After quickly describing the useful intel to a few of her disciples, Samui also quickly used her ninja blade to cut through the chains imprisoning them.
"But sensei, aren't you escaping with us?", The three freed Genin of the Hidden Cloud Village were overjoyed, but also concerned about their teacher suddenly appearing here.
"Cut the crap, we don't have much time. That guy could notice this place at any moment, get moving!", Samui didn't explain much, only urging the disciples to hurry and leave the cell.
"Phew... That was a close one," Watching the three disciples escape toward the Konoha gate, Samui finally felt the weight on her heart lift.
However, just as she clutched her chest and turned around—
"Is that so? A close one?", Uchiha Kage was leaning against a concealed wall, toying with three shuriken in his hand, casting a playful look at the kunoichi who appeared startled upon seeing him.
"No, don't!"
Seeing Uchiha Kage about to throw those three coldly glinting shuriken, Samui leapt forward in a panic.
The moment the shuriken left his hand, Samui desperately charged forward.
But with just her half-baked Lightning Release chakra mode, catching two shuriken was already her limit, she couldn't catch up to the remaining one flying toward her three disciples.
However...
"They have to dodge it!"
'There's only one shuriken left, it should be fine, right?'
Clutching the other two shuriken in her hands, Samui silently prayed while watching the three disciples continue fleeing.
"Such a shame, you were so close to saving them."
"So close? You—"
Samui reflexively turned her head and saw Uchiha Kage forming hand seals.
A heavy sense of unease began to loom over her heart.
"Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
As Kage completed the seals, the shuriken flying toward the three Cloud Genin suddenly split,none into two, two into four... transforming into countless shuriken that filled the sky.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
They rained down like a meteor shower.
With overwhelming force, they instantly pierced through the three fleeing Cloud ninja.
"St-stop!", Samui grabbed Kage's wrist mid-seal, but it was too late.
All she could do was watch helplessly as the shuriken storm turned her three disciples into shredded flesh, blending with the ruins and vanishing into blood mist and dust.
"AHHH!!!", Samui screamed, unclear whether from rage or despair, then grabbed Uchiha Kage by the collar.
Her misty teal eyes stared into his face, eyes filled with an intent to devour him alive.
"Why! Why couldn't you let them go?"
"For human traffickers like them, there's only one end, death. Besides, they targeted my... comrade," Kage's calm tone made it seem like he had crushed a few insects, utterly insignificant.
"Then what about me? Why didn't you kill me?", Blood boiling from her disciples' deaths, Samui's voice turned hysterical.
"You didn't succeed. Doesn't meet the death standard," Kage casually tossed out an excuse.
"They didn't succeed either! Your comrade wasn't actually kidnapped! Why couldn't you spare them?"
"Oh, now that you mention it, I guess I did kill the wrong ones."
"You—"
Kage's flippant tone completely infuriated her.
"You demon!"
'A single "killed the wrong ones" and you cruelly murdered my three disciples?'
Samui drew her ninja blade.
The gleaming edge aimed straight at the man's throat.
"Trying to avenge your disciples?", Kage looked on with interest at her reaction.
"I...", Knowing full well she didn't stand a chance against him, not even enough to threaten him, Samui gritted her teeth and turned the blade toward her own fair neck.
Suicide was her final act of defiance.
"I'll be waiting in hell, you bastard!"
Clutching the hilt tightly with both hands, Samui shut her eyes with resolve.
However, just as she was about to stab the blade into herself—
"Your little brother's still alive. Do you want him to die with you too?"
Clatter!
Kage's light words made the resolute Samui drop her ninja blade to the floor.
"Y-you... what do you want? Why did you kill them? Why couldn't you wait for me to beg? I would've begged you... I did beg you…", Thinking of her only little brother, Samui collapsed weakly to her knees on the cold ground, hopeless and helpless.
Her eyes lost their light once again.
Her beautiful blonde hair fell over her face, hiding her refined features beneath long bangs.
"Kneel and beg me, and I'll bring them back."
"Bring... back... how's that even..."
They were crushed to blood mist. All dead. How could they come back?
Samui raised her tear-streaked face.
"Beg me first, and promise not to act on your own again. Then I'll revive them."
"You…"
Hearing Kage's confident tone, Samui hesitated.
Maybe he really could do it?
Despite despising his personality in every way, when it came to his abilities, Samui sometimes wondered if he truly was omnipotent.
"The usual rule, no hands, only mouth."
"Mmh…"
As if clutching the final straw, or out of despair and numb resignation, Samui shuffled forward on her knees toward Kage.
However, just as she was about to bow her head in humiliation, she suddenly realized, the surroundings had changed.
The outside sky was gone. The floor was no longer rough dirt, but cement.
"Sensei, what are you doing? Why are you kneeling to that guy?"
Hearing her three disciples' voices, Samui abruptly raised her head.
This was a prison?
'I'm back in Konoha's jail?'
Seeing her three disciples alive and well in their cell, Samui felt like time had reversed.
"You... what did you do?"
Samui quickly turned and looked again at the young man in front of her, immediately noticing the fading Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes.
"Just a little genjutsu. You were too immersed to notice."
A genjutsu called Tsukuyomi, dealing with emotionally unstable minds was far too easy.
Kage gently caressed the kunoichi's smooth chin, as if stroking a docile cat.
"Let go of sensei!"
"What are you trying to do to her?"
Seeing Kage touch their teacher's face without restraint, the three Cloud Genin in the cell shouted angrily.
"You... genjutsu? Since when?", Samui also stood up quickly from her kneeling position and shook off the hand stroking her.
She began recalling the earlier memories.
She'd broken into the prison, then spotted Kage near the disciples' cell.
'So everything afterward was an illusion?'
'But it felt so real...'
'This guy...'
Recalling her disgraceful behavior in the illusion, Samui's face flushed and paled alternately.
"I knew when you decided to head here," Kage had even helped kill the three-headed snake outside as a Konoha ninja.
All while Samui had been focusing on taking out the prison guards.
"But if you still plan on releasing them, or repeat this act in the future, I won't mind making that illusion a reality."
"Hmph... you bastard!", Samui's chest heaved with rage. Gritting her teeth, she wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.
Even if it was a genjutsu, he'd nearly made her...
How could he use such wicked illusions to test her?
'This awful guy had no regard for my feelings!'
"But, considering how nice I've always been to you, and now you scold me instead of kneeling to apologize?", After the stick comes the carrot. Now that she had the carrot, time to resume the punishment and discipline.
Kage habitually pressed the blonde kunoichi against the wall with his knee, pulled her arms behind her back, and tied them up with rope.
Then he silently counted to five.
"You... what are you doing?"
'Going to do that again?'
'But the disciples are still nearby watching... Can we go somewhere else...'
Samui writhed in shame and anger, hoping he wouldn't act so wickedly.
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