Naruto : Blazing Legend

Chapter 26: The Root of Corruption

The monitoring screens painted a gallery of horrors in flickering light and shadow. Bodies twisted in final agony, blood seeping into ancient soil, young faces frozen in death's surprise—over twenty casualties in barely two days. The assistant beside Orochimaru wiped sweat that had nothing to do with the room's temperature.

"Lord Orochimaru," the man ventured, his voice cracking like thin ice, "the mortality rate... if the Hokage learns of these numbers..." He gestured helplessly at the screens showing another genin team discovering their classmates' remains. "Perhaps we should deploy medical teams? Establish safety protocols?"

Orochimaru's laugh was the sound of autumn leaves grinding underfoot. "Safety?" The word rolled off his tongue like poison. "From the moment they take the headband, they accept death as their constant companion. Better they learn this truth here than discover it with enemy steel between their ribs."

The pale man turned from the screens, his golden eyes reflecting the carnage with something that might have been nostalgia. "The Third could simply promote them all to chunin tomorrow—no blood, no tears, no inconvenient questions from grieving parents." His voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than a shout. "And they would die as surely as lambs led to slaughter."

The assistant's throat worked soundlessly. Everyone knew the story—how Tsunade's brother Nawaki had been fast-tracked to chunin rank, how the boy's enthusiasm had outweighed his experience, how Orochimaru had watched the trap detonate and reduce his promising subordinate to scattered meat and broken dreams. The Slug Princess had never recovered from that loss, and some whispered that neither had her teammate.

"War teaches harsh lessons," Orochimaru continued, his attention returning to the screens where six new figures converged on Rei's position. "Those who survive my instruction might live to see another sunrise."

The hunt had reached its crescendo. Six Root operatives—Danzo's newest recruits, still rough around the edges but lethal enough to warrant the designation—closed in from multiple vectors. Their coordination spoke of recent training, their movements betraying the mechanical precision that marked them as products of the Foundation's conditioning programs.

Rei's team found themselves in a trap, escape routes systematically cut off by their pursuers' tactical positioning. The explosion site lay behind them like a crater on the moon, still smoking with the ashes of their previous encounter.

"Teamwork," Rei observed with dark humor, studying the approaching figures. "How refreshing. Usually, people try to kill me individually."

Wada Yu and Hanazuki flanked him, their faces set in grim determination. The playful camaraderie of earlier days had been burned away by necessity, leaving only the hard steel of survival.

The lead operative—a young man bearing a katana that seemed too large for his lean frame—stepped forward with the confidence of someone who'd never truly faced defeat. "You killed our advance team."

"No," Rei replied with perfect honesty that made everyone pause.

"Obviously it was us," Wada Yu muttered, then caught himself and fell silent.

The swordsman's eyes narrowed as he processed the Uchiha symbol on Rei's clothing, the distinctive blade at his side. "You are Uchiha Rei."

"Was there a point to this interrogation?" Rei's patience, never abundant, began to fray visibly. "If you're here to kill me, at least have the courtesy to be efficient about it."

What followed was a masterclass in the difference between training and experience. The swordsman launched into the Three-Day Moon Dance—a beautiful, flowing technique that created multiple afterimages to confuse opponents. Against a normal genin, it might have been devastating.

Against someone with the Sharingan, it was suicide performed with utmost confidence.

Rei's enhanced perception cut through the illusion, identifying the true body among the dancing shadows. Steel met steel with a sound like breaking bells, and the swordsman found himself outmatched by someone half his age and twice his skill.

The engagement dissolved into chaos as teammates rushed to support their respective leaders. Shuriken filled the air like deadly snow, only to be intercepted by Wada Yu's earth wall—a barrier thick enough to stop anything short of explosive tags. Hanazuki wove between attacks with fluid grace, her water techniques turning the battlefield into a maze of streams and puddles.

"Good work, Yu," Rei called out, his hands already forming seals for something more substantial than mere swordplay. "Hanazuki, clear the field."

A Water Dragon Bullet erupted from his position—a serpent of pressurized liquid devoured the Root team's coordinated Fire Style attack and sent the three operatives tumbling through the forest like broken dolls. Trees snapped like kindling under the assault's fury.

But the remaining operatives adapted with professional speed. Massive shuriken, spinning like buzz saws, carved through Wada Yu's defensive walls as if they were paper. Lightning chakra arced across the ground, catching Hanazuki in its paralyzing embrace.

The girl's scream cut through the battle's din—pain and terror made audible. She collapsed, muscles spasming as electricity coursed through her nervous system, heartbeat hammering against her ribcage like a trapped bird.

The Root operative who'd cast the technique never saw his death coming. Rei's Iai technique was a whisper of steel that parted the man from his life so cleanly he remained standing for several heartbeats before toppling in two neat pieces.

"Status report," Rei called, his blade already clean despite its recent work.

"I'm... I'm functional," Hanazuki gasped, struggling to her feet despite Wada Yu's concerned hovering. "The technique wasn't meant to kill, just incapacitate. I can still fight."

"Good. Because we're not finished."

The remaining operatives coordinated their assault with desperate efficiency. Thousand Killing Water Flying—a technique that turned every drop of battlefield moisture into a potential projectile. The attack covered approach vectors with surgical precision, each needle of water capable of piercing flesh and bone.

Rei's response was swift and overwhelming. Two shadow clones flanked him as all three began the same sequence of hand seals, their movements perfectly synchronized.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu."

Sixteen balls of concentrated flame erupted from their positions, each one a miniature sun that boiled away the incoming water barrage. The steam that followed provided perfect cover for what came next—the distinctive sound of bodies hitting earth, charred beyond recognition.

"Chakra reserves running low," Rei muttered, dismissing his clones to conserve what little energy remained. The admission of weakness was telling—in all their time together, his teammates had never heard him acknowledge limitations.

The respite lasted exactly as long as it took for the Water Dragon Bullet's victims to return. Three figures emerged from the tree line, battered but still functional, their eyes burning with the fanatical light that marked them as true believers in Danzo's cause.

"Earth Style: Earthquake Core!"

The technique was devastating in its simplicity—a hundred square meters of ground simply ceased to exist at its current elevation, dropping ten meters in an instant. Rei's team found themselves at the bottom of a perfectly cylindrical pit, walls rising like the sides of a grave.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!"

Stone lances erupted from every surface, converging on the trapped genin with inevitable finality. It should have been over—three young lives ended by overwhelming force and superior positioning.

Instead, lightning filled the pit like bottled thunder. Rei's chakra, pushed beyond his safe limits, coated every surface with crackling energy that disrupted earth techniques and made the very air taste of copper and ozone.

Above, the Root operatives cursed as their jutsu failed, their stone spears crumbling before they could find their targets. The captain prepared to finish the engagement with Fire Style—a technique that would turn the pit into a crematorium.

He never got the chance.

Earth spears, launched from impossible angles, pierced all three operatives simultaneously. They hung suspended like grotesque scarecrows, blood painting abstract patterns on the forest floor below. Wada Yu emerged from the earth behind them, his hands still glowing with residual chakra.

When the survivors finally climbed from their earthen prison, Hanazuki couldn't suppress her revulsion. The Root operatives had been impaled multiple times, their bodies arranged in a display that spoke more of execution than combat. Blood continued to drip steadily, creating small crimson pools that reflected the afternoon sky.

"Check their tongues," Rei instructed, his voice carrying the exhaustion of someone operating on will alone. "Look for curse seals."

The examination confirmed what they'd all suspected. Each corpse bore the distinctive marking of Root operatives—Danzo's personal brand burned into living flesh as surely as cattle were marked by their owners.

"Nine total," Rei observed as they gathered scrolls and supplies from the bodies. "That's not coincidence—that's a dedicated elimination squad." He paused, studying the carnage with calculating eyes. "Someone wants me very dead."

In his monitoring station, Orochimaru leaned forward with interest. Nine Root operatives—the cream of Danzo's current crop—reduced to cooling meat by three genin barely out of the Academy. The Uchiha boy's knowledge of Root tactics and curse seal locations suggested connections that went far deeper than coincidence.

"Fascinating," he murmured, tongue darting out to wet his lips. "Young Rei, you're far more interesting than your files suggested." His golden eyes gleamed with possibilities. "Perhaps it's time we met properly."

The serpent's plans were already forming, terrible and beautiful in their complexity. After all, the most promising specimens required the most personal attention to reach their full potential.

And Uchiha Rei showed such delicious potential for corruption.

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