Arin was fully aware that Uchiha Madara wanted to cause trouble for him.
The main reason was his influence over Nagato.
Every so often, he would send a shadow clone over to teach Nagato personally.
Of course, some of those clones had mysteriously exploded midway through the journey after "accidentally" encountering passing ninja.
Arin strongly suspected Black Zetsu and Madara were behind it.
The currently immobile Uchiha Madara was an incredibly sinister old schemer.
If Madara could still move freely, he would instead become a pure brute-force maniac. Considering all the things Arin had done, Madara would probably storm straight into Konoha and twist his head off personally.
Still, Arin did not care much.
Worst case scenario?
He would just send another clone over.
After all, he never gave his shadow clones much chakra to begin with, and he did not really need to worry about his incarnation either.
Every three months, he would secretly go refresh it once just to prevent any possibility of rebellion.
The three little brats had already grown up.
He no longer needed to pay close attention to them.
Mostly, he simply enjoyed watching the Akatsuki continue developing.
As the Akatsuki's founder, he felt he should maintain at least some sense of participation.
Following Hanzo's death, Amegakure had become leaderless.
They had no real means of stopping the Akatsuki's expansion.
The strength of Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan had now reached jonin level.
In Hunter × Hunter terms, they had reached Master-class.
Beyond that were Kage and nation-level combatants.
Meanwhile, the strongest fighters remaining in Amegakure were merely jonin-level.
After several clashes with Yahiko's group, neither side had truly gained an advantage.
At minimum, Amegakure could still retreat safely, while the Akatsuki suffered virtually no losses.
As a result, Amegakure could only watch helplessly as they continued expanding.
Even Uchiha Madara had gradually run out of methods to deal with them.
Black Zetsu knew some Wood Release, but his strength was limited.
White Zetsu at most counted as chunin-level.
More importantly—
They could not expose themselves publicly.
That was what worried Madara and Black Zetsu the most.
Nagato was slowly beginning to escape Madara's control.
And the one responsible for all of this—
Was Hyuga Arin.
Because of that alone, Arin absolutely refused to believe Madara did not want him dead.
Which was why he strongly suspected—
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen were here specifically for him.
…
Arin sat inside the command tent, studying the map of the Land of Bears before him.
If war broke out, Konoha would need to establish three defensive lines before pushing deeper into the Land of Bears, keeping the flames of war outside the Land of Fire.
Uchiha Yashiro, Uchiha Fugaku, and Uchiha Jin had each been assigned command over one of the three fronts.
Arin had no intention of removing them.
After all, he was accustomed to fighting alone.
He was not truly skilled at battlefield command.
Better not interfere recklessly.
"What do you think of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's strength?" Arin asked aloud.
Fugaku considered briefly before answering:
"The seven of them together are capable of destroying an entire small nation."
"If they join forces, they may even contend against a Kage."
Each of the seven possessed elite jonin-level strength.
Individually, every one of them could stand independently.
Together, they truly were formidable.
Arin fell into thought.
Based on his current strength, he had only just entered the Kage-tier.
Relying on his three elemental paths, he could roughly fight any Kage to a fifty-fifty draw.
If it was only the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—
He might not lose.
"From now on," Arin suddenly declared, "Fugaku will hold command authority here."
Fugaku looked up at him in shock.
He genuinely had not expected Arin to hand over command so easily.
"You're more familiar with this place anyway," Arin shrugged.
"I'm not particularly good at command."
"I specialize more in annihilation warfare."
The three Uchiha: "???"
Yashiro could not help asking:
"And… what exactly do you mean by 'annihilation warfare'?"
Wasn't that supposed to refer to one side vastly outnumbering another?
"Oh, that?"
Arin smiled brilliantly.
"It means I annihilate the entire enemy side by myself."
That was a battle strategy?!
The three stared blankly.
Forget seeing it—
They had never even heard of such a thing.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
Arin stood up.
"I suspect those seven are targeting me specifically."
The moment he finished speaking, his figure vanished instantly.
The three looked at each other in confusion.
Wait—
Why did he just leave?!
"Targeting Hyuga Arin-sama?" Uchiha Jin frowned.
"Did our intelligence leak somehow?"
But then—
How had Arin known?
None of them understood.
And what exactly was Arin planning to do?!
The three hurriedly rushed outside.
…
Outside the command tent, flames materialized and condensed into Arin's figure.
He looked toward the distant Land of Bears.
Two flaming wings formed behind him.
Then he shot into the sky.
The three men who had just run out of the tent watched the figure disappear into the distant heavens almost instantly.
Their mouths slowly opened.
"So fast…"
"I never imagined Fire Release could be used for flight."
"As expected of Hyuga Arin-sama."
The three stared at the distant figure with admiration.
"Fugaku," Yashiro said solemnly, "issue the orders."
"Judging from Hyuga Arin-sama's intentions…"
"He plans to lure out the Seven Ninja Swordsmen."
Fugaku thought briefly before shouting:
"All units, move out!"
"We're reinforcing Hyuga Arin-sama!!"
"OOOH!!!"
Everyone answered in unison.
The civilian ninja looked at their Uchiha teammates in confusion.
Why had these guys suddenly become so hot-blooded?
Weren't they supposed to walk around with permanent funeral faces?
…
Arin continued flying through the sky without concealing himself whatsoever.
That was precisely the point.
He wanted them to discover him.
Because the Land of Bears bordered the sea, the entire nation was shrouded in dense mist, with forests covering most of its territory.
Arin activated his Byakugan.
The mist could not obstruct his vision.
He eventually found an open area and descended onto a large stone, quietly waiting.
He did not wait long.
Figures gradually emerged from the distant forest, rapidly approaching his location.
They remained roughly ten kilometers away from him.
Having Byakugan really was unfair.
"So it's not just the Seven Ninja Swordsmen…"
Arin sighed softly.
"Looks like Konoha's intelligence wasn't very accurate."
Aside from the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, numerous Kirigakure ANBU were also moving rapidly according to the trajectory Arin had flown through the sky.
Soon, Mist ninja began appearing before him one after another.
At the front walked seven bizarre-looking ninja carrying oversized blades.
"Hah! So you're the so-called Flame Demon?"
Munashi Jinpachi, wielder of the Explosion Blade: Shibuki, spoke arrogantly.
"You're just some brat."
"And yet Kumogakure got scared shitless by you?"
"Hahaha! What a joke!"
"Brat, aren't you running after seeing the great Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
"Just kill yourself already, kid."
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen continued shouting arrogantly with extremely overbearing expressions.
Yet despite their loud mouths—
They stopped at a distance instead of charging immediately.
Arin slowly swept his gaze across them all.
"That's everyone?"
Including the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, there were only thirty-seven people total.
"…Aren't you underestimating me a little too much?"
How exactly did Madara and Black Zetsu think this group could kill him?
Were they dreaming?
✨ Bonus Chapter Goals ✨
10 Reviews = 1 Bonus Chapter
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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