Most of them were war orphans gathered by Danzō from all over, with only a small number coming from the major clans of Konoha. So it was perfectly normal that they hadn't heard of Susanoo.
After all, anything regarding the Mangekyō Sharingan was intelligence Konoha deliberately kept hidden.
Seeing that Ruri had already taken action, Mitsuki placed his hand on Mei's shoulder.
Flying Thunder God Technique
Mitsuki brought Mei directly inside Ruri's Susanoo.
He ignored Mei, who was a little dizzy from the sudden space–time shift.
Mitsuki stepped to Ruri's side and asked quietly: "Did your future self give you another warning?"
Ruri nodded lightly and replied crisply:
"About three hours ago, my dōjutsu suddenly activated on its own. It told me to come here and save the envoys from Kirigakure."
"Did it say what would happen if you didn't save them?" Mitsuki asked curiously.
After all, the last time this happened, future Ruri had said something about regretting it.
"It did," Ruri replied.
After waiting a few seconds, Mitsuki looked at her, puzzled.
"That's it?"
"So… what did it say?"
Pressed by Mitsuki's question, Ruri fell silent.
Because what her future self told her was:
"If you don't want another love rival… then you'd better go save those Kirigakure ninja…"
Ever since awakening her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the voice from her future self had become much clearer. It was still sometimes intermittent, but at least it no longer caused her headaches.
If she had to compare, it was like going from a 2G network to a 3G network.
Although Mitsuki was extremely curious, he couldn't force her to speak. After all, the dōjutsu was hers, and as his long-time teammate, she'd never harm him anyway.
Ruri changed the subject rather stiffly:
"Should we kill them?"
Mitsuki gave her an exasperated look.
"You're being a bit extreme, Ruri."
The words sounded familiar to Ruri — she'd been scolded by Mitsuki with the same phrase once before.
"Hmph. Then what do you suggest?" she snorted.
Before Mitsuki could answer, Mei jumped in.
"As long as you maintain this defensive jutsu, it'll be fine. The Hokage should have already heard the commotion and will be moving. The best option right now is to wait."
As expected of the future Fifth Mizukage who would one day take Kirigakure back from Obito — her analysis was spot on.
Konoha was quite large. Mitsuki sensed Hiruzen's position and roughly calculated the distance and speed.
He estimated it would take less than two minutes.
Normally, that would've been enough time for Root to kill the Kirigakure envoys several times over.
But unfortunately for them, facing Ruri's Susanoo, these ordinary ninja really had no means of fighting back.
They could only watch helplessly as time ticked by.
Tatsuma had also arrived by now. He naturally knew exactly what this chakra giant was.
"Susanoo? Ruri Uchiha actually awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
Tatsuma was stunned. If that was the case, wouldn't the Uchiha clan become unstoppable?
He absolutely had to report this to Danzō immediately.
Since they could no longer carry out the assassination of the Kirigakure envoys, their only option before the Hokage arrived was to retreat.
Otherwise, getting caught red-handed would be a disaster.
Following Tatsuma's order, the Root members began to withdraw.
Ruri took a step forward to stop them, but Mitsuki stopped her.
"No need to chase. We can't kill them anyway."
After this event, Hiruzen would likely take away a good chunk of Root's authority, but disbanding it entirely was unrealistic—during wartime, the intel division was still too valuable.
To be fair, Danzō was short-sighted, but he was undeniably good at recruiting and training spies.
Seeing the masked ninja leave, Mei let out a huge breath of relief and bowed politely to Mitsuki and Ruri.
"Thank you both for assisting us. You must be the famous Ruri Uchiha. I am Mei Terumi."
But Ruri didn't even look at her. She simply said,
"Since the matter is resolved, I'll be leaving first," and walked off by herself.
Mei's polite smile froze. Had she offended this woman somehow? Or were all Uchiha like this?
"Pfft—"
Seeing Mei getting stonewalled, Mitsuki couldn't hold back a laugh.
Mei pressed her lips together and asked the snickering Mitsuki,
"That Aburame just now said you're supposed to be at the negotiation table, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"…"
This guy was seriously asking why? Mei suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest.
"You appeared beside me instantly… meaning you placed a space–time marker on me."
"Ahh, you're pretty sharp," Mitsuki said.
Upon confirmation, Mei lifted her wrist to inspect it carefully. The only place he had touched earlier was here.
But no matter how she looked, her wrist looked perfectly normal. The Land of Water had searched for the marker before and found nothing.
Could it be that his space–time markers could hide themselves?
Thinking of this, Mei flashed a big smile and said sweetly:
"Mitsuki, since our two villages are about to begin peace talks, don't you think it would be best to remove the space–time marker on me?"
Mitsuki gave her a sunny smile."Hehe, nope, can't do that."
She had expected as much—mere words wouldn't make Mitsuki remove the marker.
Mei had always been ambitious about her future.
Sacrificing an arm would practically destroy her path forward.
Don't be fooled by how easily Mitsuki used one-handed seals. That technique was extremely rare in the ninja world.
Taking a deep breath, Mei stepped directly in front of Mitsuki, staring intensely into his eyes.
"What do I have to do… for you to remove the marker?"
Mitsuki's expression showed genuine surprise. That was a dangerous question. Thankfully, he was a decent person.
"Hm…"
Thinking for a moment, and to avoid letting the nearby Kirigakure ninja hear, Mitsuki leaned in close to her ear and whispered:
"If you agree to be my informant inside Kirigakure for five years, I'll remove the marker."
Although Madara had already been kicked out by Mitsuki, there was always the possibility he'd sneak back to the Land of Water under their noses.