The Land of Fields.
In the darkness.
A unit raced forward.
Whoosh—
The instant his toes touched a branch, chakra gathered in his legs. The branch barely bent before Uchiha Setsuna sprang more than twenty meters ahead.
At his side, a Hyuga boy with delicate features, dressed in a black bodysuit beneath a green Chunin vest, kept close behind him.
Around them were five hundred elite shinobi from the Sarutobi Clan, a force made up of Jonin, Chunin, and seasoned Genin.
For the greater good, these people would rather die in battle than betray their duty.
—Orders given in the name of the Shadow had to be obeyed. Even if the Fifth Hokage, Uchiha Xiu, treated them like cannon fodder and sent them to the front lines in the Land of Lightning to plug the gaps, they still had to follow orders.
Unless they were willing to abandon their families and their clan's reputation and defect in the middle of battle.
The Sarutobi Clan had made its position clear through action. Two nights ago, upon receiving a secret letter from the Raikage's envoy, they had immediately handed the unopened, handwritten message over to Tsunade.
One elder had declared that they could sacrifice two generations in battle to pay their blood tax to the new Hokage and prove their loyalty.
Besides, they had thirty Uchiha Jonin, a senior Uchiha elder, and an Anbu tactical squad acting as monitors along the way!
"We're still more than a hundred kilometers from the northeastern border."
"Not much farther."
As he raced ahead, Uchiha Setsuna silently estimated the distance.
The Land of Fields and the Land of Moon existed only because the great nations needed enough strategic buffer zones between them.
Once the balance was broken, they could simply send in forces and deploy shinobi wherever they pleased.
Who cared about the interests of weak nations!
Just then, the Hyuga boy marching with the unit abruptly stopped, stomping hard on a boulder to brake.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Three figures quickly converged on him.
"What is it, Kenichiro? Something wrong?"
Uchiha Setsuna asked quietly, his expression indifferent.
The white-eyed boy, whose Forehead Protector concealed his Caged Bird Seal, nodded. His body trembled uncontrollably, as though he had seen some demon.
"Setsuna... Senior Setsuna, there are two enormous chakra signatures in a cave on the high ground eight hundred meters to the left. They're terrifying, just like on the Night of the Nine-Tails."
A Tailed Beast?
Had the Land of Lightning already deployed its strategic weapons here? What were the troops stationed at the front line even doing!
They had clearly assigned a powerful sensory squad to guard the area, with Jonin from the Hyuga Clan and the Yamanaka Clan, along with ninja insects and Ninja Dogs.
A breeze swept through the woods. Uchiha Setsuna, Sarutobi Taku, and Morino Ibiki all instinctively grew alert.
Perfect Jinchuriki Killer B.
Perfect Jinchuriki Yugito Nii.
Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning had achieved such outrageous results in taming Tailed Beasts that it was enough to make anyone envious.
"So, what do we do?" the Sarutobi Jonin asked Uchiha Setsuna, his gaze full of scrutiny.
"Hmph. The Hokage isn't afraid to make sacrifices. He led us deep into enemy territory himself. Why should I, an old man, be afraid?"
Uchiha Setsuna issued his orders in a low voice. "Anbu Akainu Squad, return to the village with this intelligence at once and inform Lady Tsunade."
"Everyone else, follow me. Move out!"
"Anbu Sealing Team, prepare to restrain the Jinchuriki."
"Yes!"
Setsuna had given Uchiha Xiu twelve mature Sharingan, gifted three to clan leader Fugaku and one to Shisui, and kept only two Three Tomoe for himself. He was no coward.
Including his original eyes, he had more than five minutes of invincibility.
That was more than enough...
But just as the hawkish elder prepared to make a sacrifice, three familiar figures came into view.
Genma Squad.
Their own people?
The three shinobi who had once served as the Fourth Hokage's guards and could work together to use the Flying Thunder God Formation were leaping toward the cave from another direction.
Not long ago, Shiranui Genma, Namiashi Raidō, and Tatami Iwashi had been personally selected by the Fifth Hokage and assigned to the new generation of the Shadow Guard.
"Crack!"
Deep inside the cave, a piece of firewood popped in the flames.
The aroma of roasted meat spread through the air.
Jiraiya had just eaten a Secret Military Ration Pill and recovered some strength. He sat cross-legged before two large fish skewered on sticks.
Judging by the heat, their skins were slightly dry. They couldn't have been roasting for long.
Shisui, his face weary, rested his head against a jutting rock wall and closed his eyes.
Hyuga Tokuma, who was keeping watch, looked helplessly toward the cave entrance.
"Everyone's showing up, one after another."
He hadn't expected the Hokage to choose a landing point right beside the route taken by the reinforcements, drawing in their own people.
Obito, under Kotoamatsukami's control, said nothing. He had taken over the burden and was using his one eye to maintain the Mangekyo genjutsu on Steam Ninja Han and Five-Tails Kokuō.
That was right. Uchiha Xiu had already chosen his first Pokémon.
Four-Tails—Son Goku.
There was a saying in the Ninja World that the more tails a Tailed Beast had, the more chakra it possessed.
But that seemed to hold true only for the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails.
The other Tailed Beasts each had their own strengths.
Shukaku of Sunagakure, the Tailed Beast with the fewest tails, excelled at Sealing Jutsu and desert combat, as well as other special regions with strong winds.
The Four-Tails took the form of a gigantic red ape and possessed the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai. It could control magma and fight both offensively and defensively, priding itself on its Strength of a Hundred. It had originally lived in the Water Curtain Cave on Flower Fruit Mountain in the Ninja World.
Compared with Kokuō, Uchiha Xiu preferred the Four-Tails. It specialized in Fire Release, an area he intended to focus on in the future.
"Hokage-sama, Lord Jiraiya." Shiranui Genma entered the cave and greeted them quietly, then nodded to the others.
"Did the operation really succeed?"
"So fast!"
Namiashi Raidō and Tatami Iwashi exchanged looks.
The Lava Release user Roshi and Steam Ninja Han had both made names for themselves in the previous Great Ninja War. They had faced Minato Namikaze without fear and were Kage Level fighters. There was no way they could mistake them.
"Hokage-sama!"
Uchiha Setsuna followed close behind, using the Body Flicker Technique to arrive in an instant.
His gaze immediately settled on Uchiha Xiu, who had taken off his shirt and was covered in runes.
A few steps away, a tiny wooden gate shaped like a torii pinned down a round-faced man with a thick beard. He had fallen unconscious, and hot, violent Lava Release chakra kept spilling from his body, red mist swirling around him.
However, the fluctuations were completely locked down by the Five Elements Seal, Fire Sealing Method: Flame Seal, and Wood Release Barrier that Uchiha Xiu and Jiraiya had set up together. Not a trace could escape.
"The Iwagakure Collapse Plan was a huge success. All that's left is to take out Ōnoki."
Since the Hokage couldn't spare his attention, Jiraiya had to issue orders for the time being. "Elder Setsuna, continue marching according to the Fifth Hokage's earlier instructions. Don't let those Kumogakure brutes seize the initiative on the northeastern front."
Shisui opened his eyes at the right moment. Looking exhausted, he nodded to the clan elder, urging him to lead the troops away at once and not interfere with the plan.
"Yes."
Having stumbled upon this scene by chance, Setsuna quickly withdrew his gaze.
On duty, address people by their titles!
They absolutely could not undermine Xiu's authority as Hokage by acting like an elder who threw his weight around. That was the consensus among the Uchiha Clan, from top to bottom.
After one last glance at Obito's single eye, Uchiha Setsuna turned and left without hesitation.
In truth, with the power of his Mangekyo, the traits of Wood Release, and his abundant chakra, forcibly extracting and absorbing a Tailed Beast on his own posed no real danger. There was no need for anyone else to worry!
Two hours later, Uchiha Xiu completed his final hand seal.
Hum—
Visible magma chakra, a thick torrent, was forcibly dragged out from Roshi's abdomen.
Within the torrent, the Four-Tails Son Goku's blazing Lava Release power surged. A hazy silhouette of a giant ape flickered into view.
"Flying Thunder God Formation, activate!"
Seeing this, the three Special Jonin of the Shadow Guard joined hands and surrounded Uchiha Xiu, who had volunteered to become a Jinchuriki.
In Konoha, the Sealing Team stood on duty around the clock.
They only had to wait for the Hokage to appear on the clearing marked with a Flying Thunder God Mark. Then they would work together to perform the Four Symbols Seal, create the Eight Trigrams Inner Space, and safely contain Son Goku.
Before you continue