"Why are we running? Didn't your ninjutsu hit him?"
Sasuke asked in confusion, frustration bubbling up inside him.
Ever since awakening his Sharingan at the age of seven, subduing the Nine-Tails, and saving the village, Sasuke had built up a sense of superiority. But every time he was around Uchiha Shinji, that feeling was repeatedly crushed.
It made him extremely frustrated.
Shinji, running at the front, ignored Sasuke's complaints.
He couldn't afford to reveal his Mangekyo Sharingan yet. Once it was exposed, the Hidden Leaf Village would likely connect him to the incidents of infiltrating the ANBU headquarters and the Root base.
At that point, he would either have to defect or submit to the village's punishment.
And once he defected, it would become even more difficult to retrieve the Uchiha clan's Sharingan from Danzo.
Neji suddenly spoke up, "He's catching up!"
"What!?" Sasuke was shocked. "Even that Fire Release couldn't kill him?"
Shinji quickly checked the number of tools left in his ninja pouch. After considering his options, he said, "We can't keep running like this. We need to find a place to set up an ambush."
Sasuke and Neji nodded in agreement.
Their speed was clearly no match for their pursuer. If they kept running, they would soon be overtaken. It was better to set a trap and prepare, which might give them a better chance to hold him off for a while.
Swish-
With the sound of cutting wind, the mysterious figure descended from the air.
Shinji's Great Fireball Technique didn't seem to have harmed him at all. He still wore that same casual smirk, looking calm and composed.
Seeing the footprints in the dirt that led into the bushes ahead, the mysterious figure followed them.
But just as he was about to step into the bushes, he suddenly stopped.
In the other patch of bushes.
Watching as the mysterious figure hesitated on the brink of stepping into the trap, Sasuke silently urged in his mind, "Step on it! Hurry up! What are you waiting for?"
Shinji knew the figure had seen through their trap, so he slashed the wire beside him with a kunai.
Ping, ping, ping
As Shinji cut the wire, a chain reaction occurred. Wires strung from various directions snapped and intertwined, forming a giant wire net that came crashing down on the mysterious figure.
Even Sasuke and Neji, who had watched Shinji set up the wires, were stunned. "What kind of setup is this?"
The next scene left them even more amazed.
As the wire net descended, several other wires were pulled, triggering a cascade of explosive tags from all sides, wrapping around the mysterious figure.
Boom, boom, boom!
In an instant, the mysterious figure, with no escape route, was engulfed in massive explosions.
Without waiting for Neji to confirm with his Byakugan, Sasuke stood up from the bushes. "We got him!"
Whoosh
Before he could finish his sentence, a sharp gust of wind came from behind him.
Thanks to his Sharingan, Sasuke reacted just in time, spinning around to strike with his elbow.
But his elbow met nothing but air. Before he could comprehend what happened, a sharp pain shot through his abdomen, and he was sent flying, crashing hard into a nearby tree.
The mysterious figure cracked his neck, shifting his gaze from Sasuke to Shinji. "To think you can fight at this level without even fully awakening your eyes."
Shinji frowned.
He had just executed a perfectly timed ambush, utilizing the wire manipulation techniques he had learned from the demons and honing them to the extreme through the Uchiha clan's ninja tools training.
But because he couldn't use his Mangekyo Sharingan, there was still a gap in his plan. The mysterious figure had seen through it and effortlessly evaded using the Body Flicker Technique.
This was the undeniable difference in absolute power—something that no amount of ambushes could easily overcome.
Sasuke, clutching his stomach, struggled to stand. "Damn it... you..."
Swish!
In an instant, the mysterious figure appeared right in front of Sasuke.
Sasuke froze, then took another punch straight to the gut.
Pfft
Blood spurted from Sasuke's mouth as he curled up in pain on the ground, writhing like a shrimp.
Despite awakening the Sharingan, at just seven years old, Sasuke was as defenseless as a child before the mysterious figure.
Neji called out, "He's too strong. Let's attack together!"
While calculating how many tools he had left, Shinji nodded and charged forward alongside Neji.
The mysterious figure didn't even bother to turn his body, only glancing back at Shinji and Neji with a mocking expression.
Knowing how dangerous the opponent was, Neji skipped all preliminaries and launched into his most powerful technique, the Gentle Fist Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms.
But the mysterious figure easily countered his Gentle Fist, chopping at Neji's right arm and delivering a strike to his chest that knocked the wind out of him, leaving him gasping and collapsed on the ground.
Meanwhile, Shinji didn't engage the mysterious figure in close combat. Instead, he threw several kunai and quickly darted into the bushes before the mysterious figure could retaliate.
Seeing that these kunai, like before, were strung with wires and attached to explosive tags, the mysterious figure shook his head slightly and vanished, reappearing on a nearby tree.
But the expected explosion didn't come.
In fact, from the bushes, two more kunai shot out, colliding with the first set and changing their trajectory.
The mysterious figure's eyes narrowed.
The kunai sliced through the air, threading between Sasuke and Neji, and wrapping around their legs with the attached wires. With two swift tugs, the wires tightened, dragging Sasuke and Neji into the bushes.
Standing on the tree, the mysterious figure's lips curled into an eerie smile.
Inside the bushes.
After quickly setting up the remaining explosive tags and wires, Shinji slung Sasuke and Neji over his shoulders, fleeing without looking back.
He knew full well that his taijutsu wasn't much stronger than theirs. If he tried to fight the mysterious figure in close combat, he'd be knocked down in two or three moves.
After running for a while, Neji managed to speak, though with difficulty. "Put me down. I can walk on my own!"
Sasuke chimed in, "I can walk too!"
Shinji set them both down, panting heavily.
He had pushed his Breathing Technique to the limit to escape, and now his lungs burned with pain.
Still shaken, Sasuke asked Neji, "Is that guy still following us?"
Just as Neji was about to activate his Byakugan to check, a shadow descended from the sky, knocking him unconscious.
A moment later, another figure appeared, knocking out Sasuke as well.
Shinji immediately leapt back, taking a defensive stance. He then noticed that the ones who had attacked were two shinobi dressed in Root uniforms.
Danzo is involved too?
He had thought this entire event was orchestrated by Orochimaru, but it seemed Danzo had a hand in it as well.
Then, a thought flashed through Shinji's mind. If he allowed himself to be captured by Danzo's subordinates and taken to the Root base, wouldn't that save him the trouble of infiltrating the base on his own?
Plus, this incident had already escalated.
Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, would definitely get involved. Danzo would have to deal with the Hokage first, and during that time, Shinji could use the opportunity to seize all of Danzo's Sharingan from inside the Root base.
So, when the Root shinobi attacked him, Shinji pretended to be overwhelmed, taking a punch and collapsing to the ground.
"Heh, I really am a genius!"
Lying on the ground, feigning unconsciousness, Shinji couldn't help but feel proud of himself, eagerly waiting to be taken to Danzo's lair.
But then he overheard the Root shinobi speaking.
One of them said, "Take Uchiha Sasuke back."
The other gestured towards Shinji and Neji. "And what about these two?"
"Forget about the rest!"
Shinji froze, his mind filled with question marks: "WHAT!?"