Naruto: I, Shikotsumyaku, Byakugan Princess

Chapter 135: Zero Frame Start
Tick ​​tock!

Tick ​​tock!

The smell of rust wafted in the wind.

Crimson blood dripped from the sky, leaving sharp, brown marks on the fallen, withered leaves.

"Her chakra fluctuations are weakening... She's injured!"

The illusionist clasped his hands together, gazing up at the figure in the treetop, his voice inevitably carrying a hint of joy after the release of pent-up emotions.

The illusion he relied on was broken in a second, and the backlash of mental energy made his head throb with pain.

In addition, the sensory ninja's sensitivity to chakra meant that even though the opponent didn't have a lot of chakra, the strange purple chakra that emitted a strange light put immense mental pressure on him.

At this moment, the pressure was finally released.

The enemy was eventually injured thanks to their cooperation. Although the injury was not serious, it proved that the opponent was not as invincible as they had imagined.

The so-called enemy without weaknesses is merely an illusion created by the opponent's overly fierce physical skills.

"It's just a paper tiger."

The deep voice of the Earth Release ANBU echoed in the air. The remaining eight ANBU remained silent, but the heavy breathing in the space noticeably eased.

Clearly, the combat power to kill three special Jonin in a single encounter had already intimidated the Anbu.

They are not afraid of death, but they are afraid that their death will be meaningless.

Root is an unsung hero who sacrificed everything for Konoha, hidden in the darkness; it cannot be a ruthless insect that was crushed and whose life lost all meaning.

the other side.

Standing atop the treetop, Gray Glass looked down at the ant-like figures in the shadows below, lost in thought.

As a shadow clone, her actual combat strength is not much weaker than the original body. Especially after the 'bones' in the Corpse Bone Vein are temporarily unusable, the only differences between her and the original body are endurance and defense.

She was an elite Jonin, while the three Anbu members were only Special Jonin, a difference of two ranks, to the point where the numerical disparity could be temporarily ignored. The Mist Crow and Bloodhound who had cornered her in Kirigakure back then could now be easily killed by her.

Of course, the ninja ranking system is not very rigorous. Factors such as environment, area of ​​expertise, and compatibility can all lead to situations where a ninja can challenge someone of a higher level.

However, this situation does not exist in the case of gray glass.

As one of the very few all-around ninjas in the ninja world, she is the only one who can challenge and restrain others beyond her level. Trying to restrain her is almost an impossible task.

The toes touched the thick tree trunk.

tick tock...

Thick blood dripped down the black sole of the shoe.

These are the belongings left behind by the ANBU member she just kicked to death.

If it were the real thing, it would definitely use water magic to clean the soles of the shoes.

Unfortunately, she wasted a lot of chakra on that carp during her daytime classes studying medical ninjutsu, and now, after just experiencing a lightning-fast attack, she has less than a third of her chakra left.

She can no longer be as adept as she used to be.

If her chakra is depleted too much, the shadow clone will dissipate on its own. Before that happens, she needs to try her best to find out the other party's intentions for her main body.

"Dr. Chihaya, can you tell me why these ANBU attacked me?" Hairi asked Chihaya Toru in a loud voice, looking down at her.

Those ANBU members who treat their comrades' lives like dirt are clearly members of Root, and Chihaya Toru should also be a member of Root.

She was quite certain that she had never offended Shimura Danzo.

Rushing into the roots to steal the Hashirama cells is currently just a plan that exists only in her mind; logically, the roots shouldn't be attacking her.

Chihaya Toru smiled and carefully put on a pair of glasses from her pocket.
"A senior official admires you and wants you to join our organization."

"Anbu?"

"No, you may not have heard of us. We are a branch of the Dark Side called Root!" When Chihaya Toru mentioned Root, several Root members unconsciously puffed out their chests, their heads displaying a morbidly proud glow.

Hui Li nodded slowly.

This semi-psychotic state is not something that other organizations can easily imitate.

Her guess was right; the group below were indeed members of Root, acting on Danzo's orders to have her join Root.

But she still couldn't figure out Danzo's thought process.

When recruiting talent, how can you start by attacking them, let alone using lethal force? Shouldn't the proper procedure be to first try to recruit them, then resort to threats and inducements if that doesn't work, and only as a last resort should you consider forcibly taking them?
Why did she skip all the prerequisites and jump straight to the final step?
"Your way of inviting me is quite unique."

"Heh." Chihaya pushed up her glasses with her middle finger: "The requirements for the Root are quite strict, so we'll have to do a short quiz."

"But I never agreed to join your inexplicable organization."

"Whether you join or not is none of my business; we just follow orders."

Frowning, he secretly guessed the enemy's intentions, while Hui Li's chakra was ready to be unleashed, quietly waiting for the opponent's attack.

Defense is simpler than offense. We should try to prolong the battle lines and conserve chakra. The more secret techniques we uncover, the more secure we will be when we go to the Root organization to collect Hashirama's cells in the future.

Hui Li narrowed her eyes and turned her gaze to directly behind her.

In the distance, another huge chakra mass appeared, the burning chakra resembling a torch, yet exuding an indescribable eeriness and sinister aura.

The approaching people were extremely fast, and they were already close to the battlefield in just a few breaths.

thump...

thump... thump...

The cane, a symbol of power, pounded the ground again and again, crushing the fallen leaves helplessly.

Its sound is slow, heavy, and cold, completely different from the continuous and crisp sound of a white cane striking the ground.

Wow!
Upon hearing the intruder's distinctive voice, the lifeless roots below suddenly turned their eyes burning with fervor, disregarding the formidable enemy above them, and knelt on one knee facing the intruder.

Even the ever-mysterious Chihaya Tohru lowered her head slightly as a sign of respect.

Hui Li turned to look at the person in question.

An elderly man dressed in a gray-black kimono, leaning on a cane, slowly walked towards this place.

The old man was not tall, but his physique, hidden beneath his kimono, was remarkably robust. He had short brown hair, a forked scar on his chin, and narrow eyes that were fixed on Gray Glass, who was standing on the treetop.

His left eye was dark and deep.

His right eye was scarlet, and a black four-bladed windmill spun rapidly within it.

That is... Shisui's Kotoamatsukami!
Hui Li's eyes widened suddenly, and the white of her eyes, hidden under the black cloth, instantly turned crimson!
……

"You've been hit by Danzo's Kotoamatsukami?"

The Hatake clan's training ground.

The sun was almost setting on the horizon, its rays casting long shadows across the bare training field, casting two dim, dark shapes.

Hui Li looked at the Yang Release Shadow Clone in front of her in astonishment. Its originally deathly gray pupils, which were the same as hers, had turned into a four-bladed windmill, and the bottom of its eyes was blood red.

Rolling your eyes will induce a reaction.

The shadow clone's head was occupied by an unusual mass of Yin Release chakra, which, like a cuckoo taking over a magpie's nest, firmly held the center of the brain. Like a spider, it extended strange, transparent spikes that pierced the shadow clone's brain, but did not cause any damage to the brain.

Those sharp spikes seemed to be just illusions.

Given the Shadow Clone Technique's initial and instantaneous explosion, she couldn't have undergone eye transplant surgery. Without a doubt, this is the most powerful genjutsu, hailed as capable of altering will—Kotoamatsukami!

"That old bastard Danzo heard that Root ninja say I was injured, and immediately assumed that I was the real body. He used Kotoamatsukami without saying a word." The middle finger gently stroked the eye socket. 'Yang Release: Gray Glass,' whose eyes reflected the Mangekyou Sharingan pattern, pursed his lips, but the slightly upturned corners of his lips betrayed his inner pleasure.

Hui Li was shocked, but couldn't help shaking her head and laughing.

It was just a shadow clone, yet it managed to lure out Kotoamatsukami, who is known as the strongest illusionist.

"By the way, why do your eyes always look like those of Kotoamatsukami?"

"I don't know the specifics."

'Yang Release: Gray Glass' shook his head in confusion: "Perhaps... it's because I'm just a mass of chakra, not an organic life form at all."

The power of Kotoamatsukami has been trying to test my will, but it has no way to do so.

Unable to alter my will, and without being weakened by resistance, it remains in the special state of 'activating'.

"It's a bug."

Gray Glass summarizes its redundant descriptions.

"Danzo was indeed decisive in his attack. What was the effect of his Kotoamatsukami?"

Upon hearing the question from the main body, 'Yang Release: Gray Glass' immediately suppressed its smile and said with a serious expression:

"I was just about to tell you that Danzo's Kotoamatsukami is very different from the one Itachi has."

First of all, its attack range is very long. When I was hit, the straight-line distance between me and it was at least fifty meters, which is farther than many elemental escape techniques.

Be careful when fighting him in close combat.

The key is its rapid activation speed, and the ninjutsu itself has no projectile trajectory.

"No trajectory?"

"Correct!"

'Yang Release: Gray Glass', its crimson Mangekyou Sharingan gazing at the sky, recalled the situation for a moment, then stated decisively:
"There was absolutely no trajectory. With the reaction speed of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, combined with the Byakugan's perception, if there was a flight path, there was no way I wouldn't have seen it."

The moment that kaleidoscope locked onto me, a surge of Yin Release chakra instantly filled my brain, leaving me no chance to resist.

"A ninjutsu with a mechanism similar to Shadow Imitation Technique."

Hui Li nodded, her expression solemn.

With an attack range of at least fifty meters and a simple hit mechanism, unless her speed is so fast that even a kaleidoscope can't lock onto her, there's no way to dodge her.

"This thing doesn't need eye contact, does it?"

“I was wearing a blindfold the whole time. I could see him, but he couldn’t see me, so it shouldn’t count as eye contact.”

"Tsk, then that counts as half a lock-on move."

Hui Li clicked her tongue and thought for a long time before coming up with a way to avoid Kotoamatsukami. It seemed that the only way was to use Shadow Clone to bait out his skills.

"It's alright. Although the hit was simple, this particular god's effect isn't as strong as Itachi's," 'Yang Release: Gray Glass' said with a smile.

"You haven't even activated Kotoamatsukami, how can you sense any specific effects?"

'Yang Release: Gray Glass' blinked, and the windmill in its scarlet eyes slowly turned.

"It resides in my brain. I can't use it, but it can still detect some key information."

Besides, why would I keep it if I didn't need it?
"If I weren't afraid of dispelling the shadow clones and losing the precious power of Kotoamatsukami, would I have bothered to tell you all this? Wouldn't it have been better to just show you my memories?"

"Consider this a great achievement, continue!" Hui Li waved her hand helplessly.

The claim of credit is complete.

'Yang Dun Hui Li' no longer needs to elaborate.

"Danzo's Kotoamatsukami is not permanent. The Yin Release chakra stored in the brain will constantly correct your will according to the caster's commands."

This correction isn't a forced ideological imprint, but rather it disguises your true feelings to influence decision-making. The more you resist it internally, the less effective the correction will be.

The effects of Kotoamatsukami will automatically dissipate once the chakra is exhausted or the user realizes they are under a genjutsu. However, its power will remain. If the Yin Release chakra in the mind is not cleared, it can still subtly control your will by being activated later using your eye power.

"That makes sense."

Hui Li couldn't understand why Danzo would use the precious Kotoamatsukami on himself instead of directly hypnotizing Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Hearing her clone's words, she gradually came to her senses.

Short-term hypnosis would be of little use to Hiruzen Sarutobi and would also expose the fact that he stole Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan.

The Hyuga clan's ability to counter Kotoamatsukami is also very obvious. Although this ability is powerful, it is not as invincible as she imagined. Otherwise, Danzo would have become the Fifth Hokage by now.

"So Danzo just let you come back like that?"

"That's another thing I want to talk about."

'Yang Dun Hui Li' slowly extended its tongue, revealing black striped patterns resembling the hexagrams of the I Ching on its pink surface.

"This is... a technique to eradicate the root of tongue-related troubles?"

"You even joined the Roots?"

The shadow clone's thoughts and will were completely aligned with hers, and Hui Li was once again shocked by her own audacious actions.

"My essence is a mass of chakra mimicry; my brain and body are both illusions, half real and half fake. Neither illusions that alter the mind's will nor curses that detect thoughts or imprison the body work on me."

Everything Danzo did was in vain.

As for adding the root...

'Yang Release: Gray Glass' looked up at the setting sun in the sky, his fair skin turning orange-red from the sunlight, his expression blank as if he had returned to that scene once again.

……

A remote and desolate dense forest.

The withered yellow leaves twirled in mid-air before falling to the ground, burying the blood-stained red leaves.

In the pit, blood and mud covered broken bones and kunai. Nine dark figures knelt on one knee, looking solemnly and fanatically at the old man leaning on his scepter.

A dark shadow fell from the sky.

boom!
The ground immediately collapsed, creating two deep pits, and the shockwave carried the leaves that had just been buried outwards.

Danzo leaned on his cane with one hand, coldly staring at the blurry figure in the center of the dust.

The Wind Release ANBU member, kneeling on one knee, suddenly transformed into a whirlwind, instantly appearing in front of Danzo. At the same time, he exhaled a Wind Release blast, blowing back the scattered fallen leaves and dust.

hum!
The figure in the deep pit slowly straightened up.

The winds collided and tore at each other, and the dust and fallen leaves were first evenly split in two, and then shattered into dust by the gale.

Unable to advance or retreat, they scattered on the ground, drawing an arc on the earth.

Gray Glass stands at the center, facing off against the kaleidoscope and the narrow monocular hidden under the black cloth, while three four-bladed windmills rotate in sync.

Once the dust had settled, Chihaya Toru strode forward, leaning to the side, and stood half a step back to Danzo's left, looking utterly loyal.

"Lord Danzo, the Sunburst Glass has been delivered."

"Well done, Chihaya."

(End of this chapter)