Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan

by Little Merger

The trembling Hyuga Kuroto finally got the treasure that he dreamed of! How exactly will the world of Naruto be perceived with his glowing Royal Blue Tenseigan

7. 194

Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan #Chapter 194 - – 191 Breaking Through Taikyokuzu - Read Reborn into Naruto World with Tenseigan Chapter 194 - – 191 Breaking Through Taikyokuzu Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

In the Forest on the other side of the River Bank.

More than a dozen afterimages flickered and flashed from one position to another under the cold moonlight, and from time to time the source of these after images would collide together, producing the sharp sound of metal clashing as the golden sparks flew around that illuminated the forest for minute intervals and then suddenly dispersed into darkness.

Boom…

Kicking away a Konoha Anbu, Kakuzu hadn't had time to catch his breath when another Anbu rushed towards him.

"Humph!"

Kakuzu snorted in disdain and jumped on the tree.

The slight breeze was blowing, and Kakuzu standing on the canopy of the tree had a cold look, the Akatsuki Cloak he wore swayed in the cold night wind.

Anbu used this opportunity to readjust their formation and formed a siege array, surrounding Kakuzu.

Kakuzu glanced around and confirmed that the number of Anbu besieging him is a total of 16, and he really felt troubled.

Not to say that he was afraid or anything, but this battle is a complete disaster for him, the day was originally supposed to be similar to all and he was just going to exchange the corpse for the bounty. Suddenly encountered two members of Amatsukami, although there were slight murderous intentions, not to the extent that the matter would become so much troublesome.

But unexpectedly Sandaime Hokage and Uchiha Fugaku arrived leading their combat forces, those bastards from Amatsukami revealed such information, and lo and behold, he is in such a situation.

Boom…

At this moment there was a roar from the far side of the river where Sandaime Hokage was fighting Sasori.

Kakuzu and the Anbu all looked over and they see the traces of ice and fire.

Seeing the scene, Kakuzu thought, 'Has Sasori already taken out the Ice Puppet!?'

As the teammate with Sasori for the past few months, Kakuzu also knows that Sasori wouldn't use the Human Puppet so easily, once the human puppet was used, it would mean that the battle will be extremely fierce, and here it doesn't seem unreasonable, given that he is fighting the Hokage.

As for the Konoha Anbu, they were all a little worried.

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Seeing the traces of Ice release on the battlefield by the river, they all thought that Suijin with an extraordinary strong Water Release and Ice Release was also there and couldn't help but be worried about Sandaime.

One of the Anbu quickly said, "Solve him and support Hokage-sama as quickly as possible!"

The other Anbu members nodded one after another and launched a flurry of attacks at once.

Kakuzu leaped high avoiding a howling Wind Style Jutsu but before he could land on the ground, he was hit by several Kunai tied with Explosive tags and was drowned in a series of explosions.

Looking at the smoke and dust in the sky, one of the Anbu said, "Did that kill him?"

Another Anbu answered, "I saw him being pierced by a Kunai, I am afraid he shouldn't have any method to avoid the damage at such a short distance, besides the explosive tags should have killed him!"

At this moment when the two Anbu relaxed their vigilance, two arms penetrated through the cover of charred smoke grabbed the throat of the two of them and dragged them inside in the blink of an eye.

"Ahhhhhhhhh...…!!!"

Only the screaming of two people could be heard.

By the time smoke gradually disappeared, everyone found out that the necks of the two Anbu held by Kakuzu were twisted at an impossible angle.

Their bodies were thrown aside as if just a piece of trash, while Kakuzu spoke with a grim tone, "Coming after me was the greatest mistake you all could have ever made!"

Suddenly the piercing sound of the chirping of thousands of birds was heard and in the next moment, an Anbu appeared behind him, arm flashing with lightning immediately pierced through the chest, successfully destroying the heart from behind.

"Cough-cough… it can't be… you snuck behind me!" – coughing a mouthful of blood, Kakuzu turned his head with some difficulty and found out that the person who attacked him was an Anbu with wearing a Dog Mask and silver-white hair swaying in the wind.

Currently, Dog, the only member of Anbu Team-11 was here.

Because of Sandaime's orders, Monkey has returned to the village in search of Eagle and Cat, so he was the only one, of the Team-11 following the other Anbu to chase after the two bounty-nin.

And Kakuzu was highly surprised that he of all people was taken in by the surprise attack from behind, "You are…"

The Dog Anbu didn't bother answering, he just coldly pulled out his right hand that pierced Kakuzu's chest.

As Dog pulled out his hand, Kakuzu's pupil shrank from the pain he felt, a large amount of blood splattered from the hole in his chest, and then he lifelessly fell to the ground.

Thump…

The Konoha Anbu that were scattered around carefully glanced at Kakuzu who lifelessly lied on the ground, seeing no movement from the other party, their eyes turned towards the battlefield by the river no far away.

The chest was completely pierced, in the eyes of all the Konoha Anbu, the bounty-nin who attempted to assassinate Shodaime-sama can obviously not survive such an injury, so everyone believed that Kakuzu who lied on the ground is dead.

Now their attention turned towards the other battlefield, they have to support Sandaime-sama.

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Unbeknownst to the Anbu, several masked earth grudge monsters suddenly jumped out of Kakuzu's back, and before either of them could notice, one of the masks, the one with the Lightning Element suddenly spit out lightning that instantly covered the Konoha Anbu.

…

In Suijin's spiritual world under the effect of Taikyokuzu, the Yin-Yang Eternal Prison.

Seeing that the black and white was slowly fading away, Suijin who was trapped inside Uchiha Fugaku's Genjutsu space immediately reacted, and asked the chubby Ryuumyaku Dragon lightly floating in the air, "Hey, how come it took so long to react? Your response was a bit slow, if anything it would have come a bit difficult for me to solve it, and only with Tenseigan, something would have happened, and that would have become a bit troublesome!"

"It took some time to get past the barriers…" – spoke Ryuumyaku in a childish tone.

Kuroto nodded in understanding. It is not difficult for him to understand this because Ryuumyaku has been sealed inside the gourd, although there is a spiritual contract between the two, given the fact that Ryuumyaku is not directly sealed inside his body so getting past the barriers might be a bit difficult, and more time-consuming.

Everything has its own advantages and disadvantages.

If Ryuumyaku was sealed inside his body, then the situation would have been a bit easier but this is also fine, Suijin wasn't much worried.

After all, even the Yondaime Mizukage Karatachi Yagura who was the Jinchuriki of Sanbi, with Kage level strength also fell prey to Genjutsu, so there is no guarantee that such a situation cannot happen.

…

The reality, in the forest.

The elites of Uchiha saw that both Suijin and Homusubi were successfully controlled by Patriarch's Genjutsu, and they very overjoyed, after all, Wicked Eye Fugaku is not a joke!

They were only waiting for the signal from the Patriarch, and they would immediately kill both of them.

However, at this time, what none of them expected, both Fugaku and Homusubi fell to the ground at the same time, vomited blood, and gasping for breath.

The Uchiha were shocked and hurriedly helped the Patriarch, and asked, "Fugaku-sama, are you alright?"

Fugaku just shook his head, not bothering to answer, but intently stared at Homusubi who was not much better than him.

Fugaku didn't expect that Homusubi in front of was able to forcefully break free of the semi Genjutsu field.

However, Fugaku also knew that the opposite party must have consumed quite a lot in this process.

Homusubi whose situation was obviously not much better glanced at Suijin and muttered lightly. "I must first help Suijin to break free of the Genjutsu!"

Fugaku naturally understood what the other party was thinking and said coldly, "You can break free, that is something I can accept, but don't expect that a ninja with a mere Ice Release Kekkei Genkai will be able to break free…"

However, Fugaku's words were not completed, and suddenly something unexpected happened.

Out of a sudden Suijin regained his consciousness and instantly vanished from his spot, taking away Homusubi with him.

The process was so fast that others could barely react to it!

Read up to Chapter - 399 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

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The sudden action of Suijin caught Fugaku off-guard and even his stern face was a bit flabbergasted, couldn't hide the surprise.

If it said that Homusubi was able to break free of the Taikyokuzu, it is still within an acceptable range of Fugaku as the other party has the Mangekyou Sharingan with much higher ocular power than his, but the fact that Suijin who doesn't have the Mangekyou Sharingan was also able to break free of the Taikyokuzu without any help, greatly surprised him, it was beyond his expectations.

'Moreover, that Purple creature is also something incomprehensible… what exactly was that?' – thought Fugaku with a frown.

Seeing that two members of Amatsukami ran away, the members of the Konoha Military Police Force wanted to stop them.

But Fugaku stretched out his hand to stop them and said seriously, "Let them go!"

"Patriarch, why not chase? They humiliated the Uchiha Clan!"

"Do you just want to let the two of them escape, they are trying to step over the Uchiha Clan and the Village!"

The members of the Konoha Military Police Force were puzzled and looked towards the Patriarch with confusion.

Fugaku just shook his head and said with a gloomy tone, "That Homusubi is an Uchiha, and he has a pair of Mangekyou Sharingan!"

Hearing Fugaku's words, everyone was startled, one of Uchiha couldn't help but ask, "Patriarch, is he Shinichi?"

As far as the Uchiha are aware, only Shinichi and Shisui have awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, so that person has to be Shinichi.

Everyone knows of Shisui's straight and honest personality, so they excluded him to be Homusubi.

And since there isn't anyone else with the Mangekyou Sharingan, then it can only be Shinichi, who defected from Konoha and joined some bounty organization if the rumors are correct.

However, they were all wrong as Fugaku shook his head and said with a frown, "He is not Shinichi, nor is he Shisui, if anything, the most likely possibility is that he is the one responsible for controlling the Kyuubi and destroying the village and for the death of Yondaime Hokage, it is him who is responsible for the problems that the Clan is facing!"

"What!?" – exclaimed someone in shock.

Another one added in anger, "So it was this bastard!"

"Then we can't let him escape, he has to pay for what he did, he has to die!"

All the Uchiha were more and more furious.

Fugaku sighed lightly and shook his head, "We can't rush headfirst here, the opponent has Mangekyou Sharingan, even if we kill, we will have to pay a considerable prize, besides, if I didn't guess it wrong, even that Suijin has something up his sleeve that makes his strength no inferior to that of Homusubi, we have to plan out carefully from here on out!"

In Fugaku's cognition, the threat that Suijin posed has increased a lot, if it was only Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, Fugaku wouldn't have worried much, because he truly believes that the power of the Sharingan is superior to all other Kekkei Genkai, even better than Byakugan, but Suijin was able to break free of Taikyokuzu, this feat alone is no joke, not to mention that purple blob of highly condensed Chakra that reminded Fugaku of a tailed beast, therefore, he has to be cautious in dealing with the enemy.

The other Uchiha also understood the seriousness of the matter and asked, "Then Patriarch, what should we do?"

After thinking a little, he said, "Let's first meet up with Sandaime, and see how the situation turns out."

…

While running, Suijin and Homusubi glanced back occasionally to see if they were being chased by the Konoha Military Police Force, after confirming that they weren't being followed, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Homusubi spoke, "it seems that Patriarch isn't following us!"

Suijin nodded after a bit of thinking, "It seems us breaking free of his Mangekyou Sharingan Dojutsu startled him a little, making him consider us a real threat, therefore we were able to bluff our way out!"

Fugaku's Dojutsu affected both Suijin and Homusubi, and the technique was obviously Mangekyou specific, Suijin was able to break free and not much affected because his spiritual power is that of Tenseigan, which is why his soul wasn't much affected by whatever that was, and thanks to Ryuumyaku acting as a guide, he was able to successfully break free, which obviously surprised Fugaku, making him more cautious.

Even Suijin would be the same if he was in Fugaku's place if someone easily broke free of an ability he had absolute confidence in.

It's just that Fugaku doesn't know that the current situation of the two is not much better.

After all, first Suijin fought against Sandaime for such a long time, even if he has an artificial Biju at his side to provide him with Chakra, the refining does tire him out, so firstly fighting with Sandaime then so many Uchiha at the same time, and finally dealing with Fugaku, Suijin is quite tired.

Although Homusubi's situation is better, Homusubi still can't openly use techniques like Susanoo and Body Flicker that are his main strength as that would easily expose his true identity. So, his actions are also a bit limited.

Moreover, Homusubi also got some injuries due to hesitation to deal with the Uchiha Clan.

Therefore, if Fugaku really chased them, the direction of the outcome of the battle would be a bit uncertain and in fact, the balance would be a bit tilted towards Fugaku, meaning that the two members of Amatsukami would be at a disadvantage.

At this time Homusubi said with a bitter smile, "It was as you said, Patriarch really has the Mangekyou Sharingan."

Fugaku deliberately concealed his Mangekyou Sharingan, this shows that even he didn't have much trust in the Hokage faction, but he isn't wrong to do so, after all, the impact that Uchiha Madara caused with his Mangekyou Sharingan was too much for the senior to forget, therefore, it is unknown what actions they might have taken.

Besides, Shisui really doesn't have much say in it, after all, when he revealed his Mangekyou Sharingan, he also caused too much trouble for the Uchiha Clan, so the patriarch's actions are understandable.

Sighing lightly, Homusubi asked, "So what should we do next?"

Suijin smiled, "..." and he was about to say something, but suddenly, the presence of two strong chakra signs appeared in his field of vision of his Byakugan.

Suijin instantly warned, "Stop here, we have company!"

Homusubi asked, "Who is it?"

Suijin didn't reply immediately but there was a light chuckle.

Homusubi was confused, if it is the enemy, then why would Suijin chuckle? So, asked again, "Suijin, who did you see?"

Suijin just replied casually, "Don't worry too much, it's the two guys from the Akatsuki Organization, let's go greet them!"

Homusubi nodded and the two walked in that direction, and after a while, the two sides met.

Looking at the figure of Sasori and Kakuzu on the opposite side, Suijin couldn't help but laugh inwardly.

Both Kakuzu and Sasori's appearance is really laughable.

The traditional Akatsuki Cloak Kakuzu was wearing has been mostly torn apart, leaving only a part attached to the collar, and half sleeve, giving the both of them a miserable look.

Compared to Kakuzu, Sasori's condition is worse, his entire left arm was missing along with several other injuries.

While Suijin and Homusubi were observing Sasori and Kakuzu, the other two were also observing the opponent.

The Suijin-specific Black Cloak he was wearing had several cuts over it along with several wounds left by the Uchiha Elites, which were quite conspicuous.

Homusubi on the side was much better, with just a bit of ragged breathing and some light injuries, along with light Chakra exhaustion…

... ... ... ...

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The two sides that encountered each other in the forest didn't rush to fight.

Under the Suijin's mask, Kuroto's Byakugan was activated as he assessed the state of Sasori and Kakuzu.

From the first glance, it seems that the injuries that Sasori has are more serious.

The loss of an arm is fatal for a shinobi, as it has a great effect on the strength that a shinobi can display.

The difference in strength that Jiraiya showed while fighting Pain before and after losing his arm is quite different, the biggest problem would be hand sign printing, not everyone is capable of printing hand signs at the same speed with just one arm.

But the case with Sasori is different, as Human Puppet Master, he can control puppets with just one arm fairly well, so even though his combat power would have been decreased the battle still wouldn't be too easy as long as the puppets he has in his hand are good enough.

Moving his gaze towards Kakuzu, Suijin found that the chakra reaction he perceived from Kakuzu was much weaker compared to before.

The Earth Grudge Fear is a really strange technique that has probably altered his body to such a degree that he is no longer dependent on his normal chakra circulatory system, therefore, in his Byakugan, Suijin isn't seeing any normal chakra veins in Kakuzu's body like that of other shinobi.

What he sees is a complex network of black threads that are chakra carriers and are connected to the four cores, which are the four masks hidden in Kakuzu's body.

However, he has still not understood the essence of the four masked thread monsters.

Therefore, how much injury Kakuzu has incurred is difficult to estimate.

'According to the rough estimate, he roughly has only about thirty percent of his chakra, it's either because he has consumed much of it in the previous battle, or he has lost some of his hearts, I would bet on the second possibility!'

This guess wasn't without any basis, it's because Suijin also found that the chakra reaction of the cores was somewhat strange, to be more exact the chakra reaction of the chest and right abdomen was significantly weaker than the other places, which means that two of his hearts were damaged, which means only three of his hearts were left.

While Suijin was in a bit of a bind, thinking about whether to take the advantage of the opportunity and get rid of Sasori and Kakuzu for good, Sasori spoke in a cold tone, "You bastards, you dare to appear before us!"

As soon as he spoke, he can't help but cough out some blood, it seems his injuries are much severe.

Suijin raised his hands up and said with a smirk, "Hey don't blame me, the two of you have done such things that would prompt others to hunt you down, I just encouraged Konohagakure to fasten that process, after all, the sooner the S-Class missing-nin are disposed of, the better, don't you think so? But I have to say, you were able to escape from the chase of Sandaime Hokage, your skills aren't bad, to say the least."

Sasori just snorted, "I will not forget this account!"

At this time Kakuzu said, "You have been meddling with us, I see that you have the potential so I am giving you a fair warning, it would be wise of you to not make an enemy of the Akatsuki Organization, you will regret it in the future."

"You don't say? Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind!" – Suijin nodded gratefully.

"You better do!" – Kakuzu said.

"Most certainly, but I don't like to owe others a favor, so I am also giving you a heads up, it's only fair if both sides know each other, right? Therefore, it's best that you know that Amatsukami is not afraid of Akatsuki, so we will be having quite a lot of meetings in the future, I tell ya!" – Suijin said.

Hearing Suijin's words, Sasori took out a scroll and spoke, "You wanna die, don't you?"

Suijin shook his head, and said, "No-no-no, not right now, don't you see, there are still a large number of Konoha shinobi around, I don't think I need to explain any further!"

Kakuzu nodded, "That is a wise choice, if we fight here, it will only make it easier for Konoha to get their hands on all four of us!"

Homusubi nodded.

Sasori closed the scroll in his hand, "Alright, you get to live this time!"

"Well, now that we have an agreement, we'll move on our respective paths." – Suijin said.

With that decision, Suijin and Homusubi gave way to one side, while Sasori and Kakuzu gave way to the other.

Suijin and Homusubi moved towards the Village and Sasori and Kakuzu towards the opposite side of the village.

Passing by each other the two groups slowed down.

Just at the moment the both of them crossed each other, Suijin quickly formed the hand seals and leaped into the air, "Ice Release: Thousand Flying Needles of Death!" "Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"

Homusubi did a backflip while printing the hand seals and threw a few shurikens and released fire,

"Fire Release: Great Fire Ball Technique!"

On the other side, Sasori also immediately took out the puppet from the Scroll, attached it with Chakra Strings, and shouted, "Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Seedling Fern!"

And Kakuzu was also not behind as the two Thread Monsters jumped out of his body,

"Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work!" "Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

Two shinobi on each side, four in total, attacked at the exact instant.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

Instantly the small forest mountain that they were on shook by the collision of the ninjutsu on the two sides.

Compared to the small-scale ninjutsu used by Suijin and Homusubi, the attack used by Sasori and Kakuzu was undoubtedly much fiercer, it's because they were boiling with anger inside.

Specially Sasori, he even didn't hesitate in using the 'Dance of the Seedling Fern' with the Kaguya clan puppet.

Compared to the "Thousand Flying Needles of Death' 'Great Fireball Technique' and the combination of wind and Fire release Jutsu used by Kakuzu, the 'Dance of the Seedling Fern' is a much dangerous technique.

Accompanied by the shaking of the ground, piercing bone spears rose from the ground one-after-another.

Suijin was quick with hands and pulled Homusubi inside the Ice Mirror, that was floating in the air, the bone spears kept rising but didn't affect the two as they were at a higher altitude.

Standing on the top of a bone spear, Sasori frowned, "That's a surprise, you can use Ice Release? Does that mean you are a member of the Yuki Clan?"

At this time, Sasori didn't show any signs of weakness, even the blood he seemed to be coughing out was not there.

Suijin leaned out half of his body from the Ice Mirror and questioned Kakuzu, "Hey, didn't you say that we should not fight here, aren't we going to go our separate ways?"

Sasori hummed lightly, "It seemed that you were the one who made the move first!"

Suijin has already noticed that Kakuzu is hidden behind a thick bone spear, and the two thread monsters were speared around, he seemed ready to attack any moment.

Understanding that both of them still retained quite a lot of combat power, Suijin did some light-speed calculations in his brain and said with an embarrassed laugh, while scratching the back of his head awkwardly, "Sandaime Hokage and Wicked Eye Fugaku are still around, so let's continue on our separate ways, okay?"

When Suijin mentioned Sandaime, Sasori thought a little and said, "Alright, it seems that the attack just now was only a misunderstanding."

Suijin nodded, "Yes, it appears that all four of us had a bit of a misunderstanding!"

With that said, Suijin didn't deactivate the Ice Mirrors, just lined them up in a queue and flew away.

Whoosh… Whoosh…

Sasori and Kakuzu also didn't wait any longer and flickered and disappeared from the forest of bones.

Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…

Not long after the four shinobi disappeared, Sandaime still carrying his Adamantine Staff led the Anbu members and arrived at the Forest of Bone.

Looking at the endless number of bone spears, Sandaime had a solemn look on his face, and muttered, "This is Dead Bone Pulse, Kekkei Genkai of the Kaguya Clan?"

While the Anbu spread around searching for the traces of the two members of Akatsuki, Uchiha Fugaku led the members of the Konoha Military Police Force and arrived.

Fugaku was surprised when he noticed that even Sandaime seemed to have failed in capturing or killing either of the two members of Akatsuki, which.

At this moment, whether it was the 'God of Shinobi' or the 'Wicked-Eye,' both of them had an embarrassed face.

The silence and the 'aho' crow made the atmosphere quite awkward, Sandaime said with some emotion, "These bounty ninjas are not easy!"

Fugaku nodded repeatedly, "Yes, they can't be taken lightly!"

.

.

.

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Looking at the forest of piercing high bones, whether it was Sandaime Hokage or Uchiha Patriarch, both of them had a gloomy expression.

In their eyes, or better yet in the eyes of great shinobi villages, the bounty ninjas are just some small-time shinobi not worth putting attention to, unless they try sticking their nose where they shouldn't, therefore, the presence of bounty-nin are generally ignored.

But the series of events and the battles that took place today has changed this perception, these two groups of bounty-nin cannot be ignored.

'Unexpectedly, there are still so many strong shinobi hidden in the shadows of the shinobi world.' – Sandaime thought with a solemn expression while looking at the cold moonlight of the full moon.

The increasing rift between the Uchiha Clan and the village has already caused too much headache for Sandaime. Now he doesn't even know what will happen to the peace treaty that was signed with Kumogakure, everything has been becoming messier, Sandaime really feels exhausted.

"If only Minato was alive, everything would have been gone smoothly!" – muttered Hiruzen helplessly.

Today Sandaime didn't go all out in the battle, this is something even the Hokage Guard Platoon could see.

The reason for this is very simple, Sandaime is worried that if something were to happen to him, the Uchiha clan will no longer have any scruples and the village will fall into civil strife, and the other village wouldn't let such a chance go to waste, the result- not only would Konoha be destroyed but even the Land of Fire will be plunged into the biggest war ever seen.

But now Sandaime feels that he was a bit too conserve; if even the enemy is not captured then aside from losing the faith of his subordinates, even obtaining the required intelligence of the two bounty-nin organization will become quite difficult.

Even Fugaku had a solemn look when he thought of Homusubi of Amatsukami.

The sudden appearance of an Uchiha with the Mangekyou Sharingan is not a joke, moreover, the person in question seems to have negative intentions towards the Clan and the Village, and if it was really him who controlled the Kyuubi during the Kyuubi rebellion, and indirectly killed Yondaime Hokage, then that means he will not stop until he achieves his objective of destroying the clan and the village.

'It's unforgivable!' – Fugaku made up his mind, he must find out the true identity of Homusubi and then kill him, for the sake of the Clan… and for the Village.

Unlike Fugaku who was worried, the elites of the Uchiha Clan were embarrassed because they failed to eliminate only two bounty-nin.

Before they were being overly aggressive, arrogant, and overconfident, and now not only was each one of them injured to some degree but even their faces also had disappointed looks, even after they were injured or more, they achieved nothing!

Uchiha Fugaku is still considering whether to reveal the fact that Homusubi of Amatsukami has Mangekyou Sharingan to Hokage-sama, after all, in his opinion, Homusubi must die but the pair of Mangekyou Sharingan he has can be used by the Uchiha Clan.

However, another problem lies here, will the Hokage faction allow the Uchiha Clan to take back that pair of Mangekyou Sharingan? Or will it lead to a more severe conflict?

Allowing Hatake Kakashi to keep the Sharingan is already the biggest compromise the Uchiha Clan has made, and it was solely done because of the fact that Uchiha Obito willingly passed it onto Hatake Kakashi, otherwise Uchiha Clan wouldn't have allowed Kakashi to keep the Sharingan.

So, this issue is a bit troublesome.

…

On the other side.

After getting away from Sasori and Kakuzu, Suijin didn't go all the way in the Ice Mirror and deactivated the Jutsu.

After a series of battles, Suijin was a bit overwhelmed even if he has the Ryuumyaku Chakra, so it was best to not keep the ninjutsu activated for too long.

Homusubi asked, "So, what's next?"

Suijin spoke, "We will have to return to the village first!"

At this time Homusubi questioned again, "But how are you going to explain this situation to Hyuga Patriarch? He knows that it was the Eagle and Cat of Anbu team-11 who took away Watanabe's corpse, but the body suddenly fell into the hands of two bounty-nin, this flaw is too obvious, I am worried that Hiashi-sama will see through our disguise!"

Suijin shook his head, "You don't have to worry about Hiashi-sama figuring us out, besides he wouldn't be revealing the involvement of Hyuga Clan with this incident!"

This incident was caused because Watanabe deliberately wanted to cause conflict between the Hokage faction and the Hyuga Clan, as the patriarch of Hyuga Clan, Hyuga Hiashi will obviously not be stupid enough to show the involvement of the Hyuga Clan with this incident.

In fact, he would be really glad that the two bounty-nin took Watanabe's corpse and claimed the bounty on his head, with this, there would no longer be any official involvement of the Hyuga Clan with this incident anymore.

Shisui was still worried, "Won't Hiashi-sama be able to figure out that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi and Hyuga Kuroto is Suijin?"

"As I said, he won't, even if he might be a bit suspicious, but the fact that Suijin had Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, so he couldn't be sure about it, because the shinobi named Hyuga Kuroto doesn't have Ice Release!"

"And what about me?" – asked Homusubi.

"Since he can't be sure of me, so he would obviously be unsure about you, we just have to present a good enough alibi and we are all clear for the time being." – explained Suijin.

Homusubi nodded.

After thinking a little, Suijin questioned, "By the way, when you broke free of Uchiha Fugaku's technique, was your Mangekyou Sharingan exposed?"

Homusubi quickly said, "With the sealing techniques you engraved in the mask, it blocked Patriarch's exploration, therefore, Patriarch shouldn't have seen my Mangekyou pattern, but he did realize that Homusubi has Mangekyou Sharingan." – After a short pause, he continued, "But Patriarch used his Mangekyou Technique, and I had to break free of it using my ocular power, therefore if he experiences my ocular power again, he might be able to guess that was me!"

Suijin nodded, and continued, "Don't worry about it, we will come to that problem in the future!"

With that out of the way, Suijin asked again, "Given that Homusubi used all his ocular power to cast a Genjutsu, what would be the result if he uses a sneak attack on Uchiha Shisui, would it be possible to defeat Uchiha Shisui?"

Homusubi was taken aback for a moment and immediately understood what Suijin was trying to ask, "You mean, that we use the alibi that we encountered a sneak attack from both the members of Amatsukami at the same time, that way we wouldn't be under suspicion?"

Suijin nodded.

In Suijin's opinion, as long as both, Eagle and Cat of Anbu team-11 encountered a sneak attack from Suijin and Homusubi of Amatsukami at the same time, and end up being defeated, then the suspicion would obviously be resolved.

After a little consideration, Homusubi nodded, "As far as I understand the power of Mangekyou Sharingan can vary from person to person, and since Homusubi is very strong and experienced then it isn't strange for Uchiha Shisui to be defeated under the combined sneak attack from Suijin and Homusubi at the same time."

"In that case, we will have to carry on the preparation of the alibi!" – with that said, Suijin started devising the plan to set up their alibi…

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Might Guy in his Monkey Anbu vest returned to the village, he didn't care that his breathing was disordered, he was hurriedly searching for the presence of Eagle and Cat of Team-11.

The first place he searched for was obviously in and around the mansion assigned to the Kumo delegation, which was supposed to be guarded by Team-11. Even after searching the whole parameter of the mansion, he didn't find any trace of either of Eagle and Cat, countless questions were running in his heart, 'Where could the two of them have gone? If they are not here then they should have most likely gone in search of Watanabe, or maybe after the two bounty-nin? But if that's the case then why didn't we meet them? If they are not present here, then only one case is possible!"

Monkey obviously understood that the only other possibility behind their mysterious disappearance is that the two of them encountered the bounty-nin somewhere else and were defeated.

However, he has been trying to avoid thinking of this possibility, because this entails the possibility of something he doesn't want to think about or accept.

But the current situation gives him no other choice, so he returned to the point where Cat and Eagle were stationed, and estimated the possible directions they could have gone, he also ordered some of the Anbu to search for Cat and Eagle.

After a long while of searching, along all the possible routes, the team arrived at the woods past the outer walls.

"Dog and I intercepted the enemy ninja more than a few dozen miles ahead, according to the path that the bounty-nin have taken, he should have passed this forest area first, search the entire forest in this area!"

"Yes!"

With that said, the Anbu got busy in their search.

Monkey himself was not free and continued the search.

Not too long after he received a message from one of the Anbu teams.

Arriving at their spot he felt that the temperature of the surroundings was quite lower compared to other forest areas.

This caused him to doubt and he quickened his pace.

Arriving at the spot, Monkey found an ice tree that was covered in some sort of Genjutsu enchantment which was wearing off as it was being cracked by the sealing masters.

As soon as the Genjutsu enchantment wore off, a hollow Ice tree was revealed, and in the hollow part of the ice tree, he found Hyuga Kuroto in his Anbu gear, unconscious and tied up with several wounds.

Similarly, Uchiha Shisui in his Cat Anbu gear was also found unconscious and tied up in the hollow part of another Ice tree that was also covered inside a Genjutsu enchantment.

The life and death status of both the shinobi unknown…

"Kuroto…, Shisui…!" – in a panic he was unable to keep calm and subconsciously exclaimed the real names of his two teammates.

…

3 days later.

Team-11 was currently summoned to the Hokage office.

Of the four members of Team-11, Hatake Kakashi had his right arm wrapped in bandages, with his face somewhat pale, it seemed that he was injured after the battle.

Hyuga Kuroto and Uchiha Shisui also had bandages wrapped over their bodies, the injuries they suffered at the hands of Uchiha Elites were all cured, the reason for wrapped bandages is the frostbite.

It wasn't strange that both Kuroto and Shisui suffered from Frost Bite given that they were trapped in a cage of Ice tree while they were unconscious.

Among the four members of Team-11, only Might Guy was uninjured and seemed perfectly fine and energetic self.

At this time, Sandaime looked through the report and asked with a tired look, "How is the injury of the two of you?"

"The injuries will recover soon enough." – said Kuroto.

Sandaime nodded, and questioned, "I have read the report, so after you figured out that Watanabe used a shadow clone, both of you rushed towards the Hyuga Clan based on what little memory Shisui extracted from the Shadow Clone, and also used the crow summons to pass on this information to Kakashi and Guy?"

"Yes, but unfortunately it seems that Watanabe never made it to the Hyuga Clan territory and was killed midway, as for the message passed to Kakashi-san and Guy-san, they did not receive the message. By the time crow summon reached their spot, both of them were already gone!" – explained Shisui.

"We reached the Hyuga Clan territory and were confused as there was no sign of Watanabe, after conforming from the Hyuga Patriarch that Watanabe didn't arrive here, the situation was a bit confusing, we thought of coming to Hokage tower to inform this matter but midway we encountered Homusubi if the description is correct, the person appeared to be suspicious, so chasing him all the way, we reached the forest past the outer walls and there had a short skirmish when suddenly two more with similar disguise appeared, we were unable to resist against the three of them and therefore, we were defeated and encased inside ice tree as Guy found us." – explained Kuroto.

"Two more?" – Sandaime had a doubtful face.

"Yes, Hokage-sama, one of them should be Homusubi as per the description, the second one was Suijin, while we don't know the third one, but his element seems to be Wind as he has the symbol of Wind Chakra Nature on the chest part of his cloak and a green mask." – answered Shisui.

"And what about his abilities?" – question Sarutobi.

"He didn't show any aside from Taijutsu, but I estimate that his strength is no inferior to the other two, in fact, from the manner other two behaved in his presence, he seemed to be superior of the thee in terms of hierarchy!" – Kuroto answered while shaking his head.

"His name?" – again asked Sandaime-sama.

"They didn't disclose." – Shisui said.

Sandaime had a frowned expression, initially, they expected that only two were part of this whole incident, but now there is the presence of a third member of Amatsukami!

Sandaime, Guy, and Kakashi can't help but pity Kuroto and Shisui to have to face three such monsters at once, it is no wonder that the two of them went missing for the whole night!

Sighing lightly, Sandaime asked, "And can you confirm that 'Homusubi' had Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Shisui and Kuroto had already discussed this part and, Shisui nodded, "Yes I can be sure of it!"

Sandaime asked again, "Is it possible that Homusubi is actually Uchiha Shinichi behind that mask?"

Shisui replied, "I am sorry Hokage-sama, but the mask that Homusubi wore had seals engraved in them that shielded against both the Byakugan perception as well as the Sharingan perception, so it is difficult to judge given the short encounter we had when they conducted a sneak attack!"

Sandaime nodded and said nothing more.

Taking a puff of smoke, Sandaime thought, 'Watanabe wanted to cause war, but before he could complete what he planned, he was assassinated by the three bounty-nin who have high Kage tier strength, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't know whether he should be happy or angry.

He is certainly glad that Watanabe's scheme failed, but he is also angry over the matter that Kumogakure dared to plan such a move against Konoha, and yet Sandaime can't do anything to them.

He is also sad over the matter that there are such strong individuals who don't have any scruples of sneaking into Konoha and cause such chaos.

Yet he is also happy that the trouble Konoha would be facing because of bounty-nin would be much less than what Watanabe planned.

At the same time, he is also helpless that he couldn't do anything to either of the three parties.

Sandaime didn't doubt Shisui and Kuroto's report, because facing three such strong individuals is obviously no joke, the entire Anbu unit combined with Uchiha couldn't deal with just two members of Amatsukami, what would just two members be able to do in the face of three members of Amatsukami?

The only thing that worries Hiruzen is the reaction of the Uchiha Clan.

From Hiruzen's perspective, the most likely possibility is that Homusubi is Uchiha Shinichi, yet Fugaku didn't describe this in the report, and based on what the Uchiha Clan has been doing in the past few months, the patriarch seems to be dead set on bringing Uchiha Shinichi back.

Uchiha Shinichi has actually betrayed Konoha and killed so many or root shinobi, Hiruzen can't help but be worried.

While Sandaime was busy in thoughts, Kakashi said, "Hokage-sama, I can't help but notice one thing."

Sandaime turned towards Kakashi and motioned for him to continue.

Recollecting his thoughts, Kakashi said, "The two… no, the three bounty-nin of the Amatsukami, only killed Watanabe during the whole fiasco, aside from Watanabe, they didn't kill even a single other shinobi, even both Kuroto, and Shisui were only left unconscious, and tied-up, encased in ice trees, but not killed, it's strange from the general behavior of a bounty-nin."

Sandaime also had a thoughtful look, he did notice this detail but he also can't seem to understand this pattern of behavior.

Kuroto is okay while listening to this, his face was natural to the situation, and had a frowned expression that also displayed confusion.

Shisui also had a frown, but that frown was for another reason, meanwhile, his heart was beating very fast.

Kakashi continued, "And the same bounty-nin, the missing-nin of Sunagakure and Takigakure, killed five of our Anbu in just one encounter, Suijin, Homusubi, and the third one, sneaked all the way into the village, broke free of several encirclements, went past so many battles, encountered many teams, during the whole fiasco, they didn't kill even a single one of the shinobi aside from Watanabe, there has to be something wrong with this kind of behavior pattern that completely differs from how normal bounty-nin behave!"

Kuroto can't help but look at Kakashi with a helpless expression, 'You are needlessly creating trouble for me Kakashi!'

Kuroto knew that this detail would be noticed sooner or later, and he is really helpless about it.

Obviously, he can't kill the shinobi of his own village if there is no reason to, moreover, if he was to chop down Konoha shinobi like vegetables then there would hardly be any combat power left in the village!

Even Sandaime felt too weird about this behavior pattern, and couldn't help thinking, 'Was the goal of Amatsukami really the bounty on Watanabe's head? Or was it just to transfer the blame of Watanabe's death to themselves so that war and needless bloodshed could be avoided? Or is it that they work in the sort of a fashion where they don't take even a single extra life aside from their intended target?'

After all, Kakuzu and Sasori had no scruples killing!

Thinking of this, Sandaime made up his mind to conduct an investigation on all the missions the members of Amatsukami have completed through the Black-market circle to check their behavior pattern, whether they use the same sort of method and don't take even a single extra life or is it quite the opposite?

With that decided, Sandaime carried out some more discussion about the possible identities of the three and then dismissed the team-11.

After leaving the Hokage office, Kuroto and Shisui bid farewell to Kakashi and Guy.

After walking at a distance, Kuroto said to Shisui, "Select the target as soon as possible!"

Shisui was obviously surprised, "So urgently?!"

"Yes, we don't have many options, Sandaime is suspicious. Although we have built a deterrence of Amatsukami, our actions were still suspicious to him, as soon as we cause some trouble like typical bounty-nin, his suspicions should be lightened, so eliminating a few Uchiha would be the best option!" – After a short pause he continued, "Remember to choose a sibling pair as the first target!"

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To be honest, Kuroto is not worried whether Sandaime-sama will figure out that it was he and Shisui who disguised as Suijin and Homusubi just based on their abnormal behavior.

After all, no one knows what kind of personality traits does the two members of Amatsukami have.

What he cared about was the reaction Sandaime-sama would have once he hears that Homusubi has the Mangekyou Sharingan.

From the doubtful look that Sandaime had when he read the report, Kuroto guessed that the Uchiha Patriarch concealed this part of information about Homusubi.

'Honestly, has Uchiha Fugaku finally gone mad, why not use this opportunity to blame Homusubi for the Kyuubi's attack?' – Kuroto was really confused by Uchiha Fugaku's actions.

In Kuroto's opinion, this was an excellent opportunity, as long as the blame for Kyuubi's attack is transferred to Homusubi, the hostility that the village leaders have towards the Uchiha Clan will decrease, and slowly and steadily the two sides can mend their relationship.

But Uchiha Fugaku concealed this from Sandaime-sama, by doing this not only did they miss the perfect opportunity to solve their problems, but it also increased the distrust between the two factions.

Kuroto couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment, Uchiha Fugaku also expressed his true intentions by doing so, and it really disappointed Kuroto.

Taking a look back at the Hokage Building, Kuroto withdrew his thoughts.

Following the rules, if a ninja performing the task fails to complete it, like in the case with Team-11 where they were unable to protect the Kumo delegation, he will be severely punished, so accordingly, Team-11 must receive serious punishment.

But the fact that even Sandaime himself was not able to capture or kill the bounty-nin responsible, and returned without any success, so no one mentioned the matter of punishment.

Therefore, Team-11 not only did not get punished but in fact, they received one week-long vacation to perfectly recover from all the injuries that the team suffered.

Therefore, the first thing that he did was to go to the Konoha Hospital. Their injuries were all treated by the Anbu medical unit in the past three days, but a careful check has to be conducted at the hospital.

…

At the Konoha Hospital.

After checking the injuries on Kuroto's body, the medic-nin on duty nodded and said, "The frostbite you suffered has been cured and all that's left are just some skin wounds, nothing to worry about, take enough rest and you will recover soon enough, there is no need to use Iryo Ninjutsu."

Kuroto nodded and said with an embarrassed look, "I have to start with some serious training, so it would be really helpful if Furofuki-sensei heals these injuries…"

The medic-nin Furofuki-sensei shook her head helplessly and used Iryo Ninjutsu to heal all the skin injuries.

After the treatment was finished, Kuroto removed the bandages wrapped over his body and quietly left the hospital.

The purpose of him coming to the Konoha Hospital and getting his injuries healed was just an excuse.

Because next he is going to be meeting the Hyuga Patriarch, and since the Water Clone Body doesn't have the curse of Caged Bird so he obviously can't use this clone body to meet the Patriarch, after all, Hiashi-sama must have his ways of sensing the Curse Seal.

Therefore, Kuroto can't risk it, he must be in his main body when meeting the Patriarch, but there was a problem, his water body had suffered several injuries, and he was to take the main body that does not have any injuries, then it would be hard to explain, so he came to Konoha Hospital to get his wounds healed to get rid of loopholes.

With that out of the way, Kuroto who had changed his body came to the Hyuga Clan territory.

Hyuga Hiashi was obviously restless for the past three days, so as soon as he received the news that Kuroto came to see him, he immediately asked the maid to bring him in.

Under the escort of a maid, Kuroto came to the study of Hyuga Hiashi.

After the maid was done pouring tea for the two, she withdrew from the study leaving Kuroto and Hiashi.

The Hyuga Patriarch couldn't take it anymore, "I heard about everything that took place, who were the two bounty-nin?"

Kuroto just shook his head and apologized, "Please forgive me Hiashi-sama it would be best for you to not know the details of all the event as we have been ordered by Hokage-sama to not reveal them, what I can tell you is that I and the other Anbu were ambushed and Watanabe's corpse was taken away by the two bounty-nin, their reason seems to be the bounty on his head."

Hiashi nodded, if Hokage-sama has restricted them to not reveal this matter, then Hiashi wasn't going to pressure Kuroto, but he worried nonetheless, "I heard that even Sandaime-sama and the Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan failed to stop them, and some of the Anbu also died?"

Hiashi obviously didn't suspect that Kuroto was one of those bounty-nin, for one, the bounty-nin seems to be the user of Ice Release, and secondly, the strength displayed by the bounty-nin.

Hyuga Kuroto is undoubtedly very strong, Hiashi knows this, but he doesn't believe that Hyuga Kuroto would be strong enough to go toe-to-toe against Hokage-sama.

What Hiashi considered was the possibility of a cooperative relationship between Kuroto and those bounty-nin, therefore, he asked about that bounty-nin.

Now that Kuroto has confirmed that he didn't know the two, Hiashi has mixed feelings.

Hiashi is relieved that Kuroto didn't collude with shinobi of unknown origin, but he is also worried that the bounty-nin took away Watanabe's corpse, which means that they now know the true cause of his death.

If they openly publicized this matter, whether Kuroto, Hiashi, or the rest of the Hyuga clan, the implication would ultimately land upon them, and I am afraid that the follow-up trouble would be worrisome.

Kuroto seems to realize Hiashi's worries and said, "Patriarch, you don't have to worry too much, firstly no one would believe the words of a bounty-nin over the words of a loyal shinobi, and the possibility of Hokage-sama suspecting the Hyuga Clan just based on the rumors is very less, besides even if he suspects the Hyuga Clan, he wouldn't make any move without any solid evidence, the same case applies to Kumogakure."

Hiashi nodded in understanding, in fact, he also understands that unless Watanabe's body is directly found in the Hyuga Clan territory, it would be impossible to implicate or cause any substantial harm to the Hyuga Clan.

At this time Kuroto said, "Patriarch, I am sure you must have also realized this, but there are still many loopholes that are yet to be filled, for one, how did Watanabe manage to sneak into the Hyuga Clan territory? How was he able to get past all the security? Most of all, how did he know the layout of the Patriarch's mansion, that he was able to find Hinata-sama's sleeping quarters?

Not to mention, Watanabe, who is a ninja of another village, even the shinobi of Konohagakure shouldn't be able to do this, an enemy being aware of such precise details is quite concerning."

Hiashi nodded with a serious look, he has been considering these matters for a while and the only possibility is that there is a traitor in the Hyuga Clan, and he is hostile not only towards the Clan but also towards the village.

Hiashi can be sure of this because the layout of the Patriarch's mansion is even unknown to the Hokage.

Only the members of Hyuga Clan with Byakugan can help the outsiders to get past all the security of the Hyuga Clan territory and sneak into the Patriarch's mansion to be able to kidnap the young lady.

It's is impossible for others to do so.

With a light sigh, Hiashi said, "I did a preliminary investigation in the past three days, but I have yet to find anything or any sign that would give away any clue."

Even Kuroto pondered a little, 'Who could it be?'

Initially, Kuroto thought that it might be Shimura Danzo, but then he quickly eliminated that possibility.

For one thing, Kuroto can be sure that Shimura Danzo is not aware of the layout of the Hyuga Patriarch's mansion, secondly, Shimura Danzo has no reason to do so. Danzo may have some hostility towards Kuroto, and certain dissatisfaction towards the Hyuga Clan for not allowing him to recruit any Hyuga shinobi in Root, but Danzo wouldn't be foolish enough to do anything against the Hyuga Clan before he destroys the Uchiha Clan.

Because if he takes any action against the Hyuga Clan before that, then the Hyuga would be offended and forced to ally themselves with the Uchiha, and since, the Hyuga shinobi are the most amicable in the village so they would obviously get support from the other major shinobi clans, overall, Danzo would be offending pretty much all the clans if he takes any action against Hyuga.

Besides, Kuroto doesn't think Danzo would collude with the shinobi of an enemy village and let him harm Konoha, at least not until he can be sure of his position. Even if the original story, whether it was destroying the Uchiha Clan or letting Sandaime be killed at the hands of Orochimaru, Danzo's main purpose was the position of Hokage, not to destroy Konoha.

And the person who assisted Watanabe obviously wanted to drag Hyuga Clan into the muddy waters, instigating both the major clan, Uchiha and Hyuga to take part in a civil war.

In other words, the ultimate aim of that person is not only to destroy the Hyuga Clan but also to destroy Konoha.

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And if it can be determined that the traitor is an insider, then the scope of the investigation will be narrowed.

All the members of the Main branch can be excluded because they enjoy the power and status brought by the clan, they wouldn't have any reason to betray the clan.

Even among the members of the Branch division, the number of people who are truly dissatisfied or have a conflict with the Main family wouldn't be too many, as long as those people are checked one by one, then the traitor can be easily identified.

Hiashi said, "Well, I will keep an eye out on that matter."

Kuroto nodded, he doesn't need to mention this matter to Patriarch, as the leader of the Clan, Hiashi-sama would surely give his all to narrow down the traitor.

With that out of the way, Hiashi finally heaved a relieved sigh, and said, "Putting aside that matter, I must express how grateful I am to you Kuroto-Kun, no matter how the situation turned out because of the intervention of bounty ninja, your timely response to resolve the crisis is something I am very grateful for!"

Kuroto shook his head, and said, "This is just my responsibility as a shinobi of the Hyuga Clan, if Hyuga Clan faces hardship, then I have to help out in any way, I can."

Hiashi smiled, "Be that as it may, I would like to reward you. Speak your desire, as long as it is within an acceptable range, I will see that it is fulfilled."

Rejecting Patriarch's good intention would be disrespectful, so Kuroto was silent and thought, 'what can I ask?'

Hiashi didn't disturb Kuroto and allowed him to think carefully.

After some consideration, Kuroto spoke, "Hiashi-sama must be aware that during the incident, Yui encountered the bounty-nin, although I am happy that she wasn't seriously injured, the matter could have gone worse, is it possible for her to be transferred and receive formal training of the main family techniques?"

Hiashi was surprised and questioned, "If I am not wrong, you have mastered the techniques of the main family, have you not?"

Kuroto nodded, he has indeed mastered the techniques, there was no reason to hide it.

"So, why not teach her yourself, there was no reason to ask?" – asked Hiashi.

"I am mostly busy with the Anbu missions and therefore, it is not possible for me to help her in her training, moreover her combat style is a bit varied and quite different from mine, so I am not sure if I will be able to train her if Himeji-sama would be willing to train Yui…"

Hiashi was silent for a while and after a little consideration he finally nodded with a smile, "Alright, Yui's talent is good, so it would be worth it, I will see that It happens!"

Kuroto bowed to Hiashi gratefully.

Hiashi just smiled and said, "Don't worry Kuroto-Kun, the times are changing, I think it is also time for the stuck up Hyuga Clan to change, it would be a bit objectionable but I will see that certain things are changed, you needn't worry, I think Himeji will also be happy to have Yui as her disciple."

…

Uchiha Clan

Uchiha Fugaku sat in his study doing some paperwork.

Knock… Knock… Knock…

At this time, a knock came from the door.

"Come in."

Followed by the command, the gate was opened, and Uchiha Shisui entered the room.

"Patriarch, you wanted to see me?" – asked Shisui.

Fugaku didn't raise his head from the report he was reading and just said, "Sit down."

"Yes!" – said Shisui and took his seat.

For a while, there was silence and just the sound of paper scratching resounded as Fugaku was finishing with the paperwork.

Shisui did not disturb, just sat silently.

After he was done with the paperwork, Fugaku lifted his head and observed the injuries on Shisui's body, he had a worried expression seeing those injuries.

Fugaku was really panicked when he received the news that Shisui suffered a sneak attack from Amatsukami.

Currently, in the Uchiha Clan, only he and Shisui have the Mangekyou Sharingan, if something was to happen to Shisui, it will undoubtedly be a huge blow to the Uchiha Clan that has begun making preparation of a Coup d'état.

After learning that the injuries he suffered were just some frostbite, and nothing too serious, Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he was really glad that Shisui's eyes were not stolen.

'Perhaps because Sandaime was pretty close that at the time, that the bounty ninja did not have the chance to steal Shisui's eyes!' – thought Fugaku as that could be the only reason he thinks of.

As for the real reason, that is obviously different, for one, the ambush part is just made up, but even if it was real, Shisui isn't much worried, as he has a seal placed on both of his eyes, according to which, if his eyes are removed without deactivating the seal than his eyes would be destroyed. With this even if someone does manage to steal his Mangekyou Sharingan, they wouldn't be able to use it.

Shisui took Kuroto's help in putting this seal after much consideration, Kotoamatsukami is a very dangerous technique, therefore, Shisui doesn't want it to go into the hands of someone who could harm Konoha and the Uchiha Clan.

And only Kuroto and Shisui are aware of this information, not even Kakashi and Guy are aware of this.

Noticing Fugaku's silence, Shisui asked, "Fugaku-sama!?"

Upon Shisui's beckoning, Fugaku put aside his thoughts and questioned, "Describe the events that took place, and how did you end up encased in an ice tree!"

Hearing Fugaku's questioning, Shisui didn't hesitate and reveal the same information as they have revealed to Sandaime-sama, and finally, he said, "I didn't expect that all three of them would be so strong and was caught off guard when Homusubi used Mangekyou Sharingan!"

Fugaku nodded, although he didn't know what Mangekyou Sharingan Dojutsu Shisui has, Fugaku understood the strength that Homusubi has, and no matter how talented, Shisui is still somewhat young, so it's not strange for him to have lost.

At this time said, "I can be certain that Homusubi is not Shinichi, he is a traitor and most likely the person responsible for controlling the Kyuubi, although I haven't yet figured out as to who exactly he is, betraying the clan and the village is unforgivable. I have deployed people to collect information about him and keep track of him, as soon as he appears and we get the wind, you will come with me to kill him, letting an unstable figure with Mangekyou Sharingan is highly problematic and must be resolved."

"Yes!" – Shisui nodded.

"Also, I am quite certain that Sandaime will deploy personnel to collect all the possible intelligence about both Amatsukami and Akatsuki, so keep your eyes and ears open!"

"Yes, I will make sure!" – Shisui agreed.

"And lastly, do not run around carelessly, both Amatsukami and Akatsuki are dangerous, so it would be best to be very careful when dealing with them, lest damage will be irrecoverable, is that clear?" – Fugaku warned.

Shisui again nodded helplessly, "Yes, Fugaku-sama, I will be careful!"

…

3 days back.

Inside a dark cave somewhere in the Land of Rain.

Several illusionary projections of different members of the Akatsuki Organization could be seen standing in a circle.

This is another one of a rare gathering of all of the Akatsuki members.

Pain, the leader of Akatsuki looked at Kakuzu and Sasori and said flatly, "Tell me what exactly happened, in detail!"

Sasori was silent, he didn't say a word.

Seeing this Pain turned towards Kakuzu, who spoke, "We encountered two members of Amatsukami last night, at that time, they seem to have offended Konoha and were being chased by Sandaime Hokage and Uchiha Fugaku, along with many Anbu and Uchiha Clan elites..."

Kakuzu described the details of the entire incident.

Everyone was again surprised by the bold actions of Amatsukami and the fact that they escaped the siege of such people.

Pain has to also acknowledge and seriously pay attention to this seemingly new organization called Amatsukami.

Hiruko said, "With 'Yama,' 'Suijin,' and now this 'Homusubi' there are three known members of Amatsukami, right?"

Kakuzu nodded, "Yes!"

Shinno said, "Are members of Amatsukami really so strong?"

Without waiting for Kakuzu to speak, Sasori said coldly, "Are you questioning me?"

Shinno just smiled lightly and did not speak any further.

At this time, Uchiha Shinichi spoke with a smirk, "Do you know why Amatsukami was being pursued by the Hokage and Uchiha Patriarch?"

The eyes of all the members turned towards Uchiha Shinichi.

Seeing that everyone turned towards him, Shinichi said, "I received news that the head ninja of Kumogakure who was the leader of the delegation and was responsible for signing the peace treaty between the two nations was killed by the members of Amatsukami for the bounty on his head, and Hokage not wanting to lose the face of his village anymore personally chased but could neither capture the culprit nor take back the corpse, hahaha… it's so funny, the Hokage is completely useless… one after other people are using Konoha as their playground and all he does is sitting in his cozy office smoking tobacco… so pathetic!"

Shinichi is obviously very happy that Konoha is facing so many difficulties one after another, the Hokage doesn't value his people, he should suffer, as for the question of whether he is worried about being destroyed?

Obviously, no. Hyuga Kuroto is part of Konoha, so how could it be destroyed so easily?

Pain was silent for a while and said, "Continue with the missions and keep an eye out for any intelligence of Amatsukami. Hiruko, and Shinno, you both will now enter the Land of Fire, also Sasori and Kakuzu, solve the matter of Orochimaru as soon as possible and then start an in-depth investigation of Amatsukami."

Hiruko narrowed his eyes, it appeared that he was hesitating slightly but nodded, "Alright!"

Shinno also nodded, "Yes!"

Sasori said, "I need to remodel my body, so it will take some time."

Kakuzu also said, "I too need to restock a few of my hearts that were damaged!"

Pain knew that Sasori and Kakuzu's combat power would be affected otherwise so nodded, "Acceptable!"

"One thing I want to warn everyone, I don't care if you all take it seriously or not, but the members of Amatsukami are very cunning and vicious, as seen in both the encounters we had with them, so it would be best to be careful of this!" – said Kakuzu.

Everyone had a different reaction to this but nobody voiced their opinion.

With that out of the way, one-by-one the holographic projections of the Magic Lantern Body Technique disappeared one after another, and the view of the eternal rain of Amegakure came into the view.

Taking a look at the clouds, Tendo Pain sitting on the tongue of the stone statue stood up and walked inside the room.

Inside, Uchiha Madara wearing the Orange mask stood leaning on the sidewall.

As pain walked in, he questions, "So?"

Tendo Pain didn't turn to look at Madara, just relayed all the information and said, "Perhaps we have to pay some attention to Amatsukami!"

In Pain's view, just two members, who aren't even leaders of that organization played around with Konoha, one of the great shinobi villages; like tools in their hands. The entire pursuing force return empty-handed, moreover Kakuzu and Sasori were involved in the fiasco against their will.

As for how strong is Yama to have shinobi of such capability under his command, Pain knows nothing about it.

As such, Pain has to consider Amatsukami a threat, even if a minor one.

"Should I search them?" – asked a Kunoichi. She has short, straight blue hair with a bun, grey eyes that are cold and devoid of any emotion, along with lavender eye shadows, and a labret piercing. A greyish-blue paper flower clipped on her bun, and fair skin, finally she wore the traditional Akatsuki high neck turtle Akatsuki Cloak.

Pain turned towards the Kunoichi named Konan and shook his head, "It's not time yet."

Because Pain has a feeling that he will soon have an encounter with Yama.

Madara pondered a little and said, "I will soon be going to the Land of Fire for a while, the Uchiha Clan needs someone to add fire!"

.

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Walking out of the Patriarch's Mansion, Shisui walked down the streets of the Uchiha Clan with serious thoughts.

The people of the Uchiha Clan were coming and going, some in a hurry, some leisurely walking and discussing things with their acquaintances, although there was some inexplicable tension, there was also peace and joy, all these people are the ones who are non-shinobi, ordinary people, or the young ones who have yet to awaken the Sharingan.

Looking at this peaceful atmosphere, Shisui sighed.

'If you don't make up your mind only annihilation awaits Uchiha Clan!'

Kuroto's words kept echoing in Shisui's mind.

"Shisui-nii-san, are you going to play with us today?" – asked an Uchiha kid.

"Baka Itsuki, Shisui-nii-san must have to go on a mission, how can he casually play with us?" – spoke another kid.

"Ne-ne Shisui-nii-san, c-can you help us in Shuriken practice, please, I want to be a shinobi just like you when I grow up, so can you please teach us?"

One after another the children of the Uchiha Clan have surrounded Shisui and spoke out their desires with enthusiasm and cheerfulness.

'If you don't make up your mind only annihilation awaits Uchiha Clan!' – those words again resounded in Shisui's mind.

'… Only annihilation awaits Uchiha Clan!'

'No what am I thinking? I'll never let these children die, they have nothing to do with all the mess, they are completely innocent!'

Looking at the familiar and unfamiliar faces of the people of the clan, Shisui's mind was in a mess, his feeling vivid, and only Kuroto's words kept resounding in his mind. Finally, patting the head of the children, Shisui made up his mind and his gaze became determined, these children, these people that have nothing to do with the politics and shinobi life are innocent, 'I am going to protect them, no matter how much guilt and darkness I must embody, even if I have to betray my beliefs I have believed in up to now, I will protect them, this is my Nindou, my ninja way!'

The final bits of hesitation also disappeared, and Shisui didn't realize that at this moment because of his determination and emotional influence, his Chakra was a bit erratic, and his ocular power strengthened, the Yin Chakra in his body flared up. As a result, his insight has increased again, his eyes are still Mangekyou Sharingan, but his insight has increased.

It didn't take long for Shisui to realize this change and he soon calmed his emotions.

While Shisui was going to reply to the kind, a person stopped in front of Shisui and said with a mocking tone, "Oh, isn't this Uchiha Shisui, the most genius shinobi of Uchiha Clan?"

"What do you want Ryota-san?" – Questioned Shisui in an annoyed tone.

The children were suddenly silent by the sudden arrival of Ryota and were able to sense the hostile atmosphere between the two, so they nodded towards each other and tacitly retreated.

No kidding, they weren't idiot enough to interfere here. Bothe Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Ryota are famous within Uchiha Clan, especially because of their opposing ideologies.

Uchiha Ryota, age: 24, one of the many top geniuses of the Uchiha Clan, current captain of the third division of the Konoha Military Police Force.

He awakened Sharingan at the age of eleven and had a fully matured Sharingan with three tomoe by the time he was sixteen years old. His strength is undoubtedly among the top five of the current Uchiha Clan, obviously excluding Fugaku and Shisui.

He is also the unofficial leader of the most radical members of the Uchiha Clan.

Being the arrogant and prideful person he is, Ryota could obviously not tolerate being surpassed by Shisui who is ten years younger than him. So, one day he found Shisui and challenged him.

The result obviously need not be said.

The gap in strength was too evident, and Ryota miserably lost, couldn't even connect a single strike, and in the end, defeated.

Ever since then, he has been annoying the hell out of Shisui, and he has to compare everything.

When he heard that Shisui has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, he was in disbelief, he trained relentlessly, with the hope of one-day awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan and tried many methods to do so, but if Mangekyou Sharingan was so easy to awaken then it wouldn't have such precious value.

Because of his continuous failure, he has been acting too much arrogantly, has to taunt and annoy Shisui whenever the two encounters each other.

Listening to Shisui's frustrated tone, Ryota was happy and said with a mocking tone, "I heard a rumor that you were defeated by bounty-nin?"

Shisui was in no mood to talk about that, and stated, "Yes, and what does that have to do with you?"

"Come now Shisui, are we not friends? It's a pity that I was on a mission at that time, If I went along with Patriarch to hunt down the bounty-nin, the result would have obviously… hehe…"

Ryota said and stopped halfway to chuckle, he seems to be mocking that even with the Mangekyou Sharingan, Shisui was still defeated…

Shisui ignored Uchiha Ryota's sarcastic words and flashed past him, in an attempt to just leave and not create a scene here.

But how could Ryota allowed Shisui to leave so easily? He said with a cold snort, "Just you wait brat, I will awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan very soon, and restore the reputation of the Uchiha Clan, something that you have yet to accomplish!"

As soon as he heard these words, Shisui's face sank, and only one thought appeared in his mind, 'If he also manages to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan, then wouldn't the Clan immediately launch the coup!?'

As soon as this thought appeared, Shisui also remembered that Uchiha Ryota also has an older brother.

Uchiha Hideki, another one of the genius of the Uchiha Clan with the strength that undoubtedly places him in the top ten of the Uchiha Clan, however, compared to Ryota, Hideki's character is a bit mild.

…

Hyuga Clan, Kuroto's house.

Hyuga Yui, who cleaned up and tidied up Kuroto's house came and sat down beside Kuroto, as he had asked.

At this time, Kuroto also put down the scroll in his hand and spoke with a serious face, "Your team has been taking part on patrol duty, why was I not informed of this?"

"It was just a recent change in duties, it was no big deal, so I did not want to worry you Kuroto-kun." – said Yui.

"Well, you worried me, when I heard about what happened to you!" – Kuroto said.

Thinking of what happened a few days ago, Yui bit her lip in frustration, hasn't she decided to become strong? Then why? She couldn't even land a single hit. If not for the fact that Suijin didn't have any intention of killing unrelated people, she would have undoubtedly died.

At the thought of this, tears started to well up and slowly fell on her hands that were resting on her knees, silently crying at her weakness.

Kuroto sighed and brought her close, it was Kuroto's fault to begin with, he is responsible for these tears. I mean even Hokage couldn't manage to do anything to him, what will she do? She is not even a Jonin yet.

After a bit of soothing as Kuroto rubbed her back, Yui finally stopped, but her eyes still had a shade of red.

At this time, Kuroto said, "Listen, Yui, I can't disclose the exact detail, but I want you to know that the next 10 to 15 years are going to be the most dangerous years of the shinobi era. I have a feeling that one after another people of such immense strength and calibre as Suijin and Homusubi will come into the picture…

And in this period of the next few years, the value of a shinobi would decrease, the Genins, Chunins, and Jonins, will all become nothing but pure cannon fodder class people. I know it sounds ridiculous, and difficult to imagine, but it is going to happen, whether we like it or not.

And I realize that I won't always be there to protect you in the midst of all this, but I also know that I can't stop you. You are a Kunoichi, a talented one at that.

And I don't want to lose you, I have already lost my parents, and you are all that's left so I don't want to lose you, ever. For that reason, you will have to work hard and train, train to reach the level of a Kage and then further, I know it is difficult… very few have and will ever reach this level, but I would like to believe that the girl I love would not give up just because something seems impossible, right?"

Yui nodded, she would not give up, she has already decided on this.

"Good, now I want you to know that I have already had a talk with Hiashi-sama, and he will transfer you to internal management while you will train under Himeji-sama, in the main family gentle fist techniques, in the meantime, I will also make notes on Fuinjutsu, that you will learn and master, understand?" – Kuroto spoke in an unquestionable tone.

Yui knows that Kuroto-Kun is doing this for her, and nodded.

Yui's talent is very good, and Kuroto believes that she can reach the level of an elite Jonin, under the teachings of Himeji-sama, and Kuroto will obviously arrange other methods to make sure that she goes further.

Looking at Yui who still seems to be somewhat down, Kuroto rubbed her back and gave her a few kisses, on the forehead and cheek, making her feel embarrassed.

One of the main reasons Kuroto refuses to reveal his strength openly is that he knows that once he is out in the open, his situation would become similar to Namikaze Minato.

Everything around him will become a weakness that the enemy can and will exploit.

And Kuroto isn't sure if he could remain as calm as Yondaime-sama was if he is put in a similar situation as he was during the Kyuubi's rebellion.

The wife was dying because the Kyuubi was extracted, the village and villagers were being destroyed by the Kyuubi, and an unknown enemy with dangerous thoughts and ideologies was facing him, yet he was calm enough to make such deduction and decisions that shaped the entire future of the shinobi world.

Kuroto isn't sure if he could have been the same if he was in Yondaime's shoes.

Therefore, he doesn't want to risk it.

.

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After making sure that Yui was alright, and back to her usual self, the two separated from their position, Yui got busy with cooking while Kuroto was back to his study.

In the series of battles a few days ago, Kuroto had quite a lot of gains, aside from the 45 million Ryo he got as the exchange money for the bounty on Watanabe's head, the body and soul match of Water Clone Body has increased quite a lot.

Additionally, Kuroto also developed a good understanding of Water Nature Chakra and Wind Nature Chakra, finally, the Ice Release was also used in combat making him gain quite a lot of experience.

So, all in all, he can conclude that the strength of the Water Clone Body has reached Kage level, which is acceptable for now.

According to Kuroto's plan, a perfect clone must fulfill two requirements to be suitable for Chimera Technique.

First is the body and soul compatibility.

The second is the strength, the higher, the better.

The first element is progressing smoothly and over time body and soul compatibility will be perfect.

As for the second, Kuroto knows that all the clones can't have the same level of strength as his main body, but if you don't count the Tenseigan Chakra Mode of his main body, then, it is very much possible, after all, Tenseigan Chakra Mode is as it says, a special mode, and it is limited to a certain amount of time, so it shouldn't be counted when comparing the base strength.

The other thing Kuroto has understood is that the most effective way to cultivate a clone into a perfect state is mastering a Kekkei Genkai related to the specific Chakra Nature.

Just for a simple example, the Water Clone body wasn't nearly strong enough with just mastering of Water Chakra Nature, but when he fused the Water and Wind Nature to give birth to Ice Release, the strength improved significantly.

Now with that was out of the way.

"It's time I consider which clone to make next…" – muttered Kuroto with a thoughtful look.

After having experienced developing Water Chakra Nature Clone, Kuroto was not in a hurry to determine the main attribute of the next clone, because he also needs to consider the Kekkei Genkai he would be learning for that Chakra Nature.

…

A few days later, Shisui and Kuroto secretly met up.

Kuroto noticed Shisui's change and he understood that Shisui has finally made up his mind.

After a short silence between the two, Shisui said, "Kuroto-san, I have chosen the target as per the requirements."

Kuroto wasn't surprised and asked, "So, who did you choose?"

"Uchiha Ryota and Uchiha Hideki." – after a pause, Shisui continued, "They are brothers just as you asked, both of them are also elite Jonin..."

Uchiha Ryota and Uchiha Hideki?

Kuroto does know the two of them since Anbu is responsible for monitoring the Uchiha Clan, so the basic information of all the top elites has been thoroughly memorized by all the elite Anbu members.

Uchiha Ryota's public position is very clear, an elite, captain of the third squad of Konoha Military Police Force, in terms of rank, he is no worse than a squad commander in the Anbu department, he undoubtedly holds a key position, that is of the same level as the leader of enchantment, sensor and medic squad.

And being an elite Jonin, there is no doubt that his strength is very high.

As for Uchiha Hideki even if he knows basic information about Uchiha Hideki, this person doesn't seem to be too impressive.

After recalling their information Kuroto asked curiously, "Why did you choose the two of them?"

Shisui was silent for a while, then spoke, "Uchiha Ryota is not only one of the most radical and supports the idea of Coup d'état, but he is also responsible for the secret tasks that are carried out from the shadows, I am afraid his hands are stained with the blood of…"

Shisui didn't need to finish that sentence as Kuroto nodded in understanding, "That is to say, Uchiha Ryota is responsible for doing the so-called dirty work, right?"

The relationship between various clans and Hokage faction involves many interests and benefits, so it is inevitable one or two people of the clan do the dirty work for the benefits of the clan, Hyuga Clan is no exception to this nor is the Uchiha Clan, of course, all these battles of interest and benefits are carried out in the shadows.

Publicly, the relationship between the clan remains unchanged despite all the sparks and blood that shadows hide.

When he thought of Uchiha Ryota, Shisui couldn't help but speak, "Ever since the fact that I awakened Mangekyou Sharingan was made public, Ryota's personality has become violent, and he doesn't let even a single chance slip to cause conflict, initially it was just to the degree of annoyance, but lately, he has started to give off some bad vibe."

Kuroto nodded and after a bit of thinking, he asked, "And what about his brother Uchiha Hideki?"

"Uchiha Hideki by nature is a bit mild compared to his brother, but…" – taking a pause to sigh, Shisui continued, "But he is responsible for stockpiling the war supplies; if he is eliminated successfully, then it should be possible to temporarily delay the Coup!"

"Hmmm, you are right, these two targets are good, alright, it seems you have carefully considered the targets." – Kuroto said.

Both the brothers have enough strength to be among the top 10 within the Uchiha Clan, one is responsible for doing the dirty work, while the other is responsible for hoarding war supplies, the two together also have a strong influence on the other members of Uchiha Clan, if these two are eliminated, then the Uchiha Clan would be greatly wounded.

Shisui didn't say anything, just nodded silently.

Even if he made up his mind, the guilt of conspiring against and betraying the Clan still makes him feel ashamed of himself.

Kuroto glanced at Shisui but didn't console him, after all, 'One needs to sacrifice something in order to achieve something'

Changing the topic, Kuroto asked, "By the way Shisui, you don't happen to be the only pacifist in your clan, right?"

Shisui raised his head at Kuroto's question and responded with an awkward chuckle, "Most of the chunin and above support the Coup, however, there are still many genin and chunin who don't support this idea."

Kuroto said, "So, only some of the genin and chunin are opposed to the idea of Coup?"

Shisui couldn't help but sigh, and suddenly said, "You remember Uchiha Itachi, right?"

Kuroto nodded, how can he ever forget the Uchiha Itachi?

Seeing Kuroto-san's nod, Shisui said, "Uchiha Itachi is also against the idea of Coup!"

"Is that so?" – muttered Kuroto, he didn't need Shisui to tell him this.

Shisui obviously didn't know Kuroto's thought, "Yes, Uchiha Itachi also wishes to resolve the rift between the Clan and the Village without the Coup!"

"Uchiha Itachi, huh?" – muttered Kuroto, turning his face to the side, Kuroto said thoughtfully, "In that case, why don't you bring him into our plan?"

"What!!!!???" – exclaimed Shisui, "No-no-no-no, this is impossible, Itachi is the eldest son of Patriarch, and without any accident, he will become the next Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan, so his position is not the same as me and he is never allowed to betray the clan!"

Kuroto looked at Shisui with a strange expression.

Seeing this Shisui quickly explained, "Kuroto-san, what I said is true, any member of the clan may be allowed to betray the clan, but Itachi is never allowed!"

Shisui helped in Itachi's training whenever he was free, aside from the friendship between the two, Shisui also hopes to influence Itachi's mindset, being the next patriarch, if Itachi is different from the general Uchiha, then he could really improve the relationship of the clan and the village.

With several contacts with Itachi, Shisui has come to understand that Itachi is a very kind child, therefore, Shisui doesn't want to burden Itachi with the guilt of raising his blade on the members of the clan that he is supposed to be protecting.

Listening to Shisui's words, Kuroto didn't know what to say anymore.

After all, it is the very same Uchiha Itachi who nearly annihilated the entire Uchiha Clan in the original story.

Kuroto can't help but feel that Shisui's vision is a bit messed up.

Kuroto has even started to wonder if Kami-sama feels he owes Shisui too much in this regard, so he bestowed Shisui with Kotoamatsukami, a Genjutsu that can subtly modify other's will according to Shisui's liking…

.

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After a short silence, Kuroto said, "Actually you can try to talk to Itachi, you must have few helpers from the Uchiha Clan that support you."

Shisui was puzzled, "But why does it have to be Itachi?"

"As you said, Itachi is going to be the next Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan, if he agrees with what we are doing, I think you will also feel somewhat relieved." – said Kuroto with a casual expression.

This is obviously not the real reason.

The main reason why Kuroto wants to do so is to recruit Itachi into Amatsukami, no one can deny that Itachi is the best candidate to be a member of Amatsukami, so how can Kuroto let go of Itachi?

And recruiting Itachi is worth the effort.

However, Shisui obviously doesn't share the same idea, and was insistent on his opinion, "Kuroto-san, I think your idea is unrealistic, and this can expose our actions."

Seeing Shisui's adamant expression, Kuroto sighed and didn't put push too much, "Maybe we will consider this topic when he grows up a little, right now the kid is still young."

Shisui nodded.

Kuroto on the other hand was silent.

Shisui probably doesn't yet understand his importance in Itachi's heart.

And this is also not strange.

For the majority of people, measuring their importance in the hearts of others is difficult, and very few can accurately guess.

The Uchiha Clan in this regard is obviously very different.

Among the Uchiha, it is easy to judge a person's importance in the other's heart. If someone activates his Sharingan or evolves the Sharingan into Mangekyou Sharingan upon that person's death, then that means that the person has irreplaceable importance in the awakener's heart.

This has been proven in many instances.

In the case of Obito, awakening the Sharingan and Mangekyou Sharingan signifies Kakashi and Rin's importance in Obito's heart.

Similarly, witnessing the death of Shisui awakened Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan, signifying Shisui's importance in Itachi's heart.

And it wouldn't even be wrong to say that Shisui's death was the fuse that Itachi lost confidence to solve the conflict between the village and Uchiha Clan peacefully, leaving him with no other option but to destroy the clan to preserve their honor and for the sake of his younger brother Uchiha Sasuke.

Putting aside that matter, both Kuroto and Shisui didn't mention Itachi anymore and started to plan out the strategy on how to deal with Uchiha Ryota and Uchiha Hideki.

Firstly, this action must be carried out in the name of Amatsukami.

Only in this way, will the Uchiha Clan deeply feel the threat that Amatsukami poses and actively try to deal with Amatsukami, even if they have to resort to uniting themselves with the village, and vice versa.

Therefore, not only the two said Uchiha have to be resolved easily and neatly but there must also be some eyewitness, and the eyewitness should be a member of the Uchiha Clan, whose words can be trusted by the fellow Uchiha clansmen.

While the two of them were trying to devise a good enough strategy, Shisui said with a frowned expression, "But the problem we have is that, although both of them are brothers, they no longer live together, also they are mostly busy with their respective duties and rarely meet out of public sight. If we want to kill both of them without much attention at the same time leaving an eye witness it wouldn't be easy."

Kuroto was also thinking.

This issue can naturally be resolved if Shisui initiates a meeting with the two of them, but this can leave clues that might get him exposed and cause more trouble in the future, therefore, it is best not to leave any trace that might point towards Shisui to be the culprit.

Even after a lot of thinking, the two couldn't find a good method to get the best of both worlds so Kuroto simply said, "Let's just pick one first!"

Shisui also nodded, "I also think that this is the best approach, but which target do we choose first, Ryota or Hideki?"

"Let's start with Uchiha Hideki first." – said Kuroto, "Isn't Uchiha Ryota very arrogant and unstable? So, we just have to start with his brother first, with the kind of personality Ryota has, he will not let this matter slide and pursue us tirelessly with all his effort, when that happens, we will have many opportunities to deal with him."

"Alright, I will keep track of Uchiha Hideki's real-time movements, as well his possible whereabouts in the near future, so we can have a good enough opportunity to start with him." – said Shisui.

Kuroto nodded, and after discussing some more details, Shisui left.

With Shisui gone, Kuroto also returned to his home, took out a map, and placed it on the table.

This is a map of Konohagakure and the surroundings that Kuroto personally drew a few days ago, although not very accurate it is more than enough for reference purposes.

Studying the map carefully, Kuroto frowned, 'There is simply no place in the surroundings of the village that can be used for the hiding purpose!'

Kuroto wants to find a suitable spot to build a dungeon-type prison where he can hold the Uchiha clansmen captive. He obviously has no plans to relieve them so easily by just killing them, at least not until he can exploit them as much as possible.

And Kuroto has no qualms in torturing them to achieve his objective.

In Kuroto's view, as long as the Uchiha are alive they are much more useful than when they are dead, after all, Sharingan within the eye socket of an Uchiha is more precious than when it is placed in a nutrition jar as a collection.

Kuroto believes that alive Uchiha Clansmen can be used to farm out Mangekyou Sharingan, compared to the dead Uchiha that leave nothing but Sharingan.

For this reason, Kuroto even feels that Shimura Danzo is a bit stupid and too short-sighted, he might have thought that he managed to get all the resources of the Uchiha Clan by killing all the Uchiha Clansmen and digging out their Sharingan.

But in fact, he didn't.

The better method would have been to let them live and farm out Mangekyou Sharingan users by various means.

When thinking of all the possibilities, Kuroto's mind flashed with all the possible torture he is going to put the Ryota and Hideki Brothers into.

Kuroto also knows another easy way to make Uchiha Clansmen awaken Mangekyou Sharingan.

The method is very simple with guaranteed success, all he has to do is chose some Uchiha with a fully matured Sharingan and has someone they love dearly.

Then use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to deepen those feelings multiple times, making them believe that nobody is more valuable than that person, just like Obito felt towards Rin.

And in the final step, kill the lover right before the very eyes of the subject.

Kuroto can hundred percent guarantee that this method would definitely awaken Mangekyou Sharingan.

But Kuroto wasn't going to use this approach.

It's simply because this method is too twisted, not to mention that he will be playing with the feeling of others, but it also bears a great amount of risk, and finally, it would leave a great amount of guilt even on the conscience of Kuroto who has always pursued self-interest over everything.

Besides, Kuroto is also sure that Shisui would never agree to this approach as he will definitely feel that this method is too wicked, as even Shimura Danzo isn't nearly cruel enough.

Putting that aside, torturing out the Ryota and Hideki brothers is something he is definitely going to do to get a pair of eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and he has no qualms about it whatsoever!

.

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Looking at the mountain before him, Kuroto had a thoughtful look.

Konoha has always been more prosperous than other Shinobi Villages therefore it is difficult to find a suitable hidden place that would not attract any attention.

In the past few days, Kuroto has visited and explored many spots and finally stopped in front of this big mountain.

This mountain is located about forty miles at the southwest of the Konoha Village, therefore, it seems to be the best choice, and since the distance is neither very much nor very low, therefore it is perfectly suitable as it would only take a very short time for Kuroto to go back and forth between the village and the mountain.

"Let's set up the dungeon prison here." – Kuroto murmured softly.

This dungeon prison is not only going to be used for the imprisonment of the kidnapped Uchiha brothers but will also be a torture house for them, therefore it must be hidden very well.

Since this is a torture house and the subjects are going to be Uchiha, so anything can happen here.

There is always a possibility that the captured Uchiha may awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan while in the prison, so the prison should be far from the village, otherwise, if something like Susanoo suddenly appeared in the periphery of Konoha, it will immediately alarm the villagers, and the prison will be exposed, which is something Kuroto can't have.

With this decision, Kuroto activated the Tenseigan and observed the Mountain. He found a natural cave going deep in the mountain, and it seems that there was only one small passage that connects it to the outside.

Originally, Kuroto intended to dig a hole leading to the center of the mountain, but now that he found this cave; there was no longer any need for the extra hard work, and he only needs to shape the inner part of this mountain to his liking.

Nodding to himself, Kuroto condensed a Truth-Seeking Orb and added Tenseigan Chakra to it while holding it in his right arm, 'Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!'

Immediately a small Golden Chakra Sword condensed in Kuroto's hand and he used it to cut the rock formation.

In the face of the Golden Chakra Sword, the hard rock formations were like tofu and were easily shredded into small pieces.

With just casual waves of his hand, Kuroto continued to adjust and shape the passage leading to the belly of the mountain, it didn't even take him much longer to do that.

Finally entering the belly of the mountain, Kuroto shaped this area quite carefully and began to plan the layout of the dungeon prison.

…

A few days later while Kuroto was almost done with setting up the layout of the dungeon prison, Shisui and Kuroto again secretly met up.

As soon as they met, Kuroto asked, "So, do you have the information?"

Shisui nodded, "I have confirmed that Uchiha Hideki will be going out of the village tomorrow, this is the perfect opportunity to ambush him."

Kuroto spread the map on the ground and asked, "Where will he be going? Which route will he take?"

Looking at the map, Shisui drew a red line highlighting the possible route Uchiha Hideki will be taking.

Observing the route, Kuroto's gaze quickly landed on one of the spots and he said, "He is going to the Sora-Ku?"

Sora-Ku is an abandoned city that is also the hometown of ninja cats.

The ninja cats are very good at forging all kinds of ninja tools, and their tools are especially loved by the members of the Uchiha Clan, and these ninja cats are also the general summon beasts of Uchiha Clan members.

Shinichi's summon ninja cat; Kasai is also part of Sora-ka.

Hearing Kuroto's question, Shisui nodded, "Although I have yet to confirm the purpose of his trip, it is most likely related to the next shipping of war supplies, and there might also be something extra he has to enquire from Nekobaa."

Kuroto nodded, he wasn't much surprised and asked the next question, "And who do you plan to be the witness?"

For Kuroto it doesn't really matter where they ambush and kidnap Uchiha Hideki as long as there is a suitable witness so that the blame falls on Amatsukami, therefore a suitable witness is a must.

Shisui again pointed at the map and said, "Here is the Shurikenjutsu training field of the Uchiha Clan, and he will be passing through this training field according to the route, this field is located outside the village but is also counted in the Uchiha Clan territory, a perfect spot."

Kuroto said, "So, the plan is to ambush him in the radius of the training field so that the young members of the Uchiha Clan who would just happen to be practicing Shurikenjutsu can act as the witness of the incident and identify the culprit?"

Shisui nodded.

"Alright, then we will go with this plan!" – Kuroto said and the two finalized all the details.

…

Next day around sunset.

Kuroto and Shisui both wearing the disguise of Amatsukami were hiding in the forest near the training field.

Looking at the different disguise that Kuroto wore, Shisui asked curiously, "Kuroto-san, why are you wearing a different disguise than the last time?"

"Ahem, remember to not use 'Kuroto-san,' as for your question, this disguise is that of the leader of Amatsukami, and you will call me 'Yama,' not 'Suijin' while I am wearing this. 'Suijin' will be used for the one I wore the last time, understand?"

Shisui was a bit puzzled, "Why play a different role?"

Kuroto casually said, "Since Amatsukami is an organization, so obviously it must have more than just 2-3 members, right? Besides, the combat method I will be using while playing 'Yama' will be different, so I am using a different disguise!"

Shisui nodded in understanding, "I guess that explains it."

If Amatsukami has 2 to 3 members then people will eventually get suspicious over time and doubt whether Amatsukami is really what it appears to be, so using a different disguise works, moreover, it will also have a deterrent effect.

As time passed the sun gradually disappeared below the western horizon and dusk arrived.

Looking at the sky getting past twilight and yet there was no sign of Uchiha Hideki coming here, Yama asked Homusubi, "Are you sure he will be going to Sora-Ku today?"

Homusubi was also a bit uncertain, "I did hear about it, maybe he got a little late due to some work, should be coming any second."

Looking around, Yama asked again, "Is it possible that he took some other route?"

Homusubi shook his head, "Probably not." – He was going to speak a bit more when suddenly a figure appeared in their field of vision.

Yama quickly said, "Someone is here!"

Homusubi nodded, "It's Uchiha Hideki!"

As Homusubi said the figure that suddenly appeared in their field of vision was none other than Uchiha Hideki.

Currently, he wasn't wearing the uniform of the Konoha Military Police Force, but ordinary clothes without any clan symbol, and he was silently walking through the forest.

.

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Whoosh… Whoosh…

As soon as Yama and Homusubi identified the person, both of them disappeared from their hiding spot and appeared on the two sides of Uchiha Hideki.

"You are…" – Uchiha Hideki who suddenly noticed the two strangers surrounding him was a bit taken aback, initially he thought that they are either Anbu or Root shinobi, but when he noticed the appearance of the two, Hideki was shocked, "W-what!? Amatsukami? Are you the members of Amatsukami!?"

Uchiha Hideki; similar to his brother Uchiha Ryota wasn't part of the siege unit led by Uchiha Fugaku a few days ago.

However, as a Jonin and a top-level member of the Konoha Military Police Force, Hideki is aware of the intelligence of Amatsukami, and the available information about their members.

Therefore, Hideki is aware that Homusubi is an unidentified former member of the Uchiha Clan, not only does he have the Mangekyou Sharingan but is also hostile towards the Uchiha Clan and Konohagakure for unknown reasons.

When Hideki thought that even Uchiha Shisui who also has the Mangekyou Sharingan was defeated by Homusubi and the Patriarch Uchiha Fugaku along with other elites of the Konoha Military Police Force also couldn't capture Homusubi, Hideki couldn't help but panic.

His Sharingan immediately activated and all he could think of was to find a way to get out of here!

His entire purpose of disguising himself today was to go to Soru-Ku and get the supplies for the Coup, therefore, Hideki was also worried that if he got captured, then there is a possibility that even this intelligence might be exposed.

Yama saw that Uchiha Hideki activated the Sharingan and murmured just lightly enough for Hideki to catch that, "So it's a fully matured Sharingan, huh?"

Hideki was obviously surprised and thought, 'His goal is my Sharingan?'

Hideki was obviously angry at the blatant disrespect, someone eyeing the Sharingan so openly, and he snarled in anger, "You bastards, you dare to try to steal the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan!"

Although Hideki was angered, he still had the calmness of a Jonin, he knew that he probably wasn't strong enough to deal with the enemy so he immediately leaped back and fired an emergency signal flare in the sky, this was the best approach he could think of at this moment.

Whiiiiisssstttllleeeeeeee...… Boom…

The red light of the emergency flare traveled to a high altitude with a whistling sound and exploded in the night sky.

Yama and Homusubi obviously didn't stop Hideki as they needed a witness and were now waiting for an Uchiha member to arrive here.

At this time, Uchiha Hideki breathed a sigh of relief that he successfully launched the signal flare, then carefully observed the movements of the two enemies standing opposite to him.

'The person with the fire mask should be Homusubi but who is the other one? He can't be Suijin as Suijin has a water mask, wait, that mask… it can't be… i-is he the one, the leader of Amatsukami, Yama?'

No one knows what amount of strength one must have to make freaks like Homusubi and Suijin into subordinates?

So, if that other person is Yama as he guessed, then Uchiha Hideki couldn't even begin to fathom how he will get out of here!

'No… I can't stand here anymore, other… otherwise, I am afraid I will be incapacitated without even putting up a resistance!' – calming down his sudden panic, Hideki started devising a strategy to find some way to break out of here.

Quickly printing the hand seals, Hideki used the Jutsu, "Fire Release: Fireball Technique!"

Instantly his chest bulged, and the scorching hot fire was released out of his mouth towards Homusubi and Yama.

Yama was unperturbed by Hideki's Fire style Jutsu and just stretched out his right hand lazily, "Chakra Absorption!"

As soon as Yama stretched out his hand, all the fire of the Fireball Technique was attracted towards him and disappeared instantly without leaving any signs of damage.

"W-what…?" – Uchiha Hideki was stunned, and his already racing heart was almost close to exploding.

He couldn't understand what the enemy did, 'He just stretched out his hand, and my Jutsu was sucked in, but how is that even possible, it couldn't be that he can absorb them, right?' – Rather than a question, it was more of a reassurance to himself that such a thing isn't possible, but deep down inside he knew that was exactly the case.

Why?

Because he could see the chakra in the fireball entering Yama's body!

Although he knew that just a fireball technique wouldn't do much damage to the enemy in front of him, he still didn't expect that the attack was resolved in this way.

Not to mention Uchiha Hideki, even Homusubi was shocked and looked at Yama with a strange expression under the mask.

Even with the Mangekyou Sharingan, Homusubi could hardly understand the principle of such an advanced technique!

Yama maintained that indifferent and almighty aura that the leader of Amatsukami should have and spoke in a cold tone, "Struggling is futile, just dig out the Sharingan by yourself and hand it over, if you do so, I might consider letting you leave here alive, after all, pointlessly dying is meaningless, don't you think?"

Hideki's anger was off the charts, "You bastard! How dare you ask an Uchiha to dug out his own eyes!"

Sharingan is the pride of the Uchiha Clan and asking them to dig out their own eyes means asking them to give up their pride and honor, it's blatant disrespect, and a perfect method to make an Uchiha angry, which is exactly what Yama intended to do.

While Hideki was cursing in anger, Yama's gaze was directed towards the direction of the training field, because in his Tenseigan vision he caught sight of a young figure rushing here.

Noticing the face of the young figure, Yama was stunned, "Hmmm, isn't that him? My what a coincidence?"

…

Let's go a few minutes back.

On the other side of the training field, Uchiha Sasuke who is around four years old was sitting on a broken tree trunk with a disappointed expression.

Today his elder brother Uchiha Itachi agreed to help him in Shuriken throwing practice, and he was very excited and rushed to the agreed training field 3 hours before the agreed time.

Realizing that he was a bit too early, Sasuke passed some time by casually throwing Shuriken to the targets, waiting for the time to pass, slowly time passed, 30 minutes… 1 hour… 2 hours… 3 hours… 4 hours… and before he knew it, it was already past dusk… yet there was no sign of Itachi… Sasuke was disappointed and depressed.

His tummy growled in hunger, Sasuke considered whether he should go back, but he hesitated, 'what if nii-san comes and I am gone?' this thought has been stopping him for the past few hours…

Yet there was no sign of Itachi.

Finally understanding that nii-san wouldn't be coming, Sasuke got up and started walking towards the direction of his home, when suddenly the emergency flare caught his attention.

As the second son of the Uchiha Patriarch, although he hasn't experienced the horrors of a battlefield like that of his elder brother Itachi, Sasuke still understands some basics and knows what a signal flare means.

He also knows that he is not even an academy student and therefore, doesn't stand a chance against a real shinobi with the meager strength he has, so, he must not get close to the direction where the flared was fired from.

Because rather than helping, he would be a burden in a fight.

But curiosity in his heart and the innocence of a child, who has yet to experience the cruelty and danger of a battlefield got the better of him, he couldn't restrain himself and decided to see what's happening, obviously from a distance.

Running… and running all the way, Sasuke finally arrived near the battle site but somehow lost his balance, and in an attempt to prevent himself from falling, he forgot to control his pace and rushed out from the bushes, finally arriving at the scene of the crime.

Uchiha Hideki noticed that the help really arrived and he was a little relieved but frowned when he saw the young appearance of his helper, then, he was panicked when he realized that it was a child, and he couldn't help but exclaim when he saw the face of the child, "Sasuke-san, don't come here, run, this place is dangerous!"

Even Shisui in Homusubi's disguise was taken aback, similar to Uchiha Hideki, he didn't expect that the Uchiha clansmen who rushed over here turned out to be Uchiha Sasuke, the younger son of the patriarch!

But Yama obviously didn't care, as long as the witness was a member of the Uchiha Clan, then that's all that matters, besides, the person being Uchiha Sasuke is a good sign, with this Uchiha Fugaku will take Amatsukami more seriously, so he hurriedly signaled Homusubi, "Start."

Homusubi nodded, and his figure disappeared from his current spot and suddenly appeared in front of Uchiha Hideki, the speed was so fast that anyone other than Yama couldn't even catch that figure.

As soon as Homusubi looked into Hideki's eyes, Hideki was immediately trapped inside a Genjutsu and fell on the ground with a muffled sound.

With Uchiha Hideki solved easily, Yama focused his attention on Uchiha Sasuke.

Slowly walking towards Sasuke with a bit of intimidating aura, the distance between the two of them decreased.

Sasuke was obviously panicked and frightened.

Under the heavy pressure released by Yama, Sasuke slowly started taking backward steps and fell to the ground on his butt, while trying to retreat backward, he said with a trembling voice, "Y-you… w-whoever you are… s-stay away, d-don't come near m-me!"

.

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Even an elite Jonin could hardly resist against Yama, and the young Sasuke, who has yet to even start his training as a Shinobi was really frightened.

Yama didn't care about Uchiha Sasuke's panic and walked towards him step-by-step.

Sasuke could hardly retreat backward and spoke with a trembling voice, "Y-you… w-what are you g-going to d-do?"

Yama clutched Sasuke's head with his right hand and lifted him in the air, staring at the kid's black eyes, Yama spoke with a cold tone, "You know kid, coming here headfirst was the wrong decision, but it appears you are lucky, you know why? Because you are a pathetic kid, didn't even awaken the Sharingan yet? Seems to be useless to me."

Sasuke's face was red in nervousness, he clutched Yama's hand with both his hands and tried breaking free, but his struggle was not even worth any attention for Yama.

Homusubi was also looking at Sasuke with his face full of worries.

Although he knew that Yama is just putting an act and wouldn't actually hurt the kid, he was nonetheless worried that this experience may leave a trauma on the kid's immature mind, after all, Sasuke is still too young, and hasn't yet experienced the cruelty of a battlefield.

At this time, Yama held Sasuke by the neck, and lightly whispered in his ear, "You appear to be so pathetic that you aren't even worth killing, maybe you should be glad and be happy of your incompetence!"

Sasuke who was struggling and flailing his legs in panic tried to punch Yama with whatever strength he could muster but all that felt was a tickle.

"Heh, I guess you don't even know how to punch someone, right? Don't worry I am going to show you, once you experience the pain, I think you will never forget how to land a heavy hit!" – saying that sentence he closed his right hand and hit a punch on the kid's face, the strength used was just right so that the kid would feel pain but Yama also made sure that it doesn't leave any permanent damage.

"Aaahhh…!"

However, even this punch was too heavy for Sasuke, and his consciousness started to get blurry.

Yama ignored this and hit another punch in the kid's gut, causing him to choke out saliva mixed with blood.

Sasuke was now almost unconscious and thrown at the side like trash.

The strength again was just enough to not hurt too him badly but just enough to hurt the young Sasuke.

The main reason Yama did such a thing was to create an outline for people to understand that Amatsukami is a really cruel and dangerous organization such that they remain on edge and be vary of its members, sort of like a deterrent effect.

If someone can be cruel to such a young child, then it is unknown where their limits lie.

Otherwise, if he had just ignored Uchiha Sasuke and left the kid to his devices then not only the village but even the Uchiha Clan might feel suspicious about this whole kidnapping, after all, the obvious response would be to immediately kill the kid to not leave any witnesses.

As for the other reason, Yama decided to put some early pressure on the Uchiha Sasuke to stimulate his growth, Yama is obviously going to make sure that the Uchiha Clan is not annihilated, which means, Itachi wouldn't become a criminal, therefore there has to be someone else, someone towards whom Uchiha Sasuke's hatred would be directed.

As for why he is doing so?

Isn't it obvious?

Similar to Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke is also the Child of Prophecy!

Hyuga Kuroto is confident in himself, but this doesn't stop him to ensure more options in the case things changes and takes a turn for the worst-case scenario.

The plot has long since deviated from the original story, and there is no telling what the future look might like, therefore, the more options you have in your hand, the better.

If the situation gets too critical then Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke will come in handy as the trump card, to save the day.

Besides, the enemies aren't limited to just the other shinobi villages and Akatsuki, there are unknown numbers of Otsutsuki clan members spread out throughout the stars and it is unknown when they might come and attack Earth to plunder the Chakra.

As for the question that this might leave a shadow in Sasuke's heart?

He isn't worried, the term 'Child of Prophecy' explains it all, the halo of the protagonist will help Sasuke overcome all the challenges.

Suddenly, Yama noticed that a lot of Chakra signs were appearing in the vision of his Tenseigan.

Understanding that a large number of shinobi were coming here because of the emergency signal flare, Yama didn't waste any more time and used the Gravitational Traction of Rein Wheel Pull to lift unconscious Uchiha Hideki in the air and nodded towards Homusubi, "Let's go, we will follow the plan!"

Homusubi glanced at Sasuke's painful appearance, nodded with a hesitant look, and disappeared from his spot.

…

Uchiha Clan Grounds.

Uchiha Itachi, who just came back after completing the mission was walking towards the direction of the shuriken training field when he found out that Sasuke has yet to return home.

Itachi couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of making his brother wait for too long.

The fact that Sasuke loves him so much really warms Itachi's heart.

Spark…. Whistleeeeeee… boom…

While still on the way to the training field, Itachi noticed the signal flare in the sky.

Looking up at the flare, Itachi's onyx eyes shrank, because he realized that the flare is an emergency signal of an enemy attack, moreover, the direction the flare was fired from seems to be very close to the agreed spot.

"Sasuke!" – The first thought that came to Itachi's mind, was that Sasuke is in danger.

Without wasting even a second, Itachi's figure disappeared from his spot and rushed towards the direction of the emergency flare using the body flicker technique.

Similar to Itachi, many Uchiha Shinobi discovered the emergency flare and immediately rushed in that direction, so the number of people rushing towards that direction became a large number.

Not only the members of the Konoha Military Police Force, but even many of the other Konoha Shinobi also rushed in that direction, upon noticing the emergency flare.

In everyone's understanding, the red flare is only used in the case of an enemy attack, the last time it was used within Konoha was during the Kyuubi's attack, and the mere thought of something like that happening again frightened everyone.

It wasn't long after Homusubi and Yama disappeared, and a large number of ninjas arrived at the place where Uchiha Hideki was ambushed.

The sight that greeted them wasn't that of an enemy attack, nor was there signs of the presence of any enemy, just a young child who knelt on the ground and choked out blood.

A non-Uchiha shinobi stepped forward and questioned the child while using Iryo Ninjutsu on the kid, "Hey kid, was it you who used the emergency flare?"

Because there were no signs of any fighting, so all he could think of was that the child might have accidentally fired the emergency flare.

It was at this moment that Uchiha Itachi arrived, seeing Sasuke kneeling on the ground and trying to get up but failing, he hurriedly went towards his brother, and checked his condition, Itachi noticed that Sasuke was not severely injured, and some of his injuries were already treated and sighed in relieve, but he didn't drop his guard and watched the surroundings carefully.

Whooosh… Whooosh… Whooosh…

The ninjas continued to rush here, and everyone surrounded Uchiha Sasuke, their eyes focused on him, seemingly waiting for the answer.

Itachi squatted down beside Sasuke and asked gently while helping his brother stand up, "Sasuke, what happened just now?"

"Nii… Nii-San… Uwahhhh…!" – Seeing Itachi, Sasuke rushed forward and buried his head in Itachi's chest, the tears he has been suppressing couldn't be held back anymore, and flowed out.

Itachi was obviously a little taken aback, but he calmed down and gently rubbed his brother's back to soothe him, "Alright, don't cry Sasuke, I am here, aren't I? And aren't you a strong boy? Can you tell me what happened? Who fired the emergency flare?"

For a while, Sasuke continued crying and he could hardly speak anything understandable.

Itachi didn't put pressure on Sasuke and helped him calm down. Itachi could see that his brother has experienced something terrible based on trembling and the painful look he has.

So, he didn't want to pressure his brother.

After he calmed down a little, Sasuke who still had the snot and tears on his face, spoke. "T-thele wele t-two stlange people cough-cough… with… with s-scaly mask… a-and they attacked... unkle Hideki… they… they were very powerful and defeated Unkle Hideki easily…and… cough… a-a-and they… they alsho p-punchd me hard in the face and tummy…uwwwaaahhhhh… it was scary… uwwaaahhhh….."

(Translator's note: Okay that was a bit too much, I don't think Sasuke would cry such pitifully… but anyway, let's just assume he did.)

"What!?" – The Uchiha shinobi were all taken aback.

Initially, they all thought that it was probably the young Sasuke who fired the signal flare because he encountered some dangerous creature in the forest.

But now that they heard that Uchiha Hideki was attacked, they all realized the seriousness of the matter.

Even Itachi was taken aback, but he concealed his surprise very well and calmly listened to Sasuke, when Sasuke was finished, Itachi spoke, "It's alright Sasuke, I am here now, nothing will happen, can you tell me what kind of appearance did the attackers have? Did you see them?"

How can Sasuke forget the appearance of someone who might have inflicted some nightmares in the kid's subconscious? So he spoke and described the outfit that the two of them were wearing, "B-both of them were wearing black cloaks with strange golden patterns on them and a strange mask to cover their faces!"

"Black Cloak with strange golden patterns, and a strange Mask?" – Itachi's face sank, it wouldn't take a genius to guess the identity of the attackers.

To confirm his guess, Itachi asked, "Can you remember what type of masks they were wearing?"

Sasuke nodded while wiping away the snot with his sleeve spoke, "One wore a scary black and white color evil mask, and the other one who defeated Uncle Hideki wore a fire patterned mask!"

"Sure enough, it's Amatsukami!" – came out the voice from the canopy of a nearby tree.

Attracted by the voice, everyone turned their heads and found the figure of Uchiha Fugaku standing there with a gloomy look.

.

.

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"Patriarch!"

"Fugaku-sama is here!" – Seeing the arrival of Uchiha Fugaku, all the Uchiha Shinobi immediately felt that they had the backbone, especially the ones who have fought against Amatsukami, they knew how terrible the members of Amatsukami could be and the people were finally a little ease.

When everyone looked at Fugaku, he slowly jumped down from the tree and walked towards Sasuke and Itachi at the center of the circle with a sullen face.

When he noticed his father coming in, Sasuke clutched his stomach and stood up, "O-Otou-sama!"

Looking at the tears and snot on Sasuke's face, Fugaku's expression hardened.

Undoubtedly, Sasuke's performance made him very disappointed, crying is an emotion that a shinobi must never have, especially an Uchiha, no matter how worse the situation becomes, an Uchiha must never cry!

Shifting his gaze towards Itachi, Fugaku was relieved.

Itachi's performance made him satisfied, Fugaku could see that Itachi didn't lose his calm or vigilance from beginning to end and only asked Sasuke the key questions to find out what exactly happened here and who was the assailant.

'That's my boy!'

Thinking so, Fugaku turned towards Sasuke with a frowned expression and said, "What are you crying for Sasuke?"

Sasuke quickly wiped all the tears and snot, but the grievances and pain from his face were hard to conceal.

After Sasuke was done crying, Fugaku ordered, "Tell me everything you saw and heard, word to word!"

Sasuke, who has wanted his father's attention, quickly narrated everything, even the parts he couldn't remember because of the blurry consciousness were somehow remembered and told.

After listening to Sasuke's account, Fugaku thought, 'The one wearing the fire pattered mask is Homusubi and the description of the person wearing the black and white mask clearly matches with that of Yama, the leader of Amatsukami, but there is something odd here…'

Looking at Sasuke, Fugaku questioned, "Why did they not attack you?"

Sasuke pursed his lips and said, "T-the man wearing the black and white mask punched me hard in the face and tummy."

Fugaku was unmoved and stared at Sasuke as if asking, 'and?'

Seeing his father's cold gaze, Sasuke could only lower his head and add reluctantly, "The… the person who punched me s-said that… Since I have not awakened the Sh-Sharingan yet... s-so I am not… not even qualified to die in his hands…"

After listening to Sasuke's reason, Fugaku thought, 'Even if they were after the Sharingan, them withdrawing after kidnapping just Hideki is strange, was this just a coincidence or intentional?'

Whoosh… Whoosh…

Fugaku didn't have much time to think as the Anbu also started arriving at the scene.

Finally, Uchiha Ryota also rushed in.

When he heard that his elder brother was attacked and missing, Ryota was shocked and angry, and said to the Fugaku, "Patriarch, let's arrange manpower to rescue Hideki-nii-san and hunt down Amatsukami!"

Fugaku glanced at everyone and ordered, "Haruka, take Sasuke back to home and get his wounds treated, Ryo, give a brief over to Shisui about the matter and call him here, finally, Itachi, report the situation here to Sandaime-sama, and request him to send the support!"

In the face of Homusubi and Suijin, Fugaku isn't confident whether he would be able to easily defeat them, moreover, there is also Yama, the mysterious leader of Amatsukami who should definitely be much stronger than the others considering that he is the leader, and finally, there is also that mysterious fourth member with Wind Chakra Nature who is also stronger than Homusubi and Suijin as Shisui informed him.

Fugaku is not sure whether they would be able to fight Amatsukami even with Shisui tagging along, therefore, support from the village is a must.

The other Uchiha ninja heard that Patriarch asked for support from Sandaime and they all frowned.

But when they all thought just how terrible Amatsukami could be, they all had to admit that the Patriarch is right, and this arrangement would be the safest, besides, Uchiha Clan is also part of Konohagakure until the Coup is set off, right!?

…

In the Dungeon Prison built by Kuroto.

Uchiha Hideki slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a place that he has never seen.

"Where am I?" – this was the question plaguing him.

He couldn't exactly remember what happened before he was here, he didn't know for how long has he been unconscious.

Hideki tried moving; only to find that he was tied to a stone pillar that restricted all his movements, and he couldn't even exert pitiful of his strength.

Understanding that it wouldn't be so easy to get out of here, he tried remembering the last thing he could, "That's right, I was going to Sora-Ku, and then Amatsukami members ambushed me… then there was Sasuke-san… and then I can't remember anything…"

At this time, a person walked out of the shadowy dark corner and spoke as if he was muttering to himself, "Hmm, he woke up so soon, well that's a surprise, is it because his resistance is really good or because the sleeping poison was insufficient? Oh well, it doesn't really matter I guess…"

Uchiha Hideki stared at the figure in front of him and realized that it was Yama, and his anger was brought back, he roared, "What do you want to do!?"

Kuroto who was wearing the Yama disguise naturally didn't care about Uchiha Hideki's anger and after looking at him up and down as if he was observing a tool, he said lightly, "It's very obvious Uchiha Hideki, for a while, I have been interested in the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan, so I thought why not just bring over an Uchiha and conduct some experiments on him, and you know the rest of the story, I hope you will cooperate with me for the next few days because I promise that you will be living in hell from now on, and it wouldn't be pretty as they tell you in Academy!"

"Humph, you bastard, so it turns out that you are just another one of those greedy ignorant people who covet the power of our Sharingan!" – After a snort, he went on to roar, "You don't understand what you have done! The Uchiha never forgets, just you wait, when I get out of here, I will skin you alive!"

Hideki said while struggling, and his chakra was flaring erratically, even the Sharingan was activated, three tomoe spinning in the red copy wheel.

Yama smiled at Hideki's struggle as his very intention was to make Uchiha Hideki angry, "Oh, you seem to be really angry, but too bad that you won't be able to do anything!" – Which was adding oil to the fire.

And boy did it have the right effect, Uchiha Hideki yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'll kill you I SWEAR!"

"No-no, Uchiha Hideki, it's not good to have false hope, you can't even move or lift your finger, can you? So how are you going to do that?" questioned Yama with a mocking chuckle.

Hideki has noticed that he has been unable to exert even a little bit of his strength and this has been troubling him, he tried circulating his chakra to see if he could move but it still didn't work, "Just what did you do to me? I can't exert even a little bit of strength."

Yama nodded, "That's good, that's good, you are finally starting to realize how utterly vulnerable you are? As for your question, all I did was use the strongest type of paralytic poison that I concocted not too long ago, in fact, you are just the second test subject, not to mention the first human I have used it upon, and the effect seems pretty good, you should be glad that you were useful enough, but I have to say, your poison resistance is a bit too high so I had to actually give you double dose to make sure that you don't move anytime soon."

Even with all the strength he put, there was nothing he was able to do, and asked while panting, "You said you wanted my Sharingan, right? So, you had it all along after you kidnapped me, why didn't you just dug my eyes out and kill me yet?"

Yama was about to answer this question, but his gaze matched with Hideki whose Sharingan's spinning speed increased.

And Yama's figure stopped in his position like a stone.

Hideki was joyed by this and thought to himself, 'Did it work?'

To check whether the Genjutsu he used has worked, Hideki ordered Yama, "Come here and untie me!"

Yama slowly started walking towards Hideki step-by-step.

Hideki still couldn't believe that this Genjutsu worked, sweat beads flowed down his face in nervousness and his heart was beating very fast, all he could think of was how to escape from here!

As for skinning him out alive?

Are you kidding?

Hideki knows that he isn't strong enough, and he wouldn't waste an opportunity to escape, who knows whether he could take the enemy by surprise again.

"Very good now untie me."

By now, Yama was just a step away from Hideki, he lifts his right hand to untie the rope, his hand slowly closes the distance and just when he was close to the rope, the speed of the hand increases several folds and lands on Hideki's guts, delivering a hard punch in the stomach.

The strength used was too much, and Hideki could feel several of his ribs cracking.

"Cough-cough… y-you bastard I'll kill you!"

"It was a good try but it's a pity that Genjutsu hardly works upon me, and your simple Sharingan Genjutsu is too pitiful!"

Hideki couldn't help but curse Yama, "Damn you bastard! How could you resist the Genjutsu of the Sharingan?"

"Sharingan is not invincible, so why can't I resist?" – Yama spoke with a smirk and added, "You can try again after you awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan, maybe that will work!"

By now, Hideki has lost his initial rage and anger because he realized that he was in a helpless situation, but when he thought of the person standing before him, Hideki couldn't help but speak coldly, "If I awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, I will make sure that killing is the first thing I do!"

"In that case, I must look forward to that day!" – Yama said and stepped forward again but this time he printed hand seals.

Uchiha Hideki frowned and asked, "What are you doing!?"

Yama who completed the hand seals didn't answer directly, just placed one hand over Hideki's chest and spoke, "Fuin: Four Symbols Seal: Chakra Sealing!"

Followed by his words, a series of black inky symbols spread on Uchiha Hideki's body, and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared as if never there.

And the next thing he knew, Hideki was flabbergasted to find that all his chakra was drained, moreover, he couldn't even refine anymore, "Y-you… how can you use Uzumaki Fuinjutsu!?"

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It is impossible to restrain a Jonin one such as Uchiha Hideki by simply relying on drugs.

What's more, Uchiha Hideki's drug resistance seems to be a bit higher than normal, therefore simple paralysis and sleeping agents aren't enough to ensure that he wouldn't run away.

And Four-Symbols Seal is not only one of the best Fuinjutsu to seal the Chakra of a Shinobi but also the technique Hyuga Kuroto is best at.

With the Four-Symbols Seal applied, whatever Chakra Uchiha Hideki's will be able to refine will constantly be drained therefore sealing his Chakra, such that the drugs he is injected with will become more effective, cutting all the possibility of his escape.

After confirming that the mechanism of the Fuinjutsu was working exactly as he intended, Yama again started printed the hand seals.

By now, Uchiha Hideki could hardly maintain his Sharingan because of the Chakra drain and was more frightened, "Just what are you doing all this for!?"

Yama did not answer, and after completing the hand seals ha again reached out and pressed his hand on Uchiha Hideki's chest, "Fuinjutsu: Contract Seal: Seal!"

Followed by his words, the sealing symbols spread on Uchiha Hideki's chest and instantly severed his contract with the summoning world.

In the shinobi world, there are all sorts of strange summons.

In addition to the most common type of animal summons used by shinobi for summoning beasts, there are also Communication Summoning, Weapons Summoning, and Reverse Summoning that can be used by summoning beasts on their contract partners, as well as summoning used by a ninja on another ninja.

And if Uchiha Hideki's summon beast has the ability to perform the reverse summoning, then it is possible that he will be able to use Reverse Summoning to easily rescue Uchiha Hideki from here.

Therefore, Yama used the Contract Seal to cut away his connection with the Summoning World.

Although the Summon Beasts capable of performing Reverse Summon are rare, and Yama does not believe that Uchiha Hideki's summon partner would be capable of such a feat, but he decided to use Contract Seal to eliminate the slightest of the possibility of his escape from here.

Feeling that his connection with the summoning world was cut off, Hideki was more horrified and spoke with a horrifying expression, "You… you even know the Contract Seal?"

Both Four-Symbols Seal and Contract Seal are Uzumaki Fuinjutsu and with the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan very few individuals can use these techniques.

Therefore, these techniques are mostly exclusive to the shinobi of Konohagakure.

Yama who has completed the seal and verified its effectiveness spoke indifferently, "What's so strange about this?"

Uchiha Hideki stared at Yama and asked, "You are from Konoha, aren't you?"

No doubt Uchiha Hideki suspected this possibility.

Yama was surprised as he felt the violent fluctuations in Uchiha Hideki's emotions; understanding what was happening, he had a Cheshire grin under the mask and spoke, "Oh you noticed it so soon? As expected of an elite Jonin of the oh-so-great Uchiha Clan!"

Seeing that Yama did not deny, Uchiha Hideki was suddenly furious, "Who asked you to do this? Was it Sandaime? Or Danzo?"

At this time, Yama could see the violent fluctuations in Uchiha Hideki's chakra affected by his erratic emotions, suddenly he tried breaking free and it seemed even the Four-Symbols Seal wouldn't be able to completely suppress the flaring chakra in his body.

Yama observed Hideki's restlessness, and thought, 'Hmm, maybe I can use this method to continue irritating him!'

With that decided, he spoke with a chuckle, "Who asked me to do it? Is it really that important, after all, you are going to die anyway?"

However, Uchiha Hideki seemed to care about this and spoke while gritting his teeth, "It's that bastard Danzo, isn't it? He has long held ill-intentions towards the Uchiha Clan!"

Yama didn't speak anything, neither agreed nor denied.

Seeing Yama silent, Hideki frowned and asked with uncertainty, "Was I wrong…? Then is it… is it Sandaime?"

Since Yama had already found a topic to anger Uchiha Hideki so he deliberately didn't answer Hideki's question and incited him, "Don't worry about that, look around you, what do you see… this place is very big and many people can be kept here, many-many people, you understand what that means, don't you? You won't be alone for very long… this place will be filled with the Uchiha!"

"YOU-DESPICABLE-PSYCHOPATHIC-BASTARD! Conspiracy, all this is a conspiracy against the Uchiha clan! That hypocritical geezer Sarutobi really wants to eliminate all the Uchiha… I can't stay here any longer, I have to warn the Patriarch!"

Yama tried changing the subject making Hideki convinced that all this was done under Sandaime's instructions, so he was angrier, up until now; there are still many Uchiha shinobi who believes that Sandaime wouldn't hurt the Uchiha Clan but Hideki was now convinced that hypocrite Sarutobi Hiruzen also bears ill intentions towards the Uchiha clan!

As such he was madly trying to break free of the restraint, therefore, the prison room was filled with angry curses and the sound of chains clanging.

Yama didn't stop Uchiha Hideki but observed the Chakra fluctuations in his body with his Tenseigan.

Undoubtedly, Uchiha Hideki managed to extract some chakra while in rage, even under the suppression of the Four-Symbols Seal.

'Not enough… it's still not enough for him to awaken those cursed eyes!' – thinking so, Yama pondered a moment and asked tentatively, "By the way, I remember you have a younger brother, don't you? What was his name again? Haruto? No! Ryo? Not this either! Yup, Ryota! His name is Uchiha Ryota, right?"

As soon as Yama finished his words, Hideki looked at him with a murderous look as if he would chew Yama alive, "Don't you dare touch him!"

Yama obviously didn't care about Hideki's warning and muttered, "If I use the elder brother as a bait, it should be easy to fool him, umu… yeah let's do this, next target Uchiha Ryota!"

Hearing that the masked freak wanted to use him as the bait to lead his own brother into a trap, Hideki's Sharingan activated under the intense rage he felt.

Yama observed with a surprise and thought, 'Hoh? He manage to activate the Sharingan even with the continuous Chakra Drain, that's quite impressive?'

However, as Yama expected, because of the continuous chakra drain, the Sharingan couldn't be kept activated for more than a few seconds and was soon deactivated.

Shaking his head in disappointment, Yama thought, 'It appears that simple anger is not enough for him to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan, maybe I will have to change my approach!'

…

On the side of Konoha.

After gathering the ninjas, Uchiha Fugaku led the teams across the outer wall without any delay to chase after the ninjas of Amatsukami.

But after following the enemy's tracks for a while, he stopped.

Not only him but the entire team stopped and each of them had a frowned expression, looking around blankly.

It's because when they started following the tracks and got past the training field there were still obvious traces left but after traveling a few miles all the clues disappeared suddenly.

It was as if the enemy didn't move any further.

Everyone couldn't help but have the same thought, 'How come the traces all disappeared from here?'

Uchiha Ryota spoke with an anxious look, "It couldn't be that he flew away! If we search carefully, we will definitely find something!"

Fugaku's face sank when he heard Ryota's words, it's because he heard that Suijin of Amatsukami could strangely fly away using Ice Mirrors, so they can't deny the possibility that the enemy might have really flown away from here, otherwise, it is impossible to explain that all the clues suddenly disappeared!

After all, even with the Sharingan, they can't seem to find anything.

It must be known that with the Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan is second only to the Hyuga Clan in tracking and pursuing, and since they are unable to find anything even with the help of the Sharingan can only have one explanation, there is no clue here in the first place!

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The Uchiha Elites who searched the parameter for any signs of clues left; now reunited and each one gave their report.

And all their report only indicated that no matter how carefully and meticulously they searched, they couldn't find even the slightest trace as such their follow-up pursuit came to an abrupt end.

Among all the shinobi present here, Uchiha Hideki's younger brother, Uchiha Ryota has the most anxious expression.

A few days ago, he was being so arrogant and prideful, and now he is like a headless fly, moving around aimlessly, trying to find clues that do not even exist!

Uchiha Fugaku also had a gloomy look, "Signal regrouping, we will be returning back to the village!"

Ryota Uchiha was too unstable as such he couldn't care about the Patriarch's words and questioned with a cold tone, "Patriarch, are we going to abandon Hideki-nii?"

Fugaku shook his head, he did not get angry because of Ryota's cold tone and patiently explained, "There are no traces left by the enemy, pursuing blindly is meaningless and will only lead us in a trap, you should understand this!"

Uchiha Fugaku has another worry that he didn't explain.

This is the second time Amatsukami has taken an action inside the territory of Konohagakure, indicating that they have spies lurking in the village.

Currently, most of the elites of the Uchiha Clan are outside the Village in order to pursue the enemy, if Amatsukami uses this opportunity to attack the Uchiha Clan again then who knows how dire the consequences will be!

And Uchiha Ryota obviously did not realize Patriarch's concern, and pleaded, "Patriarch, let's expand the search radius and we are bound to find something, I don't believe that the enemy didn't leave anything!"

Fugaku frowned and said with a solemn expression, "Ryota, things aren't as simple as they seem on the surface, the enemy has ill-intentions towards the entire Uchiha clan and the village, therefore we must be very cautious with how we deal with them, we will return to the village for now, and plan out further actions in coordination with Sandaime-sama. This is an order!"

Seeing that Uchiha Ryota still wanted to argue; Fugaku signaled Shisui who stood not far away.

Shisui nodded and took advantage of Ryota's distracted expression to cast a Genjutsu upon him.

One of the clansmen carried fainted Ryota, while Fugaku ordered, "Go back to the village!"

Shisui who was following Fugaku closely sighed, this is the first time he has done something that is considered as an active betrayal to the village so there is always a fear of being caught, although he knew that with Kuroto-san's cautious nature he wouldn't have left any clue behind, he was still worried.

Therefore, he was greatly relieved when the team was returning back without finding anything.

…

Inside the Prison Dungeon.

After giving Uchiha Hideki a high dose of sleeping agent, Kuroto came to another room.

He took out a notebook that lied on the shelf with [Uchiha Hideki] written on the cover.

Recalling all the details just now, Kuroto thoughtfully wrote everything in the notebook.

[Uchiha Hideki has a strong poison and drug resistance, the specific reason is unknown, but I suspect that it has something to do with his Sharingan, this entails some tests to verify this conjecture in-depth.]

After writing some details on this page, Kuroto turned over the pages and came to the part with the heading, [Project – Mangekyou Sharingan]

Writing,

[Anger Test: Incite the 'Anger' of the subject for the awakening of Mangekyou Sharingan.

Observations: Violent Chakra Reaction, Slight increase in Ocular Power of the Sharingan.

Overall result: Failure

Reason for failure: Increase in Ocular Power was insufficient

Speculation 1 – 'Anger' is not the best stimulating emotion in the case of Uchiha Hideki for the awakening of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Speculation 1 – The level of 'Anger' was not enough emotional stimulation necessary for him to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.]

After recording up to here, Kuroto stopped writing.

It is not unknown that the Uchiha must be stimulated with extreme emotions for them to successfully awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.

These so-called 'Extreme Emotions' can be of many types such as 'Despair,' 'Grief,' 'Anger,' 'Regret' and so on.

Based on all the known successful cases of the Mangekyou Sharingan Awakening, the highest probability is always under the same emotion of 'Despair,' and 'Grief.'

For example, Uchiha Obito experienced the 'despair' of losing Rin, and Uchiha Shinichi experienced the 'despair' of witnessing the death of Uchiha Kurumi, the girl he loved.

Both of them were stimulated by the emotion 'despair' and successfully awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Among these two, Uchiha Obito even skipped the crucial stage of three tomoe and directly moved to Mangekyou Sharingan from the two tomoe Sharingan, which may have something to do with Hashirama Cells in his body, but there is no clear answer as of yet.

This event signifies that the emotion 'despair' has remarkable effects on the Mangekyou Sharingan awakening.

Additionally, 'Grief' is also an equally powerful emotion as the necessary stimulation.

Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Fugaku experienced the 'Grief' of losing their friends and successfully awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

As for 'Anger,' there doesn't seem to be any case where the subject awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan purely through 'Anger' as the emotion.

The only case that comes close to the emotion 'anger' is the case of Uchiha Sasuke.

However, the awakening of Uchiha Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan has more to do with the 'Grief' of the tragic life his brother lived and the 'anger' towards Konohagakure that was the cause of all this. Therefore, we can conclude that his stimulation was a combination of 'Grief' as the primary and 'Anger' being the secondary emotion.

With that understood, Kuroto turned over the page of the notebook and wrote:

[Sadness Test: ...]

From Kuroto's perspective, making Hideki experience 'Grief' isn't that difficult. There are many very close relatives of Hideki in the Uchiha Clan, and all these emotional bonds can be used. Among these, Uchiha Ryota, the younger brother of Hideki is the best choice.

If Kuroto makes sure that Uchiha Hideki experienced some 'Anger' in conjunction with extreme 'Grief,' the possibility of him awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan will be very high.

After all, there is already an example of Uchiha Sasuke.

Therefore, the next test will be focused on stimulation through 'Grief.'

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Hokage Office.

Sandaime sat on his chair with a grim expression on his face, and the room was filled with smoke.

Uchiha Itachi silently stood on the side not minding the tobacco smoke.

At this time, the door of the office was pushed open and several figures walked in.

The first one was none other than Shimura Danzo followed by Utatane Koharu and finally Mitokado Homura.

With the arrival of the three elder consultants, Hiruzen put down his tobacco pipe and said, "Uchiha Itachi, explain the situation to the three consultants!"

Itachi nodded courteously and without any delay, he relayed all the information including his own understanding of the matter regarding the kidnapping of Uchiha Hideki by Amatsukami in detail.

When he heard that Amatsukami again dared to cause trouble in Konohagakure, Danzo was furious, "What courage do they have! What do they think of Konoha, their personal playground?"

Utatane Koharu was also angry, "They can't be allowed to do whatever they wish in the village!"

Although Mitokado Homura did not voice out his opinion, he still nodded with the other two, he was also in favor to put an end to these bounty ninjas.

Even if it was a shinobi of the Uchiha Clan to be attacked and kidnapped, the action itself was like a resounding slap in the faces of the senior management of Konoha.

It isn't wrong to say that once this news spread, the already falling prestige of Konoha will be heavily damaged, and this will also incite other bounty ninjas to have the courage to soon follow suit in the footsteps of Amatsukami and Akatsuki.

Sandaime asked Danzo, "How has the investigation been going?"

Being the leader of the Root unit of the Anbu department, Shimura Danzo is also responsible for collecting all sorts of secret intelligence, the Root has its spies planted in other major villages that regularly transfer all the intel they could, as such Sandaime appointed him to collect all the intelligence about these bounty-nin organizations to have a better understanding of who they were dealing with.

Danzo had a frowned expression and said, "The information about Amatsukami is very limited, I personally speculate that this organization has recently come into existence, probably not more than one or two years, and none of the identities we could think of matches with those mask wearers, other than what you speculated that Uchiha Shinichi being 'Homusubi,' these people seem to pop out of seemingly nowhere, giving them a mysterious vibe.

As for… As for Akatsuki Organization, due to the short period and lack of personnel because of Uchiha Shinichi's actions, any useful information about Akatsuki has not been obtained as of yet, aside from the fact that Akatsuki seems to be a Mercenary Organization willing to work in cooperation with other Shinobi Villages."

Undoubtedly Danzo did not reveal all the intelligence he had about Akatsuki Organization.

Shimura Danzo may not have collected useful intelligence about Amatsukami but that's not the case when it comes to Akatsuki.

It wouldn't even be wrong to say that at this point in time, Shimura Danzo is second only to Hyuga Kuroto in Konohagakure to have the understanding of the Akatsuki.

After all, the previous leader of Akatsuki, during its first iteration, died because of Danzo.

Ever since then, the real Akatsuki that worked to bring peace during the leadership of Yahiko has transitioned into a Mercenary organization under the frontal leadership of Nagato, with the secret goal of reviving the Juubi.

Danzo and Hanzo may have thought that with the death of Yahiko, the Akatsuki would soon disappear, but unfortunately, that didn't happen, and he never expected that Akatsuki would not only not disappear but even start recruiting S-Class nuke-nin from all the villages into it.

This discovery has been troubling Danzo.

After all, many individuals with monstrous strength have joined Akatsuki, and because of what he did, the Akatsuki would obviously harbor hatred towards Konoha, so he dare not mention this matter in the high-level meeting.

Besides, he still doesn't know what would happen if Jiraiya finds out about this matter!

Although Sandaime had some doubts he nodded nonetheless, 'It seems I will have to organize further investigation about Akatsuki, once the matter of Amatsukami is resolved!'

Thinking so, his gaze turned towards Koharu, "Has there been any response from Kumogakure?"

Koharu nodded, "At present, Raikage only asked for a formal explanation detailing all the circumstances, and a request for a formal apology including some compensation because of the lack of sincerity on our part, as for what compensation they desire, Raikage has yet to state his terms."

The sudden exposure of two such powerful organization made Kumogakure quite careful, so before they find all the information about the two organization, Kumogakure would not carelessly launch a full-scale war against Konoha or threaten to do so, and without the confidence to start a war, Raikage would naturally not pressure Konoha too much.

Sandaime breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this news, and immediately said, "if that's the case, call Jiraiya from the front line."

Koharu nodded and began to write the message to be sent.

The lack of trustworthy high-level combat power has been the major cause of all the trouble, so recalling Jiraiya is very necessary as they do not have many options to choose from.

Hearing Sandaime's words, Danzo's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, he was thinking something.

After some more discussion, Sandaime ordered, "Aside from Anbu, recruit elites from the major clans including Hyuga, Sarutobi, Nara, Yamanaka, Inuzuka, and other, Danzo, you will serve as the commander and Jiraiya will be the deputy commander, the objective is to search and eliminate Amatsukami as well as the rescue of Uchiha Hideki!"

Danzo sighed in relief after hearing that Hiruzen gave him the command.

Among the high-level, the only people who can compare with him are Sandaime himself, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura, and finally, there is Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Therefore, when Sandaime ordered Jiraiya to be called back, Danzo was worried that Hiruzen will give the command to Jiraiya over him for the task of hunting down Amatsukami, but Sandaime chose him which greatly pleased him.

In the eyes of Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzo who is accustomed to doing such tasks is best for circling and hunting down Amatsukami.

After everything was decided, the meeting was concluded and the three elder consultants left the Hokage office.

At this time Sandaime turned his gaze towards Uchiha Itachi and said, "You can go back now and explain the result of the meeting to Uchiha Patriarch!"

The reason Sandaime allowed Itachi to be the witness of the meeting was to show goodwill and sincerity to the Uchiha Clan and appease them, preventing them from launching the Coup, there was also the intention of assessing Uchiha Itachi's thinking process but it was not that important for now.

Itachi nodded in understanding towards Sandaime, he may not be very old, but he is mature enough to understand Sandaime's intentions.

After a courteous greeting to Sandaime-sama, Itachi left the Hokage office and made his way towards the Uchiha Clan.

With the conclusion of the Elder Consultant's meeting, a Root Anbu conveyed the order of Sandaime to the elite shinobi among the common folks.

At the same time, the Patriarchs of all the major clans also received the summons in the name of Hokage to organize a hunting operation.

The Patriarchs of the major clans were obviously a bit uncomfortable by Sandaime's orders.

The numbers of elites are rare even in these major clans, and with the events ongoing for the past decade, the elites have only decreased, so the patriarchs were a bit uncomfortable sending their newly grown outstanding shinobi, afraid that they will end up dying…

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Hiashi handed the convening order issued by Sandaime to the young brother Hizashi while he was considering something.

Hizashi read the content of the scroll and said without any hesitation, "I will go!"

Even though there have been many casualties over the years, the number of elites has somewhat grown over the past two years therefore, Hiashi was also a bit worried whether the situation would return back.

But an order is an order, nothing can be done about it, so the participation of Hizashi in the hunting operation is also an inevitable thing.

"Amatsukami is not a simple bounty-nin organization, pay attention to safety." – After a short pause, Hiashi continued, "Make sure to choose some of the elites, excluding Kuroto-Kun, and take them with you, honestly I would rather let Kuroto-Kun handle this matter, but it seems he will be busy with Anbu task, anyways that aside, pay attention to your safety as well as the safety of others from the clan."

Hizashi nodded and after selecting 5 ninjas at the level of Jonin and Tokubetsu Jonin, Hizashi rushed to the gathering point.

As soon as he arrived at the gathering point, Hizashi noticed some of the acquaintances.

'Inoichi, Shikaku, Choza…' – Looking at the familiar faces, Hizashi paid more attention to the matter.

On the other side of the gathering point stood, Patriarch of the Inuzuka Clan, along with Inuzuka Tsume and their canine partners, Aburame Shibi and the other Aburame Clan shinobi quietly sitting.

At this time, Shimura Danzo led a large number of civilian shinobi as well as Anbu ninja at the gathering point.

Standing at the high platform, Danzo tapped his crutch on the ground harshly to attract everyone's attention and said coldly, "This time the mission is to hunt and wipe out the criminal organization Amatsukami, I will be the commander, I do hope that everyone will work together and follow the given orders, that is all!"

After that, Danzo waited for everyone to process his words, and a few seconds later the entire unit set out.

…

Hyuga Kuroto's home.

Only a few minutes passed since he returned to his house from the Dungeon Prison and released the shadow clone and let the information sink in.

At this time, an Anbu appeared at the front gate and conveyed the summoning order issued by Sandaime-Sama.

Kuroto nodded and after getting dressed in his Eagle Anbu combat uniform, he rushed towards the Hokage Office.

Arriving at the Hokage office, Kuroto saw that the other three members of Team-11 had already gathered at the Hokage Office before him.

With the arrival of the last member of Team-11, Sandaime turned away from the window of the Hokage Office and passed the scroll detailing the content of the mission to the captain of Team-11.

Kakashi in his Dog Anbu vest received the scroll, and briefly looking through the contents he stepped forward and bowed, "Team-11 will obey the instructions!"

As stated before, the Anbu do not have the right to refuse any mission they are ordered to complete. Even if the Hokage task them with the death mission, the Anbu must fulfill it without any question, unless he wants to be labelled as a nuke-nin.

Sandaime nodded, "The village has decided to let Elder Consultant Shimura Danzo be the commander responsible for the annihilation of Amatsukami."

As soon as he heard this, Shisui's gaze turned towards Kuroto, but noticing that there was no change in Kuroto's expression, as usual, Shisui also calmed his mind and turned his attention back to Sandaime.

"I want all the details of the hunting operation, so the mission of Team-11 is to observe and monitor all the personnel involved in the hunting mission."

Kakashi asked with a bit of hesitation, "Does Elder Consultant Shimura Danzo also has to be monitored?"

Sandaime nodded and said in a deep voice, "All the personnel participating in the operation must be monitored, Elder Consultant Shimura Danzo and the Toad Sannin Jiraiya are no exception, is that understood?"

Kakashi replied, "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

With Kakashi's reply, Sandaime's gaze turned towards the other three of the team-11 and finally landed on Shisui, "Uchiha Shisui, Anbu Code-Cat, you will be responsible for monitoring the movements of the Uchiha Clan!"

Without any hesitation in his voice, Shisui nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Sandaime's words and actions imply that he is willing to trust the Uchiha Clan and try to resolve the conflict, and the same is happening from the side of the Uchiha Clan too, therefore, it wouldn't wrong to say that the Coup will be delayed until the threat of Amatsukami is resolved, with this Shisui was very relieved and happy.

The clever idea to prepare a common enemy for the Uchiha Clan and Konoha was very ingenious and clever, with this they have more time to resolve the issue of the Uchiha Coup!

After leaving the Hokage Office, the four members arrived at a remote secret route that Team-11 uses for going out of the village during their mission.

Dog said, "The objective of the mission is focused monitoring and surveillance, however, there are too many targets to be monitored, therefore, we will all act separately."

Eagle, Cat, and Monkey nodded in agreement.

With no objection from any of the members of the team, Dog said, "I will be responsible for monitoring Elder Consultant Shimura Danzo and the other Anbu beside him, be that of the Root subdivision, Eagle will be responsible for monitoring Jiraiya-sama and the shinobi of all the other major clans such as the Hyuga, Ino-Shika-Cho, Sarutobi and so on, Monkey will be responsible for monitoring the minor clans and the civilian shinobi, finally, as Hokage -sama ordered, Cat will be responsible for the elites of the Uchiha Clan, is that clear?"

Everyone nodded.

Hyuga Kuroto can't help but have a respectful look towards Hatake Kakashi, in all the missions they have performed up to now, Kakashi has always taken the initiative to perform the most dangerous part and it is not because he distrusts others ability but it is because he does not wish to let other comrades die before him, and this is worth respecting if anything!

This time is also similar, the commander of the operation obviously has the most sensitive identity, and team-11 has to make sure that they are not noticed while carrying out this secret mission, therefore monitoring Shimura Danzo is a highly challenging task.

After everyone's part was assigned, the team separated, Dog and Monkey left towards the direction their targets will be.

After confirming that no one was around, Cat removed his Anbu mask and said with a slightly excited expression, "Kuroto-san, your method has really started to work!"

Eagle also removed his Anbu mask and asked curiously, "Has it started to work so soon?"

Shisui nodded repeatedly, "In the clan meeting held not too long ago, everyone only discussed how to hunt down and eliminate Amatsukami as well as rescue Uchiha Hideki, and no one mentioned anything about the Coup, even the other shinobi of Uchiha Clan were angry at the shameless Amatsukami and no one mentioned anything related to the Hokage faction, this is the beginning of something…"

Seeing Shisui's excited expression, Kuroto nodded and patted him on the shoulder, "If that's the case then very good, but make sure to not be too happy, currently the two factions have somewhat realized the threat that Amatsukami pose, but they have not deeply understood just how dangerous Amatsukami is and will be in the near future, so we can't let our guards down, until this point is ingrained in their hearts, moreover the main objective of all this is to divert their attention towards a common enemy and then close the rift between the two factions over time, otherwise the dissatisfaction in the hearts of both side will not completely disappear."

Shisui who was ruthlessly poured down with cold water nodded with a sigh, "Yes, now everyone is somewhat scared of some fictional enemy called Amatsukami, and this has prompted them to work together, it will take much longer to resolve the conflict between the two sides…" – shaking his head to clear up his mind, Shisui asked again, "So Kuroto-san, what should we do next?"

Kuroto thought a little and said, "This time the village has launched a large-scale hunt down operation, additionally tasked us for the monitoring purpose, the objective should also be to find out if there are any eyeliners hidden inside Konoha, well we don't have to worry about the second point, as for the first we don't need to deal with pointless trouble, so let Amatsukami be out of the limelight, for the time being, this way Akatsuki will get more unwanted attention." – After Kuroto said this, the two of them nodded to play it safe for the time being and disappeared in a different direction for the monitoring task.

This time, Konoha was not restrained and quickly demonstrated its power, even though greatly weakened, Konoha still maintains the most strength of the five great nations, and as expected, within a few short weeks, most of the black-market exchange spots, secret intelligence offices, gold exchanges, and other underground organizations hidden in the territory of the Land of Fire were all swept in one fell swoop.

A large number of black-market officers were arrested and thrown into prison cells for the inquiry and mind reading.

Not only that, all the bounty ninja and defected-nin that were hiding inside the Land of Fire were also fished out of the waters and suffered mercilessly at the hands of torture specialists and Yamanaka shinobi.

After all, not all bounty-nin can be as strong as the members of Akatsuki and Amatsukami and were quickly resolved.

And a few handful ones, those who have a good level of strength were informed of the troubles that Amatsukami has caused with Konohagakure and has already left the Land of Fire tacitly because they understood that Konoha would not sit back and let them do as they please.

Overall, the hunting operation didn't encounter any major resistance and went very smoothly in the face of the difference in combat power of the two sides, in fact, the operation went too smoothly that everyone felt too pressured, because they couldn't find anything about Amatsukami no matter how much they searched… It was as if Amatsukami doesn't even exist in reality…!

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Looking at the reward posters in his hand Kuroto can't help but laugh.

Currently, he has a total of five reward posters in his hand.

The first two are the old reward posters recording the bounty after the Uchiha Shinichi defection incident. The paper has also yellowed out and the reward is still the same as before.

Then there are also three new rewards.

First is issued for the so-called leader of Amatsukami, Yama, the picture part is only a rough sketch of the Yama mask and the Amatsukami Cloak with a reward of 150 million Ryo.

The other two are issued rewards for the two other members of Amatsukami who have made a public appearance each worth 80 million Ryo.

If the five bounties are added together the total amount reaches up to 370 million Ryo. Thinking so, Kuroto can't help but wonder whether to produce a few clones and exchange their corpses for the bounty.

But he soon dispelled this absurd idea, and thought, 'Who would have issued these rewards?'

The actions Konoha carried out in the past week were to eliminate all the possible bounty-nin and mercenary organizations non-affiliated to Konoha and collect all the intelligence they can about Amatsukami, but Hokage-sama did not issue any rewards in the Black-Market Circle. So, the other possible parties who could have issued the rewards are Uchiha Clan, Akatsuki Organization, and Kumogakure.

At this time, Shisui's figure appeared in front of Kuroto.

Kuroto asked, "Did it succeed?"

Shisui shook his head negatively, "Root subdivision has fully taken over the prison cell and completely sealed it for torture and mind-reading purpose, so entering and gathering any intelligence without Danzo-sama's permission is impossible."

Kuroto nodded, he expected as much. Although he knows that his Yama and Suijin disguises are impeccable and impossible to see through, there is no absolute in the shinobi world.

And if some had actually seen through his disguise and was captured, then there is a possibility that this information will be revealed, so he asked Shisui to infiltrate the Prison Grounds and see if he could figure out something.

But it appears that Shimura Danzo has taken the cautious route, and directly sealed restricted the entry.

Sighing slightly, Kuroto decided to put this matter aside for the time being and asked Shisui, "And just what in the hell is going with your Uchiha Clan? Why have I been hearing reports of innocents being killed and pillaged? Does the Uchiha Clan really have any intention to stay alive or are they gone insane enough to break the shinobi code even in the non-war period, are you people just asking to be put into a bad position?"

Shisui's face also darkened upon Kuroto's question, sighing in helplessness, Shisui said, "There has been no news of Hideki for such a long time, so… so Uchiha Ryota has been getting more unstable, even the other clansmen are staying a bit far away from him… and it has become a bit difficult for even Patriarch to persuade him to be patient!"

…

Somewhere else in the Land of Fire.

In a market area, Uchiha Ryota held a bounty-nin by the collar and questioned with a vicious tone, "Answer me, where is the hiding place of Amatsukami?"

The bounty-nin was currently in a severe state, the face was swollen red, the jaw was broken, blood flowing from the corner of the mouth, several cut and stab wounds in and around the stomach, and he could only shake his head in fear, "I… I don't know… Please let me go… I… I have a wife a-!"

"Oh, you have a family, and you still don't know?" – Ryota grinned, took out another kunai, and stabbed at the back of the bounty-nin's hand repeatedly and questioned again, "Do you know now?"

The poor bounty-nin already had tears coming out of his eyes, he knew that his sensory nerves in the hands are damaged, but because of the lack of his strength, all he could do was grit his teeth and beg, "I… I have retired long ago; I have quit my life as a shinobi… I swear I have never heard of Amatsukami… please just let me go… I swear I don't know anything!"

"You still don't know?" – Uchiha Ryota snorted and punched the bounty-nin with all his strength, causing blood to splatter all over the place.

At this time, Hyuga Hizashi walked near Uchiha Ryota and tried to dissuade him, "Stop acting barbaric Uchiha Ryota, if you continue, he will only die before he can even give out any useful intel!"

Uchiha Ryota turned towards Hizashi with a gloomy look in his eyes and kicked away the bounty-nin who was only a step away from the door of death.

Hizashi sighed in relief, but just when he thought that Uchiha Ryota was about to stop, he suddenly printed hand seals and shouted while turning towards the retired bounty-nin,

"Fire Release: Fireball Technique!"

The huge fireball rushed towards the dying bounty-nin and swallowed him completely not even leaving ashes.

But it didn't stop there and soon the flames of the fire technique spread to the other places.

And it wasn't even a few seconds when the small bazaar they were in was swallowed in the flames of the billowing hot fire spread by the raging wind, the entire place started to burn.

Hizashi was taken aback and frowned, "Are you crazy? You are breaking the Shinobi code!"

Looking at the normal civilians struggling to get away from the flames, listening to the shouts, wailing, and crying of people reaching his ears, Ryota laughed unscrupulously, "These useless people deserve to die, since they don't know anything, what's the point them even being alive!"

Hizashi's face sank, "Uchiha Ryota, you are being too savage! How do you expect Hokage-sama to explain this situation to Daimyo-sama, do you have no shame?"

Ryota glanced at Hizashi with unhidden disdain in his gaze as his eyes turned towards the forehead and said, "Huh… a dog like you is not qualified to tell what an Uchiha should do and what he should not do!"

Uchiha Ryota directly touched the nail of Hizashi's heart, and now Hizashi was really angry.

Ryota noticed Hizashi's rising anger and said mockingly, "Hooh, you wanna try it? Do you have the courage!?"

Following the words, the three black tomoe circling in the scarlet copy wheel appeared in Ryota's eyes and his murderous intentions were subconsciously leaking, he has aching to kill and slaughter.

Hizashi took a deep breath to calm his anger and stated with a serious expression, "I will be reporting your actions to Hokage-sa-…!"

However, before he could complete the sentence, Uchiha Ryota flickered from his position and rushed towards Hizashi.

"You…?" – Hizashi was taken aback, he did not expect Uchiha Ryota to really go mad enough to attack a fellow shinobi from the same village. This is outrageous!

Boom…

Hizashi was unprepared and could hardly resist the kick of Uchiha Ryota, as a result, he flew and hit a wall on the other side of the road.

…

In the woods outside the small Bazaar.

A whirling vortex appeared in the void and out came our very own masked-man.

He naturally came to the Land of Fire to investigate Amatsukami.

Sitting on a tree branch and dangling his legs in a to-and-fro motion, with one hand supporting the chin part of the mask he wore, the person was carefully observing the battle that took place in the distance.

Uchiha Ryota and Hyuga Hizashi are both elite Jonin of their respective clans, and their strength is almost of the same level.

It is just that Uchiha Ryota not only attacked first but was also unscrupulous, bloodthirsty, and crazy, while Hizashi cannot act in such a way so he was being suppressed by Uchiha Ryota.

At this moment Zetsu stuck out half of its body from the trunk of the tree and asked curiously, "Huh, how come two Konoha shinobi are fighting?"

Masked-man turned to look at Zetsu and instead of answering he questioned, "Did you find the reason why Konoha organized such an operation and included the Uchiha Clan into it? Was it to encircle and hunt down Amatsukami?"

Zetsu nodded, "I overheard the conversation of a few Konoha shinobi, it seems that Amatsukami has been eyeing Sharingan, and kidnapped an elite Jonin of the Uchiha Clan from the village, so to hunt down and possibly rescue the kidnapped Uchiha Clan member, Konoha organized a search and hunt down operation under the command of Shimura Danzo, and the Uchiha Clan is also a part of this operation."

Masted-man was surprised and muttered with a frown, "Amatsukami has been eyeing Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan?" he couldn't help but murmur, "What do they want the Sharingan for, is it just money or something else entirely?"

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The true power of Sharingan can only be manifested by an Uchiha, Hatake Kakashi is a typical example of being greatly restrained by the Sharingan he has, therefore, the masked-man was quite intrigued as to why would Amatsukami display the sudden interest in the Sharingan.

Zetsu said, "I also overheard a piece of intelligence about Amatsukami you would be very interested to know!"

"What intelligence?" – asked masked-man with curiosity.

"It is suspected that Homusubi is actually a defected Uchiha, he has also awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, and apparently he also defeated Uchiha Shisui!"

Masked-man was stunned, his face had a gloomy look.

There are very few people that make him feel threatened in the Shinobi world. Among them, Uchiha Madara and Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato are the only two people that really prompted the masked-man to be cautious.

But with the death of these two, masked-man gradually felt that the entire shinobi world was dancing in the palm of his hands and he had control over everything. However, the sudden emergence of Amatsukami has started to again give rise to that same fear, and he can't help but feel that things have started to get out of his hand.

After a long silence, the masked man questioned, "Can you be certain of this intelligence?"

Uchiha Shisui is currently the only Uchiha shinobi of Konoha to have the Mangekyou Sharingan, his strength is definitely not weak, and if Homusubi of Amatsukami could easily defeat Uchiha Shisui, then that means Homusubi is also not a simple individual.

Zetsu shrugged, "I only overheard this piece of information, as for whether it is correct or not can't be confirmed for the time being, but if you really want to know, I can kidnap a Konoha Shinobi who should be aware of this intelligence and confirm the authenticity."

Masked-man shook his head negatively, "No, we would not be taking any action this time around!"

Zetsu noticed the masked man's worry and questioned, "Are worried about something perhaps?"

The masked man said, "If Homusubi really defeated Uchiha Shisui, then there is no longer a need to confirm whether he has Mangekyou Sharingan, it has to be the case, the rumors may, in fact, be credible enough… but he is not the cause of my worry, we have no intelligence whatsoever about Yama!"

"If what Kakuzu said is correct, then Yama is the leader of Amatsukami, are you worried about him?" – asked Zetsu.

The masked mas silent for a while, neither did he nod nor denied, and after the silence he spoke, "Being the leader, Yama should be stronger than Homusubi, and if that's the case, it would not be easy to deal with him, I don't want to provoke such troublesome guy."

"Now that I think about it this way, this does seem correct, but this only makes me more curious as to who exactly is this Yama fellow!" – muttered Zetsu.

The masked man turned his head back towards the direction of the fight going on between Uchiha Ryota and Hyuga Hizashi and said, "As long they do not interfere with project Tsuki No Me and do not hinder our actions, we do not need to be enemies, as long as all the nine Bijuu are successfully collected and Juubi is revived, we wouldn't have to worry about anything!"

Zetsu nodded, "What's more, we also have the Rinnegan, nothing is worth mentioning in the face of the Rinnegan!"

"Hmm, let Konoha investigate Amatsukami and make sure to pay attention to them, we can consider making our move when there is a right opportunity at our door." – after speaking this, the masked man suddenly thought of something and questioned, "Have you confirmed the movements of Akatsuki members?"

Zetsu nodded, "Don't worry, Uchiha Shinichi and Biwa Juzo have returned to the Land of Rain ahead of schedule, then the Sasori and Kakuzu duo along with Hiruko and Shinno have gone to the Land of Wind, therefore, other than the two of us nobody of Akatsuki is Land of Fire, and will no longer be used by Amatsukami like last time."

The masked man nodded and asked casually, "The Land of Wind? Are those four going to deal with Orochimaru?"

Zetsu said, "I heard that Sasori planted a spy around Orochimaru, and I guess that spy should have passed intelligence about Orochimaru's movements to Sasori."

The masked man nodded and did not speak anymore, he did not care what happens to Orochimaru.

Turning his attention back to the battle between the Uchiha and Hyuga, he noticed that the battle was almost concluded.

Uchiha Ryota had finally gotten the upper hand and knocked down Hyuga Hizashi, however, the fact that he didn't take any more actions against Hizashi indicates that even if crazy he was still sane enough to not kill Hizashi and soon left the bazaar.

Looking at Hizashi lying on the ground unconscious, the masked man thought, 'If he dies, the blame will undoubtedly fall on Uchiha Ryota, and since Hyuga Hizashi is Hyuga Patriarch's younger brother he would obviously not forget such a thing, therefore, Hyuga Clan and Uchiha Clan will become enemies deadly!'

But before he could take action he muttered in disappointment, "It seems Hyuga Hizashi's luck is good, someone arrived."

After weighing it a little, he decided to give up this plan and said to Zetsu, "let's go."

Leaving those words his figure mysteriously disappeared in the transparent spiraling whirl.

Zetsu glanced towards Hizashi and sunk back inside the trunk of the tree…

…

In the Bazaar.

Whoosh… Whoosh…

With the sound of breaking through the wind, two figures arrived at the now-destroyed bazaar.

The two men wore a sash that has the Kanji of Fire around the waist, indicating their identities being the member of 'Twelve Guardian Ninja' directly serving under the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

This time the operation organized by Konoha involved too many towns and villages all over the Land of Fire, so the Daimyo of Land of Fire also dispatched 'Twelve Guardian Ninja' to help out in the hunting operation.

And these two members of 'Twelve Guardian Ninja' rushed here because of the rising black smoke that they saw from a distance suspecting that a fight must be going on here.

Looking at the wounded people who fell in the flames, one of the two quickly shouted towards the other, "Asuma-kun, there are people here!"

Asuma, who has only recently become part of the Guardian Twelve Ninja said with a solemn expression, "Chiriku-san, be careful, there are chances that the enemy is still nearby!"

The two members of the Guardian Twelve Ninja are none other than Sarutobi Asuma of the Sarutobi Clan from Konoha, and Chiriku, a ninja monk from the Fire Temple.

Chiriku nodded, heeding Asuma's warning and he started rescuing the wounded from the fire.

A few moments later Asuma discovered the badly injured Hizashi lying in the pile of rubble.

Being the son of Sandaime, Asuma very well understood Hizashi's strength so exclaimed after noting Hizashi's injuries, "Hizashi-san, who attacked you?"

Asuma's exclaim also attracted Chiriku's attention and he also came here.

"Cough-cough…!" – After a heavy cough, Hizashi said weakly, "It was Uchiha Ryota, he has gone crazy and dared to unscrupulously attack the villagers! When I tried to stop him, he started attacking me, it was unexpected and therefore, I was taken by surprise."

Hearing Hizashi's words, both Asuma and Chiriku looked at each other with a frown, they did not expect that it would be an Uchiha Clansmen. Uchiha Ryota not only attacked the uninvolved civilians, but also destroyed the bazaar, slaughtering civilians, thus breaking the shinobi code, and even went as far as to attach a companion of the same village.

At this time, another group of Uchiha Shinobi was attracted by the spreading fire and rushed here as soon as they could.

When they heard the circumstances and Uchiha Ryota's brazen actions they were all filled with rage.

Konoha has the shinobi code to never attack uninvolved civilians, and even during times of war they rarely slaughter the civilians without any solid reason, let alone attacking a shinobi of the same village. This action is open betrayal.

Uchiha Ryota's unscrupulous action of slaughtering innocents aroused everyone's indignation, especially Asuma and Chiriku who are directly serving under Daimyo, and they clamored for his arrest and capital punishment.

It didn't take long for this news to be passed back to the village, and everyone learned of Uchiha Ryota's action of attacking Hyuga Hizashi, the younger brother of the Hyuga Patriarch. As soon as Shisui heard this, he couldn't help but curse the freaking bastard and quickly met up with Kuroto…

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When Shisui heard the news that Uchiha Ryota dared to attack Hyuga Hizashi, he was taken aback.

In the eyes of general Konoha shinobi both the clan are noble and honorable, but they also know that the Uchiha Clan is stronger than the Hyuga, whether in terms of strength or fame.

But only Uchiha Shisui who knows the true strength of Kuroto understands that with the presence of Kuroto-san, Hyuga Clan is undoubtedly superior to the Uchiha Clan.

Therefore, he was a little panicked when he heard that Hyuga Hizashi was attacked by Uchiha Ryota, he can't imagine what would the consequences be if Ryota actually killed Hyuga Hizashi.

When Shisui met up with Kuroto, he apologized, again and again, to make sure that Kuroto-san overlooks Ryota's audacity this time.

Kuroto waved his hand and said, "Forget it, this time, I was a bit negligent. With the kind of temperament Uchiha Ryota has, I should have considered that he will take brazen actions if stimulated."

Shisui was a little sad.

He had even started to consider if just the sacrifice of Uchiha Hideki would be enough to save the Uchiha Clan from their predicament.

However, it seems that he was expecting too much, Uchiha Ryota's not only created a problem for the clan with the Hokage faction through his action, but he even dared to provoke the Hyuga Clan, therefore Shisui can't help but think that the extremists really have to purge as they are too harmful to the clan!

After making up his mind, Shisui said, "Kuroto-san, when are we going to kidnap Uchiha Ryota?"

Kuroto glanced at Shisui with a smile, "Heh, I thought you would still hesitate for a while?"

Shisui can't help but smile bitterly, "The plan has already progressed to this point, and Uchiha Ryota is doing more harm to the clan than good, so it is better to continue."

Kuroto nodded and did not tease Shisui anymore, after pondering a little he said, "You should investigate Uchiha Ryota's movements to look for the possible opportunities when we have the appropriate window, we can take swift action."

Shisui nodded and the both of them separated.

…

Temporary Prison.

Knock… Knock…

The sudden knock on the door interrupted Shimura Danzo's thoughts, recollecting himself he said,

"Come in."

Followed by the command a Root Anbu walked into Shimura Danzo's office and passed a document file.

"Danzo-sama, this document contains all the intelligence we have obtained so far."

Danzo reached out his hand to take the document file while questioning, "Has the base camp of Amatsukami been tortured out?"

The root ninja shook his head, "Please forgive this subordinate Danzo-sama, till date we have obtained no valid intelligence about Amatsukami, no matter how much torture the people are put through, no matter how much mind reading is done nobody knows anything! They… they are all completely ignorant of any information related to Amatsukami!"

Smash… Crack…!

Danzo threw the document file at the wooden table and smashed his fist on top of it while speaking angrily, "They don't know anything? Then what is this document you are giving me? Do you want me to plan out the further actions using this rubbish!!?"

The kneeling Anbu shook his head repetitively, "No-no-no… Danzo-sama they really don't know anything… a-a-and this file records the information about A-Akatsuki Organization…"

"Akatsuki Organization…?" – Hearing these words, Danzo's gaze became grim, picking up the document file from the table, he read the content and he was shocked… the more he read the more his face turned pale!

"Orochimaru, Uchiha Shinichi, Hiruko, Shinno, Biwa Juzo, Sasori, Kakuzu… these damn S-Class defected-nin from all the villages have joined the Akatsuki, what do they want to do?!"

Looking at the long list of names he is quite familiar with, Danzo's anger was off the charts.

Akatsuki is different from Amatsukami, where Kuroto has made sure to disguise his identity using a mask, cloak, eliminating body odor, etc… to make sure that nobody could figure out his identity.

When the members of Akatsuki acts, all of them show their true color and act without any scruples, therefore, when Konoha started this full-scale hunting operation, all over the Land of Fire… the information about so many S-Class missing-nin being part of Akatsuki was immediately exposed.

Kuroto secretly uses Konoha's intelligence network when he acts as 'Yama' or 'Suijin' and most of the time, he used the Tenseigan Chakra Mode to travel from one location to another, therefore he did not have much interaction with irrelevant people.

For this reason, even if he has completed many missions in the Black-Market Circle as 'Yama' and 'Suijin' the only people who have seen him are either his targets or the Bounty boss.

Akatsuki members are different, most of the time, they travel on foot, uses their own intelligence network or that of the Black-Market Circle, whether it is food, lodging, or intelligence collection, they come in contact with all sorts of people, for that reason, the intelligence about 'Who are they?' and 'who do they work for?' inevitable leaks.

Putting down the file with a gloomy look, Danzo can't help but think, 'It seems that the previous rumors were indeed true!'

Not too long ago, there were rumors about Orochimaru, and Uchiha Shinichi joining a mercenary organization in the Black-Market Circle, but nobody including Shimura Danzo believed such ridiculous nonsense.

And it is natural because, in the eyes of Sandaime, Danzo, and others, a ninja at the level of Orochimaru would never bother to join some mercenary organization unless they have a special love for money, which is obviously not the case for both Orochimaru and Uchiha Shinichi.

Although, the four members of the elder advisor council were not sure about Orochimaru, however, in regards to Uchiha Shinichi they all initially believed that he has defected to Kumogakure therefore they were doubtful whether the rumors were intentionally spread by Kumo.

But now that he read this file, Danzo realized that rumors were not false.

Danzo can't help but feel disturbed at the thought of so many powerful defected ninjas of Konoha hiding in Akatsuki.

Moreover, they all have some story behind the scenes with Shimura Danzo, therefore, Danzo felt that Akatsuki poses a much greater threat to Konoha compared to Amatsukami.

After a long silence, Danzo questioned, "Is there no information about the current leader of Akatsuki?"

The kneeling Root Anbu quickly replied, "The current leader of Akatsuki is also very mysterious, and it seems that other than the official members of Akatsuki, nobody knows anything about him, he has also not made any appearance in the shinobi world, so we were not able to torture out any information about him."

Hearing this Danzo nodded in understanding and ordered in an unquestionable tone, "Continue to collect intelligence, I want all the information about Akatsuki Organization too!"

"Yes, Danzo-sama!" – The Root Anbu nodded respectfully and left the office.

At this time, Danzo again picked up the file recording Akatsuki's intelligence and muttered to himself, "Akatsuki, Amatsukami… what do they really want to do?"

Suddenly, another root Anbu appeared in the office and reported, "Danzo-sama, we have just obtained a piece of intelligence according to which, Amatsukami and Akatsuki are in a hostile relationship. The report even says that there was a fierce conflict between them!"

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This new piece of intelligence immediately aroused Danzo's interest.

If Amatsukami and Akatsuki are really hostile towards one another, there will be a lot of room for maneuvering, and he would even be able to sit at the top watching the two organizations destroying themselves.

Therefore, he stopped his thought midway and questioned, "The two organizations are hostile? Is there any relevant information that confirms this?"

The root Anbu nodded, "According to the reports we have received the small-scale war a few months ago that destroyed a large part of the forest and we suspected Orochimaru's involvement in it because of the clues found there was actually a fight between Kakuzu of Akatsuki and Suijin of Amatsukami, the specific situation is not known but the first part can be confirmed."

Danzo nodded and asked, "What was the reason for the conflict?"

"The bounty exchange master seems to be unaware of the cause but considering the fact that Kakuzu has commissioned the Black-Market to investigate 'Yama' only a few months prior to that conflict, the bounty exchange master speculates that Akatsuki and Amatsukami might have some disputes over the quota of bounty tasks."

Danzo sneered at this speculation.

Although the bounty tasks in Black-market Circle are limited, there would never be a shortage for such strong individuals like Akatsuki and Amatsukami, so thinking that the dispute was caused because of the quota of bounty task is utterly foolish.

There has to be some other reason which they have yet to figure out.

Thinking so, Danzo ordered the Root Anbu to leave, while he himself got up from the wooden chair he sat on and walked back and forth in his office mulling over all the information he has in his hands up to now.

According to the intelligence obtained so far, Danzo has gained a general understanding of Akatsuki. Their operation structure, the behavior of the various members, identities and et cetera are all within his scope of understanding, except that current their leader is a bit too mysterious but they do make an extraordinarily strong mercenary organization.

However, Amatsukami is completely different.

Up to now they only know some bits and pieces about their members. For all they know, they are only aware of four members of Amatsukami of which the abilities of the two are also not clear.

Danzo never expected that even after carrying out such a large-scale operation, involving hundreds of shinobi not only in the Land of Fire but also the surrounding nations, he still could not dig out even the slightest of useful intelligence about Amatsukami. If not for the several outstanding and remarkable record of Amatsukami in the recent period, Danzo would even doubt whether Amatsukami really exist?

Thinking so, he started reviewing his thoughts, connecting dots about all the actions that Amatsukami took part in, and after going over these dots many times, he suddenly thought of something and that's when he felt that he grasped something about Amatsukami.

The fact that there is no information about Amatsukami is also a piece of information in itself.

The fact that no intelligence about Amatsukami can be dug. If you look at this from another perspective it would imply that there is actually no clue, to begin with!

Imagine that even an organization as fierce and strong as Akatsuki also needs to use Black-Market Circle and various private intelligence agents to collect information about their targets all over the shinobi world, then why does Amatsukami not need to use the underground intelligence networks for obtaining all the intelligence they need?

There is only one answer, that is, Amatsukami has another intelligence network.

With the reputation that Amatsukami has about their high efficiency and precise shots, it wouldn't be wrong if Danzo infers that the intelligence network that Amatsukami uses is absolutely superior to that underground intelligence network.

And in the shinobi world, there are only five shinobi villages that surpass the underground intelligence network.

'Is it possible that Amatsukami is actually just an empty shell organization created by a certain shinobi village?' – this thought appeared in Danzo's mind.

"Kirigakure has just gone through civil strife against their major clans so they can be ruled out, they have neither strength nor the willingness to do this kind of thing… first they would do is get rid of their own troubles!"

"Sunagakure is under suppression from the Daimyo of the Land of Wind, so their power is continuously decreasing, Sunagakure is also an ally, so they can be excluded for the time being…"

"If it was Kumogakure, then there was no need to sacrifice their Head shinobi, they could have used so many other excuses to start the war, not to mention they wouldn't have agreed to the peace treaty itself, so Kumogakure can also be ruled out…"

"Iwagakure is a bit suspicious, and with Onoki's character it wouldn't be surprising, but if it really was Iwagakure, they could have just killed Watanabe and disappeared, why would they bother to take the risk of taking his body to the Black-market exchange shop? They would obviously make sure that the suspicion of Watanabe's death falls on Konoha's head! Moreover, it is also impossible for Iwagakure to recruit an Uchiha with the Mangekyou Sharingan, not to mention with the shadow in Onoki's heart it would be impossible for him to trust an Uchiha!"

With the process of elimination, Danzo denied the four possibilities and he was again in a bit of confusion.

'Does that mean Konoha?' was another thought, but how can such an organization be formed in Konoha without him knowing about it?

Then he suddenly thought of 'Uchiha' and again as if a light bulb was lit he thought, 'Is it possible that Uchiha Clan has been doing all of this?'

Uchiha Clan is currently the most notable and superior shinobi Clan in Konoha, even after they are being constantly suppressed thanks to his efforts, the strength of the Uchiha Clan is without a doubt unquestionable.

As for Homusubi, there is a ready-made Uchiha Shisui with the Mangekyou Sharingan, therefore, theoretically, the Uchiha Clan can have two members impersonating as the members of Amatsukami, one of them being Homusubi, and the other being Suijin if he has somehow managed to awaken Ice Release, or maybe employ someone to play Suijin.

But thinking so, Danzo suddenly frowned.

Because he suddenly found a loophole in his own speculation, that is, why would the Uchiha Clan attack the Kumogakure Head ninja and then take the risk of sending his body to the Black-market circle?

If they somehow wanted to provoke conflict between Konoha and Kumo, and use it to their advantage then why would they sent his body to the Black-market circle… this is a completely contradictory behavior.

Not to mention, Uchiha Clan does not lack money, so it couldn't be just bounty, right?

Shaking his head to dispel this last absurd thought, Danzo suddenly had an absolutely genius idea, then an evil grin flashed on his face.

It's because he suddenly realized that this is a very good opportunity to deal with Uchiha Shisui and seize his Mangekyou Sharingan!

Tap… Tap…

Soon, Danzo tapped his crutch on the ground.

Listening to the sound, an Anbu ninja who was guarding outside walked in and asked, "Danzo-sama, what does this subordinate need to do?"

Danzo said in a cold tone, "Secretly spread a rumor all over Konoha that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi of Amatsukami!"

"!!!...Yes, Danzo-sama!" – The Root Anbu was surprised, but he soon recovered and left the office to fulfill the instructions he was given.

At this time, Danzo suddenly regained his confidence.

He has no proof that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi of Amatsukami, but for him, the presence of evidence is not important, all he needs is a rightful excuse to deal with Uchiha Shisui and get his hands on the pair of Mangekyou Sharingan.

There are already many shinobi he has dealt with, and Uchiha Shisui wouldn't be an exception.

Just like he secretly dealt with Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo.

At that time, Hatake Sakumo's fame had even surpassed the level of prestige of the Sannin, and the name of Konoha's White Fang was feared throughout the Shinobi world.

If such a character was not contained, the threat to the Hokage Faction would have been too great, moreover, Danzo even feared that things would have started to get out of his hands, had White Fang's reputation continued to grow.

Therefore, he used the opportunity of Hatake Sakumo's mission failure and used his Root Anbu to make that secret piece of news a piece of public information by exaggerating it several times. As such the secret information that should have been sealed in the mission archives became the talk of the town, and Hatake Sakumo's prestige quickly fell.

It is just that Shimura Danzo never expected that Hatake Sakumo attached such importance to honor and facing the accusation and cold eyes of the same people he risked his life to save, in the end, he chose to commit suicide in silence.

But all that is not important for now, what's important is that he gets his hand on Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan and successfully eliminates the threat of the Uchiha Clan from the village, Konoha does not need Uchiha Clan, so it wouldn't matter if Uchiha Shisui does the same thing.

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Kuroto and Shisui were naturally unaware of what transpired in the prison.

Currently, the two of them were present outside a village while hiding themselves in the forest cover.

On a tree.

Kuroto who was wearing Yama disguise activated the Tenseigan carefully looking at the distant village and checking for all the movements.

According to the latest intelligence obtained by Konoha, this dilapidated village hides a Black-Market Branch, so the ninjas involved in the encirclement and capture operation were currently searching the village for any clues about Amatsukami.

Uchiha Shisui wearing the Homusubi disguise was standing not far away, spoke in a whisper, "Yama, how is it? Is the information I received accurate?"

Yama nodded, "Hmm, Uchiha Ryota is here, although he is accompanied by quite a lot of other shinobi!"

After receiving the confirmation, Homusubi asked, "Are we going to do it?"

Yama nodded, "Yes, but let's wait for a while."

Homusubi was puzzled, "Is something the matter?"

"The village has been covered with the insects used by Aburame Clansmen, so we have to be prudent on our approach…" – after explaining this, Yama continued, "It would be best if we wait for Uchiha Ryota to separate from his fellow teammates and use that opportunity to strike him."

The previous incident where Uchiha Ryota attacked Hyuga Hizashi had a very negative effect.

Even the Patriarch of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Fugaku had to personally pay a visit to the Hyuga Patriarch and ask for an apology for Ryota's actions.

Although Hyuga Hizashi accepted the apology, the people of the Hyuga Clan still refused to work in the same team as Uchiha Ryota, therefore, the shinobi of the Aburame Clan were stuck to work with Uchiha Ryota, along with the Uchiha Shinobi and a Root Anbu to make sure that the conflict does not escalate any further.

And because of the indiscriminate actions of Uchiha Ryota of killing innocent and unrelated people, even Sarutobi Asuma, and the Ninja Monk Chiriku of the Guardian Twelve Shinobi were instructed by the Daimyo to follow him and monitor his actions to keep him under check.

Suddenly there was an explosive sound from far away and the raging fire lit up the village in the burning flames.

Looking at the rising flames and the black smoke, Yama and Homusubi stopped their conversation and paid more attention to the shinobi team.

Hearing the cries of the villagers Shisui's face under the Homusubi mask was gloomy.

Undoubtedly, even after being reprimanded by the Patriarch, Ryota still didn't restrain his actions.

And again a lot of innocents were killed by him.

Yama said with a cold tone, "Heh, it seems that we wouldn't have to wait for too long." – And as he expected, the other Shinobi restrained Ryota and kept him under the watch of a Root Anbu while they cleaned up Ryota's mess, and Ryota used the opportunity to sneak away from the others.

He also didn't wander around aimlessly but left the village alone.

From the look he had a few seconds ago, it seemed as if he had found something.

Yama and Homusubi glanced at each other and quickly followed him.

After trailing Ryota for a while, Homusubi said, "I think, here should be far enough, don't you think?"

Yama who has been constantly observing everything with the Tenseigan nodded, "Hmm, there is no shinobi around, a good spot to kidnap an Uchiha." – with that decided, the both of them used Body Flicker Technique and instantly caught up with Uchiha Ryota at the front.

Seeing the two members of Amatsukami arrive before him, Ryota was so angry, and shouted, "You bastards, you finally dared to show yourselves! Where is my brother!!?"

In Yama's point of view, Uchiha Ryota is nothing more than a torture subject who is only alive to give birth to a pair of Mangekyou Sharingan, therefore, he did not bother to talk nonsense with him and signaled Homusubi.

Homusubi nodded.

Uchiha Ryota is different from Uchiha Hideki, whether, in terms of insight of his Sharingan or overall strength, he is far superior to that of his elder brother. In fact, some of the Uchiha even speculate that his strength is second only to the Patriarch and Uchiha Shisui. Therefore, even if both are brothers, Ryota is still far more dangerous.

So to avoid any accidents, Yama and Homusubi had already agreed to attack him together and quickly solve him in the shortest amount of time possible.

The silence of the two members of Amatsukami made Ryota understand that he is their target this time.

As a shinobi who has been taking care of the dirty work of the Uchiha Clan for many years, Ryota's experience far surpasses that of any other Uchiha, in fact, Ryota even thinks that his combat experience even surpasses the Patriarch. For that reason, he did not wait for the enemy to start and himself printed hand seals, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

At the same time, Homusubi also printed the same hand seals at a faster speed and used the exact same technique, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

The two great fireballs collided causing a loud explosion, spreading scorching hot fire all around.

But the two did not stop there and instantly started a Shurikenjutsu battle.

The Shurikenjutsu battle between the two was especially magnificent, and Yama once again got to witness the amazing Shurikenjutsu skill of elite Uchiha Shinobi.

Taking advantage of Ryota's distraction, Yama rushed towards him.

At this time, Ryota had just ended the Shurikenjutsu battle with Homusubi and took out the Emergency Signal Flare from his shinobi bag, and was going to lit the flare.

Yama's eyes shrank and he knew that he cannot allow Ryota to fire the signal flare so he speeded up.

One of Yama's hands was going towards Ryota's chest while the other went towards the Signal Flare.

However, just as Yama was about to grab the signal flare from Ryota's hand, he noticed the winning smirk that Ryota had from the corner of his eye.

Smash…

Smash…

But Yama was already too close to back off now, and at the same instant, two distinctive sounds of smashing were heard.

One was the sound of Yama hitting Ryota's right hand that held the signal flare while taking away the signal flare, while the other was Ryota hitting Yama's chest with his left hand.

In the same breath, Ryota shouted,

"Ninja Art: Summoning Technique: Iron Maiden of Certain Death!"

Poof…

With a puff of white smoke, an 'Iron Maiden' with complex seal prints appeared.

Hundreds of metal chains shot out of the cage and wrapped Yama, restricting all his movements and dragged Yama inside it.

(P.S. The Iron Maiden Looks like the one Naofumi used in the Rising of Shield Hero but with additional chains.)

While being dragged, Yama couldn't help but think, 'This guy used Signal Flare as a feint and used that opportunity to perform summoning technique and bring out this Iron Maiden, damn, I got careless, but then again, if I backed off at that moment he would have definitely fired the signal flare, this is still the better result!'

Regardless of his shitty character, Uchiha Ryota's superb fighting wisdom alone is commendable, and even if it is Yama, he can't help but admire it.

"Humph, the leader of Amatsukami? Nothing more than a piece of trash!" – Snorted Ryota in a cold tone as Yama was finally locked inside the Iron Maiden Cage and would soon be dead.

With Yama out of the way, Ryota moved his gaze towards Homusubi and said disdainfully, "You are going to be the next!"

Crack… Crack… Boom…

Just as he was just about to start with Homusubi, suddenly the metal cracking sound was heard, turning his head to look at the source, Ryota was surprised to find that the Iron Maiden he summoned was deformed abnormally by an inexplicable force.

Hundreds of spikes that were supposed to rid Yama's body with holes were now flattened into metal discs.

Coming out of the Iron Maiden as if walking out of the park, Yama said with a playful chuckle, "You should indeed be proud of your accomplishment just now… but do not let it go to your head!"

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The way Yama came out of the Iron Maiden made Ryota suddenly feel a huge sense of crisis.

He has a wealth of combat experience and it was this very combat experience that was shouting at him in panic.

Even after he racked all his brain, it was difficult for him to imagine just how exactly Yama broke out of his Iron Maiden!

'Sure enough, as Patriarch said, Amatsukami is not so easy…' – with this Ryota's expression finally turned serious.

Although he is a blood thirst and crazy type, Ryota is by no means stupid, even if he wants to choke these bastards, he still knew how to analyze the situation properly.

And aside from all that, Ryota has extreme trust over his keen instincts, and these instincts were also screaming at him that the moment of life and death is here.

Ryota has never told this to anyone, but his keen instincts are akin to a special intuition ability he acquired when his Sharingan reached the fully matured state.

It was this intuition that helped him shine in the third shinobi great war, and with that, he became a prominent figure in the Uchiha Clan second only to the patriarch and Elder Council in terms of authority.

At this time, Yama walked towards Uchiha Ryota, and incited him, "Compared to your pathetic brother, you are at least not disappointing!"

Although enraged, Ryota did not reply to Yama's taunt. He took a deep breath and printed hand seals and shouted, "Summoning Technique!"

Puff…

Instantly white smoke arose.

When the smoke disappeared, a red tabby cat with a black napkin wrapped around his neck, a silver fork in the left paw, a knife in the other, and half fish in the mouth appeared before everyone.

While chewing the fish, the cat mumbled vaguely, "Ryota you idiot, have I not said to not summon me during my meal times? I will not be doing anything during my meal time!"

"But I am fighting an enemy!" – Retorted Ryota helplessly.

"I couldn't care less, in fact, do us both a favor and just die already!" said the cat with a 'humph' tone.

With a sigh, Ryota released the summon and the red tabby cat was sent away.

Seeing this scene, Homusubi suddenly remembered something and said, "Yama, that red cat can perform hundreds of types of Jutsu, I am sure he wants to escape here using the reverse Summon!"

Homusubi did not need to complete that sentence as Yama too realized that something was amiss here, and he also guessed Ryota's intentions.

Therefore, as soon as the red tabby cat disappeared, Yama used Rein Wheel Pull to attract Uchiha Ryota towards him.

"W-what…?" – Uchiha Ryota who was suddenly pulled towards Yama under some kind of force was suddenly panicked.

At the same instant, Yama also applied a gravity push under his feet and rushed towards the incoming Ryota, all while printing the hand seals.

At the moment the two came in contact, Yama pressed his hands on Ryota's chest and shouted, "Fuinjutsu: Contract Seal: Seal!"

Ryota did not have any opportunity to recover when Homusubi who was also pulled by Yama took this opportunity to use Genjutsu.

The whole fight did not even last even a minute from beginning to end.

And the last counter was almost instantaneous.

In just a few breaths, when the three landed on the ground, the Contract seal had already disabled all the summoning contracts signed by Uchiha Ryota as well as the Genjutsu had already acted upon him.

Uchiha Ryota's visual prowess may be stronger than Uchiha Hideki's, but it is nothing compared to Uchiha Shisui's visual prowess, therefore he was easily solved.

Using the opportunity while Ryota was trapped in the Genjutsu, Yama hit the back of his neck making him lose consciousness.

With Uchiha Ryota unconscious, Yama used the Four-Symbols Seal to seal his chakra, "With this, our objective is complete!"

Homusubi nodded with a heavy breath.

He was relieved that no accident happened and Ryota was successfully captured, if he had somehow managed to escape this time, then the target of Amatsukami would have been revealed to Konoha and it would have become difficult to find any other chance to kidnap him.

Moreover, there is also no guarantee that he did not realize anything during the confrontation, so the successful capture was a great relief.

After completing the seal, Yama said, "Leave him to me, you should also leave this place now and make sure to find a suitable opportunity to show up in another place for your alibi so that the suspicion does not fall upon you."

Homusubi nodded and without saying anything he disappeared from this place.

Yama also did not delay anymore and after lifting Uchiha Ryota into the air using attractive force, he entered into the Tenseigan Chakra Mode and after taking a careful look around, also flew away towards the Dungeon Prison.

…

Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…

It wasn't much longer after Yama left; several shinobi arrived at the battlefield.

These shinobi are none other than the same team including Sarutobi Asuma, Chiriku, Aburame Clansman along with three Uchiha Shinobi who were with Uchiha Ryota not long ago.

Because Uchiha Ryota sneaked away they had to come after him, and the rising black smoke that was visible from a distance and the burning forest was the best giveaway of his position.

Although they arrived here together, their purpose is different.

The several Uchiha Shinobi were worried that if Ryota wanders alone, he would be attacked by Amatsukami, while Asuma and Chiriku came to take him under custody for his actions of attaching the innocent civilians and burning the village despite the previous warning he was given.

Only the Aburame Clansman was just a helpless bystander and could only choose to follow helplessly.

Arriving at the scene, the Uchiha members noticed the broken Iron Maiden and exclaimed with a gloomy face, "Oh shit, Ryota might be in trouble!"

At this time, Asuma and Chiriku noticed the damaged Signal Flare that lied on the ground and asked, "That Signal Flare, it was specially assigned to be used when one encounters Amatsukami, right?"

Another Uchiha Shinobi looked at the Signal Flare and nodded, "Yes, Elder Consultant Danzo assigned this signal flare, and it was probably the one that Ryota had!"

Asuma said with a serious face, "If Uchiha Ryota did not even have the opportunity to fire the Signal Flare to call for help, then he must have been ambushed by more than one member of Amatsukami!"

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Read up to Chapter - 438 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: /Milta_translations

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In the Dungeon Prison Kuroto created.

Uchiha Ryota regained his consciousness.

Unlike what Kuroto expected, Ryota didn't yell or shouted but calmly observed his surroundings and analyzed the situation he was in, looking at the figure that stood before him, Ryota spoke with a chuckle, "It is really ironic, who would have thought that the so-called Amatsukami, a bounty-nin organization are actually the shinobi of Konohagakure!"

"Well you are calmer than I expected, it is certainly better compared to acting like a barbarian!" – Spoke the other person in a mocking tone.

Kuroto who was wearing Yama disguise and leaning on the wall on the opposite side had his arms folded over his chest and smiled slightly.

Uchiha Ryota coldly stared at the unperturbed Yama and spoke, "Answer me! That Homusubi is Uchiha Shisui, right?"

Yama was a little curious as to how Ryota figured it out and questioned, "How did you figure it out?"

"Even among the Uchiha Clan, there are very few shinobi who know the abilities of my summon cat. So, Homusubi being able to figure out what I intended to do at that moment was an easy giveaway, not to mention he has the Mangekyou Sharingan, nobody other than Uchiha Shisui meets both the requirements." – After explaining this he took a pause and continued with s sneer, "It's not unexpected that Uchiha Shisui betrayed the clan and chose to side himself with the village, but I wonder what he will do once the Clan is destroyed, will the village let him live? Although I will die because of him, it wouldn't be very long when I get to meet him in the pure land, I would definitely want to cherish his expression at that time."

From Ryota's words, it isn't difficult to guess that even if he managed to figure out the true identity of Homusubi, he still believes that Amatsukami is acting behind the scenes under the directives of senior management of Konoha.

Yama smiled at Ryota's shrewdness and said, "You know, it is pointless to try to instigate infighting by inciting him, he is not even here in the first place, so your pathetic attempt is a wasted effort."

Ryota curled his and snorted coldly.

When he said a moment ago are indeed his trues thoughts, but he did have some idea to incite infighting and use guilt of betrayal in Shisui's heart as an opportunity.

Yama walked towards Uchiha Ryota, "Since you hold a very high level of authority in the Uchiha Clan and considering the fact that you are the captain of the third division in the Konoha Military Police Force, I have a few questions from you that I believe you might know the answer of, I do hope you can answer them truthfully."

Ryota grunted condescendingly, "And what are those few questions?"

Yama did not use the roundabout approach and questioned in a straightforward manner, "How much do you know about 'Izanagi'?"

As soon as Ryota heard Yama mentioning 'Izanagi,' his pupil shrank and he stuttered in surprise, "H-how do you know about I-Izanagi? Did that traitor Shisui even gave away the information about it to the village?"

But just as he spoke, Ryota stopped midway in denial and spoke while shaking his head, "No! This can't be! In the first place, Shisui probably doesn't even know the secret of Izanagi! His attitude has always been uncertain so Patriarch would definitely not tell him about Izanagi!"

Noticing Ryota's muttering, Yama spoke, "It seems that you do know a lot about Izanagi." – Taking a short pause, he continued, "Explain what you know, I don't think that I need to say this but you should understand the position you are in, the needless struggle will only make you suffer more before your inevitable death."

Ryota did not answer directly but spoke with a grim look, "What's the point even if I tell you about it, it is not as if it would be useful to you, it would be wise of you to give up 'Izanagi,' as it is a forbidden Genjutsu that only Uchiha Clansmen can use, without Uchiha Blood and Sharingan, it is impossible to use it!"

Listening to Ryota's words, Yama walked back and did not speak anything to retort Ryota's words.

In the original story, even those not of the Uchiha Clan mastered this forbidden Genjutsu, Shimura Danzo transplanted quite a lot of Sharingan and combined them with the Hashirama Cells to be able to use Izanagi.

Therefore, Izanagi is not limited to just the Uchiha Clan, however, the Sharingan seems to be a necessary requirement, but that is probably because Sharingan has traces of Hagoromo's Chakra that records the 'Creation of Of all Things Technique' and Izanagi is derived from the 'Creation of All Things Technique.'

But the 'Izanagi' used by Shimura Danzo was only limited to one minute per Sharingan while the Izanagi used by Uchiha Obito lasted much longer, this is probably because Danzo did not have the necessary spiritual and physical energy because of being a non-Uchiha and non-Senju.

Therefore, what Uchiha Ryota said is actually not wrong, but it isn't right either.

The non-Uchiha have a hard time mastering Izanagi but they can if they are able to fulfill the necessary requirements.

After a long silence, Yama spoke, "Well I understand that Izanagi is exclusive to the Uchiha Clan as you say, but would you mind humoring me a little; as I need to satiate my curiosity, answer me, have you mastered Izanagi?"

"Of course, I have not!" – Ryota replied very simply and then said with a laugh, "Izanagi is regarded as an ominous technique even among the Uchiha and not many people are aware of it, and nobody is allowed to learn it." – said Ryota, while also thought, 'And it took me a lot of effort to convince Patriarch to let the clansmen master Izanagi at the time of launching the Coup.'

Yama thought, 'Thankfully Uchiha Fugaku is sane enough to not let all the Uchiha learn Izanagi otherwise the fighting power of the Uchiha Clan would have multiplied several times!'

Although he thought this, he still said casually, "Why should I believe whether you are speaking the truth or not?"

Ryota snorted, "Humph, like I care, believe if you want to, don't believe if you do not want to!"

Seeing Ryota's response, Yama chuckled, "I guess you are speaking the truth because if you had really learned Izanagi, I am afraid that the entire Uchiha Clan would have learned it overnight!"

Considering Ryota's radical behavior, if Izanagi would have come in his hand, then he would have definitely spread its information among all the Uchiha, therefore, forcing Uchiha Fugaku to speed the preparation of Coup d'état.

Since the Uchiha are still in the preparation period this means that the Izanagi that Uchiha Patriarch holds in his hands has not been revealed to the others by Ryota.

Ryota sighed at Yama's words and said with a bitter expression, "The Patriarch has been waiting for the best opportunity for so long, but the thing is that best opportunity never comes, it has to be created, all he is doing is hesitating, and Patriarch's hesitation will doom the entire clan!"

Yama was no longer interested in discussing the matter of the Uchiha Coup, and said casually, "You don't know much about 'Izanagi' so you shouldn't know about 'Izanami,' another Forbidden Genjutsu that was specifically created to punish the 'Izanagi' users, right?"

Ryota frowned when he heard the unfamiliar term, "Izanami!?"

Seeing Ryota's confused expression, Yama knew that he was right, Ryota seems to have never even heard the term 'Izanami' much less mastering it!

But when he thought about it a little, this is also normal, Izanagi itself is regarded as a Kinjutsu by the Uchiha so very few people should be aware of Izanami.

Seeing Yama's silence, Ryota asked, "This 'Izanami'? Is it also a Kinjutsu of the Uchiha Clan? Even I don't know about it, then how do you know? Did Shisui leak the information about it to you?"

Yama did not answer.

Since Ryota does not have any useful information about the topics that Yama is interested in, so Yama does not bother to discuss anything more with him.

Understanding that the other party was not going to answer him, Ryota thought a little and finally asked, "So um, i-is nii-san alive, or have you k-killed him?"

Yama chuckled, "Why do you even care whether he is alive or not, do you think you can save him if he is alive or do you think that you will be able to avenge him if he is dead? Is it really important?"

Ryota was silent for a while then said, "If it is not important, then it should be okay to at least tell me this, right?"

Listening to Ryota's words, Yama pondered for a while then clapped his hands.

Clap…

"Aaaahhhhhh…!"

Followed by the clap, a loud scream was heard throughout the cave.

Uchiha Ryota who heard the scream recognized the voice and it belonged to his brother Hideki, and he couldn't keep up his calm façade anymore, and shouted viciously, "I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU ALL!!!"

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Yama did not care about Uchiha Ryota's swearing.

At this time he was observing Uchiha Ryota's chakra fluctuations with the Tenseigan.

Unlike Uhciha Hideki, Ryota does not seem to be able to resist the chakra draining effect of the Four-Symbols Seal.

So even under the effects of extreme anger that he felt right now, there were no signs of Chakra fluctuations nor was the Sharingan activated under the emotional stimulation.

After observing this for a while, Yama shook his head in disappointment.

Similar to Uchiha Hideki the emotional stimulus of 'Anger' is insufficient to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan or even be able to break free of the restraint effects of the Four-Symbols Seal.

With that conclusion, the first stimulation test was over, and Yama again clapped his hands.

Clap… Clap…

With the sound of Clap echoing in the room, the screaming of Uchiha Hideki that could be heard subsided and faded away.

Ryota who was tied to a stone pillar similar to Uchiha Hideki couldn't help but ask, "What on earth do you want from us? If Sharingan was what you kidnapped us for then you already have it! Why torture nii-san!?"

Yama did not bother to answer Ryota's question just calmly and silently walked out of the cage ignoring Ryota.

…

Inside the Uchiha Hideki's prison cage.

Uchiha Hideki who was tied to a pillar was panting heavily and tried to catch his heavy breathing, his body was full of scars from cut wounds and piercing wounds, some even had blood seeping out of them.

There were many bruises that made the skin purple, a few burn marks that made the skin black and a few of his fingers were also broken or bent in unusual directions with nails missing in all of them or impaled with metal needles.

Overall, he was in a very severe state, clearly indicating the picture that he went through severe torture that is akin to experiencing hell and Kuroto can guarantee that even the Slug Sannin Tsunade would have too much trouble healing him.

In front of Uchiha Hideki stood an upright wooden puppet that was one of the many puppets seized during the third great shinobi war when Konoha was in a conflict against Sunagakure.

The puppet itself is not of any extraordinary value or functioning, it can not use any ninjutsu, the only function it is capable of is to shoot out the pre-stored shuriken and Senbon.

Since such a puppet does not have any research value, therefore, after being seized by the Konoha, all it was used for was to give experience to the shinobi on how to combat the Sunagakure puppet brigade.

And since Kuroto needed someone or something to keep watch of this Dungeon Prison in his absence so he used his Anbu identity to take this puppet from the warehouse.

After making it a self automata with the use of Tenseigan Chakra, just like he did with the Kazekage puppet, Kuroto also used the basics of what he learned about the Yin-Yang Release to give it some sort of sentience so that it can keep watch of this prison dungeon and the captive Uchiha that will be kept here.

Although its combat power is not much only reaching the level of a Chunin, it is still more than enough to perform many tasks, like execution, cleaning, pouring tea, helping in torture etcetera.

Walking inside this Hideki's cage, Kuroto who was still wearing the Yama disguise, waved his hand and ordered, "Alright, walk back."

Following the order, the puppet put away all the torture devices and stepped aside.

At this time, Uchiha Hideki glanced at Yama with a weary expression and asked, "I… I felt l-like… I heard Ryuto… p-please tell me… it w-was just my… my imagination!"

Yama shook his head indifferently and said, "No, it was not your imagination, he is in the prison cell right next to yours… and he would soon be going through exactly what you have been going for the past few days."

Hideki said with a pleading expression, "Please, whatever you want, I… I will do a-anything… I will g-give you every… everything… please… please j-just l-let him go!"

Yama thought, 'The emotional bond between these two brothers is really strong, with this confirmed I think I can proceed further.' – Not caring about Hideki's begging, Yama stated, "Unfortunately that wouldn't be happening."

Hideki was silent after hearing Yama's cold words.

He understood that at this point, that Yama would not let either of the brothers go.

Not to mention the two of them, Hideki has even started to fear that the entire Uchiha Clan would fall prey at his hands and be eventually destroyed.

And he can't help but sigh at this thought.

While Hideki was silent, Yama observed his condition with the Tenseigan, and after confirming that everything was in order he left the prison cell.

Coming to another room, Yama took out two notebooks with [Uchiha Hideki] and [Uchiha Ryota] written on the cover.

He thought a little bit and started writing in the notebook that contained the report about Uchiha Ryota.

[Similar to the case with Uchiha Hideki, the 'Anger Test' failed, solidifying the conjecture that anger is not the most suitable emotion to be used as a stimulus for the awakening of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Additionally, Uchiha Ryota's visual prowess is better compared to Uchiha Hideki, so the probability of awakening Mangekyou Sharingan is higher.

Uchiha Ryota is also quite cunning and seems to have noticed that I was intentionally stimulating him, perhaps he has a degree of understanding on how to awaken Mangekyou Sharingan]

After writing up to here, Yama stopped.

In the past few days, Yama has figured out that he should not put too much hope in this plan of his and for that reason, his mentality is quite stable even after repeated failure.

Perhaps it is because there is no telling just what is the right amount of stimulation needed to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Therefore, he has also started to study different changes in the Sharingan under different types of emotional stimuli.

After closing the notebook, he did not stay much longer in the dungeon prison and returned to his post that was taken over by his Shadow Clone in his absence.

…

In the blink of an eye, a few more days passed.

The sudden disappearance of Uchiha Ryota was another slap in the faces of the Konoha management, and this time the entire village was stirred up.

All Konoha shinobi openly regarded the actions of Amatsukami as an open declaration of War.

For this reason, the amount of effort each shinobi was putting to raid and hunt down the black-market increased several folds, and strangely enough, many unrelated small organizations that were hiding became unlucky targets.

At the same time, a seemingly ridiculous rumor that seemed hard to deny because of the amount of weight it had and seemed justified under careful consideration started to flow out of the rumor mill, and the protagonist of this rumor was none other than Uchiha Shisui.

After hearing the rumors, Shisui was in a panic and quickly met up with Kuroto.

As soon as Kuroto appeared, Shisuihow had a crying expression exclaimed, "Kuroto-san, w-we are exposed, w-what do we do!!?"

These past few days, Kuroto has been busy either with the task that was assigned to Anbu Team-11 or with torturing out the Uchiha brothers therefore he did not pay enough attention to the sudden rumor, now listening to Shisui mention this, he was stunned and asked, "How do you know you are exposed?"

Shisui was a little anxious, "It has spread everywhere in the village and everyone knows that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi of Amatsukami!"

When Kuroto heard Shisui's words, he felt that such a thing should not be possible and muttered in thought, "No, even if someone figured it out, spreading such a serious matter without any evidence is simply foolish!"

Shisui said, "But this news has already been spread in the village, what should I do now??"

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When Kuroto thought of this matter, he felt quite strange about it.

If he was Sandaime-sama, and he had evidence that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi of Amatsukami, then he would have definitely chosen to summon Shisui in secret.

And when Shisui arrived, Sandaime cooperates with Danzo and Jiraiya to ambush Shisui, swarm at him together and deal with him effectively without causing much fiasco.

After being defeated and captured, whether they want to torture him to obtain intelligence or execute him for the betrayal both are the options that can be considered.

But Uchiha Shisui has not been captured yet and the news has already spread about him being the Homusubi, no matter how you look at it, this should not be how Sandaime-sama works.

Because Kuroto doesn't believe that Sandaime-sama would risk releasing such critical intelligence.

The reason is very simple, Sarutobi Hiruzen may not have an exact idea of Uchiha Shisui's strength, but he can make a rough estimate based on Shisui's past records. Hypothetically speaking, if Uchiha Shisui really is Homusubi, then how much damage can he do if he goes on a rampage?

Taking such a risk to openly release such intelligence is foolish if they really have the evidence about Shisui being Homusubi.

So, after thinking about it, Kuroto said with a confident tone, "Don't worry, the village does not have any evidence against you!"

Listening to Kuroto's confident tone and his reasoning, Shisui also thought about it and felt that's the case, so after calming his initial panic, he spoke in realization, "Ah… does that mean someone intentionally spread the rumor?"

Kuroto pondered over it a little bit and said, "That's the most reasonable explanation, and this means that someone is intentionally targeting you. The other party has no evidence to use against you, in fact, they may not even be sure, but when you think about it that person does not need any evidence to target you!"

Judging from how the situation has developed, the person who spread the rumor seems to be targeting Shisui, and the approach he used is also very simple, frighten the 'snake' and wait for the 'snake' to jump out by itself.

As for how the other party is targeting Shisui to be Homusubi?

That's very easy to speculate if you think about it.

Officially only two shinobi are known to have the Mangekyou Sharingan, one is Uchiha Shinichi and the other is Uchiha Shisui, so Homusubi has to be either one of the two, and if Uchiha Shinichi is excluded from the possibility then Uchiha Shisui is the only option left.

Kuroto can be sure that the other party has no evidence and yet they are targeting Uchiha Shisui, so it was not difficult for him to figure out who that person is.

In Konohagakure, the Uchiha Clan would not openly throw dirty water on Uchiha Shisui, that is to say, Uchiha Fugaku would have silently confronted Shisui if had his doubts, the same goes for Sandaime-sama.

So, the only person left who can target Uchiha Shisui for his Mangekyou Sharingan is Shimura Danzo, this speculation can be easily confirmed based on the fact that aside from the Anbu, only Root subunit has the ability to spread such rumors throughout the village without garnering any attention.

And Shimura Danzo has both motivation and ability, so it doesn't take much brainstorming to figure out the source.

Thinking so, Kuroto said, "Now that we have figured this out, think if there was any flaw that you revealed?"

Shisui thought about it carefully and recalled all the actions he carried out while he played Homusubi, "The only flaw right now can be the confrontation of visual prowess I had with the Patriarch, so if Patriarch becomes suspicious and he confronts me, I am afraid he will figure out that it was me."

Everyone's chakra has a unique color and nuanced signature to it, and the visual prowess based on Chakra is no different in this regard.

While acting as Homusubi, Shisui had a brief confrontation with Uchiha Fugaku, so although, Shisui's Chakra signature and Mangekyou Sharingan shape was not revealed because of the isolation Fuinjutsu used in the mask, the two of them still had a confrontation, therefore, Uchiha Fugaku must have recorded Homusubi's visual prowess.

If Uchiha Fugaku does not doubt Shisui then everything is well and good.

But if Uchiha Fugaku develops doubts about Shisui because of the rumors, and if he confronts Shisui to verify those doubts then Shisui will be immediately exposed.

Thinking so, Kuroto asked, "What do you think, will your Patriarch doubt you?"

Shisui just said, "I do not know."

"That's a bit troublesome." – muttered Kuroto.

During the scuffle that night, Kuroto and Shisui were non-existent witnesses of each other, if it is proven that Shisui is Homusubi then it would be difficult for Kuroto to get by, and by then there is a possibility that he will also be exposed.

Holding his chin, Kuroto thought, 'How to solve this trouble?'

If he wants Shisui to get cleared of all the suspicions then the best way is to find another person with the Mangekyou Sharingan and let him play as 'Homusubi,' but is that an easy thing?

In the entire shinobi world, even if he includes, Kakashi and Obito, then there are only five people who have the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Of these five, four can be excluded unquestionably, and only one option is left.

'Should I call Shinichi?' – As soon as this thought came up in his mind, Kuroto shook his head.

In their previous communication, Shinichi has notified him that under Pain's order, all the members of Akatsuki have evacuated out of the Land of Fire, and in such a case, it would be difficult for him to sneak into the territory of the Land of Fire.

And once Shinichi is involved with Amatsukami, he will no longer be able to continue his undercover mission in Akatsuki.

So only one possibility remains, 'It seems I have to speed up the progress of stimulation tests on Hideki and Ryota. If I can obtain a pair of Mangekyou Sharingan from them, these troubles will be resolved.'

Although Kuroto does not have much expectation, he also does not have any other option.

'I guess I will see what I can do about it!'

After making up his mind, Kuroto said to Shisui, "I will see what I can do about it. Remember Shisui, do not admit to anyone that you are Homusubi, no matter how sure they act. Even if your patriarch confronts you, make sure to not pose any resistance, I may not know about others, but Uchiha Fugaku would not convict you without any solid evidence, as long as you aren't proven guilty, Uchiha Clan will protect you with everything they have!"

Shisui nodded, "I understand!"

"Also make sure to not meet Shimura Danzo in this period, if he summons you, there would only be one intention, that is to steal your Mangekyou Sharingan, we may have used Fuinjutsu to make sure that your eyes are destroyed if they are taken out without solving the seal but that is no reason to let them be destroyed."

Shisui said, "I will keep that in mind."

"And lastly, don't be too worried, I have a backup plan, but it will take some time, so make sure to keep your guard up and do not give others any sign that they can use."

Shisui nodded and with that, both of them said goodbye and left.

…

Shisui soon arrived near the Uchiha Clan as the Uchiha Patriarch had ordered for his return.

Shisui understood that what he is going to be facing now, so taking a deep breath he hurried forward with a determined look.

Whoosh…

Just as Shisui was passing through the forest and was about to enter the Uchiha Clan grounds, a figure jumped down from the tree and appeared before him.

Shisui was not startled by the appearance of this person and asked, "Itachi, what are you doing here?"

Itachi stared at Shisui deeply, and finally asked with a sincere look, "Shisui-san, are you Homusubi?"

Looking at Itachi's sincere expression, although Shisui wanted to say no and deny, but for some reason, he just couldn't and finally nodded with a sigh.

'Sigh, so much for not admitting!'

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For some reason, Shisui couldn't bring himself to lie to Itachi.

It was just that Kuroto-san instructed him to not admit that he is Homusubi to anyone no matter what, so now he felt a bit regretful and worried as to how will Itachi react to this information.

Just when Shisui was silent and worried and didn't know what to say, Itachi suddenly bowed deeply towards him.

Shisui was surprised and exclaimed, "Itachi, what are you…?"

Itachi did not lift his head and said seriously, "Shisui-san, you must not admit that you are Homusubi before Otou-sama!"

Shisui lifted up Itachi and asked, "Do you not hate me Itachi? I have betrayed both the clan and village! Attacked people of the clan!"

Itachi shook his head, "No Shisui-san, with the way the situation is developing between the clan and village, something needs to be done or else I am afraid…"

"But still, I have betrayed the clan and that can't be changed!" – spoke Shisui with a guilty look.

"Maybe, but maybe it is better for some to survive even if few have to die for it, rather than all being dead? And both Uchiha Hideki and Uchiha Ryota were the radicals who would have led the clan to doom, so even if Amatsukami attacked them it was for the sake of the clan, besides you prevented Sasuke from being killed, otherwise how could have Sasuke survived?"

"I… I apologize that Sasuke had to go through that, we needed a witness but did not expect Sasuke to be the one to find us, so you know…" – Shisui said.

"It's alright Shisui-san!" – Itachi said.

Shisui was very relieved and the burden he felt was also relieved somewhat.

At this moment Shisui asked, "By the way Itachi, how did you conclude that I am Homusubi? Was it because of the rumors or something other?"

Itachi said, "Before everything, I was doubtful whether you were really defeated by Amatsukami as everyone says, not to mention Kuroto-san was also with you, and you always say that Kuroto-san is stronger than you so it was hard to believe. And finally, the fact that Sasuke was not killed made me believe it. Speaking of, I am really curious about what kind of organization Amatsukami is!?"

Shisui shook his head helplessly, "For the time being I can't disclose anything about Amatsukami with you, in the first place I, myself am not very much aware of Amatsukami, but you can rest assured that Amatsukami has no ill will towards either the village or the Uchiha clan."

"I understand." – Itachi nodded.

At this time Shisui said with an earnest look, "Thanks a lot Itachi, with what you have said… I… am relieved… it… it means a lot to me!"

Itachi nodded with a smile and said, "Let's go now; if we delay anymore, Otou-sama will get a little impatient out of waiting."

Shisui nodded and both of them moved towards the direction of the Uchiha Clan and soon arrived at the Patriarch's mansion.

Walking into the courtyard, both of them arrived before Uchiha Fugaku.

Sitting in the hall, Fugaku lift his head and glanced at Itachi who was accompanying Shisui and said in a deep voice, "Itachi leave, I have something to discuss with Shisui!"

Itachi did not say anything and after a courteous bow to his father, he silently left the hall.

With just the two of them left, Fugaku signaled Shisui to sit.

At this time, Fugaku intently stared at Shisui and spoke, "You must have heard the rumors circulating throughout the village?"

Shisui nodded lightly, "Yes!"

Fugaku's gaze was cold and he questioned, "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Shisui shook his head slightly.

Fugaku frowned and activated his Mangekyou Sharingan.

Almost at the same moment as Fugaku activated the Mangekyou Sharingan, Shisui felt the world around him changed and he was back to the same elusive world, with white floor and black sky and various Kanji symbols floating around.

It was again the Yin-Yang Prison World.

At the same time, Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyou Sharingan pattern appeared in the sky above his head, and the blacks and whites of the world started invading his soul.

Suddenly a cold omnipotent voice sounded, "Uchiha Shisui, I want your explanation, the Uchiha Clan wants your explanation!"

However, Shisui followed Kuroto's instructions and under Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyou Sharingan ability, he did not pose any resistance and allowed the blacks and whites to continuously invade his body.

Slowly but steadily everything about him also started changing as if he was becoming an integral part of this world.

Shisui's attitude of posing no resistance surprised Uchiha Fugaku, this was clearly contrary to his expectations, he asked with a frown, "Why do you not resist?"

Shisui said, "Why should I resist? I know that Patriarch will not hurt me!"

Hearing Shisui's words, Fugaku was silent and after a bit of consideration he ordered, "From now on, you are to not take a single step out of the Clan grounds without my permission, is that clear!?"

Shisui asked, "But what about my Anbu duties?"

Fugaku said in an unquestionable tone, "Your application for being ill will be delivered to Sandaime-sama, I believe he will be kind enough to give you a vacation to recover your health!"

Shisui was helpless and nodded his head.

Fugaku released Shisui from the Ying-Yang Prison world and said while waving his hand, "Alright, you are dismissed!"

Shisui bowed to Fugaku and quietly left the hall.

As soon as Shisui left, Fugaku's face was gloomy.

If before he was doubtful, then after this test now, Fugaku was almost sure that Uchiha Shisui is Homusubi!

It is because the fact that he has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan is not known by anyone in the clan or village, but when Fugaku used his Mangekyou Technique on Shisui, Shisui was not surprised at the fact that Fugaku has Mangekyou Sharingan, nor was he surprised at Fugaku's Dojutsu.

This clearly implies that Shisui has already experienced his Mangekyou Dojutsu, and the first time, Fugaku used Yin-Yang Prison World was against the two members of Amatsukami.

Therefore, Fugaku can be sure that Shisui is Homusubi, it's just that he has no evidence to prove this.

But even evidence aside, Fugaku can't understand how could someone like Shisui choose to join Amatsukami and betray both the clan and the village?

If Shisui had chosen the Clan over the village, Fugaku would have been happy, but even if Shisui had chosen the village over the clan, Fugaku would have been saddened and a bit angered but not so shocked, however, Shisui chose neither and joined Amatsukami?

The other thing he can't figure out is the objective of Amatsukami. Just what do they intend to do?

Will a mercenary organization really choose to offend a great shinobi village, such a Konoha?

Because if they do so, there will be subsequent consequences, are they not afraid?

So, the fact that Amatsukami attacked the Kumogakure delegation and offended Konoha and Kumo, and now that they have kidnapped two members of the Uchiha Clan, offending Konoha and threatened the Uchiha Clan, just what are their intentions of doing this all?

No matter how much he thinks about it, Fugaku can't figure it out and has been confused because of all this!

…

The news of Uchiha Shisui taking a temporary leave from the Anbu department because of illness soon reached Shimura Danzo's ears.

Danzo obviously understood that this so-called 'illness' is just a lame excuse used by the Uchiha Patriarch to keep Uchiha Shisui under House Arrest.

But this result was out of his estimation.

According to what he predicted, after the rumors were fermented in the village, the arrogant Uchiha Clan will jump out and try to clarify the matter to prove Shisui's innocence. At that time, in the name of the commander responsible for the annihilation of Amatsukami, he will conduct a complete inquiry and take that chance to take control of the situation and seize away Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan to get his hands on Kotoamatsukami.

He did not expect that as soon as rumors started to have some effect, Uchiha Fugaku chose to put Uchiha Shisui under House Arrest, and Danzo had no chance to carry out his plan.

'Even the Uchiha Clan can see through things?' – thought Danzo in an impressed manner.

Danzo was obviously surprised that the Uchiha Clan tried to protect Uchiha Shisui in this manner, even when Shisui was a suspect of being Homusubi!

…

Outside Uchiha Clan.

Might Guy shook his head helplessly and said to Kakashi and Kuroto, "The Uchiha clansmen are still not allowing us to enter in and see Shisui."

Kuroto was obviously informed by Shisui about everything that happened and said, "Let him rest, for now, I believe Shisui will contact us when he is ready."

Kakashi nodded.

The rumors in the village have been quite troubling so Kakashi was also worried about Shisui, he is not sure whether Shisui is really Homusubi but as the captain of Anbu Team-11, Kakashi had to trust his teammates, and as long as, Shisui was in the Uchiha Clan, there should be no problem in regards to his safety.

With that, the three of them left.

That night nobody would have expected Uchiha Fugaku to lead the elites of the Konoha Military Police Force to chase after Amatsukami.

And now the situation has started to get troublesome.

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Uchiha Clan, Shisui's home.

Itachi opened a box of three colored Dango dumplings and poured some hot green tea into the Yunomi (Japanese teacups) both for himself and Shisui.

Shisui thanked Itachi and after taking a sip he asked, "So Itachi, I take it that you are the person responsible for keeping watch on me?"

Itachi nodded, "Yes, Otou-sama is clearly suspicious of you and assigned me the task of monitoring you until the doubts are clarified."

Shisui can't help but sigh, undoubtedly even after he did not pose any resistance, Uchiha Fugaku was still doubtful of him.

Itachi asked, "Shisui-san, what kind of person Kuroto-san is?"

Shisui raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Why the sudden interest?"

Itachi thought a little and said, "I have only ever met Kuroto-san twice and from what I see, he is not a simple person, and from what you have told me, Kuroto-San clearly surpasses you in terms of strength and yet there is not much known about him.

This is rather strange, he seems to be too mysterious."

Shisui considered Itachi's words and said, "I guess you are not wrong, and to be honest even I, myself don't understand him much, about his ideals, and goals, I am not very clear about them.

However, I have come to understand that Kuroto-san is not…. Um, how should I refer to it… not partial I suppose?

In my opinion, Kuroto-san might be the only one who can save the Uchiha Clan."

Itachi was stunned, such high evaluation clearly dictates just how much Shisui trusts Hyuga Kuroto and he can't help but want to know, "Why?"

"Hahaha, I don't actually understand this myself, think of it as a gut feeling!" – Shisui said with an awkward laugh.

Itachi sighed, this wasn't what he expected to hear.

"Well, I know I am being incredibly vague, but I do feel that if he becomes the Hokage, Uchiha might have a bright future, and the reason for my belief is because Kuroto-san is not judging the Uchiha Clan based on the preconceived notions of both the sides, so maybe, just maybe, he can help Uchiha Clan truly become part of Konoha."

Shisui's words were again deeply taken by Itachi.

As Itachi has been growing up he has started to realize the root cause of the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and Village.

The strength of the Uchiha Clan is very obvious once the Shinobi reaches the level of Special Jonin and above.

As long as the Sharingan of the Uchiha Shinobi has developed to a fully matured state, the strength of Uchiha Shinobi will mostly be higher than the shinobi of other clans of the same rank.

This is almost inevitable.

With strong power, the people of the clan will naturally seek corresponding political status.

When they were suppressed by the Senju Clan, the Uchiha were barely able to accept because of Uchiha Madara's actions, but as the years passed, the Senju Clan withered, Uzumaki Clan annihilated and Hyuga Clan declined, the Uchiha Clan could no longer accept how they were being treated.

In the current Shinobi world, no clan is strong enough to match the strength of the Uchiha Clan.

But the very same Uchiha Clan, who is also the co-founder of Konohagakure has no right to participate in the decision-making body of the Village.

Not to mention the position of Hokage, even the Advisory Elder Board has no face representing the Uchiha Clan. This obviously dissatisfies the Uchiha Clan.

And finally, they are being treated unfairly, forced to relocate to the edge of Konoha, being kept under 24x7 monitoring!

Let alone Uchiha Clan, nobody can bear such discrimination!

They have almost given up on obtaining what they deserve through normal ways.

And this is what is prompting the Uchiha Clan to plan out a Coup.

There are only two ways to solve this problem.

Either the village gives the Uchiha Clan what they deserve as the Co-founder of Konoha, or the two sides fight each other.

Anyone with discerning eyes can judge that the current Hokage faction can not deter the Uchiha Clan and yet they are unwilling to treat the Uchiha Clan fairly.

In this way, the conflict seems inevitable.

The more Hokage faction guards against the Uchiha Clan, the more Uchiha Clan will develop the idea of Coup, and the more Uchiha Clan will develop the idea of Coup, the more Hokage faction will reject the Uchiha Clan.

In this way, a never-ending cycle has developed.

Before Shisui could not find a solution to this loop and could only helplessly watch the sides fight each other like water and fire.

But it's different now.

…

After failing to meet Shisui, Kuroto walked out of the village.

Shisui may have taken a temporary leave, but the task assigned to Team-11 was not suspended by Sandaime-sama, therefore, the three members, Dog, Monkey, and Eagle still need to continue with the task.

Not long after he left the village, a black crow landed on Kuroto's shoulder.

Kuroto raised his hand to let the crew land on it and took out the small letter that was passed to him by the crow.

Unfolding the letter, Kuroto read the content and learned about what transpired since Shisui returned to the Clan.

Kuroto quirked his eyebrow when he read the part that Itachi has been tasked with monitoring him during the house arrest but other than that there is nothing to worry about for now.

He understood what the 'for now' part implied.

The situation has yet to reach the worst stage and can be salvaged if Kuroto plays his cards wisely, but he also understands that Shimura Danzo wouldn't be sitting in silence for much longer so he has to speed up the stimulation test.

With that understood, Kuroto destroyed the paper and went on his way.

…

Another month passed.

Konoha's hunting operation against underground forces in the Land of Fire and the surrounding nations did not stop and even extended to some of the smaller countries.

The continuous and non-stop raids led Konoha to discover the hidden lairs of so many illegal organizations as a result of which a whole lot of black and stolen money, goods, and weapons were seized.

The number of shinobi participating in the tasks kept increasing every day, and not to mention other clans, Hyuga Clan alone had several dozens of shinobi participating in this operation.

And even with all the effort put in, there was still no progress when it comes to the matter of Amatsukami.

No amount of effort yielded any useful intelligence, and this has started to make a lot of people impatient.

…

Kuroto's Dungeon Prison.

Kuroto stood before Uchiha Hideki whose current state was just a few steps away from death.

It's not that Kuroto has any interest in torturing people, but he is not disgusted by it either. If necessary Kuroto is more than willing to do it, but if it is up to him, he would rather try to avoid it, however, if he wants Mangekyou Sharingan out of Uchiha Brother then it is necessary to carry out these tests.

"Ugh…" – At this time, Hideki regained his consciousness and could barely open his eyes. His throat was sore because of not drinking water for quite some time.

Kuroto had made sure that the Uchiha Brothers only received the minimum amount of food and water necessary for them to stay alive, and not even a drop more.

Hideki noticed Yama standing before him and tried to word out something but could only make out some incoherent words.

Kuroto who was wearing his Yama disguise said indifferently, "I guess it's time when I finish this!"

Hideki had a relieved smile and said, "You are finally going to kill me? Come on, do it, I have long grown impatient!"

Yama ignored Hideki's words and clapped his hand.

Clap…

Followed by the clap, the wooden puppet dragged another person who was crucified to a metal cross.

As Hideki saw the wounded person his relieved expression changed, "R-Ryota!?"

Yama nodded, "Yes, that's him!"

Hideki shouted at the top of his lungs, "HOW DARE YOU TREAT HIM LIKE THIS?!"

Hideki saw his brother for the first time after so many days and his anger couldn't be controlled realizing the state he was in.

Yama held Ryota by his hair and said, "I am tired of keeping you brothers alive, today I will put him out of misery."

Hideki exclaimed, "You… W-what are you doing?"

Taking out a Kunai, Yama pressed it against Ryota's throat and said with a chuckle, "Why ask? Don't you already know it?"

Hideki shouted in panic, "Do-don't… don't kill him!"

However, Yama did not care about Hideki's shouting and lunged the kunai forward cutting the frontal part of Ryota's neck.

Puff…

Instantly, blood gushed out and splashed on Hideki's face.

Hideki's Sharingan activated with the three tomoe spinning rapidly…

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Uchiha Hideki, who was barely alive a few moments ago now exuded a chilling aura as the tomoe in his Sharingan kept spinning rapidly.

Yama was observing Hideki's state with his Tenseigan and noticed that the Four-Symbols Seal could hardly restrain the incredibly strong chakra fluctuations which suddenly exploded like a volcanic eruption, the tomoe seems to be only a step away from merging into a different pattern.

The Four-Symbols seal seems to be losing its effectiveness as many distortions started to appear in the sealing symbols that were eroded for some reason.

"What…?" – Yama was surprised by this.

He didn't expect that the Four-Symbols Seal would start to erode, seeing this change he was reminded of how the Four-Symbols Seal applied by Yondaime-sama was eroded by the rush of Ryuumyaku Chakra when Kuroto extracted the Ryuumyaku chakra for the artificial tailed beast project.

But there was still a difference in the two cases, the seal applied to Hideki was also being rearranged at the same time as it was being corroded, he seems to have never heard of such a thing happening.

At this time, he noticed that the Chakra fluctuations in Hideki were getting more violent and uncontrollable, he took a step back to distance himself and observed all the changes with a look of expectation on his face.

He didn't even need the Tenseigan to notice that Hideki's visual prowess was continuously rising.

But suddenly something unexpected happened, the chakra fluctuations suddenly stopped and immediately white foam mixed with red traces came out of Hideki's mouth, and his body started twitching and spasming rapidly as if he was under a panic attack.

"Shit…!" – muttered Yama, and immediately stepped to give Hideki a high dose of tranquilizer along with a dose of Diazepam. The medicine instantly helped in subsiding the twitching and put him in a deep sleep.

Looking at Hideki's collapsed state. Yama sighed in disappointment.

Powerful emotional stimulation can indeed bring out the true potential hidden within the blood of Uchiha, but not everyone has the necessary willpower and mental fortitude to endure such emotional breakdowns.

Not everyone can endure to such an extent and past a certain level of emotional torture is the point of mental breakdown.

Uchiha Hideki was unable to activate the Mangekyou Sharingan even after witnessing the death of his brother and entered a panic attack implying that this level of emotional torture was past his mental breakdown point, as such his aptitude may not be enough to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Shaking his head helplessly, Yama walked out of this cell while and ordered the wooden puppet, "Clean up this mess and prepare for the next test in the adjacent prison cell."

The 'Uchiha Ryota' that was crucified on the metal cross and killed before Uchiha Hideki was just a low-quality clone he cultivated using Uchiha Ryota's DNA.

If not for Hideki's poor condition, broken spirit, and the restraint of the Four-Symbols Seal, Hideki would have undoubtedly figured out that it wasn't his brother Ryota.

This is because the clone does not have Ryota's Chakra trace, nor does it has the Sharingan.

Dojutsu requires mental power to activate the eyes, so even if Kuroto could perfectly clone Uchiha Ryota's body, the clone would not be able to use Sharingan.

This is the weakness of the current Cloning technology.

Coming to his study room, Kuroto took off his Yama mask and recorded all the details of the test conducted on Uchiha Hideki, as well as the result.

Being done with this, he glanced at the 'Uchiha Hideki' clone which was crucified.

The two clones he cultivated using Uchiha Hideki and Uchiha Ryota DNA were actually cultivated using a high amount of nutrient solution without even minding the cost, but strangely enough, a problem occurred and the two clones he obtained were of very low quality, they can even be considered as defective by Kuroto's standards.

Kuroto understands that Uchiha Ryota is more cunning than his brother, therefore, he decided to test this method firstly on Uchiha Hideki.

The test went quite smoothly and effectively if not for the last failure because of Uchiha Hideki's mental breakdown that resulted in overall failure.

Now Kuroto has to pin his hopes on Uchiha Ryota and considering that Uchiha Ryota's mental fortitude is much higher than his elder brother's, so the possibility of success is also higher.

After Putting on the Yama mask, he arrived in front of 'Uchiha Hideki' Clone and used a Kunai to carve out various wounds and cuts, which would let Ryota see just how much torture Uchiha Hideki has borne since he was kidnapped.

It only took him about half an hour to do this.

Although all these wounds appeared to be freshly inflicted, it isn't anything strange. This is because of the presence of Iryo Ninjutsu, it is common to heal the wounds and injuries of the prisoners to carry out repeated torture.

But even after he was done with all this, He still felt that something was amiss about Uchiha Hideki's clone, but he can't seem to figure it out. Uchiha Ryota is too cunning, therefore, Kuroto can't help but be too cautious about this.

For this reason, he didn't rush it and carefully thought and tried to figure out what made him feel as such.

Suddenly his gaze landed upon the clone's closed eyes and he finally realized what was amiss.

Kuroto immediately said to the wooden puppet, "Gouge out his eyes too!"

The wooden puppet followed his command and dug out the clone's eyes.

Now all that was left in the eye sockets were a pair of bloody eye sockets, which increased the visual impact and the convincing power of this clone.

Ryota, maybe cunning, is still an Uchiha after all, it is in the nature of an Uchiha to be affected by their emotions, seeing that his brother's Sharingan has been dug out, he would obviously go out of his mind as such his judgment power will also drop.

After nodding to himself that everything was in order, Kuroto muttered, "Let's see if this results in a success or another failure!"

With that, he walked out of his study and proceeded to the prison cell Uchiha Ryota is kept in…

.

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As soon as Yama stepped into the cell that Uchiha Ryota was detained in, he felt a vicious glare, that particular look filled with rage and hatred for him, and couldn't wait to pounce on him and rip him apart!

Yama naturally did not care about this and said casually, "You seem to be in good spirits today?"

Ryota said, "I Just heard Hideki-Nii's shouts. I have been confused, no matter what your objective is, it doesn't make any sense for you to torture the two of us for so long, no matter what you want; only disappointment is what you will get!"

When speaking this sentence, Uchiha Ryota actually revealed that he is faintly aware of why Yama was torturing them.

Yama faked a long silence and then said, "You are right! I have long grown impatient!"

Ryota snorted, "And that's the only thing you will get!"

Ignoring Ryota's words, Yama clapped his hands.

Followed by the command, the wooden puppet brought the crucified clone body of Uchiha Hideki inside the prison cell.

As soon as he saw his brother, Ryota's gaze was directed towards the two empty bloody eye sockets.

Instantly Ryota's mood changed into a deep scowl, veins on his temple bulged, and his face red with anger and resentment.

As Yama expected, because of the long-term torture Ryota's spirit has already weakened, coupled with the fact that the eyes of 'Uchiha Hideki' were gouged out leaving two bloody holes and looking at all the injuries that Uchiha Hideki has, Ryota was unable to calm down and therefore couldn't distinguish whether the person before his eyes was really his brother or not.

Yama spoke with a Cheshire grin, "Now-now Ryota-Kun no need to be so angry, I just gouged out your brother's eyes, and turned him into a vegetative state, is that really something to get angry over?"

Ryota gritted his teeth with all his might that some cracks appeared in his upper molar, he wanted to rip apart this bastard and tear him into pieces for treating his brother as such and using the Uchiha as the Sharingan farm, but controlling his anger with a sigh Ryota spoke with a bitter expression, "You are right, presumable you are going to dig out my Sharingan too, after all, that was your goal from the beginning, right? So stop talking nonsense and just do it already!"

After leaving this sentence, Ryota's expression turned indifferent, and his cloudy eyes also became clear, as if he has already accepted his fate.

It seemed as if Ryota's will to struggle was already broken.

Yama frowned and he suddenly realized that he went a little too far in torturing out these Uchiha brothers, it appears that he has yet to learn the art of emotional torture and it would take him some time to reach the level of Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito.

As the person responsible for doing the dirty work of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Ryota must have had a lot of encounters with death and coupled with the torture he experienced, death seems a relief for him.

Uchiha Ryota should have long understood that there is no way for him and his brother to survive out of this, so he seems to have already prepared himself to meet his brother in the Pure Land.

And since Ryota has completed such psychological preparation, so even if Yama kills Hideki in front of him, there would be little impact on his emotions.

Realizing this, Yama understood that even if he has made all the preparation, these would still not be enough to stimulate Ryota into awakening Mangekyou Sharingan.

But now that he has already brought the crucified clone here, it wouldn't be a good idea to stop this test midway.

So he held Uchiha Hideki by the hair, dragged him closer to Uchiha Ryota, and asked, "What do you think I should do with this pathetic excuse of a shinobi?"

There was a short struggle in Ryota's eyes but he quickly recovered his indifferent look, his gaze moved from his brother to Yama, and he did not say anything more.

Yama knew that it was pointless but he still had to continue with the act.

So bringing out a Kunai he lunged it forward and pierced through Hideki's throat.

Splash…

Instantly, Hideki's blood splashed on Ryota's face, and everything was silent for a moment.

The silence was not eerie, only saddening.

From beginning to end, Ryota did not even blink as his brother died right before his very eyes.

The blood even entered his eyes, giving off a horrifying look, yet no rage, no struggle, and no anger appeared on his face.

The black eyes stained with red blood was hiding a bottomless hatred within them, but the hatred wasn't going to be unleashed.

The expressionless cold eyes stared at Yama with an indifferent look, as if to burn the outline of Yama in his mind and imprint it into his soul!

All this while, Yama was observing Ryota's changes with the Tenseigan.

Through careful observation, he was able to see that Ryota's chakra rioted violently for a short duration as Hideki's blood splashed on his face, but it soon subsided and returned to normal.

And it was obviously not enough for Ryota to awaken Mangekyou Sharingan.

'Really failed!' – Although unmoved because he already expected as such, he still sighed silently.

Uchiha Ryota has been repeatedly exceeding Yama's expectations, although this makes him uncomfortable that a test subject is acting out of his hands, Yama still can't help but admire Ryota. Because he knows that if he was to go through the same torture that Ryota experienced then he might have already collapsed similar to Hideki!

Just as Yama recollected his thoughts and completely accepted the failure, suddenly he noticed something, it was an extremely subtle detail.

He noticed an extremely small hole in the Four-Symbols Seal he has imposed on Ryota.

Understanding what that implied, Yama thought, 'That hole is not accidental or some mistake on my part, but it seems to have been created by Ryota by extremely subtle chakra control. Ryota should be unable to use his chakra, but he seems to have managed to extract some amount of it and has been using it to corrode the seal, slowly and secretly.'

This means that Ryota has not given up on himself as he showed, and is still trying to save himself if possible.

As soon as he realized this, a grin appeared on his face.

For a moment Yama thought to expose that he has seen through Ryota's plan but after a bit of consideration, he changed his mind and decided to not say anything.

Leaving Ryota to continue with what he is doing, Yama signaled the wooden puppet to take away Hideki's corpse from Ryota's prison cell, and then he also left the cell.

Coming to his study, he removed the Yama mask and then started recording the detail of the test.

[Sadness Test results in a failure for both Uchiha Hideki and Uchiha Ryota.]

[Uchiha Ryota already has the psychological preparation for death so the experiment was a total failure.]

[Uchiha Hideki doesn't seem to have the necessary aptitude to awaken Mangekyou Sharingan, therefore, all experiments and tests will be suspended on him.]

After writing up to here, Kuroto turned the page of the notebook and wrote [Despair Test, while the corners of his lips curved into an evil grin.

When he discovered that Uchiha Ryota has yet to completely give up, and was still trying and struggling to break out of here and save himself, the outline of a master plan started forming in Kuroto's mind.

Kuroto can be sure that this plan will be perfect and definitely yield a pair of Mangekyou Sharingan.

Closing the notebook Kuroto put it on the shelf and walked out of his study.

"For one to experience despair, he must first have hope in his heart!" – muttered Kuroto with an evil grin!

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Uchiha Ryota's prison cell.

Looking at his brother's dead body that was dragged out of the cell, Ryota's face distorted and rage-filled his face.

The sclera of his eyes was bloodshot red and three tomoe rapidly spinning in the scarlet copy-wheel.

Ryota did not cry, because there was no point in it, but he swore in his heart, 'Nii-san, I will definitely avenge your death!'

...

One week later.

These days Kuroto would casually go to the prison dungeon from time to time to check up on Ryota's progress in cracking the seal and irritate him sometimes, of course, he did not stop the torture as that can make Ryota suspicious.

Overall, Kuroto was able to conclude that Ryota was indeed breaking the seal to escape.

It's just that he was being too careful and his progress was too slow for Kuroto's taste.

With the speed at which Ryota was cracking the seal, it will take at least two to three months for him to successfully break free.

Kuroto obviously can't afford to wait for so long, because there is no telling how the situation will change during this period, so he can't let Ryota stall so much time.

After mulling over a little, Kuroto had an idea.

Currently, he was inside Ryota's prison cell, and after delivering the daily dose of torture he said to the wooden puppet, "I have to go on a mission and I wouldn't be coming for the next ten days, so in the meantime, you have to keep watch over him and you don't need to give him any nutrition, just water is enough."

All while Kuroto spoke this, Ryota didn't seem to be paying any attention; his eyes were currently unfocused as if he was in a tranced state, there was no reaction on his face and he did not even bat his eyelids.

But Kuroto can confirm that this is just Ryota's façade because he has already noticed that as soon as his words were finished, the frequency of Ryota's heartbeat increased slightly.

Kuroto pretended to not notice this change and muttered, "I have already got bored of this torture game; so I have decided that after I return from completing the mission, I will put him out of his misery, that way we wouldn't have to bother about him anymore and I will dispose of him."

There was again a slight increase in the frequency of Ryota's heartbeat but it soon returned to normal.

Kuroto ignored the change and left the prison cell calmly.

As soon as the gate of the prison cell was closed, Ryota's opened his eyes and his murderous energy started leaking unconsciously, "Ten days huh…?"

…

Back to his study room, Kuroto sat on a chair and reviewed his plan, repeatedly confirmed that there were no loopholes and after he was sure about this, he nodded and soon started the preparations.

For the final 'Despair Test' ten days later, the entire dungeon prison will be a test site, so he must arrange all the props now.

Regardless of whether the final test results in a success or failure, this dungeon prison will be abandoned after the test, therefore, Kuroto has to make sure to clean up all the traces that might point towards him through the grapevine.

After completing what he had to do, Kuroto left the Dungeon Prison and came to his secret laboratory in the Death Forest.

Coming to Cell Cultivation Lab, Kuroto stopped before the large nutrition tanks.

Two clones were floating in these nutrition tanks, but they are not the clones he planned to use for the fusion in Chimera Technique, rather they were simple clones he cultivated using DNA extracted from his own cells.

Checking all the data displayed, Kuroto analyzed the parameters of the two clones and calculated all the next steps to be taken.

With the technical means he currently has access to, the cultivation of a simple low-quality clone takes at least half a month.

The two clones floating in the nutrition tank were already bred a week ago, so counting the time, they should be successfully completed in about a week for the last stimulation test, that is if nothing unaccepted happens.

With everything proceeding according to the predetermined plan, Kuroto did not waste time anymore and sneaked back to the village.

During this week the hunting operation against Amatsukami has come to a sudden halt.

This is because no matter how much manpower or material resources are used, there has been no successful result. The so-called bounty-nin organization named Amatsukami seems to have never existed at all. This has made more and more people feel that something is wrong.

All signs point that Amatsukami has not had any substantial interaction with any underground organization other than their hostile relationship with Akatsuki.

And considering that the members of Amatsukami have not made any appearance since the Uchiha Ryota went missing, a strange reputation about Amatsukami has started to permeate.

Amatsukami seems to suddenly appear out of nowhere in the shinobi world and then suddenly disappear, making people feel unpredictable.

And precisely because of the repeated failures, people have started to take the rumors about Uchiha Shisui being Homusubi seriously.

Everyone can't help but make secret speculations, among the Uchiha shinobi, Uchiha Shisui is the only one who is officially known to have the Mangekyou Sharingan, so the possibility that the rumors are correct is very high.

And if it is true, does that mean Amatsukami is hidden in Konoha!?

All these things have prompted Sandaime not to be able to sit by any longer and he must take corresponding steps.

Soon, Hyuga Kuroto received a personal summons under Hokage's orders.

Coming to the Hokage office, Kuroto frowned slightly as he looked at the people present in the room.

At this time, not only Sandaime-sama but even the three elder advisors, the Patriarch of Hyuga Clan, Hyuga Hiashi, as well as the toad Sannin Jiraiya were present in the Hokage Office.

What surprised Kuroto, even more, was the presence of a small elder toad who stood on the table next to Jiraiya, the toad was green in color with white hair, white beard, and white eyebrows, wearing a brown cloak.

This toad was obviously not simple and Kuroto recognized him as Fukasaku, one of the 'Two Great Toad Sage' from Mount Myoboku.

'Even someone like him was called to be present during the interrogation?' – thought Kuroto in surprise.

Calming down himself, he kneeled before Sandaime-sama and spoke, "Eagle of Team-11 reporting, Hokage-sama!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen put down the tobacco pipe which has become more and more inseparable these days and said, "There are some questions, you have to answer them truthfully!"

Kuroto who was already removed his Eagle Anbu Mask nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama, I will answer every question to the best of my ability!"

Sandaime said, "Report everything about the events on the night when the Kumogakure delegation was attacked. How did you and Uchiha Shisui encounter the enemy, the entire battle process, including every other detail?"

Kuroto and Shisui have already discussed everything repeatedly, so Kuroto did not need to think too much and recounted the fabricated details.

After listening to all the explanations, everyone in the Hokage office was thinking and trying to find loopholes in Kuroto's words.

Hyuga Hiashi was staring at Kuroto with a little worry in his eyes.

So far, only Kuroto, Shisui, Hiashi, and some members of the Hyuga Clan are actually aware of what transpired in the Hyuga territory that led to Watanabe's death, therefore, Hiashi was worried that the suspicion on Uchiha Shisui might also drag Kuroto into this mess!

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