The Uchiha Hawk Never Flew Alone

Three senbon grazed Uchiha Aoba's temples and embedded themselves in the tree trunk. Enduring the searing pain, she spun and flung three kunai tied with exploding tags.

Through the dust kicked up by the explosions, her Sharingan clearly caught sight of seven Senju ninja closing in from different directions. They did not even bother concealing the clan emblems on their arms, merely tying their black hair into short topknots with straw rope for easier killing.

"Water Style: Mist Technique!"

Thick fog instantly swallowed the entire forest. Within the mist, Uchiha Aoba's Scarlet Sharingan traced two eerie, blood-red paths.

She kicked off a tree burl and leaped up, while the Chakra threads around the baby's swaddling clothes gradually tightened amid the rapid movement.

Uchiha Kosuke heard the sound of a blade tearing through flesh. Only when warm liquid splashed onto his face did he realize it was the enemy's blood.

Thanks to three months of observing Chakra flow, he could determine the enemies' positions through the subtle tremors in the surrounding environment.

"Yah—ah!" Uchiha Kosuke suddenly gave a sharp, infant-like cry as a warning.

Uchiha Aoba's pupils abruptly constricted, and waves crashed through her heart, but her hands did not pause for even an instant.

Rat—Tiger—Dog—Ox—Rabbit—Tiger!

The fire style hand seal formed instantly at her fingertips.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Eight fireballs pierced the mist with pinpoint accuracy, turning the Senju ninja lying in ambush within the bushes into screaming human torches.

Yet before Uchiha Aoba could catch even a slight breath, more footsteps surged in from all directions.

Uchiha Kosuke sensed at least twenty sources of Chakra rapidly closing in—they had fallen into a carefully planned encirclement!

"The opportunity Gen traded his life for..."

Uchiha Aoba suddenly halted, the Three Tomoe in her eyes spinning wildly.

Through the gradually thinning mist, she saw seven Senju ninja forming some large-scale combined Water Style technique. The centipede-shaped scar on the forehead of their leader belonged to none other than Senju Butsuma's personal guard captain.

The baby's tender little hand suddenly grabbed his mother's collar, and he used all his strength to babble.

In the Hokage anime from his previous life, he had seen many Water Style techniques used by the Senju Clan.

Once those seven released it, the area within a hundred-meter radius would become a domain of death.

Uchiha Aoba's Chakra was nearly depleted. She lowered her head to look at Kosuke in her arms, then reached back to touch Mina behind her.

Moonlight filtered through the trees, scattering mottled patches across Uchiha Kosuke and Mina's faces. Yet a red glow resembling the Sharingan unexpectedly flickered within Kosuke's pitch-black pupils.

The discovery made Uchiha Aoba's entire body tremble violently.

Feeling the warmth against her chest and back, a power that transcended life and death suddenly erupted from the depths of her bloodline.

"Kosuke, Mina, hold on tight!"

She bit through her thumb and rapidly formed an ancient hand seal. It was a forbidden technique strictly prohibited by the Uchiha Clan—Izanagi.

It exchanged the permanent blindness of one eye for the brief power to reverse reality.

When the first water dragon tore through the air, the Three Tomoe in Uchiha Aoba's left eye began rotating at high speed, nearly merging into a ring.

She softly spoke the forbidden technique's true name: "Izanagi: Altered!"

At the instant seven water dragons twisted together to kill her, Uchiha Aoba's left eye instantly lost its light and turned gray-white.

But something unbelievable happened. At the very instant before impact, every water dragon eerily reversed direction and instead struck the Senju ninja who had cast the technique.

The water dragons infused with the Sharingan's Dojutsu exploded amid screams.

When the bloody mist dispersed, all six hand-sign users had suffered backlash from their own Water Style ninjutsu. Uchiha Aoba staggered backward, her left eye completely blind as blood slowly flowed from its socket.

"As expected of the former Uchiha Clan Head's daughter," the Senju Captain said as he stepped over his companions' corpses, his ninja blade dragging across the ground with a piercing screech. "But to fight this far while carrying such burdens... should I praise your great maternal love?"

Uchiha Aoba staggered back with one arm around her chest. When her heel struck the hard barrier behind her, despair filled her heart.

At the critical moment, a familiar birdcall suddenly rang out in the distance—it was a signal unique to the Uchiha Clan!

The sound of something cutting through the air suddenly erupted.

Seventeen kunai tied with exploding tags fell like a meteor shower. The blast waves forced the Senju Captain back again and again.

The reinforcements led by Uchiha Tajima descended from the sky. Their black-and-red, table-tennis-paddle-shaped clan emblems glimmered beneath the moonlight with the cold sheen of iron.

"The Uchiha Hawk never flew alone."

The bandages wrapped around Uchiha Tajima's hands snapped in the night wind, while the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eye sockets looked in different directions at once.

Uchiha Aoba let out a breath and nearly collapsed to the ground, but she still kept her spine ramrod straight, protecting Kosuke in her arms and Mina on her back.

The ninja who had arrived with them swiftly surrounded her, the cold gleam of shuriken weaving a deadly net.

At that moment, the Senju Captain, having steadied himself, suddenly blew a bone flute. Twenty ninja lying in ambush in the darkness abruptly emerged and surrounded the Uchiha in turn.

When Uchiha Tajima saw the Spiral Curse Marks tattooed on their foreheads, he immediately understood—this was the mark of the Senju Suicide Squad. These ninja had long been stripped of their ability to feel pain by filthy secret medicines from the Senju Clan.

"Take Aoba and leave!"

Uchiha Tajima hurled the ninja sickle in his hand, accurately severing the barrier talismans behind her.

Two Medical Ninja quickly stepped forward and supported the tottering Uchiha Aoba.

"Lady Aoba, your injuries need treatment. The clan's medical ninja are already waiting at the safe point."

Uchiha Aoba nodded. After taking one last look toward the battlefield, she quietly asked, "Gen..."

After a moment of silence, Uchiha Tajima looked into the distance. "I'll arrange for people to search afterward. For now, take the children back with peace of mind."

Uchiha Aoba closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her usual resolve had returned. "Older brother Tajima, I understand. Please, you must find him."

"Attack! We must kill them and avenge the old Clan Head!!"

With that, Uchiha Tajima, whom they had been watching intently from across the field, charged forward with fierce force. His hand seals were so fast that only afterimages remained. "Fire Style: Dust Hidden Technique!"

A mass of high-temperature flames and scorching dust rapidly spread outward in all directions.

"Take Aoba and leave!!"

"Stop them and kill them!!"

Water Style: Water Colliding Wave!

Facing the charging high-temperature flames and scorching dust, the Senju Captain's hands rapidly flashed through seals.

He summoned water from thin air, spinning upward like a tornado.

In an instant, the rapidly rotating rising column of water spread like a waterfall and crashed downward upon the flames and dust, eventually forming a river beneath the Senju Captain's feet.

Thick mist rapidly spread through the area, and only several metallic clashes—"Clang~" "Clang~" "Clang~"—could be heard from within.

A moment later, Uchiha Tajima emerged carrying the utterly silent Senju Captain. He casually threw him to the ground, splashing mud everywhere.

"Clan Head, Uchiha Aoba has safely returned to the clan."

A guard suddenly appeared and half-knelt in the filthy mud, reporting to the grim-faced Uchiha Tajima.

"Clan Head, all twenty Senju Clan Death Warriors have been executed!"

Before Uchiha Tajima could speak, another guard flashed over to report.

Uchiha Tajima's expression was icy. "Take their corpses back to the clan and hand them over to the Intelligence Division!"

"Yes, Clan Head!"

Before the guards could respond, Uchiha Tajima vanished from where he stood.

"Clan Head."

"Clan Head."

"Clan Head."

Having returned to the clan ahead of the others, Uchiha Tajima headed straight for the Council Hall.

Every clansman he encountered bowed in greeting, but his expression remained stern and unsmiling.

The moment he sat in the seat of honor, Uchiha Tajima ordered the empty hall, "Go summon the elders for a council meeting."

"Yes, Clan Head."

A response came from the shadows, followed by silence once more.