The four of them stepped out of the house, leapt onto a nearby rooftop, and quickly dashed several hundred meters away to a street.
"The Hidden Cloud Village envoy team is staying in that house over there. ANBU ninja are guarding and protecting the area, more than ten of them."
Kakashi stood beside Akashō, relaying the intel he had access to as an ANBU.
"Mm."
Akashō nodded. "You can handle them, right?"
"Shouldn't be a problem. Our goal isn't to kill them—just stall them."
After speaking, Shisui took out a scroll and handed it to Akashō.
"This is the leader of the envoy team."
Akashō opened it, glanced over it, and nodded. "Got it."
"Then let's move."
The four turned into black shadows and jumped down from the rooftop. Akashō charged ahead, but before he could reach the door, several more shadows sprang out from the darkness—ANBU ninja in masks and black cloaks.
"Who goes there!?"
Before the ANBU could act, Kakashi and the other two stepped in front of them.
"Don't get in the way!"
Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing the Sharingan Obito had given him. On the other side, Shisui also activated his Sharingan.
"Sorry, colleagues. You're not getting through here."
"Sharingan Kakashi, Body Flicker Shisui, and… that Uchiha kid. Do you even know what you're doing? Are you trying to betray the village!?"
After throwing several kunai to force back two ANBU, Itachi's mouth twitched. He'd known for a while that he didn't have much presence in front of these two, but hearing it said so bluntly still stung…
...
Meanwhile, with the ANBU held back, Akashō successfully entered the house and ran straight into the Hidden Cloud Village envoy team, who had come out to check the disturbance.
"You are…?"
As the confused envoys stared at him, Akashō quickly locked onto the target from Shisui's intel. Threads shot out from his fingertips; with a casual flick, he wrapped them around the man's neck and yanked hard, dragging him right in front of himself.
"Stop! Who are you!? How dare you attack the Hidden Cloud Village envoy team!? Are the ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village all useless, letting an assassin barge in!?"
Seeing their leader being dragged away, the rest of the envoys rushed at Akashō in fury.
Just as he expected, they were pathetically weak. With a few casual movements, he sent them all flying.
Then Akashō walked out of the house, dragging the envoy leader—his neck already beaded with blood as he struggled desperately.
"Move it, Akashō! We can't hold them off for long!"
Akashō glanced at the three fighting over a dozen ANBU, responded with a short acknowledgment, and quickened his pace, dragging the envoy leader through the gaps in the battlefield toward the Hokage building at the center of the village.
He wasn't moving particularly fast—or slow. His goal was to draw as much attention from the entire Hidden Leaf Village as possible, so rushing would defeat the purpose.
And sure enough, the sight of him dragging someone through the streets drew countless stares.
"What's going on?"
"That guy… isn't he wearing a Hidden Cloud Village headband?"
"No, that's someone from the envoy team!"
"Oh my god, a Hidden Cloud envoy has been kidnapped! Who is that guy? He's not even wearing a headband—an outsider spy?"
"Wait… that's Uzumaki Akashō!?"
"Uzumaki Akashō? Isn't he…? Why would he attack the envoy team?"
"No idea, but this is bad… the peace talks will collapse…"
"Someone stop him!"
"Uzumaki Akashō, stop right now! Are you trying to start another war!?"
Once people realized who he was dragging, panic spread among the onlookers. They shouted for him to stop, but not a single person dared step forward.
After crossing two streets, he finally ran into a squad of Hidden Leaf ninja.
"That's the Uchiha Police Force!"
"Finally, someone who can stop him."
"Quick, arrest Uzumaki Akashō, you Uchiha!"
Akashō stopped and smiled faintly as he looked at the squad of Uchiha ninja, all wearing clothes marked with their clan crest, staring in confusion.
But just as the crowd expected them to act, the Uchiha quietly turned their heads away, as if they had seen nothing, allowing Akashō to drag the envoy leader right past them.
"What are the Uchiha doing!?"
"Why aren't they arresting him!?"
"They must be in on it! The Uchiha really are a bunch of dangerous people who only bring harm to the village!"
Hearing the angry curses from the crowd, the Uchiha squad leader let out a cold laugh.
"A bunch of useless fools—big mouths when begging others to do their work."
"Still… the clan head Fugaku said not to act no matter what happens today. Was he talking about this?"
He quietly turned his head to watch Akashō's retreating figure, muttering,
"This is getting pretty big… Hiruzen Sarutobi's probably going to blow a fuse. Heh… when you think about it, that's actually kind of satisfying."
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