The horses, spooked, neighed and fidgeted nervously, but the terrified caravan members held them tightly.
Tension gripped the entire caravan.
A tall Root member drew his katana and pressed it coldly against Sōsen's neck. His voice was low and menacing:
"Whether there are rogue ninja in this group isn't something you can explain away with a few words. You have three minutes. Get everyone over there."
He pointed to a clearing ahead on the right.
That was the area most heavily covered with Root's throwing-weapon traps.
After speaking, the Root member withdrew his blade, grabbed Sōsen off the ground, and tossed him toward the back of the convoy.
Sōsen stumbled forward, cursing his luck. First the rogue ninja forced him around, and now even the Konoha ANBU were pushing him.
People without power were like beasts of burden in the ninja world—born to be ordered around.
As he passed the second wagon, Sōsen glanced at Uchiha Yu. He had wanted to vent some frustration, but when he remembered this man was an S-rank missing-nin, his anger vanished. He forced a submissive tone and called out:
"Off the wagons, off the wagons! Everyone gather up! Just do as the ninja-sama said!"
Yu jumped off the wagon, and Sōsen was momentarily stunned—he hadn't expected him to be so cooperative.
Then the other Uchiha, along with Nonō and Kurenai, also disembarked.
They were quietly pleased with Sōsen—he knew their captain's identity but hadn't tried to sell them out.
Reluctantly, the other caravan members climbed down from their wagons.
At that moment, three guards from the caravan fixed their eyes on Yu and his group.
Nervous sweat beaded their palms as anxiety filled their expressions. They were clearly struggling with a difficult decision.
They were considering reporting the dozen or so suspicious people traveling with the caravan—certain that they must be the rogue ninja these "ANBU" were after.
Not everyone could think things through like Sōsen.
These three were convinced: this shady group definitely wasn't a match for Konoha ANBU.
One of the three guards suddenly raised his right hand high. Sōsen's eyes widened in alarm. A moment later, he sprang up in pain, slamming the man's arm down.
He looked pale with fear and cursed in his heart: 'Damn it—these idiots are going to get me killed!'
"Sōsen?" the guard looked at him, bewildered, as Sōsen clutched his right hand.
Sōsen hissed under his breath, "You want to get us all killed?"
The three guards looked confused. In their minds, reporting those suspicious figures to the ANBU was the best way to save the caravan.
At the rear of the caravan, the commotion didn't escape the notice of the Uchiha. They instinctively turned back, curious to see how Yu would handle the situation.
Only to be stunned when they realized—
Their Captain Yu… had vanished!!
The three guards shrank under Sōsen's glare, guilt silencing them.
Up ahead, one of the Root ninja who had started to walk away suddenly turned back, glancing toward the source of the noise in the middle of the convoy.
He said coldly, "What's going on?"
Sōsen forced a smile and laughed nervously:
"Nothing, nothing, ninja-sama! I'm organizing everyone to move to the area you pointed out!"
Just as before, the caravan guard who had been glared at by Sōsen noticed the Konoha ANBU's attention shift in their direction. His heart sank—but he still raised his right hand again and shouted loudly:
"Sir, I want to repo—"
His voice didn't finish.
A pitch-black blade pierced straight through the guard's back, running him through the heart. His chest collapsed inward, and his life ended instantly.
The other two guards turned around in a daze, only to see—
That black-hooded young man had somehow appeared behind their fallen comrade without anyone noticing.
A moment later, two flashes of black light swept past.
The two guards' eyes widened in terror as they clutched their necks, collapsed to the ground, and died with confused expressions.
They never saw what happened—only that their hearts, set on betrayal, were silenced forever.
Warm blood splattered across Sōsen's face, shocking him out of his stupor.
In the blink of an eye, the three guards had been cut down by the black blade.
Yu pulled down his hood, revealing his true face, and walked past the stunned Sōsen, heading straight toward the Root members at the front of the caravan.
Sōsen whipped his head around, eyes wide. To his shock, everyone who had been standing near the second wagon had vanished.
Yu's strike on the would-be traitors had clearly been the signal to start the fight.
At the road's entrance—
The two Root members were momentarily stunned by the sudden deaths.
But as soon as they saw Yu—
Their eyes lit up with recognition, then delight.
Meanwhile, the Root members hidden on the cliffs above were also shocked, then overjoyed—only for their expressions to turn grim.
Their commanders, Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune, had made the right call choosing this spot for an ambush and targeting the caravan.
Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune exchanged a glance. Rising from the cliff edge, the former gave a hand signal.
One Root member cut a steel wire beside him—a trigger for the traps.
With a faint sound, intricate trap mechanisms inside the cliff walls quietly activated. The sealing mechanisms began to disengage.
The sharp howl of cutting wind echoed as the cliff walls gleamed with cold light. A barrage of black kunai and shuriken exploded forth like a thunderstorm, all aimed at Yu from every direction.
The area was covered in an extremely dense array of trap-based projectile weapons, leaving no escape.
Yu activated his Mangekyō, predicting the complex trajectories of the incoming weapons. With his black blade, Dark Moon, in hand, he leapt forward, leaving his original spot behind.
A barrage of ninja tools struck the spot where Yu had just stood. But the next wave of projectiles instantly adjusted their trajectories, tracking his movements.
After several evasive maneuvers, Yu found himself backed against a cliff wall, able only to deflect the attacks coming from behind—there was no room left to retreat.
"As long as you're not fighting humans, what use is your ocular genjutsu?"
Yamanaka Fu watched the situation in the valley with cold detachment.
Beside him, Aburame Torune, his expression hidden beneath a half-covered mask, spread his arms slightly as if controlling something. Inwardly, he thought:
'Even if he can dodge the physical tools... what about the nano-scale poison bugs drifting in the air?'
The Aburame clan's Phosphor Bugs dwell throughout their hosts' bodies—mere contact can cause instant death through poisoning.
Combined with his Secret Art: Poison Dust Technique, Torune could expel these insects from his mouth, manipulate them, and send them toward Yu using the wind currents stirred by the trap-triggered gusts.
Standing atop the high cliffs opposite Yu, the two Root commanders saw him trapped like a cornered beast. Victory, they believed, was all but certain.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
A fresh wave of kunai, shuriken, senbon—and countless poisonous nano-bugs—came flying toward Yu in a deadly storm.
Pressed to the cliff wall, Yu's lips curled slightly.
In his right hand, the black blade Dark Moon began to distort, now shrouded in vibrating dark mist flowing with intense frequency.
His Mangekyō Sharingan—Yasakani no Magatama—spun in his eyes.
From a distance, the Tsuchigumo clan members and caravan guards, untouched by the trap barrage, suddenly felt their chakra drained away by Yu's ocular power.
Just as the hailstorm of ninja tools was about to overwhelm him, Yu slashed forward with his blade.
A roaring gale erupted. A wind wall—like a waterfall flipped skyward—materialized before him, surging endlessly.
The barrier of wind stopped the incoming kunai, senbon, shuriken, and even the drifting poison bugs midair.
Clang! Clatter! Clink!
All the weapons rained to the ground, blocked completely.
"That's Wind Release??"
Yamanaka Fu stared in shock. Beside him, Torune's pupils widened as he exclaimed:
"My poison bugs… they can't get through that wind wall!"
Yu looked up, meeting the eyes of the two men atop the cliff. The chakra he had just extracted from 47 caravan members converted instantly into Wind Release chakra, which he infused into Dark Moon.
Then—he slashed a second time.
A crescent-shaped arc of pitch-black wind surged forth like a dark moon, or a severing ring of stars, cleaving across the cliff and engulfing the waists of both Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune.
It was a slash as if it could sever the very world itself—sharp beyond imagination.
The two Root leaders looked down in horror.
At the very end of their lives—
They saw their upper and lower halves slowly slip apart, cleanly severed.
It was only then that Yamanaka Fu understood—
That strange sword strike which split the skies earlier… was Uchiha Yu's doing.
It had foreshadowed their deaths tonight.
He hadn't even needed to use the full power of his Mangekyō Sharingan.
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