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[NTU] [ARC-18] Chapter : 215
🕑 Added 2024-11-28 18:48:41 +0000 UTCBefore embarking on this mission, Shisui’s team had already faced difficulties. One of his teammates had been injured while practicing a new ninjutsu, and Domen had been brought in as a replacement.
Given the sudden addition of a new member, the team had been cautious throughout the mission. However, despite their vigilance, the ambush came unexpectedly. Just as they were retreating after completing their mission, they were attacked.
The attackers, rogue shinobi from the Land of Lightning, displayed a level of strength and coordination that caught the team off guard. Some of them fought with a suicidal determination, inflicting severe casualties on Shisui's squad.
“……”
When Shisui pressed Domen with his question, the dying man merely glanced at him, remaining silent. It was as if he had resigned himself to his fate, waiting quietly for death to take him.
"Is that how it is? You won’t speak?"
Shisui’s expression darkened. He had no time for pleasantries. Activating his already strained Sharingan, he leaned closer, locking eyes with Domen. The intense crimson glow of his dojutsu promised to unearth the truth—whether Domen wanted to reveal it or not.
Ordinarily, Shisui would never resort to such a method on allies. But the situation was different this time. His other teammate, who had fallen in battle, had just become a father.
Shisui vividly remembered attending the celebration when his comrade's wife and newborn were discharged from the hospital. He had been a guest at their family gathering, sharing in their joy. And now, that same teammate had died under his command on this mission.
How could he face the widow and child left behind?
"Ugh—"
Ignoring Domen's feeble struggles, Shisui firmly pried open the dying man’s eyelids. His crimson Sharingan flared intensely, projecting its hypnotic gaze into Domen's eyes. With no time for hesitation, Shisui prepared to manipulate the man's thoughts to extract the answers he needed.
"I... I am..."
Under the influence of Shisui’s powerful ocular jutsu, Domen’s expression grew blank and ashen. His tightly shut lips began to tremble, slowly parting as he tried to speak.
"It's... a curse seal..."
The faint words escaped Domen's mouth, trailing off as his consciousness began to fade.
Seeing Domen struggle to speak but fail, Shisui immediately noticed something unusual about him.
As he deliberated whether to use his Sharingan to suppress the curse mark likely affecting Domen, the dying man let out a strained groan.
"Ugh..."
With a final exhale, Domen’s head slumped to the side, his body lifeless.
Shisui’s eyes twitched with frustration, but he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. He pried open Domen’s mouth and carefully inspected his tongue.
"Just as I suspected—a root seal."
The discovery sent a jolt of realization through Shisui. While this confirmed Domen’s affiliation with the Danzo's covert Root division, Shisui didn’t stop there. He moved among the enemy corpses, conducting a meticulous examination.
After a closer look, his suspicions deepened.
"They seem to be ninja from the Cloud Village," he muttered, his thoughts racing. The connection between Domen, Root, and this ambush was growing more tangled by the second.
Fortunately, the enemy ninja didn’t bear the same curse mark as Domen. However, upon closer inspection of their bodies and the techniques they had used, Shisui confirmed their identities—they were indeed Cloud Village shinobi, and not just any rank-and-file, but likely elites.
"Am I overthinking this?"
Finding no further signs of foul play on the enemy corpses, Shisui felt a mixture of relief and lingering doubt.
Could it all just be a string of bad luck?
In the past year alone, he had encountered three unusual incidents.
The first was when an assassin appeared out of nowhere, attacking the target Shisui had been assigned to protect. The second occurred during a covert operation when sensitive information somehow leaked and jeopardized the mission. And now, this sudden ambush by rogue shinobi after the mission’s completion.
The frequency of these "coincidences" was uncomfortably high.
'Something isn’t adding up,' Shisui thought, his unease deepening.
"Uchiha... Shisui's strength has far exceeded our expectations!"
In the Hokage’s office, just moments after Shisui had departed, Shimura Danzo arrived unannounced. Without wasting any time, he began voicing his concerns, focusing on the growing threat he perceived from Shisui.
"This time, it was an elite team of Cloud ninja, armed with the intelligence we provided. And yet, even with that advantage, they failed!"
The Third Hokage listened quietly, his expression unreadable, offering no immediate response to Danzo's complaints.
Frustrated by the Hokage’s silence, Danzo’s disappointment simmered just beneath the surface.
Over the past year, he had made only a few calculated moves against Shisui, each one executed with extreme caution and meticulous planning. Yet, despite his efforts, every attempt had ended in failure.
This time, Danzo had gone so far as to leak Shisui's mission details to the Cloud ninja, hoping to exploit their strength to eliminate what he saw as a dangerous obstacle.
But to his dismay, the typically arrogant Cloud shinobi, despite having critical intelligence, proved utterly incapable of succeeding.
"Useless... even with every advantage handed to them," Danzo muttered to himself, his irritation growing.
Although the Third Hokage maintained a neutral and silent demeanor as Danzo spoke, his expression shifted dramatically when Danzo revealed a piece of information that could not be ignored.
"Uchiha Shisui may have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan," Danzo stated with calculated precision.
"What did you say?"
The calm composure of the Third Hokage broke at the mention of the Mangekyō Sharingan. His eyes widened, and he leaned forward, now fully engaged in the conversation.
"Danzo, are you certain about this information's accuracy?"
The Mangekyō Sharingan was not merely a legend to Hiruzen Sarutobi. He had first heard of it in his youth, and as Hokage, he had studied the notes left by his predecessor, Tobirama Senju.
Though the notes contained only sparse references to the Mangekyō Sharingan, they conveyed Tobirama’s profound concern—even fear—of its immense and dangerous power.
Between the lines of those writings, Sarutobi had gleaned one truth: the wielder of such a power could tip the balance of the village and the shinobi world itself. And now, that power might reside in Shisui.
Having Toshiro to contend with was already a significant problem for Danzo and him. Now, with the revelation about Uchiha Shisui, his frustration deepened.
"It seems the heavens favor the Uchiha clan far too much," he muttered bitterly.
Danzo continued, his tone measured but tinged with irritation. "Our operatives investigated the aftermath of the incident. Judging by the destruction they described, it’s highly likely that Shisui has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Without it, such overwhelming destructive power would be unthinkable."
Although Danzo hadn’t witnessed the events firsthand, his subordinates had been stationed near the site. Initially, their mission was clear: retrieve the Sharingan and eliminate any witnesses.
But the operation had not gone as planned. They failed to secure the Sharingan, managing only to observe and report back on the aftermath. The devastation they described painted a grim picture that aligned with the abilities of a Mangekyō wielder.
"If Shisui truly possesses the Mangekyō, we must escalate our efforts to deal with him," Danzo concluded, his voice firm and decisive, already formulating a new plan.
The Second Hokage’s notes recorded a critical flaw in the Mangekyō Sharingan: overuse of its power inevitably led to blindness.
It was the legendary Madara Uchiha who first overcame this limitation by obtaining the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, an evolution that required a unique and sinister method.
The Third Hokage proposed exploiting this weakness. "We could assign Shisui increasingly difficult missions to drain his ocular power. Once his Mangekyō abilities are exhausted, he’ll lose his sight, and the threat will be neutralized."
"But that alone is not enough!"
Danzo’s face remained impassive, but inside, he rejected the Hokage’s suggestion outright. To simply wait for Shisui to blind himself? Unacceptable.
If Shisui were to lose his vision, the Sharingan would no longer be usable, rendering Danzo’s plan meaningless.
Ever since his speculation of Shisui’s potential awakening of the Mangekyō, an insatiable ambition had taken root in Danzo's heart. The idea of allowing such a power to go to waste was intolerable. It wasn’t enough to neutralize Shisui—Danzo had to possess that power for himself.
With the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan in his grasp, Danzo believed the Hokage’s position would no longer be out of reach.
"I recently made contact with a group that could assist us in dealing with the Uchiha," he announced, his tone brimming with cautious optimism.
"Who are they?" the Third Hokage asked, his voice calm but curious.
"I don’t know their exact identity," Danzo admitted. "But... they appear to be from the Land of Water."
He explained further. Just the previous night, a mysterious individual had approached him, offering a proposal to collaborate against the Uchiha clan.
Danzo's initial instinct was to detain the stranger immediately, but his methods were quite shrewd, and the offer on the table was too enticing to ignore. Even for someone as calculating as Danzo, outright refusal had been impossible.
"Can they be trusted?"
The Third Hokage didn’t dwell on the group’s identity but instead focused on reliability. His concern was clear: they couldn’t afford to gamble on an unreliable ally, risking everything only to find themselves outmaneuvered.
Danzo's expression tightened, reflecting his own uncertainty. "Their intentions remain unclear, but the resources they promised..." He let his words trail off, leaving the potential benefits—and dangers—unspoken.
Comments
Robert Thompson
Toshiro should help our boy Shisui out and give him some of those eyes drops.
