Chapter 131: The Only Mother and Son Who Were Saved!
Watching Mikoto walk toward him step by step, Kakashi let out a quiet breath of relief.
The Third Hokage's orders had been clear: subdue these Uchiha clan members and bring them back to the village alive—no need to take their lives.
However, if they resisted violently or threatened the safety of ANBU personnel, Kakashi had been authorized to use lethal force.
Seeing the Uchiha women, children, and elderly comply without further struggle lifted a heavy weight from his mind.
After all, Kakashi himself had little desire to kill members of the Uchiha clan.
The battle appeared to be completely over.
These non-combatants were about to be escorted back to Konoha.
But at that very moment, everything changed.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—
A barrage of piercing sounds erupted abruptly from behind Kakashi and his team.
In an instant, countless kunai rained down mercilessly toward all the Uchiha women, children, and elderly.
The attack also targeted Kakashi and the other ANBU members.
Kakashi and several ANBU reacted quickly enough to dodge the volley, but a few who were caught off guard were struck and collapsed immediately.
Even worse, many of the Uchiha non-combatants had never expected an ambush from the shadows.
Caught completely unprepared, more than thirty of them were killed on the spot.
BOOM!
BOOM BOOM!
The hidden enemies didn't stop there.
After their kunai storm succeeded, they immediately launched an even more ferocious follow-up.
Explosive tags mixed with poison mist detonated, blanketing the area in thick, rolling smoke that obscured vision while simultaneously paralyzing anyone caught inside.
"Damn it!"
Kakashi, as an ANBU, was intimately familiar with these tactics.
He accidentally inhaled a small amount of the mist and immediately felt dizzy and lightheaded. He leaped backward rapidly, watching helplessly as more of his teammates collapsed in the fog.
The Uchiha women, children, and elderly were, of course, affected just as badly.
At that moment, Kakashi's danger sense flared again.
One enemy had already closed in behind him and was thrusting a kunai straight toward his heart.
Kakashi's expression hardened. Enduring the dizziness, he drew his tanto and spun around in the nick of time, blocking the sneak attack and kicking the attacker away.
Seeing the enemy's attire, Kakashi's heart sank:
"Root…"
He realized these were Danzō's men.
Having once trained in Root himself, Kakashi was very familiar with how they differed from regular Hokage-direct ANBU.
There was no time to think further.
In that brief moment of distraction, the remaining enemies moved through the purple mist, systematically eliminating the fallen Uchiha women, children, and elderly one by one.
Witnessing this, Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply.
He caught sight of Uchiha Mikoto, still holding little Sasuke, slowly collapsing.
An enemy was already approaching her.
Kakashi wanted to rush to her aid, but the same attacker from earlier closed in again. With no choice, he turned to draw the enemy away and avoid being surrounded.
In the thick fog, Uchiha Mikoto was about to meet her end.
At the very last second, Oborotsuki—who had rushed back using Flying Thunder God—arrived just in time.
Clang—
The Decapitation Greatsword effortlessly blocked the enemy's kunai, not only sending it flying but also numbing the attacker's entire arm with the force.
The Root operative stared up in shock at the tall stranger who had suddenly appeared.
"You're not an Uchiha. Who are you?"
Oborotsuki glanced around. Apart from Mikoto and little Sasuke, not a single other Uchiha woman, child, or elder remained alive.
"Konoha… you really don't hold back, do you?"
"Must you exterminate them completely?"
Oborotsuki sneered coldly.
His Decapitation Greatsword swung down. The Root operative was cleaved in half on the spot.
In the next moment, Oborotsuki became a god of death, cutting through the remaining enemies with merciless precision.
These Root members had never faced such a ferocious opponent.
In mere moments, more than twenty of them were slaughtered by Oborotsuki alone.
He returned to Mikoto's side:
"Are you alright?"
Before he could finish asking, Mikoto—already teetering on the edge of consciousness—rolled her eyes back and collapsed, instinctively looking toward little Sasuke in her arms.
Oborotsuki hurriedly caught her, steadying her while also protecting Sasuke so he wouldn't fall.
…
When Mikoto regained consciousness, she had no idea how much time had passed.
She found herself in a boundless dark space, lying on a cold, hard surface—clearly the ground.
"Am I… dead?"
Mikoto carefully examined her surroundings.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she quickly realized this wasn't some limbo between life and death—it was a cave.
She wasn't dead. Her heart beat strongly and steadily.
There wasn't even a single wound on her body.
The only thing that filled her with dread was that little Sasuke was gone!
Apart from Sasuke, every other member of her clan was missing too!
"You're awake?"
Hearing movement from inside the cave, Oborotsuki—who had been holding little Sasuke near the entrance to get some fresh air—walked back in.
Seeing it was him, Mikoto finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She remembered everything that happened right before she fainted.
She also understood that she was safe now.
Oborotsuki had saved her.
"Thank you for saving me…"
Mikoto slowly stood up, still feeling weak and drained all over.
Her whole body felt as though she had just recovered from a severe fever.
"Is Sasuke alright?"
Even though she was still physically exhausted and far from recovered, Mikoto's only concern was her child. She hurried toward Oborotsuki.
After confirming that little Sasuke in Oborotsuki's arms was unharmed, she finally relaxed.
"My clan members…"
Mikoto looked up at Oborotsuki again.
"Ah… I'm sorry."
"By the time I arrived, it was already too late… I only managed to save you."
"Everyone else had already been killed before I got there."
Oborotsuki honestly described the scene he had witnessed.
He didn't need to explain—Mikoto already knew.
She had watched it all happen right before she lost consciousness.
The question was only born from a faint hope, a desperate wish that what she saw had been a hallucination from before she fainted.
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