"Don't worry, Uncle Fugaku."
Uchiha Gen'yō's voice was remarkably steady amid the biting mountain wind, carrying a magic that compelled others to believe him.
The pitch-black scroll in his hand seemed to contain power more terrifying than a Tailed Beast Bomb.
"Once Ōnoki sees the greeting gift I've prepared for him..."
A devilish smile curled Gen'yō's lips.
"Never mind taking us in."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he dropped to his knees, clung to my leg, and begged us to become Iwagakure's overlords."
"Do you think he'll like this scroll recording all of Shimura Danzō's dirty history, along with a list of the spies Root planted in the major ninja villages?"
At those words, Fugaku and Shisui beside him instantly widened their eyes and sucked in a sharp breath!
Dirt on Danzo?
And a list of spies in all the major ninja villages?!
This was no longer a greeting gift. It was a super-bomb powerful enough to unleash a bloody storm across the entire Shinobi World!
A sheen of cold sweat formed on Fugaku's forehead. He finally understood that, from the beginning, Gen'yō's ambitions had gone beyond simply finding somewhere to stay.
He wanted to speak to the Kage of a major ninja village as an equal-or even from a position above him!
"But Gen'yō, how are we going to get this into Ōnoki's hands?"
Fugaku quickly calmed down and raised the most crucial question.
"We're at the border, in unfamiliar territory. If Iwagakure's patrols discover us, they might attack without even hearing us out."
"Going straight to their doorstep is too dangerous."
"Who said we were going to their doorstep?"
Uchiha Gen'yō scoffed, looking at him as though he were an old fossil whose thinking was still stuck in a bygone era.
"Remember, Uncle Fugaku. From the moment we left Konoha, I became the one who set the rules of the game."
"We aren't going to beg him. We're going to make him come to me!"
As he spoke, Gen'yō turned his gaze toward a dense patch of woods nearby.
His unusually shaped Mangekyō Sharingan focused slightly.
"Kamui!"
Hum!
Space warped, and a ninja bound hand and foot, with a rag stuffed into his mouth, fell out of the alternate dimension and hit the ground.
The ninja wore an Iwagakure uniform and was clearly a border patrolman. Now, faced with over a thousand pairs of scarlet Sharingan around him, he shook like a leaf in terror, his crotch already warm and wet.
He was a messenger Gen'yō had casually picked up at the border before performing the spatial transport.
"Don't be afraid. I won't kill you."
Gen'yō walked up to him and looked down at him, speaking in a tone that allowed no argument.
"I need you to deliver a message for me."
Gen'yō lightly touched a finger to the Iwagakure ninja's forehead.
"Genjutsu: Information Implantation!"
An immense surge of mental power instantly flooded the man's brain, branding a piece of encrypted information and a simple set of map coordinates deep into his memory.
Once that was done, Gen'yō untied his ropes.
"You can go."
"Go back and tell your Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of the Two Scales."
"Tell him Konoha's Root has sent him a lavish gift."
"This gift concerns Iwagakure's very survival, as well as whether he can avenge his past humiliation and trample Konoha underfoot."
"If he wants to see it, have him come alone to the coordinates I gave you."
"If he doesn't dare come, or tries anything and brings an army..."
Killing intent flashed through Gen'yō's eyes!
"Then I'll make this gift public. I'll let the entire Shinobi World admire just how thoroughly Konoha has infiltrated Iwagakure's upper ranks!"
The Iwagakure ninja was already scared out of his wits. Not daring to waste a single word, he scrambled to his feet and fled desperately toward Iwagakure, as though the god of death were chasing him.
As he watched the man's figure disappear, a trace of worry appeared on Shisui's face.
"Big Brother Gen'yō, isn't this too risky?"
"This is nothing short of an outright threat. With that stubborn old Ōnoki's temper, I'm afraid he'll be enraged and send an army straight at us."
"Enraged?"
Uchiha Gen'yō shook his head, his eyes gleaming with an insight into people's hearts.
"Shisui, you still don't understand these old men who play games of power."
"To them, saving face matters far less than their village's interests."
"I'm offering him something he's dreamed of getting his hands on. Leverage that could prove fatal to his enemy!"
"Faced with such temptation, he won't be angry. He'll be incredibly excited instead, and my arrogance will even make him a little wary and curious about me."
"Someone who can silently appear on another country's border with over a thousand people, and even obtain Danzo's core secrets. Do you think he'll treat us as ordinary missing-nin?"
Gen'yō paused, a confident smile curving his lips.
"He'll come."
"And he'll definitely come alone."
"Because he knows better than anyone that this gift absolutely cannot be seen by a fourth person!"
"Now all we have to do is wait."
Gen'yō turned around and ordered all his clansmen.
"Everyone, rest where you are!"
"Activate the detection barrier! Kill any living creature that dares come within five kilometers of us!"
"Yes!"
Three hundred Uchiha Jonin answered in unison, their voices shaking the mountain forest!
They swiftly spread an inescapable net around the valley. Surges of powerful chakra shot skyward, forming an invisible barrier that proclaimed their arrival to the entire Shinobi World!
Meanwhile, in Iwagakure, dozens of kilometers away, a storm capable of changing history was quietly brewing.
What were the first words that the fleeing Iwagakure ninja said when he saw Ōnoki?
And what astonishing decision would this Third Tsuchikage, renowned for his stubbornness, make?