Chapter 61: Facing the Sharingan
Fugaku Uchiha maintained his Sharingan, observing the group before him.
They were all wearing masks, but besides the short leader, they were all tall and stood in a disciplined formation. And they had managed to block his team's surprise attack. They were not weak. But he wasn't sure how strong they were. He had faith in his own abilities, and in his eyes.
Dana was also sizing up his opponent. The man looked young, but he had a broad jaw and a serious expression. He seemed to be a steady, reliable type.
"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Dana continued. "Wouldn't it be better to avoid an unnecessary fight?"
Fugaku was indeed a cautious man. The other group was larger, and the fact that they had dared to appear so openly after witnessing his team make short work of the Stone ninja meant they were confident in their own abilities.
But his teammates were more impulsive, especially Tetsu. With his head full of Uchiha pride, he had no intention of retreating without a fight.
"I have a suggestion for you, shorty," Tetsu Uchiha said, tossing a kunai in his hand. "Why don't you take your men and go back to whatever sewer you crawled out of and continue being a mercenary?"
Shorty...
Dana was speechless.
"...Then there's no other choice," he sighed. "I really didn't want to make an enemy of Konoha."
He had no desire to weaken Konoha too much. The Stone Village was also an unstable factor. A delicate balance between the two was in the Cloud's best interest. But it had been a long time since he'd had a real fight, and against an Uchiha, no less.
"If you choose to fight, you have no one to blame but yourselves if you lose. Right?"
He was getting excited.
With a slight twitch of his fingers, he readied himself for battle.
"My lord," one of his subordinates said, "there's no need for you to take the risk. We can handle this."
"No need," Dana said, waving his hand. "If you're worried, you can provide support."
He then closed his eyes. They were Uchiha. Although he now had chakra and could break out of a genjutsu, there was no need to ask for trouble. His last encounter with Orochimaru had made him a bit wary.
As he closed his eyes, the familiar pulse-like vision returned, a pale blue wave expanding from his body, scanning everything around him, moving and unmoving, all in perfect detail. The only difference from a few years ago was the range.
The pale blue wave swept past his subordinates, past the Uchiha squad, and continued to expand. It finally began to blur at a distance of five kilometers. The only drawbacks were the slight delay in the feedback from farther distances and the strain it put on his brain with prolonged use.
The chakra signatures of the four Uchiha glowed with varying degrees of brightness, indicating their chakra levels.
"Two Jonin, two Chunin?" he mused. "Or maybe Special Jonin?"
He didn't know what Kagura Mind's Eye was like, but it was probably different from his own ability. Besides its massive range, Kagura Mind's Eye could also detect the state of another's chakra. Dana could only judge the amount of chakra by the brightness of the signature. But his ability had a much higher "frame rate," equivalent to perfect dynamic vision, which could be used in close combat. Kagura Mind's Eye could not.
Seeing his opponent fall silent, Fugaku felt a sense of danger.
But Tetsu Uchiha had already made the first move. A volley of kunai shot out, their trajectories strange and unpredictable, all aimed at Dana's vital points.
This time, Dana didn't catch them. He deflected them all with a single kunai and then charged at the Uchiha squad.
To Fugaku's shock, even with his three-tomoe Sharingan, his vision of his opponent was a blur.
So fast! I can't stop him!
He immediately tried to cast a genjutsu, but it had no effect. Tetsu quickly formed a series of hand seals, trying to use a ninjutsu to keep him at a distance.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage—"
"Too slow," Dana whispered. He was already in front of him. He slammed his palm into Tetsu's open jaw. The unformed jutsu exploded in his mouth, and he was sent flying by a man much shorter than him, a spray of blood and black smoke erupting from his mouth.
"Tetsu!"
Fugaku moved to help him, but his opponent had already vanished from his sight. It wasn't that his Sharingan couldn't see him; his head just couldn't turn fast enough.
What kind of speed is this?! Is the White Fang of Konoha this fast? This man is a mercenary?
Dana reappeared behind Yashiro Uchiha and, before he could react, kicked him into the air. He hadn't even had time to use a substitution.
In an instant, the Uchiha squad, which had just been steamrolling the Stone ninja, was on the defensive.
Though Dana couldn't use many of his abilities without revealing his identity, his speed alone was enough to shatter their perception of what was possible.
Explosive power, reaction time, control. Even without chakra, his body was strong enough to fight a ninja. Now, with chakra...
Speed, he thought, is everything.
Even without ninjutsu or ninja tools, with his superhuman reflexes and speed, combined with his "Mind's Eye," he was a force to be reckoned with. A force that made the Yotsuki clan go "wow."
Fugaku rushed to support them while the other went to check on their wounded comrades. He was already thinking about retreating. He pushed his three-tomoe Sharingan to its limit, his eyes locked on Dana.
"He's moving!"
At this speed, normal ninjutsu would be useless, and so would kunai. The only way was to block him with his own body. But his opponent's taijutsu was on a completely different level. But with his teammates behind him, he had to stop this man and create an opening for them to escape.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld."
The ground around them turned to mud, but it had no effect. Dana easily skirted the swamp. It had formed too slowly; he had already detected it.
The Yotsuki had learned from their tests that to stop someone with Dana's speed, you either had to be just as fast, use a massive, wide-range ninjutsu, or have an impenetrable defense or superior taijutsu to lock him down in close combat. Fugaku had none of these.
The best thing for him to do now was to create distance, to use the superior dynamic vision of his Sharingan to track Dana's movements. Once he was in close, he would be at a disadvantage, his head unable to turn fast enough. But with Yashiro and Tetsu injured, and Tetsu unconscious, he had no choice but to engage.
Good, Dana thought. I'm not done yet.
He sidestepped a kunai. A flicker of lightning, and he was behind Fugaku, reaching for his forehead protector.
Fugaku sensed his intention. A surge of anger, and he spun around, but he stabbed at empty air. Dana was already on his way to Inabi Uchiha, who was protecting the wounded.
"Dammit! Look out!"
Inabi quickly used a jutsu to block him. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Dana formed a claw with one hand, lightning crackling at his fingertips. Using the natural advantage of lightning over earth, he shattered the wall with a single blow.
A look of triumph appeared on Inabi's face, but it quickly vanished.
Dana was holding a burning explosive tag. "Did you put this here?" he asked.
Then, a split second before it exploded, he threw it at Inabi's feet.
BOOM!
The explosion engulfed him.
Inabi barely managed to escape with a substitution, only to find that Tetsu Uchiha was gone.
Dana had snatched him and casually tossed him to one of his subordinates. He clapped his hands and, in a deliberately thuggish voice, said, "What a shame. We could have just left each other alone. I know you have another group, the big guy with the white hair. Tell him we've taken the contract to protect the Stone's supply lines in the Land of Grass. If he knows what's good for him, he won't try anything. As for this guy, and your forehead protector, consider them trophies."
The veins on Fugaku's forehead bulged. Such a humiliation.
Dana looked at his furious expression. These Uchiha were strong, but they were no match for his team. Even without him, the Special Strategy Division could have taken them down. Since he had the luxury, he decided to do an experiment. He wanted to see if the Mangekyo Sharingan was really that easy to awaken.
He deliberately pried open Tetsu's eyelids, revealing a pair of ordinary black eyes. "How strange," he said, examining them. "They've changed back. Oh well. I'm sure someone, either the underground exchange or the Stone Village, will pay a good price for them."
Fugaku watched as his teammate was treated like a piece of merchandise. The three tomoe in his eyes spun into a blur.