Yūto awakened his show-off gene

Tsukimi could not be bothered to waste any more words. Her hands rapidly formed hand seals.

A scorching fireball roared forth, and the Kumogakure ninja immediately scattered to dodge.

Although Tsukimi already possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, she was young, after all, and had limited experience.

So against two Kumogakure Jonin and several Chunin, she could gain no advantage.

But there was someone else present.

Yūto, who had survived countless life-and-death battles.

Yūto leisurely pulled a kunai from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

Seeing this, the Kumogakure Jonin with dreadlocks sneered.

"Kid, save that toy for peeling apples!"

Yūto was a year younger than Tsukimi, and girls began developing earlier during puberty.

So the man could tell at a glance that Yūto was younger than Tsukimi, who possessed three tomoe.

He was bound to be weaker than Tsukimi. Even if he was an Uchiha, he could not possibly have three tomoe...

With his large sword resting on his shoulder, he stepped forward. "I'll start by cutting you-"

Whoosh!

Before he could finish saying "cutting," Yūto had already vanished.

When Yūto reappeared in the dreadlocked Jonin's sight, his originally black eyes had already changed to display three tomoe.

To his horror, he discovered that his body would not obey him at all, like a moth pinned to a spiderweb.

The next second, the dreadlocked Jonin felt a chill across his neck, and blood poured out unstoppably.

"Remember in your next life," Yūto's voice sounded beside his ear, "don't judge an Uchiha by age."

Clutching his spurting neck, the dreadlocked Jonin dropped to his knees, disbelief still frozen on his face.

The Kumogakure ninja collectively took half a step back.

The masked Jonin's face turned green beneath his mask, his voice trembling.

"You've got to be kidding. He killed a Jonin instantly?!"

"Retreat!"

The masked man suddenly roared, violently shoving the middle-aged man behind him forward. "Cover our retreat!"

The other Kumogakure ninja immediately turned and fled, moving faster than startled rabbits.

The middle-aged man stumbled as he was pushed in front of Yūto, his face filled with conflict.

The masked man had already fled over ten meters. Seeing this, he turned and threatened sharply, "Think of your family!"

Those words stabbed into the man's back like a knife. He closed his eyes in anguish and finally raised his trembling hands.

His pupils suddenly contracted violently, twisting into a pair of red, toadlike horizontal pupils!

"Dōjutsu?" Yūto frowned and immediately took a defensive stance.

But three seconds passed, and the anticipated Dōjutsu attack still did not come.

Not only Yūto, but even the man himself looked stunned. He touched the area around his eyes in disbelief.

"Impossible. My Ketsuryūgan actually stopped working?"

"Bastard! You really have betrayed us!" Believing the man had yet to attack, the Kumogakure Jonin immediately shouted, "Don't forget your clansmen are still in the Land of Lightning!"

Before those words had faded, the man gritted his teeth and lunged recklessly at Yūto.

"Poor bastard." Yūto sighed softly, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan suddenly spinning.

The charging man instantly froze, stopping in place like a puppet.

But just as Yūto rushed forward with the Body Flicker Technique, his kunai about to slice open the man's throat, a bloody light surged in the man's eyes, and he actually broke free of the Genjutsu.

But it was already too late.

Although he barely dodged the kunai, he could not evade Yūto's follow-up.

Yūto twisted in midair, whipping his right leg into the man's side beneath his ribs.

With a clear crack of breaking bone, the man fell into the stream, spraying bloody foam.

He struggled to get up, only to discover that he could no longer fight.

After a moment's thought, the man suddenly kowtowed heavily to Yūto. "Please, kill them! Otherwise, my family..."

"Deal."

Even without the man begging him, Yūto would have killed the remaining Kumogakure ninja.

There was no other reason: Yūto needed to maintain his persona of someone who loved Konoha deeply.

Before he finished speaking, he had already vanished.

The Kumogakure Chunin at the front had only just raised his sword when a kunai pierced straight through his throat.

Tsukimi moved almost simultaneously, driving three shuriken precisely into another ninja's eye sockets.

By the time the Kumogakure Jonin realized things had gone wrong, Tsukimi's kunai had pierced both his hands as he formed a seal, while Yūto's blade thrust through his chest from behind.

The battle ended even faster than expected.

Kneeling in the stream, the middle-aged man held out his trembling hands. "I surrender. Please take me to the frontline commander..."

"At least you know what's good for you."

Tsukimi shook the droplets of blood from her ponytail, took out a coil of rope, and bound the man's hands.

When Yūto and Tsukimi escorted the middle-aged man back to the main camp, the ninja there cast surprised looks their way.

After all, it was uncommon for a Patrol Squad to capture an enemy alive on the front lines.

The two made their way to the commander's tent and lifted the flap.

They found Minato, Shikaku, Fugaku, and Tsunade gathered around a map, discussing something.

"The Chinoike Clan's Dōjutsu really is troublesome..."

Fugaku was speaking when he heard the noise and looked up, seeing Yūto and Tsukimi escorting a stranger inside.

"Reporting!" Yūto straightened. "We encountered a Kumogakure squad while on patrol and captured this man."

Minato's eyes lit up, and he smiled as he patted Fugaku's shoulder.

"Fugaku, your Uchiha Clan really does keep producing talent."

Fugaku gave a light cough and feigned composure. "They're all right. Everyone in the clan is about the same."

At Fugaku's shameless words, Minato's mouth could not help twitching.

All about the same?

Then shouldn't Konoha have belonged to the Uchiha long ago?

Outwardly, however, he maintained his gentle smile.

He said to Fugaku:

"In that case, why don't we ask Clan Leader Fugaku to help interrogate him for intelligence? Your Sharingan has the strongest ocular power, after all."

The Sharingan could be used for interrogation, as demonstrated in the original story when Sasuke interrogated a Kumogakure ninja to obtain information on Killer B.

Fugaku nodded and was about to step forward when Yūto suddenly spoke.

"Wait. There's something strange about this guy. He can break free of Sharingan Genjutsu."

"Oh?" Fugaku frowned. "With his strength, he shouldn't be able to resist the Sharingan."

The man kept his head lowered, silent for several seconds.

Then he slowly raised his head, swept a complicated gaze over everyone, and finally sighed.

"There's no need to interrogate me... I'm willing to share the information."

Minato and Fugaku exchanged glances, both somewhat surprised.

This was their first time encountering such a cooperative prisoner.

"Oh? So cooperative?" Minato narrowed his eyes slightly. "Then tell us, what was the objective of your operation?"

The man took a deep breath and slowly began. "My name is Sendō. I'm a ninja of the Chinoike Clan..."

"The Chinoike?" The four who had already been in the tent exchanged glances. What a coincidence-they had just been discussing the Chinoike.

Sendō nodded, a trace of pain flashing through his eyes.

"Our clan is now split into two factions."

"One advocates cooperating with Kumogakure, hoping to use outside power to break free of Hell Valley's imprisonment; the other..."

"People like me only want to live in peace, but Kumogakure took our clansmen hostage to force us to fight."

Yūto frowned slightly as he listened.

Why does this sound like the Uchiha Clan?