Standing atop the ruins of Uzushiogakure, a place now covered in weeds and scars, where the remnants of the war that had destroyed both village and nation could still be seen even now, Honda Denjiro felt something he had not felt in a very long time.
Peace.
"Honda-kun, your expression has become… lighter. Why?"
Another member of the four-man deserter group walked up beside him and asked, unable to understand.
"Inoue-kun, is it?"
Honda Denjiro turned back and looked at Inoue Nobuhiko, who had chosen to defect alongside him. His stiff facial muscles barely managed to twist into a smile frightening enough to make a child cry as he said quietly, "I merely found a little comfort from the past on this destroyed land."
"Comfort?" Inoue Nobuhiko narrowed his eyes. "Back then, when Uzushiogakure was destroyed by the combined efforts of many nations and ninja clans, was Honda-kun there too?"
"Ah, yes."
Honda Denjiro took a deep breath, raised his hand, and pointed toward a corner of Uzushiogakure's ruins. With a faint trace of pride, he said, "Although I was only a brat who had just joined the Anbu back then, and I was not qualified to take part in persuading the major ninja clans to move against Uzushiogakure together, I did witness the final battle with my own eyes. I witnessed the fall of the Uzumaki clan."
"The Uzumaki clan… what a powerful ninja clan they were back then."
"With the strength of one clan, they established their own hidden village and their own nation. They cultivated many sealing technique experts, including Mito Uzumaki, Konoha's first Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. They even signed a friendship pact with Konoha's Senju clan, becoming Konoha's unwavering ally. They were so close that Konoha printed the Uzumaki clan crest on the uniforms of its jonin."
"Ah, I remember."
Listening to Honda Denjiro's memories, Inoue Nobuhiko more or less understood why the sight of Uzushiogakure's ruins could bring him some peace.
He picked up Honda Denjiro's words and sighed with emotion.
"Back then, almost everyone believed the Uzumaki clan would flourish in the shinobi world for a long time, just like the Senju clan. After all, they looked so powerful, and the bond between them was so close…"
"But when Uzushiogakure was destroyed, not a single Konoha shinobi appeared."
"When the members of the Uzumaki clan were hunted to extinction and forced to hide their names while fleeing from place to place, Konoha merely brought back the child capable of becoming the second Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. They never offered the other Uzumaki clansmen even the slightest help."
Honda Denjiro exhaled.
It was unclear whether he was continuing Inoue Nobuhiko's words or simply muttering to comfort himself, but his voice was filled with nervous intensity.
"With the relationship between the Senju and the Uzumaki, they could still sit back and watch the Uzumaki clan be destroyed. Then they openly turned all of the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques into their own collection."
"I do not believe that when they face a situation where the power of Wood Release has been stolen by their thousand-year enemy, the Uchiha clan, they can still pretend not to care."
"So, what are you planning?" Inoue Nobuhiko frowned slightly.
He vaguely saw an uncontrollable madness on Honda Denjiro's face.
"I will spread the news that Konoha has cultivated a Mangekyo Sharingan user with Wood Release through the underground black market!"
Honda Denjiro abruptly raised his head. He panted heavily, his expression deranged, his eyes bloodshot as he growled in a low voice.
"I do not believe Kumogakure will still dare sign a peace treaty with Konoha after hearing this news!
"I do not believe Onoki, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, can keep the scales in his heart balanced after facing this news!
"I do not believe Sunagakure will feel nothing after hearing that this man saved the son of Konoha's White Fang!
"I do not believe Lord Third will fail to see the opportunity hidden inside this!
"I do not believe the many smaller hidden villages, including Amegakure, Takigakure, and Kusagakure, will not fear Konoha recuperating for a few years before starting another war meant to destroy them!
"I do not believe there are no forces inside Konoha worried that they will be completely overwhelmed by the Uchiha clan, never to rise again!
"I will use this news to turn Konoha into the Uzushiogakure that was attacked by all sides back then!"
After venting with that mad roar, Honda Denjiro seemed to finally set down the burden that had been pressing on his shoulders.
He let out a long breath, turned around, and extended his hand toward Inoue Nobuhiko, who had been shocked speechless by his idea. Grinning, he said, "I know you will help me, Inoue-kun… right? After all, when the four of us were lost and had no idea what to do, you were the only one who stood forward and supported my idea of coming here to Uzushiogakure to take a look…"
Inoue Nobuhiko clenched his teeth.
Following his heart, he reached out and gripped Honda Denjiro's hand.
"I will, Honda-kun… But how do we make the people of the underground black market believe our intelligence and willingly spread it across the shinobi world?"
"I know Inoue-kun's work in the Anbu involved collecting all kinds of intelligence. In that case, you should know quite a bit about those black-market organizations that possess special methods, ones that can even extract the information they want from a dead man's brain, right?"
The smile on Honda Denjiro's face deepened.
He raised two fingers toward Inoue Nobuhiko, his gaze burning.
"Do we not still have two 'companions' who witnessed everything that happened after that Uchiha with Wood Release and the Mangekyo Sharingan entered the battlefield? Let us use those two as sacrifices to provide enough credibility for our intelligence."
"You understand, don't you? Only when the entire shinobi world is thrown into chaos will no one deliberately come after small figures like the two of us."
Looking at Honda Denjiro's chilling expression, Inoue Nobuhiko realized that in his fear and desperation, he might have boarded a pirate ship he could no longer leave.
But a pirate ship was still better than living every day in terror of that Uchiha monster coming to find him.
"I understand… However, I only know a handful of black-market organizations with that kind of ability. The closest one to us mainly operates within the Land of Fire. We will have to turn back again."
"That does not matter."
Honda Denjiro waved his hand, completely unconcerned.
"Even when we were fleeing in such a miserable state, we managed to leave the Land of Fire without being discovered. That proves how short-handed the Land of Fire is in this direction. As long as we bring out our true skills as Anbu, how could we fail to find a gap to infiltrate through on such a long border?"
"Call those two sacrifices back. I do not care if they want to kill a few wandering shinobi to vent, but if they kill too many and draw attention to our trail, that would be bad."
"Yes."
Inoue Nobuhiko nodded. He took out a special signal flare he carried and fired it into the sky. Then his hands rapidly formed seals as he shouted in a low voice.
"Water Release: Black Stacked Clouds!"
In the blink of an eye, a dark, gloomy rain cloud abruptly appeared among the originally white sea of clouds, positioned directly above Inoue Nobuhiko and Honda Denjiro.
Paired with the signal flare fired into the sky, it took less than ten seconds before a series of low thunderclaps rumbled through the sky, rolling into the distance.
After finishing all this, Inoue Nobuhiko put away the signal gun in his hand and pretended to sound relaxed.
"We have not been separated from those two sacrifices for long. After hearing this signal, they should be able to reach us within ten minutes… Should we ambush them directly and take them down, Honda-kun?"
"No. We will take them down after we infiltrate the Land of Fire and find the black-market organization you mentioned."
Honda Denjiro shook his head and said heavily, "When we fled in panic earlier, we left behind too many openings. Perhaps Konoha and the village's intelligence personnel have already noticed them. Before we spread the intelligence and throw the entire shinobi world into chaos, we still need those two sacrifices' strength to resist any pursuers who might appear…"
"Oh? Pursuers? What, were you thinking about me?"
The young voice that suddenly joined their conversation made Honda Denjiro and Inoue Nobuhiko jolt in shock.
Almost at the same time, the two of them hurled kunai and shuriken toward the direction of the voice while rapidly retreating.
After a series of crisp metallic collisions, the two men who had retreated finally saw the speaker who had silently approached them.
"It's you!?"
"That's right. It's me, Honda-senpai, Inoue-senpai~"
Rei Kaguya, who had changed back into his Anbu attire and mask, casually dropped two heads onto the ground. His tone was relaxed as he spoke to Honda Denjiro and Inoue Nobuhiko, whose expressions looked as if they had seen a ghost.
"Seeing me appear alive and kicking in front of you, do you feel even the tiniest bit happy?"
On the ground, the heads of the other two defected Anbu stared blankly at the sky.
Inside their eyes were boundless terror, despair, and, for some unknown reason, a trace of relief and surprise.