Practicing the Will of Fire Through the Unity of Knowledge and Action

With the promise from Tobirama Senju secured, Kawadera Uchiha stopped slacking off and began to work.

The solidified double-tomoe Sharingan spun half a circle in an instant!

The Cloud Ninja opposite Kawadera Uchiha noticed nothing; seeing the Uchiha ninja about to slash at his flank, he hurriedly held his blade vertically to the right to block.

However, he had already fallen victim to a genjutsu.

Demonic Illusion: Mind Guidance!

This was the genjutsu Kawadera Uchiha excelled at most.

In the original story, Itachi Uchiha often used genjutsu to initiate his battles against enemies.

His genjutsu worked by planting psychological suggestions in the enemy, forcing them to continue acting according to a false premise.

For instance, when Itachi Uchiha first encountered Deidara, he used this very genjutsu to make Deidara mistakenly believe that his explosive centipede had already coiled around Itachi.

At this moment, Kawadera Uchiha's genjutsu was the same, making the Cloud Ninja mistakenly believe he was going to slash horizontally at his flank.

By the time the Cloud Ninja held his blade vertically to the right, his center was left wide open.

Kawadera Uchiha thrust his ninja blade forward, piercing the Cloud Ninja's chest in one strike.

If he were a villain, he should have shouted at this moment:

"My genjutsu is above yours!"

Among ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, genjutsu was a relatively rare ability; most ninjas' genjutsu and resistance levels did not reach 8.

Having dealt with the first Cloud Ninja, Kawadera Uchiha continued to search for the next enemy.

Kureya Inuzuka was a member of the Seigetsu Squad. She was dressed provocatively, wearing only a black tube top under her unzipped Konoha flak jacket, revealing her shoulders and a slender navel. On her lower body, she wore tight, bandage-style shorts and knee-high fishnet stockings.

At this moment, she and her ninja dog, Akamaru, were struggling against a Cloud Ninja.

The Cloud Ninja was extremely fast, forcing her and Akamaru to dodge to opposite sides in a narrow escape.

However, the Cloud Ninja did not pursue either her or the dog; instead, he charged straight ahead until he stabbed his blade into a tree trunk.

After piercing the trunk, he even twisted the blade as if he had struck a human body, attempting to destroy internal organs.

An opening!

The Cloud Ninja had actually exposed his back?

"Gatsuga!"

Kureya Inuzuka and Akamaru both spun at high speed, charging out like two hurricanes.

They not only struck the Cloud Ninja heavily but continued until they shattered the tree trunk, only then bouncing back.

This seemingly invincible Cloud Ninja was actually dead.

Only then did Kureya Inuzuka see Kawadera Uchiha emerging from behind the shattered trunk.

"Sister Kureya, you almost hit me."

Seeing Kawadera Uchiha's Sharingan, Kureya Inuzuka finally understood that the Cloud Ninja had been caught in a genjutsu.

"Yo! Little brother, your eyes are really something!"

Kawadera Uchiha smiled: "Sister Kureya, your abs are quite something too!"

Kureya Inuzuka looked down at her own abdominal muscles and mermaid line, which were heaving from her rapid breathing. She thought to herself that she had previously assumed Kawadera Uchiha was a cold and boring person; it seemed she had been mistaken.

Kawadera Uchiha and Kureya Inuzuka joined forces. With one providing long-range interference via genjutsu and the other launching close-quarters surprise attacks, they quickly finished off several Cloud Ninjas.

In an instant, the situation on the battlefield shifted dramatically.

As long as one's genjutsu resistance was insufficient, they could be controlled by Kawadera Uchiha's genjutsu; it was an incredibly overpowered technique in the ninja world.

[Genjutsu] 8.0 held an overwhelming advantage among the ranks of Chunin and Special Jonin.

What's more, Kawadera Uchiha only picked the soft persimmons to squeeze.

The first rule of Uchiha posturing: if the enemy is weak, I attack; if the enemy is strong, I run.

That was exactly how Itachi Uchiha did it in the original story, and it was full of intimidation.

As the battle ended, Kawadera Uchiha petted the ninja dog, Akamaru.

To win the favor of Kureya Inuzuka, one had to be good to her beloved dog.

It was just like in his past life, where to win over someone's mother, you had to treat her son like gold.

Kawadera Uchiha, skilled in Demonic Illusion: Mind Guidance, secretly cast a genjutsu on the dog, causing the little female dog to nuzzle up to him affectionately.

The genjutsu wasn't complex; it simply simulated the feeling of being full after eating a delicious barbecue.

Kureya Inuzuka was indeed very pleased, and she felt much closer to Kawadera Uchiha.

In his sea of consciousness, the voice of Tobirama Senju rang out:

"The battle is over. Your performance was good. I grant you a B-rank mission reward: 1/3 of a Mind Awakening.

In the future, whenever a battle involves Konoha, let me know, and I will determine the mission rank."

Kawadera Uchiha was very satisfied with this reward.

Seigetsu Senju's squad and the remnants of the garrison troops moved far away from the border, heading deep into the Land of Fire.

The forced march was safe and even monotonous.

Seigetsu Senju noticed Kawadera Uchiha turning his head to look behind them from time to time, so she slowed her pace slightly and leaped through the forest side-by-side with him.

"Kawadera, Ken Aburame and Kureya Inuzuka are scouting the surroundings; there is no need to keep checking our rear."

Kawadera Uchiha replied, "The consecutive battles have made my eyes itch; I can't wait to kill a few more enemy ninjas!"

Such words were, of course, best heard by Tobirama Senju.

He was, after all, a practitioner who unified knowledge and action in the name of the Will of Fire.

A look of admiration flickered in Seigetsu Senju's eyes.

As a ninja of the Senju Clan, she was actually inferior to an Uchiha when it came to the Will of Fire.

She suddenly frowned, recalling words her brother, Seiei Senju, had once spoken.

"The core of the Will of Fire is to burn oneself to illuminate Konoha."

"However, the Will of Fire during the Second Hokage's era and the Third Hokage's era have become subtly different."

"In the Second Hokage's era, the Will of Fire was something shouted by everyone, from the Second Hokage himself down to the common ninja, to inspire themselves."

"In the Third Hokage's era, the Will of Fire is something shouted by the Third Hokage and the higher-ups for the ninjas of Konoha to hear."

"Once the subject changes, the difference is worlds apart."

These worries could not be shared with Kawadera Uchiha.

It was rare for the Uchiha Clan to produce a ninja like Kagami Uchiha, and this bond had to be maintained.

Up ahead, the ninja dog Akamaru suddenly barked a few times.

Everyone stopped, waiting for Kureya Inuzuka and Ken Aburame to scout for intelligence.

"It's a familiar scent! It's not Cloud Ninja, it's our own Konoha ninjas, and there are many of them!"

The Konoha scout ninjas in the distance also discovered Seigetsu Senju's group, and before long, several barks echoed through the forest.

Akamaru communicated with the other ninja dog through barks, confirming that it was a Konoha vanguard reconnaissance unit.

A Konoha squad arrived, stating that the supreme commander of the War of the Land of Hot Water wished to see them.

Since Kumogakure had invaded the Land of Fire from the direction of the Land of Hot Water, Konoha had named this conflict the War of the Land of Hot Water.

Following the Konoha squad forward, Kawadera Uchiha stood beneath a large tree and looked up to see the White Fang of Konoha, Sakumo Hatake, standing on a protruding branch.

The arrival of the White Fang of Konoha at the front lines provided a great sense of security.

His white ponytail swayed in the wind, occasionally revealing the legendary short sword, White Fang, strapped to his back.

He was the premier ninja of Konoha's young and middle-aged generation, and one of the village's Kage-level ninjas.

In the depths of his consciousness, Kawadera Uchiha asked, "Lord Second, do you know the White Fang of Konoha?"

"Of course I do. I have instructed many people—Jonin, Genin—I teach without discrimination."

"Among them, Sakumo Hatake is a ninja of extremely high talent; his chakra short sword is enough to be his reliance as he traverses the ninja world."

"Oh!" Kawadera Uchiha said in a strange tone, "Then that White Fang of Konoha, in whom you place such high hopes, will commit suicide in... seven years."

"Is this also something seen by those eyes of yours that can peer into the future?"

"That's right. Isn't it surprising?"

Tobirama Senju had been pondering the matter of Nawaki recently, and he had not expected the wicked Kawadera Uchiha to inexplicably utter another prophecy.

Suicide?

Sakumo Hatake possessed top-tier ninja talent and a top-tier mind; he had been exceptionally mature since his youth. How could he possibly commit a dishonorable suicide?

Just like Nawaki being blown up by explosive tags, the idea of Sakumo Hatake committing suicide was so absurd—so impossible to fabricate—that Tobirama Senju felt it was likely true.

Tobirama Senju realized that he was finding it increasingly difficult to understand the Konoha he had left behind.

Where exactly had things gone wrong?