The biting wind howled like knives scraping against skin, bringing both pain and torment.
Yet for Nii Yugito, the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, this was merely routine.
Huddled in a corner during the onset of winter—a season even harsher in the Land of Lightning—she wore only a thin, coarse hemp garment, her filthy hair stiff as iron.
"Lady Yugito, please eat something," a jonin urged, stepping forward.
Yugito glanced up, and the jonin instinctively recoiled, as if facing a terrifying beast.
With effort, she forced a smile.
"Leave the food. I'll eat outside."
In Kumogakure, Jinchūriki weren't universally despised, but half the village still feared them.
When humans fear something, their instinct is to flee. But when they realize the object of their fear won't harm them...
They turn that fear into malice.
That was Yugito's understanding.
Even the Raikage's strict orders couldn't suppress the villagers' hostility. Malice made them feel safe.
But Yugito's Two-Tails seal had always been unstable. Those who directed malice at her were reduced to ashes by its backlash.
Naturally, this deepened the fear—both the villagers' and the shinobi's—toward her.
It was why she looked as she did now.
Even the Basic Internal Energy Technique, which allowed her to harness the tailed beast's power, couldn't erase years of ingrained terror.
Self-loathing wasn't so easily undone.
When the jonin brought the food, she ate the gradually cooling meal, her heart whispering a wish:
"May the next one not end up like me."
She was beyond saving.
A failed Jinchūriki, incomparable to B, who could still suppress the Eight-Tails within him.
She had long embraced death.
That was why Kumo had sent her here.
The vanguard was a suicide squad, and she was part of it.
As for tailed beast recovery?
That would be Kumo's problem afterward.
Her role was simply to buy the village a fleeting advantage.
Just as she resigned herself to this brief life's end—
"ENEMY ATTACK!!"
A roar echoed in the distance.
Yugito staggered to her feet.
"They found us?"
This location was supposed to be secret, known only to Kumogakure's forces.
From the cliff's edge, she watched a white crescent weave through the shinobi below, its slashes unstoppable.
Kumo's forces were being slaughtered.
"The White Fang of Konoha... They're treating me as quite the threat."
She didn't know how Konoha had learned of their position.
But—
"If I take down the White Fang here..."
Blue flames erupted across her body, black markings spreading like ink.
"...Kumo gains the upper hand in this war."
The inferno coalesced into a colossal twin-tailed cat.
"KONOHA'S WHITE FANG!!"
Her scream tore through the air.
Below, the White Fang bisected a jonin mid-swing, leaving two wounded jonin momentarily untouched.
He looked up just as the flaming Matatabi pounced from above, burning claws raking downward.
With a single step, the White Fang blasted backward, shouting:
"You handle this!!"
Yugito heard him—and knew other Konoha shinobi lurked nearby.
But it didn't matter. Killing the White Fang would make everything worth it.
Her landing shattered the ground as she lunged toward him.
Hidden behind a boulder, Kin Uchiha sighed.
"Wasn't the White Fang supposed to take point? Why am I stuck with the hard part?"
Without the White Fang drawing attention, Kin was quickly spotted by the remaining Kumo shinobi.
They surrounded him instantly.
"Hey there," Kin greeted cheerfully.
The Kumo-nin weren't in a friendly mood. Swords were drawn, hands flew through seals—these were shinobi of lightning and blades, far beyond the samurai of the Land of Iron.
Blades and thunder engulfed Kin—
But he'd already leaped to higher ground.
Then—
BOOM!!
The spot where he'd stood erupted in an explosion. Dust billowed, obscuring vision.
When it cleared, Kin stood atop a dead tree in the distance, his Sharingan blazing crimson.
Eighteen targets locked.
Two severely wounded jonin. Five chunin. Eleven genin.
"Quite the welcoming party," Kin muttered.
His sword left its sheath in a flash.
CLANG!
He blocked the strike of a Kumo jonin, whose injuries barely hindered his reflexes. The jonin's free hand formed a seal.
"Lightning Release: Thunderball Jutsu!"
A sphere of lightning detonated between them.
Kin's body stiffened from the shock—but the jonin's own form ruptured first, the backlash amplifying the blast.
"BAM!"
A shadow clone disintegrated under the lightning, its hidden explosive tags wasted.
"Pity."
Kin emerged from a chunin's shadow—Shadow Merging Technique—locking eyes with a genin.
The genin's pupils dilated as the Sharingan spun.
"Genjutsu: Unknowing Fire!"
The genin turned on his comrades, only to be knocked unconscious by a chunin.
"Sharingan. Uchiha," the second jonin growled, attacking without hesitation.
Surrounded, Kin moved faster.
"Moon Breathing."
"Second Form: Crimson Moonlit Play!"
His body spun, unleashing two crescent slashes adorned with smaller lunar blades.
The two jonin blocking them widened their eyes—
The force drove them backward.
Before they could recover, Kin's Sharingan filled their vision.
The first jonin screamed as phantom flames seared his nerves. Kin's blade followed—
But the second jonin bit his tongue, breaking the illusion in time to parry.
Kin's smirk widened.
"Moon Breathing: Eternal Night, Lonely Moon - Infinite!"
His sword danced, releasing a storm of crescent blades.
The second jonin couldn't stop them all.
He watched, helpless, as his comrade was shredded.
"One jonin down."
The skirmish had lasted mere seconds—too fast for the others to intervene.
Kin and the last jonin crossed blades once more.
The remaining Kumo-nin charged.
Kin grinned.
The battle had only just begun.
...
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(End of Chapter)