Konoha.
Hokage Building.
Tsunade stood behind her desk with both hands pressed against the surface, her golden eyes narrowed sharply as one report after another continued arriving from every corner of the village.
ANBU units had already been deployed. The barrier team had been ordered to check every abnormal fluctuation, and the Uchiha Clan had been told to remain under observation.
Yet even after all of that…
There was still no trace of Itachi.
Kurenai remained beside her, quietly helping the exhausted messenger ninja who had collapsed after running from the Uchiha district.
Not long after—
The door opened.
Yugito entered first.
Behind her were Kushina, Mikoto, and Rin.
A moment later, Shisui Uchiha was brought in under ANBU escort.
Tsunade's gaze immediately turned toward them.
"…Shiki sent you?"
Yugito nodded at her without the usual nonsense between them.
"He said this may be a trap and told me to gather everyone around just in case."
Tsunade's expression turned thoughtful.
She knew Shiki better than anybody. Since he had said such words, then it had to be true.
And if even Shiki thought this was a trap, then the enemy was not simply trying to kidnap Itachi.
They were trying to draw something out.
Or someone.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes at that conclusion, and the answer was obvious.
Kushina clenched her fists, her red hair swaying slightly behind her.
"Whoever those bastards are, I'm going to beat them blue."
Her voice was loud, and the anger inside it was obvious.
Beside her, Mikoto lowered her gaze.
Her face was still pale, but she forced herself to remain calm. At least here, in front of everyone, she could not break down again.
She was Itachi's mother.
But she was also Uchiha Mikoto.
She could not collapse before her son was found.
Shisui looked around the room, then his eyes gradually became serious.
"Lord Shiki asked for me to be protected too?"
"Yes."
Yugito's voice remained steady.
"He said all of us are to stay together and not separate."
Tsunade understood the meaning immediately.
If the enemy could not touch Shiki directly, then they might try to strike the people around him.
Or worse…
Use them as hostages.
Tsunade took a deep breath and spoke coldly.
"Then nobody leaves this room without my order."
But the moment her words fell...
Outside the windows, alarms echoed across the village.
"Unknown chakra signatures have appeared near the eastern district!"
"More are emerging near the Uchiha district!"
"Evacuate the civilians! Don't let them get close!"
Reports came one after another.
Tsunade's expression turned colder with each passing second.
"So they really waited until Shiki left…"
The space near the wall suddenly twisted.
Kurenai's pupils shrank.
"Everyone, move!"
The warning came almost at the same time as the distortion opened fully.
A mass of pale white bodies poured out from the warped space like insects crawling out of a broken nest.
White Zetsu clones.
They landed across the office walls, ceiling, and floor, their grinning faces twisting with a disgusting kind of amusement.
"Found you."
"Found you."
"Found you."
Before they could move any farther...
Boom!
Kushina's chakra chains erupted violently from behind her and slammed several White Zetsu clones into the wall.
At the same time, Yugito's body flickered forward, blue flames gathering around her claws as she tore through two more clones in an instant.
Kurenai formed a hand seal immediately.
"Genjutsu: Tree Binding Death!"
The White Zetsu clones that tried to rush toward Mikoto froze in place as illusory branches bound them tightly.
Rin pulled Mikoto back while Tsunade stepped forward.
Her fist crashed down.
The entire floor trembled as they were blasted out of the Hokage Building, destroying its front.
Several White Zetsu clones were crushed into paste under the impact.
From that moment on, the Hokage office became a battlefield.
But even with the sudden ambush, the advantage was clearly on Tsunade's side.
White Zetsu clones were troublesome because of their numbers and disguise ability, but against people of this level, they were nothing more than disposable pawns.
One after another, they were torn apart, smashed, burned, or bound.
Then...
The space behind Kushina twisted again.
A masked figure stepped out silently.
Obito Uchiha.
His single visible eye swept across the room before finally landing on Kushina and Yugito.
"…So he gathered you together."
His voice was calm, but there was obvious displeasure beneath it.
"As expected of Shiki... that bastard always acts lazy, but his instincts are irritatingly sharp."
Kushina's expression instantly turned cold.
"You're the one who took Itachi?"
Obito did not answer.
Instead, his Sharingan spun.
A powerful genjutsu struck toward Kushina and Yugito at the same time, aiming directly at the tailed beasts sealed inside them.
His intention was clear.
If he could force Kurama and Matatabi into a rampage here, then Konoha would be thrown into chaos instantly.
Even if Shiki rushed back, he would have to deal with the disaster first.
But the moment he tried to cast the genjutsu—
Tsunade's fist smashed down at him first.
Boom!
The floor shattered beneath her feet as she rushed forward like a cannonball.
Obito's body blurred, turning intangible as Tsunade's fist passed straight through him and demolished the wall behind him.
Dust exploded outward.
Kushina didn't delay either and immediately formed a hand sign.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
Golden chains burst from behind her like living serpents, stabbing toward Obito from multiple directions.
At the same time, Yugito's nails sharpened, blue flames wrapping around her body as she lunged from the opposite side.
Meanwhile, Kurenai and Rin stood to the side with Mikoto and Shisui, observing the battle while ready to take defensive measures if the target shifted toward them.
They weren't foolish enough to join the battle directly. With their current strength, getting involved would only slow the others down.
Bang!
Like a wild tyrannosaurus, Tsunade destroyed the rooftop completely, making Obito sweatdrop. If that blow had landed, he would have paid for it.
Dodging Yugito's claw attack, Obito grew increasingly irritated at their coordination.
Moving swiftly, he tried to distance himself from them. He had wanted to use the confined space of the Hokage office as an advantage, but now it seemed he was the one suffering because of it.
Although Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan was powerful, he was still far from the Obito who fought in the Fourth Great Ninja War.
The battle was forced outside as he landed among the broken remains of a house below.
Tsunade and the others immediately surrounded him again, ready to jump him once more.
Thanks to Shiki's information, they knew almost all the abilities of the man before them. What puzzled them, however, was that he was not using the offensive space-time ability Shiki had told them about.
That made them wary, and none of them dared to let their guard down.
"…This is getting annoying."
Obito observed them quietly, and he would have been a fool if he did not understand what was happening. His abilities had been leaked, and they were already prepared.
Kushina sneered at his annoyed tone and smirked mockingly.
"What's wrong? You came all this way, and now you're running around like a rat?"
Tsunade cracked her knuckles, her eyes filled with killing intent.
"You picked the wrong place to crawl into."
"Don't let him get a chance to breathe, blond bimbo. Attack him already."
Yugito suddenly threw a jab at Tsunade from the side, somehow completely missing the fact that she was blond too. Her tone stayed dead serious, which only made the vein on Tsunade's forehead twitch harder.
Obito's visible eye narrowed slightly.
These women were not weak.
Tsunade's raw strength, Kushina's sealing chains, Yugito's jinchūriki power...
If he used only normal methods, dragging this out would be troublesome.
And worse...
Shiki might return at any moment.
Obito's gaze shifted toward Shisui, who was watching him from the broken Hokage Building, for a brief instant.
A faint, mocking smile formed beneath his mask.
It seemed he had to set the second plan in motion now.
With that, he calmly raised his hand to the side of his mask and yanked away the part covering his eye, revealing another Mangekyō Sharingan.
Fragments fell across the floor.
Everyone's expression changed at his sudden action, and they immediately raised their guard.
The reason he had not been using Kamui's offensive technique was simply because he did not have that eye with him right now...
The eye in his socket was, without a doubt...
Kotoamatsukami.
"Then let me witness the power of the strongest genjutsu in the ninja world once again."
Obito's deep voice echoed without any concealment.
His eye flashed red, and although they hurriedly lowered their gazes to avoid eye contact, a strange force suddenly forced its way into Kushina's mind.
This time, Obito's target was focused on Kushina alone, and the powerful genjutsu instantly tried to change her will, forcing her to unleash the Nine-Tails immediately.
"What!? Kushina, what's going on?"
Tsunade noticed Kushina suddenly clutching her head and asked with a serious expression.
"Lady Tsunade, my head... it's..."
Kushina mumbled as she gripped her head. It felt as if someone was whispering something inside her mind.
But then, suddenly—
A massive commotion that no one expected erupted.
A red light burst from the hair tie in her hair, instantly spreading outward, even reaching toward Obito, who stiffened in place as he felt that strong power. He was glad he was in his tangible state. Otherwise, he might have been injured.
Boom!
Zssst!
Red lightning shot high into the sky, making the clouds above them turn black. The sky instantly cracked down the middle, as if it had been split into two.
The strange phenomenon attracted the attention of the entire village.
Whether ordinary civilians or ninja from the famous clans, all of them stopped and looked at the sky in shock.
"W-What the hell is happening around the Hokage Building!?"
On the other side of the Hokage Building area, the impact of the Conqueror's Haki finally ended.
Kushina only staggered half a step before clarity returned to her eyes.
For a moment, even Kurama, inside Kushina's seal, opened one eye.
"…That power again... And it's much stronger than before..."
The Nine-Tails clicked his tongue with obvious shock.
But even he had to admit it.
That strange Haki-like protection had blocked the intrusion.
Outside, Obito's expression darkened behind the mask.
"…Shiki."
His voice carried clear anger this time.
"So you even prepared for this. How much more are you going to keep getting in my way?!"
Tsunade's eyes sharpened, and she instantly understood what had happened.
They had not expected this guy to have such a strange genjutsu technique. Shiki had not mentioned that he possessed such an ability, so where did this come from?
"He tried to control the tailed beast inside Kushina?"
For a moment, Kushina looked down at herself in horror.
Then her expression twisted with rage.
"…You…"
Red chakra erupted around her.
"You bastard!"
Her chakra chains whipped forward with terrifying speed.
Obito immediately turned intangible.
The chains passed through his body and smashed into the wall behind him.
Yugito, who had been shocked, also came back to her senses and followed right after, her body covered in blue fire as she slashed through the air.
Obito avoided it by phasing again, but before he could counterattack, Tsunade appeared in front of him.
Her fist struck through his chest.
The attack did not land.
But the pressure of that punch alone caused the entire wall behind him to explode outward.
Obito thought back to his plan.
At first, when he heard about Shisui's powerful eyes, he had indeed wanted to recruit Shisui to his side. But after thinking it through, he knew it would not be easy, and hidden dangers would definitely be involved.
So next, he wanted to take those eyes for himself. But directly killing Shisui would alert Shiki and put him on the highest guard, knowing full well that Obito would possess Kotoamatsukami. That would make it difficult for him to make a move in the near future.
So he came up with another good plan.
When Shisui was out on a mission, instead of killing him, he took his eyes and replaced them with ordinary Sharingan eyes. Shisui had not told any of his clan members about awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.
The only ones who knew about it were Shiki, Tsunade, and Obito himself.
That made it much easier.
Obito bet on the fact that once Shiki saw nothing wrong with Shisui, he would not investigate further to check whether his eyes had been changed.
Obito removed that part of Shisui's memory using one of the many techniques Madara had taught him and replaced it with another small hint of his own...
Shisui Uchiha must never use his Mangekyō unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the village officials might see him as a threat.
The young Shisui easily took that as a precaution, which helped Obito hide the truth without Shisui ever knowing his eyes had been changed.
Obito used Shisui's own eyes against him.
Then he kidnapped Itachi.
He knew well the relationship between Kushina and Mikoto. He knew Kushina would ask Shiki for help. Otherwise, Mikoto alone might not be able to get his help.
He knew Shiki was a cold bastard.
To his own people, he was kind.
But to others, it depended entirely on his mood.
It went exactly as Obito had planned. Shiki went to find Itachi at the place he had specially put him, and the time it would take Shiki to reach that place would be enough for Obito to complete his goals.
Then, when the time came, he would use Kotoamatsukami to release the Nine-Tails, because he had predicted that normal genjutsu might not be enough.
Everything was going well until...
He never expected Shiki to have such a powerful trump card up his sleeve.
"To think he could place that weird will attack of his into someone else as a defensive measure... And here I thought he was just a sharp beast."
Obito's expression did not look good. His plan had fallen short, and Shiki might return at any moment.
"But... if you think that was all... then you have underestimated me, Shiki!"
A calm smile appeared on his face again.
There was still a last resort he had prepared, just in case the first two failed.
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