The battle began with a violent collision.
Two flanking Hunter-nin converged, their blades humming with Crescent Moon Beams of electricity that hissed against the spray.
Yoichi vanished performing Phantom Steps to surge into a blind spot.
A Mountain Crushing Fist landed squarely in a hunter's ribs, shattering the ribcage and sending the man skipping across the water. The internal shockwave was lethal, but the others didn't hesitate.
"Kenta!" the leader roared, launching a Cloud-Style Beheading strike.
The blade whistled through the mist, aiming for Yoichi's throat.
The youth dipped his shoulder, the steel grazing his collarbone as he pivoted.
The second hunter retreated, hands blurring through seals to unleash a Lightning Flame Spiral.
Yoichi leaped high as the sea erupted in a boiling hiss of steam.
Mid-air, the leader intercepted him with a Thunderbolt Flash, his blade vibrating with high-frequency chakra.
Metal met skin as Yoichi blocked the edge with a reinforced forearm.
His terrifying physique held, but the force sent him crashing back into the waves.
He rolled to sweep the Jōnin's legs, but the leader jumped, parrying a rising palm strike that cracked the air.
The second hunter rejoined, his tanto dancing in a flurry of Reverse Beheading slashes.
Yoichi deflected the electrified steel with blurring hands, snapping a caught wrist before a knee to his gut broke the hold.
Blood smeared Yoichi's lip, his breathing rhythmic as he surged forward with a Lightning Spear Thrust.
The Jōnin leader countered with a Triple Moon Slash, the two forces clashing in a spray of pressurized water.
They traded a dozen more blows, the sound of clashing chakra echoing over the deep.
The Jōnin suddenly disengaged, firing a crimson flare into the sky.
A jagged lightning symbol illuminated the horizon, answering the lights of the entire Border Patrol flickering in the distance.
Yoichi stepped forward to finish the kill, but his footing suddenly wavered.
The violent surge of his martial arts and the heavy pump of his Qi Blood were drowning his chakra control.
The water surface turned to liquid under his boots, his feet sinking as the balance for water-walking frayed.
He couldn't stay on the sea.
With a final kick to the leader's chest, Yoichi turned and began a desperate, splashing sprint toward the dark silhouette of the Land of Frost.
Yoichi hit the shoreline, his boots finally finding purchase on the solid earth. Behind him, the sea crawled with the flickering lights of the Kumo Border Patrol.
He did not look back.
With his feet on stone, the fraying of his chakra control no longer mattered.
The passive power of Wind Becomes Lightning surged through his meridians, fueled by the vigor energy of his Qi Blood.
The world crystallized.
Using Phantom Steps, Yoichi blurred into a streak of silver-white light that defied the eye.
The air shrieked as he broke the sound barrier, his movement so swift that the falling snow appeared to hang motionless.
"He's gone!" a tracker screamed, hitting the beach seconds too late. "I've lost the visual!"
Yoichi was already miles deep into the treeline, a ghost passing through frozen trunks.
This otherworldly swiftness allowed him to bypass the blockade before a perimeter could form.
Each step left a faint scorch mark on the frost, a silent testament to Yoichi's speed as he vanished into the mountain passes.
Yoichi crested the first ridge as a cold heat washed over his senses. The heavy pressure of the Kumo sensory nets and the distant pull of the tracking hounds vanished.
[Purification has been triggered!]
The notification flashed in his mind, followed by rhythmic pings. Clean energy swept through his pathways, dissolving the leader's marking and neutralizing the scent on his clothes. To the pursuit team, he was wiped from the map.
Yoichi slowed his pace, the silver-white light of his speed fading into the shadows of the pines. He glanced back at the distant, flickering lights of the blockade.
"Let them hunt the wind," he whispered, his voice disappearing into the mountain air.
He stood in the silence of the falling snow, his presence masked and his path gone. The Ghost had slipped into the void, leaving an army to chase a shadow.
...
...
...
Deep within the heart of Kumogakure, the heavy atmosphere of the Raikage's estate was momentarily softened. The Third Raikage, a man built like a mountain of scarred muscle, stood over a small bed.
His massive hand hovered gently over his son, A, who was only a year old. For a brief second, the weight of the war felt worlds away as he watched the child sleep.
"Grow strong, my son," the Raikage murmured.
"The world won't be kind to the weak."
The peace was shattered by a sharp rap at the door. A sensory captain entered, his face pale. He knelt instantly, voice trembling.
"Report," the Raikage commanded, his tone shifting from father to warlord.
"The Uchiha has escaped the Island Turtle, Lord Raikage," the captain stammered. "The pursuit team tracked him to the Land of Frost, but his signature simply vanished. We've lost three elite hunters."
The Raikage's eyes narrowed, a spark of blue lightning dancing across his shoulder. He looked back at his son, then at the messenger. The sheer pressure of his chakra made the floorboards groan.
"Vanished?!" the Raikage repeated, his voice dangerously calm. "A nine-year-old brat slips through a blockade and silences my best trackers? You tell me a child erased himself from reality?"
The captain bowed lower. "He is like a phantom, Lord Raikage. The reports say he fought like a ghost!"
"Enough!" Raikage barked. "Send word to every border post. If that brat isn't found, I'll personally turn the Land of Frost into a wasteland."
The captain hurried out. The Raikage turned back to his child, his expression hardening.
Yoichi was no longer just a prisoner; he was a stain on the pride of the Cloud that had to be scrubbed away.
...
...
...
In the wake of the flare, the Hidden Cloud's response was a tidal wave of steel.
The Third Raikage's fury ignited a mobilization that ignored all political boundaries, flooding the Land of Frost with enough shinobi to choke the mountain passes.
They did not just search; they occupied.
The pursuit bled recklessly into the Land of Hot Springs. Kumo units shattered the neutrality of the smaller nations, raiding inns and setting up unauthorized checkpoints.
High-ranking sensory teams combed every forest with desperate intensity. The decree was absolute: no stone was left unturned in the hunt for the nine-year-old brat.
"Move faster!" a commander barked at a checkpoint. "A child cannot simply walk out of a blockade!"
Civilians watched in terror as lightning-wreathed squads tore through their streets.
This reckless expansion threatened to spark a wider conflict, yet despite thousands of eyes, the trail remained cold.
The more Kumo tightened its grip, the more the brat seemed to slip through its fingers.
While the Hidden Cloud burned through neighboring nations, they were hunting a ghost that had already left the theater.
Unbeknownst to the Raikage's forces, Yoichi had already crossed the jagged peaks into the Land of Fire. He moved with a relentless, mechanical rhythm, his small frame a blur against the greenery of the border.
For three days, the boy blitzed through the harsh terrain without a single rest break.
He did not stop to sleep, fueled only by the Qi Blood Pills he tossed into his mouth while maintaining maximum acceleration.
His Incinerator stomach burned the pills through his veins with efficiency, keeping his muscles from seizing. His eyes were bloodshot but filled with a terrifying, singular persistence.
"Keep moving," he rasped, his voice cracking against the wind. "Don't stop."
He was a projectile launched from a cannon.
Trees became a green smear as his Wind Becomes Lightning passive kept his weight non-existent.
The screams of Kumo officers were hundreds of miles behind him.
Ahead lay the towering redwoods of his homeland, the cold chill of the north finally thawing against the rising warmth of the Fire Country's sun.
After two more days of relentless travel, the towering gates of Konoha finally appeared.
Yoichi was a map of exhaustion, but his mind remained sharp.
Entering as a blood-soaked Uchiha would trigger alarms, so he slowed his pace to a rhythmic trudge.
With a surge of Qi Blood, he activated the Face Changing Technique.
His sharp features softened into those of a generic, dirt-streaked orphan.
He discarded the shredded Kumo vest in the brush, leaving only a tattered undershirt.
His intense gaze faded, replaced by the hollow, frightened look of a child who had seen too much.
"Please," he whispered to a guard, his voice shaky and small. "I got separated from the others near the border."
The Konoha sentries glanced at the "lost" boy with pity.
To them, he was just another nameless victim of the Raikage's aggression.
They waved him through the secondary checkpoints without a second thought.
Inside the village vicinity, Yoichi felt the familiar hum of the barrier.
He moved through the crowded streets, a wolf in sheep's clothing finally standing on home soil.
Yoichi bypassed the main roads, moving like a blur through the familiar alleyways of the Uchiha District.
In Spirit Aperture, the world became a map of flickering chakra signatures.
He dodged the Military Police patrols with ease, his heart thumping harder as he neared the small, quiet residence at the edge of the compound.
He slipped through a side entrance, his feet landing silently on the tatami mats.
The house smelled of stale tea and unwashed dishes. From the inner room, the muffled sound of sobbing broke the heavy silence. He moved toward the doorway and saw his mother, her back to him, clutching his old clothing. Her shoulders shook with a grief that seemed to have broken her spirit.
"Mom," he said softly, his voice finally shedding its cold edge.
She froze, her breath hitching. She turned slowly, her eyes red and sunken from days of weeping.
She stared at the dirt-streaked, ragged boy, her hands trembling as she reached out toward the air.
"Is that you... Yoichi?" she whispered, her voice cracking with a mix of terror and hope.
"I'm home," he replied.
With a choked cry, she lunged forward and pulled him into a crushing embrace. She sobbed into his hair, her hands frantically checking his face and arms as if to prove he was made of flesh and not a cruel hallucination.
Yoichi stood still, letting the warmth of the hug melt the lingering chill of the north. For the first time in weeks, he wasn't a ghost or a demon; he was just a son resting his head against his mother's shoulder.
The news of Yoichi's return hit the household like a lightning strike.
Nobuyuki stood frozen in the doorway, his eyes fixed on the dirt-streaked boy who was supposed to be a prisoner or a corpse.
Beside him, little Akira's face transformed from shock to pure, tearful joy.
"Brother! You're back!" Akira cried out, lunging forward to tackle Yoichi's waist.
The boy gripped his elder brother's tattered shirt with shaking hands, burying his face in Yoichi's side as if to make sure he was real.
Yoichi exhaled, his hand resting gently on Akira's messy hair. The cold, mechanical focus of his five-day sprint finally began to thaw.
He looked up at his father, expecting a barrage of questions about the Kumo blockade or his escape.
Instead, Nobuyuki stepped forward and placed a heavy, steady hand on Yoichi's shoulder.
"Glad that you are back," Nobuyuki said. His voice was thick, containing a rare depth of emotion that replaced any need for a lecture.
That night, Yoichi finally lay in his own bed. He didn't need pills to stay awake or his Spirit Aperture to watch for killers.
Akira refused to leave, curling up on a futon right next to him to ensure his brother wouldn't disappear in the night.
In the quiet safety of the Uchiha District, Yoichi finally closed his eyes and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.
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Thanks to doomslayer24, Daoist5WMZoh, and Snowwwww for the Power Stones! Appreciate it so much!
As for the story, I made it fast-paced since some of them were not necessary to explain. I think this should be my new norm now. What do you think guys? Should I go fast pace now or slow type?