Chat Group Escanor 19 (Patreon)

Konoha, Root base, imprisonment room.

The air was cold, and the light was dim. The walls were engraved with complex sealing runes, emitting a faint blue light that suppressed Chakra.

Naruto was firmly bound to a cold stone platform by special Chakra metal chains, his mouth stuffed with a block, capable only of emitting muffled whimpers.

His face was covered in tear stains and panic, and his blue eyes were filled with helplessness and incomprehension.

He didn't know why these uncles wearing strange masks had captured him.

Beside the stone platform, Danzo's single eye flickered with a gloomy light, staring intently at the weak fluctuation of Nine-Tails Chakra on Naruto's abdomen.

Itachi stood quietly in the distant shadows, his three-tomoe Sharingan spinning behind his mask.

His task was to attempt to use his ocular power to influence the dissipation of the Nine-Tails Chakra if necessary, but he seemed to have some awareness of Danzo's true purpose, carrying a trace of imperceptible solemnity deep within his eyes.

"Begin."

Danzo's hoarse voice echoed in the room, carrying an uncontainable excitement.

"First extract a portion of the dissipated Chakra sample, and attempt to separate and analyze it. Pay attention to controlling the dosage, and do not disturb the sealing core."

A Root researcher holding a specialized Chakra extraction device connected to complex pipes slowly approached the stone platform.

Naruto sensed danger and struggled violently, his muffled whimpers becoming more rapid, his eyes filled with despair.

Just at the moment when that cold device was about to touch Naruto's abdomen—

In the center of the imprisonment room, that theoretically absolutely sealed space protected by multiple barriers and seals lit up with two clusters of light without any warning. The lights quickly converged, transforming into two figures.

On the left, a person with dazzling blond hair appeared. His pupils swept indifferently over everything in the room, finally fixing on the bound Naruto on the stone platform, as well as the old man with a single eye, wrapped in bandages, and with a horrified expression lingering on his face.

On the right was a person with red hair, her purple eyes burning with anger.

Her gaze locked onto Naruto on the stone platform at the very first moment, her pupils shrinking sharply.

"Naruto!"

Escanor's gaze shifted away from Naruto, falling onto the face of Danzo, who was dumbfounded.

The corners of his lips curved into an extremely cold arc. "You never learn from your beatings, do you? Old thing."

Danzo was dumbfounded at first.

How could Kushina be alive?

But the man standing there made him stop thinking.

Escanor reined in the intense heat radiating from his body. Dealing with these ants didn't require the flames of the sun, pure physical strength was more than enough.

Besides, it wouldn't be good to burn things down. Fire and electrical safety were everyone's responsibility.

He stepped forward.

Danzo was like a frozen stone statue, his single eye staring fixedly at the approaching blonde figure step by step, his pupils contracting to the size of needlepoints. The unforgettable fear and excruciating pain from two days ago flooded over him, and the lingering phantom pain in his severed arm and deep within his empty eye socket became incomparably real at this moment.

He wanted to move, wanted to flee, wanted to give orders, but his body felt as though it had been filled with lead, and his throat was gripped by an invisible force, allowing him to utter only meaningless, rattling gasps.

It wasn't until Escanor's gaze fell upon his face like a cold searchlight that Danzo shuddered violently, squeezing out a sliver of twisted madness from the depths of ultimate terror.

"Stop... stop him! Kill them!!!" He roared.

With the order given, the well-trained Root Ninjas overcame their instinctive trembling and executed it like machines.

Several dark figures catapulted out from the shadows, behind the walls, and even from the ceiling. Shuriken, Kunai, and poisoned senbon rained down toward Escanor.

Furthermore, two Ninjas skilled in Taijutsu brandished refined steel katana as they slashed toward his neck and waist from left and right.

However, the next scene made the hearts of all the attackers, including Danzo who had barely mustered a shred of vicious intent, sink to the bottom.

Clang, clang, clatter...

The shuriken and Kunai struck Escanor's body, producing crisp sounds before bouncing off and falling to the ground. They couldn't even cut a single thread of his white garment.

Those poisonous needles fared even worse, dropping limply to the floor.

The two sharp katana chopped down fiercely against the side of Escanor's neck and his ribs.

Clang!

Sparks flew in all directions.

The two Root Taijutsu Ninjas felt a shockwave travel up through the blades of their swords. The skin between their thumbs and index fingers split open, and the bones in their arms let out groans of unbearable strain.

They flew backward while screaming in agony, crashing into the wall and leaving two human-shaped indentations before sliding down to the ground, their lives or deaths uncertain.

Immediately after, Escanor continued forward.

The remaining Root Ninjas around him were utterly terrified by this inhuman spectacle. Their hands gripping their weapons trembled, yet no one dared to take another step forward.

Wherever Escanor passed, they were pushed back, stumbling backward and collapsing to the ground, completely stripped of any will to fight.

Escanor couldn't be bothered to pay attention to these small fries. To kill or not to kill made no difference to him, just as one didn't care whether they accidentally crushed a few ants while walking. These people could be left for that angry mother to deal with.

His gaze swept past the cowering grunts on the ground and landed on Itachi, who was still standing silently at the edge of the shadows.

Itachi's mask hid his expression, but his three-tomoe Sharingan spun in the dim light, revealing just how turbulent his inner thoughts were.

The man before him was absurdly powerful. That overbearing toughness which disregarded all forms of defense allowed him to deduce that any conventional attack would be completely meaningless.

Yet Root's orders, alongside the "mission" and "surveillance" he bore upon his shoulders, prevented him from backing down like the other Ninjas.

Escanor stopped in front of Itachi, lowering his head slightly to look at the youth who was much shorter than him.

"Are you going to die for Danzo? That shouldn't be the case."

He paused slightly, as if recalling something, and then threw out a question like a thunderclap.

"Could it be that Shisui is already dead?"

"!!!"

Itachi's three-tomoe Sharingan, which had been spinning at high speed while maintaining calm observation, suddenly came to an abrupt halt at that very instant.

Following that was an even more violent spin. His breathing abruptly turned heavy and icy killing intent erupted from his body uncontrollably.

Shisui! That name!

Escanor's question was not without basis. According to the story he knew, before his close friend Shisui died and he awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan as a result, Itachi's stance leaned more toward Hiruzen's side, acting sort of like a multi-sided spy who struggled to maintain a balance between his clan and the village.

However, Shisui's death was the final straw that broke the camel's back, sliding Itachi's mindset into a more extreme and desperate trajectory, and ultimately acting as the catalyst for that fateful Uchiha Clan Massacre.

Right now, looking at Itachi's reaction, Escanor understood clearly in his heart. The timeline was probably right about here. Shisui was already dead, Itachi had awakened the Mangekyo, and his inner self was currently in its most chaotic, paranoid period—the most susceptible to being driven by "greater good" and "threats".

Right now, with Itachi's deepest pain being laid bare by Escanor's single sentence, combined with the awe of the absolute power Escanor displayed, the tightly wound string within him that tried to deal with everything using cold logic experienced violent shaking.

Almost instinctively, he was about to use his dojutsu to drag him into his domain.

Tsukuyomi!

However, just then—

Escanor had been looking straight into his eyes.

"Ugh!"

Itachi felt as though red-hot steel needles had fiercely stabbed directly into both of his eyes.

The condensed ocular power scattered and an agonizing pain radiated from his Mangekyo Sharingan.

He let out a muffled grunt as he covered his eyes, staggering down onto one knee.

The Tsukuyomi he had attempted to launch failed to even form its initial shape before it was forcibly interrupted and backfired under the other party's mere glance.

"Sharingan... is that it?" Escanor muttered to himself in a slightly disappointed tone.

He no longer looked at Itachi kneeling on the ground, casting his gaze back toward Danzo behind them.