By the time Ayato and the other two arrived at the location marked on the map, the pungent smell of gunpowder and the nauseating stench of blood were violently assaulting their nostrils.
Deep within the dense forest, a large, pockmarked clearing had been brutally carved out by the warring parties.
The ground was littered with splattered blood, mutilated corpses, and severed limbs.
The three looked at the tragic battlefield with grim expressions, splitting up to quickly examine the bodies for identifiable Ninja Clan features.
Ayato, with a heart full of anxiety, checked corpse after corpse, each having met a gruesome end.
He desperately hoped not to find any familiar faces here.
Suddenly, Retsu, who was checking in another direction, shouted, “Masashi, Ayato, come quickly!
There’s a Uchiha Ninja here who still has a breath left.”
Hearing this, Ayato felt a wave of relief.
It was good that it wasn’t a Hagoromo Clan Ninja.
But please, don’t let it be an important Uchiha figure who died!
Thinking of the significance of this alliance to the Hagoromo Clan, Ayato’s heart, which had just settled, immediately tightened again.
This Uchiha, whose entire body had been blown apart by exploding tags until only his torso remained, truly had only one breath left.
When Ayato rushed over, the man’s eyes flashed with a hint of killing intent, but upon recognizing their clan emblem, his lifeless eyes seemed to instantly regain light: “Quick, hurry and save Young Master Madara.”
“Madara?!” Hearing that name, Ayato’s scalp went numb.
Why did the Uchiha Clan send their young clan head to personally deliver the alliance document?
If anything were to happen to Madara, forget about the mine or the alliance; those lunatics might hold a grudge against the Hagoromo Clan as well.
Masashi and Retsu stared blankly at Ayato, whose expression had suddenly changed.
Neither of them knew who Madara was.
After Ayato briefly explained Madara’s identity to the two, their faces instantly turned incredibly grim.
“Which direction did he go?” Ayato asked anxiously.
The Uchiha Ninja’s finger twitched, attempting to point the way for the three of them, but at this moment, even straining with all his might, he couldn’t accomplish what was normally effortless.
To convey the information quickly, he decisively gave up trying to raise his hand and frantically rolled his eyeballs, guiding Ayato with his gaze: “Th-this way…”
As soon as his voice faded, this Uchiha Ninja left the world, his eyes filled with profound regret.
Ayato gently closed the Ninja’s eyes, his expression shifting as he looked in the direction the Uchiha had indicated.
The surrounding area was dense forest, and the only clue they had was a general direction.
Finding someone based on this information alone was practically a pipe dream.
But no matter how difficult, they had to find him.
Ayato quickly assigned tasks: “Retsu, go back immediately and report this.
Have the Fourth Elder dispatch more people to help search.”
Ayato then divided the forest in that direction into two areas, left and right: “Masashi, you search the left side.
I’ll search the right.
Launch a signal flare immediately if you find him.”
Without waiting for a response, Ayato swiftly rushed into the depths of the forest.
At this moment, Madara was likely being pursued by enemy Ninja, and every second of delay increased his danger.
About thirty kilometers from the main battle site, Madara, pale-faced, clutched his continuously bleeding lower abdomen.
Even though multiple wounds all over his body were oozing blood, he dared not stop for a single moment.
The Uchiha Delegation had previously been ambushed by Ninja from the Sarutobi and Shimura Clans.
In the blink of an eye, caught completely off guard, they lost three members.
Fortunately, the two Elite Ninja whom his father had specifically assigned to the team were seasoned and quickly organized the other clansmen to fight back.
However, the enemy outnumbered them.
The two Uchiha Elite Ninja managed to destroy three Shimura squads and one Sarutobi squad at the cost of one death and one severe injury.
Seeing that the situation was dire, the severely injured Uchiha Elite Ninja immediately initiated the backup plan.
This meant that two Ninja the same age as Madara, along with Madara himself, would retreat simultaneously in three different directions to maximize the guarantee of Madara’s safety.
At the time, the two surviving Sarutobi Ninja squads immediately went after the other two Uchiha youths, but the worst part was that the strongest Ninja among them pursued Madara alone.
Thinking of the two clansmen his age, and those who sacrificed themselves without hesitation just to protect him, complex emotions welled up in Madara’s eyes.
Sorrow over the sacrifice of his clansmen, and resentment that his own strength was so weak that he could only flee miserably.
Sarutobi Taro, who was not far behind Madara, could barely conceal the savage killing intent in his eyes.
He had specifically requested to temporarily withdraw from the battlefront to take on this mission, which he had thought was a sure thing.
Unexpectedly, one mishap after another occurred.
First, Morita messed up and failed to arrive at the ambush point as planned, and then the Uchiha’s strength exceeded his expectations, resulting in heavy losses for his team.
It was fine if those few Shimura Ninja died, but the clan elites and subordinates he brought out were also mostly killed by the fiercely resisting Uchiha.
How was he supposed to explain this to the Clan Head?
Even if he completed the mission, his earned merit would likely be greatly reduced.
“So many people protected just you during the fight.
You must be an important person.”
Thinking this, Sarutobi Taro fixed his hateful gaze on Madara’s figure ahead: “If I don’t torment you severely, it will be hard to quell the hatred in my heart.”
Estimating that Madara was within the effective range of his Kunai, Sarutobi Taro immediately shot out several Kunai without hesitation, each one aimed directly at a vital point.
Madara had no choice but to turn around and pull out a Kunai to block them one by one.
Just by delaying for this brief moment, Sarutobi Taro had already closed the distance.
“Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet.”
“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.”
The wind fed the flames, and instantly, massive waves of heat surged overwhelmingly toward Madara.
The Sarutobi Clan, also famous for mastering the Five Elements Ninjutsu, had experts who could use various Ninjutsu effortlessly.
In just a single exchange, Sarutobi Taro unleashed a combination Ninjutsu.
Madara, who couldn’t use Water Release, could only use the Body Flicker Technique to evade and jump onto a nearby tree.
The moment he stabilized, Sarutobi Taro appeared in front of him, his right hand gripping a Katana as he slashed straight for Madara’s neck.
Madara quickly pulled out a Kunai to parry, but the force of the attack shook him, causing him to fall off the branch.
“Die, brat.” Looking at Madara suspended in mid-air, Sarutobi Taro flashed a bloodthirsty smile: “Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere.”
“Bang.”
In the nick of time, Madara activated the Substitution Jutsu to evade the Wind Release Ninjutsu.
However, before he could even catch his breath, Sarutobi Taro had already moved behind him and landed a heavy kick, wrapped in Chakra, to Madara’s back.
Madara instantly flew backward like a shooting star. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The force of Sarutobi Taro’s kick was so tremendous that Madara broke two large trees before finally stopping.
“Cough—” Madara leaned against the tree root and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his crimson Sharingan fixed intensely on the enemy before him.
“What kind of look is that?”
Sarutobi Taro looked contemptuously at Madara’s terrifying gaze, which seemed ready to devour someone: “This is just an appetizer.
Can’t you handle it already?
We have plenty of time left; I’ll deal with you slowly.”
After speaking, he used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside Madara and delivered an upward kick, accompanied by a sharp whooshing sound, right onto Madara’s abdominal wound, sending him flying into the air.
He immediately followed, using the Body Flicker Technique to reach the air, and slammed his elbow heavily into Madara’s back.
Sarutobi Taro was too fast; Madara had no time to defend.
He could only shoot a few Kunai during his rapid descent in an attempt to counterattack.
After Sarutobi Taro easily saw through their trajectory, he threw a few more Kunai.
“Clang—”
The Kunai that arrived later struck the circle formed by the previous Kunai, instantly changing the trajectory of all of them, sending them shooting toward Sarutobi Taro’s vital points.
“Damn it!”
Sarutobi Taro narrowly avoided all the Kunai, and noticing the look of mockery in Madara’s eyes, he roared, “You can still smile even when death is imminent!
I’ll just—What?”
Sarutobi Taro, enraged by Madara’s gaze, suddenly realized that thin steel wires, reflecting a cold glint, were spread all around him.
“Boom!”
As Madara’s body violently slammed onto the ground, several ferocious fire dragons roared along the threads toward Sarutobi Taro, and the bursting flames instantly engulfed his figure.
The Uchiha Clan’s signature Fire Release Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!
Madara silently thought to himself, “It should be over now”—”That was a decent trick.” Sarutobi Taro’s agitated voice suddenly sounded.
What?
Madara, terrified, struggled to get up.
Looking at Sarutobi Taro, who was only lightly scorched, a rare look of despair appeared in his eyes.
“You damned brat.” Sarutobi Taro walked slowly toward Madara with a sinister smile: “I almost fell for your trap just now.”
He raised the Ninja Blade in his hand high: “As repayment, just obediently die for me!”
Madara, whose Chakra and stamina were completely depleted, slumped onto the ground, calmly accepting his death as he looked at the Ninja Blade glinting coldly under the sunlight.
It seems this is where my journey ends.
Father, Izuna, I’m sorry.
For some reason, he suddenly thought of Hashirama and Ayato, whom he had only met once beside the Naka River.
If those two guys were here, they would definitely have done better than me…
“Clang—!”
The grating sound of metal colliding instantly pulled Madara back to reality.
He looked at the figure standing in front of him, both strange and familiar, and said with an incredulous tremor in his voice, “You—”
Hearing Madara’s voice, the young man in front suddenly turned around, his bright, moist eyes smiling as he looked at him, and softly said, “It’s me.”
“You did very well.
Leave the rest to me.”