An Uchiha shinobi darted swiftly through the forest.
Suddenly—
Whoosh!
The sound of something slicing through the air rang out.
Forced to halt in the face of the incoming kunai, the Uchiha took a backward step and looked toward the two figures who had appeared opposite him.
Two shinobi from Iwagakure.
"An Uchiha?"
The two Iwa ninja seemed to think of something and burst out laughing.
"I never thought you Uchiha would still be this loyal to Konoha. Truly impressive."
"So tell me—does it feel good to risk your life for Konoha, only to be sold by Konoha in return?"
"Back then, Senju Tobirama sold out Uchiha Kagami. Say… don't tell me Konoha sold you out too? Otherwise, there's no way you'd be isolated here alone. Don't you think?"
These Iwagakure shinobi did not care whether the rumor was true.
They only knew that it was useful for ridiculing an Uchiha to his face.
And as expected, the Uchiha's expression darkened instantly at those words.
The two Iwa ninja kept jeering.
"I almost feel sorry for you Uchiha."
"You've got such a powerful clan, such a special Kekkei Genkai, and yet Konoha still doesn't treat you as one of their own. You get the most dangerous missions and the worst reputation."
"If it were me, I'd have quit already."
"Why not come join Iwagakure?"
"We wouldn't treat our own people like that."
"Marry into Iwa and I'll personally vouch for you!"
The Uchiha's eyes turned blood-red.
"You're courting death!"
He could hear it clearly. The Iwa ninja were not sincerely inviting him at all.
They were simply mocking him.
To begin with, he had already been uncertain about the rumor surrounding Uchiha Kagami.
He hadn't gone on strike like those dozen others—
But suspicion had taken root in him, and he did want to know what had truly happened back then.
Now, the ridicule from these two Iwa shinobi struck directly at that sore point.
In an instant, his hands formed seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The Iwa ninja had already been prepared.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
A wall of earth rose up, blocking the Great Fireball completely.
The other Iwa ninja used that opportunity to attack from the side.
One against two—he had already been at a numerical disadvantage.
And under the taunts of the Iwa shinobi, his emotions had quietly slipped out of control. Anger clouded his judgment, and he failed to make the best possible response.
Puchi!
A kunai plunged into the back of his neck.
Then it was pulled free.
Blood sprayed out.
The Iwa ninja did not even dodge. He simply wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and looked at the collapsing Uchiha with a grin.
"They say Uchiha ninja are impressive. Looking at you now… not so much."
Hearing that, the Uchiha—clinging to only his final thread of life—felt even more furious. But with death already upon him, unable to move even a finger, all that fury could only dissolve into bitterness.
"Why has our Uchiha clan ended up like this?"
"We have such a special Kekkei Genkai."
"We should have been the favored children of heaven."
"So where did it all go wrong?"
Elsewhere—
Another Uchiha shinobi saw it with his own eyes.
Just as an Iwagakure ambush descended, the Konoha shinobi who should have been by his side—who should have been fighting alongside him—suddenly withdrew.
And the Iwa ninja did not pursue them in the slightest.
It was as though the two sides had already reached some kind of silent understanding.
His so-called Konoha comrades had personally delivered him into Iwagakure's hands.
"Shameless! Utterly shameless!"
"This is the battlefield! Konoha and Iwagakure are at war, and yet these people are colluding with the enemy just to get me killed?"
"Does Konoha really want the Uchiha dead that badly?"
"Damn it! Damn it!"
"But the more they want that… the less I can afford to die!"
A fighting spirit unlike anything before erupted from him.
"Kill!"
He threw one hundred percent of his focus and strength into battle.
Only when there was no one left standing before him did he slowly return to himself and look at the corpses on the ground—
The very Iwagakure shinobi who had come to kill him.
He gasped for breath, then turned and looked toward distant Konoha.
"I survived."
"Are you disappointed, Konoha?"
"This time… I've finally seen you for what you really are."
"This matter will not end here."
After the Uchiha left, two figures stepped out from hiding, both wearing animal masks.
"Looks like the operation succeeded. Let's go back and report to Ebizo-sama. Hopefully the mission we completed will be of some help to the village."
"Our village's position in the shinobi world is even worse than the Uchiha's position inside Konoha."
"But we refuse to lose."
…
…
Land of Lightning.
Kumogakure.
A young shinobi was sorting through his late grandfather's belongings.
Suddenly, a suicide note slipped out.
After finishing the rest of the sorting, the young man took the note to the courtyard outside, tore it open, pulled out the letter within, and began reading it carefully, word by word.
The more he read, the stranger his expression became.
"I need to see the Raikage-sama."
The young ninja arrived at the Raikage Building.
"Let him in."
Before long, he was led upstairs and entered the Raikage's office after knocking.
The Fourth Raikage sat behind his desk in a broad, imposing posture.
His rough, burly appearance seemed oddly out of place in an office like this.
But appearances were only appearances.
Whether it had been the Third Raikage or the Fourth, both looked crude on the surface while in truth being extremely meticulous. Their outer image was only a disguise.
"What is it?"
"Raikage-sama, while sorting through my grandfather's belongings today, I found this suicide note. I believe the contents may be of some use to the village."
The Fourth Raikage lifted a brow.
"Let me see."
"Yes, Raikage-sama."
Not long after, the Fourth Raikage's eye caught the key line—
—I personally saw Senju Tobirama and Hiruzen Sarutobi sell out Uchiha Kagami.
He immediately connected it to the recent rumor spreading through the Land of Fire.
After all, Iwagakure was not the only village fighting Konoha.
In truth, the Third Great Ninja War was a chaotic melee.
Taking Konoha as an example, it had fought Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure alike.
Naturally, the Fourth Raikage kept a close eye on Konoha's affairs.
And the Uchiha were an especially unusual case within Konoha.
"This suicide note wasn't forged. Then the contents must be true."
"In that case… does that mean the rumor in the Land of Fire is true as well?"
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
patreon.com/Inkveil_