Aside from the one who had already left, the three Root shinobi originally assigned to monitor the Uchiha clan shifted their focus entirely.
From broad surveillance—
To Uchiha Yoru alone.
Their captain even sent one ahead to Yoru's house to prepare the ambush.
They chose his home as the battlefield. With other Uchiha living nearby, they needed to set up barrier seals in advance—ones that could suppress both sound and light.
At the night market ramen stand, Uchiha Yoru finished eating and drinking, then patted his stomach in satisfaction. After exchanging a few casual goodbyes, he headed straight home.
The Root shinobi followed.
The farther they moved from the crowded streets, the closer the operatives drew.
Eventually, they stopped hiding altogether.
When they reached the front of his house, the captain spoke in a low voice.
"Remember—no holding back. Full force."
"Kill him?"
"Kill him."
"If he's awakened the Sharingan, he's dangerous. He dies."
"If he hasn't, then he has no value to the village. Keeping him alive is a waste of resources. He still dies."
"Understood."
Their voices were quiet.
Miwa Masayo, still maintaining the illusion at the ramen stand, heard nothing.
But Uchiha Yoru—hidden nearby—heard everything.
He rose slowly from beneath the ground and let out a faint sigh.
"So this is how you see it… The Uchiha deserve to die, no matter what."
The instant his voice sounded—
The air froze.
Killing intent surged.
Two Root shinobi immediately drew their weapons. One even pulled out explosive tags.
The captain reacted even faster.
In one motion, he took out both a signal flare and an explosive tag.
They understood the situation perfectly.
This mission had never been recorded.
If they died here, Danzo Shimura would have no way of knowing what had happened.
And things were worse than expected.
Uchiha Yoru was not ordinary.
He had been hiding his strength.
Not only did he possess jonin-level ability—
He could also use Earth Style.
Too dangerous.
There was no longer any chance to report back.
But even in death—
They would drag him into suspicion.
Anyone targeted by Danzo could never remain hidden.
A shinobi who concealed his strength would never survive a full investigation.
The captain yanked the pull-ring of the signal flare—
Nothing happened.
No flare launched.
As he instinctively looked down in shock—
His vision vanished.
His thoughts stopped.
He died.
Before he had spoken, Uchiha Yoru had already activated his Sharingan.
His genjutsu had taken control of their five senses.
He began with touch.
Humans were far less sensitive to changes in touch than to sight or hearing. Targeting vision or sound first would risk alerting them.
Next came smell and taste.
The moment those senses were seized—
He released poison gas.
It was a brutal toxin.
It paralyzed muscles.
Distorted perception.
Once inhaled, it could kill a shinobi in under twenty seconds.
Its only flaw—
The smell was overwhelming.
Any alert shinobi would detect it instantly and hold their breath.
But under genjutsu—
Their senses were already falsified.
They smelled nothing.
The weapons they thought they had drawn—
The explosive tags—
The signal flare—
All of it was illusion layered atop the toxin's effects.
In reality—
The moment Uchiha Yoru spoke, their bodies were already paralyzed.
He dragged them into the earth.
And they died in silence.
…
While Yoru carried out the killings beneath the surface, Miwa Masayo, maintaining his illusion, calmly made her way home.
By the time she pushed open the courtyard gate—
Uchiha Yoru emerged from the ground, dragging two bodies behind him.
Together, man and cat worked efficiently.
All four corpses were tightly wrapped in oilcloth, then coated in thick layers of wax to seal in any scent.
Konoha had too many shinobi with heightened senses.
Only absolute isolation could prevent tracking.
When they finished, Miwa Masayo collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
"For now… it's fine, meow. I suppressed the seals on them, but it won't last until dawn…"
Uchiha Yoru picked her up and gently stroked her fur.
"Well done. Rika-chan, when are you going to turn into a catgirl?"
"I'm not Rika-chan, meow! And I'm not turning into a catgirl! That's ugly!"
"That's just because my drawings are bad. If Rika-chan transformed, she'd definitely be beautiful."
"So annoying, meow! If you don't get to the point, I'm leaving!"
"Alright. Can the Granny Cat help?"
"No, meow. These bodies have multiple Root seals. They can't be taken through summoning, and they'll be detected by the village barrier."
"Then we burn them."
"Burn them? Wouldn't that expose us immediately?"
He smiled faintly.
"Not if I burn them fast enough."
"…What are you planning?"
"Like this… then this… and then this."
"…If you're not going to explain, forget it. I'm leaving, meow."
"Just wait a bit. It'll be quick."
"Fifteen minutes, meow."
Uchiha Yoru circulated earth-aspected natural energy.
The ground beneath them flowed like water, opening into a smooth, slanted tunnel.
He tossed the four wax-sealed corpses down—
Then followed.
Miwa Masayo, dragging her tired body, leapt onto the roof and settled down, gazing toward the tallest tree in the Forest of Death.
Waiting.
Roughly ten minutes later—
Four circular holes opened in the earth.
Dark.
Bottomless.
Then—
Flames burst forth.
Four muffled explosions followed.
Charred wax shells shot into the sky.
ANBU on night watch and patrol shinobi all heard the blasts.
They looked up, startled, as four faint trails of fire streaked upward.
No one understood what was happening.
The Uchiha Police mobilized at once, rushing toward residential zones to maintain order.
ANBU squads sped toward the Forest of Death, tasked with investigating and reporting to the Hokage.
Then—
Just before the rising masses touched the village barrier—
The fire-aspected natural energy hidden within them detonated.
In an instant—
The temperature surged past a thousand degrees.
Moisture vanished.
Fat melted.
Muscle carbonized.
Bone cracked and turned to ash.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Expanding gases tore everything apart.
Four brilliant explosions bloomed across the sky.
Fragments ignited as they met the air, scattering blazing trails of light in every direction.
For a brief moment—
The entire Konohagakure was illuminated.
Tens of thousands of shinobi were jolted awake.
Every rooftop filled with startled figures.
Miwa Masayo stared upward, frozen.
At some point, Uchiha Yoru had returned.
He sat beside her, idly playing with her triangular ears while she remained stunned.
Now the ashes are scattered across all of Konoha…
No one will ever trace this back to me.
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