With Nawaki and Kosuke's help, Chiba fought his way through the attacking Iwa-nin, weaving between clashing shinobi to close in on the portly communications specialist.
His panic seems genuine. Could this fool not be the mole after all? Just a pawn someone manipulated?
After observing him up close, a flicker of doubt crossed Chiba's face.
"Incoming!"
Just as Chiba was lost in thought, a Konoha shinobi up ahead shouted a warning.
The next instant, a poison sac landed in the middle of their formation. It hissed, spreading a cloud of sickly purple gas that swallowed the nearby Konoha ninja.
"Hm?"
While everyone else scrambled away from the spreading poison, Chiba did the opposite. He leaned in, taking a deep, deliberate breath.
"Sniff… Sniff… This scent… Suna poison?"
He popped an antidote pill into his mouth, chewing as he analyzed the flavor. To most people, poison was just poison. But to Chiba, a connoisseur of toxins—especially Suna's signature brews—it was like reading a label. He could tell them apart just as some girls could distinguish between shades of lipstick, or some boys could name every Ultraman.
"So Suna can't accept their loss. They're using Iwa's hand to vent their frustration on Konoha."
Chiba's lips curved into a faint smile. The best way to hide a crime was to make it blend in with the crime scene.
On a battlefield already littered with Suna's poisons, if he killed someone using Suna's methods… well, even a master detective would be stumped.
Shhht.
Under the cover of the purple haze, a specially modified kunai appeared in Chiba's hand. Its handle was wrapped with bandages holding a clear, fine powder.
"Watch out! Another one!" a Konoha ninja yelled.
Another poison sac sailed through the air. Chiba timed it perfectly. His kunai shot forward, piercing the sac dead center.
BOOM!
The sac exploded. With Chiba's "special addition," a violet mushroom cloud blossomed, the poison fog now two, three times larger than before!
"Holy shit? It's that strong?!"
Even the Iwa ninja who'd thrown the sac stared, dumbfounded, at the rising cloud.
Are you Suna bastards insane? Inventing something like this? It's pure mutual destruction, no discrimination between friend or foe!
The Iwa-nin didn't know. The fog was all show. Its actual toxicity had been diluted to almost nothing.
"Cough! Help! I'm dying! Cough!"
Under Chiba's "precise strike," the chubby communications specialist was also enveloped. He hacked violently, desperately calling for help, completely unaware he wasn't actually poisoned at all.
Swish!
In his panic, he failed to notice the shuriken skimming the ground, slicing cleanly across his exposed ankle.
Thump.
Another body hit the dirt. It was like a drop of water falling into a river—not a single ripple was raised.
Just a fool, after all.
Chiba shook his head inwardly, then put on a panicked face and scrambled out of the dissipating fog, rejoining Kosuke and Nawaki.
"Look! It's those three!"
"Kill them! Bring their heads back for the bounty!"
As the battlefield descended further into chaos, more and more Iwa-nin broke through to Konoha's rear lines. When they saw the faces of Chiba's trio, their eyes lit up.
A bounty of several million ryo was a hefty sum, even for a Jōnin!
"You want my head? Come and take it, if you can!" Nawaki yelled back, a wild grin on his face.
Chiba, meanwhile, stabbed a man through the heart while wailing in theatrical agony. "I don't want to kill anyone! Why are you making me do this? Why?!"
Kosuke was the quiet, vicious type. He just bared his teeth and went on a silent, efficient rampage.
The three might have been helpless against Ōnoki, but fighting together? Your average Iwa grunt was no match for them.
…
"Clan Head, look. That guy, Chiba… there's something strange about him."
Elsewhere on the battlefield, an Uchiha pointed towards Chiba, speaking to Fugaku. "Look at his footwork. Doesn't it resemble our clan's Shadow Dance?"
"Oh?"
Fugaku's gaze shifted. The three tomoe in his eyes spun rapidly.
Even though Chiba had modified the Shadow Dance, trying to obscure its origins, the Sharingan could still clearly trace the unique force-application patterns inherent to the technique.
"You are correct. It is indeed our clan's Shadow Dance."
After a moment of observation, Fugaku nodded slightly in confirmation.
"Weird. How does he know our clan's footwork?" the Uchiha muttered, puzzled.
He learned it from our clan, naturally.
Fugaku didn't speak, but a theory was already forming in his mind.
Without the Sharingan, Chiba must have observed the Shadow Dance extensively to grasp its essence. It was a light, agile footwork, mostly practiced by the women of the clan. And when he recalled that Chiba had once asked if he knew Mikoto…
Massive observation. A female practitioner. Mikoto.
The pieces clicked together.
"Mikoto said she didn't know Chiba, that they were merely in the same graduating class. That means…"
Fugaku's mind supplied the answer.
Yes. This was a classic unrequited crush. The girl oblivious, the boy watching silently from afar.
The girl was Mikoto. The boy was Chiba.
A faint smile touched Fugaku's lips. He thought he knew how to firmly tie Chiba to the Uchiha clan's chariot.
…
The battle raged for several hours. There was no winner. Both Konoha and Iwa suffered heavy casualties.
Finally, with a silent, mutual understanding, both sides disengaged. They began cleaning up the battlefield, the line between them stark and clear.
Chiba's trio looked utterly disheveled, but none were seriously injured. They'd successfully survived to the end.
And Chiba wasn't boasting. Three Konoha Genin teaming up? The fact that they hadn't caused world-ending destruction was them being downright modest!
"Brother Chiba, several of my clansmen are quite severely wounded. Could I trouble you to take a look at them first?"
Not long after the fighting stopped, Fugaku approached Chiba, his expression earnest.
"Of course, no trouble at all. Lead the way, Brother Fugaku," Chiba agreed readily.
For one, Fugaku had stayed for his sake. For another, the Uchiha clan had a relatively high "drop rate." Both sentiment and logic dictated he couldn't refuse.
…
Inside the tent housing the wounded Uchiha.
Chiba worked methodically, treating the most critical injuries first.
[Ding! Treatment successful. Congratulations, host, for obtaining 'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu'!]
[Ding! Treatment successful. Congratulations, host, for obtaining 'Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu'!]
Notification after notification rang out. Chiba grew increasingly exasperated.
"Seriously? Does your clan know any jutsu that isn't Fire Style?"
[Ding! Treatment successful. Congratulations, host, for obtaining 'Uchiha Mad Laugh'!]
Chiba: "…"
Great. The system sees the four masters of the Uchiha Mad Laugh as Old, Weak, Sick, and Disabled… and now it's adding me, the Healer, to complete the set?
Ah, whatever. He needed to relax. Healing was charity work, after all.
"Alright, Brother Fugaku, I think that's—"
Just as Chiba finished patching up the last of the Uchiha and prepared to leave, Fugaku, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke.
"Brother Chiba, you're not getting any younger. Have you given any thought to marriage?"
In the shinobi world, Chiba's age wasn't considered young. The great Itachi himself had committed his act of supreme filial piety around this age.
"Hmm, not really, no," Chiba replied, confused about where this was going.
Fugaku nodded. He spoke again, his tone deliberate. "In that case… have you considered the young women of my Uchiha clan?"
Well… yes. But…
Chiba had to admit, he might have glanced at a gigabyte or two… ahem, once or twice, of Uchiha Mikoto-themed "artbooks."
But the person asking this question was her future husband! How the hell was he supposed to answer that? Yeah, I've thought about your wife a lot?
Fugaku would probably activate his Mangekyō on the spot and smack him into next week with a Susanoo backhand.
"I… uh… that is…"
Seeing Chiba stammer and hesitate only solidified Fugaku's conviction.
He leaned in closer, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper near Chiba's ear. "How about this… when we return to the village, I'll arrange a proper introduction between you and Mikoto?"
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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