, only four were Takimura rogues. The remaining four eyed Uta with far more caution than either Shin or Kaoru. The girl bearing the Uchiha symbol had stolen their attention entirely. One of them, holding a strange triangular shuriken, couldn’t hold back his panic.

“What is Uchiha doing with Takimura?!” he blurted, his voice cracking.

“Don’t worry,” Shin replied softly, his tone oddly kind, as if he were trying to calm a frightened animal. “She was only sent to help us locate you. She won’t interfere.”

Anyone listening might have mistaken his words for genuine sympathy. But both Kaoru and Uta, using their dojutsus, could clearly see the subtle shift in Shin’s chakra. The calm exterior was a lie, he was waiting for the opening like a predator preparing for a leap. This was no negotiation.

One of the rogues, a sensor, was sharp enough to feel it too. She scread to her comrades.

“He’s building chakra! Attack, now!”

She spun, intending to retreat before the inevitable strike landed. But she never made it.

The mont her back turned, the pain in her stomach exploded. She gasped, looking down in horror to see the gleaming point of the Kiba blade jutting through her abdon. The strike had already happened before her body could even register it. Shin stood behind her, lightning dancing faintly across his weapon, his cold expression reflecting so of it.

“How…” was what she said before collapsing to the ground, spasming slightly as the lightning still danced on her body.

The fragile standoff collapsed instantly into chaos.

The four Takimura rogues, Sako included, reacted first - flickering backward, fleeing deeper into the woods. Shin gave chase, his figure vanishing like a phantom after them.

But the remaining three didn’t run. Instead, they charged directly at Kaoru.

“He is just one, we can kill him!”

“I can’t even sense his chakra, he must be weaker than a genin…”

The first launched his strange triangular shuriken toward Kaoru’s throat, its sharp edges spinning wildly. The second was already halfway through a string of hand seals, chakra swirling rapidly into a growing jutsu. The last one was clearly a taijutsu specialist as he closed the distance with surprising speed, aiming to engage Kaoru in close quarters before he could react.

Uta instinctively jumped back, but then started preparing to intervene as Kaoru stood still. For a mont, it seed like he was too slow, like he might not react at all to the incoming attacks. But before she could act, his calm voice stopped her in place.

“Stay out of it.”

The glow in Kaoru’s Suijingan remained steady, unshaken. However, the water around him started to shift, gathered smoothly, swirling up his body like a slow-moving current wrapping him in a thin, semi-transparent dark blue barrier.

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It was the triangular shuriken that reached him first, spinning toward Kaoru’s throat with a sharp whistle through the air. Kaoru didn’t even blink. He didn’t dodge, didn’t block, didn’t shift his weight. The spinning blade struck the water barrier with a dull, hollow thud, like steel against thick, reinforced glass, deflecting harmlessly off his body.

The next opponent was already on him, charging with a wide swing, aiming his fist directly at Kaoru’s face. But as his knuckles struck the barrier, a sickening crack echoed through the air. The man scread in pain, leaping back instinctively, clutching his hand. His bones had shattered the mont he made contact, as though he had struck a slab of dense iron.

‘They’re not strong enough to test my progress.’ Kaoru’s disappointnt settled in imdiately. His opponents were chunin-level, at best, making his earlier hope of facing capable enemies, ones that would allow him to test his new strength gained after months of brutal training, vanish on the spot.

Seeing no point in dragging it out any longer, Kaoru moved.

In one breath, he flickered forward, closing the gap before the third shinobi even finished weaving his hand signs. His fist was already in motion as the man’s eyes widened. The strike landed square under his jaw, snapping the head back violently. Kaoru felt the bone crack beneath his knuckles, the man’s eyes losing focus as his limp body collapsed instantly.

Kaoru barely needed a second to move again. The shinobi who’d thrown the shuriken was still recovering, startled and sluggish, after witnessing his friend go down that easily. Kaoru appeared right in front of him, his fist burying itself into the man’s gut, folding him forward with a choked gasp. Then, without pause, he drove his knee up into the man’s lowered face, lifting him off the ground briefly before he crashed unconscious into the ground.

‘One left.’

He spun, already aiming for the final target, but halted mid-step.

Uta stood there, holding the last man by the collar like a stray cat she had plucked from a ditch. She smiled as Kaoru’s gaze t hers, then casually let go, letting the unconscious shinobi’s body drop with a dull thump.

“They were too weak for you anyway,” she said with a bright smile, her Sharingan fading into the dark void of her normal eyes.

“I don’t mind,” Kaoru replied, his tone flat as he turned away. He crouched next to the bodies, his eyes already scanning them.

‘I doubt they’re carrying anything useful,’ he thought, but checking was better than risking missed information. He worked quickly, thodically. The first man had little: so basic supplies, around fifty thousand Ryo, several standard explosion scrolls, and a handful of kunai and shuriken he didn’t even bother touching. The second carried a single storage seal with dried food and another five thousand Ryo.

Disappointing.

Kaoru straightened, still analyzing what had happened. Originally, he assud the shinobi accompanying these rogues would be elites, sent by whoever was pulling the strings behind this entire sche to ensure the Noda clan’s secret technique was secured. He even considered the possibility of ANBU or ROOT involvent. But now that he’d seen them up close, he was certain. These shinobi weren’t from any elite force. They weren’t ANBU, weren’t ROOT, hell, he wasn’t even sure they were from any major village at all.

‘If this is the level of force sent to back Sako, then soone’s playing a different kind of ga…’

Kaoru’s gaze narrowed, suspicion gnawing at the edges of his mind. The worst part was that now he was completely lost. If soone truly wanted to secure the Noda clan’s secret technique, why send these weaklings? They had no chance of holding their ground against even one trained jonin, let alone Shin and Kaoru together. Nothing added up.

The only plausible explanation he could reach was far more dangerous: soone wanted Takimura to believe Konoha was behind this. Soone was trying to plant a seed, one that could bloom into open distrust or worse, conflict. But who?

His eyes landed on Uta, who still stood casually in front of him, grinning like they’d just finished a training exercise rather than put down a group of enemy shinobi. Again, Kaoru noted how unfitting her personality was for a typical Uchiha. Too open. Too cheerful. Too light-hearted for a clan known for restraint and pride. And then, it clicked.

‘Did Uchiha set this up?’

The idea ca uninvited, but once it appeared, it refused to leave. ‘Are they trying to push a wedge between Takimura and Konoha? Make us easier to sway when the next war cos? If they isolate us, we’ll have no choice but to support them when the ti cos…’

On paper, it made too much sense. Fugaku had never been known for kindness and morality. In the original tiline, he was fully prepared to use a child Naruto as a living weapon just to tip the scales of the rebellion. And in this life, his ambitions hadn’t dulled. He had tried to backstab Konoha during Kumo’s invasion.

Kaoru didn’t trust him. Fugaku’s loyalty only extended as far as his benefit, and never a step further.

‘Now that I think about it, Fugaku was the one who left the letter alerting us about the captured Noda shinobi… and he was conveniently the one speaking with Asuma when we arrived.’

It felt too clean. The Uchiha clan head taking ti from his responsibilities to personally attend what, from Uchiha’s perspective, was a minor matter? And Itachi’s absence… why send soone like Uta instead of the prodigy himself and the one closely tied with Kaoru? Unless… Fugaku didn’t want Itachi anywhere near this mission.

‘It’s like he wanted us to succeed in tracking Sako… but not ask why.’

Itachi was more likely to answer Kaoru’s questions than Uta after all. Kaoru felt the spiral tightening, each thought feeding the next. But he shook his head, trying to center himself.

‘No. I’m doing it again. Jumping too far without proof. Just because I don’t trust the Uchiha doesn’t an I should start spinning conspiracies. I must keep an open mind. Don’t trust, but don’t accuse either. Not unless I’m certain. For now, I’ll follow sensei’s lead… and watch carefully.’

A flicker of chakra caught his attention. Shin appeared from the treeline. Or rather, three versions of him stepped out one after another, each carrying an unconscious rogue on their back. One was clearly Sako.

‘So one didn’t survive,’ Kaoru noted with a quick glance.

Shin landed in front of Kaoru, not even sparing a glance at the bodies at his student’s feet, like he’d expected Kaoru to handle them cleanly.

“Sensei, what should we do with these guys?” Kaoru asked, tapping one of the unconscious shinobi with his foot. The man's head rolled slightly from the nudge, but Kaoru didn’t care.

“We’ll leave shadow clones behind,” Shin said. “Interrogate them here, with Uta. If any of them are holding onto nas or orders, I want it now.”

His eyes turned to Uta briefly, seeking silent agreent. She gave a sharp nod, which was all Shin needed.

“We head back to the Konoha outpost imdiately. I don’t want our shinobi in that cage a second longer.”

Kaoru said nothing, but raised one hand and created a clone of his own. He lingered for a mont as it solidified beside him.

‘Are we really going to give up Sako Noda?’

He didn’t voice it. Not yet. But he doubted it was a smart move.