The full moon hung high above, silver light spilling across the darkened night.
At the edge of Tanzaku Street, Yui Xuanyue paused and glanced back. From the shadows, several black figures crept closer—silent, seamless with the night itself.
"Not ANBU… no, their masks are too strange. Root."
Of course, Xuanyue remembered the infamous shadow unit, and the man behind it all—Danzō, Konoha's scapegoat master.
"So, I've been discovered. Because of the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki?"
He doubted Root had predicted his movements. If this were a true ambush, far more than a handful would be waiting. No, this felt more like a coincidence—Naruto, the Nine-Tails host, was too important to leave unobserved. Root operatives were likely stationed around him at all times. Xuanyue had merely crossed their line of sight outside the izakaya.
"Unlucky for you—or perhaps unlucky for me."
He stopped walking and let the shadows surround him.
Eight of them. Two full teams, the kind usually assigned to rotate surveillance on the Jinchūriki.
While Tanzaku Street rang with drunken revelry on the other side of the wall, silence pressed down like a weight.
The Root shinobi never spoke. Only their leader gave hand signals, quick and precise. The squads split and closed in.
Steel hissed. Blades slid free.
Eight masked figures moved as one, cold and merciless, weapons raised. The first wave—kunai and shuriken whistling through the air.
"Pointless."
Xuanyue's hand flicked. A single kunai flashed into his grip, spinning a silver web that shredded every incoming projectile with a chorus of metallic sparks.
A rush of air—the telltale crack of Shunshin. One Root shinobi was already at his throat, blade sweeping for the kill. Xuanyue shifted a single step back. The steel passed an inch from his neck.
His counterstrike came instantly. A kunai, sharpened by wind chakra, shot forward like a bullet. The operative's instincts saved him, just barely twisting aside. But in that brief moment, Xuanyue closed the distance.
Bone crunched. The man's wrist shattered beneath a precise grip. Xuanyue tore the sword from his hand and kicked him flying. He spun, blade flashing.
The next assassin behind him didn't even realize what had happened before silver light carved his throat. He staggered, clutching at the flood of blood, and collapsed.
"The first." Xuanyue raised his blood-tipped blade, voice calm as if announcing a tally.
The remaining Root didn't flinch. Their silence was absolute, their advance relentless.
The night rang with steel as Xuanyue cut through them. Root was stronger than average shinobi—sharpened by brutal training—but still far beneath him. Even restrained, his movements were merciless. Two more fell in swift, clean arcs of his blade.
He lunged for another—only for his strike to clang against hardened stone.
"Earth Style… Hardening Technique?"
The man's body had turned rock-brown. Xuanyue stepped back, eyes narrowing. Lightning roared to life along his blade, blue light searing the night.
The stone defense shattered like tofu. His strike pierced clean through. Blood filled the operative's mask, but instead of retreating, the man clamped both hands on Xuanyue's wrists, holding the blade inside his own body.
At the same instant, an Aburame operative moved. From his sleeves poured a tide of insects, swelling into a black cloud that descended to smother Xuanyue. The chakra-laced swarm crackled with lethal intent—exploding insects, bred to ignore lightning.
Xuanyue's brow furrowed. Metallic sheen rippled across his skin, covering him head to toe.
Steel Release.
The swarm detonated.
Thunder shook the earth. Fire blossomed skyward. A mushroom cloud of dust rolled outward.
When the smoke cleared, a crater yawned where they had stood. The hardened shinobi was nothing but fragments.
And at the center, Xuanyue emerged without a scratch, steel armor cracking and falling away in shards.
He glanced at it and shook his head. "Against four Kage, my Steel Release never broke. Yet a single Aburame trick leaves it like this…" His voice was almost disappointed. "The gap is still too wide."
Even so, these remnants were no threat.
He bent, plucked a fallen blade from the ground, and let lightning flare across it once more. His gaze swept the survivors.
"Choose. End yourselves… or I'll do it for you."
Silence.
They attacked.
But when Xuanyue's eyes flicked down, he saw the faint stretch of shadow beneath his feet. A Nara. Clever—but too slow.
The blade fell.
The final Root operative collapsed, lifeless.
Two full squads—erased.