Not far from the village entrance, a crowd of Konohagakure villagers watched Shingetsu’s back disappear into the dense forest, then let out a collective sigh of relief.
“That guy… he’s finally gone!”
“Thank goodness!
I felt sick every time he walked past me.”
“Exactly!
He’s nothing but a useless piece of trash with no chakra, but he still looks at us like we’re beneath him!”
“Heh.
The Uchiha Clan really is arrogant.
Even a good-for-nothing acts like that!”
“Thank the Hokage!
That jinx is finally gone!”
“Damn it… what are those bastards saying?!”
At the Uchiha Police Force, Fugaku, who had deliberately stayed behind, was furious.
He was just about to step forward and teach those foul-mouthed fools a lesson.
“Calm down, Captain Fugaku.”
Beside him, Hiashi Hyūga stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves and said evenly, “Konoha has no precedent for punishing people just for what they say.”
“If you act on impulse, it will reflect very badly on the Uchiha Clan.”
Fugaku gritted his teeth.
“I don’t care about that.
I just can’t stomach it!”
He had only just lifted his foot when,
“Hizashi, go beat up everyone running their mouth.”
“Yes, big brother.”
Whoosh.
Hizashi Hyūga rushed out.
As someone skilled in the Hyūga Gentle Fist, facing a crowd of ordinary villagers was like a tiger among sheep.
In no time at all, he had knocked dozens of people to the ground.
Groans filled the ground.
“Hy… Hyūga… why…”
“We didn’t offend the Hyūga clan… You can’t just attack us like this…”
“I’m going… I’m going to complain to the Hokage Building!”
“You’re just from the branch family.
Ah!!”
The last speaker’s palm was crushed under Hizashi’s foot.
“Your position makes it inconvenient for you to act.
We can.”
As Hiashi spoke, he slowly walked toward the crowd.
“I am Hiashi Hyūga of the Hyūga main family.
I am the one who had you beaten.”
“As for the reason…”
“I simply didn’t like the look of you.
Go complain if you want.”
After saying that, he walked back to Fugaku, who was still a little stunned.
“According to Article Six of Konoha’s Public Security Regulations, Hizashi, the one who attacked you, is not a ninja.
This only counts as ordinary disorderly conduct.
At most, he’ll be detained for seven days.”
Expressionless, Hizashi walked over and offered himself up for arrest.
“Why?
I heard Shingetsu at the Academy…”
Hiashi smiled faintly.
“I already told you.
I just can’t stand people gossiping behind someone’s back.”
“I hate Shingetsu Uchiha.
Sooner or later, I’ll defeat him openly and properly, then trample him underfoot!”
“Have you ever said that to Shingetsu’s face?”
Hiashi’s cheeks flushed almost imperceptibly.
“That isn’t important.”
Fugaku smiled knowingly and placed a hand on Hizashi’s shoulder.
“Bonds between young people really are awkward… Don’t worry.
I’ll take good care of Hizashi.”
“Let’s go.
Think of it as spending a few days resting at the Police Force.”
Hizashi looked back at Hiashi.
He knew nothing would happen to him at the Police Force, but once his brother went home, their father would definitely punish him harshly.
“Big brother… I’ll go back with you.”
Hiashi shook his head.
“I’ll prove that he was wrong.”
Hizashi’s memory returned to that day.
Under pressure from the clan, they had no choice but to seek out Shingetsu.
They wanted to challenge him and prove the strength of the Byakugan.
The Clan Head stubbornly believed Shingetsu’s victory over Fugaku had merely been an act staged by the two of them.
Shingetsu did not accept.
He did not even look Hiashi in the eye.
When they passed each other, he said,
“A useless fool who can’t even protect his own brother has no right to challenge me.”
…
Deep in the forests of the Land of Fire.
Shingetsu held a large flatbread in his mouth as he studied the map.
Lulu slept sprawled on top of the bundle, while Sakumo Hatake stayed hidden in the shadows.
After two days together, he had gained a rough understanding of Shingetsu’s strength.
Unless an enemy beyond the norm appeared, he planned to let Shingetsu handle things himself.
It would count as training.
The map Orochimaru had drawn by hand was extremely detailed, marking many important locations throughout the Land of Fire so Shingetsu could ask the nearest stronghold for help if he ran into danger.
In any other ninja village, this intelligence would be worth at least an A-rank mission.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, the sound of a sharp blade cutting through the air rang out from the forest.
A kunai flew straight toward Shingetsu.
Shingetsu tilted his head and dodged, his eyes never leaving the map.
“Heh, not bad luck, kid.”
A tall man with a scar on his face stood across the road, blocking his path.
He wore a black coat stained with dark red blood, making for a rather striking sight.
Clang, clang.
The man tapped the forehead protector on his head with his kunai and sneered, “You recognize this, don’t you?
A ninja forehead protector!”
“I’m a rogue ninja from Kusagakure.”
His voice stopped abruptly.
A pebble entered through his mouth, exited through the back of his head, and burst out in a spray of red and white.
Shingetsu walked past the man’s corpse as if nothing had happened, took two bites of his flatbread, and continued studying the map.
He had discovered that if he did not keep staring at the map while he walked, he would quickly stray from his original route.
Do I have a terrible sense of direction too?
No, it’s not my fault.
Orochimaru-sensei’s map is just too messy.
“That guy died in an instant!”
“It’s normal for an idiot to die.
In times like these, a kid who dares to travel alone with this much gear can’t possibly be simple.”
“Heh.
Judging by the depth of that brat’s footprints, that huge bundle has to weigh at least a ton!”
“He should be a ninja.
Maybe he’s from one of Konoha’s ninja clans!”
“With strength like that, is he from the Akimichi clan?”
“Or maybe he’s from that…”
Three voices whispered deep within the forest.
At this point, one of them said shakily, “Could he… be a Senju?!”
They were not ordinary Missing-nin, but members of the Prajñā Group, an assassination organization that had survived from the Warring States Period to the present day.
When the Five Great Shinobi Villages were first founded, what they wanted were the major ninja clans and famous ninjas.
Only after things had stabilized did they begin accepting civilians.
As for some smaller ninja clans that were not accepted by the Five Great Shinobi Villages, or were unwilling to join a ninja village, they continued living by the old rules of the Warring States Period.
The Prajñā Group originated from the Prajñā clan of the Land of Woods.
Back then, that entire region had been the territory of the Senju of the Forest.
A mere thirty years was nowhere near enough to erase their fear of the Senju.
The leader was silent for a moment, then shook his head.
“Probably not.
The Senju of the Forest generally aren’t bloodthirsty.
Even with enemies, they usually give them a chance to surrender.”
“Maybe this Senju is special.
Why don’t we…”
“Shut up and listen to me!”
“Oh, right…”
“I barely sensed any chakra from him.
We can’t rule out the possibility that he’s just a country bumpkin born with a bit of strength.”
“If that alone is enough to call him a Senju, then I might as well say he’s so good-looking that his surname is Uchiha!”
The leader sneered, raised his kunai, and licked it.
“We’ve been following him for two days.
It’s not just the supplies.
I also noticed he’s carrying more than ten thousand ryō in silver!”
“That sword at his waist is good stuff too.
It’ll sell for at least a hundred thousand ryō!”
“There’s definitely risk, but the payoff is big.”
“Things outside are getting more and more unstable.
Once we finish this job, we can head back to the Land of Woods, get some rest, and lie low for a while.”
“What do you two say?”
The other two exchanged looks, thought it over, and nodded.
Dusk.
Seeing the sky darken, Shingetsu put down his bundle and prepared to set up his tent.
Even while traveling, he cared about the quality of his sleep.
There was no way he would simply lean against a random tree stump and sleep there.
He had just untied the bundle when,
Bang!!
The ground beneath his feet suddenly split open, and a mud-covered hand grabbed Shingetsu’s ankle.
“Earth Release: Earth Spear Technique!”
At the same time, several earthen spears whistled toward him from nearby, their sharp tips cutting through the dim light of the setting sun.
Not Subterranean Voyage Technique.
There’s no follow-up pulling force.
Not Double Suicide Decapitation Technique either.
The earth spears are crudely shaped.
Not Iwagakure style.
Wandering ninja, maybe…
Shingetsu thought it over.
The ones best at Earth Release were, of course, Iwagakure.
Orochimaru had demonstrated Iwagakure-style Earth Release for him before, and it was very different from what he was seeing now.
Experienced ninja could judge an opponent’s origins from the power and form of the ninjutsu they used.
This feeling…
It was probably like seeing someone wearing suspenders and shrugging their shoulders, then instantly knowing what school they came from.
One under his feet, one twenty meters ahead, and another hiding in the shadow of a tree trunk behind him.
The corner of Shingetsu’s mouth lifted slightly.
Finally… he had run into someone a little interesting.
He stuffed the black cat into the bundle, tied it shut, and tossed it onto the crown of a nearby tree.
Then,
BOOM!!!!
His fist fell, and the earth split open!
The man hidden underground still had a smug smile on his face when he met a pair of eyes looking down at him from above.
Cold, with a trace of a vicious smile.
“Caught you…”
The moment those words fell, the hand gripping Shingetsu’s ankle was grabbed in return.
An unstoppable force surged through him, and his whole body was ripped out of the ground like a radish pulled up by the roots.
His arm made a dull, teeth-grating sound.
Dislocated.
The bone seemed broken too.
His scream was swallowed by the rushing wind as he was hurled straight toward the third person hiding in the shadows.
Among the tree shadows, the leader’s pupils shrank sharply.
Before he could even curse, he leapt backward in a sorry state, not daring to take the human projectile that had once been his own comrade.
BOOM!!!
Seeing his underling smash through the tree trunk he had been hiding behind, the leader’s scalp went numb.
Are you kidding me?!
That really is the monstrous strength technique of the Senju Clan!!
There’s no way we’re that unlucky, right?!
Shingetsu caught one of the flying earth spears in passing, then flung it back at the caster with a backhand throw.
Too fast!!
There was almost no gap between the moment his eyes saw it and the moment pain came from the earth spear piercing his shoulder blade.
Before he lost consciousness, disbelief still lingered on his face.
Before the dust had even settled, Shingetsu cut through the storm of shattered leaves, his figure rapidly enlarging in the leader’s terrified eyes.
Just as the leader tried to form hand seals, a foot had already stepped onto his chest, pinning him to the ground.
A faint smile touched Shingetsu’s lips as his fist smashed toward the man’s neck.
“You hid pretty well.
Hide better in your next life.”
Bang!!
Blood and flesh flew everywhere.