Chapter 31: Shatter, Mirror Flower Water Moon (Part 2)

About 20 meters behind Nanshu, a fierce Execution Squad from Root had quietly followed him; they had been tracking his movements since the Hokage Building and had trailed him into this deserted forest.

As expected, Danzo had no intention of letting Nanshu go; even though the Third Hokage had stopped him on the surface, there was no way to stop him from dealing a lethal blow in the shadows. Now, Danzo wanted Nanshu's life more than anyone else.

The leader of the Execution Squad had cold light gleaming in his eyes; he stared at Nanshu's completely unguarded back and silently signaled his team members.

"Lord Danzo's order: Kill!"

Three Root assassins rushed out, their bodies surging with killing intent. They passed through the woods like ghosts, the long blades in their hands reflecting cold, icy glints as they slashed toward Nanshu's back.

No one could walk away unscathed after provoking Root, let alone an Uchiha!

"Die!"

In that instant, the fastest Root assassin had already reached Nanshu's back.

The long blade sliced through the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound.

——Squelch!

The sharp long blade pierced directly through Nanshu's heart, and at the same time, the immense momentum carried the Root assassin and Nanshu flying several meters away. As their bodies tangled together, the liver and the carotid artery in the neck were pierced through by several more consecutive stabs. Hot blood sprayed onto the assassin's face, and that scalding, burning sensation caused the Root assassin to reveal a triumphant, sinister grin.

However.

The next second, his smile came to an abrupt halt, because everything before his eyes began to blur. The surrounding environment began to twist and burn like a melting candle; all phenomena in the universe were altered at this moment.

Tuoye watched helplessly as his teammate and the target turned into scattering ashes, and the surrounding forest slowly disappeared. Replacing it was a street that was both strange and familiar to him; around the street were familiar dilapidated buildings. The dilapidated buildings were the place he once called "home," which should have long since vanished, ravaged by war... his home in the Rain Country.

No, impossible.

Standing in front of that ruined home was a kind-hearted old grandmother. She wore the plain-colored kimono from his memories, and her wrinkled face was overflowing with a reassuring smile. She was the relative who had raised him since he was a child. Having been a heartless assassin for over a decade, Tuoye, who once thought he would never shed tears again, felt those precious, carefully preserved memories of the past welling up in his heart once more.

"Ah... ah... im... possible... why... Grandma!"

It wasn't just his closest grandmother; beside the old woman was a petite figure sitting behind her, looking slightly shy. She was still wearing those tattered clothes, but her face, which he could never forget no matter how many days and nights had passed, was the one that had held his hand amidst the collapsed ruins, crying and saying she didn't want to die before slowly closing her eyes... his younger sister.

"Why are you..." Tuoye gazed at the familiar relatives and environment before him. In that instant, he realized that the softest part of his heart had been touched. A power he could not resist was constantly invading his mental world, digging out the memories he was most fragile, most gentle, and most afraid of, bit by bit.

Even though he knew something was very wrong, his feet wouldn't listen and walked forward; tears welled up in Tuoye's eyes.

He knew this was likely the enemy's genjutsu.

But...

Why was it that he wanted to indulge in it so much, that even if he could never wake up again, it wouldn't matter?

"Bro... ther...!"

A sweet voice, a healthy body, his younger sister full of youthful vitality was standing there alive, waving at him. At this moment, Tuoye, whose heart was filled with guilt and remorse, could no longer suppress his emotions—or rather, he couldn't control his emotions at all. Like a breached dam, the heartache and tears surging from the depths of his heart had completely drowned his reason.

Run.

Run with all your might!!

Go and hug her!! Confirm she is still alive!!

That wasn't some cold corpse, but his living, warm sister!

All the cruelty he had experienced in the past was just a nightmare.

Tuoye abandoned all rational cognition. At this moment, he only wanted to rush over and hug that petite figure tightly, and he did exactly that. Even when he tripped in the mud, he immediately scrambled back up, disheveled and scarred, his face wearing an expression of anxiety, his eyes filled with disbelief and the fear of losing her again.

Finally, that figure grew closer and closer, within reach.

"Lingna!!"

Tuoye cried out his sister's name with a sob, looking pathetic. In that instant—somewhere in the world, a crisp cracking sound seemed to ring out, but it was by no means a precursor to shattering; it was more like the omen of gears meshing and beginning to turn automatically.

With a face full of tear tracks, Tuoye hugged his sister, as if he were hugging his entire world.

"Ahhhhh!! Ahhhhh... Lingna... Lingna, you're still... alive... I... I will never... leave you again..."

"Brother... I've missed you so much... please don't leave again, okay? Please stay by my side forever."

"Okay... okay! I, I will never leave again! I'll stay with you forever, until the end of the world."

At this moment, the grandmother also walked over and gently hugged the two siblings, a warm embrace just like in his memories.

"Grand... ma..."

"The family is finally reunited, Tuoye. You've worked hard on this journey; you... don't have to endure anymore."

"We will be together forever."

Tuoye's tear-stained face had, at some point, returned to the appearance of his childhood.

He, Grandma, Lingna.

The three of them cried while hugging each other tightly, as if they were hugging each other's worlds.

Meanwhile.

Their figures grew further and further away, as if something were being pulled.

Finally, the three of them disappeared into the end of the darkness. ………………

In the real world, only a sharp whistle of a blade slicing through the air was heard. The sharp edge easily parted flesh and bone, severing the neck of the person who had launched the sneak attack, and sent his head flying in the surprised gaze of his remaining teammates.

Squelch, the decapitated area sprayed a large amount of blood wildly, like a fountain.

The sky seemed to be raining blood.

It dyed the earth red.

Nanshu maintained his swinging posture and slowly stood up straight.

Those scarlet Sharingan saw the face of the man who still wore a smile even at the moment death arrived.

This is the power of Mirror Flower Water Moon; those who cannot break free from its shackles will be forever immersed in that world.

And then, until death arrives.

"You, what did you do!!"

The other two Root assassins immediately rushed over; there was no fear in their voices, but rather disbelief.

They had seen with their own eyes that the target had been pierced through the heart, but in the next second, his figure had magically reappeared to the side, while the pierced body had vanished like a phantom. But even more unbelievable was that the most agile and fastest assassin among them had been decapitated by a single strike without any room for resistance, even though the speed of that blade had looked so slow.

And they clearly did not know that Nanshu had just activated his passive ability: while his body remained in a state of silence, he automatically entered the Mirror Flower Water Moon state and gained immunity to one direct attack, and the moment he was attacked, the attacker would suffer a rebound attack from Mirror Flower Water Moon. If their mental strength could not block the intrusion, they would fall into a state of silence, and once silenced, they could not be awakened except by external force.

If those two Root members had arrived in time just now, they could have easily awakened Tuoye, but clearly their speed was far inferior to the former, and because Tuoye's own speed was too fast, he could not be rescued in time, ultimately dying in the dream of Mirror Flower Water Moon.

"Hmph, as expected of Danzo's lackeys!"

Uchiha Nanshu snorted coldly and immediately withdrew; Mirror Flower Water Moon requires a 1 minute and 30 second buffer to enter its cooldown state, otherwise, with his own mental energy plus the amplification of the Sharingan, he could have directly taken out another one.

At this moment, he had already seen the Execution Squad captain rushing over from afar; that speed was several times faster than Tuoye's, at the very least an Elite Jonin. If it were a one-on-one fight, Uchiha Nanshu, despite lacking combat experience, could still win because he had a trump card in his hand that he hadn't used yet. But this was one Elite Jonin plus two Special Jonin (who are outstanding in one aspect but whose overall quality is inferior to an Elite Jonin; for example, Tuoye's speed was outstanding, but his mental energy was clearly quite weak).

To be honest, an elite squad composed of these four Jonin (1 Elite, 3 Special) was definitely not something Uchiha Nanshu could withstand head-on right now. Although being confident in one's own strength is a good thing, seeing reality clearly and making the correct response is also very important.

Uchiha Nanshu waved his hand and pulled out the Signal Gun directly!

Click—whoosh!

Bang!

One Piercing Cloud Arrow, and a thousand troops and ten thousand horses come to meet!

A massive red firework exploded high in the sky, easily visible even from the Uchiha Clan Grounds over ten kilometers away.

"—Fierce Fire Burning Body!!"

Boom, the scorching red lotus exploded, and Uchiha Nanshu, covered in a suit of flame armor, stood proudly like a god of war!

The heat wave baking the atmosphere rushed in all directions; the Execution Squad had never seen a move like this where the whole body burns like a fire person, and coupled with how strangely Tuoye had just died, for a moment they didn't dare to attack immediately.

The baring fangs and brandishing claws of the flames wantonly scorched the flowers, grass, and trees.

The next second, Uchiha Nanshu turned his head and ran without looking back!

"NIGERUNDAYO!!"

Fight to the death head-on against three Jonin?

He is Uchiha Nanshu, not Uchiha Stubborn! …………