Somewhere else on Shūmoku Island, around the same time, two masked figures moved through the forest shadows with practiced speed.
Their style of cloaks and masks marked them as Root, but they were not ordinary operatives; but the only two Deputy Commanders of the Root currently and in history.
Both were veterans, shinobi in their prime, long past the naïve stage of shinobi life.
Tatsuma Aburame and Junsaku Yamanaka.
They were among the very first orphans pressed into Root when it was founded, back when the Third Hokage still openly supported the project.
Their clans had all but "donated" them; Aburame and Yamanaka both pushed forward their talented children under political pressure, knowing refusal was impossible.
Danzo had molded them completely.
They were taught their clans' most secret techniques, entrusted with them under the illusion of loyalty to village and clan alike.
In truth, all of it fell into Danzo's hands, locked away in Root's dark arsenal.
Their tongues still bore the cursed seal that prevented disobedience.
Even as vice commanders, even as the most trusted tools, they were never free.
Tonight, though, they moved without squads.
For foreign territory, Danzo preferred fewer eyes.
Better to send two shadows than a dozen, as long as they were elite.
And these two were.
Tatsuma's kikaichū hid his presence completely, while Junsaku's sensory mode erased his chakra signature.
Elite jōnin, masters of stealth, trusted implicitly by Danzo Shimura.
Their goal was the same mission they had periodically carried out since the Uchiha massacre four months ago: to eliminate all accidental survivors.
After all, while Itachi and Root's strike had wiped out the heart of the clan, in the village, there were always strays, shinobi out on assignment, merchants handling clan business, loose threads scattered across the Land of Fire and beyond.
Root had been tying those external threads for months, one by one. But a few remained.
One of them was Kenshin Uchiha, the clan's only external 'Outer Elder', of the clan, who managed the entire finances, logistics, and contacts outside the compound for the clan.
He had vanished after the massacre.
Worse, he was said to have awakened the Sharingan, at least one tomoe.
With him was his daughter, Akane, fourteen years old.
Reports whispered that he had even gathered a small knot of simila Uchiha remnants under his protection, the last ember of the clan smoldering out here on foreign soil.
Root had scoured the continent for months.
With its network of elite sensors spread worldwide, it was only a matter of time before they were found.
And now, at last, they had been traced to Shūmoku Island.
Only two operatives were dispatched.
Junsaku and Tatsuma.
Not because the target was weak, but because foreign soil demanded secrecy.
Better to send fewer elites, who could erase themselves completely and finish the job the most efficiently.
Root had hunted them for months.
And now, finally, the trail had led to this island.
They were also the best sensors Root could send for a mission like this.
Junsaku, especially, could erase every trace of their presence with his mind arts, cloaking them even from other elite trackers.
More than that, if they captured survivors, he could probe their thoughts directly, with his Yamanaka arsenal, right away, and possibly see if there were any names, any contacts, any hidden caches of Uchiha still scattered anywhere near and quickly eliminate them as well.
Two operatives of this level were worth more than entire squads, even whole companies of ordinary shinobi. Danzō had no doubts.
Sending them alone was not a risk. It was efficiency.
Moving through the underbrush, Junsaku's voice broke the silence, low behind his mask.
"We're close. Their chakra signatures are ahead. But… this place feels strange."
Tatsuma's kikaichū swarmed briefly around him before retreating under his cloak.
"I've noticed the same. Suppression fields, subtle distortions. My bugs feel interference across wide patches of this terrain."
Junsaku frowned behind his mask. "Not natural. It's like someone's jamming the entire sensory field in some parts of this island since we came. Artificial, layered. It feels wrong."
Tatsuma gave a curt nod, but his tone was dismissive.
"Could be Kumo. Could be Kiri. Both are close enough to plant operations here for some reason. But it doesn't matter. We have our orders. We find the Uchiha. We end them."
Junsaku exhaled faintly. "Yes. Still… something about this island. As if we're not the hunters."
Tatsuma didn't reply.
They both knew Root's way.
Their doubts were irrelevant.
The mission was all that mattered.
And so, the two shadows moved on, closing the distance toward a small hideout on the far side of Shūmoku Island, unaware that other eyes were already watching their every step.
The Uchiha hideout on the island was little more than a reinforced cave, but inside it still carried the weight of their clan's remnants.
A dozen survivors had gathered: most of them little more than average fighters, chunin strength on average, leaning on their shuriken skill and the standard fire releases their bloodline passed down.
They could combine techniques, but their strength was limited.
At the center, Kenshin Uchiha kept his one-tomoe Sharingan active, his lightning chakra crackling faintly.
He had always been unusual among the clan, specializing in lightning release and bonded to a grizzly bear summoning.
His daughter, Akane, stood at his side.
14 years old, her Sharingan already bore two tomoe in both eyes.
She was not yet seasoned, but her eyes gave her clarity far beyond her years.
"They're here," she whispered.
The seals at the cave's edge shattered silently.
Two shadows slipped in, masked, cloaked, soundless.
When the two agents arrived, it was silent.
No knock, no warning, only shadows slipping past the sentries.
Tatsuma Aburame was the first to move, and there was no buzz, no warning swarm.
"Poison Cloud Jutsu!"
Instead, the cave air grew heavy with a faint violet shimmer.
He put his hands together to form a small poisonous smokescreen sphere from his rinkaichū between his hands.
He then blew the smokescreen across the area in front of him, and as it spread, in this enclosed cave, it got even bigger.
If touched or inhaled, it was a guaranteed fatality.
They settled onto skin unseen, into lungs, into chakra networks.
The poison of their bodies corroded flesh and chakra alike, leaving a sickly burn wherever they touched.
The Uchiha reacted in panic, weaving signs.
Fireballs roared, flame streams hissed across the cavern, the walls lit by the heat of dragons and whirling flame.
The cave shuddered with the heat, but most rinkaichū were too small and dispersed to burn.
The fire scorched the rock and air, but the insects had already invaded the skin of those casting it.
Coughs wracked the weakest.
Chakra control slipped.
Hands trembled as seals fell apart.
Then Junsaku struck.
His eyes narrowed, and spectral crossbows of chakra shaped in his hands.
"Soul-Binding Arrows" flew.
They pierced the minds of three Uchiha in an instant.
The men froze, Sharingan flickering uselessly, kunai dropping as their thoughts scrambled.
A heartbeat later, two turned on their kin, blades plunging under Junsaku's silent commands.
Another one clawed at his own throat, compelled.
The cave filled with screams, the firelight painting them red.
Akane flinched at the sight, but her two-tomoe eyes spun, locking onto Junsaku's invisible assault.
She grit her teeth, and when she could, she lashed her own genjutsu outward, jolting a comrade awake, snapping them from Junsaku's grip.
But it was a losing battle.
For every one she freed, two more fell to his control.
Kenshin roared, his blade crackling as he cut down a possessed clansman without hesitation, sparks tearing arcs through the violet haze.
With a flash of blood, he slammed his hand to the ground, summoning the massive grizzly.
The beast burst into being with fur alight in sparks, its roar shaking the cavern as it charged through Tatsuma's invisible tide.
For a moment, it carved open a path, scattering violet motes across the chamber, and allowing some air to get inside and for another path to open.
But Tatsuma only raised a hand.
More rinkaichū seeped in, pouring from his sleeves, his pores, spreading into the beast's eyes and other weak points first.
The grizzly stumbled within seconds, its chakra veins corroded from within, sparks sputtering as the poison chewed at its flesh.
It collapsed, twitching, then stilled.
Kenshin staggered forward again, blood seeping from a wound in his back, struck by his own clansman under Junsaku's control.
His Sharingan flickered, his knees bent.
He forced one last swing of lightning, cutting another puppet of a former clansman down, but his body was slowing, his breath ragged.
"Father!" Akane screamed, fire bursting from her lips again, a "Great Fireball" that seared across the cavern.
Tatsuma slipped back, the violet shimmer pulling tighter, pressing in.
Akane's vision swirled.
Panic, grief, fury.
The two tomoe in her eyes spun, deepening, and in that instant, something inside her cracked open.
Her eyes sharpened, clearer than ever before.
The third tomoe bloomed.
Both eyes were fully awakened.
The world slowed.
Junsaku's next arrow split into fragments, meant to corrode her mind.
Akane's gaze caught it mid-flight, and with a sharp turn of will, she snapped it back.
The genjutsu folded on itself, slamming toward him.
For the first time, Junsaku's body jerked, his step faltering, the cave bending in his sight.
He broke it a second later, lips tight, but the hesitation was real.
Akane seized it.
Flames erupted from her throat again, this time a "Fire Dragon Flame Bullet", twisting across the chamber.
It forced Tatsuma closer, his insects tightening into a violet sheen around his arm as he prepared the killing touch.
But just as his hand reached for her throat, her three-tomoe eyes locked onto him.
Genjutsu coiled like chains, snapping tight.
Tatsuma's hand froze inches away, the world around him distorting.
His rinkaichū shivered uncertainly, the command broken, before Junsaku brought him back from behind.
Her chest heaved, her arms shook, but Akane stood her ground, with the eyes of a predator.
Behind her, Kenshin coughed blood, collapsing against the wall.
His voice was a rasp. "Run!"
But she didn't move. Not an inch.
She planted her feet over him, Sharingan blazing, flames licking her lips again, as the two Root operatives closed in once more.
The cavern reeked of blood and burnt stone.
The last of the surviving Uchiha had already fallen, some cut down by their own brothers under Junsaku's control, others eaten away from within by Tatsuma's invisible plague.
Kenshin lay slumped against the wall, lightning sputtering at his fingertips, his body too torn to rise again.
Thankfully, at least he was not poisoned yet.
But his Sharingan still flickered weakly, his chest heaving shallowly.
Junsaku's expression didn't change as he turned both hands toward Akane.
His spectral crossbows shimmered into being again, bolts of condensed Yin chakra already forming.
He had underestimated her once, shocked at the sudden bloom of her third tomoe, but that meant nothing in the end.
She was still fourteen. A child.
Her eyes could resist his illusions and even snap back with genjutsu of her own, but his Yin Release was heavier, older, and more practiced.
If he kept firing, if he kept pouring shards of his own soul into arrow after arrow, her defenses would eventually break.
The first bolts screamed toward her.
She twisted aside, three tomoe tracking their trajectory perfectly, but another volley was already coming.
Junsaku's technique was relentless, bolts circling back around like predators, searching for any gap in her guard.
Tatsuma, meanwhile, shifted tactics.
Her sudden genjutsu had frozen him once, and he wasn't about to repeat the mistake.
Instead of closing in, he spread his rinkaichū wider, unseen clouds drifting out to cover every angle of the chamber.
The purple shimmer crept along the walls, the ceiling, the floor, until it seemed there was no escape.
Each breath, each step, carried the risk of contact.
Akane's eyes darted between the beams and the haze.
Her Sharingan spun wildly, catching every detail.
Fire built in her chest again, ready to erupt, but her father's ragged breath behind her caught her ears.
If she dodged back, if she retreated to escape the beams, Kenshin would be the first to be struck.
She clenched her fists, heat flooding her throat.
Her chest rose and fell, her mind a storm of defiance and fear.
For the first time, real desperation crept into her face.
Kenshin coughed blood, trying to rise, one hand reaching forward.
His voice rasped, broken, "Aka…ne…"
She didn't move. She couldn't. Every option risked him. The beams closed in.
The violet haze thickened. And for the first time, she felt the edge of inevitability pressing in.