Escaping the Mist Ninja starts with backstabbing your teacher.

Chapter 170 Arrival at the Sealed Land!

Deep within the base, the dim light cast shadows on the small room.

Danzo sat behind the stone platform, his one eye fixed on the oil lamp on the table. The flame danced on the wick, casting a faint orange hue in his pupil.

Several intelligence scrolls were spread out in front of him, summarizing Shisui's recent movements and border patrol reports from the Dark Division.

He read through Shisui's intelligence report again. Shisui hadn't shown any unusual behavior in the past few days: normal training, normal execution of ANBU missions, and normal contact with Rong.

He never contacted Taketori Izumi again, nor did he reveal any further details of that meeting to anyone.

Danzo's one eye twitched slightly; normality was the greatest abnormality.

How could someone who has been in contact with an S-rank rogue ninja be completely unaffected?

The more flawless Shisui appears, the more it reveals that he is hiding something.

But Danzo did not intend to act immediately. His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest, one tap at a time, in a slow and deep rhythm.

Rather than actively trying to kill Shisui, it's better to use him as bait. That traitor from the Mist Village who took the initiative to contact Shisui must have some ulterior motive.

If Shisui reconnects with Izumi Taketori, he will become a thread, with the fish Danzo truly desires tied to the other end of the thread.

Taketori Izumi, a person with Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan, Sharingan, and possibly Hashirama cells, harbors too many things that Danzo desires.

This time, if he were to step into Konoha again—

A cold glint flashed in Danzo's single eye.

He took out an unmarked sealed scroll from a hidden compartment behind the stone platform, unfolded it, picked up a pen, and wrote lines of instructions on the blank paper.

After finishing writing, he rolled up the scroll, tied a sealing rope, and spoke into the empty room.

"Someone come here!"

In the darkness, a figure silently appeared, kneeling on one knee.

"Give this scroll to him." Danzo's voice was soft, but every word was like a poisoned knife. "Have him select three elite members of Root to form a special operations team."

"The mission is to secretly monitor Uchiha Shisui without alerting him."

"We will focus on whether he has any unusual contact with the outside world. If we find that he has contacted Izumi Taketori again, we will report it immediately and not interfere for the time being."

"We'll make our move together once I see Taketori Izumi. We need to see him alive or dead, especially Taketori Izumi; try to capture him alive."

The ANBU member took the scroll: "Lord Danzo, what if Shisui doesn't contact them at all?"

Danzo remained silent for a moment, a glint of light flashing in his single eye: "Then continue to monitor him. His patience won't last longer than my nails."

"Yes!" The figure from the ANBU disappeared into the darkness.

Danzo leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and tapped his fingers lightly on the armrests, the rhythm slower than before, as if counting down to a hunt that had not yet begun.

The oil lamp flickered, the flame almost went out, but then it reignited.

In the flickering light and shadow, his face appeared to be in and out of focus, like a stone statue eroded by time, hard, cold, and devoid of any warmth.

In the darkness, Danzo's one eye moved slightly. He picked up his pen and wrote a few lines on a new sheet of paper.

There was no signature, only a few words: "He has started to keep an eye on your whereabouts."

He folded the letter, stuffed it into a small bamboo tube, and sealed it.

No signature is needed; Orochimaru knows who is being referred to and who "he" is.

Inside the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat behind his desk, oblivious to the fact that his pipe had been extinguished long ago.

Several documents were spread out on the table: a border patrol report submitted by the Anbu, a summary of the ninja academy's teaching progress, and several routine inquiries from the Daimyo's prefecture.

But his gaze didn't fall on any of the documents; instead, he stared out the window at the Hidden Leaf Village shrouded in twilight, remaining motionless for a long time.

He read Shisui's scroll many times. It wasn't that he didn't trust Shisui, but he felt that the matter was not so simple.

Did the other party come to Konoha merely to bewitch Shisui?

Furthermore, the things Shisui mentioned in his report indicate that Taketori Izumi had a considerable understanding of the situation inside Konoha.

It seems we need to investigate when they infiltrated and whether they did anything else.

The third-generation leader placed his pipe on the table, picked up a pen, and wrote a few lines on a blank order form.

What he wrote was not a surveillance order against Shisui, nor an interrogation of Danzo, but a secret letter to Jiraiya.

"You have traveled and searched for many years. If you have any information regarding the recent movements of this person, 'Taketori Izumi,' please send it back immediately."

"Someone come here!"

The figure from the Dark Guard appeared before him.

"Give this letter to Jiraiya." The Third Hokage handed the scroll to the Anbu and instructed, "As soon as possible."

The ANBU ninja nodded and disappeared from the office using the Body Flicker Technique.

The third generation man picked up his pipe again, lit it, and took a deep drag.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Land of Fire, Izumi is leading Yokura to the sealed land.

The bone dragon flew through the sky, while inside the room on its abdomen, two people leisurely drank tea.

Yecang couldn't help but ask, "As for Uchiha Shisui, since you believe he will report back, why did you still contact him?"

"Because after the report, he will find out." Izumi's lips curled up slightly. "Danzo will be watching him, the Third Hokage will be paying attention to him, and he himself will repeatedly ponder the words I said."

The more you think, the more uneasy you become; the more uneasy you are, the more you want to know the truth.

Yekura was silent for a moment: "You're fishing."

"No, I'm planting trees." Izumi sat up straight in his chair, gazing at the skyline outside the window. "When the trees grow up, they will naturally bear fruit."

He took out a small scroll from his sleeve, unfolded it, and it showed the location of Naruto Island and the structure of the seal.

"So let's put that aside for now and go to Naruto Island to retrieve that sealed weapon."

Ye Cang looked at the clouds outside the window, then at the man in front of her: "Aren't we waiting for Shisui's results?"

"No need to wait." Izumi chuckled softly, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "It will take time for him to get out of his predicament."

"And that's enough time for me to make a round trip to Naruto. And—" He paused, a meaningful smile playing on his lips, "I bet he won't hand over my things."

"Besides, that skeletal spider contains my spatial imprint."

"Even if something happens, I can just go there through the Divine Might Space."

"Unfortunately, the distance is too far, and the energy expenditure will be very high."

Ye Cang was speechless. This man really had considered everything.

A few days later, Narushima.

The island's vegetation is almost insanely lush, with vines twining around tree trunks and ferns growing taller than a person.

-

The air was filled with the damp, humid smell of decay, mixed with the salty tang of the sea.

Izumi and Yokura walked north along a path almost swallowed up by plants, their feet sinking half an inch under the soft moss and decaying leaves.

Izumikawa's right eye, the Byakugan, had quietly awakened. His gaze pierced through layers of vegetation and rocks, fixed on the seal deep underground.

During the Warring States period, the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan fought each other relentlessly.

In order to achieve victory, the Uchiha clan selected a young girl and turned her into a "weapon".

The girl's parents died early, and she was given the name "Nameless" by her tribe and trained to be a weapon.

Her Mangekyou Sharingan possesses a type of eye technique called "Yachinobu".

They can implant chakra marks into others' bodies, remotely control their minds, and even absorb chakra from thousands of miles away.

Even with such immense power, she could not bridge the chasm of war, nor could she escape her fate as a "weapon."

Ultimately, because this "weapon" was too powerful, the Sarutobi clan took the lead and united with several other clans to seal it away.

The sealing array on the ground was built by six stone pillars surrounding the stone coffin, with layers upon layers of sealing spells wrapped around the pillars.

The sealing masters of the Warring States period set up this formation not only to imprison her body, but also to settle the fears of an era.

The sea fog grew thicker and thicker, surging in from the shore and slowly swallowing the entire island into a gray-white world.

The sunlight shattered into fine particles in the sea fog, falling on Izumi's shoulders and hair, like a silent measure of time.

He sat cross-legged in front of the hidden door, his hands forming a mudra. Chakra, like invisible fingers, peeled away layer by layer the ancient spells that clung to the stone door.

"This is no ordinary seal." Izumi suddenly spoke, his voice soft, but his gaze never left the seal patterns on the stone door.

Ye Cang tilted his head slightly, a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Izumi continued, "The information fed back from the sealing technique indicates that there is a living being inside, but it has been suppressed to a minimum, almost to the point of feigning death."

"A very interesting seal, allowing people from hundreds of years ago to live to this day."

He paused, a slight smile playing on his lips. "However, if we choose to seal it instead of killing it, I'm afraid they'll have no way to deal with this weapon."

Ye Cang was silent for a moment: "What do you plan to do with the things inside?"

"Of course we'll release them." Izumi's answer was without the slightest hesitation, and he even gave Yekura a strange look.

He instantly understood her concerns—the fear of unleashing an uncontrollable disaster—so he reassured her, "Don't worry, I'm confident."

Ye Cang glanced at him but didn't say anything more.

At the final moment when the Warring States sealing technique was completely stripped away, the dark gate emitted a muffled roar.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was deep and resonant, like something that had been sealed away for too long, finally waiting to be released.

Behind the door was a stone staircase leading downwards, its surface smooth and dark from the moisture seeping in by the sea fog.

Izumi stood up, stretched his stiff fingers, and walked downstairs first.

At the end of the stone steps was the underground tomb chamber surrounded by six stone pillars.

Six towering stone pillars stood, their surfaces carved with intricate patterns. Izumi's disdainful gaze swept over the base of the pillars.

These pillars are not only the nodes of the seal, but also the core of the entire formation's operation.

The stone coffin, carved from granite, was placed in the center of the tomb chamber. The lid was closed and covered with densely packed incantations, arranged in a more precise manner than those on the stone door.