"No need to chase."
As the other Sand Village members rushed over, Minato had already taken the Leaf Village Chunin and departed, completely ignoring the pursuit opportunity and simply leaving.
Yuji raised his hand, stopping the other Sand Village members from continuing after them.
After arranging for the others to maintain their guard over the headquarters, he immediately brought the Hyuga clan member back to a tent in the camp.
He performed the cranial surgery and then summoned Kimu and the others to join them. His own tent had been damaged during the fight between the Uchiha clan members and Minato. After a considerable amount of time, the surgery was complete.
Like the Uchiha clan members, the Hyuga who had fought him had also been transformed.
He had originally planned to rush to the Konoha battlefield. His presence on the Sand Village's side still carried meaningful weight for the battle situation, and the Military Music Dream could also be deployed to considerable effect in a large-scale engagement.
But his concern about Minato's capabilities made him set the idea aside. Better to be cautious.
If Minato launched a counterattack inside the headquarters and managed to take away even one or two of the experimental subjects he had worked so hard to acquire, the loss would be severe. Five Uchiha and one Hyuga.
These people represented future combat power for the Hidden Sand Village and were critical to whether the village's capabilities could be meaningfully upgraded. Losing even one was unacceptable.
"Keeping these people at the front-line headquarters means constant monitoring is required. Minato's Flying Thunder God is still too difficult to account for completely. Even relying on my own chakra and perception, I cannot guarantee I can sense him at any moment.
And I myself will be tied down by these experimental subjects and unable to enter the battlefield freely."
"Therefore, the best solution is to send them back to the village first."
Inside the tent, the six transformed individuals, led by Kimu, stood with their gazes fixed forward. Yuji considered a secondary concern as he looked at them. Allowing these six people into the Sand Village would inevitably produce some reaction among the senior officials.
The Sand Village and Konoha had accumulated considerable enmity over many years, and the emotions of a long war were deeply ingrained. If the villagers found out about this, there would almost certainly be some kind of response.
A chain reaction was possible.
The ninja world at this point in time still operated on deeply ingrained xenophobic principles. The kind of openness that would come after the Fourth Great Ninja War had not yet arrived.
Every village remained relatively closed to outsiders, especially those who were currently enemies.
"We proceed secretly for now," Yuji decided internally.
The village's senior officials were no longer dominated by the hardline faction that had existed under the Third Kazekage. The remaining officials who held more conservative views were at least more persuadable than their predecessors.
The primary concern was the reaction of the general ninja population and the villagers themselves. Therefore, his plans regarding these subjects could not be made public yet.
Time moved quickly toward evening.
Intelligence from the ninja network arrived. Their war with Konoha had ended for the day. Konoha had withdrawn first.
Judging from the battlefield situation, this second engagement had been extremely fierce, with casualties on both sides far exceeding those of the first battle. However, the Sand Village and Konoha had fought to an effective draw. There was no clear winner.
Kimu and his group had been captured and transformed, and a Hyuga clan member had been added to the collection. Even so, in a direct head-on confrontation with Konoha, the Sand Village had not managed to establish any decisive advantage. Konoha's reserves of strength were still substantial.
Of course, his own absence from the battlefield had to some degree reduced the advantage the Sand Village army could have created.
"Did the enemy use the medicinal resources they previously stole from us?"
"No."
"They transferred them to the other battlefields."
Konoha had understood the strategic value immediately and redirected those resources where they were most needed.
Shortly afterward, Shimizu and Sasori led the surviving Sand Village soldiers back to headquarters. The three of them entered the tent together.
Before Shimizu could even begin reorganizing his thoughts, he went to examine the results of what had occurred at the headquarters.
He saw several Uchiha and a Hyuga clan member, all standing there like wooden dummies with empty eyes.
As Shimizu listened to Yuji's account of the events and the arrangements that had been made, his brain processed the information with a slight delay.
"Are you certain they are truly not in danger? Their self-awareness and their thinking ability, is it possible that..."
Shimizu regained his composure and asked the question with undisguised incredulity.
"This is not ninjutsu," Yuji said with a smile. "I performed certain modifications on their brains through surgery, purely in the physical sense. With my surgical skills, you can rest assured."
Beside him, the cold-faced Sasori, arms crossed, showed a rare flicker of something in his eyes.
After all, without any ninjutsu involved, through surgery alone, achieving this level of result was somewhat beyond what either of them had considered possible.
The human brain was undoubtedly a complex and intricate organ, containing countless nerves invisible to the naked eye, each with functions that remained largely unknown.
For someone to understand it clearly enough to produce targeted and precise modifications, and to achieve the desired surgical outcomes reliably, was extraordinarily difficult even within the framework of ninjutsu.
Through conventional surgery alone, it should have been impossible by any reasonable standard.
"Is medical treatment more powerful than normal surgery? How can a single surgery be performed at a level that even ninjutsu cannot handle?"
"I heard there were two more Uchiha clan members you killed," Sasori said, turning his head to confirm.
"Yes."
"Where are the bodies?"
"Left with Konoha."
Sasori's eyes went cold. A brief silence followed.
"The Uchiha clan and Konoha are currently at odds with each other," Yuji explained. "Their situation within the village is already somewhat delicate, and the clan still harbors deep resentment toward the village's senior officials.
I left those two corpses for them to find, to further intensify the existing conflict between the Uchiha clan and Konoha's leadership."
Sasori stood in his tattered combat gear, saying nothing for a moment. In this great war against Konoha, the burden of the main engagement had fallen heavily on his shoulders.
Without his capabilities on the battlefield, the Sand Village might not have managed to fight Konoha to a draw. Konoha's decision to withdraw had also been partly because the true objective of this particular engagement had been the rescue of the Uchiha clan members. Since that mission had failed, they needed to find another approach.
"These Uchiha, and this Hyuga clan member," Sasori said, not bothering to be indirect about it. He pointed. "I want them."
"They have other uses," Yuji said.
"Do not rush. After this matter is resolved, Konoha will certainly send more Uchiha and Hyuga clan members to the front lines. I will find a way to prepare some for you later. As for these ones..."
"You want to bring them back to the village?" Shimizu said, completing the thought.
After all, Yuji had not killed them, had not taken their eyes, but had left them alive. His intentions were not difficult to read.
"You would not be planning to..." Shimizu's eyelid twitched.
"That is correct," Yuji said, understanding exactly what Shimizu was thinking, and nodded.
Shimizu was speechless.
Sasori also understood Yuji's intentions now.
"First, setting aside how Konoha or the wider ninja world might react to this, within the village itself there will almost certainly be dissenting voices," Yuji said.
"External factors do not need to be the first consideration. Now that the Great Ninja War has fully begun, every village is consumed with its own survival. Chaos reigns across the ninja world. Essentially, no one has the means or the energy to intervene in what another village is doing internally.
All focus is on the greater struggle and achieving victory in their own conflicts. Even if other parties knew about this, they would not have the capacity to get involved in something they would consider a minor matter. The only party capable of making significant moves against us is Konoha."
He continued.
"As for internal village affairs, for now we find a way to keep this matter suppressed. Then, after the new kage takes office, everything will naturally fall into place."
After saying this, Yuji and Shimizu exchanged a look. Both expressions were serious.
Shimizu noticed the slightly unusual quality in Yuji's emotions and felt something stir in his own chest.
"In other words," Yuji said after a brief silence, "the new kage must be one of the three of us. Only then can this matter be settled properly."