Night swallowed the last trace of light in the Uchiha district entirely.
Across the whole of the Uchiha district, only the chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs could be heard.
More than twenty figures slipped in silently and dispersed.
These A-rank missing-nin from across the shinobi world were hyenas driven by greed for money and the desire for slaughter.
Leading them was a missing-nin named Kishin Kenpachi, a former ANBU of Kirigakure, renowned for a silent sword technique of absolute swiftness, with a bounty of forty million ryō.
"Hmph, so this is the Uchiha Clan — nothing special."
Kenpachi licked his cracked lips; he had already caught the sweet scent of money and blood mingling together.
"Their guard is this lax, which means that new clan head called Uchiha Shinsuke is just a big-talking greenhorn."
A short, stout missing-nin from Iwagakure beside him let out a sly laugh, rubbing his hands together.
"Who cares what kind of brat he is? Lord Danzō promised extra payment for every single Sharingan."
"Tonight, we're going to be rich!"
"After we finish this job, we'll have enough to live it up for a good long while."
However, when they kicked open the door of the first residence, what greeted them was not terrified screaming or desperate resistance.
It was a completely empty room.
"No one?"
The Iwagakure missing-nin froze for a moment.
Kenpachi furrowed his brow, his body flickering, and appeared in an instant in the courtyard of another residence.
Still empty.
The third house, the fourth house...
After checking more than ten homes in a row, the result was exactly the same every time.
The furniture was arranged neatly, and some tables even had unfinished meals sitting on them, yet the people had vanished without a trace, as though they had simply evaporated into thin air.
A sense of foreboding rose within him.
"Something is wrong!"
Kenpachi's expression darkened, and his grip tightened around the short blade at his back.
"They were prepared for this — everyone, stay sharp!"
This deathly silent neighborhood, in their eyes at that moment, felt as though it had transformed into a great beast opening its bloody maw, ready to devour whoever it chose.
Just then.
Tap.
A faint sound, like a raindrop striking a stone slab, came from the center of the neighborhood.
Every missing-nin's gaze was drawn there in an instant.
At the edge of the rooftop of the Guard Division headquarters, two figures quietly materialized.
One stood tall and upright, black clothes snapping in the night wind — it was Uchiha Shinsuke.
The other wore a grave expression; it was the former clan head, Uchiha Fugaku.
From the rooftop dozens of meters above, they descended lightly to the ground.
"You've finally come."
Uchiha Shinsuke's voice rang out.
"Two of them?"
The Iwagakure missing-nin, once he made out who had arrived, first went blank, then burst into a wildly arrogant laugh.
"Hahaha! Have the Uchiha run out of people? They actually sent only two to throw their lives away?"
"One is an old man who got pushed off his throne, and the other is a snot-nosed little brat!"
"Stop wasting words on them!"
In Kishin Kenpachi's eyes, all he could see was the contemptuous look in Uchiha Shinsuke's gaze.
That contempt sent Kenpachi into a rage.
How many years had it been, how many years since anyone had dared to look down on him like that.
This Uchiha brat had touched his reverse scale, and today he would be made to suffer well, so he would understand the consequences of looking down on Lord Kenpachi.
"Take them down! Then drag every one of those mice in hiding out for me!"
The moment Kenpachi's words fell, his figure dissolved into a blurred afterimage and vanished from the spot.
The Silent Sword Technique!
And Kenpachi's target was none other than Uchiha Shinsuke, who appeared to pose the least threat.
He intended to use this new clan head's skull to announce the start of this hunt.
What met Kenpachi was not a look of fear but a blinding flash of blue-white lightning.
Chirp chirp chirp!
The sound was like a thousand birds shrieking all at once in Kenpachi's ears.
On Uchiha Shinsuke's right hand, at some unknown moment, a mass of raging lightning had already gathered.
Lightning Style: Chidori.
Uchiha Shinsuke's movement was faster than Kishin Kenpachi's blade.
When Kenpachi's short sword was still half an inch from Uchiha Shinsuke's throat, that lightning-wrapped hand had already driven through his chest without any resistance whatsoever.
Squelch.
A dull, muffled sound rang out as flesh was pierced through.
The savage grin on Kishin Kenpachi's face froze in an instant.
He looked down and saw that a fist-sized, blackened hole had appeared in his chest.
The blood had not even had time to well up before it was evaporated entirely by the raging lightning.
"How... how..."
"Is this... possible..."
Kishin Kenpachi's body fell lifelessly backward, shock and incomprehension lingering in his eyes.
Uchiha Shinsuke slowly withdrew his right hand.
To kill a missing-nin, Shinsuke had not even activated his Sharingan.
"One."
Uchiha Shinsuke let those two words fall, utterly unhurried.
The entire area fell dead silent.
The Iwagakure missing-nin, who had just been laughing wildly moments before, felt cold sweat streaming down his fleshy cheeks.
Dead?
Kishin Kenpachi, famed for his speed, had been killed in a single exchange?
Without anyone even being able to see how the other had moved?
And the critical thing was that this Uchiha had not even activated his Sharingan.
The young man standing before them was no greenhorn at all.
He was a monster!
"Everyone together!"
Someone, it was unclear who, let out a hysterical roar.
"Kill him! Avenge Kenpachi!"
The survival instinct and the greed for money overwhelmed the fear.
More than twenty figures, like enraged beasts, charged in from all directions.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow River!"
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
Jutsu of various elemental natures were unleashed in an instant, and a mudslide, a gale, and a torrent all came crashing together, sweeping toward Uchiha Shinsuke and Uchiha Fugaku.
Inside Uchiha Fugaku's pupils, three tomoe spun rapidly before finally converging into a Mangekyō pattern.
"Shinsuke! Watch out!"
Fugaku stepped forward, chakra surging, and was already preparing to call forth the skeletal frame of Susano'o to block the incoming attacks.
"Stand back."
Uchiha Shinsuke commanded.
His hands flew through seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation."
Uchiha Shinsuke drew a deep breath, then expelled it in a violent burst forward.
The next instant, a towering blaze transformed into a wave of flames that blotted out the sky and covered the earth.
The jutsu released by the missing-nin dissolved directly into billowing steam beneath Shinsuke's flames.
"Aaaaaah!"
The missing-nin at the front had no time to react before they were consumed entirely by the sea of fire.
Not even a complete set of bones was left behind.
In the distance, atop a higher rooftop, four figures watched everything in silence.
"Heh heh... heh heh heh heh heh..."
Orochimaru extended his long tongue and dragged it slowly across his lips, his golden serpentine eyes flickering with a morbid fervor.
"How... utterly exquisite."
"Such an enormous amount of chakra, such perfect Fire Style."
"This body is nothing short of a work of art born for ninjutsu."
"Shinsuke-kun... I want you more and more."
Beside Orochimaru, the eerie green light in Kakuzu's eyes grew slightly heavier.
Based on the strength Uchiha Shinsuke had displayed so far, he was already no less formidable than most Kage-level fighters.
The target was quite troublesome.
It seemed that after everything was over, he would have to squeeze more bounty out of Danzō — heh, time to bleed Danzō well.
Even so.
A heart belonging to a fighter as powerful as Uchiha Shinsuke...
"Becoming a part of my body would certainly be something magnificent!"
A look of greed spread across Kakuzu's face.