Danzo quickly raised his hand to block the sudden smoke and waved it away.
One of the Root agents nearby was suddenly thrown into the air. None of them had seen it coming.
Danzo turned to look at the man who was now smashed into a tree and gritted his teeth.
"Go after him! He's badly injured—he can't have gotten far!"
Right now, the priority wasn't figuring out how the guy flew—it was catching Shisui.
Shisui already knew what they were after—there was no way they'd let him live.
Hatake Satoru poked his head out from the bushes, a leaf stuck to his hair. The light blue mist around his hands was only just starting to fade.
There was no sign of chakra coming from him, and his teleportation cut the distance directly.
The Root members were all focused on chasing after Shisui up ahead.
None of them noticed that Hatake Satoru was even here.
With the Six Eyes, his sensing range was wide enough to clearly track both Shisui and the Root members.
Danzo stepped back twice, frowning at the masked man who had been slammed into a tree.
A branch had gone straight through his body—he must've died the moment he hit the trunk.
Danzo's brows furrowed even more. Just a moment ago, the only person here was Shisui, and he was missing an eye.
Mangekyou Sharingan... was there another ability he didn't know about?
He had to deal with Shisui immediately.
Danzo looked deeply into the dense forest ahead.
After losing one eye, Shisui's field of view had shrunk.
He bit his pale lips and glanced back at the five people chasing him without letting up.
Normally, these guys wouldn't be a threat to him.
But now, after the fight with Danzo and losing an eye, he'd burned through a lot of chakra.
Shisui quickly ran through a plan in his mind—he couldn't afford to use chakra-heavy techniques carelessly.
He jumped into the air and bent his fingers mid-air.
The hand signs were etched into his mind so well, he didn't even have to think—his body just moved on its own.
Shisui's fingers moved in a blur, forming seals as he floated mid-air.
Thumbs crossed, left thumb on top — Rat.
Both thumbs straightened, right fist tapping left palm — Tiger and Dog.
Right hand flat, left hand vertical, right pinky raised as the hand closed — Ox and Hare.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"
Shisui muttered under his breath, placed his thumb near the corner of his mouth, and spat out fireballs like phoenix flower seeds.
With a slight tilt of his head, the fireballs shot out in the direction he moved.
This Ninjutsu was just a stalling tactic. The Root members were strong, no doubt about that.
Their steps only paused for a second—they dodged the flames and quickly came charging at Shisui again.
That's just a standard C-rank technique. Hatake Satoru peeked out and mimicked Shisui's hand signs.
He wasn't as fast, but his finger movements were pretty nimble—for someone like him, a few days of practice would be enough to pull it off.
Too bad I don't have chakra, Hatake Satoru thought as he flexed his fingers, making them crack loudly.
He gave a small shake of his head, and in the next instant, vanished on the spot.
*"Whoosh!"*
Several kunai flew toward Shisui from all directions. Even for him, such a dense barrage was tough to deal with.
The sound of slicing wind filled the air as the kunai slammed into the spot where Shisui had just landed.
He couldn't afford to keep using Body Flicker with what little chakra he had left.
No one knew how long these guys were going to keep chasing him.
Shisui gritted his teeth, crouched on a branch, pushed off lightly with one hand, and drew the short blade from his back with the other.
A flash of silver—*clink, clink, clink*—and the kunai clattered to the ground.
Shisui clearly saw something hanging from the back of one of the kunai, and his heart sank.
But by then, it was too late to stop. His momentum had already carried him through the motion.
The moment his blade struck the kunai—*BOOM!*—a loud explosion went off, and thick smoke quickly spread around him.
Shisui quickly flashed out of the poisonous gas and landed unsteadily on a nearby tree branch.
His stamina and chakra were nearly gone—he was at his limit.
Even though he had used his teleportation jutsu to escape, he still couldn't avoid breathing in some of the gas earlier.
He gasped for air, but everything in front of him looked blurry. He dropped into a crouch on the branch.
The five Root operatives quickly surrounded him. At this point, he was out of options.
"Don't go for his head. Aim for his legs."
One of them gave the order in a flat, emotionless voice.
"Got it."
The others responded and aimed their kunai, each one laced with explosive tags, at the branch beneath Shisui.
"I still... still have things I need to do...!"
Shisui muttered as he forced his eyes open.
His red eyes spun rapidly, the three tomoe quickly coming together.
Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Susano'o!"
A loud blast echoed around Shisui. The tree under him shattered and splintered.
The explosion, with Shisui at its center, leveled a large part of the surrounding forest, leaving behind a scorched, dirt-covered clearing.
With the smell of burning from the exploding tags still in the air, the Root members backed off to a safer distance, eyes locked on the thick cloud of smoke ahead.
Because they could sense… this explosion wasn't the only thing coming.
Through the fading smoke, the shape of a huge green figure began to appear.
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