"Move out!"
At Shine's command, before his voice even faded, the five led by Qi transformed into five afterimages. The Chakra beneath their feet whipped up small whirlwinds as they sped towards the Grass Ninja Village.
Chen, Jin, and the other teammate turned southeast. Chen led the way, quietly infusing Chakra into the ground with each step to sense the geological structure below.
Only Chi and Yan remained steadily behind Shine.
Shine looked up toward Konoha, where the lights flickered indistinctly in the night like a crouching giant beast.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the turmoil in his heart, and set off toward the eastern camp.
Chi's tachi occasionally scraped against the gravel on the ground, making a faint sound.
Yan maintained a vigilant posture, looking back every three steps to completely seal off any openings from behind.
The night grew darker, but this time, Shine was no longer alone.
As twilight saturated the eastern horizon, the silhouette of the Konoha eastern camp finally emerged through the dust.
The light from the campfires danced between the tents, casting long shadows of the sentry Ninjas. The air was thick with the smell of woodsmoke, blood, and the bitterness of medicinal herbs—the unique scent of the war front.
Shine stood with Chi and Yan on a low slope outside the camp. The three of them deliberately suppressed their Chakra, yet they still couldn't hide the sharp aura of Elite Jōnin. Their appearance immediately triggered the camp's security mechanisms.
"Halt! Who goes there!" Four Ninjas wielding Kunai leaped from the shadows, surrounding the three in a fan formation. The leader was a Konoha Chunin with a buzz cut, his forehead protector hanging crookedly, and his eyes bloodshot from staying up on watch.
When his gaze swept over the uchiha clan crest on Shine's chest, a hint of scrutiny involuntarily appeared in his eyes—during wartime, Konoha's wariness toward the Uchiha never wavered.
Shine took a step forward, his left hand resting on the hilt of the tachi at his waist. His posture was steady but not aggressive as his voice carried clearly to the four: "Uchiha Clan Elite Jōnin Uchiha Xia Yin, accompanied by Clan Members Uchiha Chi and Uchiha Yan, returning to report after completing a reconnaissance mission at the Iwagakure border."
He deliberately let his voice carry a hint of hoarseness from the long-distance trek, and his stance was slightly more slumped than usual, his left shoulder dipping as if carrying an unshakeable fatigue.
Among the four Ninjas, a Chunin wearing Hyuga clan clothing immediately stepped forward. The moment he formed hand seals, the whites of his eyes were flooded with blue-green veins as the unique Chakra fluctuations of the Byakugan spread out.
His gaze repeatedly scanned Shine and the others, not even missing the grass clippings in their hair or the mud on their soles. After a moment, he deactivated the Byakugan and nodded to the leader: "Chakra flow is normal, no traces of Transformation Jutsu on the body. It is indeed him."
"Password!" The buzz-cut Chunin's tone remained tense, and the Kunai in his hand was not lowered.
"For the Will of Fire," Shine said immediately, his voice carrying a subtle certainty—this was the password updated for the front line this week, which he had already learned from the Root Ninja's secret message.
Only after the password matched did the four Ninjas put away their Kunai and step aside to open a path.
The buzz-cut Chunin looked at the heavy tachi behind Shine that almost dragged on the ground and couldn't help but add: "Lord Xia Yin, the front line is under pressure. It's good that you've returned."
Shine didn't look back, only waving his hand and walking toward the heart of the camp without stopping.
The scene inside the camp was even more frantic than the outskirts. Several Medical Ninjas were running out of a tent with a stretcher. The Ninja on the stretcher was wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, his muffled groans exceptionally clear in the night.
Shine walked straight through the camp without looking left or right, heading for the largest army-green tent in the center—the front-line headquarters.
Just as he reached the entrance of the tent, two arms suddenly extended to block him. Two Jonin in worn combat gear, their tool pouches bulging and their eyes sharp as hawks, stood guard.
"Halt! This is the headquarters; no unauthorized personnel allowed!" the Jonin on the left said deeply, his eyes darting between Chi and Yan, clearly suspicious of these two unfamiliar Uchiha Ninjas.
"Uchiha Xia Yin, returning from a reconnaissance mission to report to Your Excellency Jiraiya," Shine's tone remained flat, yet it carried the unique deterrent force of an Elite Jōnin.
The two Jonin exchanged a glance. The one on the right nodded to his companion and slipped into the tent. Within three breaths, he emerged again and stepped aside: "Lord Jiraiya asks you to enter."
Shine turned to look at Chi and Yan, tilting his chin toward the outside of the tent: "Wait here. Guard the entrance. No one is to approach."
"Understood!" Chi and Yan responded in unison. They immediately stood on either side of the tent, back-to-back in a defensive stance. Their Chakra radiated outward like a physical force, pushing bystanders far away.
Shine lifted the flap and entered the tent, met by a heavy scent of ink and tobacco.
A massive battlefield map was spread across a wooden table in the center, covered in small red and white flags. Red represented the enemy nations, and white represented Konoha. The red flags in the northeast had already formed an encirclement.
Sitting in the main seat was a burly man with long white hair tied loosely behind his head. His forehead protector was flecked with mud. He was one of the Sannin, Jiraiya.
He was holding a cigarette between his fingers, his brow furrowed deeply enough to crush a fly, his gaze locked onto a gap in the map.
"Lord Jiraiya, Uchiha Xia Yin reporting for duty." Shine walked to the table and bowed slightly, deliberately making his voice sound raspier. He even raised a hand to rub his throbbing temples—his usual gesture for feigning exhaustion.
Jiraiya looked up sharply. When he saw Shine, his furrowed brow smoothed out significantly, and a signature hearty smile appeared on his face. He casually stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray at the corner of the table: "It's Xia Yin! I've been looking forward to your return! How was the reconnaissance at the Iwagakure border? Did you figure out their troop deployment?
Nothing went wrong, right?" As he spoke, he stood up, his gaze sweeping over the scratches on Shine's shoulder and his dust-covered clan clothing, his smile gaining a touch of concern.
"Nothing happened," Shine said, eyes downcast, his tone as flat as if he were describing a trivial matter. "Iwagakure has set up three defensive lines at the border, but their forces are thin—mostly recruits, nothing to fear. The mission was completed successfully with no casualties."
His cold demeanor caused the smile on Jiraiya's face to stiffen for a moment.
Jiraiya was an old acquaintance of Shine's father and knew the boy's temperament well. Although an Uchiha, he had inherited the gentleness of Uchiha Kagami. Usually, even after a victory, he would smile and complain to him about the headaches of the battlefield; he had never been this cold.
A seed of doubt immediately sprouted in his heart: Shine's parents were descendants of Kagami's lineage, and they had even raised Shisui. The whole family was among the rare 'pro-Konoha' faction within the Uchiha. Although they later turned neutral, they had never clashed with the Village. Why did he seem like a different person after this return?
...
Offer is going on
Advance chapter available on pãtrêon Got1808