*WHOOSH!*
The flames washed past Madara, incinerating everything on either side of him. After more than ten seconds, the fire subsided. Madara moved the fan aside, completely unharmed.
"Is that the Flame Fan passed down through the Uchiha clan?" A gray-haired man of about fifty leaped down from above, flanked by a fierce-looking ninja of a similar age. They were none other than the heads of the Sarutobi and Shimura clans: Sarutobi Furukawa and Shimura Keizo.
"The Sarutobi and Shimura clan heads have taken the field!" a Kikawa chunin cried out in surprise.
A corner of Madara's mouth curled up. He pointed his fan at the two men. "After hiding like turtles for half a month, you finally decided to come out?" he said with disdain.
For the entire half-month of fighting, Sarutobi Furukawa and Shimura Keizo had not appeared, instead directing their forces from the rear. In contrast, Madara had personally led the charge from the very first battle, hence his scornful words.
Shimura Keizo's face was cold. "Uchiha brat, I was fighting your father, Uchiha Tajima, when you were still a nobody."
"Then would you like to go join him?" As a young clan head in his early twenties, Madara hated it when people brought up age. He wasted no more words, charging forward with his fan and scythe.
***
The first rays of dawn crept through the windows, rousing the guards inside and outside the Uchiha compound to begin a new day's work. With the fighting at the front, those in the rear responsible for logistics were hardly at ease. Transporting provisions and weapons, guarding against raids from other clans—handling these matters was exceedingly complex. Izuna had been gone for only one night, and a mountain of tasks had already piled up, showing just how busy things were.
Uchiha Takahiko arrived again with a stack of scrolls and documents for review. He wondered what he would tell the departments if Izuna was still gone. Yesterday, he had managed to put them off regarding the unfinished documents in Izuna's room with the excuse, "The Vice-Clan Head is exhausted; he will deliver them tomorrow night." If he used the same excuse again tonight, it would surely arouse suspicion.
He walked to Izuna's door and knelt as usual. "Vice-Clan Head, I've brought this morning's documents for your review," he called out.
"Mm, thank you. Bring them in," a voice replied from inside.
Uchiha Takahiko froze for a moment, then his face broke into a joyful smile. He quickly opened the door to find Izuna sitting cross-legged at his desk, brush in hand, working on the documents left over from the previous night.
"What is it?" Izuna asked, glancing sideways at Takahiko's astonished expression.
Uchiha Takahiko quickly understood the meaning behind Izuna's look and bowed his head. "It's nothing."
Izuna's message was clear: he didn't want anyone to know about his secret departure. Since no harm had come of it, Takahiko would obediently keep the matter to himself. After all, angering the Vice-Clan Head over such a trivial matter was not worth it in the slightest.
Izuna opened the documents delivered that day. The first scroll detailed Uchiha casualties and the required medical supplies. The next reported on the battle situation with the Sarutobi and Shimura clans. One piece of information caught his eye. It reported on the number of troops deployed by the Sarutobi and Shimura. Judging by the number of Jonin sent to the front lines, it was impossible to tell that they had lost over twenty of them.
Izuna understood at once. Those old foxes, Sarutobi Furukawa and Shimura Keizo, were trying to hide the severe depletion of their clan's fighting strength. In short, they were bluffing. They couldn't let other clans know they had lost so many powerful ninja, or they would surely be targeted by rivals who held grudges against them.
Izuna wouldn't deliberately have Uchiha Zuoxiu and the others spread the word either. Doing so would be tantamount to telling Sarutobi Furukawa that the Uchiha were at least partly responsible for the deaths of their twenty-odd Jonin. That would forge an unbreakable, to-the-death feud between their clans.
But this also told Izuna something else: the Sarutobi and Shimura rear territories were now vulnerable. Since they had sent almost all of their remaining high-level forces to the front, their defenses back home would naturally be weakened. It was just that very few people knew it yet.
"Takahiko, if we were to take a detour and launch a surprise attack on the Sarutobi and Shimura clan compounds, do you think that strategy is viable?" Izuna asked, his eyes still on the document.
Uchiha Takahiko paused, frowning in thought. After a moment, he replied, "I am in charge of logistics, my lord. My strategic mind is not one ten-thousandth of yours, but I believe... that would be highly unlikely."
Izuna glanced at the Warring States map hanging on his wall. It marked the locations of the Sarutobi and Shimura clan lands. Surrounded by mountains, they were easy to defend and difficult to attack. A sneak attack from the rear, over the mountains, was next to impossible. The only reason Izuna, as "Tobi," had been able to infiltrate so easily was because of the overpowered jutsu, the Flying Thunder God Technique.
*Wait a minute! The Flying Thunder God Technique...*
An idea suddenly formed in his mind. "Takahiko, you may leave," he said calmly. "I will have these documents for you by sunset."
"Yes, my lord." Uchiha Takahiko bowed and exited the room.
Once he was alone, Izuna opened the System Skill Tree. One of the columns displayed:
Skill Points: 202
[Flying Thunder God Technique (B-rank): Learned]→[Flying Thunder God Technique: Second Step (A-rank): Learned]→[Flying Thunder God Technique: Third Step (S-rank): Locked, Requires 80 Skill Points]
The Flying Thunder God Technique: Third Step was a level higher than his current Second Step, an S-rank jutsu. One of its abilities, the Flying Thunder God -- Raijin's Guidance, could open a Flying Thunder God barrier to redirect attacks, even something as devastating as a Tailed Beast Bomb. And this technique could also be used to teleport people inside the barrier—like an entire army!
Another technique, the Flying Thunder God -- Mutually Instantaneous Revolving Technique, was a step beyond teleporting to a marked object; it allowed him to swap places with a marked object. It was practically a weaker version of Amenotejikara—another ridiculously overpowered jutsu. With that, he could move an army, completely undetected.
However, he had already used the Flying Thunder God Technique multiple times as "Tobi." He intended to keep it as "Tobi's" signature jutsu. Although Hagoromo Masanari and the former heads of the four northwestern clans who had seen "Tobi's" Flying Thunder God were all dead, those two old foxes, Shimura Keizo and Sarutobi Furukawa, were still alive. Even if a surprise attack succeeded, it didn't guarantee he could kill those two Kage-level ninja.
The more critical issue was the skill points. He was only a third of the way from the 300 points needed for the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. By a conservative estimate, he could get it in about a year. At this crucial juncture, even for the sake of the clan, Izuna was reluctant to spend his points on another jutsu.
If he could alleviate the strain from his Mangekyo, then delaying the exchange for the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan wouldn't be a big deal. The main problem was his current vision, which was already nearing 3.00 diopters of nearsightedness. It was incredibly frustrating. It hadn't yet started to affect his daily life, but if he were to prioritize the war-winning Flying Thunder God: Third Step over the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he had to mitigate his Mangekyo's side effects.
He did have options. One was the Sage Art scroll he got from the Jugo clan. The other was... a Tailed Beast.
That's right, a Tailed Beast. From his battle yesterday, Izuna realized that as long as he didn't use his Mangekyo's unique abilities or Susanoo, the cost of simply using genjutsu was quite low. Controlling a Tailed Beast with genjutsu and then using it to fight was a good way to reduce the burden on his Mangekyo while also increasing his own power.
"Zuoxiu," Izuna said in a low voice.
The next second, a shadow appeared at his door. "Vice-Clan Head."
"From now on, your Shadow Investigation Department will investigate the whereabouts of the Tailed Beasts for me."
Uchiha Zuoxiu, standing at the door, paused, his voice filled with confusion. "Tailed... Beasts?"
Izuna glanced at him, only then realizing that in this era, the term "Tailed Beast" hadn't been fully defined yet. He explained simply, "The monsters that are concentrations of Chakra and have tails. They should be recorded in the clan's historical records, right?"
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