Inside the stone house in the rear mountain of the Shinobi Sect, the oil lamp cast Sarutobi's profile in alternating light and shadow.
He had just finished dealing with the last border battle report and was preparing to get up and rest when the air suddenly froze.
A sense of oppression that did not belong to this world silently descended.
Sarutobi instantly shed all his fatigue. His entire body dropped to the ground, his forehead pressed heavily against the cold stone floor, his voice respectful and restrained, "My lord."
A blurry light and shadow appeared in the void.
It was none other than Arisu, the god who had helped him successfully defy the will of heaven and change his fate.
Arisu stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at him from above, his tone indifferent:
"Get up."
Only then did Sarutobi slowly rise, but he still kept his head lowered, not daring to look directly at him.
Arisu did not waste words and spoke directly, "Tonight, someone is coming to kill you."
"What!?"
Sarutobi's body trembled slightly.
"...Who?", Sarutobi asked.
"A member of the Uchiha collateral branch. His name is Tetsu. Both eyes have awakened the Mangekyo.", Arisu spoke calmly.
"His left eye can briefly freeze time, while his right eye can create a Shadow Clone that makes people forget. His methods are ruthless. He kills family, friends, and superiors without hesitation."
Sarutobi's eyes suddenly darkened.
"The Mangekyo... a monster like this actually appeared in the collateral branch?"
"That is why I came specifically to warn you."
"He will lead a squad to create chaos, while he himself infiltrates the rear mountain. His only target is you.", Arisu said calmly.
"Thank you for the warning, my lord!"
Sarutobi was silent for a moment before immediately nodding.
"I want to see exactly how far he can go. And I also want to see... whether you, the person I pushed into the position of Grand Elder, can survive this night."
Sarutobi's heart tightened, but he did not dare show the slightest dissatisfaction. He only lowered his head deeply.
"Yes. This subordinate understands."
Arisu's light and shadow had already begun to fade.
Before disappearing, he left one final sentence, "History needs war. It does not need either side to unify too early."
"If you die, I will choose someone else. If you survive... continue doing as I say."
The light and shadow completely disappeared.
The stone house fell silent once again.
Sarutobi stood where he was, his face frighteningly gloomy.
He slowly clenched his fists and muttered, "Uchiha Tetsu... Mangekyo..."
"Good. Then let me see exactly how much weight you, this stray dog from the collateral branch, really have."
He immediately summoned his trusted aides and quietly gave several orders.
On the surface, the defenses in the rear mountain were not noticeably strengthened.
But the truly deadly preparations had already been completed in secret.
———
Uchiha Tetsu was leading a squad of five, using the cover of night and the ravines to infiltrate the Shinobi Sect's territory step by step.
He did not know that the decapitation operation he had carefully prepared had been watched from the very beginning by a higher-level existence.
Nor did he know that Sarutobi had already known of his arrival in advance.
Soon, deep into the night.
Inside the stone house in the rear mountain, the oil lamp cast Sarutobi's profile in alternating light and shadow.
On the surface, he was still reading the battle reports, but in reality, the chakra throughout his body had already quietly circulated to its peak.
Following Arisu's warning, he had made preparations in advance. The outer patrols had deliberately been thinned out, three exquisite Wind Release sensing barriers had been buried around the stone house, and beneath the table was a detonating tag powerful enough to turn the entire room into scorched earth.
"Come.", Sarutobi muttered, his eyes cold.
Almost at the same time, Uchiha Tetsu slipped into the stone house alone.
His left eye turned slightly, and his chakra perception carefully swept across the area. He did not detect any obvious ambush.
But the moment he pushed open the door, Sarutobi did not even raise his head as he calmly spoke, "Uchiha Tetsu. You came faster than I expected."
Uchiha Tetsu's pupils contracted.
The other party had actually called out his name directly?
Could there be a traitor within the clan?
"You... knew I would come?"
Sarutobi slowly raised his head, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold smile.
"Not only did I know you would come. I also know that your left eye can freeze time, and your right eye can make people forget."
"A Mangekyo appearing in the collateral branch is indeed rare. Unfortunately... you are too young, and too confident."
Uchiha Tetsu was greatly shaken after hearing this.
"Since you're here, don't leave!"
Before his voice had even fallen, the Wind Release sensing barriers around the stone house erupted at the same time.
Three invisible wind blades slashed over from different directions at incredible speed, with almost no warning.
Uchiha Tetsu instantly activated his left eye.
[Instant]!
The flow of time within three meters suddenly froze.
He used that frozen instant to sidestep two of the wind blades, but the third grazed his left shoulder, and blood instantly splattered.
Time resumed.
Sarutobi had already risen to his feet. He formed hand seals with both hands, Wind Release and Fire Release condensing at the same time. Then the ground cracked open, and a large amount of earth surged upward like a tide.
Uchiha Tetsu activated his right eye at the same time.
[Falsehood]!
The Shadow Clone instantly took shape and lunged toward Sarutobi from the side.
But Sarutobi had been prepared long ago. He did not rely on visual memory at all, instead using pure chakra perception to lock onto the real body.
A wind blade precisely slashed toward the Shadow Clone, tearing it apart, while his other hand had already condensed an even sharper spiral wind blade that stabbed directly toward Uchiha Tetsu's chest.
Uchiha Tetsu was forced to activate [Instant] again.
This time, the time he froze was even shorter, barely enough for him to retreat half a step.
The wind blade still tore open a wound deep enough to expose the bone across his chest, and blood gushed out.
Blood began to seep from his left eye, while his right eye throbbed with intense pain.
Uchiha Tetsu instantly became completely calm.
Sarutobi knew all of his abilities.
Barriers, wind blades, Earth Release, detonating tags... this was not a fair assassination attempt, but a killing trap that had been prepared long ago.
If he continued fighting head-on, he could use the synergy of both eyes at most one more time, and there was a very high chance he would either die together with the other side or be torn to pieces by the detonating tag.
And he did not want to die here yet.
He was a transmigrator... How could he possibly die here without even knowing why?
"Smart people never throw their lives away in a battle they are certain to lose."
Uchiha Tetsu's eyes flickered.
The next instant, he forcibly activated [Instant] again.
Time froze.
This time, he did not choose to attack.
Instead, within the three breaths of frozen time, he suddenly retreated while activating [Falsehood] with his right eye, leaving a Shadow Clone standing in his place.
The moment time resumed.
The Shadow Clone was torn apart by Sarutobi's wind blade, forcibly creating a three-second gap in his memories.
The real Uchiha Tetsu had already used this brief opening to turn into a black shadow and rush out of the stone house, heading straight into the depths of the night.
Sarutobi reacted extremely quickly and immediately triggered the detonating tag beneath the table.
BOOM!
The entire stone house was reduced to scorched earth in the violent explosion, the shockwave and flames completely swallowing everything within a dozen or so meters.
But after the explosion subsided, there was no corpse of Uchiha Tetsu in the ruins.
There was only an extremely faint chakra fluctuation rapidly moving away.
Sarutobi knelt halfway in the scorched earth, several wounds opened across his chest from the earlier clash, blood continuously flowing out, yet none of them were fatal.
He raised his head and looked toward the direction Uchiha Tetsu had disappeared, his eyes frighteningly gloomy.
"...He got away."
"This kid... is more cunning than I expected."
He raised a hand to press against his wound and gave the order in a low voice:
"Everyone, stay on alert. Seal off every escape route. We must keep him here."
But Uchiha Tetsu had already disappeared into the layers of forest and night.
As he sprinted wildly, he gritted his teeth, his vision in his left eye already blurred by more than half, while blood continued dripping from his right eye.
"Damn it! There's actually a traitor in the clan!"