Chapter 146: Tiger Mask
The Cloud ninja hadn't attacked.
The reason Jiraiya was fully armed was because he'd just finished purging the front-line camp's interior. Two advisors, four jonin, seven special jonin, and over twenty chunin had been arrested and imprisoned.
Such massive upheaval caused some degree of panic throughout the camp. Because these arrested ninja lacked any obvious commonality, everyone felt endangered, fearing they'd be next. Morale consequently plummeted significantly.
Jiraiya perceived the camp atmosphere's change. He also worried the Cloud ninja might detect this opportunity and launch an opportunistic attack. Thus, he'd donned full battle gear, prepared for combat.
Of course, with Minato and Ritsu's arrival, Jiraiya immediately relaxed. Even if the Cloud ninja attacked now, even if the ninja below lacked fighting spirit, the three of them working together could absolutely stabilize the defensive line.
Hearing Jiraiya-sensei mention arresting over thirty ninja, Minato frowned. "Jiraiya-sensei, what exactly happened?"
"All of them are remnants Danzo left behind."
Mentioning this matter left Jiraiya with absolutely no good expression. Struggling to suppress his anger, he said, "When Uchiha Torajiro's patrol squad suffered the Cloud ninja assault, they immediately sent a distress signal. But these remnants Danzo left intercepted the message, directly concealing and not reporting it. This caused base camp to dispatch absolutely no reinforcements."
"If not for Uchiha Torajiro's patrol squad members running back to report, we might not have discovered the problem until the patrol squad's shift change!"
Speaking to this point, Jiraiya angrily punched the nearby pillar.
Minato's expression also changed, his eyes brimming with coldness. "Danzo's remnants? Have they been interrogated? Why did they commit such actions?"
"Part of them have been interrogated. They said these were Danzo's orders—to weaken the Uchiha clan as much as possible. So they sold Uchiha Torajiro's intelligence to the Cloud ninja and concealed his distress signal after receiving it, not reporting anything."
This incident was premeditated. These people had arranged everything from top to bottom, so that even unto death, Uchiha Torajiro never saw reinforcements arrive.
Minato's expression looked quite ugly.
His loathing for that old bastard Danzo rose another level. He contemplated that upon returning to the village, he must swiftly bring Danzo to justice. Simultaneously, it was necessary to conduct new investigation purges of the village's various departments and institutions, plus all border garrison forces. He must thoroughly eliminate these toxic remnants Danzo left behind.
Of course, these were matters requiring attention later.
Minato took a deep breath. "Jiraiya-sensei, handle Danzo's remnants slowly. Afterward, I'll dispatch reinforcements from the Hyuga, Uchiha, and other clans to fill the gaps. Right now, let's first go to the scene and see exactly what the situation is... Hmm? Hyuga Clan Head?"
Seeing Ritsu spacing out, Minato felt somewhat curious.
Hearing the call, Ritsu snapped back. He didn't explain anything, only asking, "Hokage-sama, shall we go to the scene now?"
Minato nodded. "Correct. Let's go now."
He didn't press why Ritsu had spaced out. The two moved northwest under guidance from a scout Jiraiya dispatched. Jiraiya didn't accompany them. He still needed to oversee base camp and couldn't easily leave.
Around noon, Minato and Ritsu reached the protected scene.
Yu no Kuni apparently possessed abundant geothermal resources. Though it had reached the harsh winter season, the forests here remained lush and verdant.
However, the shinobi world was like this. Different countries' climate conditions always possessed somewhat unique characteristics. Not all were like the Land of Fire with its four distinct seasons.
Like the Land of Rain with its endless year-round downpours—honestly, having never visited the Land of Rain, Ritsu truly couldn't quite imagine how its people managed to survive.
Ritsu stood at the battlefield's edge, activating his Byakugan. He then controlled the Byakugan's visual focus, searching nearly inch by inch through this battlefield obviously ravaged considerably, with destruction traces everywhere.
Aburame Shigure, who'd been stationed here all along, now led a group forward. They came before Minato, greeting him in unison. "Hokage-sama."
Minato looked at Aburame Shigure, nodding slightly in greeting. "Shigure, what's the current situation?"
Aburame Shigure answered in a low voice, "The battlefield was cleaned. Nothing much discovered. Moreover, after we expanded the investigation range, we still haven't found traces of Uchiha Torajiro's departure or discovered traces of the Cloud ninja's retreat. Either they left using space-time jutsu, or they died here and someone took the corpses. Of course, whoever took the corpses either also mastered space-time jutsu or possesses particularly sophisticated stealth techniques."
Hearing Aburame Shigure's report, Minato pressed his lips without speaking. He simply stood at the battlefield edge, carefully examining it. After several seconds, he suddenly asked, "Shigure, when you arrived, it was already like this?"
"Our investigation actions were quite restrained. We caused no obvious destruction or changes to the scene. Everything here is largely the same as when we arrived."
Hearing this, Minato turned to look at Ritsu beside him. "Hyuga Clan Head, any discoveries?"
He himself had found nothing. His sensory abilities were better suited to chakra perception. Scene investigation like this wasn't his area of expertise.
He could only place hopes on Ritsu now.
Ritsu didn't immediately answer his inquiry. He was still carefully examining this battlefield, even scrutinizing the surrounding underground thoroughly. Approximately five minutes passed like this.
He blinked, moving his somewhat stiff neck, and answered, "Hokage-sama, someone indeed used Wood Release here. Moreover, quite high-level Wood Release. They probably used Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees, creating a forest here. But afterward, they used some method to destroy this forest. Before that, they also used Wood Release: Adamantine Recruiting Timber. The angular wooden fragments are remnant traces left behind."
As a Wood Release bloodline limit holder, combined with the Byakugan's supreme insight, he still glimpsed this information from the scene cleaned once over.
However—
What truly concerned him wasn't this scene of little value. No more useful information could be found here. Instead, the name of the missing patrol squad captain Jiraiya mentioned earlier made him unable to help wild speculation.
Uchiha Torajiro?
Since he was "jiro" (second son), there was probably an older brother above him.
This was the Uchiha clan's classic brother combination.
Hearing Ritsu's answer, Minato's expression grew more solemn. After contemplating two seconds, he asked, "Hyuga Clan Head, do you think what happened here relates to that mysterious organization you mentioned?"
Does it relate?
Ritsu furrowed his brow, pondering how to speak. After a moment, he didn't answer Minato's question but instead asked, "Hokage-sama, the missing patrol squad captain is named Uchiha Torajiro, correct? Are there detailed records on him?"
Minato looked at Ritsu somewhat puzzled but still answered, "Detailed records would require returning to camp to view. However, I do know something about this Uchiha Torajiro. He's fourteen this year—one year younger than you, Hyuga Clan Head. He awakened the double-tomoe Sharingan and is a special jonin. His family circumstances—parents died early. His older brother Uchiha Tatsuhata raised him. But at the year's start, Uchiha Tatsuhata unfortunately sacrificed himself fighting the Cloud ninja. They didn't even bring his body back."
"Speaking of which, Torajiro, like Obito, was a very good child—kindhearted, sunny and cheerful, without the typical Uchiha arrogance. It's a shame such good children always..." Reaching the end, Minato felt somewhat distressed, releasing a heavy sigh.
In contrast, hearing Minato's account gradually confirmed Ritsu's speculation. Especially that final statement—"Torajiro, like Obito, was a very good child"—made his heart suddenly jolt.
That bold conjecture in his mind received nourishing rain, sprouting roots like unkillable poisonous weeds.
Looking at everything before him, he couldn't help thinking of Nohara Rin, who'd just been tangled in playful chaos with Akiba and Aika recently. With Uchiha Obito that love-brained fool, as long as Nohara Rin lived well, the possibility of Uchiha Obito becoming crazed and obsessive was minuscule to nearly nonexistent.
So, might Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu have changed to a new chess piece, seeing Uchiha Obito was hopeless?
Ritsu had studied the Moon's Eye Plan. In this plan, Uchiha Obito wasn't an irreplaceable role. As an agent acting in Uchiha Madara's name, whether Uchiha Obito or another Uchiha—it didn't matter. As long as they could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, there was no difference.
He felt Uchiha Madara also couldn't possibly stake all his chips on Uchiha Obito from the start. More likely, Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu prepared many chess pieces. Uchiha Obito was one who stood out from them.
But now, due to Ritsu's interference, Nohara Rin hadn't died. He'd even captured two White Zetsu. So what fate awaited Uchiha Obito, who hadn't fallen into despair?
Minato watched the contemplative, silent Ritsu without urging him, patiently waiting. After quite a while, Ritsu emerged from deep thought. Perceiving Minato staring fixedly at him, he looked up. "Hokage-sama, I think what happened here has an eighty to ninety percent chance of relating to this mysterious organization. Like Kakashi's squad's earlier experience, Uchiha Torajiro's squad's encounter may not truly be solely manipulated by Danzo's remnants. Both they and the Cloud ninja might be chess pieces someone exploited."
"The purpose? What's their purpose in doing this?"
"That question must be asked of our visitor!"
Before Ritsu even finished speaking, the perceptive Minato sensed something. He suddenly twisted his head toward two o'clock. In that dark, dense forest appeared a somewhat thin figure wearing a wooden tiger mask and dressed in a black robe.
However, the most eye-catching feature was those crimson eyes.
Minato glanced briefly, then lowered his eyelids, not daring to look more.
Even he found the Sharingan's genjutsu troublesome. Though he had methods to break Sharingan genjutsu, best not to fall under it in the first place if possible.
Ritsu turned around, facing this uninvited guest from afar, openly using his Byakugan to scrutinize him up and down. He could see this person's extremely powerful chakra. Moreover, both legs and the left arm bore obvious White Zetsu chakra characteristics.
Unfortunately, he couldn't see this person's true face. Some kind of barrier technique had been deployed on that wooden tiger mask, preventing even his Byakugan from penetrating it to see the face beneath.
However, even unable to see didn't matter. Because those crimson eyes bearing pitch-black elongated, curved blade patterns—Mangekyō Sharingan—sufficiently corroborated Ritsu's speculation.
This unknown Mangekyō Sharingan indicated Uchiha Obito most likely truly was gone.
This unknown Uchiha was very likely the new chess piece Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu had crafted.
"Who are you?"
Minato called out loudly.
Behind him, Aburame Shigure and others all assumed defensive postures.
"Konoha's Yellow Flash, White Yaksha—you needn't know who I am. You only need to know you'll die here today. This place is your burial ground."
Wearing the wooden tiger mask, Uchiha Tatsuhata's voice was hoarse and grating—as though holding gravel in his throat—making it impossible to identify him or even judge his age.
The instant his words fell, from the dense forest behind him suddenly burst forth radiance swift as rushing thunder. The replica Thunder Beast Sawai charged toward Minato at extreme speed. In an eyeblink, he reached before Minato. His highly protruding elbow pounded toward Minato's chest like a cannonball.
This move was precisely the Lightning Release taijutsu Heavy Flow Violent.
Minato recognized this technique. He'd responded to it more than once. After all, he'd dealt with Hidden Cloud Village's current Fourth Raikage on the battlefield plenty of times before. He'd even single-handedly forced the AB Combo to retreat from battlefields multiple times.
Therefore, this replica Sawai's attack held no threat whatsoever in Minato's view.
"Decent Lightning Release taijutsu. But compared to A, your movements are still too slow."
After delivering this brief assessment, Minato's figure vanished. The next instant, he appeared behind replica Sawai. His right palm held a Rasengan with brilliant chakra radiance. He viciously pressed it against replica Sawai's nape.
With a "bang," the Rasengan pierced through the lightning on replica Sawai's body surface, directly blasting away half that neck. But no blood sprayed from the wound. More accurately, there was no flesh, blood, or bone—only fine, pure white threads writhing.
The replica Sawai, with only half a neck supporting his head, rapidly twisted his body. His right hand's five fingers joined like a blade, wreathed in threads of lightning. Accompanying his body's rotation, he slashed toward Minato like a sharp edge.
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