chapter 120

Kakashi frowned while looking at the communication scroll that the communication eagle delivered.

Shisui who was intently looking at Kakashi asked quickly, “Captain, did Danzo-Sama caught up with Shinichi?”

Kakashi passed the scroll to Shisui while shaking his head and spoke, “Danzo-Sama and the other ninjas of the chasing team were led away by Shinichi’s shadow clone, so they lost track of Shinichi’s movements.”

Shisui breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

Shinichi’s actions at the Root base not only caused damage to the village manpower, disturbed the balance between the Uchiha and the Village but also directly harmed Shimura Danzo’s prestige. It was sort of a direct slap in the face of Danzo’s authority.

The entire cause of Shinichi’s actions this time was to kill Shimura Danzo.

Danzo’s malice towards the Uchiha Clan is not hidden and since Uchiha Shinichi caused such a heavy blow to Danzo’s prestige, so Shisui was very worried that if Danzo and Shinichi meet, one side would definitely die, which would be very harmful to the Village.

If Shinichi were to die, then controlling the restless Uchiha Clan will become next to impossible.

And if Danzo were to die, then again controlling the restless Uchiha Clan will become next to impossible.

So, the best scenario would be that both of them don’t meet until Shisui uses Kotoamatsukami on Shinichi.

When Kuroto took the scroll and slightly glanced at the content, he couldn’t help but chuckle lightly, “Heh… looks like we will be getting busy!”

Kuroto believes that all the shinobi with Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai can be a master of tracking and anti-tracking.

Even in the Hyuga Clan, the children of the Clan have trained the art of tracking and anti-tracking, so as long as the strength of the member of the Hyuga Clan reaches a standard Chunin Class, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that they have become a master tracker. Kuroto himself has received such training not only from the Hyuga Clan but also personally from his teacher Orochimaru.

After all, a snake has to always be careful of the path he treads!

And this fact also applies to the Uchiha Clan with their Sharingan, although the Uchiha specialize more in anti-tracking.

So, tracking the movements of an ordinary Uchiha Jonin with a three tomoe Sharingan is already a very difficult task not to mention Uchiha Shinichi who has awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Because this incident took place all too sudden, so Danzo only had time to bring Hyuga Hizashi of the Hyuga Clan with him.

The impatient Danzo didn’t wait for the arrival of the other expert ninjas from the Inuzuka and Aburame Clan that live on the edge of Konoha and hurriedly went after Shinichi with just Hyuga Hizashi.

Obviously, Danzo wanted to kill Uchiha Shinichi as soon as possible to not only minimize the impact of this storm but also to obtain a fresh pair of Mangekyou Sharingan for him.

But unfortunately for him, his impatience backfired, and without the assistance of the Aburame and Inuzuka that can track through smell and by receiving signals from the insects.

With just a pair of Byakugan, it is very difficult to track Shinichi who specializes in anti-tracking because of his Mangekyou for Hyuga Hizashi, even if he is one of the strongest shinobi of the current Konoha.

And this, here again, reflects the lack of Kage-Class powerhouses in the village to effectively deal with such emergencies.

There is no shortage of elites in Konoha, but there is really a lack of Kage-Class shinobi.

Sandaime needs to sit in the village, Jiraiya is still at the battlefront against Cloud to defend against any possible raid and participating in peace negotiations.

So, when Shinichi made such a mess, Danzo is the only one that Sandaime trusted enough to chase after Shinichi.

But the fact of the matter is that Danzo has already stayed in the shadows for too long, by now he has already lost most of his Natural Strength and Will, but there is still an unrealistic obsession of becoming the Hokage and uniting the Shinobi world.

But because he lacks the Natural Will, he always avoids dangerous scenarios.

After all, even in the original series, Danzo shrank away during the Kyuubi’s Rebellion, Danzo shrank away during Orochimaru’s defection, later he shrank away during the Sand’s Konoha Crush Plan, and finally, he again shrank away at the time of Pain’s Assault.

From beginning to end, no matter how much damage Konoha suffered, Danzo would always hide in the Shadows and watch it all happen with cold eyes with the hope of one day coming to the light!

But how can that happen?

If he isn’t even willing to dedicate himself to the cause and safety of the village how can he ever become the light of Konoha?

Shaking his head helplessly, Kuroto turned towards Guy who asked with a frowning expression, “Since Danzo=Sama’s team lost his tracks, then where do we find him?”

Kakashi didn’t answer just directly summoned.

“Ninpou: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

Puff…

When the white smoke disappeared, eight Ninken of different sizes, colors, and appearances appeared before the four members of Team-11.

Taking out a small piece of cloth that was stained in blood, Kakashi handed it to the eight Ninken while saying, “Pakkun, please help me find the owner of this smell.”

This piece of cloth was found by Kakashi at the battlefield last night, the owner of the blood on it is none other than Uchiha Shinichi, although Shinichi’s injuries recovered instantly, the blood didn’t disappear.

Pakkun sniffed the cloth for a short while and then said, “Follow me!”

With that, Pakkun led the way.

After several hours of tracking everyone stopped at a spot.

“Kakashi, the owner of that smell should be hiding there!”

Following the direction, Pakkun pointed at, all four of Team-11 looked over and saw nothing but a very large tree.

At this time, everyone’s gaze turned towards Kuroto.

And Kuroto who has already activated the Byakugan observed the large tree then shook his head negatively, “There is only one hole, Shinichi isn’t there, although several signs are indicating that he was there not too long ago!”

Nodding at Kuroto’s guess, everyone came to the tree hole and was slightly taken aback by what they saw inside it.

There were several stains of blood that has coagulated in the tree cave, along with many blood-stained bandages scattered around, from the mess that was spread around, it wasn’t hard to guess that a severely injured person was here and bandaged his wounds while hiding in this tree cave.

Shisui asked with a puzzled expression, “Did Shinichi suffered such serious injury? And Danzo-Sama could still not find his tracks?”

Kakashi turned towards Pakkun and asked in confirmation, “Does the smell of blood in this tree cave match the smell of the blood on that piece of cloth?”

After sniffing a little to check, Pakkun nodded, “Yes, no doubt about it!”

Kuroto who crouched down at a spot to check something said lightly, “The blood here is already coagulated and turned blackish, that means that it was dripped on the ground last night at the latest, so Shinichi definitely left here before today!”

Putting some pieces together, Shisui muttered solemnly, “Is there any other group chasing after him? Shinichi didn’t even bother removing the blood and bandages here…”

“We can’t rule out that possibility.” After a short pause, Kuroto turned towards Kakashi and asked in confusion, “Are you sure Uchiha Shinichi has some sort of recovery/regeneration ability? And are you really sure that he didn’t have any injury when he left the battlefield yesterday?”

Kakashi nodded seriously, “Yes, during the battle he did receive several serious wounds, but they all disappeared too fast, it was a complete recovery with not even any scars left behind!”

Kakashi’s insight is also not any worse than Shisui’s with his Mangekyou, so he had confidence in what he saw.

What’s more, he was intently observing Shinichi during the entire course of the battle, so close to no detail escaped his eye.

‘He didn’t have any injury when he left, the chasing team under Danzo’s command was led away by his shadow clone, then how come he suffered such injuries even with his recovery abilities? Who could injure him to such a degree? Was it Obito? Or someone else that I don’t know of…?’ – Kuroto thought quietly while putting his one hand on his chin.

In Kuroto’s understanding, if it was Obito then Shinichi is either already dead or escaped at the cost of his Mangekyou Sharingan so he lost his recovery ability.

In whichever case, there shouldn’t have been a fierce battle, this isn’t in line with Obito’s methods.

‘Unless Shinichi could force Obito to use Wood Release!’ – But then Kuroto immediately shook his head in denying that possibility, this idea sounds almost too absurd to be true.

Firstly, there is no need for Obito to have a death match against Shinichi, and secondly, Obito wouldn’t risk letting Shinichi escape alive if he exposed the Wood Release, after all, Obito is pretending to be ‘Uchiha Madara!’

And by general Uchiha Standards, Madara wouldn’t give up his pride to obtain the Senju’s Wood Release whom he hates very much!

With that thought in his mind, there is only the last possibility that remains.

So, containing his thoughts, Kuroto said to the rest of the Team-11, “The most likely explanation, points towards a third group that has intervened in this matter, we should be more careful in this mission!”