"Yamanaka Ino, only daughter of the Yamanaka clan head—she's another child I added this morning to the list of possible Children of Prophecy."
Not far away, standing behind a tree, Jiraiya spoke to Sages Fukasaku and Shima. "Because her Yamanaka clan is closely tied to Uchiha Keizumi. You could even say the two are now inseparable."
"Do you think Yamanaka Ino could be the Child of Prophecy?"
Perched on Jiraiya's left shoulder, Sage Shima rubbed her chin. "The Child of Prophecy, the one destined to bring peace and transformation to the shinobi world, must surely possess a brilliance far beyond ordinary people. This child of the Yamanaka clan—is she a genius of Konoha?"
Jiraiya shook his head. "From what I've observed, her talent is only above average. At most, her future limit might be as a standard jōnin."
"Then it isn't her," Sage Shima said. "A Child of Prophecy without overwhelming talent could never bring change to the shinobi world."
Jiraiya nodded in agreement.
He shifted his gaze away from Ino and toward another student leaving the Ninja Academy—walking past Haruno Sakura, who remained rooted in place.
"Hyūga Neji is also on the list of possible candidates," Jiraiya said. "His talent is exceptional—he's considered the number one genius of the Academy. Though only in the second year, he can already fight evenly with sixth-year students. He hasn't had much contact with Uchiha Keizumi, but he's interacted often with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto."
"Hyūga Neji…"
Sage Fukasaku, holding a list Jiraiya had prepared, stroked his beard as he looked over at the boy in the distance.
"We could try approaching him first," Sage Fukasaku suggested.
…
Meanwhile, at an inn in Konoha—
A man dressed as a traveling merchant slipped back into his room.
After shutting the door, he bit his thumb and slammed a palm onto the floor. Black sealing patterns spread out in all directions.
With a sharp bang and a puff of white smoke, a black snake as thick as a man's thigh appeared before him.
The man addressed the snake: "Tell Lord Orochimaru that every one of the spies he planted in Konoha has vanished without a trace. Most likely they've been captured by Konoha—or killed."
"But…"
He paused before continuing. "I haven't yet figured out how they were exposed. By rights, none of them knew each other's identities, and there was no possibility of contact between them. Even if one was caught, the others shouldn't have been compromised. And yet, every last one of them is gone."
The black snake fixed him with its cold eyes, flicked its tongue, then vanished again with another sharp bang.
Less than half an hour later, in a secret research base somewhere in the Land of Fire, Orochimaru had already received the report.
"Hehe… no wonder no new intel has come from Konoha."
His golden eyes narrowed slightly. The man who had summoned the snake in Konoha was none other than Orochimaru's new spy, planted specifically to gather information on Uchiha Keizumi.
After Zetsu had come to him directly that day, Orochimaru realized that Uchiha Keizumi must possess something Akatsuki feared.
It might be an object, or perhaps some piece of intelligence—or even a formidable power.
"Hehe… the secret you want to know, I want to know as well. If I can uncover it before you, could I use it to seize control of Akatsuki? Even if not, keeping it in my grasp as leverage… that would still be quite useful."
Orochimaru extended his long tongue and slowly licked his lips.
How could Orochimaru possibly obey Akatsuki's orders honestly?
He was far too cunning for that.
"But…" Orochimaru suddenly restrained his twisted smile, a flicker of awe flashing through his eyes. "Uchiha Keizumi's rate of growth is even faster than I imagined! Even Shimura Danzō fell to him, and Sarutobi-sensei's two biological sons were also buried at his hands."
A mocking curve tugged at Orochimaru's mouth.
"Sarutobi-sensei's two sons are killed by Uchiha Keizumi, and yet he can still tolerate his existence. But me—just because of certain experiments I had no choice but to conduct for my own goals—he schemed to stop me, even tried to kill me."
"Sarutobi-sensei… with me, one standard. With Uchiha Keizumi, another standard?"
"Hehe…"
A flash of anger flickered in his golden eyes, only to vanish a moment later.
…
In the end, Biwa Jūzō made his decision—whether it was Uchiha Obito or Konan, he wanted no quarrel with either. He resolved to bury the secrets he had overheard today deep within his heart.
Outwardly, he would simply claim that he had failed his mission.
After all, Konan had only said that if he succeeded and his intel proved useful to the organization, he would be promoted directly to core membership.
She had never said that failure would get him expelled from Akatsuki.
Biwa Jūzō also decided he would leave Konoha that very day!
He had no desire to stay in that cursed place a moment longer. The existence of Uchiha Keizumi filled him with unease.
"That guy knows far too many secrets. Does he also know much about me? In his eyes, am I someone he could kill at any moment? Just like how he knew the weakness of Uchiha Obito's phasing ability."
"Huff! Every extra day I spend in Konoha, the risk to my life skyrockets."
Biwa Jūzō's expression shifted darkly.
Uchiha Keizumi… aside from Might Duy, that was the man he feared most in Konoha.
His instincts told him not to make an enemy of him.
So, as night fell, Biwa Jūzō didn't bother with the other Amegakure shinobi. He immediately slipped away from Konoha, vanishing swiftly into the dense forest beyond the village.
But he had gone less than 10 kilometers when Biwa Jūzō suddenly sensed that something was wrong. He froze, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
The massive blade on his back had already been unstrapped at some point and now rested tightly in his grip.
The dim moonlight was blotted out by thick branches overhead.
Everything before him lay shrouded in deep darkness, the unseen concealing whatever lurked there.
But the ominous instinct honed through years of battle kept his brow furrowed and his vigilance sharp.
A cruel grin split his face as he barked coldly into the air ahead: "A bunch of little rats, skulking in the dark too afraid to show yourselves—you've been waiting here for me a long time, haven't you?"
Biwa Jūzō demanded, "How did you know I'd be leaving Konoha tonight? Do you have spies planted inside the village?"
Just then, a sudden voice rang in Biwa Jūzō's ears, making his pupils contract slightly.
"So, you noticed. As expected of one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist—your sense for danger is truly one of a kind in the shinobi world."
Without the slightest hesitation, Jūzō drew two kunai from his waist and hurled them in the direction of the voice.
At the same instant, his cruel gaze locked onto that spot.
But the next second, Jūzō's eyes widened in shock. The kunai he had thrown pierced straight through a figure's body—without striking flesh—before embedding deep into a tree behind it.
[Rumble!!!]
[Rumble!!!]
Two deafening explosions erupted with bursts of fire, the unfortunate tree blown in half and crashing down with a thunderous crash.
Clearly, those kunai had been wrapped with explosive tags.
Using the firelight from the blast, Jūzō finally saw the opponent's garb—a figure wearing a strange mask, clad in a black cloak patterned with red clouds. An Akatsuki member!
"Madara-sama, it wasn't his perception. You let your killing intent leak out. In such a case, any well-trained shinobi with ample battle experience would sense something wrong."
Suddenly, another voice came from the opposite side.
Jūzō turned toward the sound, spotting another man in the same black cloak. This one looked even stranger.
On each shoulder were grotesque adornments resembling pitcher plants, and his face was half deathly pale, half pitch-black.
"Madara-sama…"
Turning that peculiar title over in his mind, Jūzō's palms grew slick with cold sweat. He cast a glance at the masked man. "…You're Uchiha Madara?!"
"It seems that even though I've not been very active in recent years, the younger generation of the shinobi world still remembers my name."
The masked man's voice was hoarse yet steady. "Since you know it is me, and you still haven't dropped your weapon… your courage is quite something."
"Heh. Maybe I was just born bold." Jūzō spoke evenly, though inside he was drenched in sweat.
Damn it!
Uchiha Madara—no! Uchiha Obito! Why is this guy here?
Could it be he was lying in wait here for me all along?
Did he already learn I had contact with Uchiha Keizumi and picked up some of his secrets, so now he's come to silence me?
Or… did he just show up suddenly to test me? If I act normal, maybe nothing will happen?
A sliver of desperate hope lingered in Jūzō's heart.
"Biwa Jūzō, you've made the wrong choice." Obito's hoarse, icy voice crushed that last hope. "Whether or not you've learned anything, the moment you accepted that woman's mission and came to Konoha, your fate was already sealed."
Zetsu: "…"
It wanted to say something, but only felt weary.
By speaking so bluntly, hadn't Obito just made it obvious? Uchiha Keizumi must hold some secret that could threaten him—and it was something he absolutely couldn't allow anyone else to know.
Forget it.
In any case, Biwa Jūzō was already marked for death. As long as they killed him, they could simply act as though Obito had never spoken those words.
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