Urgent Mission

The Anbu who came to deliver the message remained as he had last time, waiting silently for Uchiha Qiu Yang to agree since he hadn't spoken.

He could only sigh helplessly and signal that he understood, and would head over now.

Without waiting for the Anbu to respond, he used the Flying Thunder God technique to teleport near the Hokage Office, having specifically left a marker there previously.

Pushing open the door to the Hokage Office, Uchiha Qiu Yang found the room quite lively; not only were Tsunade and Jiraiya present, but Naruto, Sakura, and even Yamato were there as well.

"You're fast enough!"

Seeing the only genius ninja of the village's younger generation capable of the Flying Thunder God technique walk in, Tsunade felt a headache coming on.

She had originally intended to cultivate talent like Uchiha Qiu Yang, issuing a Hokage summons every time she discovered he had returned to the village over the years.

She hoped he would prioritize the village and contribute by taking on A-rank or even S-rank missions, which would allow her to make an exception and promote him to Jonin, bypassing the standard examination procedures.

Who would have thought this brat was cut from the same cloth as Jiraiya, always refusing with the excuse that he loved to travel.

When she told him that following orders could improve his ninja rank and benefits, he simply retorted that a Konoha Genin was the strongest existence of all...

Tsunade didn't even know what to say, though fortunately, Uchiha Qiu Yang was always very cooperative whenever Konoha faced a crisis.

Feeling utterly helpless, she could only reject the proposal from that old geezer Danzo to have Uchiha Qiu Yang join Root, while simultaneously trying to get Jiraiya to talk some sense into him.

But looking at Jiraiya's current deadpan expression, pinning her hopes on that path was likely a dead end as well.

Seeing so many characters from the original story gathered together, Uchiha Qiu Yang knew something major was afoot, so he greeted them with a grin:

"Calling me over so early, Teacher and Lord Hokage, what are your instructions?"

Jiraiya glared at his impudent disciple, and seeing that everyone had arrived, he said in a deep voice:

"We just received a distress signal from our ally, Nadeshiko Village. They are currently facing a joint invasion by the Akatsuki and Iwagakure, and they are requesting our support."

What, Nadeshiko Village, Shizuka Nadeshiko??

"Teacher Jiraiya, what did you say? Is that the village full of women you tricked me into going to??"

Uchiha Qiu Yang was dazed, his mind flashing back to that dark cave from a few years ago, the soft lap pillow, and that warm embrace in the night...

Is she in trouble?

Jiraiya glanced awkwardly at the others in the room who were full of gossip, blushing for once.

Before everyone had arrived, Tsunade had already told him about the time Nadeshiko had specifically come looking for Uchiha Qiu Yang.

Jiraiya truly hadn't expected that a casual agreement made back then would be taken seriously.

"Ahem, that's not the point. Our mission now is to depart immediately to provide support..."

"Who is coming? Come over here and put your hands on my shoulders..."

Uchiha Qiu Yang took a deep breath, not caring how much chakra such a long-distance spatial jump would consume; he only wanted to fly to Nadeshiko Village immediately to rescue that charming girl.

"Teacher Jiraiya, give me the map coordinates for the village now."

After Jiraiya pointed out the village's location, Uchiha Qiu Yang combined it with the distribution of the Flying Thunder God markers he had left over the years and immediately mapped out the shortest route in his mind.

After saying, "Alright, come over," Naruto, Sakura, Yamato... and even Jiraiya all placed their hands on his shoulders.

Teacher Jiraiya is going too?

Could it be that he still has lingering feelings for that teacher from Nadeshiko?

Uchiha Qiu Yang shot a meaningful glance at Tsunade, whose lips were slightly pursed, then closed his eyes and pressed his fingers together in a sword seal, beginning to sense the first Yin-Yang Bagua Flying Thunder God marker.

With a "swish," only a lingering afterimage remained of the group that had been in the Hokage Office, and then they vanished.

A full minute after Uchiha Qiu Yang and the others had left, the mole Anbu who had notified him returned to report back. Upon hearing that Uchiha Qiu Yang had already arrived and departed for support, he was immediately stunned—

No wonder Lord Hokage values this person so much!

--

"Hey Qiu Yang, what kind of ninjutsu is this exactly?"

When they moved to the third Flying Thunder God marker, Naruto asked with wide-eyed amazement, which also voiced the questions in the minds of Sakura and Yamato.

Naruto didn't yet know that the Flying Thunder God Uchiha Qiu Yang was using was actually his father's signature technique; he just felt this move was truly too broken.

If you couldn't beat an enemy in battle, couldn't you just escape easily in an instant?

Hearing this, Jiraiya hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping himself. In the end, he didn't reveal the truth and scolded Naruto:

"Naruto, this is the Flying Thunder God technique. Don't speak and distract Qiu Yang."

He had already noticed that Uchiha Qiu Yang's chest was rising and falling slightly; it was evident that long-distance spatial teleportation was a heavy burden on him.

"Get ready, everyone. I will complete the next two transfers in an instant. It is estimated that it will only take about 5 minutes to reach Nadeshiko Village from that marker."

Beyond being amazed that Uchiha Qiu Yang could reach such a distant battlefield in under 10 minutes, everyone immediately prepared for combat.

"Let's go."

Hearing Uchiha Qiu Yang say this, Naruto suddenly felt very uncomfortable, as if... this line should have been his, but it had been ruthlessly stolen away.

But he didn't have time to dwell on it, as Uchiha Qiu Yang had already completed the final two spatial jumps, arriving at a stretch of Gobi desert.

Without needing any guidance, the series of "rumbling" explosions coming from the southeast made it clear that the invaded village was located in that direction.

"Huff... huff..."

Seeing Qiuyang panting heavily as if his body had been hollowed out, Jiraiya patted his shoulder to let him rest and replenish his chakra, while he led the team to provide support first.

Naruto was filled with heroic spirit and was just about to passionately declare his "one-liner" when he suddenly remembered that Qiuyang had already said it, leaving him standing there with his hand raised, not knowing what to do.

Jiraiya looked at his foolish disciple: "Let's go!"

"Wait..."

Qiuyang reached out to stop the group. Under Jiraiya's puzzled gaze, he steadied his breathing, then crouched down and placed his index and middle fingers onto the ground...

It was the Second Hokage's sensory technique for detecting the number of enemies. He had used it once while capturing White Zetsu, but now it was even more refined, and the detection range was much larger.

"There is an ambush of about fifty people directly in front of the explosions, about thirty-five people to the front-left, and about twenty people to the rear-right. However, the chakra emitted by those twenty people is much stronger than the other two locations."

Qiuyang pointed to the front-left, suggesting that Teacher Jiraiya take this more difficult path.

"I didn't expect you to know the Second's sensory technique as well. Is there any ninjutsu you don't know how to use?"

Jiraiya exclaimed in admiration, then led the other three toward the direction Qiuyang had indicated.

Their goal was to support the Nadeshiko Village under attack; they truly could not afford to get entangled with those ambushing ninjas.

Qiuyang hurriedly adjusted his breathing and sat down. While rapidly replenishing his chakra, he took out his original eyes.

With hands glowing with green healing light, he held the eyeballs, pressed them into his eye sockets, and clicked them into place. When he opened his eyes again, the sockets were entirely white, and then the pupils rotated down from above...

Nadeshiko, you must not let anything happen to you!!