Mikoto: I Don't Eat Rabbit Meat... Mm...

These words were like thunder exploding on flat ground, blasting the crowd's remaining grief over the clan's destruction out of their minds.

Everyone looked shocked and exchanged glances.

Although they had guessed that this mental patient would most likely give this answer, hearing it for real still felt far too bizarre.

Could it be... Yinyue Captain had been plotting against the clan leader's wife all along?

That would explain it.

Otherwise, why would Yinyue Captain save Mrs. Mikoto?

Uchiha Izumi's brows rose sharply. She suddenly felt troubled, silently lowered her head, buried it between her knees, and added branches to the fire.

She did not dare look at the Ingetsu sitting beside her.

In an unnoticed corner.

Mikoto's icy, beautiful face was filled with anger. She could tolerate these clansmen ostracizing her; after all, her family owed the Uchiha an apology.

But she could not tolerate anyone insulting her reputation and chastity as the clan leader's wife.

Crackle— The flames blazed higher.

Ingetsu slightly furrowed his brows, feeling that things had taken a strange turn.

Uchiha Nanfeng said woodenly, "How did the clan leader's wife become Yinyue Captain's... No, how did she become your sister-in-law?"

This question voiced what everyone present was thinking.

Uchiha Izumi raised her head along with the others and looked toward Tamao. Everyone wanted to hear what this lunatic companion could possibly say.

Tamao rambled on:

"Could you all use your brains a little more yourselves? Stop bullying me all the time and making a mental patient think for you.

"Think about it.

"Uchiha Mikoto is the clan leader's wife.

"Fugaku is probably dead.

"There are only a few of us Uchiha left.

"If my big brother Ingetsu isn't the new clan leader, then who is it going to be, you cowards?

"So.

"Big brother is the clan leader, and as the clan leader's wife, Uchiha Mikoto is naturally my sister-in-law!"

Everyone's brows knitted tightly. Faced with their lunatic companion's bizarre chain of reasoning, they were actually left speechless.

In Tamao's understanding.

Was "clan leader's wife" a position?

Uchiha Nanfeng adjusted his glasses and retorted:

"I'm not a coward!"

Everyone turned to look at the usually honest and unassuming Nanfeng. They immediately complained inwardly, Captain Nanfeng, your priorities are a little strange!

Everyone finally understood why Nanfeng and Tamao had the most conflicts in their daily lives.

Tamao said impatiently:

"Who cares whether you're a coward or not? What are you waiting for? Feed my sister-in-law some rabbit meat!"

Everyone looked at one another.

That was what he had said.

But now that they knew Ingetsu had designs on a "widow," the other Uchiha were even less willing to provoke this former clan leader's wife and current sister-in-law.

The Uchiha also had plenty to complain about, but nowhere to voice it. No, the Uchiha had already been wiped out once.

The big brother had already changed once, too, so how was the clan leader's wife still Uchiha Mikoto?

After hearing Tamao's utterly serious nonsense, Mikoto's composure, cultivated over many years, shattered in an instant.

She stretched out her slender neck. A flush spread across her fair cheeks, and her dark eyes glittered beneath her curved lashes as she glared straight at Ingetsu.

She seemed to angrily say, "Control your subordinate!"

As everyone remained silent and lost in thought.

Ingetsu suddenly stood up, tore off a rabbit leg, and walked over to Mikoto.

He did not care what others thought.

But until Itachi was dealt with.

Mikoto could not die.

Seeing Ingetsu's actions, everyone suddenly felt that Tamao really was a damn genius. His mental illness had somehow allowed him to see through all this beforehand!

As Ingetsu approached, Mikoto stretched out her snow-white neck and glared at him, like a white swan that was both embarrassed and humiliated, filled with wariness and guardedness.

After a moment of silence.

Uchiha Mikoto looked at the roasted rabbit leg being held to her mouth and chose to resist this humiliation in her own way. She raised her head proudly and said loudly:

"I don't eat rabbit meat... Mm..."

The moment Mikoto opened her mouth, Ingetsu controlled her with Yachihoko, then stuffed the tender, juicy roasted rabbit leg, crisp on the outside, into her mouth.

"Mm... Mm... Mm!"

Mikoto's eyes went wide with fury. She held the roasted rabbit leg in her mouth, continuously gasping and protesting, while staring incredulously at the handsome young man before her.

How dare this junior of the clan be so rude to her!!

Mikoto was furious. The noble and graceful bearing she had possessed as the clan leader's wife collapsed in an instant.

"Eat!"

Ingetsu's face remained expressionless, his gaze as deep as an ancient well. He was not afraid to meet Mikoto's eyes.

Their gazes met.

With her legs pressed to the ground and sitting sideways, Mikoto looked up at Ingetsu's tall, imposing figure. Her momentum fell at once.

The other Uchiha were dumbstruck!!

They knew Ingetsu's temperament had changed drastically and that he was ruthless now, but they had not expected him to be this ruthless.

This was no different from trampling on the clan leader's wife's dignity.

A role model for us all!

Under the gazes of the Uchiha, Ingetsu did not stop beside Mikoto. He walked over to the sprawled-out Tamao, then used a kunai to cut off the roasted wild rabbit's rump and stuffed it into Tamao's mouth.

Tamao realized that he had gone too far. He immediately bared his teeth in a foolish grin, his baby face showing an innocent expression.

"Eat the meat!"

After saying this indifferently, Ingetsu returned to Izumi's side.

He had saved one rabbit leg. He put the rest of the roasted rabbit into Izumi's hands, indicating that she should finish it for him.

Izumi was the youngest in the team. Along the way, she had helped her teammates many times, changing Tamao's bandages and performing very well.

Aside from the honest and unassuming Nanfeng, the person Ingetsu trusted most was Uchiha Izumi.

"In... Ingetsu Captain."

Izumi held the roasted rabbit, her heart warming. She nodded like a chick pecking at grain and wanted to share the rabbit meat with her companions.

Ingetsu reminded her, "You're still growing. Eat a little more. They're all adults; they won't starve."

The Uchiha restrained their expressions and did not dare make a sound.

"Okay... okay."

Izumi abandoned the thought of sharing the food and enjoyed the food Ingetsu had given her by herself.

As Izumi ate the rabbit meat, her thoughts flew in all directions.

In any case, she did not believe anything Tamao had said—not even a single punctuation mark.

Itachi's mother was beautiful, and she had taken good care of herself, but she was ultimately seven or eight years older than Ingetsu Captain. Mm, the two of them aren't suitable.

Izumi sentenced Ingetsu and Mikoto's future to a lifetime without a wife.

The other Uchiha were filled with complicated emotions.

Who would have thought, Ingetsu Captain? You look gentle as jade, with a cold and lofty air, like a chilly wind sweeping through a snowy forest. But behind the scenes, you're actually this kind of captain!

Is it really appropriate to covet a widow?

However...

Several Uchiha quickly came to terms with it. The few Uchiha remaining naturally had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of restoring the glory of the Uchiha Clan.

Mrs. Mikoto had a full, voluptuous figure and looked like a woman who would bear children well. If Ingetsu Captain made full use of her and had her give birth to several more prodigies for the Uchiha Clan, then—

As long as they did not produce another person like Itachi, this would count as adding bricks and mortar to the great cause of restoring the Uchiha Clan's glory!

With that thought, quite a few Uchiha were no longer as resistant to Mikoto as before. They even looked at their new sister-in-law with acceptance, staring meaningfully and respectfully at her several more times.

Meanwhile, Mikoto ate the roasted rabbit leg ravenously.

She was being controlled by Yachihoko.

Whether she ate or not.

It was not up to her.

"Mm... Mm... Mmm!"

Mikoto swallowed the chewy roasted rabbit meat and continued protesting by making muffled sounds.

She sensed the change in her clansmen's attitude toward her. However, she felt that rather than being misunderstood, they might as well continue ostracizing her.

An inexplicable sense of humiliation swept through her entire body.

Mikoto grew so anxious that tears glimmered at the corners of her eyes, yet she did not stop biting the roasted rabbit leg, chewing, or swallowing for even a moment.

At Kikyo Mountain, the peaks were scattered in disorder. The pitch-black night gradually descended, enveloping the entire mountainous region.

The terrain at the center of the mountain range was lower.

Kikyo Castle was located there. Protected by old city walls, it was brightly lit beneath the night sky, and its main streets were quite prosperous.

On the river upstream from the city.

Five people and a dog came walking across the water.

"This is the waterway that must be passed to leave the city. We'll wait for reinforcements here and set some traps while we're at it, then wait for Uchiha Ingetsu and the others to walk right into our net!"

Asuma said seriously to Kurenai Yuhi and the others beside him.

No one objected.

For rogue ninja on the run, knowing that ninja were pursuing them, a waterway that would not leave any traces was unquestionably their first choice.

Relying on their keen-nosed ninja hound, Asuma and the others discovered the whereabouts of the Uchiha defector squad that morning.