While Izayoi's real body and his puppet army—controlled by shadow clones—were busily harvesting Root operatives' corpses (as well as those of the three-way battle on Konoha's streets), another shadow clone disguised as Tendo Pain slipped away on its own.
Using Ranmaru's Red Eye illusions, it stealthily infiltrated the Hokage Building.
The Hokage Building was Konoha's nerve center, always heavily guarded by large numbers of Anbu, even in wartime. Security cameras and detection barriers further tightened the defense. A single fly would be noticed instantly if the Anbu decided to act.
Had Hiruzen Sarutobi not ordered otherwise, Naruto Uzumaki would have been arrested by Anbu the moment he sneaked into the Hokage Building earlier. He'd never have made it to the Hokage's office to escape with the massive "Scroll of Seals."
"Captain Yamato, we've detected a foreign chakra entering the Hokage Building. It's not visible on any cameras, so it may have some Permeation-type secret technique or Kekkei Genkai."
Izayoi's clone had only just breached the building before the sensor squad picked up on it. After conferring with the monitoring station, they immediately reported to Captain Yamato, who was in charge because the Hokage and the Village Elders were unavailable.
"Understood,"
came Yamato's voice through the radio.
"You all maintain the barrier. The intruder's mine."
"Roger."
Though the clone couldn't literally hear them, Izayoi could see their exchange in action. He wasn't surprised he'd been discovered. If Konoha's Anbu couldn't even handle a single cloaked infiltrator, they wouldn't deserve to be the Hokage's special ops.
In truth, Izayoi's shadow clone had come to face the Anbu head-on. But there was another minor mission to accomplish first. Without hesitation, he vanished in a Body Flicker.
Boom!
A powerful impact blew the door to the sensor squad's control room to pieces. Izayoi's Tendo Pain clone entered, not giving the sensor nin the slightest chance to react. He raised his hand and snapped:
"Shinra Tensei!"
A moderate shockwave filled the room, smashing every device and piece of furniture inside. The chakra-sensor nin were all flung into the walls, then pummeled again by debris that rained down. Before they could struggle to their feet despite the pain, Izayoi flickered right in front of them, shutting down each with a precise chakra strike to the pressure points.
Instantly, the barrier around the Hokage Building blinked off. Outside, a squadron of puppets, already waiting for the signal, used Red Eye illusions to infiltrate the building.
Seeing the entire sensor squad unconscious, the Tendo clone feigned a move to kill them, presumably finishing them off. At that very moment, two voices rang from behind:
"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!"
"Wood Style: Tree Wall Barrier!"
From somewhere unseen, walls sprouted tangles of wood that transformed the entire room into a wooden cage, while the floor dissolved into a swamp. Yet no mud hands or earth dragons attacked Izayoi—only the floor gave way, causing him and the unconscious sensors to plunge downward.
As he fell, more wooden vines extended out, catching and cocooning the knocked-out nin, leaving only their heads exposed, hanging them safely on the walls for rescue. Other vines lashed out at Izayoi like octopus tentacles, and a portion turned into razor-sharp wooden spikes, jabbing in his direction.
"Shinra Tensei."
Again, Izayoi relied on raw power to tear through the vines and wooden spines, hastening his fall. Penetrating the channel of wood, he emerged in the subterranean base below the Hokage Building. Immediately upon landing, a long black serpent shot toward him, trying to clamp down on his foot and link to his shadow.
Tracing the serpent's origin, Izayoi spotted an Anbu operative wearing a cat-like mask, still forming a seal:
Shadow Imitation Technique!
Because this Tendo Pain was just a shadow clone, Izayoi didn't care to gamble whether the shadow jutsu might hold him. He simply floated upward again, spreading his arms:
"Shinra Tensei!"
Boom!
The invisible shockwave roared through the underground base, smashing the floors, architecture, everything in its path. Taken by complete surprise, the Anbu—who had been planning a coordinated attack to capture or kill the invader—had no time to mount a defense. They were blown away. The unlucky ones collided hard with rubble during the flight and sustained grave injuries; the luckier ones just crashed to the floor with heavy bruises.
Only Yamato, the most elite among them, avoided disaster. Even as he was flung backward, he calmly formed Wood Release signs, summoning vines to deflect debris and catch his airborne comrades. But then the shockwave tore those vines apart, forcing him to conjure a larger woven net behind them. It caught everyone who'd been tossed around.
When the wave ended, Yamato instantly issued orders:
"All of you, leave now! Go find reinforcements. Best if you can get Lord Jiraiya or the Elders. This intruder's way beyond your level."
"Understood!"
Despite their injuries, the Anbu displayed impressive discipline, vanishing into Body Flickers to find other exits. Izayoi didn't stop them, because his only target was Yamato.
"Banshō Ten'in!"
Invisible gravity clutched Yamato, dragging him off the ground.
"Gravity … So that last unstoppable gale was repulsion,"
Yamato murmured, face tense behind his mask. Then, weaving further seals:
"Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Rumble…
The battered underground structure trembled anew as tiny green shoots burst through the floor, growing at accelerated speed into tall trees. In moments, the entire cavern was a small forest. The newly formed woodland obstructed the gravitational pull, letting Yamato slip free and alight on a branch.
He was about to conjure more wood clones for intel when a voice from overhead sent a jolt of panic through him, making him realize the scale of his mistake:
"Shinra Tensei!"
A greenish aura flickered in the air above the miniature forest. Whirling currents coalesced around Izayoi. Channeling a massive amount of chakra to form a compressed repulsive wave, he unleashed it at once. For an instant, it seemed like a transparent white barrier expanded outward. Whatever it touched, it obliterated—like a supreme, unstoppable force. Even the dust in the air was shoved aside.
Those trees could not so much as bend to resist; they shattered on contact. Yamato, with nowhere to run, ducked inside a tree hollow, forming seals:
"Wood Style: Wood Locking Wall!"
A circular ring of wooden pillars sprang up, arching over him like a cocoon.
Boom…
Yamato heard the explosion right next to him, and the ground shook violently. Crack…
Hearing splintering wood, Yamato's face twisted in despair beneath his mask.
Bang!
In that final crash, Yamato felt himself swallowed by the force and blacked out. The shockwaves were strong enough to be felt even at ground level.
At that moment, a few figures were dashing toward the Hokage Building at high speed. Leading them was a white-haired ninja of rare height in the shinobi world—over 190 cm tall: Jiraiya. Feeling the ground quake beneath them, he asked anxiously:
"You're sure the intruder is a man in a black cloak with red clouds, orange hair, purple ripple eyes?"
"Yes, Lord Jiraiya," the Anbu replied quickly.
Hearing that, Jiraiya's face lit with both excitement and apprehension. A disciple he had believed dead for years might be alive—nearby—and wearing the uniform of the Akatsuki? Jiraiya wished he had a flight jutsu to rush straight to Yahiko. At the same time, worry clawed at him:
Yahiko, what have you been through all these years? Why the Akatsuki robe? And Nagato's Rinnegan—why do you have it?!
But by the time Jiraiya and his Anbu detail reached the Hokage Building and descended into the underground base, both the "Tendo Pain" clone and Yamato were gone. The entire subterranean complex had been reduced to a massive crater, like the aftermath of a meteor strike, ringed with rubble and shattered trees.
Seeing it, Jiraiya and the Anbu shared the same shock, though for different reasons: the Anbu were stunned by the technique's scope and fearful for Captain Yamato's fate. Jiraiya's heart weighed heavy. This was unquestionably Rinnegan-level power.
He had a bad feeling about it. His old students, it seemed, had gone astray. Exactly what had happened in all these intervening years?!
~~~
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