The highest probability was that the scrolls were kept in his house.
The door was unlocked. They probably never imagined an intruder would appear today after decades of isolation.
The interior was simple: a wooden table, a wicker chair, a tea set...
But there was no bookshelf filled with ninjutsu scrolls, which was what Izuna had hoped to find.
"A ninja clan has to have them," Izuna whispered.
Any ninja clan would meticulously record its techniques to ensure they could be passed down even if their users met an untimely end.
Izuna placed his hands on the walls, activating his Sharingan as he felt his way around.
"Hm?"
He felt a strange indentation behind a wall scroll.
The scroll itself was an ordinary counterfeit of a famous artist's work. When Izuna pulled it aside, he found a small hole behind it, just large enough to fit a hand into.
Izuna didn't rush to stick his hand inside. Instead, he created a new shadow clone to do the job.
The clone reached into the hole. When its hand reached the bottom, it raised an eyebrow and reported to the original, "There's a pull-ring inside."
"Try pulling it," Izuna said.
The clone nodded, hooked its finger through the ring, and pulled.
In the next second, the clone's expression changed, and it vanished in a puff of smoke.
The clone's memories flooded into Izuna's mind. When it pulled the ring, a kunai or dagger had shot out from inside the top of the wall, piercing the clone's hand and causing it to disperse.
"Good thing I used a shadow clone." Izuna made another one. At times like this, he really envied the Hyuga clan's Byakugan; no trap could hide from their eyes.
It took five more shadow clones before he finally figured out the mechanism.
The ring wasn't meant to be pulled; it was meant to be turned. Most people would naturally pull it.
If anyone had tried to steal these Sage Art scrolls before him, they would have either gotten their arm pinned—forcing them to sever it to escape—or been trapped there, waiting for Hihiko and the others to return and kill them.
A thin crack appeared in the middle of the wall where the scroll had been hanging. The wall slid open to both sides, revealing a two-meter-tall bookshelf filled to the brim.
*Scrolls!*
Izuna quickly grabbed one and unrolled it.
It was a list of clan members from ancient times who had gone berserk or died because of their innate ability to absorb natural energy. Not what he was looking for.
Without caring how suspicious it would look when Hihiko and the others returned, Izuna grabbed scroll after scroll, unrolling them, and tossing them aside if they weren't what he needed.
***
Meanwhile, in the mountains ten li from the village, more than twenty ninja led by Hihiko had surrounded Qizhi—or rather, Izuna's shadow clone disguised as him.
"H-how can this be? Wasn't it Qizhi who told us to come catch the intruder? Why is he here?"
Everyone was bewildered. Qizhi had told them there was an intruder and to come help, but when they caught up, they found that the intruder and the one who had warned them were the same person.
Hihiko's heart sank. After a moment's thought, he yelled, "Damn it, we've been tricked! Everyone, back to the village, now!"
Then he turned his attention back to the impostor in the middle. "Capture him!"
Just as they were about to move, the target formed a single hand seal and vanished in a puff of white smoke.
They recognized the effect—it was a clone jutsu!
But... what kind of clone jutsu could move freely and even use ninjutsu?
"Forget about it, just get back to the village!" Hihiko had no time to ponder it further. All he knew was that the village was in trouble.
He wasn't too surprised by the unprecedented clone technique.
Ninjutsu was constantly being invented. It wasn't strange for new techniques to have been developed while his clan had been living in seclusion.
***
After unrolling and tossing aside most of the scrolls, Izuna finally found what he was looking for.
The first was a scroll detailing the specific training methods for their Sage Art—though calling it Sage Art wasn't entirely accurate.
Members of this clan were born with the ability to absorb natural energy, which infused their ninjutsu with Sage Chakra.
They couldn't be equated with true Sage Art users like Senju Hashirama or Uzumaki Naruto.
The second scroll contained the insights and methods for preventing berserker transformations, written by generations of leaders and masters who had learned to control their Sage Chakra.
Just as Izuna stuffed the two scrolls into his ninja pouch, Hihiko's cold voice came from behind him. "The last time an intruder came here was thirty years ago. He fell for the trap and had to sever his own arm to escape. I didn't expect someone even more capable to show up this time—someone who not only broke the trap but also killed three of our own..."
It wasn't just Hihiko. Dozens of people from the street had gathered around the cottage, completely surrounding it.
Izuna's back was to Hihiko and the others at the door, hiding his face from them.
"Farewell," he said with a smile, still facing away.
"What?"
Before Hihiko and his clan could process his words, the intruder vanished into thin air.
"B-Body Flicker Technique? No, that's not it! But... but..."
A Jonin next to Hihiko initially thought it was the Body Flicker Technique but immediately dismissed the idea.
The Body Flicker Technique was just high-speed movement, not teleportation.
Their clan had blocked the only exit. No matter how strong the ninja, escaping with the Body Flicker Technique would have been impossible.
Hihiko's face was grim as he hurried inside and quickly sorted through the scrolls scattered on the floor and the few remaining on the shelf. The others fanned out across the island, searching for the intruder.
***
On the very boat Izuna had taken, now a dozen nautical miles from the "Sage's Isle."
The head boatman huddled in a corner, staring at the gold bar Izuna had given him as payment. *As soon as I get back, I'm moving somewhere else,* he thought.
If those freaks from the Sage's Isle found out what he'd done, he'd be in deep trouble. With this money, he could start a new life anywhere.
As he was lost in his calculations, a shadow materialized before him, startling him so badly that he fell on his rear.
"Waaah!"
After landing flat on his back, the boatman scrambled to pick up the gold bar that had clattered onto the deck. When he looked up again, he saw Izuna standing right in front of him, having appeared out of nowhere.
"Uh... uh... M-My lord, you..." The boatman was so shocked he could barely speak. Even if he weren't stuttering, he wouldn't have known what to say.
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