Konoha still shines under the moon, but behind them the Uchiha are already history—and the fugitives begin their run for survival.
"Danzō-sama!!!"
"My lord?!"
"How is this possible—?!"
The Root members couldn't move.
But they could see everything.
The man they worshiped like a god—pierced through by a blade—gave no response at all.
In that moment, their faith collapsed like a rotting building.
It didn't crack.
It didn't tilt.
It caved in—shattering into ruin.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
Outside the forest, countless black silhouettes vaulted in, arriving in waves.
"Captain Kazuki—I'll hold them off!!"
Nanpū roared.
He had already decided to die.
The other Uchiha tried to voice the same resolve—
only to realize they were seized again by Eight Thousand Spears.
They strained so hard their faces reddened, trying to force words out—
but mental domination crushed their voices back into their throats.
"Annoying," Kazuki said flatly.
He released his grip on the hilt, leaving the blade embedded where it stood, and turned away without hesitation.
He kept them alive because they still had value.
Before leaving, he let his Mangekyō surface again and glanced once toward the forest's edge.
Footsteps surged like a tide.
ANBU poured into the trees—the vanguard of the Hokage's direct forces, answering only to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"What happened here?"
An ANBU captain strode up to the Root members standing at the forest perimeter and demanded an answer.
No one replied.
The ANBU captain frowned, sensing something wrong—
but he chose to push forward anyway, leading his unit deeper.
The moment the ANBU fully entered the forest—
the Root members moved.
In perfect unison, they drew their blades.
Red light flickered in their eyes as the Eight Thousand Spears imprint spun.
Like puppets, they lunged and slashed at the nearest ANBU.
"AAGH!!!"
Half the ANBU were hit instantly, screams erupting as blood splashed across the undergrowth.
"Withdraw! Out of the forest!!"
The ANBU captain's eyes bulged.
A blade had punched through his abdomen, blood pouring down his armor.
He kicked a Root member away and bellowed the order.
"Captain—these Root members… they're all being controlled!"
"Then kill these animals!!"
Root didn't care about insults.
They didn't care about death.
They charged like lunatics, throwing themselves at the ANBU reinforcements.
ANBU wouldn't swallow that humiliation.
Even without understanding why, they drew steel and fought back, aiming to subdue the "mad" Root first.
A brutal battle erupted—ANBU versus Root.
Boom—!
Explosions from paper bombs.
Metal shrieking against metal.
Kunai snapping through the night.
The forest became a final chorus—an ending movement in the assassination's closing symphony.
…
Uchiha District entrance.
Sasuke—still small, schoolbag on his back—ran through the streets in panic.
Every time he heard an explosion, he would flinch, glance around helplessly—
then keep running.
Like a child trapped inside a war he didn't understand.
Until—
a familiar figure sprinted toward him through the dark.
In an instant, the frantic emptiness inside him found a place to land.
"Mom!"
Sasuke's face brightened.
He rushed into the middle of the street, arms spreading wide to embrace her.
In the darkness, he saw it like a miracle—
a beam of light.
Mikoto saw him.
For a heartbeat, she froze.
Then the blankness in her eyes softened, like ice cracking under warmth.
Endless tenderness surfaced.
But she couldn't speak.
She couldn't even control her own body.
"Mom…? What's wrong?"
Sasuke sensed it—something was wrong—and his voice wavered.
Thud—!
Mikoto's sprint didn't stop.
She slammed into him.
The impact hurled Sasuke backward. He crashed into the wall, slammed hard, his head ringing and vision swimming.
"Mom…"
He tried to push himself up—
then his eyes rolled back.
Sasuke collapsed unconscious on the street.
Tears gathered at the corner of Mikoto's eyes.
Her face was beautiful and calm—
and utterly expressionless.
She ran.
And ran.
And ran—straight toward the forest outside the village.
But the heart that should have died tonight—
was quietly reignited by one single word.
Mom.
…
On the mountain ridge.
"Big Brother… when are we going…?"
Tamayū croaked weakly.
The others had stopped his bleeding as best they could. His condition was stable for now—but without a medical-nin, infection could still kill him.
Kazuki was about to answer—
when text flashed in his mind.
[Side Mission]: Rescue
[Condition]:
Rescue someone within the Uchiha district.
[Mission Complete!]
[Reward]:
100 cubic meters of storage space.
Kazuki's eyes narrowed in faint surprise.
And then—
from behind the ridge—
a figure appeared, running toward them.
Mikoto.
Nanpū and Izumi instinctively drew their blades—
only for Kazuki to lift a hand, signaling them to stand down.
When they recognized her, their shock burst out in overlapping voices.
"Clan Head's wife?!"
"Lady Mikoto!!"
None of them could believe she had survived the massacre.
But Mikoto didn't speak.
She didn't react.
So their gazes turned toward Kazuki—
and their shock deepened.
He wasn't surprised.
Was this… arranged too?
"Everyone's here," Kazuki said evenly. "Let's go."
Izumi's face tightened with grief.
"So… we're rogue-nin now?"
She looked back toward the Uchiha district.
It had become a burning ruin. Flames and smoke clawed at the sky.
Aside from them…
there would be no survivors.
The other Uchiha wore the same bleak sorrow.
Their eyes kept drifting toward Mikoto—uneasy, uncertain.
Mikoto's mind was blank.
She didn't know why she was here.
She didn't know why these Uchiha were alive.
Suddenly, sobbing broke out.
Kazuki lifted his gaze.
Nanpū and several of his teammates were crying openly—tears streaming as the reality finally landed:
their civilian families would never leave the district.
After the rage of revenge, grief surged back like a flood and swallowed them whole.
Eight Uchiha planted their blades into the ground and bowed—ninety degrees—
toward the district.
A silent funeral.
Then Tamayū, grinning through blood, laughed.
"Ha… feels good."
"Finally leaving this damn place!"
One Uchiha who had just started crying inhaled so hard his sob got sucked right back into his nose.
For a moment, no one knew what expression to wear around this lunatic.
Kazuki ignored the awkwardness.
While they processed pain, he condensed his focus and searched inward for the reward.
The 100-cubic-meter space sat deep in his mind.
With a thought, he could enter it.
A bright, clean space—roughly 7.4 meters long, 5 meters wide, 2.7 meters high.
Kazuki's first instinct was absurdly practical:
Clean it up, and it could be a one-bedroom apartment.
The only question was whether it could store living people.
He slid his scrolls into the space.
The convenience was immediate.
He could place and retrieve items at will, rearranging them effortlessly.
He lifted his eyes to the massive full moon overhead.
From the ridge, he looked down at Konoha.
The Hokage Rock stood on the opposite side, watching over the village like a monument to order.
Below it, the streets of the central district were still brightly lit—busy, lively, unchanged.
As if nothing had happened.
The Uchiha district, burning and dying, and Konoha's core, thriving with light…
felt like two different worlds.
A clean boundary.
A quiet message.
The forest battle would soon end too.
And this land, without the Uchiha—
would still keep breathing.
Kazuki scanned the survivors.
Just as expected, their ocular power had surged.
Those who had only two tomoe earlier—
had broken through to three.
"Good," Kazuki said softly.
Then he turned away.
"Goodbye, Konoha."
Izumi watched his back.
Time blurred—back to her graduation day, her first mission.
She had stood at the village gate then too, watching this same gentle captain lead the team out.
And she had been drawn to him the same way—like he carried something magnetic, something steady.
Without thinking, she hurried after him in small steps.
Like that day.
As if so long as Captain Kazuki was in front…
no matter how far they traveled…
the mission would be completed.
The other Uchiha followed.
Only Mikoto moved like a puppet—still compelled to walk.
The moon remained bright.
At the edge of Konoha, Kazuki broke the village barrier with ease.
He stepped through.
Left the Hidden Leaf behind.
In that moment, a weight settled onto the shoulders of the nine Uchiha—
a burden that felt like a vow.
If they survived the road ahead…
the next time they returned…
it would be to trample Konoha into the ground.
Under the pale moonlight, Tamayū was carried on someone's back.
Eleven Uchiha became shadows.
Led by Kazuki, they began their run.
Kazuki guided them northwest.
If they left the Land of Fire from that direction, they would reach the most chaotic region in the shinobi world—
a patchwork of small nations: the Land of Rain, the Land of Birds, the Land of Grass, and other war-buffer territories stitched together by conflict.
The road was guaranteed to be deadly.
Kazuki calculated the time.
Before dawn, Konoha would send squads to intercept and kill them.
So before dawn—
they had to run as far as their legs could carry them.
Kazuki had already prepared an escape route.
He had planned it all to survive.
And he had done it within a single week.
Because at the end of this road—
someone would be waiting to receive them.
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