Intercepted Intelligence

The Fuma Clan's squad leader crouched behind the jagged rocks on the ridge, his fingers tapping restlessly against his sword hilt.

"How long has it been?" he asked.

The ninja beside him answered quietly, "Almost two hours."

The squad leader cursed.

The scouting team he had sent in still hadn't signaled back.

He had weighed the risks when he accepted this mission.

The Hagoromo Clan was an ancient ninja clan with a kekkei genkai. Even if the Senju were driving them back on the front lines, their territory wasn't somewhere just anyone could invade.

The clan leader had sent them with two objectives: determine how much fighting strength the Hagoromo had left and locate their granaries.

There were twenty of them, divided into six teams. He had sent only one four-man scouting team in to investigate, keeping the other five teams on the perimeter.

"We'll wait another fifteen minutes," the squad leader said through gritted teeth. "If there's still no word, we'll..."

Before he could finish, the bushes at the edge of the forest suddenly rustled.

A figure stumbled out and dropped to one knee in front of him, his chest heaving as he panted too hard to speak.

The squad leader sprang to his feet.

"What's going on in there?"

The scout caught his breath. "The other three... they were driven into a trap. They're all dead."

The squad leader's expression darkened. Four jonin, and they had lost three.

"What about the pursuers?"

"There weren't many. All wounded men pulled back from the front," the scout answered. "They didn't chase me far. I only got away because I was fast."

The squad leader considered this.

If they could kill three jonin, there must still be ocular jutsu users maintaining a barrier within the Hagoromo Clan Territory. But if their pursuers were only wounded men, that also meant they lacked the strength for a head-on fight.

"Did you get a good look at their numbers?"

"Other than the wounded, there were only old people and women," the scout said. "I saw several entrances to hidden chambers along the way. Most of the elderly, women, and children are probably hiding in places like those."

"And the granaries?"

The scout untied a small cloth sack from his back and offered it with both hands.

The squad leader took the sack, hefted it, then opened it and pinched out a little grain. A smile spread across his face.

"The clan leader called it perfectly. All the Hagoromo's able-bodied adults have gone to fight the Senju, leaving their rear undefended. The grain is still here, too, guarded by nothing but old people, women, children, and a few wounded soldiers."

He turned and singled out a three-man team. "Return to the clan immediately and report that the Hagoromo Clan Territory is poorly defended and its granaries are intact. We need more men to transport the supplies. Move quickly."

The three acknowledged the order, their figures disappearing behind the ridge in moments.

The squad leader turned to look at the still-silent clan territory.

"The rest of you, follow me in. Before the main force arrives, eliminate all their remaining fighting strength and dismantle the traps."

The twelve Fuma ninja behind him drew their weapons in unison, silently leaping over the ridgeline and racing toward the Hagoromo Clan Territory.

On a rooftop in the Hagoromo Clan Territory.

Izuna looked down as the figures scattered through the Hagoromo Clan Territory. The corners of his mouth curled upward, his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly rotating in his eyes.

Elsewhere, Setsuna sat on a donkey cart, swinging his feet.

The wheels rolled over the packed-earth road, bouncing him up and down.

He silently took stock of what he had.

Twenty-four rebellion points.

He brought up the crude panel. Focus, level 1. Stamina, level 2. Recovery, level 1.

Raising stamina to level 2 earlier had cost him 10 points.

Now, the rebellion points required to raise stamina from level 2 to level 3 stood at "15."

It seemed the rebellion point cost for upgrading this stat increased with each level.

He shifted his gaze to focus. The core of the Ten Shadows Technique was Yin Release, and the core of Yin Release was mental strength. Focus was the foundation, and he had to shore it up first.

He raised focus to level 2.

A sense of clarity spread from between his brows-

He had 14 points left.

He hesitated over whether to upgrade recovery. After all, if he saved just one more point to reach 15, he could raise focus to level 3.

He figured that if he were playing a character, he would definitely level its health bar to thirty before considering anything else.

A pure health tank, brute-forcing everything.

But the problem was that he wasn't in a game now. No matter how long his health bar was, his five-and-a-half-year-old body couldn't withstand a blade.

Still, recovery meant more than just restoring health. In a game, this stat would also affect chakra regeneration.

For a ninja, chakra was the fuel for every ninjutsu. No matter how high his focus was, he couldn't use any jutsu without chakra to support it.

He gritted his teeth and put the points into recovery after all.

Warmth rose from his lower abdomen. Unlike the heat in his muscles when he upgraded stamina, this felt more like a gentle flame burning in his belly.

I'm still a weakling anyway. If I have to be a jack-of-all-trades, so be it.

Just then, he heard a commotion.

A short scream came from the rear of the convoy. Two Hagoromo ninja guarding the rear raced past him, but the other guards stayed put-they couldn't let themselves be lured away during the retreat.

Setsuna sprang to his feet on the donkey cart and stood on tiptoe to look back.

Beside the last grain cart, the Hagoromo ninja escorting it had already fallen next to a wheel. A slash across his neck cut deep enough to expose bone, and blood was still pouring out.

Six figures retreated toward the tree line at tremendous speed, each carrying a sack full of grain. One turned and threw a shuriken at the pursuers, forcing them to dodge sideways. In the blink of an eye, all six had vanished into the shadows beneath the canopy.

Setsuna's pupils contracted sharply.

He had seen the emblem on one of their forehead protectors-it belonged to the Senju Clan.

The Hagoromo ninja checked the body and the grain cart, confirmed that the enemy had withdrawn, and abandoned the pursuit.

After all, their top priority was escorting the elderly, women, and children to the Second Settlement.

But Setsuna was sweating with anxiety.

What those six Senju ninja had carried away wasn't grain. It was intelligence.

As they retreated, they had seen the Hagoromo convoy with their own eyes-women, old people, wounded soldiers, and only a handful of ninja guarding them.

If those Senju ninja brought that information back, Tobirama Senju would surely deduce the Hagoromo's true situation.

Izuna was laying traps in the Hagoromo Clan Territory. But if the Senju learned that the Hagoromo rear was empty, and that their elderly, women, and children were moving to the Second Settlement, someone like Tobirama Senju could easily bypass the main battlefield and send elite troops to intercept the retreating convoy.

He had to get word to Izuna.

But the Hagoromo ninja escorting this convoy were already short-handed-three clearing the way ahead, two on either flank, and the rear guard had just lost one man, leaving two to protect the back. Every one of them was tied to his position. None could spare the effort to take him to Izuna.

He gritted his teeth and looked up to confirm the direction of the Hagoromo Clan Territory.

He kicked off the ground, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

"Kid, where are you going!"

Ignoring the shout behind him, Setsuna plunged into the forest without looking back.

Ding-rebellion points +5.