Chapter 136 Blood and Tears

"Crackle——"

In the Root base, the lights on the top of the corridor have been flickering for a while.

The fluorescent lamp kept making disturbing sharp and short wails, as if it was crying that its filament could not bear such teasing and might break at any time, causing the bulb to explode.

The Root ninja who was responsible for guarding the duty room, or the detention room, was very irritated by the lights.

When he just joined the Root, he faced dozens of flashing lights at the same time during the training against torture. For a week after that day, as long as he felt a slight change in the light outside, he would be sensitive and want to vomit.

Just as he was thinking about using the shuriken to break the lamp, the flickering stopped.

All the bulbs in the corridor were like beggars who had eaten and drunk enough, and finally stopped making noise, and lit up as usual.

The Root ninja guarding the door breathed a sigh of relief.

But at this moment, the door behind him was knocked from the inside. Dongdongdong, very quickly.

"Is anyone there?" It was the voice of the child who was locked up today, "Let me out! I need to go to the bathroom!"

The Root Ninja guarding the door was speechless for a while.

But considering that Danzo said that the mother and son should be kept as calm as possible, and that both of them were wearing handcuffs to prevent the generation of chakra, there was no threat, so he opened the door without hesitation.

Sasuke stood at the door with his hands bound, looking at the Root Ninja while scanning both sides of the door, his eyes less innocent than usual.

And Uchiha Mikoto seemed a little tired, napping on the bed in the duty room, even covered with a quilt.

[Do you really think this is your home? Is this the so-called best clan ninja? Being in the Root, you can actually sleep, it's amazing...]

The scene in the room made the Root Ninja who was secretly complaining lower his vigilance, and he didn't notice the real purpose of Sasuke's next question.

"Why is there no sound outside?" Sasuke suddenly asked: "Weren't there many people before?"

The Root is a sub-team of the Anbu, and the standard number of people in a sub-team of the Anbu is 12.

But when they entered the base, the total number of Root Ninjas encountered by the mother and son was definitely more than 20, and the actual number would be even greater.

But the base was so quiet at the moment, which seemed a bit too strange.

"Everyone has other tasks, and it is impossible to focus all attention on you."

The Root Ninja explained vaguely, "Let's go, follow me to the bathroom."

"Is that so..."

Sasuke got the answer, and a slight joy of "then I'm relieved" appeared on his face.

The Root Ninja did not understand what the other party's expression meant, but in a daze, the kid's eyes turned into a pair of three-magatama Sharingan, and then turned slightly-

The ninja twitched as if he was electrocuted, and then stopped moving, standing straight, like a soldier waiting for inspection.

"Solved."

Zazu let out a long breath and looked at the figure covered with a quilt on the bed. "He's the only one. It's unexpectedly easy."

"Uchiha Mikoto" who pretended to be asleep suddenly lifted the quilt. It was another Zuozu, and her little face was filled with the kind of joy that only children can have.

He almost jumped directly from the bed to the door, looking at the three-magatama "Zazu" with stars in his eyes, and said Rengoku Kyojuro's catchphrase: "Great! Mom, you are so amazing!"

The next moment, the smoke exploded, and Uchiha Mikoto lifted the transformation technique and turned back to her original appearance.

"It took so long to transform the chakra, and it was almost consumed by just a transformation technique and an illusion. These handcuffs are really amazing."

Uchiha Mikoto shook the silver bracelet on her wrist and jingled. Then she looked at the root ninja and gave an order: "Untie this for us. ”

The Root Ninja immediately took action. After he made a series of hand seals that were more complicated than the Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet, Zuosuke and Mikoto felt the strength in their wrists loosen at the same time, and the handcuffs separated and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

"Mom, what should we do next?"

Zazhu jumped up and tore off the seal on the duty room door. He immediately became confident after feeling the chakra again, "Do you want to defeat all the ninjas in this place?"

Since he knew about Giyu's "great achievements" in the Hot Spring Village at noon, Zuosuke has been wanting to do something to prove himself.

Although the ninjas in this base belong to Konoha, since they hurt Itachi, they are already enemies. Zuosuke doesn't care about any rules and regulations.

"Don't worry, we have to find out the situation outside first. Otherwise, even if we get out of here, it will only be a trap for ourselves. "

Mikoto gently touched Zuosuke's head, and Zuosuke immediately calmed down and waited quietly.

Mikoto turned around, took off the mask of the Root Ninja, looked directly into the other person's eyes and began to ask.

"How many people are there in the Root base?"

"Including me, there are seven in total."

"Where are they?"

"Two are responsible for guarding the prisoners in the cells, one is responsible for guarding Uchiha Itachi, one is sorting out information in the intelligence room, and one is cleaning. The last one is on duty in the monitoring room."

Hearing that there was a surveillance camera, Uchiha Mikoto raised her eyebrows and immediately looked at the roof outside the door, and found that there was no camera facing her.

"The location of the surveillance camera? Is there one in this room?"

If there is, then her jailbreak will definitely be discovered, and she must prepare for the worst.

"No. The cameras in this area are at the entrance and exit of the passage."

Mikoto blinked, as if she had an idea.

"One last question." Uchiha Mikoto had a small wrinkle between her eyebrows, "So many Root Ninjas left, what mission did they go on?"

"I don't know." The Root Ninja shook his head and answered stiffly: "In order to keep it secret, the Root's mission will not be told to irrelevant people. But I can probably guess that they are going to deal with..."

The ninja suddenly got stuck, repeating the syllables of "Li...Li...Li", but he couldn't say the next word.

His right eyelid kept blinking, and his lips kept twitching back with the pronunciation, and the whole person looked like a broken machine.

"What's wrong with him?" Zuosuke was horrified by this scene, "Is it short-circuited?"

"..."Mikoto was also confused, thinking that her illusion was used under restraint and there was an error.

The Root Ninja continued to "short-circuit" for more than a minute before stopping twitching.

Seeing him back to normal, Mikoto immediately asked, "What happened just now?"

"The Tongue Curse Seal." The Root Ninja stuck out his tongue, and a complex symbol was printed on it like a tattoo, which made Zuosuke feel sick.

"I can't tell any secrets about the Root, otherwise it will trigger the curse seal and my whole body will be unable to move."

Uchiha Mikoto raised her eyebrows, and roughly understood what happened just now, but being able to trigger the curse seal also showed that this Root Ninja guessed the target of those people.

[Is there any way to bypass this curse seal? ]

Mikoto tried, "Can I write it down with a pen?"

"No." The Root Ninja shook his head.

Mikoto was not surprised. If this can bypass the curse seal, Danzo would be too stupid.

[But in this case, how can we find out what these people know and what they want to do? Are they really arresting us just to investigate things related to Shisui? Or...]

She narrowed her eyes, suddenly remembered something, and immediately asked, "How was Uchiha Itachi captured? Is this a secret of the Root?"

"Yes." Affirmative answer.

"When was he captured? Is that a secret?"

"Yes."

Uchiha Mikoto was like a hacker attacking a firewall, looking for loopholes in repeated questions.

"How long has he been locked up in the Root? Is that a secret?"

This time, the other party finally gave a different answer.

"No. Itachi Uchiha has been locked up here for 24 hours."

A chill rolled down Uchiha Mikoto's back.

If that was the case, it meant that Itachi was captured by the Root yesterday afternoon.

But the delegations of Cloud Ninja and Rock Ninja clearly arrived in the morning!

[That note...]

It was then that Mikoto realized that the vague "I'm not going home tonight" message last night, although written by Itachi, was not the tone that the child should have! If it was Itachi, he would at least apologize for not being able to go home to finish cooking.

[Why didn't I notice this at the time? ! ]

Deep regret and self-blame filled Mikoto's brain. She now wished she could go back to yesterday afternoon and kick herself hard.

But on second thought, the Root ninja not only captured Itachi a day in advance, but also escaped the observation of so many pairs of Sharingan in the clan before dark, and left a note in her house...

[These people are not investigating Shisui at all! ]

Combined with the fact that the mother and son were brought here.

[Instead, they targeted Fugaku from the beginning! Targeted Uchiha! Shisui was just a legitimate reason for Danzo to make this matter bright! ]

The truth that was almost revealed shocked Uchiha Mikoto greatly.

This crisis was not sudden, but was planned for a long time. It is not just Fugaku who is in danger now, but all the clan members are the same.

So many Root ninjas disappeared, either they went for Fugaku or other clan members, there is no other possibility.

[We must find out their plan. ]

Uchiha Mikoto immediately thought of the archive room.

"Will the Root leave archives before dispatching tasks?" In theory, this is a standard procedure.

"Yes." The Root Ninja nodded, "But all the files of the Root are written in secret language, and the contents will only be revealed after the seals are made in a specific order. The seal order of each file is different."

"It's enough to have it."

Mikoto nodded and picked up the handcuffs on the ground, "Where can I find more of this thing?"

The Root Ninja gave the location: "The equipment room is next to the monitoring room."

"Okay, your mission is completed." After getting the answer, Mikoto knocked him out with a knife, and then hung the handcuffs on his wrist.

If you can't produce chakra, it's meaningless to make seals.

"Wait for me here, I'll be back soon."

Without any extra explanation, Uchiha Mikoto immediately transformed into the size of this ninja, put on a mask and walked out, closing the door by the way.

Sasuke knew that his mother would never abandon him, so he picked up the weapon of this ninja and sat opposite him waiting.

About five minutes later, Uchiha Mikoto returned again, with blood on his body, which made Sasuke couldn't help but exclaim.

"I'm fine, this is not my blood."

After a brief explanation, Uchiha Mikoto squatted down, wiped the blood on her hair, and said seriously: "Sasuke, today's things are very complicated. I will explain them to you slowly after it is over. But before that, what should I say? , just do it without any hesitation. Can you do it?”

Although Zuosuke was a little flustered, his desire to take risks and prove himself supported him in overcoming this uneasiness: "Like a real ninja?"

"Yes." Mikoto repeated: "Like a real ninja. Now I am your boss. Every word I say to you is an order."

"I understand." Zuosuke nodded heavily. He thought he would do some very dangerous work today, "I will be obedient!"

"Okay, come with me." Mikoto let out a sigh of relief. She wanted Zuosuke's promise to prevent him from following her to the most dangerous places.

The mother and son abandoned the ninja in the room and rushed all the way to the monitoring room.

Zuosuke was surprised to find that Uchiha Itachi was lying on the ground in the control room, and leaning against the wall were three root ninjas who were restrained by handcuffs. They seemed to have been knocked unconscious.

"Where are there three more people?" Zuosuke walked to Itachi and knelt down on one knee, asking doubtfully.

"There is another one in the stall." Uchiha Mikoto said, "That ninja is still useful."

"The remaining two..."

Seeing that his mother didn't answer, Zuosuke's eyes immediately turned to the monitor screen, and then he saw two bodies lying in a pool of blood at the door of the room where Itachi was previously locked. One of them was directly nailed to the wall by Kunai.

"Zosuke..."

Mikoto knelt down and turned over her pale face that was stained by blood for the first time.

"Next, I'm going to the archives to get the basic information. You stay here and keep an eye on Itachi and those two people..."

"But……"

"Remember, Itachi's life is entrusted to you."

For the first time, Mikoto didn't let Sasuke finish his thoughts and opinions.

"As for those two people, they may become important witnesses later. I can't waste time now. You can find a way to get some towels or anything larger and stuff them into their mouths before they wake up. You must not let them They committed suicide. The most important thing is, no matter what happens, you can't leave Itachi's side."

Seeing what Zuosuke wanted to say, Mikoto looked serious: "Don't forget what you promised me before. Stay here and strictly implement my orders. This is a very important task, do you understand?"

The strict mother who was different from usual made Zuosuke a little unadaptable, but he still seriously agreed: "I know."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Without saying anything else, Mikoto left the room and went straight to the stalls.

"Roar--"

The moment the stall door was opened, a ferocious tiger made entirely of ink rushed towards Mikoto, but its aura was no less powerful than that of the real King of Beasts, and even more frightening.

"Thunder Escape: The magnetic field disperses."

Mikoto's bright yellow chakra was rapidly emitted in the form of hundreds of tiny arcs, automatically finding and landing on all metal objects in the room.

The next moment, as Mikoto's handprints changed, the stainless steel desk in the middle of the room seemed to be given consciousness, and it immediately stood up to block the gap between Mikoto and Menghu.

The one who controlled the ink attack was the gray-haired boy who looked at Uchiha Mikoto in the corridor. Seeing this scene, he felt calm and even wanted to laugh...

"You underestimate the power of super fake animal paintings."

[Although it is only made of ink, its destructive power is far greater than that of a real tiger. 】

As expected, the stainless steel table was easily torn into pieces by Qingli Mohu's sharp claws like printing paper.

But Uchiha Mikoto behind the table had disappeared.

At this time, the gray-haired boy heard a crackling sound behind him and immediately realized what had happened!

"It's the lightning flash technique!"

At this time, it was too late to start painting again. The gray-haired boy took off the kunai from his waist and stabbed it behind him without looking. His reaction was already at its peak.

But just when the kunai was about to touch Uchiha Mikoto's top, it seemed to hit an invisible barrier and could no longer move forward.

"what happened?!"

The gray-haired boy didn't understand what was happening, but then, an electric current escaped from the kunai and poured into his arm. The severe pain forced him to let go of his hand.

The young man gritted his teeth, took a step back and grabbed the Ninja Sword on his back, but it was clear that half of the Ninja Sword had been pulled out, but the Ninja Sword seemed to be pushed back into its sheath by an invisible hand, completely out of his control.

From the moment Mikoto entered this room, all the metal inside was covered with her chakra, so these things would only be affected by her electromagnetic field.

It was too late for the boy to do anything else, because under Uchiha Mikoto's handprint, the kunai belonging to him flew up out of thin air and hit his neck.

The battle is over.

Uchiha Mikoto is still a jounin after all. Although he had not fought for many years, the ninjutsu used was completely new to this young ninja. The first time you meet, you will inevitably suffer a big loss.

He was forced by kunai and leaned against the shelf where the scrolls were placed. He coughed twice violently and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth: "I didn't expect that you could break free from that restraint. However, you have also seen that I am already terminally ill. The person is dead. Threatening me with death is meaningless. Besides, even if I want to say something, I can’t say it...

"If the Sharingan is used on me to disrupt the chakra in my body, I'm afraid I will die faster, maybe within a few minutes."

Looking at this sickly boy who was as old as Itachi, although Mikoto felt pity in her heart, she still hardened her heart just like she did on the battlefield more than ten years ago.

She did not hesitate, her Sharingan moved, and the young man's eyes were empty like a puppet.

Thinking of what the young man said just now, Uchiha Mikoto asked simply and concisely: "I want all the information about Uchiha to be sorted out for me in reverse chronological order."

Since time is limited, we can only start with the most recent documents, such as what Danzo was doing when he transferred all the people at the root.

The gray-haired boy immediately took action, picking up scrolls or folders one by one and placing them in front of Mikoto in order.

Uchiha Mikoto picked up the file closest to her and opened it. The content on it was simply incomprehensible. In short, it had nothing to do with the ninja's mission.

[Is it the root password? 】

"Can you remove the encryption above?"

Mikoto asked a little worriedly, fearing that Danzo's curse seal could be so detailed.

Fortunately, the young man gave a positive answer.

With a series of his handprints, the writing on the document turned into ink, rearranged and combined, and turned into meaningful content.

"You go ahead and untie the rest."

After giving the order, Uchiha Mikoto quickly scanned the document that had unlocked the code.

Date, today's date. Location, Konoha Village. The executive, twenty ninjas including Ryoma Aburame.

Mission content: After receiving the signal, lead the ninjas of Cloud Ninja and Iwa Ninja to break through the barrier and enter Konoha, surround Minagawa Shrine, activate the Ninja Formation of the Second Hokage to assist the opponent's actions.

[Aren’t Iwa Ninja and Kumo Ninja already in Konoha? 】

For the first second, Mikoto didn't understand what it meant, but she immediately realized it and exclaimed in a low voice: "Could it be that there is another group of people?"

[Launch the Ninja Formation, surround Nanhe River, and assist in the operation... Sure enough! 】

A bolt of thunder jumped back and forth in Mikoto's brain, [Did Danzo collude with these people and want to completely exterminate Uchiha? 】

The clan leader has not returned, and the clan leader’s wife and the clan leader’s son have disappeared without a trace. Given the character of the clan members, they will definitely gather at the shrine to discuss countermeasures!

"This old guy..."

Uchiha Mikoto seemed to have returned to the war years. She pushed the document away with gritted teeth and picked up another one, wanting to know all of Danzo's plans.

However, what follows, in addition to the mission plan to capture Itachi, are several surveillance records targeting Fugaku, Itachi, Uchiha Tekka and Inari.

The earliest record can be traced back to more than ten days ago, before the summer vacation started!

It can be seen that this operation against Uchiha has been planned for a long time.

Mikoto raced against time to scan through the documents one after another, and finally stopped in front of a closed box. This box was not opened at all, unlike all the other scrolls and documents.

"That one is not encrypted." The gray-haired boy explained, "It was sent from the Kingdom of Water."

Uchiha Mikoto's heart beat violently.

【The Kingdom of Water? 】

[Since the information is classified as Uchiha, would it be...]

[Is it related to Yiyong? 】

Thinking of this possibility, Miqin could no longer hold back and quickly opened the lid of the box.

But what caught her eye gave her heart a heavy punch, almost breaking it.

It was a summer assignment with a blood-stained cover.

By bloodstained, I mean there is a bloody handprint that clearly belongs to a child.

Mikoto stretched out her palms tremblingly, her eyes seemed to be covered with dark shadows, and her breathing became heavier and heavier unconsciously.

When she took Zuosuke away from the welcome ceremony today, she held the child's hand, so she knew the size of Zuosuke's hand.

And Giyu and Sasuke are twins, which means the gap is almost non-existent.

Under this comparison, she pulled her hand back almost in horror, and even forgot to breathe for a moment.

"No, no, I will definitely not be a righteous person, I will definitely not be a righteous person..."

Then, Uchiha Mikoto took her summer homework and quickly flipped through it, but who could do that familiar, printed-like font except Giyuu?

Countless thoughts were like a black cloud formed by mosquitoes, covering her heart and brain. Dark suspicions arose one after another, but they were cast aside by the hope of being a mother.

She selected a few acceptable ideas and kept mumbling them...

"Giyu should have just been captured, just like Itachi..."

"They just got their summer homework..."

"Even things that Giyuu accidentally threw away..."

She even forgot that with Yuiyong's level of care, she never lost her belongings.

These thoughts have gradually deviated from reality. They are just her most innocent wishes that she most wants to realize...

After nervously closing her summer homework, Mikoto noticed that there was another letter in the box.

However, as soon as she opened it, before she read the content of the letter, her sensitive eyes had already caught Orochimaru's signature.

At this moment, the most fearful guess in her heart broke free like a dark monster and came to the very surface of her consciousness, temporarily suppressing all her reason.

Uchiha Mikoto looked away from that disgusting name almost numbly, moved her pale lips, and slowly read out the content of the letter.

"Before you sent people here, I had captured Uchiha Giyu, but I didn't see any undead heads, so I don't understand what you are talking about. As for the Sharingan, he is not the three magatama you speculated, but a double Magatama, there is no need to collect it. In short, the experiment of eyeball removal is over..."

Mikoto's voice was choked up and tears stung her eyes.

"But Uchiha Giyuu..."

Heavy and suppressed gasps echoed in the stall, as if her soul was being sucked out of her body bit by bit.

"I didn't get through it. It's... what a pity. I thought I could try a few more experiments. This is a rare Uchiha genius..."

It was Orochimaru's tone.

At this moment, nothing could describe Uchiha Mikoto's mood at this moment, such as heartbreaking or heartbreaking pain.

The feeling of ice-cold blood all over the body and all the muscles in the body, including the internal organs, feel as heavy and stiff as stone, is the same as that of a real dead person.

A drop of blood was mixed with Uchiha Mikoto's tears, making the letter tremble back and forth.

The drop of blood continued to slide downwards, rolling past Orochimaru's name like a delete sign.

"Orochimaru, Danzo..."

A low-pitched cry, almost like that of an animal, came from the mouth of this Uchiha mother who had always been gentle.

As she stood up slowly, the lights in the entire room, the entire root base, and even the entire Konoha flickered, and there was a final bang——

In this village, the lights used by every household to welcome the coming night were completely extinguished.

In the dark stall, the only light source was two captivating scarlet eyes.

The magatama in the pair of sharingan eyes kept spinning, spinning, spinning...

Eventually, a completely new shape was formed.