41 Mindscape

A/N:- Folks complaining about previous chapter, listen Izuna was only suspicious of the rank of the mission. His suspicion turned true. After reading this chapetr, you will be able to figure out the reason of betrayal.

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Aahh…

My head hurts as I groggily opened my eyes and looked around.

I am in a very dark place as I could hardly spot any light. I stand up and start to wander around to scout this place. I walk aimlessly for a while, but I couldn't spot any exit or entrance to this place.

"Where am I?"

I yell loudly but there is no response.

"Is anyone here? Shisui, can you hear me? If someone can hear me then answer me. Hello, anybody here?"

I start to move around the place as I continued to yell to find someone to answer to me. I start to recall the incidents before passing out as I strained my memories.

'We were on a mission to assassinate a local organization leader. We successfully completed the mission…..'

Memory starts to flow in my mind as I recalled the events.

'Kazuko was killed by the spy and Mami also died in the hands of Kumo ninjas.'

Tears trickled down my face as I recalled these memories.

'After that I….' I strained my memories but I can't seem to recall any events after Mami died.

Aah... My head hurts. I clutched my forehead as I felt a stabbing pain in my head.

'Huh!'

My gaze went to my hand as I activated my Sharingan. There is no trace of 'Sin Seal'. I checked again but I couldn't spot the seal.

'Did the seal vanish on its own?'

I felt happy when I thought about such a thing. That strange seal is sucking up the majority of my Chakra leaving me with the bare minimum. I can't even perform any powerful jutsu after I got that seal. The moment I try to infuse Chakra to perform a jutsu, the seal will trigger and start to absorb my Chakra.

'Thank God! I got rid of that weird seal. Now the real question is: Where am I?'

There is no trace of any living thing here and all I can see is complete darkness.

'Wait! darkness and no sign of anybody. I start to recall the scene when Naruto first met with Kurama. He was also in a similar place, though his mindscape looked similar to a sewage system. So, am I inside my Mindscape?'

As soon as I thought of this, the darkness starts to fade and I appear in a completely white room.

'This room seemed similar to the room where I first met with God when I died. Have I died again?'

I immediately start to look around to search for god. But there is no sign of God. My attention is drawn by some shining orbs in the center of the room and I walk toward them.

Nine orbs with different colors are floating in the center of the room. I start to inspect them as I got closer. The colors of the orbs are red, cyan, yellow, brown, blue, grey, translucent white, pitch black, and white. After close inspection, I concluded that they represent different elements I have unlocked.

I urged for the pitch-black orb to move towards me. The orb floated in front of me as I touched it.

Vast knowledge of Darkness element appeared in my mind. I start to digest the information as I rapidly mastered the element. After an unknown amount of time,

'So, this is the darkness element. I have learned the basics of the darkness element. I just need to practice them to learn more.'

I closely inspected the orb and I spotted the Sin seal symbol on it.

'Huh! Sin seal is on darkness orb. Don't tell me it is the reason for me to master the darkness element. I wonder what this thing is.'

I inspected all of the other orbs as well. The knowledge I have collected on various elements so far refreshed in my mind.

'That's very useful. These orbs can be seen as data banks for various elements. The knowledge I gather or learn is stored in these orbs and I can recall the entire knowledge whenever I want.'

I spotted another spiral orb between other orbs. After inspecting it, the orb turns out to be the space element.

'So, this is my mindscape. Quite a convenient place to be.'

I closed my eyes as I thought of exiting this place. I got sucked into a gateway as I opened my eyes.

Shisui is carrying me on his shoulders as he runs in the direction of Konoha. There is a trace of blood around his eyes. I guessed he has awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan too.

"Shisui, I am fine now. You can stop carrying me."

I jumped from Shisui's back as I examined my right hand. The broken bone is already fixed and all of the wounds and muscle tears healed. I clutched my fist tightly to ensure it.

"Nii-san! Are you ok?"

"Yes, I am fine. Let us return to the village and report this matter to Hokage."

"We lost both Kazuko and Mami in this mission. Your instinct was right nii-san, this mission was at least A-rank or even S-rank. Also, that betrayal…" Shisui clutched his fists.

"Nii-san, what was that jutsu you used earlier? It was very powerful." Shisui starts to narrate the incident.

'Such a thing happened after I lost consciousness.'

I looked at my right hand as I activated my Sharingan. 'Sin seal' is still present there. I activated my Mangekyo Sharingan to understand the seal deeper. What I saw baffled me? There are strange black chains around my hand as they held the seal in place. I tried to touch them but my hands passed through them. I inspected closely and I could spot some space fluctuations around the chains.

The chains are from a separate dimension. I infuse Space element Chakra in my hands as I touched the nodes of the chain. Sparks ignited from chains as the nodes repulsed my hand. Seems like my understanding of space is still too shallow to interact with a separate dimension.

"Nii-san…nii-san, are you listening to me?" Shisui starts to shake me.

"Ah…yes… yes, I am listening."

I show him my Mangekyo Sharingan as I speak,

"That was the power of my Mangekyo Sharingan. I awakened them when I saw Kazuko and Mami die."

I lied to Shisui as it is too much of a hassle to explain in detail to him.

"I have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan too."

Shisui activates his Mangekyo as he shows them to me.

"Shisui, listen! No matter whatever the case; don't show or use your Mangekyo Sharingan in front of anyone. Only use them in case of an emergency. These eyes are cursed, you will go blind if you use them excessively. You are smart enough to figure the rest." I warned Shisui.

"Yes, Nii-san. I will keep that in mind."

We reached the village and I ordered Shisui to visit the infirmary while I report the matter to Hokage.

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Inside the Hokage office,

"So, that's the entire series of events that happened during our mission. Hokage-sama, I want some answers from you."

Hiruzen contemplated for a while as he sighed,

"Go ahead! Ask your questions?"

"I would like to know which elder provided you with the information."

"It is one of my old teammates and trusted partner Danzo Shimura. I have no doubts about his loyalty to the village. I can vouch for that." Hiruzen replied in a serious tone.

"Thank you! Hokage-sama, I trust your words. I will take my leave now." I replied to him with my head lowered as rage is burning in my eyes.

"Izuna, you are a ninja. And it is regular for deaths to occur during a mission. This is the norm of the world, I am sure you will be able to move on from this event. We ninjas hardly live past our thirties as lives are lost daily." Hiruzen tries to explain some sense to Izuna.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I will keep that in mind." I reply to him in a bland voice.

"Also, a war is about to start soon. Your services will be required at the border. I expect great things from you during the war."

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Inside an underground building, in the headquarter of the Root,

Danzo sat on his seat as a boar-masked Anbu present a scroll to him. After reading the report, Danzo smashes the armrest of the newly replaced Chair as he shouts in anger,

"Damnit! Twenty elite anbus. Twenty of the elite anbus of my root died in that mission. Not even their body is found. Do any of you have any explanation for this?"

"Danzo-sama! Out of four people, two genins died in the mission. The Two Uchihas involved in the mission survived. Maybe, we can capture them to interrogate about the details." One of the Anbu suggested.

"No, we don't have time for that. It is fine as long as some people died."

Danzo waved his hand and dismissed all Anbus.

"My aim to inflict conflict between Konoha and Kumo is successful. Now it is time for Iwa. Konoha shall be the only ruler of this world and I will be it's only Hokage. Looks like I need to speed up things a little."

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A/N:- If you still can't figure out then let me explain. Izuna's entire team was meant to die in this mission to trigger war against Kumo. But they survived, this part lead to betrayal. Izuna only figured out the rank of mission. He even checked around to make sure the info was right in chapter Investigation. He isn't a perfect human, he is still learning in the shinobi world. Upcoming chapters will shed more light on it.