"Anko, you finally succeeded?"
The next day at noon, around the dining table at Tatsuya's house, Kyoko looked at Mitarashi Anko with joyful surprise, cheering.
"Hmph! How could a little thing like this stop me?" Mitarashi Anko tilted her head back proudly, a tsundere look on her face as she let out a light scoff.
Last night on the training ground, Anko, having just fully activated her Cursed Seal of Heaven, had sparred intensely with Tatsuya. Although she had still ended up defeated, Anko had been buzzing with excitement all night.
Because she could finally fight Tatsuya head-on.
She hadn't been taken down in a single blow; with Tatsuya not using his Butterfly Mode, she had lasted for over ten minutes. Such an achievement was more than enough to thrill Anko. After all, how many shinobi in Konoha currently could truly fight Tatsuya at full strength? This marked Anko's definitive entry into the ranks of elite jōnin.
"Anko, you're amazing!" Kyoko's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, happily picking up some of Anko's favorite dishes with her chopsticks and placing them on her plate.
"Well, of course!" The tsundere pride on Anko's face intensified.
Beside them, Tatsuya slowly picked at his own preferred dishes. He glanced up at Anko opposite him, finding the situation rather amusing.
Looks like this girl's tsundere nature isn't going away anytime soon!
She conveniently forgets how wrecked she looked last night after overusing the Cursed Seal's power! If Tatsuya hadn't been there to replenish her life energy, Anko probably would have been bedridden for more than ten days.
To truly unlock Anko's full potential, her physical constitution still needed further enhancement. Once the Cursed Seal stabilized completely after some time, he could start by inscribing a Swiftness Seal onto her.
BOOM!
Just as Tatsuya was lost in thought, a violent explosion suddenly ripped through the Akimichi Clan compound.
Hearing the blast, Tatsuya's expression changed instantly. That came from the direction of the lab!
"Stay here, don't move!"
Leaving behind those words, Tatsuya vanished from the dining table, leaving the two women staring at each other blankly.
In the Hokage's Office, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was busy handling official duties. He held a scroll, and the deep furrow of his brow indicated the news it contained was not good.
Just then, the deafening explosion erupted from the direction of the Akimichi Clan compound.
"What was that?" Alarm showed on the Third's face. He rose and went to the window, looking out towards the Akimichi sector. Outside, a thick plume of smoke billowed into the sky above Konoha.
Flicker!
A figure appeared inside the office – an ANBU operative directly under the Hokage's command stood before the desk.
"Quickly, investigate the situation! Find out what happened over at the Akimichi compound!" the Third ordered the ANBU, his voice grave.
"Sir!" the ANBU acknowledged respectfully, vanishing as soon as the words were spoken.
After the operative left, the Third remained standing silently by the window, his eyes filled with seriousness and worry.
Konoha can't afford any more turmoil right now!
Deep beneath Konoha, within the Root headquarters.
Danzo looked up, facing the direction the sound had come from. Judging by the sound alone, he deduced the incident had occurred within the Akimichi Clan compound.
Figures flickered through the main hall as Ryoma Aburame appeared before Danzo, accompanied by a dozen Root shinobi.
"Ryoma, bring your men. We're going to take a look," Danzo ordered the lead Aburame, a strange glint flickering in his visible eye, his voice low.
"Sir."
With that, Danzo and his contingent of Root ninja vanished.
The Uchiha Compound.
"Hm? Such powerful ocular energy..." Fugaku Uchiha snapped his head up, looking towards the source of the explosion, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. Possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan, Fugaku had keenly sensed the surge of dōjutsu power in that instant. This was definitely not the ocular power of an ordinary Sharingan.
He stood up, flickered, and disappeared from his home.
At that moment, similar scenes were playing out among the major powers throughout Konoha. The massive explosion within the Akimichi Clan compound had captured everyone's attention.
Flicker!
Tatsuya appeared in an empty space just outside the laboratory. The entire laboratory had collapsed.
Amidst the rubble, Jizo, clad in his lab coat, was hunched over, weakly supporting himself with his hands. Not far in front of Jizo, the one-eyed clone's body had a massive hole punched through its torso, spilling blood and viscera.
From the scene before him, Tatsuya could tell at a glance that Jizo had used Tenkei, the unique dōjutsu of his Mangekyō Sharingan.
What could have driven Jizo to use such a technique, even at the cost of damaging his own body? Tatsuya couldn't understand it.
However, when his gaze fell upon the one-eyed clone's remaining eye, unrestrained shock flooded his face.
The crimson, three-tomoe Sharingan had somehow transformed into a fully formed Mangekyō Sharingan.
In just a single glance, Tatsuya saw chaos and madness swirling within that eye.
What in the world happened in the lab?
"Cough, cough... Hurry! Collect all the test subjects!" Jizo choked out, coughing up blood as he yelled at Tatsuya.
Jizo's words snapped Tatsuya back to reality. This wasn't the time to ponder the cause; they had to clean up the scene and remove any traces before outsiders arrived. After all, a commotion this large wouldn't go unnoticed by the village's other factions.
Tatsuya formed a hand seal. With several puffs of white smoke, three shadow clones appeared beside him instantly.
Poof!
Having created the clones, Tatsuya began rapidly clearing the area. With the lab collapsed like this, recovering the experimental equipment was impossible, but the precious research specimens were what Tatsuya absolutely had to retrieve.
Flicker, flicker, flicker...
Figures began to arrive – Ryota Akimichi, Rou Akimichi, and Chouza Akimichi were among the first. Seeing Tatsuya using shadow clones to search the wreckage, expressions of confusion and gravity appeared on their faces. They realized immediately that Tatsuya had been conducting specialized human experiments within the clan compound. After all, the fleshy specimens Tatsuya was recovering were quite conspicuous.
"Rou, Chouza, take some clansmen and hold off anyone approaching from outside. Don't let them get here yet," Ryota Akimichi instructed the other two after a few seconds of contemplation.
"Understood." Recognizing the severity of the situation, both acknowledged the order and flickered away.
Remaining in place, Ryota Akimichi watched the busy Tatsuya with a complex expression.
A few minutes later, figures began flashing into the area one after another – the alerted leaders of various factions had arrived. Among them, the most conspicuous group was undoubtedly Danzo, leading his dozen Root members.
Within the crowd, Fugaku Uchiha's gaze was fixed intently on Tatsuya, who now stood silently beside Ryota Akimichi.
In that moment, everyone's attention was focused on Ryota Akimichi and Tatsuya.