This Time I Have No Choice But to Go

Izumi once again experienced the mortification of death, her delicate eyebrows drooping. Her large, dark eyes, located on her tear mole, sparkled with a sense of grievance.

If things continued on this path.

She would truly become the team's navigator, the one who eliminated incorrect answers in multiple-choice questions.

"Sigh..."

Izumi sighed inwardly, feeling dejected for a moment. She then tried to view the problem from a new perspective, just like Tamao.

Thinking about it from another angle, Izumi's eyes suddenly lit up. She found that she could actually accept this special talent of hers.

At least she was a useful person; she could help Captain Ingetsu and their clan members.

In this regard, Izumi felt she had won against Uchiha Mikoto by a lot, a lot.

With that thought, Izumi's sense of grievance vanished. She widened her beautiful, dark eyes and looked at Mikoto.

Mikoto was taken aback. Suddenly being stared at so directly by this girl made her flustered, and she started overthinking.

Could this girl have seen through her suicidal thoughts?

That shouldn't be...

Mikoto maintained her calm and gentle demeanor, suppressed her thoughts, smoothed her expression, and then softly gazed at Ingetsu.

The Uchihas also put away their teasing thoughts about Izumi and turned to look at their captain.

"Izumi stays here. Tamao and Nanfeng, take the rest of the clan members and annihilate all the enemies lurking on the other two mountain paths. Leave no one alive.

We will continue with the caravan.

Once you're done, come and rendezvous with us!"

Ingetsu assigned the tasks and gazed at the Uchihas, whose killing intent had not yet faded.

"Yes—"

Tamao and Nanfeng looked delighted. They were just getting warmed up, and each took a member from Izumi's patrol team, heading off in different directions.

Kurenai Yuhi and Nonō were not called upon. They weren't worried that this group of Uchiha clan ninjas would cause trouble.

Just moments ago, they had witnessed the strength of Ingetsu's team members.

Within the Root Organization, without ninjas of Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune's caliber, they wouldn't have been able to defeat a team of four Uchihas with sheer numbers.

After the battle ended.

The valley was filled with a thick scent of blood, which soon attracted the crows in the mountain.

Flap—

A large number of crows spread their wings and landed around the corpses, unconcernedly feeding on the warm fresh blood and pecking at the flesh.

A few unlucky crows happened to fly near Yamanaka Fu's corpse.

They unfortunately inhaled nano-level poisonous insects in the nearby air. Their eyes widened, their legs twitched twice, and they fell to the ground in agony, never to move again.

A few crows nearby noticed something unusual. They stretched their necks, turned their heads, and glanced at their fallen companions.

Without thinking further, these crows continued to greedily suck the blood from the corpses.

Ingetsu walked through the bodies, startling numerous crows into flying away. He arrived in front of Sōsen and said calmly, "Organize the caravan and continue moving!"

"Y-yes, yes..."

Sōsen stammered, sweat beading on his forehead. He couldn't see a trace of emotion on the other's calm face, as if nothing that had happened before had occurred.

Then, Sōsen acted quickly, driving away the crows with his survival-driven escort team and tossing the bodies lying in the valley to the roadside.

"They're dead... all of them are dead..."

"These were Konoha Anbu! The elite of the elite among ninjas, and not a single one was left alive."

"Stop the chatter and get to work!"

The Tsuchigumo caravan members whispered among themselves. Looking at the corpses they had placed their hopes on earlier, they felt a deep sense of dread and a chill run down their spines.

The ground of the valley was cleaned.

Rumble—

The wheels rolled.

The Tsuchigumo Clan's caravan continued forward. After what had just happened, the atmosphere within the team became utterly silent.

Ingetsu, along with Mikoto, Kurenai, Nonō, Izumi, and Hotaru, sat in the back of the first carriage. The vehicle moved slowly.

Before setting off this time, Ingetsu had dispatched two Shadow Clones to act as scouts and clear the path ahead, reducing the risk of another ambush.

Everyone remained silent.

As the battle ended, Izumi, who had participated, felt the heat within her gradually cool down.

She suddenly thought of an interesting question and, after some thought, decided to ask Ingetsu.

Can't always be embarrassed myself!

"Captain, are you scared the first time you killed someone?" Izumi asked curiously, her beautiful eyes wide as she looked at Ingetsu's profile.

At her question, the women and girls in the carriage all turned to look at Ingetsu, clearly eager to know the answer.

Uchiha Mikoto's eyes flickered. She thought that a cold man like him probably wouldn't feel scared even the first time he killed someone.

Kurenai Yuhi and Nonō, however, were unsure.

They asked themselves.

Even as ninjas, the first time they killed someone, their hearts were filled with mixed emotions. Fear, in particular, stemmed from morality and various other factors.

Therefore, they were very interested in the inner feelings of someone like Ingetsu.

Ingetsu didn't shy away from the question. He looked directly at Izumi, thought for a moment, and replied seriously:

"The person I killed the first time should have been scared, but my sword was fast, so he wasn't scared for too long."

"Uh, he wasn't scared for too long, Captain... You're actually quite nice then." Izumi's mouth twitched.

She always felt that her captain's way of answering questions was very tricky, and it felt very familiar.

As expected of the person who raised Tamao.

After speaking, Ingetsu fell silent again.

The other women wore strange expressions as they stared at him, unsure of what to say, each thinking to themselves:

"You ask if he was scared when he killed someone, and he says his sword was fast??"

What was that supposed to mean?

The second carriage of the caravan.

A guard occasionally turned his head, pretending to look at the forest, but secretly and enviously glanced at Ingetsu, who was surrounded by a group of beautiful women and girls.

If only one day.

He could be surrounded by such a group of beauties, his life would probably be complete!

Sōsen noticed the anomaly. He impatiently kicked the useless guard and reprimanded him in a low voice, "What are you looking at? Do you think you're allowed to look at someone that important?"

After being kicked, the guard looked wronged, lowered his head, and grumbled, "Aren't you just staring enviously yourself..."

Sōsen immediately became furious. He slapped the guard on the head and cursed, "You don't know anything! I was observing the important person's expression!"

About ten minutes later.

The caravan was getting closer to the Tsuchigumo Clan's territory.

A mission completion prompt popped up in Ingetsu's mind.

[Side Quest]:

Annihilate the Root Organization's pursuit team.

[Options]:

1. Annihilate the Root Organization team lurking in Mount Katsuragi.

Mission Complete!

[Reward]: Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll!

Tamao and Nanfeng led the team to complete the mission. Ingetsu looked back at Sōsen in the second carriage and signaled him to have the caravan slow down.

The carriage gradually slowed down.

Ingetsu focused his attention on his Storage Space. A dark scroll had appeared in a corner.

He flipped his right hand, and space trembled.

The Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll appeared out of thin air in his palm. Just by touching it, he understood how to use it.

All one needed to do was hold it in their hand, look at the target they wished to replicate, and they could replicate the forbidden technique that target knew. If the target knew multiple forbidden techniques, the scroll would randomly replicate one.

Ingetsu, like a magician, put the scroll back into his Storage Space in front of everyone.

Hotaru, the future heir of the Tsuchigumo Clan, looked on in surprise. She envied Ingetsu's ability to make things appear out of thin air.

Just as she was anticipating Ingetsu's next move, she was shocked to find that his dark, bright eyes were calmly gazing at her.

"..."

Hotaru quickly lowered her head, afraid of angering the S-Rank Rogue Ninja.

Ingetsu shifted his gaze away from Hotaru's small figure. Originally, he hadn't planned to go to the Tsuchigumo Clan's territory.

But with the "Forbidden Technique Replication Scroll," it seemed he had to go to the Tsuchigumo Clan's territory now.

It was just on the way anyway.

It wouldn't delay his escape.

Forbidden Technique: Wrath of Heaven... its destructive power spanned hundreds of miles. Such a large-scale, devastating forbidden technique was enough to tip the scales of a major battle.