Return

Amegakure.

Hanzo of the Salamander stood at the highest point, coldly looking down at the alley below, where black flames had erupted.

He felt it.

That sudden burst of cold, violent chakra made even him, the battle-hardened "Demigod," feel a hint of unease, despite being several kilometers away.

He raised a hand. The Kusarigama in his grasp clinked sharply as he prepared to set out and personally deal with those few biting rats.

"Lord Hanzo! This is bad!"

A Rain Ninja messenger scrambled up to the tower, his voice warped by fear.

"Urgent news from the front! Konoha has launched an all-out attack!"

"What?" Hanzo halted and whipped around. "An all-out attack? Has that brat Jiraiya gone mad? Launching a large-scale assault in this weather?"

"And it's not just Jiraiya!" The messenger handed over a bloodstained scroll.

"Orochimaru's forces have launched a surprise attack on the western defenses, while Tsunade's troops have charged straight to the central line! Konoha's forces are advancing across the entire front!"

Hanzo snatched the scroll, his expression turning dark.

By rights, after destroying his armory, Konoha should have been satisfied with its gains and guarded against his counterattack.

This reckless, almost insane, full-scale assault made no sense.

Unless...

Hanzo looked once more toward the alley burning with black flames.

"I see."

Hanzo gave a cold laugh and slowly lowered his Kusarigama.

"Jiraiya, are you willing to gamble the entire front just to protect those brats?"

"Lord Hanzo, the front line is requesting reinforcements! We won't be able to hold back Konoha's forces without you!"

The messenger cried out anxiously.

Hanzo fell silent for a moment.

He gazed intently in the direction of the alley.

There was a power there that threatened him. If he went now, he was sure he could snuff out that threat.

But then Amegakure's front line would collapse, and the entire country would fall.

Hanzo clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.

This was the sorrow of a small nation. Even if you were a demigod, you couldn't be everywhere at once.

In the face of the great nations' schemes, an individual's strength seemed so insignificant.

"Pass the order!"

Hanzo spun around, his presence erupting like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing down. "Assemble the entire army! I'll lead the charge!"

"As for those rats..."

Hanzo glanced back one last time.

"Record what you know about them and send it to all the great nations."

"Especially that flame that can't be extinguished and the giant black skeleton."

A sinister glint flashed through Hanzo's eyes as he plotted to make others do his dirty work.

"With power like that, even Konoha itself probably won't be able to sleep at night."

Inside the alley, the black flames continued to burn quietly.

They weren't ordinary flames. Even the relentless downpour in the Land of Rain couldn't extinguish them.

Raindrops struck the black flames with a sizzling sound and vanished into nothingness in an instant.

Uchiha Fugaku knelt in the muddy water, both hands pressed tightly over his right eye.

Pain.

Agonizing pain.

It felt as though someone were twisting a red-hot iron hook behind his eyeball. The price of that power was painfully clear.

"So this is... the Mangekyo?"

Fugaku gasped for breath, crimson blood seeping through his fingers. The world had grown blurry in his vision, but his perception of Chakra had become terrifyingly sharp.

For that one instant, he had felt as though he'd touched the godlike power of legend within the Uchiha Clan—Susanoo.

That absolute power, which made Chakra tangible and served as both offense and defense, had let him crush an Elite Jonin with ease.

But now, as his emotions settled, the black skeletal ribs slowly dissipated like weathered stone, leaving only a cold aura lingering in the air.

"Cough, cough... Senior Fugaku, your eyes..."

Nishikawa Tetsu clutched his chest and struggled to sit up. Seeing the blood still running from Fugaku's eyes sent shock waves through him.

In the original story, Fugaku had indeed awakened the Mangekyo, but when it happened and what abilities it held had always been a mystery.

Now, because of Tetsu's interference, because of this near-death crisis, those eyes had awakened early.

"Don't worry about me..."

Fugaku gritted his teeth and forced himself to his feet, his voice hoarse. "Check on Minato first."

Tetsu crawled over to Minato. A green glow lit in his palm as he used the Mystical Palm Technique, which he had learned from the Medical Ninja recently.

"His shoulder's been pierced, and his Chakra pathways are badly damaged, but his heart was spared. If we stop the bleeding in time, he'll live."

After treating Minato, Tetsu turned toward the alley's entrance.

There, figures had begun to appear on the previously empty street.

Strangely, most were civilians, with only a few Genin among them.

A villager pointed in terror at the black flames still burning in the alley and the corpse crushed into a bloody pulp on the ground.

"Isn't that Lord Hanzo's personal guard?! They've all been wiped out?!"

Fear spread through the crowd, but above all, they were shocked.

In this isolated Amegakure, they had never witnessed anything so terrifying.

The black Chakra skeleton had vanished, but the image it left in their minds would give them nightmares for the rest of their lives.

"Damn it, they saw us."

Uchiha Fugaku's gaze sharpened, killing intent rising in him once more.

Normally, even with Three Tomoe, he would have been confident he could kill them all and silence them.

The secret of these eyes was too important. If word got out, not only enemy nations but even Konoha High Command would set their sights on him.

"Kill them..."

Fugaku tried to summon his Dojutsu again, but the moment he focused, a tearing pain shot through his eye socket, and his legs gave way. He nearly fell to his knees.

His Chakra was depleted.

"Don't push yourself, Senior!"

Tetsu caught Fugaku, his gaze frighteningly calm.

"We can't kill them all. The commotion was too great. Half of Amegakure saw that black skeleton. The secret's already out, so silencing them now is pointless."

"Then what do we do? If the village finds out..." Fugaku gritted his teeth.

"Then let them find out."

Tetsu cut him off, speaking rapidly. "There's nothing wrong with having power. The problem is not having the status to match it. Now that you have those eyes, you'll have a powerful bargaining chip when we get back, one that can help you contend with the higher-ups."

"But first, we have to make it back alive."

Tetsu looked toward the distant sky.

A terrifying Chakra was erupting there, so powerful it made it hard to breathe.

Strangely, that Chakra was moving away.

Then he realized why: a gigantic Toad had appeared in the distance.

"Hanzo's gone."

Tetsu keenly sensed the oppressive presence fade.

"Looks like Lord Jiraiya launched an attack to cover us. This is our only chance."

He pulled several high-powered smoke bombs from his pack and hurled them at the Amegakure Genin, who were still hesitating over whether to attack.

"Boom!"

Thick smoke billowed out, instantly blocking their view.

"Go!"

Fugaku forced himself through the pain and carried the unconscious Minato on his back.

Tetsu covered their retreat, laying dense traps of Explosive Tags along the way.

Two hours later.

At the Konoha rendezvous point on the border of the Land of Rain.

When the three stumbled out of the rain forest, covered in blood and with their Chakra almost completely exhausted, the Konoha Ninja waiting for them barely recognized them.

"Who goes there?!"

"Team Five... reporting in."

After saying that, Uchiha Fugaku finally ran out of strength. His vision went black, and he pitched forward.

But he didn't hit the ground.

A broad hand caught him securely.

Jiraiya.

The Sannin, his clothes dusted with grime after recently finishing his command duties at the front, looked at his three battered subordinates. His eyes reddened at once.

Minato was unconscious and gravely wounded, Nishikawa Tetsu's chest was covered in blood, and Fugaku's eyes were swollen badly, with dried blood tears at their corners.

"Good... well done!"

Jiraiya's voice caught in his throat. He could only imagine the hell those three children had been through.

"Sensei..."

Tetsu leaned weakly against a tree trunk, baring a smile more wretched than a grimace.

"Mission accomplished. The armory's been blown up."

"And..." Tetsu glanced at the unconscious Fugaku and lowered his voice so only Jiraiya could hear. "Senior Fugaku's eyes have evolved."

Jiraiya's body jolted.

He looked at Fugaku's tightly shut eyes, his expression turning incredibly complicated.

As the Third Hokage's student, he knew all too well what those two words, "evolved," meant.

That was Madara Uchiha's power, a force capable of overturning the balance of the Shinobi World and frightening Konoha High Command into a frenzy.

And Fugaku had awakened it in full view of everyone in Amegakure.

Which meant there was no way to keep the secret.

"I understand."

Jiraiya took a deep breath and handed Fugaku over to the Medical Corps. Then he took off his coat and draped it over the three of them.

"Let's get back to camp and treat your wounds. I'll handle everything else."

Jiraiya turned to look toward Amegakure, a rare trace of coldness in his eyes.

"Looks like this war in the Land of Rain is about to get even more complicated because of those eyes."