Chapter 8

The more prosperous a country became, the fiercer the infighting within it. These days, the Uchiha Clan fought a ninja skirmish involving more than ten people almost every day. Few died, but countless were injured, and the clan's ninjas were nearly all worn down by the constant fighting. In truth, very few had died in genuine life-or-death battles.

"Fine, then!"

Shimizu could tell there was nothing more he could say. The ninja family called the Takigawa Clan wasn't a major clan, after all. If Tajima went along too, it would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Under the pitch-black night, with the full moon overhead, a line of figures silently passed through the branches of trees more than ten meters tall. They stopped outside the woods surrounding a brightly lit village.

"Lianhuo, take three men and attack from the village's left entrance. Gu, take three from the right. The rest of you, follow me and charge straight into the village. Our goal tonight is to leave no survivors!"

Shimizu's voice came from beneath the mask of one of the black-clad ninjas. The six ninjas beside him vanished with the Body Flicker Technique. While waiting for them to reach their assigned positions, Shimizu turned to the three children behind him and spoke in a low voice.

"You three don't need to go to the front lines, and you don't need to draw your weapons. Just watch how we fight. Remember, pay close attention! What you lack right now is combat experience!"

"Yes!"

Madara, Izuna, and Mingye nodded in unison. Lianhuo and Gu signaled that they had reached their positions. Shimizu used the Body Flicker Technique to appear outside the woods, then led the charge toward the village.

"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"

A blast of flame burst from Shimizu's mouth and shot toward the village. It destroyed the houses and formed a wall of fire in the center, dividing the village like a sharp blade.

"Who are you?!... Ah!"

The startled Takigawa Clan ninjas hurried out of their homes, but before they could speak, a Uchiha Clan ninja rushed up and plunged a long blade into one of their hearts. Shuriken, each half a meter across and shaped like squares, rained from the sky like hail, crashing into the wooden structures in the village. The blaze continued to spread, and before long, the entire village was on fire.

There was almost no resistance. The Uchiha Clan ninjas were like wolves among sheep, wantonly slaughtering the unarmed women and children, as well as the Takigawa Clan ninjas who tried to fight back!

"Something's not right!" Standing in the woods, Izuna watched the battle in the village nearby, looking puzzled.

Curious, Madara followed Izuna's gaze, but couldn't spot anything wrong. He nudged Izuna with his shoulder and asked, "What did you notice? What's not right?"

"Big brother, I remember the Takigawa Clan has Chunin, right? And I remember they have a Jonin, too, but I can't find him anywhere!" Izuna stared carefully at a spot in the village he could see, utterly confused.

The Takigawa Clan was merely a family skilled in using ninja tools. They had no notable achievements in genjutsu or ninjutsu, and they were a clan that revered the spirit of bushido. Given all that, the whereabouts of the Takigawa Clan's absent leader had become a mystery. "Isn't it better that the Jonin isn't here? If he were, we could suffer unpredictable losses from their resistance!"

"Mingye, have you ever seen a clan head leave everyone behind and disappear in the middle of the night, without even attending to his clan's affairs?" Madara shook his head. A clan head was the spirit and pillar of a clan. At such a critical moment, the man wasn't even home. And even if the Genin weren't fighting back, they shouldn't have been slaughtered this easily by the Uchiha Clan ninjas! Something felt wrong, but Madara couldn't put his finger on it.

"And I don't think they have forty ninjas, either! Why is that?" Izuna shook his head again. He silently counted the Takigawa Clan's dead among those who had fought back, then suddenly realized that Joseph's side didn't lack people at all. There wasn't a single person missing!

While the three brothers were talking, Shimizu hurried out of the village and came to stand before them. He shouted, "This is bad! We've been tricked. The Takigawa Clan and the Hagoromo Clan are joining forces to launch a surprise attack on our clan's base. Hurry back!"

"You've got to be kidding!" Madara, Izuna, and Mingye, who had been chatting just moments earlier, shuddered when they heard Shimizu's words. The three hurried after him, racing back to the clan's base.

"Uncle, you're not joking, are you?"

Mingye forced himself to sound calm.

"I found it in the clan head's study. Damn it, I hope nothing's happened!"

Shimizu sighed. If he could, he'd like to believe it was all a dream. But the Uchiha Clan had truly been outmaneuvered this time. The Takigawa Clan had never intended to join them. They had been stringing them along solely to uncover the Uchiha Clan's hidden base.

The four of them raced back, reaching the Uchiha Clan's hidden base in about thirty minutes. Smoke billowed toward the heavens, and cries rang out through the clan's grounds. Furious, Shimizu drew the long blade at his waist, instantly forgetting that three of Tajima's sons were behind him.

"Ah!"

A familiar child's cry drew Madara and the others' attention. The three spoke in unison, then Madara kicked off a branch and shot into the clan's base like a cannonball. Mingye and Izuna followed close behind.

Xiao Si lay on the ground, his body twitching uncontrollably. A one-meter-long kunai was embedded in his chest, and blood was slowly welling from his neck. Madara, enraged, quickly formed Hand Seals and used "Shadow Clone," summoning three identical clones. They attacked the Takigawa Clan ninja standing beside Xiao Si from four directions: above, below, left, and right.

Mingye slid to his knees beside Xiao Si. Seeing the terror in the child's young face, Mingye felt his heart leap into his throat. Choking back his tears, he forced out a faint smile.

"Don't be afraid! Your third brother's here!"

"The artery's been severed. A four-year-old child's blood circulation is weaker than an adult's. If an adult needs the bleeding stopped within a minute and thirty seconds to survive, then a four-year-old has..." The memories of the doctor he had once been burst free from the depths of his sealed memories. Kneeling on the ground, Mingye tried to use his unpracticed method of refining Yin Release Chakra to stop his little brother's bleeding, but it had no effect. The blood kept slipping through the gaps between his fingers.

"Refining Yin Release Chakra is just too difficult for me! Why didn't I study chakra refinement properly? He's my little brother! Is he really going to die in my hands like this? No! I won't let this happen!"

He wanted to help, but he was powerless. After all, he was only eleven or twelve, and he barely understood how to refine Yin Release Chakra. No one in the Uchiha Clan was skilled in this area, so Mingye could only figure it out on his own. As a result, even after several months of training, refining it was still difficult.

"Move!"

The Uchiha Clan ninjas who had retreated with Shimizu quickly returned as well. They had slaughtered the ordinary people with incredible speed, arriving only a dozen or so seconds after Shimizu and the three brothers. Lianhuo, the Uchiha Clan's only ninja who knew medical ninjutsu, grabbed Mingye and pulled him out of the way of an incoming kunai. Then he pressed his hands, glowing with pale blue Yin Release Chakra, against the wound on Xiao Si's neck. At last, the bleeding stopped. But it was only a temporary fix. With chakra holding the wound closed, Mingye quickly thought of something he could do. He turned and shouted, then tried to run toward a burning house.

"Thread! We need to stitch up his wound. Hurry!"

"Lord Mingye, enough! He won't feel any pain now! Fourth Young Master, just sleep for a little while. It'll be all right soon. It's too chaotic here. Get some rest!"

Lianhuo's voice was low, but it sounded like thunder in Mingye's ears. His tone left no room for argument. Mingye stiffly turned to look at his little brother's four-year-old body. Xiao Si smiled and struggled to breathe as he looked back at him.

"Dad... Mom... Mm... I... I'll sleep... for a little while... Third brother... Third brother, take me... to play!"

"Ah...!"