The Shinobi World universally acknowledged the Sharingan as a cursed eye, one that turned an Uchiha from boundless love into boundless hatred.
And Uchiha Jing Xiu had become the bargaining chip for this three-tomoe Uchiha to defect to the Kaguya Clan!
The Kaguya Clan happened to border the Hyuga to the west and the Uchiha to the north, and this three-tomoe Uchiha coincidentally needed to pass through the Land of Rain, which lay at the intersection of the three territories.
Jing Xiu followed silently behind the Uchiha Jōnin. This land, shrouded in perpetual gloom and rain, invariably stirred a faint sense of aversion in ninjas bearing fire-release chakra.
"Brat! My name is Uchiha Black Wolf, and after all these days, I still don't know yours!"
The Uchiha rogue Jōnin struck up a conversation with Jing Xiu in a casual, conversational tone.
Yet Jing Xiu completely ignored him, quietly sensing how this misty, rainy sky differed from the pure, crystalline clarity of the Land of Fire.
The Yellow Emperor's Hidden Talisman Scripture stated: "Observe the way of heaven, grasp the execution of heaven, and that is all."
As a direct disciple and celestial master's apprentice of the Daoist Sect in his past life, "sensing heaven and earth" was fundamentally the signature skill of the Daoist Sect.
Only by gaining a clearer understanding of heaven and earth could one emulate nature, refine Daoist arts, and simultaneously master a series of extraordinary techniques far surpassing ordinary people.
After waiting for a long time without receiving a reply from Jing Xiu, Black Wolf's gaze inevitably turned dangerous.
"What? As the son of the Uchiha Clan Head, do you have the right to look down on a Jōnin like me?"
"Just because I didn't side with any faction, did my wife and child deserve to die on the battlefield?"
Jing Xiu was somewhat surprised. He had originally thought that this Uchiha Black Wolf Jōnin was a clan hero who willingly sacrificed himself to cooperate with the clan's plan.
He never expected that the man had genuinely defected from the Uchiha because of the deaths of his wife and child.
Looking at the increasingly neurotic Uchiha Black Wolf, Jing Xiu had no desire to cause the mission to fail due to his own wilfulness.
I am too weak right now, and still need to rely on the power of the Uchiha Clan to grow. Since I accepted this mission, no matter what, I should at least do my utmost to complete it.
With this thought, Jing Xiu spoke directly: "Instead of standing here mocking and teasing me, you'd be better off figuring out how to escape the territory of the Uchiha Clan."
Hearing this, Uchiha Black Wolf grew slightly interested: "Oh? Could it be that you brat have come up with some idea?"
Jing Xiu nodded, casually picked up a branch from the roadside, and then drew a rough map of the Land of Fire and the surrounding small nations on the ground.
"If it were just you alone, Upper Ninja Black Wolf, it wouldn't be difficult to cross the territory of the Uchiha Clan and then reach the Land of Rain."
"However, you specifically brought along a dead weight like me. Therefore..."
Uchiha Black Wolf interrupted Jing Xiu: "So, you're hoping I'll snap your neck and then take your corpse to the Land of Rain?"
He pointed viciously at Jing Xiu's nose and sneered: "Your delaying tactics are tricks your Grandpa Black Wolf played until they were worn out long ago!"
Jing Xiu shrugged, saying no more. After dropping the branch in his hand onto the ground, he quietly followed behind Black Wolf.
As they walked, Black Wolf suddenly felt something beneath his feet. Before he could examine it closely, a mocking voice rang out from ahead: "Senior Black Wolf, I advise you best not to move around!"
"You've already stepped into a trap we specially designed for you. Once you lift your foot, hundreds of explosive tags will detonate simultaneously!"
Ordinarily, relying on Uchiha Black Wolf's vigilance and keenness, he would have had a certain chance of seeing through the ambush ahead.
Yet Jing Xiu's sudden interruption had unintentionally satisfied Black Wolf's twisted pride, causing him to slacken his guard. After all, no matter who it was, people inevitably relaxed when feeling full of themselves.
The Uchiha Jōnin from the front, together with three Uchiha chunin, surrounded Uchiha Black Wolf.
One chunin rapidly approached Jing Xiu, intending to rescue him first so that the collateral damage of the ensuing battle wouldn't harm him.
"Master Jing Xiu, please withdraw from the battlefield with me!"
Just as the chunin's right hand was about to grab Jing Xiu's left arm, the delicate, frail hand of the young child suddenly gripped a cold, gleaming short blade and thrust it toward the man's chest.
The chunin in front of him reacted swiftly, bringing a kunai up to block before his chest.
Yet he never imagined that the child before him possessed strength far exceeding others his age. Although the kunai blocked the short blade, the impact force generated as the blade thrust forward still injured his heart.
"Spit!"
After coughing up a mouthful of stagnant blood, the chunin formed hand seals; he was now treating Jing Xiu as a chunin of equal rank.
Not far away, Uchiha Black Wolf was already entangled in close combat with the other three ninjas. The ice senbon and ice pillars filling the sky left no doubt as to the identity of this Jōnin squad: the Yuki Clan.
"When did your Yuki Clan stoop to becoming running dogs for the Uchiha?"
Black Wolf's eyes had long since transformed into three-tomoe, and his manic state caused Snow White Lotus opposite him to feel a headache coming on.
"The Uchiha really are all lunatics!"
His hands formed hand seals rapidly: "Ice Release: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!"
Under the dynamic vision of the Sharingan, the ice senbon coming from all directions looked like children's toys, but trying to dodge every single one of them remained wishful thinking.
"Fire Release: Great Flame Ball!"
A massive fireball hurtled toward the Yuki Clan chunin on the left, and Black Wolf also used the space cleared by the fireball to dodge the majority of the ice senbon.
The next instant, Black Wolf threw himself flat on the ground. The speeding fireball suddenly exploded, and the ferocious orange flames swallowed up all the ice senbon.
Black Wolf's figure also vanished from the field of vision of Snow White Lotus and the other two chunin.
"Watch your feet!"
Prompted by White Lotus's warning, the Yuki Clan chunin jumped upward and back, intending to evade any potential attacks.
Still airborne, the Yuki Clan chunin saw the reflections of two shuriken in his eyes.
"Don't underestimate me! Water Release: Water Whip."
A whip formed of flowing water lashed toward the rapidly approaching shuriken.
Just as the tip of the whip was about to touch those two shuriken, another pair of shuriken struck with even greater speed, hitting the two shuriken that the water whip was about to sweep away.
The Yuki Clan chunin watched helplessly as the two shuriken traced two graceful arcs, piercing into both of his flanks, after which the second pair of shuriken struck squarely into his chest.
"Poof!"
A burst of smoke cleared, leaving only a section of a wooden log in place.
"The Substitution Technique? The Yuki Clan's chunin aren't entirely useless after all!"
Uchiha Black Wolf slowly emerged from a pit, staring at Snow White Lotus with madness in his eyes.
Where Uchiha Black Wolf had originally stood, a three-to-four-meter-deep crater had already appeared-the destruction caused by triggering the explosive tag mechanism.
Taking advantage of the successive explosions of the Great Flame Ball and the explosive tags, Black Wolf first prostrated himself on the ground, using the Great Flame Ball's detonation to counteract the residual shockwave of the explosive tags and the ice senbon in the air.
Then, taking advantage of the billowing firelight, he rolled into the pit to dodge the remaining ice senbon while launching a surprise attack on the Yuki Clan chunin to his left.
Realizing all this, Snow White Lotus's expression turned solemn.
He had just been fooled by Uchiha Black Wolf's madness, failing to anticipate that the Uchiha rogue ninja before him possessed such meticulous thought and calculation.
With merely a single ninjutsu and four shuriken, the man had neutralized a trap, evaded an attack, and still had the spare energy to eliminate an opponent.
"As expected of a Uchiha Jōnin! Seeing you, I finally understand why the Uchiha became one of the two legendary clans standing atop the Shinobi World!"
The young White Lotus uttered a heartfelt exclamation.
Black Wolf confronted the three of them once more, and the atmosphere in the arena instantly grew tense.
"Ah!" A miserable scream broke the stalemate.