Tentative Plan

Kei ignored them and left the village in a hurry without even saying hello.

It wasn't that Uchiha Kei disliked Minato, Kakashi, or the others. On the contrary, he liked them quite a bit. But this mission had put him in no mood to be happy.

Imai Kenta and Hyuga Aya felt much the same. After taking one last look at the four of them, they hurried after Uchiha Kei.

They had to split up from Minato's team if they wanted to draw Iwa Ninja's attention. Otherwise, Kei's team would only interfere with the mission.

They quickly left Konoha and headed toward their destination. Sunlight filtered through the dense foliage of towering trees, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Between the trees and their shadows, three small figures raced along the branches, leaving trails of afterimages in their wake.

In the dim light, the faint figures were almost impossible to see. Even the most alert birds in the forest didn't notice them.

Before setting out, Uchiha Kei had already come up with a strategy: reach their destination quickly and hide.

Having a member of the Hyuga Clan on their team made things much easier for Kei. At the very least, they could scout out the enemy first and decide what to do next.

But Kei knew how troublesome this mission would be. He couldn't refuse it, but he didn't want to die either. So he had to think of another way.

After about three days, the three of them finally crossed the border and entered the Land of Grass. However, under Kei's leadership, they didn't join up with the main force.

The decision left Imai Kenta and Hyuga Aya puzzled, but as shinobi on a wartime mission, they could only obey their captain's orders.

"Let's take a break." After entering a forest somewhere in Kusagakure territory, Uchiha Kei stopped and sat down first to recover his strength.

They had to stay in peak condition at all times, ready to face a fight that could break out at any moment.

"Byakugan, activate!"

Aya didn't need Kei to remind her. She activated her Byakugan and watched their surroundings. She knew their situation, and with her life on the line, she couldn't afford to be careless.

"There's no danger." After checking for a while, Aya deactivated her Byakugan and spoke quietly.

"Mm." Kei nodded, then continued, "We're in the Land of Grass now, and we'll soon enter the mission area. It's time to discuss what we do next. Do you want to survive?"

Imai Kenta and Hyuga Aya froze at Kei's words. They hadn't expected him to raise the question so bluntly.

They glanced at Kei, then wisely chose to remain silent.

Shinobi who had graduated from the Ninja Academy, gone straight to the battlefield, and survived this long weren't fools.

With their intelligence, they understood what the village's mission really meant: they were to act as cannon fodder, tying down the Iwa Ninja guarding the area.

There were plenty of ways to stay alive. The best would be to roam the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass, keeping to small skirmishes until the war ended. They both understood that.

But they could only think that way, and even act on it. They couldn't say it out loud!

This is politics.

By asking so bluntly, Kei had shut off both their escape routes. Once they voiced such thoughts, their futures would be over.

Kei said nothing, only watching them with an amused smile. How could he not know what they were thinking?

He'd spent the whole journey considering countless options, but rejected every one of them.

The two of them could do nothing and muddle through on the border until the war ended. But as captain, Kei couldn't.

If he simply waited things out, he'd return to the village disgraced, and might even be branded a "hindrance to the war effort."

Kei knew perfectly well that the Iwa Ninja wouldn't be able to hold out much longer either way. But the others might not see it that way.

The Konoha High Command always needed to maintain a glorious image. In reality, though, their orders had cost the lives of countless shinobi.

To that end, the High Command would naturally do everything they could to divert people's attention and redirect blame.

One common tactic was to find scapegoats to take responsibility, or pick on some unlucky fools and saddle them with labels like cowards or comrades' killers.

Another was to draw people's attention to someone's achievements. Those who died would then naturally become people who had "made sacrifices for the village."

If Kei really said that and acted on it, he'd end up helping the Konoha High Command. Besides, they already disliked the Uchiha Clan.

Kei wouldn't do that, and he couldn't let his teammates think that way either, much less act on it.

Whether or not that was what they had in mind, Kei had to rule out certain possibilities. No one wanted to die, but Kei especially didn't want to be made the scapegoat.

"What's wrong, you two? It's a simple question. Why take so long to think about it?"

Kei leaned against a tree and taunted them. Meanwhile, the hand behind his back had already reached into his ninja tool pouch, ready to act.

To be honest, Kei hoped they'd tell him what they were thinking. Given his current strength, he could kill one of them at some cost, then escape.

He didn't think they'd dare say it aloud, much less attack him, but the cautious Kei had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

After a long silence, Kenta and Aya exchanged a glance. Aya gritted her teeth and said, "Captain, you should know what this mission really means, right?"

"Of course I do." Kei watched the two of them with an amused smile. "That's why I wanted to hear what you think."

"We'll carry out our mission." Imai Kenta smiled harmlessly. "But I think we should be more careful and make good use of our Byakugan advantage."

"Oh? Not a bad idea." Kei relaxed his guard and replied casually.

Just as he'd thought, they wouldn't dare attack. Doing so outright would mean betraying Konoha, which was far more frightening than their true intentions.

They also knew that Kei had to have some ability to have survived this long.

All three of them had watched their teammates come and go, yet they were still alive. That alone said plenty.

Still, all three couldn't help sighing inwardly. What a hassle. They'd run into someone cut from the same cloth.

When three schemers got together, it came down to who was more ruthless and who had the stronger will to survive.

"Then we'll find a suitable spot ourselves and do what we have to do."

Kei chuckled. "Kenta-kun's right. We should make good use of the Byakugan. We'll head to the planned location first, then I'll leave it to Aya."

"No problem. But what after that?"

"We'll find a place with fewer people and ambush them. There are other teams out there, aren't there?"