Chapter 51 — Never Underestimate the Pride of the Sound Shinobi, Uzumaki
"Please… bite me."
"I'm begging you! If you don't, you'll die!"
The Sound shinobi, having launched a full-scale counteroffensive, were relentlessly driving the shattered Cloud forces before them.
With kunai and explosive tags raining down from above to seize the initiative, and with absolute control over battlefield intelligence, the situation could no longer be described as merely favorable.
For the Sound Village, it was overwhelmingly advantageous.
And yet—even though Oda Nobunaga had carefully chosen the battlefield,
even though he had made full use of the covert material support funneled in by various daimyō,
even though the chakra tools brought back from the Land of Snow were being pushed to their limits—
There remained an undeniable truth.
The gap in sheer shinobi quality between the Sound and the Cloud could not be erased overnight.
Casualties were inevitable.
Behind the surging tide of victory, countless wounded Sound shinobi were being carried into field hospitals.
Low, agonized groans echoed through the tents.
Blood—dark, glaring red—was everywhere.
The sight of shinobi struggling on the razor's edge between life and death cut deeply into the hearts of the very people whose existence lay at the surface of this war's justification—
The Uzumaki mother and daughter.
Out of gratitude toward Nobunaga—and out of a sincere desire to do whatever little they could—
Uzumaki Shion had refused his offer to relocate them to a safe rear position before the battle began.
If she could not fight on the battlefield, then she would serve in the medical unit.
Though she lacked combat ability, Shion still believed she could be useful—
after all, she was a medical ninja.
And now, faced with this scene, she knew—
This was the moment she had been waiting for.
Unlike her days in Kusagakure,
Uzumaki Shion now rolled up her sleeve and placed her exposed arm before the wounded.
From the bottom of her heart, she wanted these loyal, courageous shinobi to bite her.
To live.
Yet—
"Please… bite down!"
It wasn't the first time she had offered her arm.
Back in the Grass Village, the Grass shinobi had never hesitated—
they would bite down without a second thought.
But here…
"Please… please—my blood, or my daughter's—just bite us!"
Always sheltered by her mother, Uzumaki Karin echoed the plea, stretching out her pale, slender arm as well.
She couldn't understand it.
Why would the Sound shinobi rather die than take a single bite from her or her mother?
"You'll die if you don't!"
Having once glimpsed hell—and now witnessing a different kind of hell entirely—Karin's voice trembled with sobs. Tears pooled in her eyes as her young heart reeled from the shock.
"Are you insane?!"
The Sound shinobi before them had his head wrapped in white bandages, one eye already gone. His body was soaked in blood, breath shallow, life clearly slipping away.
Yet he still forced himself to push aside the arms offered to his mouth.
Without hesitation, he cursed.
"We're comrades! How can comrades survive by feeding on one another?!"
"Don't insult my honor. The future Lord Nobunaga wants is not one where we eat people!"
"But you'll die!"
Once again—no matter how many times—she heard the same answer.
Uzumaki Shion froze.
This shinobi had said it.
The ones before him had said it too.
Were they… truly not afraid of death?
"Heh… so what if I die?"
Blood bubbled from his lips as he coughed, staining his teeth crimson. Even so, his expression was strangely relaxed.
"Better to die with honor than to live by devouring others—especially comrades."
"Lord Nobunaga taught us what it means to fight… and why we fight."
"A war without conviction is nothing but unjust slaughter. But fighting to protect our comrades—to defend the Land of Rice Fields…"
"So that children may keep smiling. So that civilians can work by sunrise and rest by sunset."
"That is what those of us with power are truly meant to do."
"We once lived without purpose. Now, we have belief."
"So, descendants of the Uzumaki… do not grieve. This is our choice. And our redemption."
"If only—"
The last spark of strength granted by his dying body finally faded.
Blood still trickled from the corner of his mouth as his words fell unfinished.
Yet with what remained of his strength, he tightly gripped Uzumaki Shion's hand.
In that gesture alone—he had already said everything.
"Protect comrades… defend the Land of Rice Fields…"
At first, Shion had only wanted to repay Oda Nobunaga for saving her and her daughter from despair.
Volunteering for the battlefield had been born of gratitude—and guilt.
But now, as she stared at the shinobi who had died right before her without ever biting her arm…
Something within her hardened.
Her expression grew resolute.
"Mom… he's dead."
Karin's sobbing voice reached her ears.
This time, Shion did not immediately comfort her.
She looked around—at the wounded still clinging to life, at those hovering on the edge of death.
She no longer begged them to bite her.
Some invisible shackle inside her heart snapped.
"I can do more. I must do better."
She remembered standing before Nobunaga before the battle, offering to help in the medical unit—
And yet, standing here now, she realized she had done almost nothing.
Regret surged through her like a tide.
How she wished she could truly wield the Uzumaki clan's gift—
Not merely serve as a passive vessel for others to feed upon.
Lowering her head, she closed her eyes.
The change in her presence made Karin hesitate.
"Mom…?"
Karin called softly, instinctively reaching for her mother's sleeve—trying to pull her back into the gentle figure she remembered.
But—
"So this is where you were hiding."
A voice no one expected cut through the air.
The unluckiest man of all—Yuki—had somehow found his way here.
Since his first visit to the Land of Rice Fields, nothing had gone right for him.
Now he staggered into the field hospital, clutching a broken kunai, gasping for breath.
He looked no better than the wounded Sound shinobi around him.
"Heh… fate hasn't abandoned me after all."
His greedy gaze locked onto Uzumaki Shion.
He hadn't forgotten the origin of this war.
The Grass shinobi had said it clearly—
No matter how grievous the injuries, a single bite from this woman would restore everything.
"Hey, woman," Yuki snarled.
"Come here and let me bite you."
"Or everyone here dies."
Barely holding himself upright, he still forced a false show of dominance.
"Don't even think about it!"
The moment he finished speaking, the wounded Sound shinobi struggled to rise, fury blazing in their eyes.
They were Sound shinobi—men.
Even if death awaited them, they would never stoop to hiding behind a woman.
"Hahaha—what, you lot?" Yuki laughed viciously.
"A dying tiger still bares its fangs."
"If you won't cooperate, then I'll kill a few of you to set an example."
Just then—
As Karin clutched her mother's clothes in terror—
As Uzumaki Shion stood there, shielded by the wounded even in their last moments—
Golden light erupted from her body.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
Brilliant, radiant chains burst forth, blazing like the sun.
And at that very moment—
As the golden chains surged outward—
In the central command room, Oda Nobunaga watched the screen and spoke softly:
"…See? You could do it after all."