Quickly, Go Fetch Ancestor Hanzo

Hezi had just killed Kaguya Eita when a piercing explosion rang out from a cave in the distance.

The familiar roar of an electromagnetic cannon!

0015 and Uchiha Fucheng naturally knew it was Mikoto's handiwork.

"Besides that Kaguya with the bloodline, are there other enemies in the cave?" Fucheng asked.

Hezi slapped her forehead in a panic. "Oh no, there's also a sinister Rain Ninja who uses poison. I wounded him earlier, but didn't manage to finish him off."

They hurried over and found Mikoto, her whole body wreathed in lightning, wreaking havoc inside the cave.

Hidden in the cave, Kai Muyu had just dragged his body, burned by Hezi, and used concentrated Ibuse poison to ambush Hatake Jiangyi again.

Kai Muyu had been about to kill Hatake Jiangyi when Mikoto suddenly appeared and "beat up a weakling right in front of him."

Against Mikoto, Kai Muyu's poison attacks were completely useless.

The dense Ibuse poison fog was quickly cleared away by the ionized ozone Mikoto created with her electromagnetic field.

The sinister Rain Ninja tried to escape into a hidden passage, but Mikoto blasted half his body apart with a single electromagnetic cannon shot.

He wasn't Uchiha Obito. There was no way he could survive after losing half his body.

Even the deeper hidden passage where Nagashima Ryosuke had been hiding was blasted open by Mikoto's electromagnetic cannon, turning it into a "cave" with an opening over ten meters wide.

Nagashima Ryosuke was completely stunned.

His face was covered in cuts from flying rocks as he huddled in the passage.

The cannon's deafening blast had also ruptured his eardrums, leaving blood running from his ears.

Unable to hear anything, Nagashima Ryosuke could only shout frantically at the Konoha Ninja.

"I surrender! Don't kill me! I have other medicine stores. I can be useful..."

"Quiet!" Fucheng used the Body Flicker Technique to close in, then lightly swept his right hand across Nagashima Ryosuke's neck.

Before Nagashima Ryosuke could crumple to the ground, Uchiha Fucheng clamped a hand firmly on top of his head!

"You hurt my people, and now you've got the nerve to surrender? Have you got water in your brain?"

Using the Yamanaka secret technique, Fucheng quickly brought Nagashima's memories to the surface.

He got the answer he wanted.

With a squeeze of his hand, he made Nagashima Ryosuke bleed from all seven orifices and take his last, agonizing breath.

"How is this your medicine store? These are clearly supply depots my Uchiha Clan prepared for ourselves."

After a hard-fought battle, the three girls were lucky to make it out alive.

Fucheng even upgraded the mission's achievement rating to A+.

Nagashima Ryosuke's mission hadn't been especially important, but Kaguya Eita and the sinister Rain Ninja had been stronger than the average A-rank mission's opponents.

"Keep Hezi's Mangekyō a secret. I'll first teach her how to use it and master its ocular techniques. Your team's missions outside the village are suspended for a week."

Fucheng looked at Hezi and gave the three of them a stern warning.

Hezi knew how serious this was.

Given the village's attitude toward the Uchiha, another Mangekyō might not be a good thing.

"Clan Head, Hezi understands."

The other two nodded repeatedly. "We'll keep it secret."

Fucheng wasn't afraid of the Konoha High Command finding out.

He simply knew that Uchiha Madara was still out there, watching the entire Uchiha Clan.

And using the Mangekyō would also diminish Hezi's eyesight.

Without the ocular power of an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan provided by a blood relative, the Mangekyō was like a weapon with limited uses but tremendous power.

He had to remind Hezi to use its ocular power with caution.

The three girls had narrowly escaped death this time.

Facing such formidable enemies, they had all shown remarkable courage and extraordinary fighting spirit.

As their team leader, Mikoto felt guilty that she hadn't been able to protect them. "Hezi, Jiangyi, Nonō, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

But 0015, who had taken her place as leader, just grinned broadly. "Big Sis Mikoto, look at me. I was there to protect them.

"I'm part of you, too. I have your memories and your abilities. Those three are my little sisters, too."

The three little ones burst into delighted laughter.

They hugged Mikoto and 0015, who was much taller than Mikoto, laughing and crying with emotion.

"Don't worry, Big Sister. We'll keep working hard, so you can rely on us, too."

Uchiha Hezi said proudly, patting her chest.

With the Mangekyō Sharingan and its space-time ocular technique, Hezi's fighting ability had improved enough for her to help her sister shoulder some of the danger.

And 0015—the Moon Sister whom the three of them had wholeheartedly accepted as their own—had become the most important bond in their lives after this battle between life and death!

The phrase "My Moon Sister" almost became a catchphrase for the three of them.

Watching the three little ones laugh and cry, Mikoto could only smile helplessly.

She rubbed their little heads and nodded. "All right, then. 0015 can come along with the three of you."

That made them even more excited.

Yakushi Nonō, especially, had just been through a life-or-death experience and practically treated 0015 like her mother.

In the days that followed, she stuck close to 0015 like a little follower, showing her particular affection.

She almost even picked up 0015's line, "On behalf of the Moon, I'll beat you to death!"

To improve her fighting ability, Nonō also learned one-handed warhammer techniques from 0015.

With a warhammer on her shoulder while working as a medical ninja, she looked a lot like a "paladin healer" from a game.

Even more miraculously, Nonō showed no discomfort after receiving a transplant of 0015's noticeably larger arm.

Her body's cells were unusually compatible with White Zetsu Cells. Thanks to their effects, Yakushi Nonō had become noticeably more agile and physically stronger.

Fucheng felt that Yakushi Nonō's Medical Ninjutsu, in particular, had undergone a complete transformation.

The chakra boost from the White Zetsu Cells had put an end to Nonō's "running out of mana" problem.

Fucheng also brought out the Medical Ninjutsu technique Yin Healing Wound Destruction, which he had obtained from "Kabuto."

This let Yakushi Nonō, Yakushi Kabuto's adoptive mother, enjoy the thrill of learning the technique ahead of schedule.

Thanks to the enthusiastic "donations" from wealthy merchants in the Land of Rain, Fucheng's "clearing operations" in the occupied territory behind enemy lines went especially smoothly.

Even Hatake Sakumo's logistical burden had eased.

"The war is progressing far beyond our estimates." The situation on the battlefield had left the Land of Rain's leaders unable to sit still.

The small Land of Rain was nothing like a large country such as the Land of Fire, with its daimyo and nobility.

The entire country relied on Salamander Hanzo's military strength and authority.

The so-called nobles who governed the Land of Rain were actually branches of Salamander Hanzo's family and core members of the Rain Ninja clans.

The advantage of this arrangement was obvious.

It allowed all the country's taxes, trade revenue, and income from land to be concentrated in the hands of the ninja village.

When it came to mobilizing for war and raising funds, Salamander Hanzo didn't have to rely on grants from the Land of Fire's daimyo, as Konoha did.

But the downsides were just as obvious.

Under a system like Konoha's, the village didn't have to worry too much about the safety of every town and settlement when fighting in the Land of Fire.

Those towns belonged to the daimyo and nobles. If they were destroyed, so be it.

The Konoha Ninja only had to protect Konoha, their own stronghold.

But the Land of Rain was different.

Every town and settlement was an extension of Salamander Hanzo and Amegakure.

Every loss, or every piece of territory taken by Konoha's invasion, was like a chunk of the Land of Rain being carved away.

With Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru pressing them from all sides, the Land of Rain's leaders had fallen into complete panic.

They had only one option.

They hid under the table and shouted wildly without thinking.

"Quick! Quick, go fetch Ancestor Hanzo!"