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Chapter 136 Blood and Tears
"Split--"
In the root base, the light on the top of the corridor has been flickering on and off for a while.
The fluorescent lamp kept emitting a disturbing, high-pitched whine, as if 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 irritated by the light.
When he first joined the Roots, he faced dozens of flashing lights at the same time during torture training. A week after that day, whenever he felt a slight change in external light, he would be sensitive and want to vomit.
As he contemplated smashing the lamp into pieces 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.
"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 door was speechless for a while.
But considering that Danzo had said that the mother and son should be emotionally stable as much 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.
Sasuke stood at the door with his hands tied. While looking at the root ninja, he glanced at both sides of the door, his eyes were less innocent than usual.
Uchiha Mikoto seemed a little tired. She lay on the bed in the duty room and took a nap, even covered with a quilt.
[Do you really think this is your home? Is this the so-called jounin of the best clan? It's really cool to be able to sleep while inside the root...]
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 Sasuke's next question.
"Why is there no sound at all outside?" Sasuke suddenly asked: "Weren't there a lot of people before?"
The root is an 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 focus all attention on you."
The root ninja explained vaguely, "Let's go, follow me to the bathroom."
"That's it..."
When Sasuke got the answer there was a slight joy of "then I'll be relieved" on his face.
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 tomoe sharingan eyes, and then turned slightly - the ninja twitched as if he had been electrocuted, then stopped moving and stood up straight, like a soldier waiting for order.
"It's solved."
Sasuke let out 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. It was actually Sasuke again, and his little face was filled with the kind of joy that only a child can have.
He almost jumped from the bed directly to the door, looking at the "Sasuke" with the three tomoe sharingan eyes, and said "Rengoku Kyojuro" Catchphrase: "Great! Mom, you are so amazing! "
The next moment, the smoke exploded, and Uchiha Mikoto released the transformation technique and returned to her original appearance.
"The chakra that took so long to transform was almost consumed by just one transformation technique and one illusion technique. Okay, these handcuffs are really powerful. "
Uchiha Mikoto shook the silver bracelet on her wrist. 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: Water Dragon Bullet, Sasuke 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. Sound.
"Mom, what do we do next?" "
Sasuke jumped up and tore off the sealing tag on the door of the duty room. Feeling chakra again, he immediately became confident, "Are you going to defeat all the ninjas in this place? "
Ever since he learned about Giyu's "great achievements" in Yugakure 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 hurt Itachi, then They are already enemies. Sasuke doesn't care about the rules and regulations.
"Don't worry, we need to ask about the situation outside first. Otherwise, even if we get out of here, we will just fall into a trap. "
Mikoto gently touched the top of Sasuke's head, and Sasuke immediately calmed down and waited quietly. Mikoto turned her head, took off the mask of the Root ninja, looked directly into the other person's eyes and began to ask.
"How many ninjas are there in the Root base now? "
"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 left, on duty in the control room. "
Hearing 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? Are there any 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.
"Last question." A small wrinkle appeared between Uchiha Mikoto's eyebrows, "So how many root ninjas left to perform what mission?"
"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..."
The ninja suddenly got stuck, kept repeating the syllables "Li...Li...Li", but still couldn't say the next word.
His right eyelid blinked continuously, and his lips kept twitching back with the pronunciation. His whole person looked like a broken machine.
"What's wrong with him?" Sasuke was horrified by this scene, "Is there a short circuit?"
"..." Mikoto was also confused, thinking that her illusion was used while restrained and something went wrong.
The 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?"
"Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal." The root ninja stuck out his tongue, and a complex symbol was printed on it like a tattoo, which made Sasuke nausea.
"I can't tell any secrets about the roots, otherwise the curse seal will be triggered and the 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 shows that this The Root ninja guessed those people's goals correctly.
[Is there a 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 to find out what these people know and what they want to do? Do you really want to arrest us just to investigate things related to Shisui? Or...]
She narrowed her eyes, suddenly remembered something, and immediately asked: "How was Uchiha Itachi caught? Is this a secret at the root?"
" Yes." The answer was affirmative.
"When was he caught? 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."
A shiver ran down Uchiha Mikoto's back.
If that's the case, it means that Itachi was caught by the roots yesterday afternoon.
But the envoys from Kumogakure Village and Iwagakure Village 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 was Itachi, he would at least apologize for not being able to go home and finish cooking.
[Why didn't I notice this at the time?! ]
Deep regret and self-blame filled Mikoto's brain. She now 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 trying to Investigate Shisui at all...! ]
Combined with the fact that their mother and son were brought here.
[But They were focused on Fugaku from the beginning! Targeting the Uchiha clan! Shisui was just Danzo's legitimate reason to make this matter bright! ]
The near truth brought a huge shock to Uchiha Mikoto.
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 right now, but also all the clan members.
The disappearance of so many root ninjas was either for Fugaku or for other clan members. There was no other possibility.
[I must find 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 sealed in a specific order. The order of sealing is different for each file."
" That's enough."
Mikoto nodded and picked up the handcuffs on the ground, "Where can I find more of this?"
The root ninja gave the location: "Next door to the monitoring room is the equipment room."
"Okay, Your mission is accomplished." After Mikoto got the answer, she knocked him unconscious with a blade, 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 shape of this ninja, put on the mask and walked out, closing the door.
Sasuke knew that his mother could not abandon him, so he picked up the ninja's weapon, sat across the root ninja and waited.
About five minutes later, Uchiha Mikoto returned, still stained with blood, and Sasuke couldn't help but exclaim.
"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 to you after it is over. But before that, you will do whatever I say without any hesitation. Can you do it?"
Although Sasuke was a little flustered, his desire to take risks and prove himself supported him to overcome it. Feeling 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." Sasuke 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. What she wanted was Sasuke's promise to prevent him from following her to the most dangerous place.
The mother and son abandoned the ninja in the room and rushed all the way to the monitoring room.
Sasuke was surprised to find that Uchiha Itachi was lying on the ground in the monitoring room, and leaning against the wall were three root ninjas who were restrained by handcuffs. They seemed to have been knocked unconscious.
"Where are the three other ninjas?" Sasuke 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 did not answer, Sasuke's eyes immediately turned to the monitor screen. Then, right at the door of the room where Itachi was previously locked, he saw two bodies lying in a pool of blood. One of them was directly nailed to the wall by Kunai.
"Sasuke..."
Mikoto knelt down and looked at Sasuke whose face was pale after being exposed to 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 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 committed suicide. The most important thing is that before I come back, no matter what happens, you can't leave Itachi's side."
Seeing what Sasuke wanted to say, Mikoto looked solemn: "Don't forget what you promised me before. Stay here and strictly carry out my orders. This is a very important task, do you understand?"
Sasuke was a little maladaptive because of his different strict mother, but he still agreed seriously: "Yes, I know."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Mikoto left the room without saying anything and went straight to the stalls.
"Roar——"
The moment the stall door was opened, a tiger made entirely of ink rushed towards Mikoto, but its aura was no less than that of the real King of Beasts, and even more terrifying.
"Thunder Release: 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 hand signs changed, the stainless steel desk in the middle of the room seemed to be given consciousness, and it immediately stood up to block the gap between Mikoto and the tiger.
The one who controlled the ink attack was the gray-haired boy who looked at Uchiha Mikoto in the corridor. Seeing this scene, he felt calm and even wanted to laugh...
"You underestimated the power of super fake animal paintings."
[Although it is only made of ink, its destructive power is far greater than that of real animals. ]
As expected, the stainless steel table was easily torn into pieces by Tiger's sharp claws like printing paper.
But Uchiha Mikoto behind the table had 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's going on?!"
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 the kunai in his hand.
The young man gritted his teeth, took a step back and grabbed the Ninja Sword on his back, but it was clear that half of it had been pulled out, 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 hand sign, the kunai belonging to him flew up out of thin air and hit his neck.
The battle is over.
Uchiha Mikoto is still a jonin after all. Although he had not fought for many years, the ninjutsu used was completely new to this young ninja. The first time you meet, you will inevitably suffer a big loss.
He was forced by kunai and leaned against the shelf where the scrolls were placed. He coughed twice violently 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. I am about to die, so threatening me with death is meaningless. Besides, even if I want to say something, I can't say it…"
"If you use the Sharingan on me to disrupt the chakra in my body, I'm afraid I will die a little 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 did not hesitate, turning her Sharingan, controlling the boy with genjutsu.
Thinking of what the boy had 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, we can only start with the most recent files, such as what Danzo was doing when 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 the encryption above be lifted?"
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 writing on the document turned into ink, rearranged and combined, and turned into meaningful content.
"You continue to unlock the rest."
After giving the order, Uchiha Mikoto quickly scanned the document that had unlocked the code.
Date: today's date, Location: Konoha Village, The Executor, twenty ninjas including Aburame Ryoma.
Mission content: After receiving the signal, lead the ninjas of Kumogakure and Kumogakure to break through the barrier and enter Konoha, surround Naka Shrine, activate the Ninja Formation of the Second Hokage to assist the opponent's actions.
[Aren't the Kumogakure Ninjas and Kumogakure Ninjas already in Konoha? ]
For the first second, Mikoto did not 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?"
[ " …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 gritted her teeth and pushed away the document 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, unlike 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 it is classified as Uchiha information, could it be...]
[ Is it related to Giyu? ]
When she thought of this possibility, Mikoto 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.
By bloodstained, I mean there is a bloody handprint 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 Sasuke away from the welcome ceremony today, she held the child's hand, so she knew the size of Sasuke's hand.
And Giyu and Sasuke are twins, which means that the gap is almost non-existent.
In comparison with this, she pulled her hand back almost in horror, and even forgot to breathe for a moment.
"No, no, it will definitely not be Giyu, it will definitely not be Giyu..."
Then, Uchiha Mikoto took her summer vacation homework and flipped through it quickly, but found a familiar handwriting, besides Giyu, Who else can write it?
Countless thoughts were like a black cloud formed by mosquitoes, covering her heart and brain. Dark suspicions arose one after another, but they were cast aside by the hope of being a mother.
She selected a few acceptable ideas and kept mumbling...
"Giyu should have just been arrested, just like Itachi..."
"Maybe They just got his summer homework..."
"Not Giyu. Giyu be careful about what you throw away..."
She even forgot that with Giyu's level of care, he had never lost his belongings.
These thoughts have gradually deviated from reality. They are just her most innocent 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 content of the letter.
"Before you sent people here, I had captured Uchiha Giyu, but I didn't see any undead head, so I don't understand what you are talking about. As for the Sharingan, it is not the three tomoe as you speculated, but a double tomoe. There is no need to collect the Sharingan. In short, the experiment of eyeball removal is over..."
Mikoto's voice choked up, and tears stung her eyes.
"But Uchiha Giyu..."
Heavy and suppressed gasps echoed in the stall, as if her soul was being taken away from 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..."
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 paper tremble back and forth.
The drop of blood kept sliding down, like a delete sign, rolling past Orochimaru's name.
"Orochimaru, Danzo..."
A low-pitched cry, almost beastly, came from the mouth of this Uchiha mother who had always been gentle.
As she slowly stood up, the lights in the entire room, the entire root base, and even the entire Konoha flickered, and there was a final bang - every household in this village used it to welcome the upcoming event. The lights were completely extinguished.
In the dark room, the only source of light was two captivating scarlet eyes.
The tomoe in the pair of Sharingan eyes kept spinning, spinning, spinning...
Finally, it formed a brand new shape.