The injured Chunin was being carried back by two members of the Konoha Military Police Force.
His blood dripped all the way onto the heat-cracked stone flags, soon covered again by the falling ash.
Uchiha Gen glanced at it, but his heart felt heavier than before.
Rescuing the man did not mean the evidence was safe.
The Nine-Tails was still rampaging in the center of the village, and the street could be flattened by the shockwaves of a Tailed Beast Bomb at any moment. That masked man had not left either, and very likely might have already noticed who they were saving.
A witness who had passed out and a witness who could survive until dawn and speak before the Konoha High Command carried completely different weight.
"Don't send him far away yet."
Uchiha Gen suddenly spoke.
The adult clansman supporting the Chunin was startled. "Not sending him to the evacuation zone?"
"Send him, but make him state clearly who he is first."
Uchiha Makoto couldn't help saying, "He's about to pass out!"
"That's why he needs to say it now even more."
Uchiha Gen turned and rushed in front of the injured Chunin, kneeling on one knee and raising a hand to press against the other's shoulder.
"Can you hear me?"
The Chunin's eyelids trembled, and a muffled gasp escaped his throat.
Uchiha Gen lowered his voice, yet loud enough for the surrounding civilians and Konoha Ninja to hear.
"State your name and squad. The person you saw just now wasn't the Nine-Tails, right?"
The injured Chunin's face was frighteningly pale.
He seemed to have understood the last sentence, and his fingers violently grabbed Uchiha Gen's cuff.
"Takuya Yamashiro."
"Chunin of Konoha Patrol Squad Two."
A rescued shop owner nearby instinctively repeated it. "Takuya Yamashiro, Chunin of Patrol Squad Two."
Uchiha Gen immediately looked at Uchiha Makoto.
"Write it down."
Uchiha Makoto was stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately, tearing off a scorched piece of account book paper and writing on the back with charcoal.
Takuya Yamashiro gasped even more urgently.
"My captain and I... chased him to the South Street Entrance."
"We saw a masked person."
"Not an Anbu of the village... not an ordinary ninja."
Uchiha Ryo's expression changed slightly.
That adult clansman also lowered his head, his expression turning solemn.
Takuya Yamashiro's voice was intermittent. "A kunai went right through... his body was like it was empty. Then the air twisted, and he appeared behind the captain."
"What about his eyes?" Uchiha Gen asked.
Takuya Yamashiro's pupils dilated, as if he were struggling to grasp the last scrap of imagery from his fading consciousness.
"One eye... red..."
Just as his voice fell, a loud explosion suddenly came from afar.
The entire street felt as if it had been lifted by an invisible hand, then slammed heavily back onto the ground. Broken tiles poured down from the eaves, and the burning wooden building next to them emitted a harsh snapping sound.
"Retreat!"
The adult clansman immediately picked up Takuya Yamashiro.
Yet just as they took two steps, a trace of cold light suddenly flashed in the shadows at the end of the street.
That wasn't falling debris.
It was a kunai.
The kunai did not aim at Uchiha Gen, but headed straight for Takuya Yamashiro's throat.
Uchiha Gen's pupils violently constricted.
Within his Sharingan, a single tomoe spun slowly.
He saw the trajectory of the kunai, but was too late to use his body to block in front.
Too fast.
He was currently only a thirteen-year-old Uchiha youth, not a powerhouse capable of fighting a Jonin head-on.
Uchiha Gen did not try to act tough, flicking a Wire with his right hand to entangle a half-broken wooden signboard pillar by the roadside, using the leverage to sweep a wooden board from beside him horizontally across.
Clang!
A kunai drove into a wooden board, sending wood chips scattering.
It landed less than half a foot from Takuya Yamashiro's neck.
Uchiha Makoto's face instantly lost all color.
If that kunai had hit its mark, all the testimony from just now would have become dead men's tales.
"Someone's silencing him!" Uchiha Ryo said in a low voice.
"Don't chase."
Uchiha Gen immediately pressed down on her wrist.
Uchiha Ryo said anxiously, "But he's right over there!"
"We won't catch him."
Uchiha Gen stared down the end of the street, his voice calm to the point of being chilling.
"The most important thing right now is keeping the witness alive."
As those words fell, the gazes of the several young Uchiha nearby all changed.
Just now, they thought Uchiha Gen was saving someone, struggling with unresigned defiance, and taking the risk of disobeying orders to do something perhaps meaningless.
Until this very moment, they finally understood that what Uchiha Gen had been seizing from the very start was never credit.
He was seizing evidence.
He was seizing a living person who could prove there was another mastermind behind the Night of the Nine-Tails.
He was seizing a chance so the Uchiha would no longer have to suffer and take beatings in silence.
"Toru, clear the way!"
Uchiha Gen turned his head and shouted.
Uchiha Toru did not hesitate any longer, rushing to the front to kick open a burning door panel.
"Ryo, watch the rooftops. Makoto, bring everyone who heard the testimony just now-at least three people, and write down their names too."
"Understood!"
Uchiha Makoto's voice was tight, but he answered quickly.
An injured Konoha Genin stepped forward of his own accord: "I heard it. I'm Inoue Shin, temporary support from the Barrier Team."
The shopkeeper also raised his hand: "I heard it too. And my wife, she's right in the back."
Uchiha Gen nodded.
That was enough.
When they arrived at the temporary shelter, it was already packed with people evacuated from South Street.
The sounds of crying, coughing, and the groans of the wounded were mixed together, and several medical ninjas were so busy they couldn't even lift their heads.
The adult clansmen placed Takuya Yamashiro onto a stretcher.
A medical ninja was about to take over when Uchiha Gen pressed down on the edge of the stretcher a step ahead.
"He is Takuya Yamashiro, a Chunin of Konoha Patrol Squad Two. Just now at the South Street Entrance, he witnessed a suspicious masked man controlling the Nine-Tails. The people who heard his testimony on the scene are Inoue Shin from the Konoha Barrier Team, a South Street shop owner and his wife, and two members of the Konoha Military Police Force."
The medical ninja looked up at him.
There was exhaustion in those eyes, as well as instinctive vigilance.
Uchiha Gen did not argue, only steadying his voice further.
"Please record this in the casualty handover logs. Even if you only write down a single sentence: Takuya Yamashiro was not directly injured by the Nine-Tails, but was heavily wounded after pursuing a suspicious ninja."
The medical ninja hesitated for a fraction of a second.
Inoue Shin leaned on his injured arm and pushed through, gritting his teeth as he spoke: "I can testify. Everything he said just now, I heard it too."
The shop owner supported his wife and stepped forward: "We heard it too. The Uchiha saved us, and they saved this ninja too."
The gazes around them that had originally looked upon the Uchiha Clan Crest finally showed a hint of change.
It was not complete trust.
It was only doubt.
It was only hesitation.
Yet to Uchiha Gen, this was already far better than their original fate.
The medical ninja finally picked up the blood-stained clipboard and scribbled a few lines on it.
"I can only record the casualty handover; investigation is not my responsibility."
"That's enough."
Uchiha Gen let go of his hand.
As long as this record existed, Takuya Yamashiro would no longer be merely a witness in their own words.
He would become a casualty received by a temporary medical station, a Konoha Chunin whose identity and testimony had been jointly confirmed by multiple people.
To erase a person like that was not so easy.
Not perfect, but good enough.
Konoha was far too chaotic tonight; any complete file could be suppressed by someone. Yet if the testimonies were scattered among different people-among civilians, Konoha Ninja, and the Konoha Military Police Force-it would not be so easily erased by a single "misunderstanding."
Another roar came from the center of the village.
The roar of the Nine-Tails shattered distant windowpanes, and the glow of the flames cast a bloody hue over everyone's face.
The adult clansmen hoisted Takuya Yamashiro onto their backs and sprinted along the cleared, narrow passage toward the evacuation zone.
Uchiha Gen followed at the very end.
He did not look back to chase the direction the kunai had come from, but he kept his Sharingan active the entire time.
The end of the street was empty.
There were only broken walls, fire, thick smoke, and ash whipped up by the wind.
Yet amidst that ash, he suddenly caught sight of a faint trace of lingering chakra.
That was not the mark left by an ordinary Body Flicker Technique.
The chakra was twisted into tiny whirlpools by some kind of force, then rapidly dissipated into the air.
It was so fleeting it was almost impossible to catch.
If he had not just obtained the system reward and had his Sharingan pupil strength enhanced by a sliver, Uchiha Gen definitely would have mistaken it for an illusion caused by the heatwaves of the fire.
[Abnormal Space Chakra residue detected.] [Quest clue updated.]
The system prompt rang out coldly.
Yet Uchiha Gen's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
Space Chakra.
These four words carried more weight than any guess.
He raised his eyes and looked at that twisting trace dissolving at the end of the street.
The Masked Man had indeed been here.
And this time, he saw him.
Before you continue