In the root base, the lights on the top of the corridor have been flickering on and off for a while.
The fluorescent lamp kept emitting an unsettling high-pitched and short whine, as if it was crying that its filament could not withstand this kind of teasing and might break at any time, causing the bulb to explode.
The root ninja who was responsible for guarding the duty room, or outside the detention room, was very agitated by the light.
When he first joined the Roots, he faced dozens of flashing lights at the same time during torture training. For a week after that day, whenever he felt a slight change in external light, he would be sensitive enough to want to vomit.
Just as he was thinking about smashing the lamp with his shuriken, the flickering stopped.
All the light bulbs in the corridor, like well-fed beggars, finally stopped making noise and turned on as usual.
The root ninja guarding the gate breathed a sigh of relief.
But at this moment, the door behind him was knocked from the inside. Dongdongdong was very urgent.
"Is anyone here?" It was the voice of the child who was imprisoned today, "Let me out! I need to go to the toilet!"
The root ninja guarding the gate was speechless for a while.
But considering that Danzo had said that the emotions of the mother and son should be kept as stable as possible, and that the two people inside were wearing handcuffs to prevent the generation of chakra, there was no threat, so he opened the door without hesitation.
Zuosuke stood at the door with his hands tied, looking at the root ninja while scanning both sides of the door, his eyes less innocent than usual.
Uchiha Mikoto seemed a little tired, lying on the bed in the duty room and taking a nap, even covered with a quilt.
[Do you really think this is your own home? Is this the so-called jounin of the best clan? He is still able to sleep inside the root. It’s really cool...]
The scene inside the room further lowered the guard of the root ninja who was secretly complaining, and he did not notice the real purpose of Zuosuke's next question.
"Why is there no sound at all outside?" Zuosuke suddenly asked, "Weren't there many people there before?"
Roots are the ANBU detachment, and the standard number of ANBU detachments is 12 people.
But when they entered the base, the total number of root ninjas the mother and son encountered was definitely more than 20, and the real number would only be more.
But it seems a little too strange that the base is so quiet right now.
"Everyone has other tasks, and it's impossible to give all my attention to you."
The root ninja explained vaguely, "Let's go, follow me to the bathroom."
"That's it..."
Zuosuke got the answer, and his face showed a slight joy of "then I'll be relieved."
The root ninja didn't understand what the other person's expression meant. Just for a moment, the kid's eyes actually switched to a pair of three magatama sharingan eyes, and then he turned slightly -
The ninja twitched as if he had been electrocuted, then stopped moving and stood up straight, like a soldier waiting for review.
"solved."
Zuo Zhu took a deep breath and looked at the figure covered with a quilt on the bed, "He was alone, so he was surprisingly relaxed."
"Uchiha Mikoto", who was pretending to be asleep, suddenly opened the quilt, and it turned out to be Sasuke again, with the kind of joy that only a child can have on his little face.
He almost jumped directly from the bed to the door. He looked at Sanmagatama's "Sasuke" with stars in his eyes, and spoke with Purgatory Anjuro's catchphrase: "That's great! Mom, you are so awesome!"
The next moment, smoke exploded, and Uchiha Mikoto released the transformation technique and returned to her original appearance.
"The chakra that took so long to be transformed is almost consumed by just one transformation technique and one illusion technique. These handcuffs are really powerful."
Uchiha Mikoto shook the silver bracelet on her wrist and jingled. Then she looked at the root ninja and gave an order: "Untie this for us."
The root ninja immediately took action. After he formed a series of hand seals that were more complicated than Water Release and Water Dragon Bullet, Zuosuke and Mikoto felt their wrists loosen at the same time. The handcuffs separated on their own and fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.
.
"Mom, what should we do next?"
Zuosuke jumped up and tore off the sealing talisman on the door of the duty room. Feeling chakra again, he immediately became confident, "Are you going to knock down all the ninjas in this place?"
Ever since he learned about Giyuu's "great achievements" in Yunin Village at noon, Sasuke has always wanted to do something worthy to prove himself.
Although the ninjas in this base belong to Konoha, since they have hurt Itachi, they are already enemies. Sasuke doesn't care about any rules and regulations.
"Don't worry, we need to ask about the situation outside first. Otherwise, even if we get out from here, we will just fall into a trap."
Mikoto touched Zuosuke's head gently, and Zuosuke immediately calmed down and waited quietly.
Mikoto turned her head, took off her root ninja mask, looked directly into the other person's eyes and began to ask.
"How many people are still in the root base?"
"Including me, there are seven in total."
"Where are they?"
"Two are responsible for guarding the prisoners in the cell, one is responsible for guarding Uchiha Itachi, one is sorting information in the intelligence room, and the other is cleaning. The last one is on duty in the control room."
When she heard that there was surveillance, Uchiha Mikoto raised her eyebrows and immediately looked at the roof outside the door and found that there was no camera facing her.
"Where is the surveillance camera? Is there one in this room?"
If there is, then her escape behavior will definitely be discovered, and she must prepare for the worst.
"No. The cameras in this area are at the entrance and exit of the passage."
Mikoto blinked, as if she had an idea.
"The last question." A small wrinkle appeared between Uchiha Mikoto's eyebrows, "So many root ninjas left, what mission did they go on?"
"I don't know." The root ninja shook his head and replied stiffly: "In order to keep it confidential, the root's mission will not be told to irrelevant people. But I can probably guess that they are going to deal with it..."
This ninja suddenly got stuck and kept repeating the syllables "Li...Li...Li", but could never say the next word.
His right eyelid kept blinking, and his lips kept twitching back as he spoke. His whole person looked like a broken machine.
"What's wrong with him?" Zuosuke was horrified by this scene, "Is there a short circuit?"
"..." Mikoto was also confused, thinking that her illusion was used under restraint and something went wrong.
This root ninja continued to "short-circuit" for more than a minute before he stopped twitching.
Seeing that he had returned to normal, Mikoto immediately asked: "What happened just now?"
"Tongue Bane Abuse Curse Seal." The root ninja stuck out his tongue, and a complex symbol was printed on it like a tattoo, which made Zuosuke feel nauseous.
"I can't tell any secrets about the roots, otherwise the curse seal will be triggered and my whole body will be unable to move."
Uchiha Mikoto raised her eyebrows, and she probably understood what happened just now, but being able to trigger the curse seal also showed that this root ninja guessed the target of those people correctly.
【Is there any way to bypass this curse seal? 】
Mikoto tried: "Can you write it down with a pen?"
"No." The root ninja shook his head.
Mikoto was not surprised. If this could bypass the curse seal, Danzo would be too stupid.
[But in this case, how do we find out what these people know and what they want to do? Do they really want to arrest us just to investigate things related to Shisui? Or...]
She narrowed her eyes, suddenly remembered something, and immediately asked: "How exactly was Uchiha Itachi caught? Is this the root secret?"
"Yes." The affirmative answer.
"When was he arrested? Is this also a secret?"
"yes."
Uchiha Mikoto was like a hacker attacking a firewall, asking questions repeatedly to find loopholes that could be passed through.
"Then how long has he been locked up at the root? Is this a secret?"
This time, the other party finally gave a different answer.
"No. Uchiha Itachi is being held here for 24 hours soon."
A shiver ran down Uchiha Mikoto's spine.
If that's the case, it means that the weasel was caught by the roots yesterday afternoon.
But the envoys from Kumo Ninja and Iwa Ninja clearly arrived in the morning!
【That note...】
Only then did Mikoto realize that the vague "I'm not going home tonight" message last night, although it was Itachi's handwriting, was not the tone that the child should have! If it had been Itachi, at least he would have done it because he couldn't go home.
You should apologize after dinner.
[Why didn’t I notice this at the time?!]
Deep regret and self-blame filled Mikoto's brain. Now she wished she could go back to yesterday afternoon and kick herself hard.
But then I thought about it, the root ninja not only captured Itachi a day in advance, but also escaped the observation of so many Sharingan pairs in the clan before dark and left a note at her house...
【These people are not investigating Shisui at all!】
Combined with the fact that the mother and son were brought here.
[But he was targeting Fugaku from the beginning! He was targeting Uchiha! Shisui was just Danzo’s legitimate reason to make this matter bright!]
The near truth gave Uchiha Mikoto a huge shock.
This crisis did not come suddenly, but had been planned for a long time. I am afraid that it is not only Fugaku who is in danger now, but all the clan members.
The disappearance of so many root ninjas was either for Fugaku or for other clan members. There was absolutely no other possibility.
【Must figure out their plan.】
Uchiha Mikoto immediately thought of that stall.
"Will the root department leave an archive before dispatching tasks?" Logically speaking, this is a standard process.
"Yes." The root ninja nodded, "But all the documents in the root are written in secret words, and the contents will only be revealed after they are printed in a specific order. The order of printing is different for each document."
"It's enough."
Mikoto nodded and picked up the handcuffs on the ground, "Where can I find more of this?"
Root Ninja gave the location: "Next door to the monitoring room is the equipment room."
"Okay, your mission is completed." After Mikoto got the answer, she knocked him unconscious with a knife, and then hung the handcuffs on the other person's wrist.
If you can't create chakra, there's no point in being able to form seals.
"Wait for me here, I'll be back soon."
Without any extra explanation, Uchiha Mikoto immediately transformed into the ninja's figure, put on the mask and walked out, closing the door.
Zuosuke knew that his mother would never abandon him, so he picked up the ninja's weapon, sat across from him and waited.
About five minutes later, Uchiha Mikoto returned with blood stains on her body, causing Sasuke to scream in surprise.
"I'm fine, this is not my blood."
After a simple explanation, Uchiha Mikoto squatted down, wiped the blood on her hair, and said seriously: "Sasuke, today's things are very complicated. I will explain it to you slowly after it is over. But before that, what should I say?
, just do it without any hesitation. Can you do it?"
Although Zuosuke was a little flustered, his desire to take risks and prove himself supported him in overcoming this uneasiness: "Like a real ninja?"
"Yes." Mikoto repeated: "Like a real ninja. Now I am your boss. Every word I say to you is an order."
"I understand." Zuosuke nodded heavily. He thought he would do some very dangerous work today, "I will be obedient!"
"Okay, come with me." Mikoto let out a sigh of relief. She wanted Zuosuke's promise to prevent him from following her to the most dangerous places.
The mother and son abandoned the ninja in the room and rushed all the way to the monitoring room.
Zuosuke was surprised to find that Uchiha Itachi was lying on the floor in the monitoring room, and leaning against the wall were three root ninjas who were restrained by handcuffs. It looked like he had been knocked unconscious.
"Where are there three more people?" Zuosuke walked to Itachi and knelt down on one knee, asking doubtfully.
"There is another one in the stall," Uchiha Mikoto said, "That ninja is still useful."
"The remaining two..."
Seeing that his mother didn't answer, Zuosuke's eyes immediately turned to the monitor screen, and then he saw two corpses lying in a pool of blood at the door of the room where Itachi was previously locked. One of them was directly nailed to the wall by a kunai.
superior.
"Zosuke..."
Mikoto knelt down and turned over her pale face that was stained by blood for the first time.
"Next, I'm going to the archives to get the basic information. You stay here and keep an eye on Itachi and those two people..."
"But……"
"Remember, Itachi's life is entrusted to you."
For the first time, Mikoto didn't let Sasuke finish expressing his thoughts and opinions.
"As for those two people, they may become important witnesses later. I can't waste time now. You can find a way to get some towels or anything larger and stuff them into their mouths before they wake up. You must not let them
They committed suicide. The most important thing is, no matter what happens, you can't leave Itachi's side until I come back."
Seeing what Zuosuke wanted to say, Mikoto looked serious: "Don't forget what you promised me before. Stay here and strictly implement my orders. This is a very important task, do you understand?"
The strict mother who was different from usual made Zuosuke a little maladaptive, but he still seriously agreed: "I understand."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Mikoto didn't say anything else, left the room and went straight to the stall.
"Roar--"
The moment the stall door was opened, a ferocious tiger made entirely of ink rushed towards Mikoto, but its aura was no less powerful than that of the real King of Beasts, and even more frightening.
"Thunder Escape·Magnetic Field Spreads."
Mikoto's bright yellow chakra was rapidly emitted in the form of hundreds of tiny arcs, automatically finding and landing on all metal objects in the room.
The next moment, as Mikoto's handprints changed, the stainless steel desk in the middle of the room seemed to have been given consciousness, and it immediately stood up to block the gap between Mikoto and Menghu.
The person who controlled the ink attack was the gray-haired boy who looked at Uchiha Mikoto in the corridor. Seeing this scene, he felt uneasy and even wanted to laugh...
"You underestimate the power of super fake animal paintings."
[Although it is only made of ink, its destructive power is far greater than that of a real tiger.]
As expected, the stainless steel table was easily torn into pieces by Easy Mohu's claws like printing paper.
But Uchiha Mikoto behind the table has disappeared.
At this time, the gray-haired boy heard a crackling sound behind him and immediately realized what had happened!
"It's the lightning flash technique!"
At this time, it was too late to start painting again. The gray-haired boy took off the kunai from his waist and stabbed it behind him without looking. His reaction was already at its peak.
But just when the kunai was about to touch Uchiha Mikoto's top, it seemed to hit an invisible barrier and could no longer move forward.
"what happened?!"
The gray-haired boy didn't understand what was happening, but then, an electric current escaped from the kunai and poured into his arm. The severe pain forced him to let go of his hand.
The young man gritted his teeth, took a step back and grabbed the Ninja Sword on his back, but he had already pulled out half of it, but the Ninja Sword seemed to be pushed back into its sheath by an invisible hand, completely out of his control.
From the moment Mikoto entered this room, all the metal inside was covered with her chakra, so these things would only be affected by her electromagnetic field.
It was too late for the boy to do anything else, because under Uchiha Mikoto's handprint, the kunai belonging to him flew up out of thin air and hit his neck.
The battle is over.
After all, Uchiha Mikoto is still a jounin. Although she has not fought for many years, the ninjutsu she uses is completely of a type that this young ninja has never seen before. It is inevitable that she will suffer a big loss when she meets him for the first time.
He was forced by Kunai and leaned against the shelf where the scrolls were placed. He coughed violently twice and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth: "I didn't expect that you could break free from that restraint. However, you have also seen that I am already terminally ill.
The person is dead. Threatening me with death is meaningless. Besides, even if I want to say something, I can’t say it...
"If the Sharingan is used on me to disrupt the chakra in my body, I'm afraid I will die faster, maybe within a few minutes."
Looking at this sickly boy who was as old as Itachi, although Mikoto felt pity in her heart, she still hardened her heart just like she did on the battlefield more than ten years ago.
She didn't hesitate, her Sharingan moved, and the young man's eyes were empty like a puppet.
Thinking of what the young man said just now, Uchiha Mikoto asked simply and concisely: "I want all the information about Uchiha to be sorted out for me in reverse chronological order."
Since time is limited, I can only start with the most recent documents, such as what Danzo was doing after he transferred all the people at the root.
The gray-haired boy immediately started to take action, picking up scrolls or folders one by one and placing them in front of Mikoto in order.
Uchiha Mikoto picked up the file closest to her and opened it. The content on it was simply incomprehensible. In short, it had nothing to do with the ninja's mission.
【Is it the root password?】
"Can you remove the encryption above?"
Mikoto asked a little worriedly, fearing that Danzo's curse seal could be so detailed.
Fortunately, the young man gave a positive answer.
With a series of his handprints, the handwriting on the document turned into ink, rearranged and combined, and turned into meaningful content.
"You continue to untie the rest."
After giving the order, Uchiha Mikoto quickly scanned the document that had unlocked the code.
Mission content: After receiving the signal, lead the ninjas of Kumo Ninja and Iwa Ninja to break through the barrier and enter Konoha, surround Minagawa Shrine, activate the Second Hokage's Ninja Formation to assist the opponent's actions.
[Isn’t the Iwa ninja and Kumo ninja already in Konoha? 】
For the first second, Mikoto didn't understand what it meant, but she immediately realized it and exclaimed in a low voice: "Could it be that there is another group of people?"
[Activate the Ninja Formation, surround Nanga River, and assist in the operation... Sure enough! 】
A bolt of thunder jumped back and forth in Mikoto's brain. [Did Danzo collude with these people and want to completely exterminate Uchiha? 】
The clan leader has not returned, and the clan leader’s wife and the clan leader’s son have disappeared without a trace. Given the character of the clan members, they will definitely gather at the shrine to discuss countermeasures!
"This old guy..."
Uchiha Mikoto seemed to have returned to the war years. She pushed the document away with gritted teeth and picked up another one, wanting to know all of Danzo's plans.
However, what follows, in addition to the mission plan to capture Itachi, are several surveillance records targeting Fugaku, Itachi, Uchiha Tekka and Inari.
The earliest record can be traced back to more than ten days ago, before the summer vacation started!
It can be seen that this operation against Uchiha has been planned for a long time.
Mikoto raced against time to scan through the documents one after another, and finally stopped in front of a closed box. This box was not opened at all, and was different from all the other scrolls and documents.
"That one is not encrypted." The gray-haired boy explained, "It was sent from the Kingdom of Water."
Uchiha Mikoto's heart skipped a beat.
【The Kingdom of Water?】
[Since the information is classified as Uchiha, would it be...]
【Is it related to Yiyong?】
When she thought of this possibility, Miqin could no longer hold back and quickly opened the lid of the box.
But what caught her eye gave her heart a heavy punch, almost breaking it.
It was a summer assignment with a blood-stained cover.
The so-called blood stained means that there is a bloody fingerprint on it that clearly belongs to a child.
Mikoto stretched out her palms tremblingly, her eyes seemed to be covered with dark shadows, and her breathing became heavier and heavier unconsciously.
When she took Zuosuke away from the welcome ceremony today, she held the child's hand, so she knew the size of Zuosuke's hand.
And Giyuu and Sasuke are twins, which means the gap is almost non-existent.
Under this comparison, she pulled her hand back almost in horror, and even forgot to breathe for a moment.
"No, no, it will definitely not be a volunteer, it will definitely not be a volunteer..."
Then, Uchiha Mikoto took her summer homework and flipped through it quickly, but the familiar, printed fonts, who else but Giyuu could do that?
Countless thoughts were like black clouds gathered by mosquitoes, covering her heart and brain. Dark conjectures emerged one after another, but they were cast aside by the hope of being a mother.
She selected a few acceptable ideas and kept mumbling them...
"Giyu should have just been arrested, just like Itachi..."
"They just got their summer homework..."
"Even things that Giyuu accidentally threw away..."
She even forgot that, with her righteous level of care, she had never lost any of her belongings.
These thoughts have gradually deviated from reality. They are just her simplest wishes that she most wants to realize...
After nervously closing her summer homework, Mikoto noticed that there was another letter in the box.
However, as soon as she opened it, before she read the content of the letter, her sensitive eyes had already caught Orochimaru's signature.
At this moment, the most fearful guess in her heart broke free like a dark monster and came to the very surface of her consciousness, temporarily suppressing all her reason.
Uchiha Mikoto moved her eyes away from that disgusting name almost numbly, moved her pale lips, and slowly read out the contents of the letter.
"Before you sent people here, I had captured Uchiha Giyu, but I didn't see any undead heads, so I don't understand what you are talking about. As for the Sharingan, he is not the three magatama you speculated, but a double
Magatama, there is no need to collect it. In short, the experiment of eyeball removal is over..."
Mikoto's voice was choked with sobs, and tears stung her eyes.
"But Uchiha Giyuu..."
Heavy and suppressed gasps echoed in the stall, as if her soul was being sucked out of her body bit by bit.
"I didn't get through it. It's... what a pity. I thought I could try a few more experiments. This is a rare Uchiha genius..."
It was Orochimaru's tone.
At this moment, nothing could describe Uchiha Mikoto's mood at this moment.
The feeling of ice-cold blood all over the body and all the muscles in the body, including the internal organs, feel as heavy and stiff as stone, is the same as that of a real dead person.
A drop of blood was mixed with Uchiha Mikoto's tears, making the letter tremble back and forth.
The drop of blood kept sliding down, like a delete sign, rolling past Orochimaru's name.
"Orochimaru, Danzo..."
A cry almost as low as that of an animal came from the mouth of this Uchiha mother who had always been gentle.
As she stood up slowly, the entire room, the entire root base, and even the entire Konoha were lit up with lights flashing, and there was a final bang——
In this village, the lights used by every household to welcome the coming night were completely extinguished.
In the dark stall, the only source of light was two captivating scarlet eyes.
The magatama in the pair of sharingan eyes kept spinning, spinning, spinning...
