"Lord Yūshin, who is this?"
The camp guard felt somewhat puzzled seeing Yūshin emerge from the forest with a young ninja—that area didn't look like there had been other ninja activity.
Looking at the other's face again, had there been a conflict?
"A wandering ninja I picked up on the road. He fell and got injured, might be a bit confused in the head." Yūshin gave a simple explanation.
Uchiha Sasuke's head was indeed a bit confused, but not from falling.
"Understood. Do you need someone to treat him?"
Yūshin turned back to Uchiha Sasuke and asked: "Do you need treatment?"
Sasuke lowered his head as if thinking. At first, he felt Yūshin's earlier words about Uchiha Madara's era and such had no credibility, but after walking out of the forest, he felt increasingly uncertain... When things become absurd to a certain degree, they paradoxically create an indescribable sense of reality—a kind of reversal at the extreme.
So Yūshin shook his head at the guard. Not speaking meant no need. Stay aloof until your teeth whistle in the wind.
What? Yūshin was the best local doctor? Come on, he was at least a leader—he needed to maintain some dignity and couldn't handle everything personally.
This guard's reaction was normal. The leader might have this ability, but you had to find someone else to handle the matter. No one could treat a leader like an errand boy.
This wasn't Yūshin thinking himself superior or putting on airs. In fact, once a shinobi village organization's framework was established, regardless of Yūshin's personal will, preferences, and style, he would inevitably be elevated to a high position.
Of course, if he actively offered help, that would count as a "people-friendly" gesture that everyone would welcome, but during such periods the choice was in Yūshin's hands.
Was Yūshin willing to help Uchiha Sasuke? Never mind willing or unwilling—he didn't even have this thought.
Having slapped Sasuke's face swollen, then treating him—wouldn't that make the slap pointless?
Anyway, someone like Uchiha Sasuke definitely had excellent recovery ability. Here, one should trust his self-healing capacity.
After bringing Uchiha Sasuke forward for some distance, Yūshin pointed at an empty tent and said to him:
"It's too late, and you're probably not feeling well either. You can rest here first."
Uchiha Sasuke remained silent in response. He glanced at this campsite shrouded in night like a construction site, then actually obediently walked into the tent.
Yūshin was right—at this time Uchiha Sasuke felt quite uncomfortable physically.
Although he had regained his reason, having traveled backward through the timeline for such a long time, Sasuke's body had essentially issued itself a major penalty. Without resting for a while, he couldn't recover at all.
He lay down in the tent and immediately fell asleep.
Yūshin also returned to his own tent to rest. There were still three or four hours until dawn, and many things to do tomorrow.
He wasn't even worried about Uchiha Sasuke directly leaving without notice. Honestly, once Uchiha Sasuke understood his situation, Yūshin could somewhat guess what he wanted to do, but so what?
Could Uchiha Sasuke with such strength block the tide of the era?
Far from the city, with no one around except ninja in the camp, the night here was quiet.
After dawn arrived, Uchiha Sasuke immediately opened his eyes. The injuries on his face had recovered about seventy to eighty percent—except for a handprint, at least it was no longer so swollen.
With worries on his mind and physical discomfort, Sasuke's sleep quality was poor.
After waking, he suddenly remembered a method that could prove what spacetime he was in... if not prove, at least disprove.
So he immediately formed hand seals, trying to summon Ryūchi Cave's summoning beasts... This showed his personality—putting it nicely, he was independent and had no regard for others; putting it less nicely, he still deserved a beating.
He didn't even think about what consequences bringing that kind of large summoning beast to the camp would cause—half a day of chaos would definitely be unavoidable.
Unfortunately and fortunately, Sasuke's summoning didn't succeed. He couldn't sense Ryūchi Cave's existence, as if the summoning contract had become invalid—very normal, since at this time Ryūchi Cave's class roster didn't have Uchiha Sasuke's name at all.
Having only a plug was useless if they wouldn't open the interface for him. Without summoning beasts, he couldn't use them for defense, meaning Uchiha Sasuke had lost his true "absolute defense" ability.
After the summoning failed, although he still wouldn't admit it rationally, deep in his consciousness he increasingly believed he had come to the era before Konoha's establishment.
Wait!
Just then, Sasuke inadvertently glimpsed the back of his left hand and discovered that at some unknown time, a deep purple spiral-shaped pattern had appeared there.
"What is this thing?"
He immediately stood up and walked out of the tent, instinctively looking for Yūshin to inquire.
By this time dawn had passed and the sun was rising. This camp awakened with the sunrise, and in the busyness of countless ninja, the entire area was full of vitality.
Someone had already reached Yūshin first, and Yūshin was smiling and shaking hands with them.
"Lord Yūshin, we're about to depart. Is there anything you want to remind us about?"
"Clan Leader Tadashi, just be careful on the road. We maintain very good relations on that side... Actually, there basically won't be any problems on the road, since we've already cleared out all hostile forces in that direction, but caution is always best."
"I understand, Lord Yūshin."
After thinking a bit, Yūshin added:
"Don't be afraid of leaking intelligence from our side. Our general situation and recent experiences can even be told truthfully. It's best to let them understand that we are neither weak nor strong, requiring them to abide by previous agreements and mutually maintain relatively peaceful conditions in each other's 'rear directions.'"
Next, Nara Tadashi would lead a three-person Ino-Shika-Chō team to the Ancient Well Clan village in the desert for routine "diplomatic communication."
The so-called stabilizing external relations wasn't something that would be settled once Yūshin made a trip there—it required both sides to continuously communicate and carefully maintain.
Having finally established normal contact and rational relations with the other side, Yūshin couldn't possibly abandon it.
"Lord Yūshin, your request has some difficulty. News of us repelling Hagoromo Clan has long since spread there... We'll do our best to communicate."
Maintaining relations was no problem, but Ancient Well Clan would definitely become more vigilant toward The Fireflies organization, at least much more vigilant than before. As Nara Tadashi said, with the news spreading, no one could completely ignore The Fireflies organization's existence.
Even if specific battle conditions and casualty details were hard to investigate, The Fireflies organization had at least fought Hagoromo Clan's invasion to a draw.
Although it was "desperate effort" against "casual strike," how many forces in the shinobi world could achieve this?
As an outsider, Uchiha Sasuke's brain wasn't stupid enough to forcibly interrupt others' conversation, so only after Nara Tadashi left did he approach Yūshin.
"Yūshin, do you know what this thing is?"
He directly showed the pattern on the back of his left hand.
"Your tattoo?"
"No, this pattern suddenly appeared after I came here."
Hearing such explanation, Yūshin's attitude became serious... However, after looking for a long time, he still couldn't figure it out.
A mark? At most, this thing was likely related to the summoning Uchiha Sasuke had just experienced.
"Don't understand. Don't worry about it. At most it's just a quarantine certificate or death countdown or something."
This mark didn't appear on Yūshin, so of course he didn't need to worry, and could even casually make an unfunny joke.
"Death..."
Uchiha Sasuke could tell the person before him was talking nonsense—what death countdown? He didn't feel any discomfort.
Just then, Yamanaka Keiya and Aburame Clan's leader Aburame Junwa quickly came before Yūshin, interrupting his exchange with Uchiha Sasuke.
"Lord Yūshin, that person has come, very fast."
The situation was urgent, so Yamanaka Keiya didn't even care about the stranger beside Yūshin and directly explained the situation just sensed.
Aburame Junwa nearby nodded along. He was in his thirties with stoic attributes—a standard Aburame ninja... Although the three ninja clans hadn't formally joined The Fireflies organization, they had actually already begun playing their role.
At this time, Lan, Nara Hideyuki, and Akimichi Shenyu had also come to Yūshin's side.
"When can my beloved friends arrive?" Yūshin asked while walking toward outside the camp.
Aburame Junwa guided the direction ahead, Yamanaka Keiya explained beside him: "They should have arrived yesterday, but were delayed for unknown reasons."
A few days ago, Senju Tobirama had actively restored contact with Yūshin. In several rounds of communication, Yūshin didn't ask about Hagoromo Clan matters, but instead explained his plans to establish a shinobi village, simultaneously describing the organizational structure and other concepts of this shinobi village system in his letters.
Obviously, Yūshin was baiting—Senju Tobirama wasn't important; he wanted to attract a bigger fish... In a sense, it was precisely for this big fish that he prepared to hold a formal shinobi village founding ceremony.
For no other reason than to have the big fish stay here and observe for a while.
Why go to such lengths? Wasn't this bootlicking?
Because Uchiha Clan's leader wouldn't die silently like a maggot without consequences.
Uchiha Madara would definitely come.
Yūshin had to prepare some high-class programs, but at this time he could only think of borrowing force to counter force.
The group of six went to meet Uchiha Madara.
"Lord Yūshin, there's a tail behind us." Yamanaka Keiya reminded Yūshin.
"It's fine, let him follow." Yūshin didn't care about Uchiha Sasuke behind them.
Uchiha Sasuke at this time point might be very strong, but probably not that strong... Without Eternal Mangekyō, he could be beaten by Eight-Tails jinchūriki with taijutsu. It could be said Sasuke's strength couldn't support his attitude as a ninja.
The only Sasuke in this era's shinobi world was indeed Sarutobi Sasuke.
After advancing over thirty kilometers, both sides met.
The two sides stood less than ten meters apart, facing each other from different tree branches.
Yūshin's side had six people, plus Uchiha Sasuke hanging behind at a distance. At this moment, the latter was staring dumbfounded at Uchiha Madara.
Uchiha Madara brought his younger brother Uchiha Izuna.
No wonder Uchiha Madara came so late—because Hagoromo Clan had their rear stolen by Senju Clan and were in complete chaos, they hadn't timely transmitted information to Uchiha.
What about Uchiha's own ninja who participated in the action? All wiped out—they had no way to explain the situation to Uchiha Madara either, unless someone could communicate through dreams.
Of course, there was also some avoidance psychology at work. The Uchiha clan leader acted together with Hagoromo ninja, then this clan leader stayed on the battlefield and didn't return—how do you explain this to Uchiha?
Not easy to say.
Under deliberate concealment, Uchiha Madara previously didn't even know what his missing father and younger brother had gone to do, thinking they went on a parent-child outing.
Anyway, Hagoromo Clan wavered back and forth, only informing Uchiha Clan of the news last night.
Uchiha Madara looked at Yūshin, then at Lan behind him. Not seeing Shichimi, his inner unease intensified.
"Where are my father and other clansmen?"
"Except for Uchiha Orikawa, all dead."
"Shichimi..."
"I said all dead. Do you have comprehension problems?"
The scene fell silent for a moment, as if both sides had lost their ability to speak, with only late summer wind shuttling back and forth through the treetops.
"Why?"
"This question shouldn't be asked of me, right? You should ask your Uchiha and Hagoromo."
Having experienced the previous battle, Yūshin wasn't without gains. In fact, the current him could be said to be completely different from his previous self. Not that he gained any new abilities, but mainly improvements in basic abilities—his mastery, circulation, transformation, and cycling of chakra had improved more than a notch. Calling it a complete transformation wouldn't be excessive.
Yūshin glanced at his personnel, and they nodded slightly in tacit understanding.
With reinforcements not yet arrived, they had to knowingly do the impossible. If they fought next...
Kill the younger brother first.
Because the younger brother was much easier to kill than the older brother.
It was impossible to subdue a ninja of Uchiha Izuna's level in front of Uchiha Madara—they could only choose to kill.
Yūshin had spoken harshly just now because you couldn't expect him to care for Uchiha brothers' emotions at such a time—after all, The Fireflies organization was the attacked party.
At this time, Uchiha Izuna had already drawn his blade.
Scorching steam surged from Yūshin's body, and the tree bark under his feet and surrounding branches and leaves instantly curled up from the high temperature... Yūshin at this time was different from before. Previously when he used this ability, it looked like a boiler explosion with steam gushing forth, but now his leakage was almost negligible.
Just as both sides were about to engage in battle, a very excellent sensor ninja from far away had already perceived all this.
Then, he began complaining and showing disdain.
"Big brother, you're too slow. I'm going ahead!"
However, this person who disdained his older brother couldn't use Flying Thunder God yet.
Even if he could use Flying Thunder God, there were no coordinates near Yūshin.
So how fast could he really go?
🔥 Want to read the next 50+ chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]