While Kaguya Gaiji turned to leave and the other Kirigakure shinobi were preparing to continue discussing adjustments for the next stage of the plan, Jonin Zao suddenly asked, "How many shinobi is the Kaguya clan planning to send, and how many jonin will be included?"
Kaguya Ren replied, "That's the Kaguya clan's business. A defeated general like you doesn't need to worry about it. Men, lock him up!"
At the command, two guard shinobi entered and moved to take Jonin Zao away.
Zao showed no intention of resisting. He did not even wait for them to lay hands on him, but got up on his own and walked toward the door.
As he walked, he looked at Kaguya Gaiji and said, "Even if the Kaguya clan is taking the field, it would still be best to mobilize five hundred men, with at least three jonin among them."
Kaguya Gaiji turned his head and looked at Jonin Zao.
In his eyes, beyond the usual madness, there now burned violent fury. Just how little did this man think of the Kaguya clan? Just how little did he think of him?
He drew in a deep breath, forcibly pressed down both anger and madness, and coldly said, "Fine. But after I agree, if I decide it wasn't necessary, I'll kill you."
With that, Kaguya Gaiji turned and strode away, his wide sleeves whipping loudly in the air. He looked completely enraged.
Seeing this, Rei said in surprise and admiration, "Kaguya Gaiji truly is a remarkable Kaguya shinobi. To think he can still control his madness."
"The Kaguya clan really does have a worthy successor."
Kaguya Ren threw back his head and laughed proudly.
"Thanks for the praise. But Gaiji deserves it. He's the finest rising talent in our Kaguya clan. He may even be the one to break through the shackles that have always bound the Kaguya and become a truly extraordinary shinobi."
Hozuki Sakuyuki also nodded again and again, thinking to himself:
The Kaguya clan's future is secure. Fortunately, the Hozuki clan is no worse.
That child Mangetsu's excellence is on a completely different level. Compared to him, even Kaguya Gaiji—who can only barely restrain his flaws—isn't worth much mention. In the future, Mangetsu will definitely become the Fourth Mizukage.
The Hozuki clan's future is bright.
...
During the lull between battles, Uchiha Yoru entered full money-burning mode. Through repeated summons, he purchased a huge quantity of weapons and ninja tools from Cat Castle, fully replenishing every expenditure from the earlier battle.
Even the explosive tags buried throughout Kubota Village were all reset.
Even Gutaneko, the cat who helped Granny Cat handle business at Cat Castle, could no longer hold back. She meowed in protest, "Immortal Yoru, you really don't treat money like money at all, meow. Who buys forty million ryo worth of weapons in a single day, meow?"
Uchiha Yoru couldn't even be bothered to answer that question.
Miwa Masayo leapt over and smacked the younger cat with one paw, sending her tumbling in a full somersault.
"You idiot little sister!" she whispered.
"My contractor has money! He wants to spend it! What are you sticking your nose in for, meow!?"
"Idiot big sister," Gutaneko whispered back, "didn't you say your contractor's money is your money too, meow? If he spends it like this, won't that mean you won't have any money to use, meow?"
Miwa Masayo glanced around furtively, then pushed Gutaneko's head down and lowered her own voice even more.
"Don't talk nonsense, meow. This money is actually the Uchiha clan's money. Yoru's just the one keeping it safe for now."
"That's why he can spend it so 'reasonably,' meow. Cat Castle earns profit, and I get dividends. That's the part that counts as our money, meow."
Gutaneko's eyes widened.
She could not imagine such a shamelessly self-serving arrangement. Her little cat brain nearly crashed on the spot.
Though Gutaneko was only two years old, her talent far surpassed Miwa Masayo's. She had awakened intelligence almost from the moment she was born, and her mind was astonishingly sharp, especially when it came to numbers. At a very young age she had already begun helping Granny Cat with bookkeeping, and later became her assistant, helping manage business affairs.
Because of that, Gutaneko had no contractor, and had never been tainted by the mortal world of humans. She was so pure and innocent it almost made one's heart ache.
Looking at her adorable, dizzy little sister, Miwa Masayo pulled her into her arms and comforted her.
"This can't really be called lining our own pockets, meow. At most, it's mutual convenience between public and private."
"Look. We spent Uchiha clan money so Uchiha clan shinobi could avoid death and rapidly gain battlefield experience and grow stronger."
"The Uchiha clan is rich. Using money in exchange for their shinobi surviving and growing stronger means they're getting an incredible bargain, meow."
"Yoru and I have poured a lot of effort into these Uchiha shinobi. If we take the chance to earn a little hard-earned money from it, who can say anything, meow?"
"Right, meow?"
Gutaneko nodded dizzily and didn't dare say another word.
In her heart, she was now completely convinced by Miwa Masayo. This cat sage elder sister might be average in raw intelligence, but her knowledge and wisdom were simply terrifying. No wonder she had become the first cat sage, and even earned the trust of Granny Cat and Chief Cat Yu.
For ninja cats, signing a contract was a gamble. With good luck, they might end up like Miwa Masayo with Uchiha Yoru, or like Yaeko with Uchiha Shisui—not only safe from danger, but able to undergo tempering in the mortal world and grow rapidly.
Of course, for someone like Miwa Masayo, who had even been led by her contractor all the way to becoming a cat sage, that wasn't just good luck anymore. That was the kind of fortune where one person attains immortality and even the chickens and dogs ascend as well.
As the transactions concluded, the Tiger Unit's combat power was restored in full.
They were brimming with confidence, filled with excitement, and eagerly looked forward to the next battle, all of them guessing what kind of enemy would come next.
Uchiha Yoru knew these children were excited, so he allowed them to celebrate for a while and vent both the exhilaration and fear in their hearts. Then he ordered them to start cooking. Once they had eaten, he personally pressed them all down and forced them to sleep.
For the overwhelming majority of the Tiger Unit's 101 Uchiha genin, today had been the first time they had ever killed someone. No amount of shinobi indoctrination could fully erase basic human instinct. Watching a life similar to one's own come to an end naturally brought out a profound, instinctive fear of death.
Uchiha Yoru was honestly a little worried that one of the younger boys might awaken his eyes because of it, or even advance to two tomoe through that emotional shock.
He wanted to avoid as much as possible that kind of quick, high-efficiency, but ultimately dangerous promotion method driven by negative emotion.
There was hardly anything more dangerous than having a person's character itself changed.
If possible, Uchiha Yoru wanted his followers to awaken and advance their Sharingan the same way he had—during cultivation, not in battle, and not in the instant of a comrade's death.
At least, that was what he wanted for everything below the three-tomoe Sharingan. Mangekyo Sharingan was a different matter and didn't need to be considered in the same way.
As a three-tomoe Sharingan user himself, Uchiha Yoru had gradually begun sensing the existence of the Mangekyo.
It was becoming clearer and clearer to him.
By his estimation, the spiritual power requirement for the Mangekyo was at least fifteen times greater than what was needed to awaken the three-tomoe Sharingan.
At least that much.
Because his own three-tomoe had awakened during a Foundation Establishment breakthrough, when his spiritual power had surged explosively. At the time, that spiritual power had definitely overflowed the requirement, but he still didn't know by exactly how much.
Now, after several more breakthroughs, his spiritual power had grown another tenfold, and only then had he begun to sense the Mangekyo clearly.
So the difference could not be less than fifteen times.
It truly was an outrageous requirement of talent.
Even if despair stirred up a towering storm across the sea of spiritual power, that storm would still fall far short of touching the lower limit of the Mangekyo.
Because spiritual power was like the ocean, while emotion was like a storm. No matter how violent the storm became, the height of its waves could never exceed the depth of the sea itself.
Prodigies like Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi could continue growing rapidly even after reaching the three-tomoe stage. Their spiritual power would naturally far exceed ordinary three-tomoe levels by several times, ten times, or even more. With enough accumulated spiritual power, once they were hit by an emotional storm, they could awaken the Mangekyo in a single leap.
Then there were freak talents like Uchiha Obito.
His spiritual power was indeed insufficient, but the emotional storm inside him could reach absurd proportions.
The same tragedy of a comrade's death might stir only a tenth-level gale in the heart of another Uchiha. But in Obito's heart, the result could split into two extremes.
It was entirely possible for him to cry his face off one moment, then forget about it and go back to smiling foolishly the next.
Or it could trigger an interstellar super-storm, the kind that overturned the entire sea in one go, awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan on the spot and blackening him into a cold apocalypse fiend.
The difference between those two extremes depended entirely on who had died.
The death of his teammate Shin was the first kind.
The death of Rin, the target of his one-sided love, was the second.
That was why Uchiha Yoru felt he didn't need to think too much about the Mangekyo for now. As long as he could protect these younger boys while they awakened up through the three-tomoe stage, and protect their minds from being damaged by their own progress, that would be enough.
These children were the foundation of his future.
They were the backbone he would one day use to control the Uchiha clan and make it serve him.
So long as it was possible, it was better not to take the shortcut.
Power grown too quickly was too unstable.
Not only could it easily bring disaster upon himself, it also carried a much higher chance of future betrayal.
And as someone walking the path of immortality, Uchiha Yoru was destined to have a long life. With more time piled on top of everything, even a tiny increase in the probability of negative outcomes meant a proportional increase in future trouble.
So he had to carefully look after the Tiger Unit's mental state.
One by one, he personally met with all 101 genin and planted subtle suggestions to help stabilize their minds.
With Uchiha Yoru's help, the Uchiha quickly cast off the strain of first battle nerves. They ate their fill at the fastest possible speed, then all drifted into sleep.
Uchiha Yoru took the task of standing watch over the interval between battles upon himself, guarding against spying, assassination, or sudden attack from any direction.
He spread out his spiritual perception and watched the subtle shifts within the natural world, using those changes to indirectly track the traces of shinobi and summon beasts.
For the sake of the stable, comfortable life he wanted in the future, Uchiha Yoru was working very hard.
He knew he could never protect every last one of these younger boys. Forget completely protecting their minds—he couldn't even guarantee their lives with one hundred percent certainty.
This was war, after all.
Still, his efforts would not be wasted.
At the very least, a few more of them would survive because of it.
That reason alone was enough to justify all his effort.
Standing guard was work that tested patience and carefulness, but it was also boring.
Uchiha Yoru chose a method that served two purposes at once.
He sat cross-legged in the center of Kubota Village and sank deeply inward, entering that vacant, airy state in which he tried to fuse more deeply with nature itself.
Human beings belonged to nature, yet were also separate from it.
Uchiha Yoru's union with nature was not stable. He was like a seed floating on the surface of water, drifting half in air and half in the current, rising and sinking by turns.
But so long as it remained in the water, the seed could still absorb moisture little by little, nourishing itself, stirring the life hidden in its origin, and creating the possibility of sprouting.
He did not know how long he drifted in that suspended state, but just as Uchiha Yoru was enjoying the sensation, a tiny ripple appeared in the natural world.
By luck, while half asleep and half awake, he noticed that extremely slight and unfamiliar disturbance.
It was not only unfamiliar.
It was strange.
It did not feel like human nature driven by desire, nor like the instinctual spiritual quality of an animal. It clearly had the characteristics of life, yet there was also something mechanical within it.
What was this?
A hidden technique of Kirigakure?
No.
Impossible.
If Kirigakure truly had methods like this, then their civilization level would already stand a full tier above Konoha's. At that point, what sense would there be in fighting a shinobi war at all?
In that instant, Uchiha Yoru suddenly remembered that he had once sensed this lifeform through his divine ability Omniscient Heart's Eye. The sensation from that ability was completely different from what he now felt through natural fusion, but once the thought occurred to him, he could immediately be certain:
This was that half-life form—White Zetsu.
[Is it here because the Tiger Unit gathered over a hundred Uchiha together, so it's doing a routine check to see whether anyone might awaken the Mangekyo?]
[Good. My sensing range for White Zetsu has increased a lot. I won't need to stay quite so nervous in the future.]
Uchiha Yoru considered things carefully for a while, but in the end he still decided to let this White Zetsu go.
He didn't have confidence in actually capturing the creature, and there was no point alerting the enemy unnecessarily.
Natural fusion was not a stable state. The moment he stood up and moved, or the moment his thoughts sped up, his heart would no longer remain empty and clear, and his connection with nature would be severed. At that point, he would lose White Zetsu's position completely.
Meanwhile, even after several breakthroughs, the range of Omniscient Heart's Eye had only increased a little. It had just barely crossed twenty meters now.
That range was naturally enough to make him overwhelmingly strong in close-quarters shinobi combat.
But using it to capture White Zetsu was pure fantasy.
Just after abandoning the idea of catching White Zetsu, another cluster of violent ripples surged in.
There was no doubt at all—these were ripples stirred by human intent.
And there were a great many of them.
[The enemy. And a strong enemy, with a lot of bodies. This will be a hard battle.]
Uchiha Yoru did not hesitate. He withdrew from natural fusion, woke the members of the Tiger Unit, and began preparing for battle.
At this point the Uchiha genin had already slept for more than four hours. Their stamina and spirit had recovered considerably, and their overall condition was quite good.
More importantly, they had gone through a savage battle and won.
Then they had slept for several hours.
The surging emotions had calmed. The trembling, intoxicating stimulation of killing had faded away. What remained was only the fierce confidence born of victory, which had already solidified inside every single one of them.
When the Uchiha heard that the enemy was coming, all of them simply smiled with confidence, then quietly found their respective teams and naturally stood in their tactical positions, waiting calmly for the enemy to arrive.
No one shouted loudly to show off how fierce he was.
No one chattered endlessly asking for enemy intelligence.
They simply stood there together in silence, like a great mountain rooted firmly in place.
Uchiha Yoru smiled in satisfaction.
Just from the way they stood, one could already sense a hint of immovable as a mountain.
There was no doubt—the Tiger Unit's combat power was stronger now than it had been six hours earlier.
Whatever kind of enemy was coming—
Come.
Fight.
...
Kaguya Gaiji led 513 shinobi toward Kubota Village.
The Kaguya clan was not particularly skilled at concealed movement to begin with, and with a force of this size, hiding their movements was even more impossible. So Gaiji made no special effort to conceal their advance.
As they moved, the Kaguya shinobi's battle intent rose steadily. Wherever their murderous force passed, the natural bustle of the surroundings died at once. That abrupt silence was as conspicuous as any loud clamor.
When the Kaguya-led Kirigakure force was still ten kilometers from the village, Kaguya Gaiji suddenly felt as if something was watching him.
The sensation was slight and difficult to define, and only he sensed it. An ordinary person might easily have dismissed it as imagination.
But Kaguya Gaiji was a true genius jonin. He understood that this meant some enemy expert had already "seen" him through some special means.
"Heh. Fine. It's not like I was planning to launch a sneak attack anyway."
Kaguya Gaiji raised his hand and ordered, "Increase speed. Charge straight in!"
No one questioned him.
More than five hundred men accelerated at once. Their footsteps thundered, and the dust raised by their march drifted visibly into the air, easy to spot from afar.
Dozens of Sharingan snapped open. Their users quickly estimated the size and speed of the approaching force with precision.
Before long, they knew that the incoming enemy was strong, with more than five hundred men.
Yet the Uchiha remained silent.
Their confidence was steady enough that they felt no fear at all.
A few minutes later, the Kaguya-led Kirigakure force and the Uchiha Tiger Unit came face to face.
Actually, the Kaguya side was somewhat bewildered.
In their eyes, there were only a dozen or so Konoha shinobi in front of the village, each hiding behind cover with only half a head showing.
What exactly was this Konoha force trying to do?
And yet no one in the Kaguya force underestimated them because of it.
This was no ordinary Konoha unit.
Only a few hours ago, they had wiped out a Kirigakure force three times their size, and it was precisely because of that that the Kaguya clan's own troops had been dispatched to attack them in force, numbering over five hundred.
Besides, this sort of skulking half-hidden posture was not actually that strange for shinobi.
But in a battle between several hundred men, little bits of cover that only concealed one person at a time would be blasted flat by a few ninjutsu anyway.
What possible use could such petty tricks have?
What the Kaguya-led Kirigakure force did not know was that, from the perspective of the Tiger Unit, the scene they presented inspired all sorts of eager thoughts.
They were such… perfect targets.
More than five hundred men had arranged themselves into over a hundred small squads. Those squads then clustered according to closeness and clan ties, creating groups of varying size. In the densest places, the distance between people was no more than an arm's length.
By the standards drilled into the Uchiha, any ninja force packed that tightly was practically a field of living targets. Drop almost any attack into a formation like that and it would easily claim three to five heads.
Even if shinobi noticed the attack early and tried to dodge, so many bodies in such close quarters would only interfere with each other and make evasion harder.
So the only question was:
When would the order come?
At that exact moment, a sharp whistle blast rang out.
The tone belonged to a section leader's whistle, but beneath the shrillness there was a heavy force that seemed to shake one's lungs. It was the battle signal personally blown by Uchiha Yoru.
Fire Release! Attack!
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)