What will you do now, Lord Third?
Orochimaru couldn't help the pleasure surging in his chest. For once, he felt sending him on this errand by Yagura hadn't been a total waste.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was hesitating—again.
Shimura Danzo's voice was heavy with suppressed fury.
"Hiruzen, I'm doing this for Konoha."
Danzo was neither a fool nor reckless.
And neither was Hiruzen.
This so-called classified letter—was it possible the Mizukage was staging a solo performance? A ploy to frame the Uchiha?
Not just possible. Damn it—it was obvious.
The Uchiha clan's greatest crime, at most, was a hunger for power.
If they'd truly conspired with Kirigakure to launch a Nine-Tails incident, they wouldn't be seeking control of the village—they'd have destroyed it already. What use is power if the village no longer exists?
Hiruzen clenched his fists in frustration. Danzo had to see this. How could he still rush ahead, blind to the manipulation?
Danzo had his own reasons. He believed this was the perfect chance to wipe out the Uchiha once and for all.
Setting aside his private lust for their Sharingan—which, of course, he would never admit publicly—this move could silence public unrest. A noble sacrifice, framed as being for the good of Konoha.
Even if this was all a trap, even if it served some unknown end for the Mizukage, what of it?
Kirigakure feared the Uchiha's strength and wanted to drive a wedge between them and Konoha. And Konoha feared the Uchiha's ambition and what it might bring.
Eliminating the Uchiha would bring peace and security to the village. Or so Danzo thought.
"Hiruzen!"
Danzo's glare was sharp and unrelenting, but Hiruzen didn't budge.
He had no intention of rushing this. Konoha couldn't afford to be shaken right now.
"Danzo. Fugaku. I believe this is all just a misunderstanding."
He didn't even look at Danzo. His focus was on the other man in the room—Uchiha Fugaku.
They'd left him out of the conversation long enough. Like a fish on the chopping block, forced to wait silently for the blade to fall—no wonder the proud Uchiha clan head was fuming.
Outside, ROOT operatives had surrounded the Uchiha compound.
And although caught a step behind, the Uchiha were quick to respond. Weapons were drawn, and the standoff began.
Hiruzen stepped in, trying to mediate.
"I swear to you, I will investigate this matter fully. Danzo, withdraw your ROOT forces. Fugaku, rest assured—I believe the Uchiha are loyal to Konoha."
Danzo, of course, wasn't about to let this golden opportunity slip away just because Hiruzen said so.
They hadn't seen eye-to-eye since the death of the Second Hokage. There was no more reasoning with him.
Danzo responded coldly, "You don't have the authority to command ROOT."
Hiruzen exhaled slowly. "Then I will resume the role of Hokage."
Originally, he had planned to make that announcement at a formal gathering, in front of Danzo and the other advisors.
Jiraiya was still recovering in Konoha, helping his master keep things stable. Hiruzen had already asked him in private—Jiraiya had no interest in becoming Hokage.
Tsunade was disillusioned. Orochimaru had defected.
There was no suitable heir. And so, the mantle fell back to him.
He wasn't young anymore. But perhaps he could hold the position long enough to find a worthy successor.
The public declaration of his return eased some of Fugaku's tension.
During Minato Namikaze's term, the Uchiha had experienced a rare period of peace. Unlike these old guards, Minato hadn't suppressed them.
His wife, Mikoto, had even been friends with Kushina Uzumaki.
But fate had been cruel. Peace had not lasted.
Now, with the seat vacant again, Fugaku had feared Danzo would rise to power.
The Sarutobi faction had lost too much during the Nine-Tails attack. And despite his suspicions of Hiruzen, at least the man wasn't actively malicious like Danzo.
Danzo forced a polite smile. "Ah. Then your return to the Hokage seat is a blessing for Konoha."
If Hiruzen was Hokage, he did have the authority to command ROOT. For now, Danzo would retreat. Time was on his side.
He gave the order, and ROOT operatives pulled back.
But not before Danzo threw one last lingering look at his friend.
Orochimaru, hiding among the ROOT, also left with him.
Fugaku narrowed his eyes as the enemy of the Uchiha withdrew.
Then he turned to Hiruzen and, rare for him, offered a tone of civility.
"Thank you, Hokage-sama, for your clarity."
In truth, Hiruzen had always treated the Uchiha with suspicion—he had never been soft with them.
But compared to Danzo, he seemed almost benevolent.
"You're welcome, Fugaku."
Hiruzen tried to smooth things over and clean up after Danzo's mess.
"Konoha is facing a crisis. We must all work together to survive it."
"As for this letter, I believe the Uchiha have been falsely accused."
He returned the blank scroll to Fugaku—a symbolic gesture, returning the so-called evidence of treason.
A message: we're not pursuing this any further.
"Thank you."
Fugaku hadn't expected a blank scroll to hold such power. Of the three key players today, he had been the only one truly in the dark.
Perhaps this was why he could never become Hokage. His political instincts were far below those of Hiruzen or Danzo.
With things resolved, Fugaku finally saw the big picture—and broke into a cold sweat at how close he'd come to disaster.
"Your return to the Hokage office is good news—for Konoha, and for the Uchiha."
Hiruzen smiled and accepted the goodwill.
He'd played the good guy—and whether or not the Uchiha supported him, at least they wouldn't oppose him now.
He had defused a crisis and gained a potential ally. It was a perfect outcome.
After a bit more small talk, Hiruzen said his goodbyes and returned to the Hokage's office to begin reclaiming his authority.
He hadn't even warmed the seat...
...when a chilling report landed on his desk.
Danzo hadn't backed off at all.
His ROOT operatives were now hunting Uchiha Shisui.
At the time ROOT had surrounded the Uchiha compound, Shisui had been away on a mission.
Danzo had discovered this and quietly dispatched a squad to find him.
The moment he'd left the Uchiha grounds, Danzo doubled back—to go after Shisui himself.
The prodigy of the Uchiha. Only twelve or thirteen, already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. So feared by Kirigakure that the young Mizukage had once ordered their operatives to abort if they encountered him.
To Danzo, Shisui was the clan's greatest threat.
And this attack came even earlier than in the original timeline—Shisui was four years younger.
He didn't yet understand what kind of man Danzo truly was.
He still held respect for the elder—and not enough suspicion.
That moment of hesitation cost him dearly.
Danzo struck suddenly—and took his right eye.
Danzo held the stolen eye, unwrapping the bandage over his own right socket to reveal another Sharingan.
"This one has more value. Yours can replace it."
No telling which Uchiha had originally owned that eye.
Shisui was stunned. But in that instant, he understood.
Danzo had always coveted the Uchiha. Always schemed for their eyes.
Clutching the bleeding socket, Shisui stared at Danzo with eyes no longer filled with respect—but with bloodshot hatred.
His clansmen had long despised this Konoha elder. But Shisui had never listened. He had believed in the Will of Fire.
And now Danzo had torn that belief out of his chest, shattered it, and stomped it into the dirt.
"Hand over your other eye. For Konoha's sake, we cannot allow such dangerous eyes to remain with the Uchiha."
Fsshh fsshh fsshh—!
ROOT operatives emerged around Danzo, moving in.
Run.
Only one thought remained in Shisui's mind.
He weaved signs, spewing flames to force a gap.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
Steam clouded the battlefield.
Using the cover, Shisui escaped backward.
"Fast as expected," Danzo muttered. "Pursue him. He won't get far."
The elite ROOT squad charged through the steam.
Their numbers were few, but all were top-tier operatives. That was why Shisui hadn't sensed them before the ambush.
...
The chase was relentless.
Shisui lived up to his name—the Body Flicker Master—but these ROOT shinobi were no ordinary pursuers.
And Shisui, already wounded and weakened, was steadily losing ground.
He deflected a wave of shuriken with his tantō.
A ROOT operative dropped from above, swinging a matching blade down with crushing force.
Others moved in, flanking him.
Fshhh!
But they struck only air.
"Another Body Flicker…"
Twilight deepened in the forest. ROOT tracked him without pause.
Shisui turned and slashed—a blade of fire in his hand.
He triggered explosive tags mid-move, collapsing trees and sending them crashing between himself and his pursuers.
The flames caught and spread, forming a wall of fire.
But it wasn't enough. The ROOT shinobi pushed through unscathed.
Shisui clenched steel wire in his teeth.
This wasn't his first real battle—he had fought in the Third Great Ninja War.
Running now, leaving his unprotected back exposed, was suicide.
He had no choice.
He would have to stand and fight...
The fire dragon roared down the steel wires, blazing straight toward the five Root operatives.
One of them burst through the flames and hurled several kunai at Shisui.
The kunai struck obstacles in front of him, and the round devices attached to their tails exploded in thick, choking plumes of poison gas.
Another Root operative appeared in Shisui's path of retreat and launched a swift kick.
Each of these enemies was stronger than the current Shisui on their own. Together, their continuous assault left him overwhelmed.
Knocked back, he crashed into the spreading poison cloud. Caught off guard, he inhaled the toxic smoke as he gasped for breath.
All five Root members emerged unscathed, surrounding the now-paralyzed Shisui, whose limbs refused to respond due to the venom.
In perfect sync, they each raised a kunai rigged with explosive tags and hurled them at Shisui's legs.
Boom!!
The explosion kicked up a cloud of smoke and debris.
From the haze, four massive serpents lunged forward, sinking their fangs into the throats of four Root operatives. Their jaws tore through arteries in a single, fatal bite.
In one sudden move, three out of the five were gone.
Only one Root managed to escape—barely—his body replaced by a wooden substitution.
The surviving operative, wearing a dog-faced mask, shouted in panic, "Who's there?!"
Before he could react, a tangle of small snakes slithered up from beneath his feet, scaling his legs with terrifying speed. One of them opened its mouth and drove a hidden blade through his calves.
The mask was torn away.
From the smoke, Orochimaru emerged.
His face, now fully visible, left both the Root ninja and Uchiha Shisui stunned.
With a flick of his arm, a serpent lashed out, its mouth spitting a blade that pierced the last Root's heart.
Then, Orochimaru summoned another snake, which coiled around Shisui and dragged him away from the battlefield—hardly a secure or hidden place anymore.
The earlier explosion had badly injured Shisui's legs. He couldn't move, let alone escape.
Orochimaru took him to one of his personal hideouts in Konoha.
It lay beneath a cliff, hidden behind a raging waterfall.
A fox may have three dens—but this snake had more than triple that. The ones Hiruzen and the others had destroyed weren't even half of them.
He closed the mechanical door behind him and lit the lantern at the entrance.
Orochimaru scanned the interior of the hideout.
He hadn't visited in a long time, but it hadn't been discovered or disturbed. Still usable.
He retracted the snakes and laid his "guest" down.
Shisui's legs were so badly damaged, he couldn't even stand.
Faced with a rogue ninja—even one who had just saved him from Danzō and Root—Shisui found it hard to show any form of respect.
Out of the wolf's den, straight into the tiger's lair.
He was painfully aware of his helplessness. Once again, he was nothing more than a pawn in the hands of those in power—manipulated at will.
Shisui muttered bitterly, "Orochimaru? Why?"
"No reason," Orochimaru replied coolly. "I just wanted to see what made the fabled Mangekyō Sharingan so special."
As always, Orochimaru acted on his own whims.
By sheer coincidence, he'd been hiding among the Root operatives. It made things easier—and let him swoop in to rescue this living legend.
To Orochimaru, Shisui was just a vessel—a body carrying a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.
But during the entire battle, Shisui hadn't used any of its power.
Aside from his Body Flicker Technique, he'd relied on standard Fire Style, Uchiha kenjutsu, and wire manipulation. Just typical Uchiha abilities.
Orochimaru's interest quickly faded. "Doesn't seem like there's much worth noting."
If Yagura had been here to hear that, he would've snapped back,
"You wouldn't be talking if you'd actually seen Shisui's Mangekyō in action—you'd be six feet under."
It felt like a desperate situation… but didn't quite feel like one, either. Orochimaru had saved him, and there was no killing intent in the air.
That's why Shisui hadn't used his final trump card: Kotoamatsukami.
Still, he took note of the mechanism Orochimaru had operated when entering—how he'd opened and closed the hidden door.
Bracing against the wall, Shisui slowly got to his feet and collapsed into a chair. He stared at the closed door, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
The entire hideout was silent, save for the crackling of the lone lamp at the entrance.
Shisui sat alone.
...He just… left?
Shisui had no idea what Orochimaru was thinking. He couldn't even begin to guess.
But to truly follow Orochimaru's train of thought—that would be terrifying in itself.
Still, he was alive. By some stroke of luck, he had survived.
"This place seems hidden and secure enough."
"I wonder what's going on out there now."
He searched the hideout, eventually finding some medical supplies. Without hesitation, he helped himself.
He portioned out the herbal medicine into doses.
Then he pressed the salve onto his wounds and wrapped his legs in bandages.
Biting the end of the cloth to tighten it, he secured the dressing.
His eyes, too—after bandaging, he lowered his forehead protector to conceal them for now.
With the worst of the injuries dealt with, Shisui whispered to himself, "I'll recover here first."
In his current state, if he went outside and ran into Danzō's men, he wouldn't stand a chance.
Fortunately, he had brought enough soldier pills and water to last a while.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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