The morning after the "Night of the Divine Concealment," the sun rose as usual.

Sunlight pierced through the gaps in the Hokage Rock, spilling over the entire Konoha, painting the streets and eaves in a layer of warm gold.

However, today, Konoha could not feel a shred of warmth.

An oppressive atmosphere hung over the village.

The first to discover the anomaly were the ordinary villagers living near the Uchiha Clan Compound.

In the mornings of the past, they could always see Uchiha Ninjas dressed in the uniforms of the Military Police Force, starting their daily patrol with high spirits.

Their tall figures and the fan crest at their waists were symbols of order in this district and an indispensable part of Konoha's prosperity.

But today, the streets were empty.

Those Military Police Force outposts, which were usually bustling with people, were now tightly shut and lifeless.

Some bold villagers curiously walked to the entrance of the main street leading to the Uchiha Clan Compound, attempting to investigate.

Greeting them was a long blockade line drawn with restricted-access runes, and behind the line stood Anbu Ninjas with grave expressions, emanating an aura that warned others to stay away.

The Anbu wore various animal masks and stood silently in the shadows; their very presence was the sternest of warnings.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. Last night, I heard a huge commotion and thought there was a fire somewhere. The light turned half the sky green."

"I heard that the Uchiha clan... has defected en masse!"

"Don't talk nonsense! Such a large clan, thousands of people, how could they just defect like that? Even moving overnight wouldn't be this fast!"

All sorts of rumors spread rapidly among the villagers like sparks that could not be extinguished.

Panic and unease began to spread in everyone's heart.

The collective disappearance of the Uchiha clan was more bizarre and baffling than the impact brought by the Nine-Tails attack on the village.

If the ordinary villagers only felt anomaly and panic, then for the entire power center of Konoha, this was an unprecedented earthquake.

Inside the Hokage's Office, the atmosphere was so heavy it was almost dripping.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had not slept all night.

That wrinkled face looked older and more exhausted than ever.

The ashtray in front of him was stuffed with twisted cigarette butts, but the brief numbness brought by nicotine could not dispel the shock and helplessness in his heart.

The Uchiha clan had truly disappeared.

After a night of repeated investigations by the Anbu, there was only one conclusion: the place was completely empty.

All the houses were intact, even retaining the tableware that hadn't been put away and the laundry that was out to dry, but there wasn't a single person to be seen.

It was as if the entire clan had been wiped from this world by some unknown power in the same instant.

What made him feel even more overwhelmed was the huge power vacuum left behind after the Uchiha disappeared.

The Police Force, this violent organ responsible for maintaining the village's public security, had completely paralyzed overnight.

Security incidents of all sizes began to emerge one after another in the village.

The Anbu temporarily sent to take over were completely unfamiliar with the operating procedures of the Police Force, and facing those trivial civil disputes, they were flustered and inefficient for a time.

"Hokage-sama!" Utatane Koharu slammed her hands heavily on the desk, making the documents jump. "This is simply the greatest disgrace since the founding of Konoha! We must immediately issue the highest-level wanted order, listing all the Uchiha clansman as S-Rank Rogue Ninja! Announce it to the entire Shinobi World!"

"A wanted order?" Homura Mitokado added coldly from the side, his expression equally gloomy. "Where are we going to issue it? We don't even know where they went! There hasn't been any intelligence from anywhere in the entire Shinobi World about a large-scale migration of Ninjas. They have vanished into thin air."

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not speak, only rubbed his brows wearily.

Issuing a wanted order was meaningless. The kind of space-time Ninjutsu that Uchiha Kei possessed had already exceeded the scope of reason.

They were likely no longer in any corner of the Land of Fire, or even in any known country.

An Anbu squad leader responsible for intelligence aggregation knelt on one knee and reported with a dry voice: "Hokage-sama, we have reached a preliminary conclusion regarding the intelligence isolation problem from last night. Our sensor team discovered traces of large-scale barrier techniques on the edge of the ruins of the Uchiha Clan Compound. According to analysis, before the operation began, the Uchiha deployed a barrier we had never seen before called the 'Silent Barrier'."

"This type of barrier can distort and swallow all Chakra signals; whether it was Danzo-sama's Ninja Hounds and Ninja insects, or our Anbu's secret communication techniques, none could penetrate it. That is why Danzo-sama became completely isolated from information, and we were unable to grasp the true situation inside the battlefield at the first opportunity."

This report caused the high-ranking officials in the office to fall into silence.

This showed how meticulous the Uchiha's operation was; they possessed not only the power to overturn the chessboard but also the means to blind all the chess players.

"What about Danzo?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked hoarsely, posing another question that gave him a massive headache.

"Reporting to Hokage-sama, Danzo-sama... is missing." The Anbu squad leader hesitated for a moment. "We did not find him at the Root base."

"Furthermore... the Root is now leaderless and has fallen into complete chaos. In last night's battle, the Root elite that Danzo-sama took with him were almost wiped out. The surviving members are also in an extremely unstable mental state due to the loss of unified command."

This news was nothing short of adding insult to injury for Hiruzen Sarutobi.

The Root, the sharpest blade he used in the shadows to handle dirty work, was also ruined.

Danzo, the old rival who had fought him for his entire life, had collapsed in the most tragic way at the most critical moment, along with his organization.

However, none of them knew that Danzo Shimura was not missing.

Deep underground in Konoha, in that unknown Root base, an aura of despair and death was permeating at this moment.

The surviving Root Ninjas were like headless flies; some were performing disorganized first aid on the wounded, while others were kneeling on the ground with hollow eyes, unable to accept the reality of losing all their companions overnight.

Suddenly, in the secret chamber at the deepest part of the base, a huge reverse summoning jutsu formation flared up, erupting with blinding white light.

As a cloud of thick smoke dissipated, a figure covered in blood and in a miserable state tumbled out heavily, rolling a few times on the cold floor before stopping.

It was Danzo Shimura.

"Danzo...-sama?" A nearby Root Ninja let out an exclamation of disbelief.

Everyone's gaze was instantly drawn over.

At this moment, Danzo no longer had his former dignity.

His arm, which had been transplanted with the Sharingan, was twisted out of shape by space power and hung limply by his side.

The other intact arm was also fractured, and his chest had collapsed significantly, with every breath accompanied by blood foam.

The seemingly simple elbow strike from Uchiha Kei contained enough Chakra to almost shatter his internal organs.

If not for using Izanagi to rewrite reality at the last moment and using the reverse summoning jutsu to forcibly escape the battlefield, he would already be a corpse.

"Trash! What are you still dazing for!" Danzo used all his strength to let out a hoarse roar.

The fierce light erupting from his single eye made all the confused Root members shudder, their bodies subconsciously tensing up.

That was the fear and obedience branded deep into their souls.

"Medical squad! Treat me immediately! Intelligence squad, compile all the combat records and casualty reports from last night and send them to me! Also, seal all exits of the base; from now on, no one is allowed to leave without authorization!"

The series of orders, though spoken in a weak voice, were clear and devoid of any emotion.

The chaotic base finally began to operate again under the return of this supreme leader.

Half an hour later, lying on the operating table, Danzo looked at the thin but heavy-as-a-mountain casualty report in his hand, and the last light in his single eye was completely extinguished.

The Root, the underground kingdom he had spent his whole life building with blood and sweat, was destroyed overnight.

The death rate of the elites sent out exceeded ninety percent.

Those were the seeds he had carefully selected from various clans and even war orphans; every single one of them had cost him immense resources and effort.

And now, they had all turned into charred corpses in the ruins of the Uchiha Clan Compound.

"Uchiha Kei..."

Danzo squeezed this name out through his teeth, every word filled with bone-deep hatred.

He had lost, lost completely, and lost all his bargaining chips.

But as long as he was still alive, it wasn't over.

Just as the high-ranking officials of Konoha were overwhelmed by Danzo's "disappearance," the office door was knocked.

Nara Shikaku, Inoichi Yamanaka, Akimichi Choza, and the patriarch of the Hyuga Clan, Hiashi, arrived together.

Their faces were all filled with unprecedented gravity.

"Hokage-sama." As the representative, Nara Shikaku spoke first. "We have heard about the matter regarding the Uchiha clan. We want to know, what exactly is going on? And, what are the village's next plans?"

His words were asked very politely, but Hiruzen Sarutobi could hear the subtext.

The disappearance of the Uchiha clan had shaken the foundations of all the major clans in Konoha.

They needed an explanation, and more importantly, a guarantee.

A guarantee that such a thing would not happen to them.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the leaders of these clans before him, and a sense of unprecedented helplessness welled up in his heart.

From today on, his prestige as Hokage had been dealt an indelible crack.

The power balance within Konoha had also been completely broken due to the disappearance of the Uchiha, an important weight.

The entire Konoha was plunged into great shock and chaos because of the "Night of the Divine Concealment."

On the playground of the Ninja Academy, Naruto was looking around, his face full of disappointment.

Sasuke did not come to school again today.

He had run through the entire village and even sneaked into that blocked-off district, but he couldn't find Sasuke's house anywhere.