Inside Saiei's house.
"Dodai, you bastard—you've got some serious staying power!"
Kei Yamanaka muttered under his breath as he yanked off his ninja shoes, which had gotten slightly damaged and deformed.
After checking that there was nothing left behind to incriminate him, he sealed them temporarily into a storage scroll. Then he grabbed an old pair of ninja shoes from the shoe cabinet and changed into them.
With a Shout-to-Summon, he activated [Odor Smoke Prison], completely erasing all traces of his scent.
Earlier, shortly after using [Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage] to burrow underground,
Dodai launched [Earth Release: Rising Stone Spears], causing massive upheaval across the surrounding terrain.
Originally, Kei had planned to escape directly using [Flying Thunder God Technique], but unexpectedly, the main water supply pipeline buried deep underground was destroyed outright by Rising Stone Spears.
So instead, he combined [Water Release: Wave Riding Strike] with the Hydrification Technique, riding the burst water main for a considerable distance away.
In the process, he washed away all the dust and grime clinging to his body.
Finally, he used the [Flying Thunder God Technique] to return home.
Once he finished tidying up, Kei stood on the windowsill and looked at the rapidly flashing warning lights across Kumogakure, listening to the piercing alarm sounds echoing in his ears.
He put on an expression of grim concern before rushing into Musai's room.
"The alarm's already going off! You're still not awake?!"
Two sharp slaps to the face later, he grabbed the kid by the collar and sprinted downstairs.
"Dad! Dad! What the hell's going on?!"
Startled out of the genjutsu, Musai looked dazed and confused, clearly having no idea what just occurred.
The shrill alarm wailed throughout the entire village.
Even faintly, one could hear the sounds of jutsu colliding and combat breaking out in multiple places.
This naturally sent the young man—who had only just become a ninja and had never seen real combat—into a state of panic.
"Remember yesterday's assassination mission?"
Kei replied grimly, joining other ninja who'd also been yanked from sleep, heading toward the rising emergency signal in the sky.
According to his previous plan,
the moment the battle at Dodai's mansion ended would be when his shadow clones began executing their assassination missions.
Given how important Dodai is to Kumogakure and A, the Third Raikage,
once he engaged Dodai in battle, the Raikage would inevitably rush straight to Dodai's mansion without hesitation.
At that point, the remaining shadow clones could strike the preselected targets by surprise. Even if things got chaotic, the Third Raikage wouldn't have time to deal with it.
And everything went exactly as he predicted—even amidst the chaos and commotion that followed, all eight shadow clones completed their respective tasks flawlessly.
But one thing puzzled him—this distress signal isn't coming from any of the target locations.
Hmm... wasn't B living around here?
And these sounds of battle...
Could we have walked right into someone else's hit job?
What poor bastard had such rotten luck? Looks like he literally walked straight into the lion's den.
"Genin, fall back! Chunin, seal off the surrounding blocks! Jonin, tighten the encirclement! Capture him alive!"
"Genin, stay out of this! Get back! Get back!"
Damn it!
"Finally got one who didn't run off. Let's see who this bastard is and which hidden village he's from!"
"Daring to carry out an assassination in *my* Kumogakure? We have to wipe them out!"
"Chunin, surround the area — move, move, move!"
Amid the clamor and overlapping orders, Kei Yamanaka murmured a few quiet instructions as he shoved Musai aside.
"Hide somewhere far away. Anyone daring enough to carry out an assassination won't be an easy opponent."
"You too, Dad."
Musai nodded repeatedly, then panicked, stumbling back into the group of Genin standing nearby.
Furrowing his brow as he turned his head, Kei had a vague feeling something was off but couldn't pinpoint exactly what.
A massive octopus tentacle lashed wildly against the dark night sky, thunder rumbling without pause.
It wasn't until a full ten minutes later that the lightning circling the distant epicenter began to fade.
From start to finish, the so-called 'assassin' never managed to break through the blockade of Kumogakure's Jonin.
"All Jonin and Anbu — inspect each other's ninja shoes. Anyone with damaged shoes, shoes containing hidden mechanisms, or those not wearing them must remain behind. The rest continue checking Chunin and Genin."
A command rang out from the center of the encirclement.
Kei raised his eyebrows, glancing thoughtfully at the ninja issuing the order.
Dodai again — trying to ID someone by their shoes?
But it's already too late; he had switched his shoes already!
Besides, the ninja shoes he previously wore hadn't contained any mechanisms.
Back when he fought Dodai, using [Zero-Frames Start], his [Hyper Reaction Speed] allowed him to temporarily change tactics upon realizing Dodai intended to withstand that kick. He activated [Medical Water Release: Water Mantis], extending a short mantis blade from the tip of his shoe.
[Medical Water Release: Water Mantis] functioned somewhat similarly to a Chakra Scalpel.
Yet thanks to the bonus provided by the [Water Release Master] skill listing, Kei found it even more convenient and natural to use.
It required no hand seals, and its speed even surpassed the Rasengan.
With clear orders issued,
Every ninja on the scene sprang into action immediately.
Seven ninjas were left behind, while the others began inspecting every Chunin and Genin present.
As expected, Musai — dragged out of bed without even time to slip on his shoes — ended up being singled out too.
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?"
A Kumogakure Jonin narrowed his eyes, staring closely at Musai standing before him.
"I-I was asleep. My dad heard the alarm, burst into my room, slapped me twice, then dragged me out. I didn't even have time to throw them on..."
With a helpless look, Musai pointed to the red slap marks on his face.
Seriously, those two slaps really hurt!
Thankfully, he'd grown up roughed around, so his skin was pretty tough. It'd probably fade completely by tomorrow.
Anyone else would've ended up with a face like a swollen pig's head right then and there.
"...Go stand over there."
The Kumogakure Jonin twitched slightly at the corner of his mouth, deciding not to comment on such a father-son relationship.
"That's my son! Mine! This... this... let me stay with him..."
Upon seeing this, Kei hurried forward, quickly playing along.
Standing beside Musai, he joined the group of 'suspects'.
Tonight's events had truly left him bewildered, so this was the perfect chance to hang back and figure out what was really going on.
Not long after, two medical ninja arrived carrying a stretcher from the direction of Dodai's mansion.
Dodai, his face pale, lay motionless on the stretcher with his eyes closed. With his hands forming hand seals, he activated his Kekkei Genkai—Lava Release—to sense and manipulate the surrounding rubber.
Earlier, while gripping the enemy's shoe tightly, his Lava Release chakra had remained active.
The ninja shoes worn by his opponent were partly made of leather and rubber, leaving plenty of his chakra clinging to the rubber surface.
This residual chakra was nearly impossible to remove.
As long as the distance wasn't too great, he could use it to trace and pinpoint the assassin.
But after sensing for quite some time, he shook his head helplessly at the Anbu Commander standing beside him.
"Shoeless ninja, move forward. Jonin, join the mission group. The rest, stand down."
The Anbu Commander gave a slight nod before issuing new orders to the group.
Kei Yamanaka joined Musai and followed Dodai's group.
Round after round of checks continued as more than ten barefoot ninja followed Dodai's stretcher toward the center of the battlefield.
Approaching within a hundred meters of the combat zone,
buildings lay in ruins, echoed cries of pain and anguish filled the air.
Medical ninja scrambled frantically, quickly treating one injured person after another.
At the epicenter of the battle, inside a massive crater over fifty meters wide, several medics clustered around a muscular ninja clad in a white headscarf and sunglasses, doing everything they could to save him.
A, the Third Raikage, stood beside his son and several top Kumogakure officials, their faces grim.
B?
The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki?
Could the attacker's true target really have been B?
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