Inside the towering Hokage building, the atmosphere was thick with heavy, suffocating tension. The midday sun struggled to pierce through the large windows of the main office, casting long, stark shadows across the floorboards.
Behind the massive wooden desk, an old man sat quietly, the traditional leader's hat resting on the surface before him. His face was etched with deep lines of stress and years of hard-earned wisdom, his fingers loosely intertwined as he stared out at the two men standing and sitting before him.
To his right stood a sharp-eyed man with his dark hair tied back into its usual spiky ponytail, a crisscross pattern of scars cutting across his face.
He held a tactical clipboard in one hand, his posture relaxed but his mind clearly running a million calculations a second.
Directly across from them, sitting quietly in a chair, was a young man with messy, spiky golden-blonde hair. His hands were folded neatly, raised directly in front of him so his knuckles rested just below his nose, touching his face as he stared ahead with an intense, calculated focus.
The man with the ponytail broke the heavy silence first, nodding his head firmly.
"Yes... I am absolutely right—" he said, his voice dripping with absolute certainty as he tapped his fingers against the tactical map on the desk.
The old man behind the desk shifted slightly, his gaze narrowing as he leaned forward. "And who confirmed this information to you?"
Before the man with the ponytail could answer, the blonde youth spoke up from his chair. His hands remained folded just below his nose, his voice calm but incredibly serious.
"I don't care by whom—" the young man stated softly, his bright eyes shifting toward the window.
"But I can sense an enormous amount of chakra gathering near the commercial district. And sounds of..."
He didn't even get to finish his sentence.
BOOMMMMMM!!!
A sudden, terrifyingly deep sound ripped through the village air. It wasn't just a loud noise; it was a heavy, violent vibration that traveled straight through the ground.
The entire foundation of the heavy stone Hokage building groaned under the pressure, shaking the walls and causing the glass windowpanes to rattle furiously in their frames.
The sheer force of the shockwave made the papers on the desk flutter wildly.
The man with the ponytail didn't even flinch as the building stopped shaking. He smoothly picked up right where the blonde youth had left off, his sharp eyes locking back onto the old leader.
"Yes..." the strategist continued, his tone turning grim. "Those are the physical details of what is happening out there. But the actual murder—the mass murder inside the dango shop—was just confirmed to us by the Chunin, Might Gai."
The heavy revelation about the mass murder hung in the air, thick and suffocating. The old leader, Sarutobi Hiruzen, gripped the edge of his desk, his face twisting into a mask of pure frustration and urgency.
"Then why are the reinforcements still not sent?!" Hiruzen demanded, his voice echoing sharply against the shaking walls of the office.
"If a massacre is happening in the middle of the commercial district, our shinobi should already be on the scene!"
Nara Shikaku let out a slow, grim breath. He didn't look up from his clipboard, his sharp eyes filled with a heavy, dark reality.
"It has already been attempted..." Shikaku said quietly, his voice dropping into a chilling tone. "But the reinforcements aren't coming. The military police headquarters' officers... they are all dead."
The words hit the room like a physical shockwave.
Hiruzen's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock, his pipe nearly slipping from his mouth.
Beside him, Namikaze Minato froze entirely. His bright blue eyes went completely wide, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
An entire Uchiha police force, the strongest defensive unit inside the village walls, had been completely annihilated without anyone even realizing it.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Slowly, the shock faded from Minato's features, replaced by a razor-sharp, lethal focus.
He stood up from his chair in one smooth, fluid motion. Sliding his hands deep into his pockets, he leaned his weight back slightly, his shoulders relaxed but his presence radiating an incredible, suffocating pressure—looking exactly like a captain ready to step onto a battlefield.
"Then, Shikaku-san—" Minato said, his calm voice cutting through the panic like steel.
"You, along with some of the other elite squads, will also come with me."
COMMERCIAL DISTRICT
Outside on the dusty, blood stained street, the horrifying standoff had completely frozen in time.
The mysterious dark-haired woman stood perfectly still under the blazing afternoon sun, her arm extended straight out like iron.
She was still effortlessly holding Kakashi up by his collar, dangling his heavy body high off the ground. Kakashi's eyes were only a little bit open, staring blankly ahead.
He wasn't speaking a single word, he wasn't struggling, and he wasn't even attempting to launch a counter-attack. He was completely limp.
A few yards away, Kurenai watched the bizarre scene with a racing heart, her hands trembling as she tried to support Asuma. Her mind was frantically spinning, trying to make sense of the nightmare unfolding right in front of her.
'What is the matter with Kakashi...?' Kurenai thought, panic clawing at her throat. 'Why isn't he attacking her? Why is he just letting himself be held like that? He's skilled... unless... don't tell me a—'
Before she could even finish her thought, her internal dialogue was violently cut short.
"NOOOO, STOP IT!!!" someone suddenly screamed out in pure, agonizing terror. "IT WAS NOT MY INTENTION TO AIM AT YOU!!!"
The raw, panicked voice ripped through the heavy summer air.
In that exact second, the chilling reality clicked perfectly inside Kurenai's mind. Her eyes widened in absolute shock as she stared at Kakashi's blank, unblinking face. She finally understood the dark truth.
"A genjutsu..." Kurenai whispered, the breath completely leaving her lungs as her worst fear was confirmed.
"It's a genjutsu!"
The moment the realization left Kurenai's lips, the woman didn't wait around. With a cold, bored expression, she casually wound her arm back and threw Kakashi's limp body straight across the dirt road, tossing him directly toward the tree where the tiny blonde boy was standing.
"Useless trash—" she muttered smoothly, her voice dripping with disgust as she watched the elite ninja fly through the air.
Kakashi's body skidded heavily across the dusty ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt before coming to a hard stop right behind the little toddler's feet.
"Ahhh!" the little boy screamed in pure terror, jumping back as a grown boy suddenly crashed right into his safe space.
"Kakashiiii!!!" Kurenai shrieked at the exact same time, her voice cracking with absolute panic as she watched her comrade getting tossed.
The terrifying sight was completely too much for the little blonde boy. He quickly crouched down into a tiny ball right next to the unconscious ninja, buried his face in his small hands, and started crying his eyes out all over again, his tiny shoulders shaking violently.
But the horror didn't stop there.
Hearing Kurenai's desperate scream, the wounded man she was holding tightly in her arms suddenly groaned.
Asuma's eyes fluttered, barely gaining consciousness as his body violently rejected the trauma of his injuries. He began coughing, dark red blood spilling from his lips and staining the dry ground.
"Tou-san..." Asuma whispered in a ragged, barely audible breath, his vision blurring as he desperately thought of his father.
A few yards away, Tenten was watching the entire nightmare unfold in slow motion. Panic flared in her chest as she tried to force her body to move, to run, to do anything to help them. But no matter how hard she commanded her legs, they felt like solid stone.
'Why... why am I not able to move?!' Tenten thought frantically, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead as she struggled against her own muscles. 'Why is my body completely locked up?!'
The absolute desperation overthrew her, and she screamed out with everything left in her lungs.
"Kakashi-Senseiiii!!!"
Hikaru stood in the middle of the dusty road, his dark hair catching the heavy midday glare. He slowly turned his gaze away from the crying child and focused entirely on the trembling girl.
A sharp, mocking smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as he watched her struggle against her own frozen muscles.
For him, this was nothing more than pure amusement.
"I don't understand—" he said softly, his cold voice carrying a smooth, arrogant weight as he looked down at her. "Death is standing right in front of you... and yet, you are still worried about someone else rather than your own self."
The sheer, crushing weight of his words completely broke through Tenten's remaining defense.
The terrifying reality of her situation, the sight of her bleeding comrades, and the heavy pressure of the glowing Sharingan staring her down became entirely too much to bear.
Her legs finally gave out beneath her.
Tenten collapsed straight onto the hard, dry ground. Sitting helplessly in the dirt, she buried her face in her hands as hot tears began to stream rapidly down her cheeks.
She started crying bitterly, her shoulders heaving as the absolute despair of the moment completely overwhelmed her.
The amusement on Hikaru's face vanished in an instant, replaced by a cold-sharp intensity. His red eyes narrowed into a piercing glare as he took a slow step closer to the weeping girl, his entire humor turning deadly serious.
"I will ask you again for the last time..." Hikaru demanded, his voice dropping into a low, threatening baritone that sent chills down Kurenai's spine. "Who are you? Do you know me?"
The suffocating pressure of his question only made Tenten break down even further.
Her chest heaved violently as she gasped for air through her heavy, uncontrollable sobbing.
The pure terror of being cornered by a monster who seemed to know her—yet remained a complete stranger—shattered whatever strength she had left.
She rocked back and forth on the dusty ground, the tears spilling rapidly over her trembling fingers.
"I don't... I don't know what you are talking about!" she choked out between her bitter sobs, her voice cracking under the immense strain.
"I DON'T... I DON'T... I DON'T KNOW YOU!!!"
She screamed the final words with everything left in her lungs, her desperate cry echoing painfully through the ruined street as she completely gave in to the despair.
Hikaru was already deeply annoyed, and hearing Tenten's desperate scream ring out across the street pushed his temper over the edge, making him extremely angry.
His face darkened completely as he slowly bent down, bringing his glowing Sharingan eyes level with her tear-stained face. The sheer malice radiating from him made the hot summer air feel instantly suffocating.
"Are you sure you don't know me...?" he whispered, his voice dangerously low and dripping with pure venom.
Tenten's breath hitched in her throat. Staring into those blood-red eyes so close to her own, a wave of cold, absolute horror washed over her.
'Before this man in front of me even does anything...' Tenten thought frantically, her heart hammering so hard against her ribs it felt painful. 'I will myself die from pure fear...'
Hikaru stared at her, watching as Tenten's face drained of all color, turning completely pale. She sat there trembling in the dirt, entirely paralyzed and utterly unable to respond to his threat.
Seeing her complete and total helplessness, the fury on Hikaru's face suddenly twisted into a cold, mocking amusement. He let out a soft, low chuckle that echoed dryly against the broken walls of the dango shop.
"Heh... it's okay—" Hikaru murmured, straightening up slightly as he looked down his nose at her. "Apply your brain. Though you look dumb by look, but you aren't... you're a ninja, after all."
He paused, letting the heavy silence settle over the district again as he intensely stared her down, waiting for any sign of compliance.
"Right?.." he asked softly.
Tenten was frozen stiff. She didn't move a single inch, her wide, terrified eyes locked on the dirt beneath his boots.
The lack of an immediate answer snapped his patience.
"RIGHT?!" Hikaru shouted angrily, his voice snapping like a whip through the quiet street.
The sudden shout made Tenten flinch violently. Terrified of what he would do if she remained silent, she quickly nodded her head just a fraction of an inch.
Hikaru's eyes narrowed into a dark smirk as he saw her submit.
"Good..." he continued, his tone turning utterly cold and ruthless as he turned his back to her. "You have exactly one minute."
The sixty-second countdown hung over Tenten's head like a heavy, sharpened blade. Her heart hammered a frantic, erratic rhythm against her ribs, her mind spinning into a dark vortex of absolute panic.
'How can I...?' she thought, her hands clawing desperately into the dry dirt as her thoughts fractured.
'How can I... how can I tell?! When I am seeing him for the very first time in my entire life, how can I tell him who he is...? '
It was a nightmare scenario brought to life—a cruel, twisted situation where someone holds a weapon to your chest and demands the answer to a complex question you have never once studied in your life.
No matter how deep you dig, no matter how frantically you search through the pages of your memory, the canvas is completely blank.
The information simply does not exist. Yet, the price for a wrong answer, or no answer at all, is absolute destruction.
The sheer hopelessness of it all completely crushed her. Sitting helplessly in the dust beneath the blazing midday sun, Tenten let out a ragged, trembling gasp as a fresh wave of bitter tears spilled over her pale cheeks, splashing onto the ground below.
She was entirely at his mercy, trapped in a blank slate of pure terror.
Through the blur of her heavy tears, Tenten slowly forced her trembling chin up. Her blurred vision locked onto the tall figure standing just a few feet away from her.
Hikaru had already turned away, his broad back facing her completely as he calmly waited for the seconds to tick down, projecting an icy, unbothered confidence that made her stomach churn.
The sight of his cold indifference was the final blow.
Tenten tightly squeezed her eyes shut, letting the hot tears stream down her pale face as she completely abandoned any hope of finding an answer.
'Why...?' she cried out in the silent, desperate depths of her mind, her whole soul trembling with a raw, agonizing plea.
'Why, Kami-sama...? What wrong did I do to you that you are punishing me in such a way, Kami-sama... a young girl like me?'
She pressed her forehead toward the dusty earth, silently begging the heavens for a miracle as the final seconds of her one-minute deadline rapidly slipped away into the hot summer air.
Behind the weeping girl, the mysterious dark-haired woman stood completely unbothered by the despair around her. Her cold, unblinking eyes shifted away from Tenten's slumped form and turned slowly toward Kurenai, who was still desperately holding the broken body of Asuma in her arms.
The woman took a slow step closer, her gaze dropping to the blood staining Asuma's clothing.
"Don't tell me... he is the son of Sarutobi Hiruzen...?" she murmured, her voice entirely devoid of warmth. She tilted her head up slightly, looking down at the wounded man with a chilling indifference.
"What was your name again...?"
The silence stretched for a few agonizing seconds, the heavy summer wind blowing dust across the road. Then, a sharp, mocking smirk pulled at the woman's lips.
"Whatever—" she purred smoothly, letting out a soft, dismissive sigh. "After all... you're just a disgrace!!"
Hearing those cruel, insulting words hurled at the heavily bleeding man in her arms, something inside Kurenai violently snapped. The sheer terror she had been feeling vanished, entirely replaced by a white-hot, uncontrollable rage.
While still tightly holding Asuma against her chest, she raised her head and shouted with everything left in her lungs.
"HEY!!!" Kurenai yelled, her voice echoing furiously against the shattered walls of the street.
The anger in her eyes burned like wildfire. She didn't care about the terrifying power standing in front of her anymore, nor did she care about the danger to her own life.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kurenai screamed, her teeth gritted as hot tears of anger mixed with the dust on her face.
"A disgrace?! You say that so easily, standing there looking down on him like you know everything. Don't you dare talk about him like he's just some trash you can dismiss!!"
She took a sharp, ragged breath, her grip tightening on Asuma's vest as she pressed on, her voice shaking the heavy summer air.
"He is a shinobi of Konoha, the son of Sandaime Hokage...."
"....To call someone who fought until they bled a disgrace... you have absolutely no right to speak his name, let alone judge him! Shut your mouth and don't you dare look down on his sacrifice!!"
The entire street fell completely silent after Kurenai's furious roar. She stood there, gasping for air, her chest heaving violently as she continuously stared at the dark-haired woman down. She had poured every ounce of her remaining strength and spirit into defending Asuma's honor, refusing to back down even an inch.
The mysterious woman didn't yell back. She didn't even look annoyed by the outburst. Instead, her expression remained entirely cold, her lips set in that same dismissive, mocking smirk.
To her, the Konoha kunoichi was nothing more than an annoying insect that had made altogether too much noise.
Slowly, deliberately, the woman raised her arm. She extended her open palm toward Kurenai's face, her slender fingers spacing apart.
The positioning was precise, cutting off the light so that Kurenai's wide, angry eyes were perfectly framed right in the gaps between those dark, menacing fingers.
The shadow of the Uchiha's hand fell completely over Kurenai's face like pure despair
Then, with a sudden, ruthless finality, the woman sharply curled her fingers inward, as if physically grasping the air itself.
In that exact split second, a massive, suffocating wave of dense, malicious chakra exploded from her body.
The chakra was so immense, so utterly overwhelming, that the very air in the commercial district grew visibly heavy, rippling with a dark, crushing weight. It wasn't a physical blow, yet it struck with the force of a suffocating storm.
The fiery defiance in Kurenai's eyes instantly shattered into absolute shock. Before she could even gasp, the terrifying pressure of the Uchiha's chakra completely swamped her mind, forcing her vision to snap instantly into pitch blackness.
Her body went completely limp, her consciousness entirely extinguished in a single breath.
With a soft Thud, Kurenai collapsed into the dirt, slumped unconsciously along with the bleeding body of the boy she had tried so hard to protect.
The street returned to a deafening, terrifying silence.
Nearby, the little boy was already trying his best to wake Kakashi up. When he saw Kurenai suddenly collapse into the dirt, the poor boy panicked even more. He turned all his attention back to Kakashi, tears streaming down his face as he cried out.
"Hey! Wake up... please wake up! Hey... hey!" he screamed, his voice breaking.
In his desperate panic, the little boy was literally using his tiny fingers to forcefully pull Kakashi's eyelids open, trying everything he could to make the older ninja look at him.
Hikaru watched the boy's stubborn, frantic actions. Instead of feeling any anger or annoyance at the child, the coldness in his dark eyes completely melted away. Seeing that exact, sweet stubbornness struck a deeply buried feeling in his heart, bringing back a wave of fondness from his childhood days.
A quiet, gentle murmur escaped his lips, carrying a warmth he hadn't shown to anyone in years.
"You look just like her..." Hikaru whispered softly, a faint, genuine smile touching the corner of his lips. "Your mother must have been exactly this stubborn and beautiful when she was a little girl."
A few feets away, Hikaru stood completely still in the middle of the quiet street, casually resting the unsheathed blade of his katana horizontally across the back of his shoulders, his arms loosely draped over the weapon. He looked completely unbothered, a terrifying picture of calm authority.
Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, he turned around.
The heavy leather of his boots softly crunched against the dirt as he began walking back toward the slumped, trembling form of Tenten. He stopped directly in front of her, casting a long, dark shadow over her small, defeated figure as she looked up through her tear-blurred vision.
Slowly, Hikaru bent down once again, bringing his face level with hers. A cold, mocking smirk pulled at the corners of his lips as he gazed into her wide, terrified eyes.
"My bad..." he murmured smoothly, his voice a chilling purr in the hot summer air. "I gave you more than one minute... but let's leave it at that."
In an instant, the playful smirk completely vanished from his features. His expression grew incredibly sharp, dark, and intensely serious, freezing the very air between them.
"Tell me..." Hikaru whispered, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a piercing intensity that seemed to look right through her soul. "...Do you know who I am?"
At his words, it was as if Tenten's voice completely died in her throat. The sheer, suffocating pressure of his gaze made it impossible to breathe.
Her mind raced, a terrifying realization suddenly sparking through the fog of her despair.
Every detail, every familiar stance, every line of his presence suddenly connected in a single, horrifying second.
Clinging to the very last shred of her courage, she forced her trembling lips to part. Her voice was barely a broken whisper, shaking with an absolute, world-shattering shock.
"Don't... don't tell me you are..."
Her breath completely caught as the truth hit her like a physical blow.
"SASUKE—"
---
⚡NEXT CHAPTER⚡
The rogue has finally been cornered... yet his eyes hold no fear.
As the Hokage asks, "What do you want?" the answer will shake everyone present. The price for the truth... may be far greater than anyone imagined.
Chapter 44 – The Demands Of A Rogue
SNEAK PEEK LINES 💬
'How can... is he really talking to me about being married?! What is he even saying?!'
".....Give Kurenai all the medical support she needs! Don't lose a single second!"
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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