The night was as incredibly thick as deep ink, and the completely abandoned watchtower located at the very edge of the Uchiha clan compound loomed exactly like a giant, silent beast, crouching quietly within the massive, oppressive shadow cast downward by the towering Hokage Rock. Long since entirely reclaimed by wild weeds and creeping vines, its rotting wooden structure exuded a heavy, distinct air of decay and forgotten history—a dark, neglected corner of the village that absolutely even the most diligent patrol squads could not be bothered to inspect closely during their nightly rounds.
It was currently exactly a quarter to two in the early morning.
Uchiha Hiro carefully led Shisui through the darkness, the two of them seamlessly sweeping up onto the decaying second floor of the crumbling watchtower exactly like two intangible wisps of gray smoke. The vantage point here was relatively open and elevated, offering excellent, sweeping glimpses of Konoha's scattered, warm lights glowing in the far distance, yet it was cleverly obscured from the outside by jagged rock walls and dense pine trees, making it an absolutely excellent, secure temporary meeting point for their treasonous gathering. Inside the ruined tower, ancient dust lay incredibly thick on the floorboards, and the ambient air was heavily stagnant and still.
Shisui pressed his small body incredibly close to his older brother, his hand still instinctively and tightly clutching the dark corner of Hiro's tactical clothes. By the dim, pale moonlight silently filtering through the broken, jagged window frames, he carefully surveyed his immediate surroundings with a highly complex mixture of innocent curiosity and deeply ingrained ninja wariness. He meticulously kept his physical breathing very light and controlled, perfectly demonstrating excellent, high-level stealth skills for his age, but a slightly quickened, erratic heartbeat still inevitably betrayed his intense inner tension to Hiro's enhanced senses.
Hiro gently and affectionately patted his back in the dark, wordlessly offering a profound, grounding reassurance.
Regarding young Shisui's incredible potential, Hiro could honestly only think to himself that the boy truly, undeniably lived up to the legendary future moniker of Shisui of the Body Flicker. Even at the incredibly tender age of only six or seven years old, his practical mastery of the high-speed Body Flicker technique was already quite remarkably proficient, and his internal chakra reserves had astonishingly already reached the baseline physical level of a standard, adult Chunin—he was undeniably an absolute, peerless prodigy of the ninja arts.
Several tense minutes slowly passed by in the absolute silence. In the surrounding, dense forest, there was absolutely nothing but the lonely, rustling sound of the cold night wind violently blowing through the sharp pine needles and the occasional, incredibly faint, distant sounds of late-night Anbu training or routine police patrols walking their assigned beats.
Finally, just a few short minutes before the strictly appointed rendezvous time, the very first dark figure appeared completely silently on a thick tree branch directly outside the ruined tower, looking exactly like an intangible ghost. The figure then landed incredibly lightly on the wooden windowsill and flawlessly flipped directly into the center of the tower in a few graceful, silent bounds.
It was the squad leader, Uchiha Renka.
Dressed securely in dark, highly form-fitting tactical gear, he carried a slightly bulging but neatly tied, heavy tactical survival backpack strapped to his broad shoulders. His standard-issue ninja tool pouch resting at his waist was completely full to the brim, highly likely packed tightly with many essential medical and combat supplies for the long road ahead. His dark eyes were incredibly sharp and highly alert as he immediately locked onto Hiro's concealed position in the shadows and gave a highly respectful, silent nod of absolute obedience.
Immediately following his silent arrival, a second and then a third dark figure flawlessly flashed into physical view. Two highly experienced Uchiha Jonin arrived almost entirely simultaneously: Uchiha Mikka, possessing an incredibly cold, stoic face with a massive, lethal long blade strapped securely across his broad back, and Uchiha Chikage, projecting a remarkably steady, deeply calming demeanor with faint, practically invisible chakra threads casually wrapped around his calloused fingers.
Their physical presence was completely, flawlessly restrained, and their combat movements were undeniably clean, highly efficient, and utterly devoid of any wasted energy. They were truly, undeniably worthy of holding the highly prestigious, elite rank of Jonin within the proud Uchiha clan; they were vastly, significantly stronger and much more lethal than almost any other ordinary village Jonin holding the exact same military rank.
The remaining seven elite Chunin rapidly and silently followed closely behind the veteran commanders.
Uchiha Rei, a highly valuable specialist strictly focusing on complex genjutsu and practical medical ninjutsu, had smartly changed into a dark purple, highly form-fitting combat suit perfectly suitable for rapid, unrestricted physical movement, with her long, dark hair tied tightly back into a neat, practical braid to prevent enemies from grabbing it.
Uchiha Mei, exceptionally skilled in covert tracking and advanced sensory reconnaissance, was physically small and incredibly agile, her highly perceptive eyes appearing exceptionally bright and deeply analytical in the suffocating darkness of the room.
The other five male Chunin also rapidly took up their assigned defensive positions around the perimeter of the room, each one of them incredibly well-equipped and heavily armed for a prolonged, bloody conflict. Aside from their absolutely necessary, highly compact travel bags containing their survival gear, they carried absolutely no extra, useless physical burden that would slow down their escape velocity.
Over a dozen highly trained, extremely lethal people were now completely gathered together on the cramped, severely dilapidated second floor of the ruined watchtower.
Absolutely no one spoke a single word; there was entirely only the faint, practically imperceptible rustling sound of incredibly slight, calculated adjustments to their physical breathing rhythms and the soft clinking of their combat equipment settling into place. The ambient air within the room was incredibly thick and heavy with a highly potent, intoxicating mixture of severe tactical tension, absolute, unbreakable determination, and a faint, highly dangerous hint of raw, violent excitement for the upcoming battle.
The pale moonlight occasionally swept directly across their incredibly young or deeply resolute, battle-hardened faces. Those specific pairs of fully activated, spinning Sharingan, actively glowing faintly with a bloody light in the dim, shadowy room, looked exactly like a cluster of terrifying, crimson stars lurking silently in the deepest, darkest abyss of the night.
Hiro's highly analytical, glowing crimson gaze slowly and meticulously scanned every single person present in the room. Good, absolutely no one was foolishly late, no one had cowardly fallen behind, and absolutely everyone was incredibly well-prepared for the brutal violence that was surely to come.
His sharp gaze lingered briefly and affectionately on Shisui standing right by his side. The brave boy was actively trying incredibly hard to physically straighten his small back, valiantly attempting to make himself look vastly more reliable, intimidating, and ready for war.
Hiro gently and proudly patted Shisui's dark head.
"Everyone is completely accounted for," Hiro spoke smoothly, his vocal tone absolutely not loud in the slightest, yet it somehow perfectly and clearly reached every single person's waiting ears with absolute, unquestionable authority.
"Meticulously check your final combat equipment right now and mentally confirm our established, silent communication methods. We are about to actively embark on a highly dangerous, bloody journey completely devoid of any turning back. The long, dark road lying ahead of us is heavily fraught with extreme, lethal danger: Konoha's elite Anbu pursuers, unknown natural obstacles along the way, and even the massive, highly unpredictable unknowns patiently waiting for us completely after successfully arriving at the Hidden Cloud Village."
He paused for a highly calculated, dramatic moment, the divine Mangekyo Sharingan resting within his left eye swirling slightly with immense, ancient power. Those completely strange, ethereal bands of divine light seemed to actively absorb the ambient moonlight from the room, lending his spoken words an incredibly massive, undeniably heavy physical weight.
"But always remember this, and engrave it upon your very souls: we are absolutely not stray, pathetic dogs fleeing in blind, cowardly panic from our masters. We are proud, elite warriors who have actively and aggressively chosen to seize an entirely new life, proudly carrying the heavy, glorious pride and the absolute survival of the entire Uchiha future firmly upon our backs! Every single, bloody step we actively take forward tonight is entirely for ourselves, for protecting each other, for our innocent, trapped clansmen remaining behind who tragically cannot join us on this flight, and to absolutely ensure that the prestigious, legendary name of the Uchiha is absolutely never, ever trampled upon or disrespected by anyone ever again!"
The collective physical breathing of the gathered elite group noticeably quickened slightly with intense adrenaline, and the glowing, bloody crimson color burning within their active eyes grew exponentially more intense and violently bright.
Internally, the highly pragmatic reason Uchiha Hiro had wisely chosen to actively consult Elder Setsuna instead of foolishly attempting to defect entirely alone with Shisui was based on a cold, horrific political reality. He perfectly calculated that if there were only the two of them seeking asylum, he highly suspected he would rapidly be captured and entirely imprisoned by that aggressively ambitious, highly militaristic Third Raikage, strictly to be horribly utilized as nothing more than a captive breeding stud to violently harvest their genetics.
After all, mathematically speaking, possessing only one or two pure Uchiha bloodlines entering their borders, aggressively forced breeding would undeniably be the absolute best, most efficient method for the foreign village to violently steal their power. In a mere ten or twenty short years, an entirely new, massive host of highly powerful, loyal Kumogakure shinobi actively possessing their coveted ocular bloodline limit would inevitably appear on the battlefield serving the Hidden Cloud.
For a highly militant, constantly expanding military state like the Hidden Cloud Village, capturing male shinobi possessing powerful, inheritable bloodline limits was vastly, significantly more strategically valuable than capturing females. After all, a captive female shinobi possessing a bloodline limit can realistically only successfully give birth to a single child roughly once a year, while a captive male could theoretically and forcefully keep producing dozens of viable offspring continuously.
However, with an entire, highly coordinated squad of over a dozen elite, lethal people traveling together as a unified front, seamlessly combined with Uchiha Hiro's own overwhelming, undeniable Kage-level combat power, they would effectively represent a highly powerful, self-sustaining small ninja clan immediately upon their arrival. Facing a unified, highly lethal force like that, absolutely even the notoriously aggressive Third Raikage would critically not dare to foolishly underestimate them or try to enslave them, ensuring they would rightfully receive the high-level respect and political autonomy they absolutely deserved within the borders of the Hidden Cloud Village.
"Now," Hiro stated firmly, smoothly taking out the highly classified, ancient secret passage scroll previously given to him by Elder Setsuna from deep within his dark robes and very slowly, deliberately unrolling it for all to see.
It was an incredibly finely drawn, meticulously detailed tactical map, perfectly marking several extremely hidden, long-forgotten underground passage exits located completely outside the heavily monitored boundaries of the Uchiha clan compound. Some of these brilliant escape routes even cleverly utilized ancient, forgotten structural loopholes deliberately built into the early, foundational Konoha defensive barrier works from decades ago.
"Our absolute first tactical objective tonight is to flawlessly utilize these specific secret passages to completely and entirely quietly leave the sensory range of Konoha's massive security barrier and successfully enter the dense, sprawling border forests of the Land of Fire without triggering a single alarm."
"Renka, you are to actively lead the vanguard scouting team directly in the front; Mikka, Chikage, you two highly experienced veterans are entirely responsible for securely holding the rear guard and absolutely erasing any microscopic physical traces we might inadvertently leave behind; Rei, keep an incredibly close, analytical eye on absolutely everyone's physical condition and chakra levels; Mei, utilize your sensory skills to strictly watch for any hostile movement approaching from our rear and vulnerable flanks. The rest of you, strictly maintain a tight, highly coordinated defensive diamond formation and fiercely protect the center core. Shisui," he slowly shifted his gaze directly down to his brother.
"Stay incredibly close directly to my side. Absolutely do not move more than ten short steps completely away from my physical position at any point in time during this run."
"Yes, Brother!" Shisui immediately nodded his head vigorously, his face set in absolute determination.
"Yes! Lord Hiro!" absolutely everyone else responded simultaneously in a perfectly synchronized, low, highly disciplined chorus.
Hiro precisely pointed out the absolute most critical, highly dangerous chokepoints of the tactical map directly to Renka and the other commanders, ensuring they understood the topography, before carefully and securely tucking the heavy scroll completely away back into his gear.
"Firmly commit this exact, highly complex route entirely to your permanent memory. Once we actively set out into the dark, absolutely everything will proceed strictly according to the established plan, but you must constantly be mentally prepared to rapidly adapt to sudden chaos. In the event of a catastrophic emergency or an ambush, my direct verbal orders take absolute, highest priority over anything else. Is that completely understood?"
Elite ninjas inherently possess absolutely excellent, highly trained eidetic memories, and in just a very short, focused moment, these lethal operatives had perfectly memorized every single line of the map.
"Completely understood!"
"Then," Hiro said quietly, deliberately taking one absolute, final look directly at the hazy, sleeping silhouette of Konoha resting peacefully in the far distance. It was the specific physical place where they had all continuously lived for well over a decade, heavily filled with deeply familiar, blood-stained training grounds, the traditional, curved eaves of their ancestral clan compound, and countless, heavily suppressed, painful memories and the constant, suffocating threat of impending, violent conflicts.
But actively having memories of crossing over from an entirely different reality entirely, his personal, emotional feelings toward the hidden village simply weren't particularly deep or binding at all. His glowing, evolved eyes held absolutely no microscopic trace of foolish, sentimental attachment, displaying only a profoundly cold, utterly absolute, lethal determination to survive and conquer.
"Move out."
The exact, split-second moment the final command was given, thirteen highly trained, lethal dark figures violently shot directly out from the crumbling, abandoned watchtower exactly like incredibly fast, silent arrows violently released from a tightly drawn bow. There was absolutely no earth-shattering, loud noise or flashy display of chakra, entirely only the incredibly faint, practically invisible whistle of dark clothes seamlessly cutting through the cold night wind and the microscopic, muffled friction of stealthy feet lightly hitting the solid ground.
They perfectly and entirely merged directly into the pitch-black night, strictly following their established, highly secure tactical formation and swiftly, silently stealthing directly toward the very first secret passage entrance clearly marked on the elder's map, perfectly located at the absolute outermost, neglected edge of the Uchiha clan compound, dangerously near the lethal borders of the infamous Forest of Death.