Sarutobi Shinōzuke took a deep breath. Even as he tried to calm himself, the "psychological trauma" Uchiha Akainu had inflicted on him was just too immense.
Once, two of the three Konoha Genin he'd mentored had died by harming each other. The sole survivor, the "culprit," now stood before him, completely at ease. This made it impossible for Sarutobi Shinōzuke to suppress the anger in his heart.
Anger, for an ANBU ninja, was a fatal flaw.
Sarutobi Shinōzuke stated coldly, "Everything I've done, from beginning to end, has been for Konoha Village. I've never fallen into darkness. Uchiha Akainu, you're just someone who arbitrarily shifts 'evil' onto others for your own selfish desires! There's no need to make your killing habit sound so righteous."
"I don't understand why the Fourth Hokage ruled your killing of your comrades back then as excessive self-defense, nor do I understand why the Old Man hasn't dealt with you all these years."
"However..."
Sarutobi Shinōzuke glanced at the ANBU corpses on the ground. He hadn't even considered why Uchiha Akainu could recognize him at a glance, despite him wearing an ANBU mask. He also hadn't thought about why Uchiha Akainu was even there.
At this moment, an uncontrollable killing intent surged in his eyes beneath the ANBU mask: "Since you've killed a fellow ANBU ninja from the village right in front of me... then today, I'll clean house for the Old Man and for Konoha Village!"
"And at the same time..."
"I'll clean house for myself too!"
The moment Sarutobi Shinōzuke's words fell, the six ANBU members behind him instantly understood. They cooperated perfectly, using unique ninja tactical movements to block all of Uchiha Akainu's escape routes. Simultaneously, they charged at Uchiha Akainu with various ninja tools.
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
A ninja sword and a scythe instantly carved two incredibly gruesome, gaping wounds on Uchiha Akainu's body. Other ANBU ninja then threw a barrage of kunai and shuriken, all accurately hitting Uchiha Akainu's body. One of the kunai even had an explosive tag wrapped around its end!
"Explode!"
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
The deafening explosion caused the ANBU ninja's eardrums to ache slightly. They watched wide-eyed as Uchiha Akainu was engulfed by the explosion's fire and smoke, assuming he should have been blown to bits.
But...
"No... my ninja sword!"
"My scythe... how is his Lava Release so hot? My ninja tool only touched his body for less than half a second, and it just melted?!"
Two unbelievable exclamations suddenly rang out. The ANBU holding the ninja sword and the ANBU holding the scythe both stared in shock at their half-melted ninja tools. Molten iron could still be seen dripping from the broken edges of their weapons.
And when they simultaneously looked forward, rolling crimson lava had already swallowed the dense explosion smoke. The entire passage within the secret base seemed to be filled with lava. The flowing lava surged towards the ANBU ninja like a mudslide, melting the ground in its path.
Sarutobi Shinōzuke's face turned grim: "Lava Release..."
Although he was once Uchiha Akainu's Jonin instructor, Sarutobi Shinōzuke rarely saw Uchiha Akainu use Lava Release. He only knew that Uchiha Akainu's Lava Release had an incredibly terrifying temperature; an ordinary person's body would be instantly killed upon contact. Beyond that, he had no more information about the Lava Release.
Sarutobi Shinōzuke then realized that he knew absolutely nothing about his former Genin student. Seeing the surging torrent of lava approaching, Sarutobi Shinōzuke calmly shouted, "Deal with him in this tunnel! Don't let him leave here, otherwise, his Lava Release bloodline limit will definitely destroy the entire base! Use Water Style against him!"
The ANBU ninja immediately understood. Three ANBU ninja skilled in Water Style ninjutsu immediately began forming hand signs. The moment the lava torrent drew near, they simultaneously unleashed the same Water Style jutsu.
"Water Style: Water Colliding Wave!!!" x3
Surging water, like a sea dragon, rose from the ground and enveloped all the ANBU ninja. When the water gathered to a certain extent, it rushed forward like a raging flood, spreading towards the lava. The moment the two clashed, the scalding steam that furiously filled the tunnel caused the ANBU ninja's expressions to change dramatically.
So hot!!!
Uchiha Akainu's utterly cold voice echoed faintly through the steam-filled tunnel: "Shinōzuke-sensei, you believe you haven't fallen into darkness... then I ask you. Six months ago, a 'volunteer' who willingly became a test subject wanted to quit midway due to overwhelming fear. Who killed him?"
Sarutobi Shinōzuke, enduring the scalding pain of the steam, his pupils constricted.
"A year ago, when there weren't enough 'volunteers,' who ordered his subordinates to go to a neighboring country of the Land of Fire, abduct a dozen war orphans from that country, and force them to become test subjects?"
Sarutobi Shinōzuke's gaze became somewhat horrified. Uchiha Akainu was like a judge from the underworld, each word piercing directly at Sarutobi Shinōzuke.
"And two years ago..."
"And..."
Every word Uchiha Akainu spoke made Sarutobi Shinōzuke's expression change, and it also caused the ANBU members next to him to involuntarily turn their astonished gazes to their captain.
"Shinōzuke-sensei, you say you want to clean house for Konoha... well, coincidentally, today, I'm going to clean house for the ninja world."
A Dire Call to the Hokage
"Hokage-sama!" Meanwhile, the ANBU ninja sent back to Konoha by Sarutobi Shinōzuke finally reached the Sarutobi clan compound overnight and loudly called out to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
With a "whoosh," a sliding door in a house opened. Hiruzen Sarutobi, dressed in casual clothes, stepped out in his wooden clogs. He pinched his pipe, his brow furrowed, and asked, "If I'm not mistaken, you seem to be an ANBU from Shinōzuke's squad... what happened with Shinōzuke?!"
The ANBU ninja quickly organized his thoughts and said, "Hokage-sama, an enemy has attacked the secret base outside the village. Captain Shinōzuke said that the enemy's strength is very likely formidable, so he requested that I return to the village and ask Hokage-sama to send reinforcements."
"What?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart sank. Years ago, after he and his men destroyed Orochimaru's human experimentation lab in Konoha, they seized many research documents that Orochimaru hadn't had time to take or destroy, and they also captured a large number of unforgivable human experimentation researchers.
He originally wanted to destroy those documents and had promised the child, Uchiha Akainu, that he would secretly execute those researchers. After all, if these evil research documents fell into the hands of ambitious people, they might give rise to a new Orochimaru.
However...
At the urging of Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, Hiruzen Sarutobi only destroyed a portion of the overtly evil research documents, keeping the rest. At the same time, he did not fulfill his promise to Uchiha Akainu, but instead moved those researchers outside the village.
As Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado had put it at the time—"They've committed so much irreversible evil; death is too easy for them. They should use their knowledge and their limited lives to slowly pay off their debts."
—"Hiruzen, you cannot act irrationally just because you made a promise to a young Uchiha. We know you think highly of him, but that genius with two bloodline limits is, after all, an Uchiha..."
—"Can you guarantee that the benefits Uchiha Akainu brings to Konoha's future will be greater than the benefits Orochimaru's subordinates bring to Konoha? Their knowledge is the most precious treasure in the ninja world."
—"Besides, we can just destroy some of the intolerable documents; the village can make good use of the rest."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was swayed.
Thus, a secret research base was built at a hidden location about a dozen kilometers outside Konoha Village, to study some of the research documents left behind by Orochimaru. He also entrusted this base to his eldest son, Sarutobi Shinōzuke, to manage. He didn't trust outsiders.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi never expected that something would go wrong with the secret research base after only a few years of operation. An invading enemy capable of making Shinōzuke send someone back to the village for reinforcements... was probably not a simple opponent!
"I will go personally with a team," Hiruzen Sarutobi said grimly.