You Weren't at Kannabi Bridge at All!

Golden Wheel Mountain Range, Windless Valley Outpost.

The outpost was currently garrisoned by Mimura Hamaki, a veteran elite Konoha jonin, and a young Ino-Shika-Cho squad led by jonin Akimichi Dōtō.

After assigning Yamanaka Santen, a Sensory Ninja, to monitor the enemy's movements, Mimura Hamaki and the other two decided to pass the time playing cards.

Despite that, Mimura Hamaki wasn't in much of a mood. He kept glancing toward the Land of Grass, worry showing on his face. "It's been more than a day. Uchiha Aoya and the others should've been back by now."

Just a day earlier, Uchiha Aoya's squad had passed through here and entered the Land of Grass.

At the time, Aoya had specifically mentioned that if they ran into trouble, the four of them might need to help with an extraction.

Mimura Hamaki had readily agreed.

But the three of them had gone and never returned!

"Could something have happened to them?"

Akimichi Dōtō, who had a huge appetite, mumbled around a mouthful of dry jerky. That was the one thing he hated about wartime: having to chew on this kind of dried-out meat.

Across from him, Nara Shiosui glanced at the cards in his hand and thought for a moment. Then he tossed them face down onto the ground and sighed. "Uchiha Aoya may be young, but in terms of strength, he's probably even stronger than you, Dōtō."

"And with Hyuga Himon, a Hyuga Clan ninja with the Byakugan, they should be able to spot danger ahead of time... Could they have been surrounded by several groups of Iwagakure Ninja?"

That would be a real problem!

At the thought, Mimura Hamaki and the others lost all interest in their game and fell silent.

Though the Uchiha weren't well-liked in the village, Uchiha Aoya wasn't the sort to look down on everyone else.

Besides, they were all fellow Konoha shinobi. With the fighting so desperate, they certainly didn't want to lose one of their jonin.

After a long silence, the three of them started talking about the situation on the Iwagakure front.

"Don't worry. I heard earlier that Minato is already on his way here," Mimura Hamaki finally said, trying to reassure them.

Once Minato Namikaze arrived, everything would be all right.

"The Yellow Flash is coming?" Nara Shiosui perked up.

That was great news!

"Everyone, stay alert! There's something up ahead!"

Yamanaka Santen, who was sitting cross-legged atop a nearby giant tree, suddenly called out. He closed his eyes and focused his senses. "This Chakra signature... It's Uchiha Aoya. The three of them are back!"

"Wait, no!"

Yamanaka Santen's expression changed.

Uchiha Aoya and the others were moving far too fast. They were practically sprinting at full speed!

"Someone's probably chasing them. We need to get ready to receive them!"

Yamanaka Santen hurriedly leaped down from the tree, and all four of them prepared for battle.

It wasn't long before Aoya and the others appeared in the distance, racing toward them. Yamanaka Santen used his clan's Secret Technique to sense them again, and his expression changed dramatically.

"That Chakra signature is powerful!"

Yamanaka Santen's eyes snapped open, his face grim. "There are a lot of people behind them, and one of them has an incredibly powerful Chakra signature—far beyond that of an ordinary elite jonin!"

Who had those three brought down on them?!

Judging by the enemy's Chakra alone, the four of them probably couldn't handle him!

"Don't tell me Kitsuchi, Iwagakure's supreme commander, came here himself... Haha, that can't be right, can it?" Nara Shiosui wiped his sweat away.

"Fire the signal flare!"

"Call for backup! Kitsuchi is chasing them!"

Aoya was in the lead. At last, he reached the border of the Land of Fire, and his speed immediately shot up to the limit. In the blink of an eye, he reached Mimura Hamaki and the others.

Nara Shiosui: "..."

Why did the worst-case scenario always come true?

"What happened?" Mimura Hamaki was sweating profusely, and he fired three red signal flares into the sky in quick succession.

Uchiha Aoya and the others had made it back alive. That was good.

And it looked like they'd completed their mission, too.

Probably even exceeded expectations!

Good grief, what kind of mess had those three young shinobi made to get Kitsuchi chasing them to the front lines with such a small force?

They couldn't have blown up Kitsuchi's command tent, could they?

"That's not enough!"

Aoya looked back and saw Yūhi Kurenai and Hyuga Himon stumbling toward them, both gasping for breath. He hurriedly said, "Use poison smoke bombs to force them back!"

Before he could finish, Nara Shiosui had already acted. He hurled more than a dozen purple pellets toward the mouth of the valley. "Hamaki!"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Mimura Hamaki formed Hand Seals at lightning speed, puffed out his chest, and unleashed a powerful gust that swept the spreading purple smoke toward the enemy.

By then, Kitsuchi and more than twenty Iwagakure shinobi had come into view!

Kitsuchi saw the purple smoke blowing toward them and flew into a rage, but he could only grit his teeth and hold back.

"Damn it!"

They were so close!

Given a little more time, he might have caught up with them!

The Iwagakure shinobi didn't pursue any farther. Instead, they all used Earth Release, raising a vast wall of earth from the ground to block the obviously suspicious purple smoke.

"Hopefully, Kitsuchi and the others will know when to back off."

Nara Shiosui swallowed nervously, ready to trigger the many traps he'd set up ahead.

After a long wait, the purple poison smoke finally dispersed. Even after some more time passed, there was still no movement from the other side.

Hyuga Himon forced himself to muster the last of his Chakra and activated his Byakugan to check. Then he slumped down onto the ground. "It's all right. Kitsuchi and the others have retreated."

They were saved...

He'd almost thought they were going to die!

The three of them had started running ahead of time.

But he and Yūhi Kurenai weren't fast enough. On top of that, massive boulders kept crashing down behind them, forcing him to keep his Byakugan activated and watch for attacks.

"A-Aoya, help me up..."

Yūhi Kurenai's voice trembled. She leaned against Aoya, her legs weak and her heart pounding. Her face was flushed.

That was too thrilling!

She'd never experienced anything so dangerous in her life!

Her more than two years on the battlefield since graduating from the Ninja Academy hadn't been half as exciting as the past two months on a team with Aoya!

"What happened?" Akimichi Dōtō asked, baffled. They'd only gone to blow up supplies at a forward outpost. How had they managed to draw Kitsuchi out, too?

"We'll talk about that later."

Aoya helped Yūhi Kurenai over, hauled Hyuga Himon off the ground, and led them to a secluded corner.

He spread out the map on the ground and studied it for a moment, then pinpointed the outpost they had blown up earlier and pointed to it.

"Himon, you said that someone's Chakra signature disappeared after he went underground. Which way was he headed before he vanished?"

Hyuga Himon didn't understand what Aoya was getting at. His hand trembled slightly as he pointed out the direction on the map.

A point, a line. Aoya followed the line across the map with his eyes, then suddenly stiffened.

Wait!

They'd passed through a place along that line earlier!

There was a cave on a mountain there!

A cave, Kannabi Bridge, Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Madara...

A string of clues connected in Aoya's mind.

Then Aoya looked at another point on the map: Kannabi Bridge!

The outpost targeted by their mission was about twenty miles from the border of the Land of Fire.

Farther ahead, deeper in the Land of Grass, Kannabi Bridge was nearly a hundred miles from the border of the Land of Fire!

Damn it!

Aoya cursed inwardly.

What the hell was going on?!

Where had Uchiha Obito actually been crushed and left half-paralyzed in the original story?

Uchiha Obito, you weren't at Kannabi Bridge at all! Where had you gone?!