"Alright, move in. Watch for the Uchiha sentries—do not alert them!"
After giving the order, Hakuya led his men, creeping toward the Uchiha encampment. The night cloaked their approach perfectly. The forest was pitch-black—impenetrable to ordinary eyes—but ninja could move within the dark.
Silently slit the throats of the Uchiha inside, and the Hagoromo would be finished.
With that thought, the Hagoromo slipped smoothly to the edge of the Uchiha camp. From the tents, they occasionally heard someone turn over in their sleep, even the whispers of children. That only reassured them they were in the right place.
"Go!"
Hakuya flashed a look. He burst into a tent, blade first, and drove his weapon without hesitation into the head of the sleeper within.
Once he struck, the rest of the Hagoromo swarmed the tents and set to killing. Kunai pierced skulls and throats.
But before they could celebrate the slaughter of what they thought were most of the Uchiha elites, the "corpses" in front of them puffed into white smoke.
With a bang, the bodies scattered into chunks of wood on the ground.
"Substitution Technique! Not good—fall back!"
Hakuya understood instantly: a trap. He turned to withdraw with his men—but the moment they rushed outside, torchlight flooded the camp. A wall of Uchiha blocked every exit, flames flickering in a ring around them.
A group stepped forward from the crowd. At the front stood Kaede and Tajima. Behind them were Kaede, Izuna, and three other Uchiha bearing Mangekyō: Jingliu, Jingshui, and Dun.
"What… what is this!?"
Hakuya's face twisted, as if he'd just swallowed pounds of filth. Under the torches, his features grew even more grotesque, like a demon from a tale.
"Obviously, you walked into our trap," Tajima said with a smile.
"Spare me. I know it's a trap," Hakuya snapped back, "but how did you know we would strike your camp—and how could you set it to snare us so precisely?"
"It's simple," Tajima replied. "You're arrogant. You think your power is unrivaled. You've fought the Uchiha before—back when we were strong, yes, but not unstoppable. You also think we exhausted ourselves fighting the other clans. Many clans are in decline, and you assumed the village we're building is to let those declining houses survive. But you underestimated us and overestimated yourself.
"Your strength is decent—but you're all bluster. If Kakigi had led the raid, I wouldn't have been sure you'd blunder into our encirclement. But with you, I had absolute certainty—because our lord, Kaede, had already unraveled your movements and seized them in the palm of his hand."
Tajima's respect for Kaede was written across his face. Once, he'd admired Kaede only for overwhelming strength; now his respect came from the heart. Kaede's planning had spared the Uchiha a costly frontal battle with the Hagoromo and reduced casualties. The Hagoromo were no trifling force—certainly more than three ordinary clans combined.
"My lord…"
At those words, Hakuya looked toward Kaede—and began to tremble. What he felt was a crushing, indescribable power. Before that power, even the will to resist wouldn't rise in his chest.
Firefly versus moonlight—such was the gap.
The Uchiha had someone this strong?
Only one thought echoed in Hakuya's mind: "We shouldn't have come."
Kakigi had warned him: marching on the Uchiha was walking into a net. But drunk on imagined victory, Hakuya hadn't listened—and now here they were.
He had meant to fight to the last, to show the Uchiha their ferocity even in death. But seeing Kaede, he finally understood what it meant to be an ant.
They were ants.
Before a true giant, the weak shouting of insects is laughable.
"W-we surrender. The Hagoromo are willing to submit to the Uchiha," Hakuya declared at last.
He didn't feel humiliated. With a powerhouse like this among the Uchiha, following might make them stronger. They would learn the Uchiha's techniques and secrets, lie low in the shadows, and avoid the eyes of giants. A human life lasts, at most, eighty or ninety years. When this Uchiha titan eventually died, the Hagoromo could devour the Uchiha and grow greater still.
So while it looked like the Uchiha had won today, in the long run—so Hakuya thought—the Hagoromo would be the ones wearing the wedding robes.
"Yes, we surrender," the other Hagoromo echoed at once. They had all given up. Throwing away their lives here would only see them turned into pincushions by kunai and shuriken. Dying for the clan could be glorious; dying for nothing was just foolishness.
"Oh? Submit to us?" Kaede's voice was calm as he stepped forward.
(End of Chapter)
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