The lane lay empty as a held breath. Three silhouettes—one crouched, one standing, one arms folded—watched from the tiled ridge opposite the pharmacy, their killing intent pouring down like sleet.
Nono Yakushi's pupils needled. Cold drilled up her spine to the crown. "They… they're…"
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen… why are they here?!"
Sogetsu rubbed the bridge of his nose, coughed lightly. "Probably… followed me."
"Were we compromised?" Nono's mind raced to worst outcomes. She stepped ahead, set her feet, raised a kunai. "My lord, I'll hold them. Go. If I die, please—look after the children."
A hand settled on her shoulder and guided her gently behind him.
"Stand back. You won't need to lift a finger," Sogetsu said. "And as for those children—you will be the one to go back to them."
On the roofline, the trio's eyes thinned.
"Done talking?" one called down. "No one is leaving."
"Uchiha Sogetsu, we finally found you." The blue-haired youth uncoiled from his crouch, lip peeling into a grin. "You have Shibuki on you, right?"
"Shibuki?" Sogetsu tilted his head in faux thought, then smiled. "Right… I threw it away."
"Keep running your mouth while you can," the blue-haired youth—Onihei, wielder of Hiramekarei—said, voice turning glacial as he stood. "You walked a trail like a parade. I'll make you regret it."
Nono blinked, then slowly looked sideways at Sogetsu—you did what?
"I didn't hide my trail because I didn't need to," Sogetsu said mildly. "Do you worry when ants find your footprints?"
A vein jumped on all three foreheads.
"So we're ants?" Onihei's killing aura spiked. "You've made us angry, Uchiha."
Roof tiles burst as he launched. White bandages fluttered; the flat, flounder-shaped blades at his waist roared.
"Hiramekarei — Unleash!"
From the circular apertures, pressurized chakra jetted; the double sword bloomed thick with power, its wielder's will amplifying it into a slab of blue thunder. Air detonated in snapping booms.
"Careful! That's Hiramekarei," Nono warned, blood draining from her face. "It stores and bursts its user's chakra in one blow!"
The street buckled. Shockwaves plowed outward; stone fractured in radiating rings. A three-meter crater yawned—
—empty.
Onihei's eyes cut sideways. "So, Body Flicker. The Iwa intel said you were fast."
From the roof, the other two—Shishidō with Nuibari (the Stitching Longsword) and Asakawa Ryō with Kabutowari (the Blunt Blade & Hammer)—laughed.
"Need help, Onihei?"
"Shut it. I'm enough," Onihei hissed, stamping forward. Blue chakra tsunamied off his blades; overlapping bursts became a rolling wall.
Wind clawed at Sogetsu's cloak.
"Die, Uchiha Sogetsu!" Onihei slammed the twin blade down.
Sogetsu stepped half a pace. His right hand curled—not to grab, but to shape. The air itself began to scream.
Nono flinched, palms crushing her ears. That sound… it's like the wind is being cut.
Keening gale gathered from both flanks, drawn into his palm like filings into a lodestone. Invisible edge was hammered thinner, thinner, until it was a blade as slim as a whisper—paper-thin, almost not there at all.
"Wind Release: Guillotine Blade."
The hand rose and fell.
A needle-line bisected Onihei from brow to belt. Blue light in Hiramekarei guttered. For a heartbeat he stood, eyes clouding with the knowledge arriving late to a dying brain.
Then the world split.
Blood fountained up that perfect seam. Onihei crashed to stone.
Sogetsu pushed his glasses with a fingertip, gaze cool. "Hn. Still a bit light—was aiming to halve you cleanly."
Around him, dozens of knife-smooth gouges cross-hatched the street, mirror-bright at their cut faces. Wind ebbed to a sigh.
On the roof, the remaining two stared, minds trying—and failing—to parse the gap between belief and evidence.
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