Chapter 14: Should I Call You Naive, or Should I Call You Arrogant
"Uchiha girl, why did you attack me?"
The instant he broke the illusion, Ziyun turned into lightning. In the next moment, he appeared right beside Uchiha Mikoto.
"So fast."
Mikoto froze, then finally realized he was already at her side.
She instinctively tried to dodge, but Ziyun forcibly grabbed her arm.
"Where do you think you're going? You attacked a shinobi from another village. Are you out of your mind?"
Afraid she would slip away, Ziyun tugged a little. Mikoto lost her footing and almost fell.
Seeing that, Ziyun had no choice but to step in and catch her against his chest.
"Trying to hurt yourself? I'm not giving the Hidden Leaf any chance to make trouble."
Ziyun smiled as he looked at Mikoto in his arms.
Should he just take her back with him?
The Hidden Cloud did not have beauties like this.
"L-let go of me! I didn't do it on purpose!"
Mikoto realized the harmless-looking boy in front of her was incredibly strong. She could not break free at all.
"I only… I only wanted to test a newly developed illusion technique. I picked someone randomly in the crowd. Who knew it would land on you?"
Mikoto's face flushed as she came up with a clumsy excuse on the spot.
"Hahaha. Since there's no evidence, you think you can just blame it on bad luck? Not that easy."
Ziyun laughed. She really dared to say something like that.
Uchiha Mikoto, was she naive, or was she arrogant?
At the same time, several presences hiding in the shadows revealed themselves.
"Yotsuki Ziyun, let her go. This isn't the Hidden Cloud. This isn't a place where you can do whatever you want!"
The man in front, an Uchiha clan member, stepped forward and barked.
The other Uchiha behind him glared at Ziyun.
Dodai also moved to Ziyun's side and guarded him from behind.
"Using an illusion technique on a guest who sincerely came to ally with the Hidden Leaf, then trying to flip it around. Is this the Hidden Leaf's way of hosting visitors?"
Ziyun sneered, meeting the Uchiha's eyes without fear.
So the ones watching were not only ANBU. The Uchiha had people here too.
More interesting was this.
Ziyun could sense that a few presences hiding in the shadows still had not shown themselves.
Meaning the ANBU did not react at all to Mikoto being seized.
In a sense, that attitude represented Hiruzen Sarutobi's attitude.
Very interesting.
"Isn't it enough? She was only testing a newly developed illusion technique. Who knew it would happen to hit you… it was just an accident."
After Ziyun brought up the Hidden Leaf, the Uchiha man's tone softened.
The Uchiha clearly had some fear of the Hidden Leaf leadership.
"Hmph. If it was an accident, then fine. I'll have the Third Hokage judge this!"
"Come on, Teacher Dodai. We're going to the Hidden Leaf leadership to ask why the Uchiha clan attacked me for no reason!"
Ziyun caught the key detail and acted furious, dragging Mikoto toward the Hokage Office.
The Uchiha men's faces changed instantly. They rushed in to snatch her back by force.
If this reached Hiruzen Sarutobi, it would be hard to clean up.
The Uchiha knew exactly what Hiruzen's attitude would be.
But with Ziyun moving like lightning, how could they keep up?
............
Ziyun stormed into the Hokage Office first.
Along the way, any Hidden Leaf shinobi who tried to stop him could not stop him at all.
Ziyun was lightning. They could not even touch him.
With no one able to block him, he entered the office, then explained the entire sequence of events to the Third Raikage.
"Third Hokage, the Hidden Leaf's Uchiha clan attacked the Hidden Cloud's genius for no reason. You must give me an explanation!"
The moment those words fell, the Third Raikage's presence changed completely.
Chakra surged out like a burst dam.
He was like a ferocious beast, staring straight at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Everyone in the room froze.
So this was the so-called strongest Raikage.
That pressure was terrifying, almost no different from a tailed beast.
"Ahem… Uchiha Mikoto, is it true you attacked Yotsuki Ziyun?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked awkward, and he was also unhappy inside.
He knew about Uchiha Mikoto.
An orphan within the Uchiha clan, with very ordinary talent, and it seemed she had only awakened the Sharingan recently.
For those reasons, this girl had none of the Uchiha's proud temperament. She was gentle instead.
Sending someone like her to test Yotsuki Ziyun, and expecting it not to be exposed?
Was the Uchiha clan trying to set him up?
In truth, Hiruzen's guess was correct. The Uchiha clan let Mikoto act because they also wanted to test the leadership's attitude.
They wanted to see what the Hidden Leaf leadership would do if something really happened.
If the Hidden Leaf sacrificed Mikoto, that was fine. Her talent was not high anyway. Sacrificing her was acceptable.
But using this to probe the leadership's stance toward the Uchiha was extremely important.
At that moment, the current Uchiha clan head also arrived.
"Lord Hokage, I've already asked. Mikoto was testing an illusion technique. She chose a target at random, and accidentally chose the Hidden Cloud genius Yotsuki Ziyun."
The Uchiha clan head spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly.
He wanted to see what Hiruzen Sarutobi would do today.
"Hmph. What a ridiculous excuse. Fine, then I will also test my Lightning Release Chakra Mode on you. Clan Head Uchiha, are you interested?"
As he spoke, the Third Raikage immediately erupted into Lightning Release Chakra Mode, shaking the ground until cracks spread across it.