Chapter 225: The Crucial Night

Chapter 225: Chapter 225: The Crucial Night

Upon returning home, Hyuga Kagami noticed a black crow perched on his windowsill. He opened the window and let it into the room.

Removing the message tube tied to the crow’s leg, Kagami unfolded the secret letter inside.

The letter was from Shisui. In it, Shisui briefly described his situation over the past week and additionally mentioned that quite a few members of the Uchiha Clan had also begun believing the rumors circulating outside and had grown suspicious of him.

After destroying the letter, Kagami clicked his tongue.

"Tch. Looks like I underestimated the power of rumors!"

In truth, Kagami understood why the rumors had spread so wildly throughout the village.

The biggest reason was that Kamigami had vanished far too mysteriously. Despite the village’s extensive investigation, they had found absolutely nothing. Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that the villagers would let their imaginations run wild.

And in an atmosphere like this, naturally, more and more people began to believe the rumors.

Actually, solving the problem was quite simple.

All they needed to do was have Kamigami’s "Homura" make another high-profile appearance and convince both the village’s higher-ups and the Uchiha Clan that such a bounty-ninja organization truly existed.

Once that happened, all their problems would naturally disappear.

The real problem before Kagami was—

How was he supposed to create another "Homura"?

Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Kagami wrote a reply and slipped it into the message tube attached to the crow’s leg.

The contents of his reply consisted of only two words.

"Be patient!"

Then, he held the crow out through the window and watched as it flew off into the distance.

......

Outside the Uchiha Clan compound.

Two Root shinobi stood atop a large tree, keeping watch over the Uchiha compound from afar.

At that moment, one of the Root shinobi said, "Look! It’s the crow that flew out earlier."

The other Root shinobi observed it for a moment before ordering, "There’s something strange about that crow. Shoot it down!"

Whoosh—

The Root shinobi who had spotted the crow immediately fired a sharp senbon, striking it in midair.

By the time the two Root shinobi reached the place where the crow had fallen, the crow’s corpse suddenly exploded into a cloud of white smoke with a muffled poof.

When the smoke dispersed, only a single black feather remained on the ground.

Picking up the black feather, the two Root shinobi exchanged bewildered looks...

......

At Shisui’s home.

After removing the message tube from the crow’s leg, Shisui hurriedly unfolded the letter and read it. A puzzled expression immediately appeared on his face.

"Be patient...?! Could it be that Senpai has some way to clear me of suspicion?"

......

Time flew by, and nine days quickly passed.

During those days, Kagami had been using his Tenseigan to secretly observe every movement Uchiha Ryota made inside the hidden prison, even through the thick layers of rock separating them.

And Ryota did not disappoint him.

In just nine short days, he had already worn away most of several crucial sealing formulas within the Four Symbols Seal placed on his body.

"At this rate, he should be able to break free tonight."

After a brief pause, Kagami murmured,

"Whether this succeeds or fails... it all comes down to tonight!"

The sun gradually sank beneath the horizon, and the sky slowly darkened.

......

Inside the cavern.

Uchiha Ryota sat with his eyes tightly shut, concentrating completely on controlling his chakra to wear away the sealing formulas restraining him.

After working tirelessly day and night for so long, he had unexpectedly discovered that while eroding the sealing formulas, his chakra control had also improved considerably.

He couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional.

"Who would’ve thought that something like this could actually train chakra control? How absurd..."

Just then, a faint squeak, squeak echoed into the cavern.

Hearing the sound, Uchiha Ryota immediately stopped eroding the sealing formulas and suppressed every trace of chakra activity within his body, pretending to be fast asleep.

He knew that sound.

It came from the puppet that replaced his nutrient solution every day.

At first, he had assumed that a puppeteer was hiding somewhere inside the cavern, secretly controlling the puppet. But after carefully observing it over the past several days, he discovered that there were no chakra threads connected to the puppet whatsoever.

This discovery left him utterly astonished!

As an elite jōnin who had experienced the Third Shinobi World War, Uchiha Ryota was no stranger to Sunagakure’s puppeteers or the various types of puppets they employed.

That was why he had immediately recognized the puppet before him as nothing more than a standard model used by Suna’s low- and mid-level puppeteers.

There was absolutely nothing special about it.

Even the Uchiha Clan, which had little interest in puppetry, had captured quite a few of these puppets during the war. They weren’t exactly commonplace, but neither did they possess any real value as collectibles.

And precisely because Ryota knew the origins of this type of puppet so well, he was even more shocked by the one before him.

It clearly possessed a certain degree of intelligence and was capable of independently carrying out tasks without anyone controlling it!

Before long, after replacing the nutrient solution keeping Ryota alive, the puppet slowly left the cavern.

Watching its retreating figure, Ryota wondered,

"Is this some new technology developed by the village?"

But in the next instant, he suppressed all his curiosity and confusion regarding the puppet and focused his mind entirely on planning his escape.

He knew very well that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would be able to completely break free of the Four Symbols Seal within a few hours.

And once the Four Symbols Seal was no longer restraining him, a mere handful of chains could never hold an elite Uchiha jōnin who was free to circulate chakra throughout his entire body.

"There’s that strange puppet, but I have no idea whether there are any other guards inside this cave..."

Ryota had formed his own theory about his current situation.

Although he firmly believed that the entire upper echelon of the village had been behind his capture, he suspected that the person personally conducting these interrogations was one particular higher-up who coveted the Uchiha Clan’s Sharingan.

That would explain why the entire interrogation had been carried out in such a secretive and underhanded manner!

With that assumption in mind, Ryota believed the security inside this cave shouldn’t be particularly strong.

At the very least, there shouldn’t be anyone on Shisui’s level guarding the place.

And the only reason someone as arrogant as Ryota was even worried about the guards was because his body had become extremely weak after enduring prolonged torture. On top of that, for the past several days, the only nourishment he had received was nutrient solution barely sufficient to keep him alive.

If the guards inside the cave were too powerful, then even if he managed to break the seal, escaping would still be extremely difficult.

Time passed, second by second.

As one sealing formula after another was gradually worn away, freedom finally seemed within reach.

Even Uchiha Ryota, whose heart was as hard as iron, couldn’t suppress the excitement rising within him.

But just then—

A familiar set of footsteps echoed through the cavern.

"That bastard is back?! Damn it! It’s only the ninth day!"

Shock, resentment, frustration, and a torrent of other emotions surged through Ryota’s heart.

But there was nothing he could do.

He could only stop eroding the sealing formulas once again.

Before long, a figure wearing a demon mask appeared inside the cavern.

Looking at Ryota, the masked figure said,

"Alright. The higher-ups have made their decision.

"Tonight... you die."