Although Obito and Rin had been excluded, recruiting the rest of the team went surprisingly smoothly.
Shimizu looked over the people standing before him: Uchiha Shisui, Hyūga Satomi, Inohara Amane, and Uchiha Megumi.
These were the companions he could trust—the ones who possessed both loyalty and considerable strength.
At only eleven years old, Shisui had not yet participated in the jōnin evaluation, but in Shimizu's judgment, the boy already met the basic standards of a jōnin.
His speed, in particular, already surpassed that of most jōnin. Combined with his unpredictable two-tomoe Sharingan, the young Uchiha had grown into an exceptionally capable shinobi.
As for his promotion to jōnin, the only things he lacked were seniority and recognition from Konoha's higher-ups.
Then there was Satomi, the only official jōnin in the squad.
She had never relaxed in her pursuit of strength.
Her Byakugan's scouting range had now expanded to sixteen hundred meters, and her Gentle Fist had become even sharper and more refined. Her speed had also improved dramatically compared to before.
She had clearly undergone extensive specialized training—most likely so she could keep up with Shimizu's pace.
And yes… she had become even more beautiful too.
The kind of beauty capable of overturning the ignorant stereotype surrounding the Byakugan.
That was Shimizu's honest conclusion, drawn from experience.
As for Amane, although he officially held the rank of Special Jōnin, he was actually a sly veteran with strength comparable to a true jōnin.
He specialized in Earth Release and genjutsu, while also excelling at traps, concealment, and high-speed movement.
Then there was Megumi.
At twelve years old, the girl was already taller than Shisui by a noticeable margin. Her strength had reached the level of an elite chūnin, and with the aid of her Sharingan, she could already fight evenly against ordinary jōnin.
Perhaps due to Shimizu's influence, Megumi also placed great emphasis on improving her speed. Combined with Shimizu's occasional guidance, her Body Flicker Technique had become remarkably impressive.
And finally, there was Shimizu himself.
The title of "Shunshin no Shimizu" had already spread throughout the shinobi world, and his reputation now vaguely showed signs of surpassing even the Legendary Sannin.
After mastering both Water Release and Lightning Release, he had further improved Konoha's Crescent Moon Dance sword technique and had even developed a Kekkei Genkai of his own—Storm Release.
Most importantly, his chakra reserves were steadily increasing.
Based on his estimates, sometime between September and the end of Konoha's forty-sixth year, his chakra would finally cross into the realm of Kage-level shinobi.
This was the realm Shimizu had dreamed of reaching for decades.
The issue of insufficient chakra had plagued him for far too long.
And once he truly stepped into the Kage level, it would signify a complete transformation in his combat style.
Because he had long lacked reliable survival methods and possessed limited chakra reserves, Shimizu had been forced to constantly refine his Body Flicker Technique while dedicating himself to swordsmanship.
The former allowed low chakra consumption with high survivability.
The latter was an extremely chakra-efficient method of combat.
But now, as his arsenal of ninjutsu continued to grow and his chakra capacity approached a qualitative breakthrough, ninjutsu combat would inevitably become his primary fighting style.
In other words, this was a squad that appeared on paper to contain only two jōnin-level shinobi, but in reality consisted of one fighter approaching the level of the Legendary Sannin and three others already possessing jōnin-class combat ability.
An elite unit in every sense.
As for why Kakashi was absent…
It was not because Shimizu cared whether Obito might misunderstand and think he was favoring Kakashi while refusing to recruit him.
In truth, he no longer cared much about what either Obito or Kakashi thought of him.
The real reason was simple: Kakashi already had a mission assignment and had left the village early that morning.
It was a pity. With Kakashi's current strength, he would have been valuable support.
After all, unlike in the original timeline, Kakashi no longer seemed restricted by the severe chakra limitations that once hindered him. His strength had been increasing at an astonishing pace.
As for how powerful his Lightning Release truly was…
Probably only Kakashi himself knew.
After all, he had managed to rescue Obito from Tobi alone, even if Tobi had already suffered several serious injuries beforehand.
There was also Satomi's talented younger brother—Hyūga Hayakumo, someone who had never appeared in the original story.
Unfortunately, the boy was Orochimaru's disciple, so Shimizu remained wary of him.
Speaking of Orochimaru, although Megumi had essentially been "poached" away by Shimizu, Orochimaru had recently accepted another disciple instead: a ten-year-old girl named Anko, a newly graduated genin from this year's Ninja Academy class.
In Shimizu's eyes, she seemed like a fairly ordinary little girl.
Cute, perhaps, but otherwise unremarkable.
Even in the original story, Anko had never displayed particularly extraordinary talent. That was why Shimizu found it difficult to understand exactly what Orochimaru had seen in her that made him choose her as a disciple.
Based on Shimizu's understanding of Orochimaru—a utilitarian and a complete egoist—it was hard to imagine the man suddenly acting out of pure kindness.
Just like that so-called "illegitimate child," Erugetsu.
There was definitely something suspicious about him.
"Uzuki-senpai," Amane said first, voicing everyone's concern, "doesn't our squad lack a medical ninja?"
What kind of five-man team operated without one?
What would they do if someone got injured?
Especially during a deep infiltration mission into enemy territory.
The risks involved hardly needed to be explained. If they were wounded during combat, the situation could quickly become disastrous.
The others clearly shared the same concern.
"We'll avoid combat whenever possible," Shimizu said calmly. "With our speed, escaping pursuit won't be difficult. So do your best not to get injured."
He truly did not care much about the absence of a medical ninja.
Most medical shinobi simply lacked strong combat ability. A monster like Tsunade was an exception, not the norm—and even Tsunade herself was not particularly fast.
"And if someone does end up seriously injured…"
Shimizu smiled faintly at them.
"Trust your teammates."
Then his gaze swept across the group one last time.
"And finally—if the sky falls…"
"I'll hold it up."
The current Shimizu Uzuki was no longer the "weak and helpless" newly promoted jōnin who had departed for the Land of Rivers mission back in Konoha Year 43.
After surviving so many life-and-death battles against the strongest figures in the shinobi world, he had gradually developed the confidence of a true powerhouse.
At last, he possessed the strength to resist fate—
and perhaps even change it.
Early the next morning, on June 18th of Konoha Year 46, the five gathered at Konoha's main gate. Under Shimizu's leadership, they quickly set out toward the Land of Earth.
…
In only two days, the group reached the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass.
Since the Kannabi Bridge had been destroyed after the famous battle there, the major route connecting the two countries no longer existed. As a result, they had no choice but to detour north and take a much longer path—the Tenchi Bridge.
"Sensei," Shisui asked thoughtfully, "couldn't Iwagakure use the Tenchi Bridge to transport military supplies, use the Land of Grass as a staging ground, and invade the Land of Fire from there?"
Amane happened to know quite a bit about the subject.
"Probably not," he explained calmly. "Kannabi Bridge was a large strategic bridge with an excellent location, high carrying capacity, and strong defensive value."
"But the Tenchi Bridge is just a narrow suspension bridge. It's much closer to the Land of Fire, has limited carrying capacity, and is far more fragile. A few Fire Release techniques would probably be enough to destroy it completely."
"The moment Iwagakure started using this bridge, Konoha would immediately detect their movements. Then, once the timing was right, Konoha could simply destroy the bridge and trap the Iwa forces on the opposite side."
"Besides, this area is too close to the Land of Waterfalls, and the Land of Waterfalls is allied with Konoha."
"So from Iwagakure's perspective, this bridge is basically unusable."
"I see… I've learned something today." After understanding the reasoning, Shisui smiled shyly. "I didn't expect Amane-senpai to know so much."
Among the five of them, aside from Shimizu, only Amane truly qualified as an experienced veteran.
After all, the number of missions he had completed far surpassed those of Shisui and Megumi, and even exceeded Satomi's despite her recent promotion to jōnin.
"These are just things you naturally understand once you've studied warfare long enough," Amane said modestly before changing the topic. "Though honestly, Shisui, your strength should already be at jōnin level, right? At your age, I had only just graduated from the Academy."
Shisui slowly shook his head.
"It's still not enough."
Since when did the once-easygoing Shisui develop such a fierce desire for power? Shimizu wondered. This is the ambition I've cultivated in him.
"So would Iwagakure place hidden scouts around here?" Megumi suddenly asked.
Satomi shook her head slightly.
"There are no enemies within sixteen kilometers."
"Then we'll rest here for now," Shimizu ordered. "From this point onward, we're leaving the Land of Fire. Stay alert."
"Yes, sir!"
After splitting up, the group began resting separately.
"Megumi? What is it?"
Megumi walked straight toward Shimizu, clearly intending to say something important.
"Shimizu… become my teacher."
Shimizu did not answer immediately.
Taking one Uchiha as a student could be dismissed as coincidence. Taking two would undoubtedly attract pressure from Konoha's higher-ups.
The Uchiha name was simply too sensitive.
So instead, he smiled and teased her lightly.
"And here I thought that after apprenticing under one of the Legendary Sannin, you'd already started looking down on ordinary jōnin like me."
"Are you making fun of me?" Megumi's face instantly turned red. She was only twelve years old, after all, and nowhere near as shameless as Shimizu. "Fine… I admit I underestimated you before."
"I was immature back then… and I'd never met truly powerful shinobi."
"You're not actually going to hold that against me, are you?"
How rare.
For someone as stubborn as Megumi to openly admit her mistakes was almost unbelievable.
"Shisui looks so strong now… you trained him well, didn't you?"
To be honest, Shisui's rapid growth was mostly due to talent.
Shimizu had not actually taught him that many things. If anything, Shisui had spent more time acting as his sparring partner.
But from an outsider's perspective, Shisui's astonishing progress naturally looked like the result of Shimizu's guidance.
If Shimizu had truly taught him anything decisive, it was probably attitude.
The hunger to become stronger.
The discipline to treat training with complete seriousness.
And not only Shisui—even Kakashi and Obito had been deeply influenced by him.
"I want to become stronger," Megumi said firmly. "Stronger than anyone else."
"You'll teach me seriously, right?"
"Of course," Shimizu replied just as firmly.
...
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