The next morning, Kisuke did some simple training before heading to the gathering point.
In times of war, every ninja is a fighting asset. Even the prestigious Uchiha and Hyuga clans aren't exempt—they have to send people to the front lines to defend the village.
Of course, the higher-ups make the policies, and those below know how to work around them. Take the Hyuga, for instance. The ones they send out are almost always branch family members. With the cursed seal protecting their Byakugan, no one's worried about their precious eyes being taken—especially after a main family member was killed by a Mist ninja and had his eye gouged out.
Kisuke falls into the obedient category. Not because he's particularly noble, but because he's never revealed his Sharingan to anyone. Until he feels it's safe enough to go public, staying alive is his top priority. War is risky, sure, but ending up on Danzo little blacklist? Even worse.
This approach comes with tradeoffs. On one hand, Kisuke gets sent into some dangerous situations. On the other, his jonin leader is someone the village actually trusts. Like Obito—everyone's favorite clan "failure"—had Minato Namikaze as his jonin leader. Lucky guy.
Kisuke and Obito were classmates, but Kisuke wasn't nearly as fortunate. His own jonin wasn't some big-shot from the Yamanaka, Nara, or Akimichi clans. Instead, he got Tomihisa Kohei—utterly loyal to the Hokage, competent, but not remotely famous.
And to make matters worse, Kohei wasn't even Kisuke's first jonin. That one died gloriously while covering for his team on a mission.
Kisuke's current teammates? Nobodies. No Guy, Kurenai, Asuma, or even Genma. Just a civilian taijutsu specialist named Kenta Imai—strong, smart, and somehow still alive canon fodder—and Hyuga Aya, a branch member of the Hyuga clan with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue. A schemer, through and through.
Kisuke's relationship with them is lukewarm. No bad blood, but no heartfelt bonds either. Just another patched-together team formed from the ever-churning meat grinder of war. Over time, they completed enough missions together that Kisuke started to see their deeper motivations—and their survival instincts.
They'd all lost teammates. Many times. The only reason these three were still standing? Old-school cunning. Otherwise known as not dying stupidly for the will of fire.
"Why are you so slow? Are all Uchiha this sluggish?" Aya frowned as Kisuke arrived at the meeting point. "We've got a mission."
"Mission?" Kisuke nodded coolly, then looked around. "Where's sensei? Why are we the only ones here?"
Kenta, sitting nearby and sharpening his blade, didn't look up. "The captain left with the other jonin half an hour ago. Iwagakure's pushing hard. We've got a separate mission."
The Battle of Mount Kikyo had been brutal. Konoha barely had time to breathe after dealing with the Sand Ninjas. They'd lost 3,000 men while killing 10,000, and their forces were severely depleted. Iwagakure clearly wanted to take advantage of the situation.
Add to that the fact they'd just fought the Raikage too… Well, things weren't exactly looking great.
Officially, Minato's squad destroyed the Kannabi Bridge and cut off the enemy's supplies. But Kisuke had a feeling there was more to it. Being attacked on both sides—Konoha in front, Cloud in the rear—had probably helped a lot. Iwagakure simply couldn't keep up.
"What's our mission?" Kisuke asked, narrowing his eyes. "And who's the team lead?"
"You are," Aya said flatly, though her expression didn't hide her irritation. "Our task is to provide cover for Minato's squad."
Now that raised some eyebrows.
Militarized or not, this was a bait mission. Plain and simple. No details, no objectives—just "cover Minato." Kenta and Aya knew they were being used to draw attention, but the specifics? Not a clue.
Kisuke, however, knew exactly what Minato's team was doing: blowing up the Kannabi Bridge.
Which meant their job was to serve as walking targets. Distractions. Cannon fodder.
Think about it. Kakashi and the others barely encountered any enemies during their mission. Why? Because someone else had drawn the heat. Someone like them.
Kisuke's expression tightened. This mission reeked. He remembered a wave of Iwa-nin swarming after Obito's supposed death. That meant there had to be a distraction team. The unlucky ones.
And worse, Kisuke also recalled that Madara had taken Obito from that area. Meaning somewhere near the bridge, the old fossil was lurking with a secret base.
Not great.
Still, refusing the mission was not an option. Running away during wartime? Might as well dig your own grave—and save Konoha the paperwork.
"There are several other teams helping with this op," Kisuke muttered. "How far in do we have to go?"
"Six other teams," Aya replied quickly. "No idea how deep. We just attract and hold the enemy's attention."
Fantastic.
Kisuke cursed silently, then forced himself to stay focused. At least they weren't the only bait. With six teams total, maybe—just maybe—some of them would survive.
He'd just have to make sure it was him.
"Let's go."
Without further delay, Kisuke took the lead and ran out of the village, wasting no time.
Kenta and Aya followed quickly. There wasn't a moment to spare.
As they passed the village gates, they saw Minato's squad preparing to leave as well.
Kisuke didn't bother greeting them.
It wasn't out of malice—he had nothing against Minato, Kakashi, or the others. In fact, he actually liked them. But this mission had soured his mood. Badly.
Kenta and Aya shared the sentiment. They gave the group a quick glance before trailing after Kisuke without a word.
To avoid compromising the main operation, Kisuke's team had to separate from Minato's immediately. That meant running fast and far.
The forest loomed ahead, sunlight filtering through the branches, casting a shifting patchwork of light and shadow across the ground.
High above, three figures darted across the treetops, blurs in the dim canopy—silent, efficient, invisible. Not even the birds noticed them.
Kisuke already had a plan: reach the location first, then vanish into the landscape. With a Hyuga on the team, surveillance was easy. Step one: don't die.
After three days of travel, they crossed the border into Kusagakure. But under Kisuke's orders, they didn't join the main force.
Kenta and Aya were confused, but they didn't question him. War didn't give much room for questions.
"Take a break," Kisuke said as they reached a thick forest. He sat down to recover. They needed to stay sharp—battle could hit at any moment.
"Byakugan, activate." Without needing a prompt, Aya activated her dojutsu and scanned the surroundings. She wasn't taking chances with her own life either.
"No threats nearby," she reported quietly after a moment.
"Good." Kisuke nodded. "We've arrived in the Land of Grass and are nearing the mission zone. It's time to talk strategy. Let me ask you something—do either of you actually want to survive?"
The question hung in the air.
Kenta and Aya froze, stunned. They hadn't expected Kisuke to just say it outright. They stared at him in silence.
Anyone who could graduate from the academy and survive this long wasn't an idiot. They all knew what the mission really was—a suicide run to distract the Iwa-nin.
There were ways to survive. Skirt the borders. Pick off smaller units. Stay invisible until the war ended. Of course they'd considered it.
But saying it aloud?
That was political suicide.
Kisuke watched them with a faint smirk. He could see it in their eyes—they were thinking the same thing. But neither dared voice it.
He'd considered countless ways to ditch the mission, but each one ended the same way: as long as he was the team captain, he couldn't play it safe. Not without consequences.
Returning without results? The higher-ups would paint him as a coward or worse—blame him for "missing the opportunity to strike." They always needed someone to take the fall.
And if that meant using dead men to build heroic stories and shift public anger, so be it. Someone had to be the tragic "hero."
If Kisuke made the wrong move, he wouldn't just die. He'd be remembered as a disgrace.
And Konoha would call it justice.
A common wartime tactic was to find a few scapegoats—some poor souls to shoulder the blame, be labeled cowards, or even be accused of murdering their comrades in a moment of madness. If that didn't work, the powers that be could always take someone's sacrifice, slap a medal on it posthumously, and declare them a "hero who made great contributions to the village."
And if Kisuke truly dared to act on what he was thinking—to avoid unnecessary death, to prioritize himself—he'd just be playing right into the hands of the Konoha leadership. They didn't like the Uchiha clan to begin with; handing them an excuse on a silver platter wasn't on his to-do list.
Kisuke wouldn't do something that idiotic. More importantly, he wouldn't let his teammates even think of doing it. Whether or not they shared the same fears or thoughts didn't matter—he had to shut that line of thinking down. Immediately.
No one wanted to die, obviously. But Kisuke absolutely didn't want to be the sacrificial lamb in someone else's grand narrative either.
"What's wrong with you two?" Kisuke leaned back against a thick tree trunk, voice cool and tinged with sarcasm. "Don't tell me that simple question broke your brains."
As he spoke, one hand slid quietly behind his back, fingers slipping into his ninja tool pouch. Just in case.
Truthfully, Kisuke hoped they'd be honest. If one of them decided to get righteous and suggest something suicidal or treasonous, well... he was fairly confident he could take at least one of them down, even if it cost him. Then he'd just vanish into the trees.
But he didn't think it would come to that. Not really. Still, better paranoid than dead.
After a long moment of heavy silence, Kenta and Aya exchanged a glance. Then Aya bit her lip and said through clenched teeth, "Captain… I think you already know what this mission actually is, don't you?"
"Of course I do." Kisuke gave them both a faint smile. "Which is why I'm asking you what you think."
"We'll carry out the mission," Kenta replied, his tone light but careful. "But I think we should proceed cautiously—and lean into the fact we've got a Byakugan user on our team."
"Oh? Sensible. I like that." Kisuke slowly let his guard drop, the tension in his shoulders easing.
As expected, they didn't dare make a move. They knew full well that acting out would be seen as treason—and treason was a fast ticket to an unmarked grave.
And they weren't stupid. If Kisuke had survived this long, he wasn't some pushover. The same could be said for them. The three of them had watched teammates come and go—mostly go—and yet they remained. That said enough on its own.
Still, as they stood there, a quiet sigh seemed to pass between them, unspoken but shared all the same.
What a mess.
They'd run into others like themselves. Selfish Survivors. People who refused to die quietly. Now it was a silent competition—who could outlast the rest?
Three silver coins thrown into the fire, waiting to see who'd melt first.
"In that case, let's find a good position and do what needs to be done," Kisuke said with a low chuckle. "Kenta is right. We should put that Byakugan to good use. First, we head to the target area, then we'll let Aya scout ahead."
"No problem," Aya replied, her voice calm again. "But what do we do after that?"
Kisuke smirked. "We find a weak spot—somewhere light on enemy presence—and launch a surprise attack. Nothing too dramatic. There are other teams playing bait too, after all. Might as well let them share the spotlight."