In a secret underground chamber somewhere in Amegakure, Hanzo sat at the head of a conference table surrounded by leaders of operation teams from various villages, clearly waiting for something—or someone.
"Lord Hanzo, it seems your subordinates lack any sense of punctuality," said a Kumogakure ninja rather arrogantly, clearly showing his impatience.
Hanzo responded by crossing his arms and staring at the man. "Is that so? My subordinate has always been extremely punctual. Probably just held up by something."
Despite hearing Hanzo's calm reply, the Kumo ninja knew better than to provoke him openly. Remembering Raikage's plan well, he merely grumbled discontentedly, "I see. Then Lord Hanzo, now that representatives from all the villages have arrived, why do we continue waiting?"
Remaining expressionless, Hanzo secretly pondered, "What the hell is Island Takeshima doing? No word after leaving intelligence in the Land of Wind suggesting the operation could proceed... Could he have gone searching for the Sword of Kusanagi (Kusanagi no Tsurugi)?"
Familiar as he was with the Black-Clothed Ninja, Hanzo quickly deduced a plausible reason based on what Black-Clothed Ninja usually did.
Secretly relieved, Hanzo wasted no time issuing orders—he couldn't afford any more delays. "Leaders of Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Takigakure—our Rain ninjas will deploy one hundred elite jonin. With your two hundred jonin, we'll total exactly three hundred. Our objective is the Uzumaki clan's stronghold, Uzumaki Village, not Uzugakure itself. As for how many people each faction can extract without drawing Konoha's attention—that depends entirely on your respective abilities."
The four village leaders nodded along eagerly, all smiles on the outside but each plotting their own next move.
What they were really thinking behind those smiles? Impossible to tell.
Focused solely on strengthening Amegakure, Hanzo remained oblivious to these factions' intentions to betray him.
Rising from his seat, he declared the operation launched: "Then please, let the four of you proceed discreetly with your forces!"
"Yes, Lord Hanzo!" ×4
The four accepted their orders before exiting underground.
Emerging aboveground, they each looked upon their assembled units with strange smiles.
In the southern Land of Fire, thanks to Zetsu's "diligent work," Team One had successfully been lured here.
"Phew..." Gasping like he'd just run a marathon, Zetsu shuffled forward, panting heavily.
"Tsk!" he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Hearing sounds from behind, his steps instinctively quickened.
Over the past day and night, this engine's roar had nearly left him psychologically scarred.
Whenever he heard that sound, his legs involuntarily started sprinting.
"This kid doesn't realize this pace could kill someone. Barely any rest before revving up again," thought the very unhappy Zetsu, thoroughly resentful about this reckless treatment by a certain driving god.
Yesterday, this self-proclaimed "driving god" had driven the prototype like it was built for racing—slamming the gas and brakes nonstop.
Initially filled with despair, the hardest-working guy in the shinobi world was almost broken until the so-called driving god finally gave him a break.
No one could imagine how happy Zetsu felt at that moment.
He hadn't even caught his breath properly when he got startled by the prototype vehicle nearly sticking to his back.
And so, during those twenty-four hours serving under Lord Madara, this elite warrior found himself on an endless emotional rollercoaster.
The thoroughly enlightened Zetsu secretly swore an oath in his heart: "One must never provoke Shen Uchiha!"
Zetsu, having made this vow, felt completely shattered. After witnessing every form of betrayal imaginable in the shinobi world, he was shocked to find himself utterly helpless against what should have been mere childish antics.
This incident also intensified his deep-rooted resentment toward Lord Madara even further.
"Hahahaha! Already at your limit? I could keep this up with you for another full day!"
Listening to this car god's arrogant laughter, Zetsu's mood dropped again.
Struggling to move his legs forward, he finally understood—this deity currently driving was simply not someone an ordinary person could defeat.
This dual torment of both mind and body felt even more merciless than his creator, Madara.
"You better run faster, or I'm going to rear-end you!" The arrogant Shen actually floored the accelerator and rammed into him.
Zetsu glanced behind again, and his mentality instantly collapsed.
After getting hit from behind, he staggered slightly but recovered through sheer willpower and continued running.
Inside the prototype vehicle, the three passengers who had initially been excited now looked drowsy.
After all, since nothing unusual had happened throughout this entire day and night, they had naturally let their guard down.
As for this so-called car god, he had once been a regular overworker in his past life. If he couldn't handle such a small situation like this, how could he face his former boss?
"Hey, why aren't you done yet? Why don't you just run him over already?" Nawaki complained listlessly.
Shen rarely explained patiently to him: "Do you idiot realize just how incredible this guy's stamina is? In one full day and night, he ran from Fire Country's northern border all the way to its southern edge. Could you finish 3,000 kilometers in that time? Not only you—even if I used my Lightning Nature Chakra Mode to its fullest extent, I probably wouldn't be able to accomplish that."
"Hmm? So are you saying this person has some hidden motive then?" Orochimaru perked up upon hearing the explanation.
For a fanatic scientist like Orochimaru, a single sleepless night was practically meaningless.
Nayou also opened her eyes and looked toward the side.
Facing three sets of eager eyes, Shen naturally couldn't let them down: "Of course not! At first, I was just playing around. Later though, I discovered that this person's stamina exceeded scientific explanation. Such endurance probably surpasses even the Senju Clan!"
"..."
All three simultaneously raised their hands to cover their faces.
They finally understood this guy—so the whole time, he'd been playing around until noticing something strange about his opponent.
Feeling somewhat like their expressions had gone to waste, they all felt like they'd been played for fools.
"Erm... Anyway, you do realize exactly where we are right now, right?" Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Shen quickly changed the subject.
Nayou quickly pulled out a small scroll, unfurled it, and after scanning it with her Byakugan, declared the result: "We're already near the southeastern border of the Land of Fire. If we keep moving straight like this, we'll probably enter Uzugakure by tonight."
"Ten points to Ravenclaw—wait, scratch that," Shen interrupted himself. "So why would this guy run into an allied country like the Land of Fire? Doesn't he realize he could get surrounded and captured?"
Shen almost flubbed his line but still managed to ask two key questions.
For once, Nawaki came up with a pretty reasonable response: "Maybe he was panicking and didn't think about where he was going? You know how it is—when people panic, they'll do just about anything."
"Are you stupid or something? I've been intentionally stopping here and there to see where he's headed. Are you trying to say he's from Uzumaki Village? That's even less likely! From what I know, every member of the Uzumaki Clan has red hair unless they have genes stronger than the Uzumaki—the Senju Clan, uhm... yeah, only the Senju."
Still, Minato's blond hair was pretty unique.
"Oh right! Grandma told me once—except for her descendants, everyone else in the Uzumaki Clan has red hair. So what could that person ahead possibly want?" Finally getting the hint, Nawaki—who wasn't exactly known for deep thinking—finally caught on.
"Well then, let's keep watching closely," Shen said, holding back his suspicions.
He wouldn't say it for certain, but he was about seventy or eighty percent sure.
Shen, familiar with the original story, had never gotten over how the Uzumaki Clan had been wiped out.
At first, he'd assumed Madara was behind it, but now... maybe the real culprit was the black-clothed ninja running ahead, burning through his own cosmic energy all along.
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