Following Night Owl into the Hidden Leaf were all battle-hardened shinobi, so they didn't hesitate in the slightest. Immediately abandoning their fight with Haku, they cleanly retreated behind Night Owl.
Haku, who had been pondering how to avoid exposing his true strength, let out a sigh of relief. He then walked up to Uchiha Shinji. "Uchiha Shinji, who are they…?"
"Who knows? They seem kinda fishy." Uchiha Shinji shrugged, then added, "I'll catch up to them and take a look."
Swish!
With that, Uchiha Shinji flickered away, pursuing them.
Haku now pulled the cloth from Sasuke's mouth and asked, "Sasuke, are you alright?"
Karin also moved in closer: "Do you need healing?"
Freed from his restraints, Sasuke, ignoring everything else, stood up in a hurry. "Hurry, go help Uchiha Shinji! Those four jerks aren't the interception team—they're fakes! They're really strong, and Uchiha Shinji's in danger!"
Haku wasn't surprised. "Sasuke, you should rest here for a while. I'll go back up Uchiha Shinji."
Sasuke shouted, "What's the point of you going?! I'm the only one who can help!"
He was frantic!
Not only because he knew how powerful Night Owl's group was—making it extremely dangerous for Uchiha Shinji to chase them alone—but also because he felt unwilling to accept this outcome!
He'd been thrashed so badly. Along the way, as Night Owl carried him off, plenty of fellow classmates caught sight of him, leaving him utterly humiliated.
Yet Uchiha Shinji had easily taken out one of them in just a single blow with incredible skill—Sasuke still felt shaken whenever he recalled it.
So he needed to reclaim his dignity himself!
But right as Sasuke readied himself to give chase, with a swish, Uchiha Shinji—who had just sped off—suddenly returned.
Sasuke was taken aback. "W-Why are you back?"
Uchiha Shinji casually answered, "Oh, they ran too fast. I couldn't catch them."
Initially, Sasuke had wanted to use Night Owl's group as a chance to compare himself with Uchiha Shinji. Hearing this, he felt like he'd swallowed a fly—utterly miserable.
Swish, swish, swish…
All of a sudden, accompanied by the sound of slicing wind, several figures dropped in around them.
Uchiha Shinji looked up and saw the newcomers: Kakashi, Asuma, and a bunch of other jonin, along with Naruto—eyes reddened.
It turned out that, on his way chasing after Night Owl, Naruto happened across Kakashi's jonin squad.
After learning that Sasuke had been abducted by an interception team, Kakashi immediately sensed something was off and hurried here with Naruto.
Naruto was the first to rush up to Sasuke. "Sasuke, are you okay?!"
"I'm fine."
Sasuke shook his head.
Kakashi came over, examining Sasuke's wounds from head to toe. "Sasuke, what exactly happened here?"
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I got ambushed by a few guys disguised as the interception team!"
"Ambushed?" Kakashi frowned. "So all these injuries are also from that group?"
Noting his own bloody state, Sasuke grew even angrier and nodded.
At this point, the other jonin gathered around. Shizune, who was serving as a medical shinobi, quickly checked Sasuke over. Then she said, "Fortunately, these are all superficial injuries. They evidently didn't intend to kill, otherwise you wouldn't be alive."
Sasuke said darkly, "We can't let those creeps get away! I can identify them—let me join the pursuit!"
Kakashi didn't respond. Instead, he turned to Uchiha Shinji's squad to ask what had happened.
Having learned that Uchiha Shinji not only rescued Sasuke but also injured one of the enemy with a single move, Kakashi cast Uchiha Shinji a glance, then told Asuma and the others, "Their leader is likely a tokubetsu jonin; the other three are probably seasoned chunin."
Asuma nodded. "Mm, pretty much my guess too."
Sasuke immediately said, "No, the leader was definitely a jonin! I've fought him. Something about him felt strange—I think he has some kind of dojutsu that could see through my feints and predict my moves! The others must be jonin too. They're really strong!"
Everyone now turned to look at Sasuke.
But Sasuke was both furious and covered in blood, black and blue all over, so what he said didn't sound terribly convincing.
Shizune, who was treating Sasuke, couldn't help remarking, "Do you realize how powerful a jonin with a dojutsu-based kekkei genkai is? Do you realize what a jonin squad is capable of? If they really were who you say, how could you possibly be rescued right now?"
Seeing everyone's skeptical looks, Sasuke hastily turned to Uchiha Shinji. "Uchiha Shinji, tell them!"
Uchiha Shinji, who knew the truth, actually admired Sasuke's perception at that moment.
Even in defeat, Sasuke had managed to gauge the enemy's general level of strength—and he'd even guessed the part about them having a dojutsu-based kekkei genkai.
That was not ordinary combat intuition!
But in front of all these jonin, it was clear Uchiha Shinji couldn't say much. He could only shake his head and reply vaguely, "I didn't actually fight the leader, and when I saved Sasuke, it was a sneak attack, so I can't really say. Haku might know a bit?"
Haku, wanting to conceal his strength, certainly wouldn't reveal the enemy's true power in front of so many jonin. He waved his hand. "I didn't really fight them much. They didn't seem that strong to me—perhaps they were chunin…or maybe…genin?"
Sasuke was infuriated. "How could they be genin?! Look at me—would I lose to a bunch of genin?!"
Asuma shook his head.
Kurenai frowned slightly.
Anko sighed.
Obviously, they weren't taking Sasuke's claims seriously. If everything Sasuke said was true, then how could Uchiha Shinji (who hadn't awakened his Sharingan) and Haku (ranked average in class) possibly save him?
Kakashi placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I get that you're upset, but calm down. Those people might be a decoy the Akatsuki sent. We can't move recklessly. Since the flare was fired, the search units have already begun their operation; there's no way they can escape!"
Bang!
Sasuke punched a nearby tree. "Once they get caught, you'll all see I was telling the truth!"
Elsewhere…
Deep in the Forest of Death, Night Owl and his men were sprinting when they abruptly stopped.
Ahead of them, from behind a large tree, stepped out a masked figure wearing a black robe with red clouds.
Without question:
The one who had just returned a moment ago was merely an Uchiha Shinji shadow clone; his real body had swapped into the Akatsuki's attire and caught up to Night Owl along the way.
"You…are 'A'?"
Night Owl wore a grave expression.
Far from being relaxed to see an Akatsuki member, he was more wary than ever.
Uchiha Shinji asked calmly, "Why abduct the Uchiha?"
Night Owl replied cautiously, "Wasn't it your Akatsuki that told us to?"
"Really…" Uchiha Shinji chuckled. "Then let's change the subject. May I borrow something from you all?"