Chapter 949

After the Leaf Anbu and the elite jonin squad broke through the barrier shrouding the Uchiha clan grounds and finally got inside, all they found was a scene of utter devastation and bodies strewn across the ground — they could say they had gained absolutely nothing.

It is worth mentioning that the eyes were missing from the vast majority of the Uchiha ninja corpses.

The ordinary clan members were no exception; by the time the Leaf Anbu finally arrived before Uchiha Fugaku.

Even the Leaf Anbu, who were long accustomed to death, could not help but feel a chill run down their spines, and some who had taken part in the previous three great wars began comparing the scene before their eyes with the most harrowing images seared into their memories.

Just like when the night battle on the third day of the Battle of Kikyo Ridge ended, the corpses were piled on top of one another.

There was simply nowhere to set foot; wherever there were no bodies, there were deep craters from explosions.

All that could be faintly seen were human remains and severed limbs whose original forms were unrecognizable, while the air was thick with the stench of death and blood.

The Leaf Anbu silently began the task of collecting the corpses and registering them — these were nothing more than the commonplace of war.

That's right, Danzo had described this incident in his intelligence report as a "war," and one could well imagine that Konoha, a thousand miles away, and indeed the entire Land of Fire, had already been placed under full martial alert.

This was a war that was far from fair; after tallying up an enormous number of corpses — so many that they already blanketed several streets — and even promptly identifying the unrecognizable fragments of bone and charred remains, Danzo still could not find so much as a single enemy corpse among them.

Could it be that these Uchiha elites had been fighting their own shadows?

The very thought seemed impossible, and yet Uchiha Itachi had personally described the enemy's appearance and attire: black, close-fitting clothing suited for movement, a skull mask that completely concealed the face, and beyond that, immunity to genjutsu and an immortal body.......

If he had not seen the corpses and ruins carpeting the ground with his own eyes, and if he did not know Uchiha Itachi's character, Danzo would have preferred to dismiss all of this as utter nonsense.

But now, he had no choice but to pin his hopes on Young Yuanzi, who was far away in Lou Lan; the disappearance of the Fourth Hokage was by no means a trivial matter.

The last Kage to go missing had already triggered a war, and this time the situation was even more unfavorable — among Konoha's losses was the Uchiha clan, one of its trump cards!

No matter how careful one is, whenever anything is done, traces will inevitably be left behind.

The investigation had reached a deadlock, and at his wit's end, Danzo dispatched the Leaf Anbu to search every corner of the Uchiha clan grounds; then, when Uchiha Itachi solemnly led Danzo to the Uchiha clan's ancestral shrine, the breakthrough finally appeared.

From the outside it looked as though there was nothing unusual, but Uchiha Itachi led everyone straight around to the back and opened a hidden door; the moment they stepped into the area beneath the shrine, a second expression finally appeared on Uchiha Itachi's face, which had until then remained perfectly composed.

"This is impossible! The people who knew the location of the eye vault...."

Facts triumph over everything — an empty room.

It meant that the Sharingan collected by successive generations of the Uchiha had already fallen into another's hands; Uchiha Itachi now had yet another task added to his list of things to do.

Young Yuanzi tucked the intelligence scroll away, and in an instant the pale-blue flame reduced it to nothing; gently massaging her temple with her index finger, she slowly emptied her tangled thoughts, letting her mind drift and thinking of nothing further.

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