Night had fallen.
Inside the main hall of the Yomu clan compound, the current Clan Head, Yomu Kichikawa, bowed deeply before the household shrine, whispering a solemn prayer.
After a long time, he opened his eyes. The suffocating anxiety in his chest had somewhat settled, but an unshakable knot of dread still gnawed at his gut.
He turned around and glanced at the shinobi kneeling calmly a short distance away, sipping a cup of tea. Kichikawa couldn't help but sigh. This man was the root cause of all his terror.
Hearing the sigh, the tea-drinking shinobi raised his head. His eyes were entirely pure white and pupil-less. He sneered, "Clan Head Kichikawa, there is no need to worry. As long as you assist the Hyūga this time, we will reward you handsomely once we crush the Uchiha. Besides, the Uchiha's manpower is currently stretched to its absolute breaking point. They don't have a single Jōnin to spare to look our way. What exactly are you afraid of?"
"I certainly hope you're right..." Kichikawa exhaled heavily.
Truthfully, he had absolutely zero desire to get involved in this mess. His Yomu clan was a tiny, insignificant faction; including himself, they only had two Jōnin in total. To him, both the Uchiha and the Hyūga were terrifying behemoths capable of squashing his entire clan with a single finger.
Even their liege lord, the Chiba clan, was still struggling to recover their former glory after the brutal beating the Uchiha had handed them twenty years ago for trying to pick up cheap scraps during the Senju war.
He was just a mere ant. How could he possibly dare to intervene in a war between titans?
But he had no choice. This mission was a direct order from the Chiba clan.
Initially, the Hyūga operatives hadn't even bothered approaching his tiny clan; they had gone straight to the Chiba. However, having clearly learned their lesson from twenty years ago, the Chiba clan had been terrified to accept. They wavered back and forth—terrified of provoking the Uchiha's wrath, yet unwilling to throw away a golden opportunity to build ties with the Hyūga.
Eventually, the Chiba leadership devised a cowardly compromise: they ordered their vassal, the Yomu, to handle the grain hoarding on their behalf. That cowardly decision had ultimately led to Kichikawa's current waking nightmare.
The Hyūga Jōnin didn't say anything else. Deep down, he held immense contempt for the Chiba clan's cowardice, but he kept it off his face. For him, successfully hoarding and transporting the grain was the only thing that mattered. As long as the Hyūga main compound had sufficient food reserves, they could absolutely outlast the Uchiha in a war of attrition.
Unlike the Hyūga, the Uchiha were constantly looking over their shoulder at the looming threat of the Senju army. As long as the Hyūga held the line, the Uchiha's nerve would inevitably snap first.
Hmph. The Chiba truly are a bunch of spineless cowards, the Hyūga Jōnin scoffed internally. Too terrified to act themselves, so they push the task onto a pathetic vassal clan. With that kind of hesitant, indecisive leadership, it's no wonder the Uchiha beat the absolute shit out of them twenty years ago. Oh well. By my calculations, Lord Akikaze should arrive tonight. With an Elite Jōnin holding the fort, even if an Uchiha Jōnin does show up, we have nothing to fear.
The Hyūga Jōnin took another sip of tea, his mind calculating their next move.
Suddenly, a cacophony of panicked shouts erupted from outside.
Both men looked up. Through the open doors, they saw a massive, unnatural flash of firelight illuminating the front gates, followed by the faint screams of: "Enemy attack!"
Kichikawa and the Hyūga Jōnin locked eyes, both of their faces darkening instantly. "You stay here. I will go see what is happening," Kichikawa ordered. Blurring into a shadow, he sprinted toward the compound entrance.
Roughly five minutes ago...
Two shadows crouched silently on a thick tree branch a short distance from the Yomu clan's main gates, observing the security perimeter.
"Two guards at the front gate, both Genin," Xuan whispered, the three tomoe in his eyes spinning lazily as he relayed the tactical layout. "Thirty paces past the gate, one Chūnin hiding behind the artificial rock garden. Fifty paces to the left, two Chūnin concealed in the ancient oak tree. I can't see anything past that. When it comes to pure observation range, the Sharingan just can't compete with the Byakugan."
Xuan turned to look at Madara. "Are you absolutely sure you want to just charge straight through the front door?"
Madara flashed a feral, bloodthirsty grin. "It's a bit too late for stupid questions, isn't it?"
He blinked. When his eyes snapped open again, they had transformed into a pair of blood-red irises, each housing a single, clearly defined tomoe.
Pushing off the branch with explosive force, Uchiha Madara vaulted high into the air. Bathed in the pale silver moonlight, he descended upon the Yomu clan like a nightmare ripped straight from hell.
"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
While still suspended in midair, Madara's hands blurred through a sequence of seals. An apocalyptic sea of fire plummeted from the sky, instantly swallowing the entire front entrance of the Yomu compound.
The two Genin guards barely had time to scream before they were completely incinerated.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three figures instantly leaped from their hiding spots—the Chūnin guards stationed behind the perimeter. Frantically weaving signs, they unleashed a barrage of Wind, Water, and Fire Style Ninjutsu at the airborne Madara, screaming at the top of their lungs, "Enemy attack!"
A sneer of absolute contempt curled Madara's lips. The single tomoe in his eyes tracked the incoming attacks perfectly. He forcefully shifted his center of gravity, plummeting like a stone to narrowly dodge the three Jutsu while simultaneously completing another rapid sequence of hand seals.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Release Song!"
Three distinct, roaring dragons of concentrated fire erupted from his mouth, each one violently tracking a different Chūnin.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The three Chūnin were completely engulfed in the fiery explosions just as they finished weaving the first seal for their counterattacks.
"Holy shit..."
Watching the sheer devastation from the tree branch, Xuan nearly bit his own tongue. No wonder this arrogant bastard said he could solo a Jōnin! Who the hell opens a fight against literal fodder by dropping two localized A-rank Ninjutsu back-to-back?! I know you have monstrous chakra reserves, but there's no need to flex this hard! And seriously, how many A-rank Jutsu have you mastered?! How many times did you sneak into the clan archives?!
Cursing internally, Xuan watched as dozens of Yomu shinobi began swarming toward the blazing front gates. Seeing that Madara had successfully drawn the entire clan's aggro, Xuan silently dropped from the branch and slipped into the compound from a blind spot.
The Yomu compound was infinitely smaller than the Uchiha estate. With his three-tomoe Sharingan scanning his surroundings, Xuan easily navigated through the shadows, bypassing all the panicked patrols as he pushed deeper into the estate.
"Hurry! Over here! The Clan Head has already engaged the enemy! We need to reinforce him!" a Chūnin roared, sprinting down a corridor alongside a comrade.
Clack!
A custom kunai suddenly clattered onto the wooden floorboards right in front of them.
"A kunai? What the—" One of the men stopped, looking down in confusion.
In the blink of an eye, a flash of cold steel severed the air. Blood sprayed across the walls. The Chūnin collapsed heavily to the floor, his face still frozen in that exact expression of utter confusion.
Thud.
Hearing his comrade's body hit the floor, the second Chūnin finally snapped out of his daze. Terror flashed in his eyes as he opened his mouth to scream.
Before a sound could escape his throat, a pair of blood-red eyes materialized directly in front of his face. The three tomoe spinning within them were the last things he saw before his consciousness was violently dragged into a bottomless abyss.
Seeing the three tomoe reflected in the man's glassy pupils, Xuan knew the hypnosis was successful. "Tell me," he ordered softly. "Has a shinobi with pure white eyes recently arrived at your compound?"
The hypnotized Chūnin slowly shook his head with a blank, emotionless expression. "I haven't seen one."
Xuan frowned slightly. "Why is your Clan Head hoarding so much grain?"
"I don't know."
Great. I hypnotized a completely useless grunt, Xuan sighed internally. "Where are they storing the grain?"
"In the main granary behind the Clan Head's estate."
Xuan's eyes lit up. "Take me there!"
"Yes."
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