Shikaku Nara tapped his fingers lightly against the table.
The command tent fell into silence as everyone digested Shinzuki Yu’s proposal.
“You’re suggesting we eliminate Iwagakure’s frontline command center before launching the raid on Torisaka Pass?” Minato repeated, his blue eyes searching Yu’s face.
That would raise the mission’s danger to an entirely different level.
Shikaku pondered for a moment before speaking.
“The commander of Iwa’s frontline forces is TsuchirYu, an elite jōnin with extensive battlefield experience.
You can imagine how heavily defended his headquarters must be.”
A faint smile appeared on Yu’s lips.
“I’m rather interested in that place.”
[Ding!
Special mission environment detected.]
[New Check-In Location: Iwagakure Frontline Headquarters]
[Mission Objective: Eliminate Iwagakure Frontline Commander TsuchirYu]
The system notification confirmed exactly what he’d expected.
“You’re going alone?” Minato frowned.
“The more people there are, the more they’ll get in my way.”
The answer was blunt.
Shikaku stared at the young shinobi, trying to find even the slightest hesitation on his face.
There was none.
Only calm confidence.
“…Very well.”
He finally made his decision.
“The mission is yours.”
“But your first priority is coming back alive.”
Minato looked as though he wanted to object.
In the end, all he said was,
“Be careful.”
Yu gave a small nod.
The next instant…
He vanished.
Yu sped through the forest at incredible speed.
With the immense chakra reserves granted by his Sage Body, he could chain together uses of the Flying Thunder God Technique with virtually no downtime.
[Ding!
Approaching Iwagakure’s security perimeter.
Proceed with caution.]
He paused within the shadow of a towering tree.
The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan silently opened.
Crimson light shimmered in his eyes.
Several concealed chakra signatures immediately came into view.
Hidden sentries.
He disappeared again.
One Iwa lookout remained completely focused on the darkness ahead, carefully watching for the slightest disturbance.
He never realized death had already appeared behind him.
A sudden chill brushed the back of his neck.
Then…
Darkness.
Yu casually twisted his right hand.
A faint ripple of Kamui’s spatial distortion silently snapped the man’s neck.
Without breaking stride, he headed toward the next surveillance point.
Along the way…
Every Iwa patrol met the same fate.
Groups of three.
Groups of five.
None managed to sound an alarm.
Some were swallowed whole by Kamui, disappearing without leaving behind the slightest trace.
Others had their throats slit before they even realized someone was there.
The Sage Body’s monstrous stamina allowed Yu to expend chakra without restraint.
Flying Thunder God…
Combined with Kamui…
The two techniques complemented each other perfectly.
Convenient, he thought.
Soon, the outline of Iwagakure’s frontline headquarters appeared in the distance.
Its defenses were on an entirely different level from the outer perimeter.
An almost invisible sensory barrier enveloped the entire compound.
Rows of linked explosive tags lay hidden beneath the ground.
Several elite sensory squads patrolled fixed routes, weaving through the camp in overlapping patterns.
Commander TsuchirYu had clearly prepared well.
Even an assault by an elite jōnin squad would inevitably trigger the alarm after paying a heavy price.
But before the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan…
Every defensive measure was transparent.
The flow of chakra within the barrier…
Its weakest nodes…
The exact location of every explosive tag…
The patrol routes of every sensory squad…
Everything was perfectly mapped in Yu’s vision.
“That’s all?”
He moved.
His body became a streak of golden light, slipping precisely through a tiny fluctuation in the sensory barrier.
The next instant, he landed soundlessly in the narrow gap between two explosive tags less than half a foot apart.
The passing sensory squad noticed nothing beyond a faint stir in the air.
The command tent stood directly ahead.
Four Iwa jōnin guarded its entrance.
Their breathing was steady.
Their chakra stable.
Clearly, they were TsuchirYu’s personal bodyguards.
Yu didn’t hesitate.
Flying Thunder God.
He instantly appeared behind one of them.
The guard felt a chill race up his spine.
Before he could react…
A palm landed squarely against his back.
Kamui: Distortion.
Without a sound, his body collapsed inward, twisted into itself, and vanished into Kamui’s dimension.
Not even a scream escaped him.
At nearly the same moment, Yu flicked two specially marked Flying Thunder God kunai toward the remaining guards.
The blades whistled through the air.
Their reactions were fast.
Both immediately raised their weapons to intercept them.
But before the kunai even reached them…
Yu had already appeared before the fourth guard.
No ninjutsu.
Pure taijutsu.
So fast that the man saw nothing except a rapidly enlarging fist.
Boom!
The impact shattered every bone in his chest.
His body flew backward like a rag doll before slamming into one of the tent’s support pillars.
He slid lifelessly to the ground.
Only then did the other two bodyguards finally knock aside the incoming kunai.
Startled, they looked around wildly.
Their attacker had vanished.
“Looking for me?”
A cold voice spoke between them.
Yu stood there as though he had always been in that position.
His hands reached out simultaneously, one toward each man’s head.
Kamui.
Space rippled ever so slightly.
Two heads separated cleanly from two bodies.
Blood erupted into the air.
The entire exchange lasted only an instant.
All four elite jōnin bodyguards…
Dead.
Yu pushed aside the tent flap and stepped inside.
The interior was brightly lit.
A massive sand-table battlefield map occupied the center.
Standing before it was a broad-shouldered shinobi with a stern face, completely absorbed in studying troop movements.
TsuchirYu.
The commander leading Iwagakure’s offensive.
His brows were tightly furrowed as he contemplated a difficult tactical decision.
Yu’s footsteps were nearly silent.
Yet TsuchirYu was a veteran elite jōnin.
The moment Yu crossed the entrance…
He looked up.
An overwhelming sense of danger gripped his heart.
His eyes locked onto the intruder.
A young man.
Almost ordinary in appearance.
There was even a trace of casual indifference on his face.
But those eyes…
TsuchirYu’s pupils contracted sharply.
Crimson.
Sinister.
The tomoe spun slowly within them, radiating an aura that chilled him to the bone.
The Sharingan.
No…
The Mangekyō Sharingan!
Since when did Konoha have someone this young with a Mangekyō Sharingan?
There was no time to think.
Years of battlefield instinct drove him to counterattack.
Then…
He saw the pattern within Yu’s left eye begin to spin faster.
A terrifying spatial distortion instantly enveloped his head.
“This…”
That was his final thought.
Nothing remained except shock…
And despair.
Kamui.
Pop.
A soft sound echoed through the tent.
TsuchirYu’s head separated cleanly from his body.
It rolled across the sand table.
Warm blood spread over the carefully crafted terrain, staining mountains and rivers crimson.
The expression on his face remained frozen forever.
Yu quietly watched the scene.
As though he’d done nothing more significant than brushing dust from his sleeve.
[Ding!
Frontline Commander TsuchirYu eliminated.
Mission complete!]
[Calculating Check-In Rewards…]
[Congratulations!
You have obtained the Secret Iwagakure Technique: Weighted Rock Technique (Upgradeable)!]
[New Check-In Location Updated: Iwagakure Supply Hub — Torisaka Pass]
Yu shifted his gaze away from the severed head.
His eyes settled on the newly refreshed location displayed by the system.
“Torisaka Pass…”
He turned and walked out of the command tent.
Moonlight poured over the camp, stretching his shadow long across the ground.