"See you next time, brat~"
Tsunade's cheeks still held a faint flush. She looked oddly content as she waved at him.
Uchiha Sogetsu, on the other hand, looked like a man who'd been hollowed out.
His eyes were glazed. His legs wobbled as he staggered down the corridor, one hand pressed against the wall for balance.
And no—the problem was absolutely not that he'd done anything improper under hypnosis.
"Trying to force a subconscious suggestion into a Kage-level shinobi really isn't something I should be doing casually…"
The little bit of spirituality he'd managed to recover after the dream meeting had already started trickling away again. Two big overdrafts in a row had his ears filled with faint murmurs—as if something were whispering in a tongue he couldn't quite understand.
It felt worryingly close to the early signs of potion backlash.
Never again. I am never pulling a stunt like that again…
The potion system was dangerous by design. One misstep and you fell straight into "losing control."
This little escapade? Consider the lesson learned.
"Uh, Dr. Sogetsu, are you… all right?"
A passing medical-nin froze at the door, staring at the sight of him bracing himself against the wall as he left Tsunade's office.
His expression screamed: My worldview is in danger.
Sogetsu didn't even need to read his aura to guess what the man was thinking.
"I just burned through too much chakra treating Lady Tsunade," he said quickly.
"Ah, ah, I understand, I understand, Dr. Sogetsu."
The man thumped his own chest reassuringly, wearing the exact look of someone who understood completely.
"Don't worry, Doctor. I, Morita, am famous for keeping my mouth shut. I won't say a word."
I wouldn't trust your "shut mouth" as far as I could throw it…
Sogetsu's lips twitched; a bead of cold sweat crawled down his face.
"I was really just treating her."
"Of course! Of course you were!"
Morita's grin turned weirdly knowing.
"No need to explain. I totally support you and Lady Tsunade~"
Before Sogetsu could get another word in, Morita bolted down the hall like a man racing to deliver urgent gossip.
Damn.
If he weren't on the edge of spiritual overload, Sogetsu would've gladly given that idiot a full demonstration of Mind-Game: Saw Trap Edition.
Under the stunned, gossip-hungry looks of every medic-nin and nurse along the way, he finally managed to limp out of the hospital.
He could only shed two silent tears in his heart.
From this day forward, his pristine reputation was dead.
He didn't even need to imagine it. The hospital's nest of gossip addicts would spread this "news" to every corner of Konoha by tomorrow.
Hopefully, when it reached Tsunade's ears, she wouldn't beat him to death out of sheer embarrassment.
Sogetsu pinched the bridge of his nose, steadying his breathing and smoothing the ripples in his mind. He was planning to head back to the Uchiha compound for a good long rest when—
He turned down an empty alley.
And something dropped out of the air without a sound.
Shff.
An ANBU in a cat-pattern mask landed in front of him like a ghost.
"Uchiha Sogetsu. You have a mission. Come with me."
The "cat"'s tone was sharp and unfriendly; his eyes behind the mask were downright icy.
Sogetsu's brow creased in the barest hint of a frown.
The Idealist path might be weak in raw combat, but its spiritual senses were sharp. With his Rank VI Hypnotist perception and spirit vision, he could peer past surface expressions to the colours of aura and the shape of the etheric body—sometimes even brush the edges of a person's thoughts.
In the depths of Cat-mask's gaze, he saw only coldness.
Hostility.
Killing intent.
Not here to make friends, then…
His face didn't change. He simply nodded.
"Understood."
They arrived at the Forest of Death.
"Are we here?"
When his guide finally stopped, Sogetsu adjusted his glasses with one finger and took in the surroundings.
Ancient trees towered above them, crowns spreading out like umbrellas to cast heavy shade. Branches tangled overhead; somewhere in the undergrowth, insects droned and birds called.
All in all… beautiful, if you ignored the name.
"We're here."
Cat-mask turned to face him fully.
His eyes had gone even colder.
Sogetsu checked the surroundings again with spirit vision. No ambushes. No hidden additional signatures.
Just the two of them.
He relaxed a fraction. No matter how good a shinobi was at hiding their breath, they couldn't erase the glow of a living etheric body.
"Uchiha Sogetsu," Cat-mask said, "per ANBU protocol, I am now going to interrogate you."
He ticked off the "charges" one by one.
"You've been using genjutsu on people all over the village under the guise of being a psychiatrist. What is your real objective? Is Uchiha Fugaku directing you from behind the scenes? Do you still acknowledge Lord Hokage as your liege?"
"Instead of your 'interrogation,' I'm more interested in who sent you."
Sogetsu's lashes lowered. Deep in his pupils, a dark vortex seemed to stir.
"Why don't I guess?"
"Uchiha Sogetsu, do not derail the subject!"
Cat-mask's voice sharpened. A kunai was already in his hand, killing intent rising like frost.
"This is an order. ANBU shinobi don't need to ask questions. They don't need emotions. They don't need personal will. They only need to execute commands. Understood?"
"Click…"
Sogetsu cocked his head, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"I was wondering where I'd heard that line before."
He gave the man a slow once-over.
"Oh. Right. There's only one place in the Leaf where people talk about 'not needing emotions' and 'abandoning will' as a virtue."
"You're Root, aren't you?"
"So you are refusing interrogation."
Cat-mask's fingers blurred into a tiger seal. Chakra surged.
"It doesn't matter."
His tone turned flat, almost bored.
"From the very beginning, Danzo-sama knew that Uchiha like you would never cooperate."
The leaves at his feet exploded.
In the next instant, his body blurred, vanishing from where he stood.
He reappeared behind Sogetsu in a burst of speed, the kunai in his hand driving straight for a vital point with absolutely no restraint.
Squelch.
The blade punched clean through "Sogetsu's" chest.
The victim looked down at the blade—and his expression was less pain and more… appreciation.
Poof.
He dissolved into smoke.
"Dammit. A shadow clone."
Cat-mask's pupils contracted. Realizing he'd been tricked, he immediately kicked back, trying to retreat.
Too late.
A sharp whine of steel cut the air behind him.
A spread of shuriken scythed through the air in a deadly fan, each one spinning so fast it sang. Their arcs crisscrossed into a net, neatly sealing off every angle of escape Sogetsu had predicted.
Damn Uchiha… when did he swap himself out?
Snarling inside, Cat-mask drew the short blade at his back, hacking and rebounding the shuriken one after another.
Clang. Clang. Clangcl—
The last star deflected, his arm paused for a fraction of a second.
Sogetsu chose that exact instant.
Chakra exploded under his feet. His body blurred into motion like a streak of black lightning, closing the distance straight to Cat-mask's front.
Their eyes met.
In that heartbeat, Cat-mask saw the three blood-red tomoe in Sogetsu's eyes spin into a dizzying whirl.
There was a saying in the ninja world:
"If you encounter a Uchiha with a Sharingan in a one-on-one fight… run."
It wasn't a joke.
It was a concise summary of just how outrageous the Sharingan's advantage was in direct combat.
Usually, the instant your gaze met theirs, the fight was over.
Poof.
But in the reflection of those crimson tomoe, Cat-mask's body exploded into smoke.
"Good response," Sogetsu said mildly. "I'd expect nothing less from Danzo's men."
He wasn't surprised.
They were ANBU. If a Root operative got one-shot at first contact, he'd never have survived that hell pit long enough to be assigned this mission.
You could call Root many things—twisted, inhuman, poisonous.
You could not call them weak.
"Enough testing."
Sogetsu lifted his gaze toward the crown of a nearby tree.
The three tomoe in his eyes turned lazily, like a predator's tail swaying before it pounced.
"Your time is valuable. So is mine. Let's not waste it."
"You're not as simple as you look, Uchiha Sogetsu."
A figure dropped from the branches and landed lightly on the forest floor—it was Cat-mask again.
"As you wish. I'll show you what true cruelty looks like."
Bzzzzzz…
A mass of tiny black things began to spill from his sleeves.
They swarmed outward in a buzzing cloud, congealing around him like a cloak of living darkness. Each bug was so small that even the Sharingan could barely catch their outlines.
Anyone with a fear of swarms would probably have dropped unconscious on the spot.
The hum of beating wings. The grating rasp of chitin rubbing against chitin.
It was a sound designed to crawl under your skin.
"An Aburame, huh…"
Sogetsu's brows lifted.
That particular signature was unmistakable—there was only one clan in Konoha that fought with insects like these.
"Danzo-sama knew you'd refuse," the Aburame ANBU said coldly.
"That's why he sent me."
His tone sharpened as the bugs' density increased.
"Our Aburame techniques can't be copied by the Sharingan. And sheer numbers…"
His eyes gleamed from behind the cat mask.
"…are perfect for shutting down those eyes of yours."
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