Rising up from the ground, the half body of Zetsu came out of the ground and asked the masked-man who stood on the side with a puzzled expression, "Why are you helping that kid even now?"

The main reason why the team lead by Danzo couldn't discover Uchiha Shinichi's tracks was because of the indirect help the masked-man provided him. ​​

Otherwise, it would have been extremely difficult for Shinichi to get rid of the chase simply depending on his own skills.

The masked-man who carefreely stood with his hands crossed at the back of his head, replied calmly without moving his gaze, "Simply because he is a useful chess piece."

Zetsu frowned a little and said in a disapproving tone, "But we have lost control of him!"

"No!" – muttered the masked-man, and continued in a flat tone, "So long as he continues to live, that is already more than enough…, for now!"

The Masked-Man is very clear about the contradiction between the Uchiha and the Village, therefore, as long as Uchiha Shinichi remains alive outside Konoha as a missing-nin, the rift between the Hokage faction and the Uchiha Clan will never be solved.

At this time, Zetsu said while pointing in one direction, "Konoha has sent the Team-11, so it is hard to say whether he can successfully escape out of the Land of Fire!"

The Masked-Man asked in a dissatisfied tone, "Didn't I tell you to let your clone watch him?"

However, completely ignoring, the masked man's dissatisfied tone, Zetsu just shrugged, "His perception has increased too much, my clone can't get any closer."

Ever since Shinichi awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, his perception and other sensory skills have become so apt that even being a non-sensor type, he already exceeds the ability of many sensor class, therefore, it is difficult to monitor him without letting him discover.

"Fine, but make sure to keep watch of him, even if from afar, it's not yet time for him to die!" – After speaking this sentence, the Masked-Man fell into deep thought as he remembered the mysterious black-masked man that he encountered at the Root Base.

Zetsu noticed the Masked-man's change and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

The Masked-Man didn't hide it and simply described the events that took place at the Root Base, "I encountered a mysterious person at the Root Base, his strength was very strong, I had a short bout against him and in that short bout, I couldn't take advantage for even an instant!"

Zetsu was really surprised and asked in confusion, "Konoha still has such a shinobi?"

The Masked-Man shook his head as he said, "There shouldn't be, apart from the few old men and Jiraiya, there shouldn't be anyone else in Konoha with such strength, what's more, for some reason that I am unable to comprehend, that person gave me a familiar feeling, its as if I know him but at the same time I don't!"

"Familiar!?" – After a short pause, Zetsu continued, "So, you are saying that you know him?"

The Masked-Man shook his head in denial, "That's what bugs me, among the people I know, there shouldn't be any such person!"

From that time, the Masked-Man has been trying to recall if he can find anything, but he has still not found any identity that could match that person.

Among the people he knows, except for Yondaime Hokage, no one has the strength to match that mysterious person, not even Kakashi, who has his left eye.

And what makes Masked-Man cautious is the confidence the other party revealed, for a moment the confidence the other party showed did remind him of Konoha's Yellow Flash!

And that could be troublesome.

Zetsu was a little intrigued by this and said with a chuckle, "If there's someone that can even make you feel cautious, I am a little curious as to who that person might be."

…

Boom… Boom… Boom…

The sound of explosions and metal clashing metal can still be heard, just listening to the movement Kuroto can more or less judge that the rest of the members of Team-11 are fiercely fighting there.

Uchiha Shinichi standing opposite to Kuroto drew his short sword and waved it casually while saying, "Hyuga Kuroto, in fact, as I said, I don't hate you, but the regret I feel for losing to you back then still makes me unable to forget."

Observing everything going around in the vicinity, Kuroto could only sigh, "We all underestimated you big time!"

The identity of the mysterious third-party is no longer hidden now, and this also confirmed that the scene at the tree cave might actually be a part of their plan to lead Team-11 or the other chasers here into an ambush.

Moreover, from just one look Kuroto can confirm that Shinichi is not injured as they thought, this explains why his traveling speed was still too high.

But the next surprising thing is just how was Shinichi able to come in contact with Cloud Army and let it infiltrate into the Land of Fire?

Was it Obito's work?

After all, this ambush was prepared by their combined effort, so there is no doubt that Shinichi has some sort of cooperative relationship with the Cloud Village.

Otherwise, the Cloud Village would definitely not have the time and opportunity to send so many elites ninjas here.

Kuroto speculated that the spy Cloud Village planted in Konoha somehow came into contact with Shinichi and helped him plan this all out.

This Kumo spy hidden in Konoha not only perfectly understood Shinichi's resentment towards Konoha but also managed to approach the guy, and was able to induce Shinichi to form a cooperative relationship, from just this alone, it can be guessed that the identity and status of this spy are not ordinary.

After all, this spy is probably the reason why the accurate information of the members of Team-11 is printed in the Bingo Book.

Now understanding that; Kuroto would have to find who that person may be.

But Kuroto was also glad on the fact that he didn't yet reveal the information about the Tenseigan and Ryuumyaku to the Village.

And now this thing has benefited him, after all, most of the intel about him in the Bingo Book is incomplete.

And, same is the case with, Shisui and Kakashi.

After all, the spy wouldn't have been aware of Shisui and Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan.

So, this makes most of the information the spy provided sort of useless.

And this is exactly one of the reasons why Kuroto never revealed the secret of his Tenseigan to anyone.

'But finding and disposing of him is something I'll have to take care of!'

After suppressing all these thoughts, Kuroto slowly brought out his Kusanagi sword as he spoke to Shinichi, "I understand, let's change places, I won't be able to give you the battle you want here…"

Shinichi was startled by what Kuroto said, and immediately shook his head with a helpless smile, "No, you don't seem to understand, in fact, I don't need much time to deal with you."

Kuroto didn't pay any attention to Shinichi, and directly left in a direction after dropping just two words, "Follow Me!"

Shinichi misunderstood Kuroto's actions, as he muttered, "Don't you feel embarrassed to run away from a battle?"

And with a chuckle, Shinichi chased after Kuroto.

Whether it was Kuroto or Shinichi, the strength of both the Shinobi has already surpassed the level of a Jonin, therefore, both their speed was extremely fast, so it didn't take long for them to leave the battlefield at the ambush point.

Noticing that they were already quite far away, Shinichi asked impatiently, "Hey…, where are you trying to escape?"

Kuroto who was at the front didn't bother turning back, "I am not trying to escape, I just want to deal with you at a place where no one else is present!"

Shinichi just snorted, "Baka…, you don't understand what it means to awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan. Your Byakugan is nothing in comparison to my eyes!"

Kuroto simply ignored Shinichi's rambling and finally stopped after moving a little more distance.

As soon as Kuroto stopped Shinichi also stopped, and while tapping his sword over his shoulder, he said with emotion, "Ever since I awakened these Cursed Eyes, I have changed!"

At this time, Shinichi was completely immersed in emotion and self-monologue that Kuroto felt a little dumbfounded.

But Kuroto could understand what Shinichi meant, an Uchiha who just awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, a sudden gain of such incomprehensible power must make him feel a little intoxicated, he was able to easily slaughter away the Root and Anbu ninja, so obviously, his confidence would inflate.

After all, Kuroto also experienced this phase back when he just awakened the Tenseigan, so he is no stranger to it, and it was only because of some of the difficult experiences he went through; did Kuroto learned to never overestimate himself.

Unfortunately for Shinichi, he hasn't experienced such a thing yet, so he doesn't understand this.

And Kuroto would obviously not shy away to use this to his advantage.

'This is obviously an opportunity!'

Kuroto didn't miss this opportunity and directly used Rein Pull to draw Shinichi and rushed towards him along with positioning the Kusanagi Sword.

Mangekyou Sharingan can have all sorts of weird abilities, so if Kuroto has the opportunity to land a surprise attack then it's better to utilize it.

Slash…

Shinichi was shocked as his body suddenly flew towards Hyuga Kuroto and was stabbed through the heart by the sword.

Look at his chest through which the metal sword pierced his heart, Shinichi asked in confusion, "What was that just now?"

Listening to Shinichi's murmur, Kuroto immediately pulled out his sword and retreated backward.

Retreating backward, Kuroto observed that just as Kakashi described, the stab wound on Shinichi's chest quickly healed. If not for the blood on his sword and the cut on his clothes, Kuroto wouldn't really be sure whether he stabbed Shinichi or not.

"It is definitely not a genjutsu effect, because even if somehow I couldn't resist it with the Tenseigan, Ryuumyaku would have definitely woke me up!"

Since Kuroto is already the Ryuumyaku's Jinchuriki, and since the young form of Ryuumyaku is quite docile, therefore, Kuroto can fully use the power of Ryuumyaku, as long he doesn't exceed the upper limit that would cause the invasion of Natural Energy, so he can more or less be regarded a perfect Jinchuriki.

Therefore, most of the Genjutsu attacks are ineffective on him…

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Read up to Chapter - 260 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations