Once the summoned giant serpent had completely left the valley, the thick mist once again enveloped the area.
The Iwa shinobi forces resumed their formation.
A Jonin from Iwagakure approached the elderly man, looking puzzled, and asked in a low voice:
"Lord Tsuchikage, are we really just going to let those Uchiha go?"
As he spoke, he kept glancing back in the direction where the summoned serpent had disappeared.
Many Iwa shinobi, though outwardly expressing no objection to letting the Uchiha go, inwardly hoped that Ōnoki would take action against them.
This time, they had mobilized elite forces for the mission. After all, in their most glorious days, the Iwa shinobi once wore down and killed a Raikage. Dealing with a few Uchiha using sheer numbers should be no problem.
Even with two of the Legendary Sannin among them, the Iwa shinobi didn't feel intimidated.
Ōnoki glared at the Jonin and sighed:
"Before we set out, I truly did have that thought. But once I saw Tsunade and Orochimaru...
Someone who can rally two of the Three Legendary Sannin—and they're an Uchiha, no less.
Honestly, ask yourselves—could any of you pull that off?
Could you, with a rare kekkei genkai in your blood, boldly and openly flee Konoha and live to tell the tale?
If even one of you had half the resolve, courage, or strength of that Uchiha Yu, I wouldn't still be holding this office!"
"…Clearly not."
The Iwa Jonin lowered his head, thinking seriously. In the end, he felt that Ōnoki had made the right call.
The fact that these Uchiha had made it this far already said a lot.
When Ōnoki brought the conversation to the topic of the Tsuchikage's succession, the Jonin couldn't help but feel ashamed.
Looking at Iwagakure's internal state after the Third Great Ninja War, it was clear the village was struggling with a generational gap.
However—
All Iwa shinobi knew that the village's fate was gradually shifting. The Tsuchikage's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, and his student, Deidara, both had exceptional talent and showed great promise for the future.
Thinking of this, the Jonin's lips curled upward slightly—until he heard Ōnoki issue a new command:
"Stop wasting time. Keep moving. This time, our objective is to stir up the waters of the ninja world.
If Iwagakure strikes Konoha—
Kumogakure won't be content to sit back and watch. With Konoha's current state, what do they have to resist an invasion?
Only when the whole situation descends into chaos…
…can Iwagakure gain the most with minimal cost. If we do this right, we might even carve up the Land of Fire!"
The Iwa shinobi forces resumed their march—
Their spirits blazing with fighting will!
---
Dawn.
Northwest direction.
Exit of the Valley of Sanction.
"Damn it!"
In a sparsely wooded forest, four Hyūga clan ninja stood back-to-back, faces twisted in pain, their bodies battered and bruised, letting out low growls.
Their Byakugan were activated, sweeping over all directions—but their hearts were full of despair and fear.
These four were the intel support team that Hiashi had chosen to stay behind and delay the Uchiha's pursuit at the cost of his own life.
They had escaped the battlefield with the intelligence scrolls and were lucky to have survived.
Last night, they had been the first to flee into the Valley of Sanction. Using the Byakugan, they could clearly see the complex terrain through the mist. But to avoid the advancing Iwa army's intelligence unit, the four had been forced to hide—managing to survive by sheer luck.
Unfortunately, they were spotted by the Uchiha riding the giant summoned serpent.
From then on, they had been chased relentlessly by the Uchiha, experiencing firsthand the horror of being hunted.
The Uchiha didn't rush to kill them. Instead, they drove them like prey, occasionally throwing explosive-tagged shuriken to torment them and make them taste despair.
By now, the four Hyūga were both mentally and physically broken—too exhausted to run any farther.
Among the Uchiha, Tamao, who had just recovered from his tree-bound state, was the most excited.
Standing atop the serpent's head, he laughed with his hands on his hips:
"Bastards, keep running! It's our turn to chase you now! What's wrong? Only one night and you're already too tired to flee?"
Uchiha Yu cast a glance at the four Hyūga shinobi, then turned his gaze to the valley exit, where the mist was beginning to fade.
He spoke calmly:
"Kill them."
"Yes—sir!"
Tamao put away his playful attitude and, along with Minami, led the Uchiha in drawing their blades and surrounding the four Hyūga. They gave the Hyūga a warrior's end.
After it was done, Tamao and Nankaze checked the corpses and returned to the serpent's head, shaking their heads as they reported:
"No scrolls containing intel were found."
Before they acted against the remaining Hyūga, Orochimaru had mentioned:
"During wartime, Konoha often relies on the Hyūga clan's Byakugan to observe and record enemy intel from a distance on the battlefield."
So it was highly likely that these Hyūga who had escaped early were carrying scrolls containing records of the battle—or of Uchiha Yu's abilities.
"Let's leave the Valley of Sanction."
Uchiha Yu looked up at the exit of the valley, showing no concern.
Even if Konoha learned of his abilities, by the time he returned, his strength would have increased exponentially.
When that day came—how would Konoha defend itself?
Right now, Konoha was overwhelmed by both internal and external threats, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Uchiha Yu even hoped that Konoha could survive the coming onslaught from the other villages. Otherwise, destroying such a feeble Konoha would be far too boring.
RUMBLE—
The giant serpent rumbled forward out of the valley, gradually leaving the white mist behind. After a day of heavy rain yesterday, today was clear and bright with the sun hanging high in the sky.
The vegetation was lush and vibrant.
The air was fresh and humid.
The Uchiha looked around and saw that beyond the Valley of Sanction was a forest. Through the gaps in the trees, under the shining sunlight, they could see a sprawling prairie just a hundred meters away.
In that moment, the exhaustion of the Uchiha melted away. Joy bloomed across their faces. As the first rays of sunlight fell upon them, they were nearly moved to tears.
Their flight was finally over.
From this day on, they would live freely and unbound—no longer shackled by the shinobi villages, no longer scorned by villagers, no longer betrayed by others!
Izumi, her eyes red with emotion, held a kunai in one hand and her Konoha forehead protector in the other. She stepped in front of Uchiha Yu and choked out:
"Captain…"
Uchiha Yu turned to look and was surprised to see that, aside from the still-unconscious Mikoto, all the other Uchiha—including Nonoyu—had followed Izumi's lead. Each held a kunai and their Konoha forehead protector, walking toward him.
This was the final rite before becoming rogue ninja—a ritual recognized by the entire shinobi world.
Even as missing-nin, shinobi rarely cast away their past honors lightly.
Etching a final scratch across their old village's forehead protector marked a formal severing of ties—a clean break, a declaration that from now on, they walked the path of blood and blades, with no home to return to.
"Alright," Uchiha Yu did not refuse to perform this final ceremony for them.
CLANG—
The kunai scraped across the metal of the forehead protector, leaving a deep gouge that split the Konoha symbol in half.
Tsunade and Orochimaru—who had long since become a missing-nin himself—both bore witness to the moment.
Tsunade felt a wave of emotion.
Orochimaru, however, didn't care in the slightest.
When Uchiha Yu finished etching Tamao's forehead protector, Tamao suddenly looked up with a childish smile on his baby face:
"Big bro, can you add another scratch to mine?"
"Hm?" Uchiha Yu looked puzzled.
The rest of the Uchiha, holding their freshly-etched forehead protectors and lost in mixed emotions, were interrupted and turned to stare at Tamayo.
Everyone else had one scratch.
You wanted two?
What's that supposed to mean?
Tamao grinned, "My bounty's already way lower than everyone else's. I can't let myself have fewer marks on my forehead protector too, can I?"
The Uchiha: "…"
Uchiha Yu could only shake his head helplessly and etched two parallel scratches into Tamayo's protector.
Tamao took the newly marked forehead protector, grinning like a fool as if he had just received a priceless treasure.
°°°
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