Compared to Kisame Hoshigaki, who had turned the other side into a bloody storm with a battlefield grand enough to shake the mountains, Shisui Uchiha's way of fighting looked far more elegant.
Far calmer.
He first created a Shadow Clone and sent it to guard Miroku and Shion, making sure the drowsy mother and daughter would not be casually assassinated in their sleep. Then he activated his three-tomoe Sharingan and rapidly observed and analyzed the surrounding information.
Seventeen targets were approaching.
The distance between them made it difficult for them to support one another immediately.
Their chakra levels were not particularly high either.
In other words, this was exactly the kind of situation he was best at handling.
"Phantom Body Flicker Technique."
Special phantoms created through the power of the Sharingan instantly appeared beside Shisui.
Then the Body Flicker activated.
The phantom clones rushed into the forest at a speed far exceeding the dynamic vision of ordinary shinobi, launching their attacks at the wandering ninja who had only just realized they had been exposed.
"It's just a clone technique used as a smokescreen! Watch me—"
Before the man swinging his blade at Shisui's clone could finish speaking, he saw the Uchiha Shisui illusion suddenly accelerate.
It completed its slash before his own movement could land.
Then the world in the man's eyes strangely tilted to the side.
He watched a headless corpse dressed in extremely familiar clothes slowly kneel to the ground. He watched the illusion, whose blade had not been stained by even a single drop of blood, casually take out a large handful of shuriken and kunai from its pouch and scatter them into the air with almost careless ease.
A huge question mark slowly rose in his mind.
What was going on?
Why had he been killed so easily by an illusory clone?
He had not even used the new power Lord Mōryō had granted him.
He had not even displayed the swordsmanship he had honed by slaughtering civilians.
How could he…
How could he just die like this?
Thud.
The head, its eyes filled with confusion and disbelief, fell to the ground alongside a spray of blood that shot into the air.
And before the wandering ninja, who had lost nearly half their number in a single exchange and had not even understood what had happened, could react, the shuriken and kunai scattered into the sky by Shisui of the Body Flicker had already descended toward their bodies from every cunning angle, carrying a seamless momentum like mercury spilling across the ground.
Pfft.
The crisp sounds of shuriken and kunai colliding in midair mixed with the dull noises of sharp hidden weapons piercing and penetrating human bodies.
The forest, which had originally been thick with killing intent as if a grand, fierce battle was about to erupt, quickly fell silent.
Dense forest terrain.
Surrounded alone.
One against seventeen.
Shisui Uchiha did not even activate the first stage of the Cursed Seal of Heaven.
In less than ten seconds, he had already killed every wandering ninja who attacked.
The unwilling blood of the wandering ninja stained his short black hair and young face. Combined with the black robe embroidered with red clouds on his body and the cold, ruthless three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes, it revealed an edge sharp enough to make anyone who stood against him forget his age.
When it came to crushing weak enemies, a genjutsu-type Uchiha was this efficient and merciless.
Those who could not resist their Sharingan genjutsu could only become lambs waiting to be slaughtered before them.
They could not even accurately sense when the other party raised their blade, or when it pierced their heart.
And as one of the most outstanding genjutsu-type Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha was naturally not someone these wandering ninja, who could not even fully control their own power, were qualified to resist.
After clearing out every attacking wandering ninja and ruthlessly finishing them off, Shisui leaped to the top of the tallest nearby tree and looked toward the massive water pillar rising into the distance.
He frowned slightly.
"Kisame is making quite a commotion over there. Did he run into a troublesome enemy? No, that does not seem right. If it is just wandering ninja at this level, they should not be able to force Kisame that far. In that case, he most likely encountered Mōryō's ghost army. And the kind that had already been lying in ambush in advance…"
"As expected, there is a problem and a connection between the Land of Demons' priestess and Mōryō."
After figuring that out, Shisui quickly returned to the cave where the mother and daughter were resting.
He dismissed his Shadow Clone and woke up both Miroku and Shion, who knew nothing about what had happened outside.
"Uchiha… boy?"
Miroku, who had been awakened, rubbed her eyes and stared blankly at Shisui for quite a while before noticing the blood on his cheek.
She instantly became alert and asked urgently, "W-What happened!? Have Mōryō's pursuers caught up to us?"
"They are indeed Mōryō's subordinates. But they should not be pursuers chasing us from behind. They were ambushers lying in wait along this route, waiting for your arrival."
Shisui looked directly at Miroku's beautiful face as it changed drastically and sighed.
"Priestess-sama, your Land of Demons truly cannot be underestimated… If we had not arrived in time, with only you and those few guards of yours, I am afraid you would have been captured by Mōryō's claws before you even reached this place. And once it took what it needed from you, perhaps it really could have obtained enough power to ignite another war across the shinobi world."
"…What must I do for you to continue acting as guards for Shion and me, and help me seal Mōryō?"
Miroku took a deep breath and asked in a trembling voice.
"That is something you can personally negotiate with the Fourth Mizukage after the mission ends. I only came to confirm the relationship between you priestesses and Mōryō, and to see whether I could obtain some information about Mōryō's abilities…"
Shisui looked at Miroku expectantly.
But to his slight disappointment, after hesitating for a long while, the answer Miroku gave could only be described as unsatisfactory.
"I am sorry. Mōryō's power and the power of us priestesses come from the same source in a certain sense. It was only that it was artificially separated and sealed away by the priestesses of past generations. For a long time, we have always directly sealed it in the Shrine of Sealing. A situation like now, where we must fight it directly, is truly the first time…"
"In other words, you have no useful leads at all. You only know that Mōryō possesses power close to, or even stronger than, the powerful sealing techniques you priestesses command. Correct?"
Shisui confirmed one last time in a plain tone tinged with disappointment.
"I am truly sorry. I cannot provide any more useful information… But as long as we can reach the Shrine of Sealing, I can handle sealing Mōryō again by myself. You and your companion only need to help me reach the Shrine of Sealing, then prevent its subordinates from interfering while I seal it."
Looking at the resolve in Miroku's sincere eyes, then looking at the way she subconsciously hugged Shion, who had not yet fully woken up, in her arms to keep her from hearing these matters as much as possible, Shisui shook his head and reached out toward Miroku and her daughter.
"Do not push yourself too hard, Priestess-sama… No matter how special Mōryō's form of existence may be, at its essence, it is merely a mass of special chakra separated from the bodies of past priestesses. It may have some unusual properties, but in terms of power level, it cannot possibly surpass the Tailed Beasts used by the great shinobi villages to create Jinchuriki."
"An enemy of that level is still barely within our range of response. If the sealing method passed down by the Land of Demons fails to seal Mōryō, Priestess-sama, there is no need for you to consider self-sacrifice or anything like that. Leave it to us with peace of mind."
"…Can I truly do that, boy?"
Miroku looked at Shisui Uchiha, who was still so young, yet had already revealed an incomparable sharpness and presence. Even she, who had already prepared herself for sacrifice, felt her resolve shaken.
She asked softly.
"…You can always trust the Uchiha."
As Shisui Uchiha gently stroked the summoned white snake hidden in the sleeve of his left hand, his gaze turned sharp and filled with confidence.
And in Miroku's arms, Shion, who had been obediently listening to her mother's heartbeat while waiting for her mother's conversation with Shisui to end, quietly turned her head.
With eyes full of curiosity, she looked at Uchiha Shisui's young and proud face.
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