"Two weeks ago, war suddenly erupted," Inuzuka Chi, walking on the left, said.
"It was Amegakure that declared war on us—more precisely, on the three great nations," the ninja beside him, Kimoku Kōtō, added. "They started by declaring war on Konoha. After fighting us for two days, they immediately turned around and declared war on the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth as well. Right now, they're fighting Sunagakure the fiercest."
The two walked on either side of Hyuga Arin. Though they appeared relaxed and chatted casually, they remained highly alert.
If Hyuga Arin showed even the slightest suspicious movement, they were ready to subdue him at any moment.
"What's ridiculous is that Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure, actually claimed that Konoha's Shapeshifting Hermit, Uchiha Hyuga Arin, killed the previous leader, Shōzō," Inuzuka Chi complained.
"There aren't even any Uchiha on this battlefield!"
Where did Hanzo even conjure up an Uchiha from?
"That Shapeshifting Hermit—what kind of nonsense title is that?" Hyuga Arin asked.
He didn't really care about the news concerning "Uchiha Hyuga Arin," since that was him to begin with.
But this title was something else entirely.
"That's what Hanzo calls him," Kimoku Kōtō explained. "According to intelligence reports, the man possesses an extremely powerful Transformation Jutsu that no one can see through. That's why Hanzo dubbed him the Shapeshifting Hermit."
So now he, Hyuga Arin, had a title of his own.
"Heh." Hyuga Arin let out a cold laugh. "He's really good at coming up with names."
The present Shapeshifting Hermit, the future Three Legendary Ninjas of Konoha—
Was Hanzo just particularly fond of giving people nicknames?
It was absurd.
Kimoku Kōtō said helplessly, "Because of Hanzo's statement, the higher-ups have started suspecting the Uchiha clan, believing they've been hiding a ninja skilled in transformation techniques."
Hyuga Arin guiltily shifted his gaze.
He hadn't expected things to develop like this at all. Back then, when Hanzo insisted he was an Uchiha, Hyuga Arin had simply gone along with it and made up a name on the spot.
Who would've thought it would actually affect the entire Uchiha clan?
Just thinking about how the upper echelons—led by Danzo—treated the Uchiha was enough to know how miserable their situation must be now.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was wary of the Uchiha clan, but he hadn't openly targeted them.
He merely turned a blind eye to Danzo's actions.
And that, in itself, was already the greatest form of targeting.
Fortunately, Danzo's Root organization didn't have much strength at this point—just a handful of operatives.
At present, Hiruzen Sarutobi was still in his prime. Although he tacitly approved Root's existence, there was no way he would truly hand over power.
Root's real expansion only happened after the Second Shinobi World War.
That was largely because one of the war's heroes, Orochimaru, entered Root. For reasons unknown, Hiruzen delegated more authority to it, allowing Root to rapidly swell in size.
Even so, the current Root was already more than enough to make life miserable for the Uchiha clan.
The two led Hyuga Arin into a camp.
"Why has the camp moved into the Land of Rain?" Hyuga Arin asked, looking at the encampment set up within the forest.
This was already deep inside Amegakure territory.
"You wouldn't happen to be that Uchiha Hyuga Arin—the spy Konoha sent into Amegakure, would you?" Kimoku Kōtō suddenly asked, staring straight at Hyuga Arin.
Hyuga Arin scratched his head awkwardly.
It was honestly pretty obvious—the name alone gave it away.
Kimoku Kōtō sighed helplessly. "You really caused a big incident."
Konoha's frontline forces had already advanced into the Land of Rain, and Hyuga Arin had suddenly appeared here without any record of Hyuga clan reinforcements being sent.
On top of that, he was a member of Team Hiruko and didn't even know the commander had been replaced.
Put all that together—it was hard not to guess.
"At the time, I really didn't think that far… I really didn't… haha," Hyuga Arin laughed awkwardly.
Kimoku Kōtō patted him on the shoulder. "You'd better be careful around the Uchiha in the future. They probably have a lot of resentment toward you."
Having their entire clan targeted for no reason—anyone would be furious.
Hyuga Arin curled his lips. As if he was afraid of the Uchiha.
In any case, they were destined for annihilation in the future.
"Still, you've actually rendered a great service," Kimoku Kōtō said with a sigh.
The two entered the central tent. Although Kimoku Kōtō was already certain of Hyuga Arin's identity as a Konoha ninja, formal verification was still required.
"How so?" Hyuga Arin asked, puzzled.
Kimoku Kōtō didn't answer right away. Instead, he spoke to a ninja inside the tent.
"Pull up the ninja records for ID 005188."
"Yes, sir!"
The ninja in a green flak jacket walked into a small, makeshift room. Retrieving ninja records required using summoning techniques to contact Konoha directly.
Only then did Kimoku Kōtō turn back to Hyuga Arin.
"If the war had been started by another country, their first move would've been against the Land of Fire. Konoha would've suffered heavy losses right from the start. But because Amegakure struck first, neither Iwagakure nor Sunagakure had time to react. That gave us Konoha an opportunity."
Hanzo had ignited the war by openly accusing Konoha.
At first, the other two great villages were content to sit back and watch Konoha make a fool of itself.
After all, a minor village openly declaring war on Konoha—win or lose, Konoha's prestige would take a hit.
But then Hanzo immediately turned around and attacked Iwagakure and Sunagakure as well, accusing them of violating Amegakure's borders and declaring war on both.
And the power Amegakure unleashed far exceeded the expectations of the three great villages.
They actually managed to withstand a joint assault from all three.
From the movements of Iwagakure and Sunagakure, Konoha also realized that those two villages had long been preparing to start a war themselves.
Sunagakure in particular had committed the most forces to the Land of Rain, which was why they were being targeted most heavily by Amegakure.
In other words, Hyuga Arin's actions hadn't been a mistake—they'd actually been meritorious.
It was just that, because everything had initially been done under the name "Uchiha," and because someone argued forcefully at the right moment, the credit had been erased and treated as a fault instead.
If this were to be reassessed now, even Kimoku Kōtō didn't know how it should be judged.
Simply because he wasn't an Uchiha, a "crime" turned into a "merit."
Anyone could sense how stifling things were for the Uchiha clan.
"But how it'll ultimately be handled, I really can't say," Kimoku Kōtō concluded with a sympathetic look. "You'll have to rely on your own luck."
Hyuga Arin rolled his eyes. He couldn't care less.
It wasn't like they could peel his skin off.
Soon, the Konoha ninja returned from the small room and handed Hyuga Arin's file to Kimoku Kōtō.
He flipped through it briefly, noting Hyuga Arin's photo, then nodded.
"There's no issue with your identity. However, to be safe, you'll need to return to Konoha. And since Hiruko has already returned as well, as a member of his team, you must also be reassigned back to the village."
"I can't stay?" Hyuga Arin asked, his face full of reluctant pleading.
The war had already begun—this was the perfect chance to scavenge experience and level up.
He really didn't want to go back to Konoha now.
"No," Kimoku Kōtō said firmly. "Unless the commander approves it. Otherwise, you'll have to return and discuss it with Hiruko, or submit an application to Konoha."
"Then… may I ask who the commander here is?" Hyuga Arin asked.
"That's no problem," Kimoku Kōtō replied. "It's one of Konoha's advisors…"
He paused for a beat.
"Lord Shimura Danzo."
✨ Bonus Chapter Goals ✨
10 Reviews = 1 Bonus Chapter
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
◇ You can read 90+ chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested:
patreon.com/CanonBreaker