strictlysupreme Chapter 534 Be careful!
Chapter 534 Be careful!
Just then, a dark figure flashed past from the corner at the end of the corridor!
"Intruder!" "Cat Face" hissed, giving chase without hesitation. "This place is yours!"
"Be careful!" Itachi warned, but didn't move. His duty was to guard this place, and no matter what happened, he couldn't abandon his post. He stared intently at the door of the secret chamber, extending his senses to the extreme, vigilant for any possible anomalies.
However, instead of receiving news from his companions, he was met with a scorching wave!
"boom--!!!"
A violent explosion suddenly came from overhead, shaking the entire building! The intense flames illuminated the outside world through the windows, and waves of heat swept down.
"Art fire escape ho fireball!"
The name of the ninjutsu flashed through Itachi's mind, and then an even more horrifying thought surged up—that direction was the Third Hokage's office!
Damn it! They've used a diversionary tactic!
Itachi instantly understood the enemy's intentions. Their target from the beginning was not the archives, but the Hokage! He dared not be careless in the slightest, and with a flash, he disappeared from his spot, rushing towards the top floor at top speed.
Just as the two secret agents were successfully lured away, an aged figure appeared like a ghost in front of the secret chamber door. Xuan Weng moved with lightning speed, taking out a thin metal wire from his pocket and skillfully inserting it into the keyhole.
His fingers twitched slightly, his ear pressed against the cold door, listening intently to the subtle sounds of the internal mechanisms turning. The entire process was fluid and seamless, without the slightest hesitation.
"Click."
A soft sound, barely audible in the aftershocks of the explosion. The door to the secret chamber containing Konoha's most important secret—the Scroll of Seals—was opened with ease. Without a moment's hesitation, Gen'ou slipped inside, swiftly took the enormous scroll, and then silently vanished back into the darkness, as if he had never been there.
……
Meanwhile, the "Cat Face" operative chased the shadowy figure across most of the village, finally intercepting it in an open training ground.
"Surrender!" "Cat Face" sneered.
However, the dark figure simply stood still, motionless. The next second, with a soft "bang," the dark figure vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"Shadow clone?!" The cat-faced man's pupils constricted, and he thought to himself, "This is bad!"
He immediately realized he had fallen for a trap! Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and rushed back to the Hokage Building as fast as he could. When he arrived at the top floor, panting heavily, he found Itachi standing solemnly in front of the ruins of the Hokage's office.
A large hole was blown in the wall of the Third Hokage's office. The fire had been extinguished by other ninjas who rushed to the scene, but the place was a mess.
"How is it?" "Cat Face" asked anxiously. "Where is the Hokage?"
"The Third Hokage is not in his office tonight." Itachi's voice was a little hoarse. "I checked the scene, and apart from the damage caused by the Fire Release ninjutsu, there were no traces left by the intruder. It seems that the other party's purpose was just to create chaos, rather than actually assassinating the Hokage."
"Just creating chaos?" "Cat Face" frowned, a sense of unease creeping in. "Something's not right. This doesn't make sense. Our defenses..."
He was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly exchanged a glance with "Itachi," and the two of them simultaneously thought of a terrifying possibility!
They turned abruptly and rushed back to the secret room of the archives as fast as they could.
The gate was intact, and the lock showed no signs of being tampered with. Everything looked exactly as it had when they left.
"Itachi" stepped forward and used a specific chakra technique to open the door to the secret room.
When they saw what was inside, the two battle-hardened elite members of the Dark Guard gasped in shock.
The enormous scroll that should have been lying quietly on the central stone platform—the Book of Seals—has vanished without a trace.
“How could this be…” Itachi’s voice trembled slightly, “We clearly didn’t find any signs of intrusion…”
Catface's expression turned incredibly ugly beneath the mask. He carefully examined the door lock and the surrounding walls, but found no signs of forced entry. It was as if the thief had entered out of thin air and vanished just as suddenly.
"This is beyond our control." Itachi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "We must report this immediately! Notify Captain Kurenai Yuhi!"
Moonlight, like water, streamed through the window into a quiet room. A faint milky scent and a sense of peace filled the air. A little girl lay on her side in the soft bedding, breathing evenly and deeply, fast asleep.
This moment of warmth and peace was shattered by a door that was quietly pushed open. Xuan Weng, hunched over, slipped in silently like a raccoon dog, clutching a huge scroll tightly in his arms—the Book of Sealing, which he had just stolen from the Hokage Building.
Inside, a figure was already waiting. Zhang Hai sat cross-legged at the table, his expression focused, as if performing some kind of ritual. When he saw Xuan Weng enter, he merely raised his eyelids, gesturing for him to place the scroll on the table.
"Successfully." Xuan Weng's voice was extremely low, but it still couldn't hide a trace of excitement and exhaustion. He laid the Book of Seals flat on the table, but his gaze involuntarily drifted to the sleeping girl. When he saw the girl's face clearly, and the familiar furnishings of the room, his aged pupils suddenly contracted.
"This is..." Xuanweng's voice trembled slightly, "is this Yuhi Shinku's house?"
"Hmm." Zhang Hai didn't even look up, already impatiently unfolding the Book of Sealing, his gaze greedily and quickly sweeping over the astonishing forbidden techniques recorded within. He had already prepared pen, ink, and a blank scroll by his side, and with a flick of his wrist, he began to transcribe them at lightning speed.
He had to race against time. Once dawn broke, the entire Hidden Leaf Village would be under the highest level of martial law. Carrying the original copy of the Book of Seals was like carrying a volcano that could erupt at any moment; there was no way to escape the village. The only way was to transcribe the most valuable parts as quickly as possible.
As Xuan Weng watched this scene, he was overwhelmed with shock. His gaze shifted from the sleeping girl to the focused Zhang Hai, and a terrible thought formed in his mind.
“The most dangerous place is the safest place…the darkest place is under the lamp…” Xuan Weng muttered to himself, his voice filled with disbelief. “Yuhi Shinku is a Jonin of Konoha and one of the direct superiors of the Anbu. Who would have thought that the thief who stole the Scroll of Seals would hide in her house and sleep next to her daughter? You…you planned everything from the very beginning, even calculating people’s hearts to this extent?”