Chapter 224 - Ch224. Uchiha Massacre 4
Rei gave the unconscious Izumi and the corpse of her grandmother to the members of his Shadow Corps and they quickly set to work, pulling out a scroll with two corpses of bandits. The members of Shadow Corps then drew a bit of blood from both Izumi and her grandmother's corpse and used a special sealing technique that would mimic the appearance of the person keyed to the blood seal.
It didn't take even two minutes for the Shadow Corps members to produce two flawless replicas of both Izumi and her grandmother's corpse. Naturally, both came with the added bonus of having their eyes damaged so nobody could find out these replicas were not Uchiha corpses. Rei really wondered how Danzo would react to that little surprise.
It would take blood tests to find out these bodies do not belong to the members of the Uchiha clan. Alas, the last component the Shadow Corps added to these replicas of the Uchiha members' corpses was a special creation of Tsunade that completely dissolved an injected body precisely six hours after the administration. It was a pity it only worked on dead bodies but for the current situation, it was golden.
It wouldn't take long for the 'massacre' to be discovered. After that, it will most likely take at least two hours to clean up and transfer the bodies into a morgue or, in case of the bodies taken by Root, wherever Danzo would order his cronies to bring them. Rei completely banked on the chaos effect such an event will have on the village. He believed nobody would immediately go and draw blood samples for tests since the corpses will be found in the Uchiha compound and will look like the Uchiha clan members. By the time somebody decided to take blood samples... the bodies would be long ago dissolved.
Even if somebody did take the blood samples of one or two bodies in a timely manner, it wouldn't matter much as there will be no actual proof of any kind of foul play. At least, nothing that could be factually proven. At best, there would be some unclean speculations that could easily be written as non-Uchiha visiting the compound during the fateful night.
As for the dissolution of bodies... Rei was fully intending to let Konoha make their own assumptions. His bet? He believed Konoha higher-ups would simply write it off as a secret way of the Uchiha clan to prevent their bodies from falling into the hands of Konoha. After all, they did plan a rebellion in a few days so having a way to prevent such a thing would be sensible. Considering the Uchiha clan liked to burn their deceased... it wouldn't be such a stretch.
Naturally, it didn't really matter to Rei if the Konoha higher-ups assumed as such or if they came with their own theory. He didn't intend to leave any proof that someone not from Konoha intervened.
Done with replicating the bodies, Rei watched as Izumi's body was put into stasis before being sealed into a prisoner scroll while the corpse of her grandmother was put into a storage scroll.
"And they thought me mad when I said we are going to relocate most of the Uchiha clan overnight." Rei snorted as he remembered the expression of his Shadow Corps commander, Shizuka Kaguya, and many more division leaders of his village when he told them about the goal of this mission.
Infiltrating Konoha with fifty ninjas was one thing... stealing the entirety of the Uchiha clan without leaving any proof and putting the blame on the back of Itachi Uchiha was quite another kind of crazy.
"And yet... here we are." Rei heard Konan's voice from behind and smirked.
"Indeed, dear, indeed. Well, nobody said it would be a voluntary relocation." Rei shrugged, "I assume you were satisfied with your... outing?" He turned towards Konan before putting his hand around her shoulder, letting her snuggle into him as they watched their ninjas do their job while the duo simply lazed around. After all, there were certain advantages to being the leaders.
"I must confess, I had no idea what you meant when you said I should go and 'play' with the stronger one." Konan sighed, "To think you just wanted me to experience how you feel when you fight against me..." She shook her head in exasperation. "But yes, I now see how fighting against somebody almost impossible to hit could be frustrating."
Rei heard her indifferent tone but deep inside of it, he noticed a slight undertone of annoyance. Reassuringly putting his hand onto Konan's head, caressing her hair, he coaxed, "I simply wanted you to gain inspiration. You are already almost impossible to hit without highly destructive area of effect attacks. The guy you fought though? He could easily survive those. Sure, he had other weaknesses but still!" Rei explained. 'No way am I admitting I simply wanted her to know how frustrating it is fighting against her.'
"Right…" Konan good-naturedly rolled her eyes at him, not believing him but decided to change the topic. "How was our little scapegoat? You wanted to test him yourself. Was he any good?"
"Oh, Itachi? Well, he was certainly a sensible kid. Retreated when he realized he doesn't have a chance and is quite disadvantaged. To be honest, he was impressive for a thirteen-year-old kid. We had only one exchange and yet, it was very informative about his preferences and style." Rei hummed before pausing slightly in order to recollect his thoughts. "I think... he was a bit hyped up in rumors though. He is a technical fighter who depends on precision, subtlety, and speed. Considering he is a kid, it is smart he decided to develop speed and dexterity rather than strength. Again, considering his age, there is no wonder he decided to go the route of the genjutsu user since it takes the least amount of chakra but requires incredible control. Rather than being a prodigy, he is simply having something called common sense and a usable brain. Since he couldn't become a ninjutsu-heavy fighter because of his kiddy reserves or depend on his body strength, he decided to develop in a way where his young age would not be detrimental. I will be putting together a file for him after we get back home and you can get a better picture. But yeah, he will be a good scapegoat. I doubt Konoha will catch him anytime soon." Rei shrugged.
Konan giggled. "Poor guy. He kinda deserves it too though. Choosing to slaughter his own blood when he could simply ask the Daimyo for help." She snorted.
"Eh, you know these political moves are not widely known. He probably didn't even realize there IS a Daimyo. Most ninjas don't after being brainwashed by this fabled Will of Fire." Rei snarked. "Well… their loss, our gain."
It was then Shizuka Kaguya approached the duo, "We are finished, Rei-sama, Konan-sama."
"Results?" Konan asked, quickly snapping into her serious mode.
"We packed the clan library, money, and valuables. We substituted every corpse or living Uchiha with replicas, and made sure to erase every clue about our presence here tonight. Uchiha Itachi was let through as instructed but he managed to kill his parents before escaping. As for the Uchiha clan members... we are only missing the youngest son of the Clan Head, Uchiha Sasuke."
Konan and Rei looked at each other at that. Neither expected any Uchiha missing. The only way he could not be accounted for is if he was not present in the Uchiha compound. Rei could only wryly smile as a decision had to be made.
"I guess that's all we can do for tonight." He said, more for Konan rather than Shizuka.
"Yeah... better forget the kid. Konoha will take care of him. We can't afford to be discovered just because he decided to not be present for his execution." Konan said, amused. Sure, she and Rei probably could take Konoha on but their Shadow Corps would be obliterated if they tried to fight. Fifty-two versus the entire village were not good odds. Not at all.
"Okay, Shizuka. Good job. Give the order for retreat." Rei ordered before smiling mischievously at Konan, "Well, I for one am very curious how Ringo fared on her little assignment."
Remembering what Rei made Ringo do... Konan suddenly found herself in a fit of unstoppable giggles.