After traveling through the forest, they reached a large campsite. Since they were reserve forces, they weren't stationed far from the battlefield.
Calling it large was an understatement. He couldn't see where it ended. The forest hid it well. Without Muzan's enhanced senses, he never would have known humans were here.
The reserve team didn't rush forward. They stopped at the main camp's edge and began setting up.
Lord Urashi gathered the squad leaders.
"Set up camp. No one moves until I return with orders." His voice was firm. "We don't know the situation yet. Acting without information gets people killed."
He left with two personal guards and headed toward the command tent at the camp's center.
One of Urashi's aides stayed behind to coordinate the reserves.
Muzan worked quickly. He found a spot under thick tree cover and set up his tent. The dark fabric blended with shadows. He positioned the entrance away from where the sun would rise.
Other Uchiha were still working when Muzan finished. He slipped inside and closed the flap. The interior was dim but not dark enough. He hung a second layer of fabric and blocked any gaps where light might slip through.
He sat down and waited.
Outside there were voices and footsteps.
Hours passed. The temperature rose as morning came. No one bothered him.
By midday, Lord Urashi returned.
"Listen up. The front line is holding, barely. The Senju have more numbers than expected. They've allied with the Sarutobi, Shimura, Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans. Commander Tajima is organizing a rotation system. Some of us will reinforce the eastern flank today. I will take command of the eastern flank as front commander."
He paused.
"The previous front commander of the eastern flank, Uchiha Hiroashi, was killed in action. The despicable Senju ambushed and surrounded him. The one leading that mission was Tobirama Senju, the second eldest son of Senju Butsuma. We will not forget this grudge. We will repay it a thousandfold. Do you understand?"
A chorus of affirmations followed.
The day continued with squadrons being organized, supply lines being set up, and scouts being sent out.
This was shinobi warfare. It wasn't about dramatic charges or heroic speeches but about logistics, intelligence gathering, and careful planning.
When evening came and the sun began to set, Muzan emerged from his tent. The camp was fully operational now. Cooking fires burned in designated areas. Sentries walked the perimeter.
All shinobi had been assigned to their battle zones. Toshiro found Muzan and told him he'd been assigned to the forest flank as part of night patrol with Amanai as their squad leader. Most stealth warfare happened on the forest flank.
The front commander of the forest flank was Uchiha Takashi, a famous elder and one of their best strategists.
It made sense. The forest flank was where ambush teams detected threats, hunted Senju scouts, performed night assassinations, and disrupted enemy movement. It needed a capable commander who could react immediately with solid plans.
The patrol began at sundown.
Muzan and Toshiro met at the forest edge where their route started. Amanai was there and gave final instructions to another pair before they left.
A squad had five members with one squad leader. The pair that just left must have been the last two members.
"Your section runs north to the river bend, then east along the water for half a mile, then back south." Amanai traced the route on a rough map. "Check for tracks, broken branches, disturbed earth. Look for anything that says someone passed through. If you find scouts, don't engage unless you have no choice. Signal and track them instead."
He handed Toshiro a small whistle.
"One short blast if you spot enemy movement. Two short blasts if you're under attack. Three means you found something the front commander needs to see immediately."
Toshiro nodded and tucked the whistle into his vest.
"How long is our shift?" Muzan asked.
"Four hours. Then the next team takes over." Amanai looked at them both. "Stay alert. The Senju know we arrived today. They'll send people to test our defenses."
With that, they left.
Forest patrol was usually reserved for experienced shinobi since rookies missed important details and were easily ambushed.
Luckily for the Uchiha, even rookies could patrol well once they'd awakened their Sharingan. With the Sharingan's visual powers, patrolling became much easier.
Toshiro and Muzan moved quietly through the trees. Toshiro led and followed the route Amanai had shown. Muzan stayed a few steps behind and watched their sides. Both had their Sharingan active.
Though Muzan didn't actually have the Sharingan, his senses far exceeded any two or three tomoe Sharingan.
The first hour passed without incident.
They checked the usual signs. They looked at ground near game trails, low branches that might catch clothing, and areas where undergrowth had been disturbed.
They found nothing.
"Did the Senju back down? I thought they'd send scouts to check our numbers," Toshiro muttered.
Muzan stayed quiet since he didn't know much about warfare.
They slowed.
Toshiro crouched near a tree and examined the ground. Muzan scanned the area and focused on his hearing.
There was a faint sound. Metal was scraping against wood.
Muzan held up a hand. Toshiro froze.
They waited.
The sound came again from ahead and to the left. It was maybe sixty feet away.
Muzan pointed. Toshiro nodded.
They moved off their patrol route and circled wide to come at it from a different angle. The forest floor was covered in leaves and fallen branches. Every step had to be careful.
As they got closer, Muzan caught a scent. It was sweat and oil.
He tapped Toshiro's shoulder and pointed to his nose, then in the direction of the scent.
Toshiro understood. He reached for the whistle.
Before he could use it, something slammed into his mind.
His hand jerked. The whistle flew from his grip and disappeared into the underbrush.
Toshiro's body went stiff. His eyes glazed over.
Muzan spun around as a huge figure burst from the trees.
The Akimichi was massive with thick arms and a barrel chest. He swung a huge fist at Muzan's head.
Muzan ducked slowly and deliberately made it look like he barely dodged. The fist whistled past close enough that he felt the air move. He didn't want to reveal his physical abilities if he could help it.
He shifted his weight and drove his palm into the man's ribs. The strike was carefully controlled and used only a considerable amount of his actual strength to make it look real.
The Akimichi barely flinched. Too much muscle and fat acted as armor.
The big man grinned. "You'll need more than that, Uchiha brat."
He threw another punch. Muzan sidestepped and swept low at the man's knee. The Akimichi lifted his leg and brought his heel down like a hammer.
Muzan rolled away and let the strike come closer than necessary. The ground where he'd been cracked.
Behind him, Toshiro's hand moved to his kunai pouch. His movements were stiff and unnatural.
Someone else was controlling him.
Muzan spotted her then. A woman with long blonde hair crouched behind a tree thirty feet away. Her hands were pressed together in a seal.
There was a third person as well. A lean man had his hair tied back.
Three against two, and one of the two was being controlled.
If Muzan was alone, it wouldn't have been a problem. But Toshiro was watching even under control. Muzan had already revealed his fast healing and didn't want to reveal more.
So he kept up the act.
The Akimichi charged again, this time like a bull.
Muzan waited until the last second, then dropped flat. The big man crashed into a tree trunk hard enough to shake loose a shower of leaves.
Muzan was up immediately. He drove his elbow into the man's lower back, then his kidney, then his spine. He delivered three quick strikes.
The Akimichi grunted but grabbed backward. His thick fingers closed around Muzan's arm.
He lifted Muzan off the ground and slammed him down.
Muzan let himself be thrown. Though he wasn't hurt, he let out a convincing gasp as if the air had left his lungs.
The Akimichi raised his foot to stomp on Muzan's chest.
Muzan twisted and took the impact on his shoulder instead.
He kicked out and caught the big man's other leg with carefully measured force. The Akimichi stumbled.
Muzan scrambled to his feet.
Across the clearing, Toshiro had drawn a kunai. His hand was shaking as he fought against the control, but it was slowly raising the blade toward his own throat.
The Yamanaka woman smiled. "Just die quietly."
Then Toshiro's Sharingan flared brighter.
His hand stopped. Veins stood out on his forehead as he fought back against the invasion.
"No," he growled through clenched teeth.
Toshiro broke the connection with a snarl. His body was his own again.
The Nara moved immediately. He stepped out of the shadows with both hands forming seals.
"Shadow Possession won't work at night," Toshiro said. "Not enough light."
"Who said I need my jutsu?" The Nara drew two kunai and came at Toshiro fast.
Toshiro blocked the first strike and deflected the second. The Nara was quick, faster than he looked, and his movements were clean. There was no wasted motion.
Behind them, the Yamanaka woman started forming hand seals again.
But Toshiro was ready this time. He caught her in a Sharingan genjutsu before she could finish.
She froze with eyes wide and unseeing.
The Nara cursed and attacked harder. He was skilled, Muzan noticed. The man was probably experienced, and he was using strategy to push Toshiro toward a specific spot.
Muzan didn't have time to figure out why. The Akimichi was on him again.
This time the big man moved differently. His hands glowed briefly, and his body seemed to swell even larger.
"Partial Expansion Jutsu!" he roared.
His arm grew to twice its normal size. When he swung, it was like being hit by a tree trunk.
Muzan raised both arms to block. His feet carved trenches in the dirt.
The Akimichi didn't let up. He threw punch after punch, and each one was strong enough to break bones.
For a normal human.
Muzan gave ground and focused on deflecting rather than blocking. He made it look like he was struggling. When there was an opening, he struck back with quick jabs to joints, to the throat, and to the eyes.
The big man protected his vitals well, but Muzan was faster. He landed three hits for every one he took.
The Akimichi came in for another charge. Muzan waited and timed it perfectly.
At the last instant, he dropped low and drove his fingers into the man's knee.
The Akimichi's leg buckled.
Muzan followed up with a palm strike to the solar plexus, then an elbow to the temple.
The big man staggered but didn't fall.
"Tough guy," Muzan muttered.
Across the clearing, Toshiro was still fighting the Nara. They moved in a blur with kunai clashing in the darkness.
Then Toshiro made a mistake.
He stepped into a patch of moonlight filtering through the trees.
The Nara's hands flew through seals. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
His shadow stretched impossibly long in the moonlight and raced across the ground toward Toshiro.
It connected.
Toshiro went stiff. His body locked in place. The Nara raised his kunai, and Toshiro's hand copied the movement against his will.
The Yamanaka woman snapped out of the genjutsu at that moment. She drew a kunai and lunged at Toshiro's exposed back.
"Toshiro!" Muzan shouted.
He moved. The Akimichi tried to grab him, but Muzan twisted free. He threw his kunai in a single smooth motion.
It flew across the clearing and buried itself in the Nara's throat.
The throw was perfect.
The Nara's eyes went wide. Blood poured down his chest. He dropped to his knees with hands clutching uselessly at the blade.
The shadow connection broke.
Toshiro moved instantly. He spun and caught the Yamanaka woman's wrist just before her kunai reached his back.
But Muzan's distraction had a cost.
The Akimichi's massive fist crashed into his side.
Muzan felt the impact but no pain. He let the force carry him and hit the ground hard before rolling.
The Akimichi stood over him and breathed heavily. "You killed Shikyo. You're dead, Uchiha."
His hands formed seals. His entire body began to expand. In seconds he was fifteen feet tall and growing. His form became more round.
"Multi-Size Technique!" His voice boomed through the forest.
He lifted himself up and became a massive ball of flesh. Then he rolled forward and crushed everything in his path.
Trees splintered. The ground shook.
Muzan got to his feet and moved.
Then Toshiro was there.
He'd already prepared multiple explosive tags. As the Akimichi rolled past him, Toshiro jumped onto his back and slapped the tags across the expanded body.
"Get clear!" Toshiro yelled.
Muzan moved away.
The Akimichi realized what was happening too late. "No, wait—"
Toshiro jumped free and formed a seal.
The explosive tags went off in sequence with three loud booms.
The blast lit up the forest. The Akimichi's massive form came apart. Flesh and blood sprayed everywhere.
When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left but a crater.
The Yamanaka woman stared in horror. Then she turned and ran.
"Not a chance," Toshiro growled.
He threw a kunai that caught her in the leg. She stumbled but kept moving.
Muzan cut off her path. She tried to dodge, but even while pretending to be hurt, he was still faster.
He grabbed her arm and twisted. He forced her to the ground.
Toshiro arrived a moment later and pressed a kunai to her throat. "Move and you die."
She went still and breathed hard. "Just kill me. I won't talk."
"We'll see about that," Toshiro said.
His Sharingan spun. The tomoe formed a hypnotic pattern.
The woman's eyes glazed over.
"How many teams did the Senju send tonight?" Toshiro asked.
"Three," she answered in a monotone. "Ours was assigned to the northern patrol route. The others went south and east."
"What were your orders?"
"Scout the Uchiha positions. Identify weak points. Cause chaos if possible."
"Who's commanding your flank?"
"Senju Satoshi."
Toshiro asked several more questions about troop numbers, camp locations, and supply routes. The woman tried to answer everything. Her will was completely crushed. But she didn't know most of the answers.
There was always a risk of scouts being caught, so they were deliberately fed wrong information or no information. It was a classic trick among shinobi.
When he was done, he released the genjutsu.
She blinked and looked confused. "What—"
Toshiro knocked her out with a quick strike to the back of her head.
"We need to tie her up and find that whistle," Muzan said. He kept his voice strained.
"Don't you have super fast healing?"
"Yeah. But that doesn't mean I don't feel pain." Muzan coughed and made it sound wet and painful.
Toshiro nodded and began searching the bushes. It took several minutes, but he finally found the small metal whistle half-buried in leaves.
He brought it to his lips and blew two short blasts.
The signal echoed through the forest.
Within minutes, other Uchiha arrived. Amanai was first, and two more patrol teams followed.
"What happened?" Amanai demanded.
"Ino-Shika-Cho trio," Toshiro said. "Two dead, one captured. She's already been questioned. They sent three teams total tonight."
Amanai looked at the bodies, or what was left of them, then at Muzan and Toshiro. Both were covered in blood and dirt.
"You two killed a full Ino-Shika-Cho team?"
"Yes, sir," Toshiro said.
"Good work." Amanai nodded.
Amanai gestured to the other shinobi. "Tie up the prisoner. The rest of you search the area for the other scout teams."
He looked at Toshiro. "Your report?"
Toshiro quickly summarized the fight and the information they'd gotten.
Amanai's expression grew serious. "This needs to reach the front commander immediately. You two come with me."
Muzan nodded and pushed off from the tree.
They made their way back toward the camp.