Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

Shen Jue changed her plans at the last minute.

He arrived at the Inuzuka family's courtyard.

The Inuzuka family's yard is always permeated with an indelible dog smell.

The sounds of dogs barking came from afar, growing louder as they approached.

As the family that breeds ninja dogs in Konoha, the Inuzuka family also has the best veterinarians in all of Konoha.

Shen Jue knocked on the door politely.

The one who opened the door was Inuzuka Tsurugi, the current head of the Inuzuka clan.

She was about the same height as Shen Jue, with short black hair that stood up like a wild beast's mane, and two inverted triangular red lines extending from the corners of her eyes.

"Shen Jue." She called out his name, her tone neither warm nor cold, clearly knowing who he was.

Konoha Village is small, so bad reputations spread faster than good ones.

Shen Jue's reputation belongs to the former category.

"There's a cat." Shen Jue got straight to the point, taking out the pure black kitten from his arms. "It needs treatment and care."

Inuzuka Tsuru glanced down at the cat.

The emaciated kitten curled up in Shen Jue's palm, its left front paw unnaturally bent, its breathing shallow and rapid, and its belly sunken in a dent.

"The Inuzuka family doesn't keep cats," Inuzuka Tsurugi said.

"I know."

Shen Jue took out a cloth bag from his pocket and placed it on the wooden stake next to Inuzuka Tsurugi. The bag was full of money.

Inuzuka Tsuru glanced at Shen Jue.

"I never imagined that a ninja like you would have the idea of ​​adopting a pet."

"There's no need for that."

Inuzuka Tsuru patted Shen Jue's shoulder hard and laughed loudly.

"Hahaha! You're actually a guy who's cold on the outside but warm on the inside!"

As the head of the Inuzuka clan, Inuzuka Tsurugi has a very low threshold for laughter and is quite outgoing.

Inuzuka Tsuru naturally knew of Shen Jue.

In fact, she believes that the reason Shen Jue is still a Chunin is because of Shen Jue's aloofness and lack of background.

She knew that Shen Jue's total chakra wasn't much, but based on the information she had gathered during the mission...

Shen Jue is a rare all-rounder.

Shen Jue has excelled in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu in past missions.

In her opinion, Shen Jue was qualified even as a Jonin.

"Take the money back," Inuzuka Tsuru said magnanimously.

"Treatment for an ordinary cat wouldn't require this much effort."

Right in front of Shen Jue, Inuzuka Tsuru unleashed a medical ninjutsu.

The black kitten's injuries had healed completely, and the cat seemed to have regained some energy.

Inuzuka Tsuru casually pulled a bag of dog food from his waist pouch and said, "The little guy needs to eat more."

"With careful care, it will soon become a healthy cat."

"Thank you," Shen Jue said, taking the cat food but not taking back the money.

Inuzuka Tsuru insisted on stuffing the money back into Shen Jue's arms.

Without saying much, Shen Jue strolled away amidst Inuzuka Tsuru's laughter.

He glanced at the medical ninjutsu used to treat the black kitten, and in an instant, Shen Jue learned the technique.

Incidentally, it has been innovated and its application range and treatment intensity have been expanded by more than ten times.

"What a kind person," Shen Jue said with some emotion, squeezing the paw of the cat in his arms.

"The ninjas of Konoha and the ordinary villagers have brains that are practically two different kinds of people."

"No wonder there are very few ninjas who bully Naruto."

Shen Jue remembered Inuzuka Tsurugi because of her girlfriend, Inuzuka Hana, who was an extremely rare "Great Thunder Girl" in Naruto.

Thinking about this, he felt a little regretful that he hadn't seen Inuzuka Hana.

According to his understanding, Inuzuka Hana has now officially graduated from the Ninja Academy, right?

The roots of Konoha are a mysterious organization.

Konoha's Anbu training institution has a formal entrance, staffing, and records.

But there is no "root".

Danzo Shimura buried his roots in the foundation of the Dark Side, using the Dark Side to conceal his dark experiments and purposes.

Under Shen Jue's perception, he confirmed the location of the root in a very short time.

The roots are hidden underground in a warehouse.

Shen Jue held the kitten in his arms, his toes landing on the warehouse roof. Electromagnetic and gravitational fields spread out on his body, locking all sounds, smells, and chakra fluctuations inside the force fields.

The three sentries on the perimeter did not notice anything unusual.

Shen Jue walked into the underground passage.

The sealed gate, along with the sealing spell, turned to dust.

The passageway extends downwards, with rough stone steps and a dim lamp embedded every ten meters in the walls on both sides.

The Root's underground base has three levels, and Shen Jue's target is in the deepest part.

He saw the data room on the first floor.

Hundreds of scrolls were neatly arranged on the stone shelf, each scroll's cover marked with a code rather than a name.

Shen Jue casually pulled out a scroll containing the mission records of a member of the Dark Guard. It included everything from mission objectives to operational details, and at the end was a note describing the member's personality weaknesses and potential threat level.

Shen Jue put the reel back in its original position and continued the downward motion.

The second floor is the training ground.

The dark red bloodstains seeped into the cracks of the stone bricks and had been there for so long that they could no longer be washed away.

A row of iron cages stood against the wall, empty except for scratch marks from fingernails and dried bloodstains on the bottom.

In the very center of the training ground was an intricate sealing array. Shen Jue recognized it as some kind of mental interference technique, used to completely destroy the trainee's self-awareness in a short period of time and then reassemble it into the required shape.

He walked past the sealing array with a blank expression.

There were no guards at the entrance to the third floor.

Because it is not needed.

Danzo Shimura was inside.

Shen Jue pushed open the heavy stone door, which was half a meter thick and covered with defensive spells on the inside, enough to withstand a direct hit from an A-rank ninjutsu.

However, Shen Jue did not use ninjutsu. He simply lifted the entire stone door while the sealing technique was intact, as if he were lifting a thin wooden board.

The stone gate was silently put back in its original position.

He simply used force to lift the stone door.

Shen Jue stood in the center of the secret room, in front of a wooden table with a defensive map of Konoha Village spread out on it.

A man was sitting behind the wooden table.

Danzo Shimura, the "Darkness of the Ninja" of Konoha, founder of Root, disciple of the Second Hokage, and political rival of the Third Hokage.

His face and right arm were wrapped in layers of white bandages, and his left eye, which was exposed, was narrowed into a slit, his gaze filled with murderous intent.

It wasn't until Shen Jue removed the electromagnetic and gravitational fields that Shimura Danzo noticed Shen Jue's presence.

Behind Danzo stood four Root members, cloaked in black and wearing white masks, their positions blocking all theoretical routes of advance in the room.

The four chakra locks onto Shen Jue the instant he appears, simultaneously aiming at his heart, brow, throat, and dantian.

Shen Jue didn't look at them; instead, he looked at the white Hashirama cell clones embedded with Sharingan cells in the incubator to the side.

"Interesting," Danzo said first, his voice aged and steady.

"As a ninja, have I grown so old?"

"They couldn't even detect the infiltration of other ninjas?"

Danzo sighed as he unwrapped his bandages.

Shen Jue examined the Sharingan in the incubators, one by one, soaking in a pale green nutrient solution, their pupils dilated, yet still emitting faint fluctuations of pupil power.

"So how exactly did you convince yourself?" Shen Jue pointed at Danzo.

"Wasn't the Uchiha clan massacre also your doing?"

"Is it all for Konoha?"

"Everything for Konoha." Danzo's answer was without the slightest hesitation.

"An interesting statement." A faint golden arc of electricity flashed briefly at Shen Jue's fingertips.

"I don't believe that bedbugs in the sewers can help Konoha be reborn."

Danzo's eyes finally opened completely.

The cloudy left eye stared at Shen Jue, and for the first time, a look of scrutiny appeared in its gaze.

"Shen Jue." Danzo repeated the name, his tone flat.

"I remember you."

"Your parents sacrificed their lives in the mission."

"I know, it's the root's mission," Shen Jue said, gently stroking the black kitten in his arms.

The air was silent for about three seconds.

"What do you want?" Danzo asked.

He didn't move his body or raise his fingers, but the chakra of the four Root members behind him was already fully charged with attack techniques.

Four golden arcs of electricity secretly probed into the back of the necks of the four Root ninjas.

Danzo's left pupil contracted, and he instinctively tried to activate a ninjutsu, but he saw the four Root ninjas slump to the ground, their chakra dissipating and losing all consciousness.

This, in turn, forced Danzo to suppress the hidden killing intent and ninjutsu within him.

"Is this Lightning Release?"

"A ninjutsu I've never seen before."

"I really don't know where you learned that from, Shen Jue."

Danzo sighed.

His face had the expression of a kind old grandfather.

"You want these Sharingan eyes?" Danzo asked kindly.

"Child, I can help you transplant the Sharingan."

"Pick whichever you need."

"After all, your parents were once like my children."

As expected, Shen Jue glanced at Danzo, holding the black kitten in his arms, and sat down directly opposite Danzo.

If it were an ordinary ninja, daring to act like this in front of Danzo, he would have already been captured by Danzo's men, tortured, and turned into experimental subjects.

But sitting opposite Danzo was a ninja who sent chills down his spine and defied all reason.

Shen Jue, the ruthless ninja once known as the executioner of Konoha, now appears in a form that Danzo cannot see through at all.

Danzo felt a chill; even the ancient Ninja World War had never made him feel this way.

"No." Shen Jue looked at the bandage wrapped around Danzo's right arm, where ten Sharingan were hidden, each corresponding to a forbidden technique that could reverse life and death.

"I want a lot."

"Whether it's Hashirama cells or the Sharingan."

"The entire root system."

"And your forbidden techniques."

"I want them all."

Danzo's expression finally changed.

The change was extremely subtle; it was just a slight twitch in the corner of the left eye.

But on that face that usually maintained a deathly expression, this slight twitch was like a raging storm.

Even if she forced a kind expression, she couldn't hide it.

"You're asking for it."

Now, Danzo stopped acting altogether.

Danzo, who had originally intended to appeal to family ties, was instantly disarmed.

"Let me see, an old man who has had ten Sharingan eyes and Hashirama cells transplanted."

"When three seconds of life are not a currency to be squandered, but truly the last three seconds."

Electricity crackled on Shen Jue's right arm, illuminating the dimly lit secret room as if it were daytime.

"What kind of expression will they make?"

"You agree, right?"

"The Shadow of Konoha".

As soon as he finished speaking, pale golden lightning illuminated the entire secret room, turning it snow-white.

At the same instant that the colored lightning illuminated the secret room, Danzo's Sharingan in his right eye had already begun to rotate.

The Sharingan embedded in his right eye socket possessed a power far exceeding that of ordinary Uchiha clan members' eyes.

Under Danzo's decades of nurturing and the catalysis of Hashirama's cells, this Sharingan's genjutsu activation speed is so fast that it does not require hand seals, eye contact, or even the precursor of chakra surge.

The eye technique is called "Kotoamatsukami".

Kotoamatsukami can invade the target's brain and manipulate their will without the target's awareness.

The manipulated person will not realize that they are under a spell and will believe that all their actions are "decisions made out of their own will".

Neither sensory ninjas nor Byakugan can detect the abnormality in the chakra of the person being spun, because Kotoamatsukami does not disrupt the flow of chakra, but directly rewrites the consciousness itself.

Danzo used this technique to perfection.

He doesn't even need to make his target and himself a premise.

He can activate any chakra reaction that his eye power can sense.

Amidst the golden lightning, Danzo's Sharingan power coiled around Shen Jue's consciousness like invisible spider silk.

Danzo narrowed his left eye.

Shen Jue did not defend himself, nor did he make any move.

The lightning still flashed.

Danzo's left eye narrowed instantly.

Was Shen Jue overconfident, or was he simply too slow to react?

No, that's not important.

With Kotoamatsukami activated, it no longer matters what secrets Shen Jue may have.

Shen Jue is about to become Danzo's slave.

Everything before Shen Jue's eyes was crumbling.

The secret room of Root, the Sharingan soaking in nutrient solution, Danzo sitting behind a wooden table, and four Root ninjas lying unconscious on the ground.

All the images spread and faded like ink being washed away by water, and were then replaced by another scene.

He was dragged into the deepest part of his memory.

Shen Jue saw the skyscrapers.

That was his past life, the outline of which had long since become blurred.

A gray city loomed in and out of sight in the smog, with endless streams of cars stuck on the overpass, their taillights forming a murky red band of light.

An office worker was sitting on the steps at the subway station entrance, with a half-empty mineral water bottle at his feet.

Pedestrians were looking down at their phones, and no one noticed each other.

This is where he came from. A world he rarely recalls now.

Shen Jue saw herself standing at the intersection waiting for the red light, wearing that coat whose color she could no longer remember.

He was listening to a song whose melody he had forgotten when the green light came on, and he took a step forward.

The screen is torn.

Shen Jue saw himself again after his reincarnation.

Born into a ninja family.

Shen Jue had a relatively happy childhood, but the deaths of her parents during a mission left her an orphan.

Because both of their parents were orphans taken in by the local community.

Therefore, no one adopted Shen Jue.

Shen Jue's difficult childhood subjected her to scorn, ridicule, and bullying.

They verbally abused him the most, but very few of the brats dared to lay a hand on Shen Jue.

As the child of a ninja, Shen Jue naturally entered the ninja academy.

At the ninja academy, Shen Jue felt a rare warmth.

The care and attention from teachers like Matt Kay made the originally gloomy Shen Jue only become somewhat indifferent.

With the mindset of an adult, Shen Jue dared not show any special behavior in Konoha.

He was an ordinary kid from Konoha, with no family background and no Jonin elders.

Those that exhibit special characteristics will only attract the attention of the shadows and the roots.

What awaits Shen Jue then is being trapped at the root, with the seal of the tongue-cursing annihilation implanted in him.

But things are different now.