Leaving through the Konoha Gate, Uchiha Feng did not bolt straight away, but instead headed toward the Valley of the End.
That place served as a witness to the extraordinary combat prowess of both the "God of Shinobi" Hashirama Senju and the "Asura of the Shinobi World" Madara Uchiha.
It was considered a well-known tourist attraction in the Land of Fire, and people went there year-round to check in.
Because of this, along the way to the Valley of the End, Feng occasionally encountered travelers coming from Konoha or other places.
Furthermore, since the Valley of the End was located not far outside Konoha, it sat right in the downstream section of the Naka River outside the Naka Shrine within the Uchiha clan grounds.
Therefore, before long, Uchiha Feng stood atop the enormous statue of Madara Uchiha, facing Hashirama Senju's statue across the river, with the two statues forming the Seal of Confrontation.
Watching people constantly milling about nearby, Feng pulled out a copy of the Will of Fire, sitting cross-legged on the statue and pretending to read.
In reality, he was observing when the surroundings would finally be cleared of people, as well as checking how high the waterfall beside the statues was and where he could find leverage.
Thus, from morning until sometime midday, people were still around the Valley of the End, though there were far fewer.
Meanwhile, on top of the statue, not a single soul was near Feng at that moment.
Without hesitation, he opened the backpack on his back, dumped all the barbecue supplies inside into the waterfall before him, and let them be washed away down the river to god knows where.
He had carried these items all along, and washing them away would also help obscure his scent, somewhat impacting Konoha's pursuit progress once they inevitably discovered he had fled.
Next, Feng retrieved a long rope from his backpack, hung it over the hand of Madara's statue where it formed the hand seal, and lowered himself directly down the waterfall.
Once down, he untied the rope as well to further confuse the situation and delay any pursuit that might arrive at any moment.
After that, he took out a sketch map of the Land of Fire and a set of clothes from the bottom of his backpack, oriented himself, and pinpointed the location of the Land of Tea to the south of the Land of Fire.
Then he tossed the Will of Fire book, the clothes he had been wearing, his Konoha Genin forehead protector, and the emptied backpack straight into the river.
As he discarded the forehead protector, Feng could not help muttering a complaint inwardly: Are the people who cross a line through their forehead protector and still wear it after defecting absolute idiots? Are they terrified others won't recognize them and fail to track them down?
Since he was defecting, he should do it like him—tossing the shinobi forehead protector away directly and discarding his shinobi identity along with it.
Having finished his mental rant, Feng changed completely into the new clothes he brought, shouldered two sealing scrolls containing his entire fortune, and finally draped his entire body in a hooded, masked robe.
Once he had redressed, he set off at a brisk pace toward the Land of Tea.
That was the place Uchiha Feng planned to head to next.
Three days later, in an unremarkable small inn near the capital of the Land of Tea.
Uchiha Feng, who had not closed his eyes for two days and three nights and had journeyed without pause, lay on the bed, finally able to set his mind at ease, catch his breath, and rest peacefully.
This was thanks to the fact that he was already a shinobi; otherwise, traveling without stopping for such a long time would have long since exhausted an ordinary person had he been one.
Yet all the hardship was worth it; the mere thought that he had finally broken away from Konoha—that he no longer needed to worry about dying a sudden death at any moment, ending up on a Root experimental table, or falling beneath the butcher's blade of that animal Itachi—
made Feng, exhausted as he was and reluctant to move, feel a fresh surge of drive welling up in his body, making even the air of the Land of Tea taste sweeter than that of the Land of Fire.
Still, the euphoria in his heart ultimately lost out to physical and mental exhaustion, and before long he drifted into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, while Feng slept soundly, the fact that he had failed to show up in the clan grounds and the village for a full two days finally drew the attention of many.
Without a doubt, regarding Uchiha Feng's escape from Konoha, the conflict and rift between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha would only intensify, and the Uchiha Clan's days ahead would likely grow even harder.
Feng had anticipated this ever since he planned his escape from Konoha, but he had never cared; after all, with or without him, the Uchiha Clan was destined to be annihilated, so why should he carry any psychological burden?
In his mind, the heavens were vast, but his own little life was paramount.
Only after ensuring his own safety would he spare any thought to helping others.
At noon the next day, Uchiha Feng, having enjoyed a wonderful sleep, ate his lunch while asking the inn attendant about the security situation near the town, while asking nothing about other irrelevant matters.
Naturally, he did this to avoid drawing attention; asking about this and that could certainly unearth a lot of information, but it would also make others much more likely to remember him.
As for asking about security, travelers, merchants, and even ordinary townspeople cared about such things; it was completely unremarkable and would not attract unnecessary attention.
For Feng, understanding the security situation near the town was meant to make it easier to find a "soft persimmon" among them, allowing a Genin like himself to achieve victory.
Moreover, he did not need many—as long as he could find a single target he could defeat and capture, he could immediately take off through the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu he had copied by cheating.
For the ninja world at the beginning of Year 52 of Konoha, such targets were hardly in short supply—though the Third Shinobi World War had ended, the Five Great Nations had yet to conclude an Armistice Alliance Treaty and remained in a state of hostility.
Without breaking a sweat, Uchiha Feng soon found an ordinary person who was neither a shinobi nor a samurai, yet relied on his brother-in-law being the captain of the town guards to run amok and commit wrongdoings.
However, even though Feng could easily take down the opponent, driven by the need to stay low-profile and avoid notice, he did not strike after finding the man during the day, instead tailing him to note his appearance and home address.
He simply waited quietly until the dead of night before silently sneaking into the man's home.
Perhaps because the man had run amok in the small town for so long without anyone daring to manage him,
Feng, who had originally expected to expend some effort to subdue his opponent, walked straight and unimpeded all the way to the target's side.
Yet the target was completely drunk and had even left his front door unlocked, showing not the slightest reaction to Uchiha Feng standing by his bed to harm him.
At this, Feng was somewhat speechless, though he also breathed a sigh of relief; he had only become a shinobi a few months ago, had never been to the battlefield, had never undertaken missions, and had never crossed swords with any enemy.
His sole combat experience consisted of the guidance given to him during training by the two brothers Kentaro Uchiha and Kenjiro.
Therefore, even facing this ordinary person before him, Feng feared that insufficient combat experience might cause too much of a commotion and expose his whereabouts.
Fortunately, the fellow had courted death by getting himself dead drunk, which greatly facilitated things for Feng.
Without wasting words, he first shut all the doors and windows of the man's house, picked up a candle, and began drawing the array for the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu on the floor of the man's home.
With the Hiruzen Sarutobi version of the Impure World Reincarnation as a foundation, coupled with his recent studies, he accurately drew the array in no time.
The rest was simple: he placed the fellow, still deep in a drunken stupor, at the center of the array and gagged his mouth.
Taking a deep breath, Feng sliced his own hand open and splattered his blood onto the target.
Indeed, he did not first use Impure World Reincarnation to summon a helper, intending instead to try performing the Impure World Reincarnation on himself first.
Right now his reputation was unremarkable, and no one paid him any mind.
Yet once he became famous throughout the ninja world in the future, people would inevitably study ways to deal with him.
Among them, some might very well investigate his past and suspect whether he had been possessed or replaced.
Thus, Feng figured he should take this opportunity now to verify his own condition.
"Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu! Rise!" Accompanied by a low shout, his eyes locked fixedly on the drunkard in the center of the array.
One second, two seconds... A minute passed, and nothing happened.
Feng let out a long breath in tandem; for him, nothing happening was the absolute best outcome.
If he had hijacked a nest through his transmigration, he should have reincarnated the original Uchiha Feng right then and there.
Now that nothing happened, it indicated that he had most likely devoured the original owner's soul when transmigrating.
In that case, even if someone discovered abnormalities in the future, he would not have to worry about slipping up.
Having settled this vital piece of mind, Feng calmly took out the arm of Uchiha Mikio, which he had excavated from the Konoha Cemetery.
"Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu!" He cast the technique once more.
This time, the person inside the array immediately stirred as some unknown substance began to consume the target, causing him to writhe in continuous, agonizing wails—though because his mouth was gagged, only soft mmh, mmh sounds emerged from his cries.
A moment later, the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu concluded, and Uchiha Mikio, who had perished in the Third Shinobi World War, stood upright within an upright coffin, appearing before Uchiha Feng's eyes.
Yet Feng did not immediately wake the reincarnated Uchiha Mikio, instead canceling the summoning to make him vanish.
Although he had numerous tasks requiring the other's assistance, this particular place and time did not mark the proper moment to awaken him.
He needed to find somewhere entirely undisturbed at any rate.
Since the other party had already been successfully reincarnated, as long as he was not sealed away or left to vanish without lingering regrets, the reincarnated Uchiha Mikio would essentially function as Feng's summoning beast, capable of being summoned, awakened, and dismissed at will.
Casually cleaning away the traces left by the Impure World Reincarnation, Feng vanished into the night, quietly returning to the inn.
Before you continue