Night mist crept in from the outskirts of the Hagoromo encampment, shrouding the tents in a haze of gray silhouettes.
Toshihi lifted the flap and ducked into the children's tent. His gaze swept over them, and his expression softened. The children inside were already asleep.
An oil lamp stood in the corner, its flame casting faint, flickering shadows across the tent walls.
Too much had happened to the children today: traveling from the Uchiha Clan Compound to the Hagoromo encampment, crossing neutral territory, encountering a Fuma ambush, watching an Explosive Tag blow one of their companions to pieces...
All of that would have been hard enough on an adult, let alone children whose oldest was eight and youngest only five and a half.
Toshihi's gaze passed over each sleeping face.
Kagami, the boy who had nearly died at the hands of a Fuma ninja today, lay curled beside Setsuna, clutching a corner of the blanket.
The six-year-old's curly head rested with his brows faintly furrowed, as though he were still running in his dreams.
Toshihi had just bent down to check his ankle when Setsuna's eyes snapped open beside him.
His one-tomoe Sharingan gleamed with a cold, scarlet light in the darkness, locking onto Toshihi.
"Go back to sleep." Toshihi kept his voice low as he leaned toward the oil lamp.
Puff.
He blew out the wick in a single breath.
The tent fell into darkness.
As Toshihi lifted the flap to leave, he heard a disgruntled "Tch" behind him.
In the clearing outside the tent, Tetsukawa crouched on a tree stump, sharpening his blade.
Toshihi walked over, picked up a bamboo flask, and took a drink.
"The children are all asleep, and the supplies have been handed over. The medicine and Shuriken here have all been restocked."
Tetsukawa nodded and walked beside Toshihi toward the entrance to the encampment.
The entrance to the Hagoromo encampment was a checkpoint built from thick logs, with a crude watchtower on either side.
With the autumn harvest underway, extra guards had been posted in the towers. The torches in their hands cast a ring of flickering orange light across the ground before the checkpoint.
To their surprise, Izuna was already there.
The Uchiha's second-in-command, Uchiha Izuna, wore dark traveling clothes without any armor, though the sword he never went without still hung at his waist.
"Lord Izuna." Toshihi and Tetsukawa bowed together.
Izuna turned and acknowledged them with a nod.
"What brings you here already? We agreed on tomorrow morning," Toshihi asked casually.
"My brother and I switched duties," Izuna said lightly. "He's at the front now. Hokaku has taken over the position he was originally guarding."
"It makes no difference whether I arrive a little earlier or later." Izuna withdrew his gaze and walked past the checkpoint into the camp. "We're meeting the Hagoromo clan leader tomorrow anyway. Coming early means I can get a night's rest."
Toshihi and Tetsukawa followed him.
Walking ahead of them, Izuna suddenly asked, "Is that boy still alive?"
Toshihi knew whom he meant: Uchiha Setsuna, the only male child of this generation in the clan leader's line, and the elders' favored candidate for heir to the clan.
He chuckled. "Not only is he alive, he killed two Fuma Chunin."
At that, Izuna stopped abruptly.
Moonlight spilled over the clearing at the center of the camp, stretching the three men's shadows long and thin.
"Tell me everything." Izuna tipped up his chin.
Toshihi did not embellish. He began with the site of the ambush: the Explosive Tags had blasted apart the middle of the column, Kagami had been trapped during the retreat, and Setsuna had undone his pack's chest buckle, slipped from Toshihi's grasp, and dashed back several dozen meters.
Then he described the end of the fight he had witnessed upon arriving, along with the full sequence of events he had reconstructed from the traces at the scene.
"Two Fuma Chunin. Setsuna ambushed and beheaded one of them entirely on his own. A single lethal strike."
"For the other, Setsuna used the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique and coordinated with Kagami. They attacked from the front and rear and finished off the second one too."
Izuna remained silent, then glanced at Tetsukawa for confirmation. "Is that right?"
"Yes." Tetsukawa's answers were always as brief as possible. "The traces match. Very clean."
The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was an advanced application of long-range throwing: the user formed a clone seal the instant they threw a Shuriken, then switched places with the clone to launch a surprise attack.
It also earned extra credit in the Uchiha's Jonin examinations.
A five-year-old who had only just awakened one tomoe and a six-year-old who had not yet awakened his Sharingan, neither with any formal training, had killed two adult Chunin in actual combat.
Izuna stood still, moonlight drawing a sharp boundary between light and shadow across his face.
"Also..." Toshihi paused. "Lord Izuna, I feel I should tell you."
"Go on."
"He has very strong combat instincts," Toshihi said, choosing his words carefully. "But his temperament is extremely... difficult to control. During the retreat, I ordered everyone to move at full speed. He defied that order right in front of me, left the group without permission, and exposed himself to enemy attacks."
"He doesn't follow orders?" Izuna laughed, then remarked after a moment, "Rather like my brother in his younger days."
Toshihi froze at that.
Within the Uchiha Clan, comparing anyone to Madara was out of line, but those words had come from Izuna himself.
Toshihi and Tetsukawa exchanged a glance.
They both knew that Izuna never spared anyone with his sharp tongue. For him to say something like that meant he was actually quite pleased.
Izuna let his smile fade and raised a hand for them to keep walking. As he headed deeper into the camp, he turned the conversation to more concrete business.
After all, tomorrow's meeting with the elderly Hagoromo clan leader was no mere family visit.
"The autumn harvest has already begun upstream along the Naka River," Izuna said as they walked. "Every year at this time, the clans send people to plunder the harvest. Fuma, Blood Horse, Mad Demon-anyone who can get a share of the grain won't come empty-handed. Of course, from the Hagoromo's perspective, allying with us gives them the strongest ally available. In return, we get grain at low prices."
Toshihi and Tetsukawa kept pace with him.
Izuna continued, "Our first task tomorrow is to formally announce to the old clan leader that Setsuna will become heir to the Uchiha Clan. That child has Hagoromo blood. Making him our heir is, in itself, the strongest way to reinforce the alliance."
Toshihi nodded. This was not mere reassurance, but a tangible political bargaining chip.
The Hagoromo Clan had lost too many of its young men on the battlefield. They needed someone with a voice among the Uchiha leadership to ensure the alliance remained secure. Setsuna was that link.
And the second matter Izuna raised was thornier than the first.
"Tensho, the Hagoromo clan leader, died ten days ago on the battlefield against the Senju."
"With Clan Leader Tensho dead, there's no one left among the younger generation capable of commanding on their own." Izuna's tone grew heavier. "The old clan leader had no choice but to take charge again. We've come first to offer our condolences, and second, on my brother's instructions, to hold the old clan leader back."
Toshihi's brow stirred. "He wants revenge?"
"Revenge, a counterattack, driving the Senju off the eastern bank of the Naka River." Izuna's voice was cold. "His son is dead. He wants nothing more than to muster his troops and attack right now."
Tetsukawa spoke up, a rare occurrence. "The Hagoromo can't beat the Senju alone."
"Of course they can't." Izuna looked beyond the tents toward the Hagoromo clan lands. "The worst of it is that the Hagoromo aren't just unable to beat the Senju. Fuma and Blood Horse are harassing their territory too. With three clans pressing them at once, the Hagoromo won't last until next spring."
"That's grim indeed," Toshihi sighed.
Izuna said, "That's why my brother wants us to hold him back. Make him see the situation clearly-if they keep fighting, the Hagoromo will be wiped out. Even if the Uchiha sent all our strongest fighters then, we'd still struggle to fend off simultaneous raids from all three clans."
Toshihi fell silent for a moment. "The old clan leader isn't easily persuaded."
"I know," Izuna said. "That's why we need Setsuna."
An heir to the Uchiha Clan with Hagoromo blood, seated across the negotiating table, was the strongest possible pledge in himself-
The Uchiha would not abandon the Hagoromo, but neither would they support the Hagoromo in throwing their lives away.
Before you continue