"Don't come any closer! One more step and I'll kill him!"
Arui pulled out a kunai and pressed it against Sasuke's neck, his voice trembling despite his fierce threat.
However, his threat was entirely useless. The sunglasses-wearing ninja didn't pause for a second, his footsteps slow but steady as he closed in on Arui.
'Damn it!' Arui's eyes widened in panic as he watched the man approach, cursing inwardly.
"You forced my hand!" he shouted. "Die, brat!"
A ruthless glint flashed in Arui's eyes as he thrust the kunai forward, aiming straight for Sasuke's throat.
A second later, heavy beads of cold sweat broke out across Arui's forehead. His kunai was already touching Sasuke's tender skin. Just one more centimeter, and the boy would be dead. But that single centimeter might as well have been a bottomless chasm. No matter how hard he pushed, his arm simply wouldn't budge.
'My body... it won't move?' Arui strained to shift his gaze.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his comrades were trapped in the exact same predicament. Their bodies trembled slightly, paralyzed in place.
Suddenly, Arui noticed a thin black line creeping along the ground, connecting directly to their shadows. The other end of that black line stretched all the way back to a ninja striking a peculiar hand seal.
Recognizing the familiar stance, Arui recalled the intelligence reports back in his village. Realization hit him, immediately followed by profound terror.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu?" he gasped. "You're from the Nara clan?"
But why? Why would a ninja from Konoha's Nara clan help them escape the Uchiha clan's pursuit?
"Dead men don't need to know that much," the sunglasses-wearing ninja said calmly as he stepped in front of Arui. "I'll be taking the child. As for you, you can serve as nourishment for my insects."
Swarms of tiny black bugs flew out from the ninja's body, inching closer and closer to Arui.
"Mission accomplished," the man in sunglasses stated, slowly reaching a hand out toward Sasuke.
"Uchiha Style Kenjutsu: Flash Cut!"
A series of brilliant blade flashes illuminated the night. In an instant, the sunglasses-wearing ninja was sliced into several pieces, his body exploding into a cloud of scattered insects.
"If you want to take Sasuke, shouldn't you ask his older brother first?"
A blur of motion materialized into a solid figure. Jie Uchiha stood there, gripping the Sword of the Thunder God, his eyes as cold and emotionless as ice.
"Jie Uchiha?"
The massive swarm of insects converged, reforming back into the man with sunglasses.
"Parasitic Destructive Insects. You're from the Aburame clan," Jie said flatly after creating two shadow clones to protect Sasuke and Hinata. "Are you Tatsuma Aburame or Torune Aburame? And the one maintaining the Shadow Possession Jutsu must be Shikaichi Nara."
"If memory serves, you all supposedly died during the Third Great Ninja War. Your names are already carved into the Memorial Stone," Jie continued. "But it seems someone faked your deaths so you could serve him in the shadows. And that someone is Danzo, isn't it? You're part of Danzo's Root."
Tatsuma Aburame remained silent for a moment before lowering his hood. "As expected of the Uchiha clan," he said in a low voice. "It appears our intel has been compromised. But, young master of the Uchiha, how do you plan to escape from ghosts like us?"
As he spoke, Tatsuma and the other Root operatives covertly shifted into a tight formation, surrounding Jie. The moment the Uchiha made a sudden move, they would unleash a torrential assault.
Jie, however, didn't care about their positioning in the slightest. He merely sneered.
"Escape?" Jie mocked. "Why would I leave before wiping every single one of you out?"
Tatsuma's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, a sudden wave of dread washing over him.
"Attack!"
With that sharp command, the Root assassins launched their strike.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
A black thread concealed within the shadows of the trees darted rapidly toward Jie.
"Parasitic Destructive Insects."
Bzzzz! A massive swarm of bugs poured out of Tatsuma's body, converging into a dark cloud that rushed straight for the Uchiha.
"Super Beast Scroll!"
Under the cover of night, an ink lion roared, pouncing fiercely at Jie.
Despite the overwhelming barrage of attacks, Jie stood perfectly still, acting as if he hadn't even noticed them.
"Kidnapping members of the Uchiha clan and gouging out their Sharingan," Jie whispered. "You think you can just steal the power of the Sharingan?"
A sinister crimson light flared in Jie's eyes. His Sharingan manifested, its three tomoe spinning wildly.
"I've got him!" Shikaichi Nara shouted the exact second his shadow connected with Jie's.
"Now! Finish him off!" Tatsuma ordered, the intense unease in his gut compelling him to yell. He wanted to combine their strength and end Jie Uchiha as quickly as possible.
"Then allow me to show you," Jie's voice echoed with deadly calm, "the true power of the Sharingan."
The moment the words left his lips, the three tomoe in his eyes merged into an intricate, symmetrical triangular pattern.
Massive waves of radiant, crimson-gold chakra erupted from Jie's body, expanding and taking absolute form.
"Susanoo!"
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