Kaoru was practically vibrating with excitent as they stepped out of the outpost. He barely registered the rest of the discussion behind him. His ears caught scattered fragnts - sothing about Asuma reluctantly conceding, agreeing to allow Shin to pursue the fugitive Noda shinobi. Fugaku had argued that this territory fell within the neutral zone jointly controlled by Konoha and the Uchiha, not under the exclusive rule of the Hidden Leaf itself. That had forced Asuma’s hand.
But Asuma’s conditions were crystal clear: under no circumstances was Shin allowed to harm any Konoha-affiliated individuals, even in self-defense should they make the first move. It was a ridiculous condition on the surface, but one every shinobi understood. In the world they lived in, accusations could be manufactured as easily as air. Shin had agreed without protest, offering no counter-terms. He simply bowed his head slightly and left.
‘Typical sensei. Always choosing the path that avoids unnecessary talking,’ Kaoru mused, falling in step behind him. His thoughts, however, were already elsewhere. ‘
I wonder if the Uchiha have any information on beast summons, or how to locate them…’ His gaze briefly darted toward Fugaku, still locked in conversation with Asuma as they walked away. ‘From now on I’ll need to stay vigilant. There’s no doubt Asuma will have ANBU tailing us.’
That lingering thought vanished the mont Kaoru spotted the silhouette standing just beyond the treeline, waiting patiently for them. He was excited to et his friend.
‘Itachi?’ But as they drew closer, confusion quickly followed. ‘He’s grown so tall?’
The figure was taller than Kaoru expected, almost as tall as him. And most importantly, they were lean in a wrong, graceful way that didn’t quite match the sharp, composed presence he associated with Itachi. But the confusion didn’t last long. As they got close enough to see the facial features, Kaoru confird that it definitely was not Itachi.
The young woman standing before them bowed politely as they approached, her long ponytail swinging forward in a comical way, like a dog’s wagging tail. Her voice was clear and respectful.
“Lord Shin,” she greeted softly. “I’m Uta. Lord Fugaku sent to assist you to the best of my abilities.”
Shin smiled faintly and returned her bow with a small nod. “I’m grateful for Uchiha’s assistance. Thank you.”
Their brief formalities concluded, Uta straightened her back and reached up to adjust the long strands of her hair that had fallen forward. Then her eyes t Kaoru’s, studying him for a mont. Her gaze was deep, dark irises like polished obsidian, but lacked the coldness Kaoru often sensed from many Uchiha.
‘She doesn't carry the typical Uchiha arrogance,’ Kaoru noted instantly, ntally filing away his first impression.
“Shall we get going?” Uta asked, turning her head slightly toward the forest behind her. She seed completely done with her inspection of Kaoru, though her expression remained polite.
Kaoru nodded without a word, grateful that the suffocating formalities were brief. The sooner they started the better. Still, as he walked behind her, he felt the cursed mask shift slightly on his face - the ridiculous ‘crying face’ mask Shin had given him back at the outpost.
‘Why am I still wearing this thing?’ Kaoru grumbled internally. ‘We’ve left the outpost already. Anyone who can see my hair and eyes wouldn’t need much else to guess who I am anyway.’
But if ANBU were indeed following them, any extra layer of plausible deniability was worth keeping, at least for now.
Uta led the way through the dense woods, flickering on the branches of the trees. They were headed toward the place where the Noda clan mbers had originally been captured. That would be their starting point.
…
“Wouldn’t it be better to head directly toward where we know Sako Noda escaped?” Kaoru asked as they checked the soft ground still marked with dried streaks of blood, the remnants of the Konoha shinobi Sako had killed.
“Technically, yes,” Uta replied calmly, crouching again to examine a spot on the ground that looked completely ordinary to Kaoru’s eyes. “But we have to pass this location either way. It’s safer to start tracking from the guaranteed confird trail rather than the one that may have been faked with a clone or other jutsu.”
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Her tone carried no condescension, simply matter-of-fact clarity. She moved slowly as she studied the faintest shifts in the soil and surrounding brush. Kaoru followed her movents with interest, though all he saw was dirt. The subtlety of her skill made him feel like he was watching soone trace ghosts.
Curious, Kaoru activated his Suijingan, hoping to at least get a glimpse of what she was seeing, but the shimring layer of water particles in the air only made it harder. The tiny dots floating in the moisture distorted everything, masking even the tiniest footprint that might have been there. His eyes, so effective in combat, offered him no advantage here. He clicked his tongue in frustration.
“Sensei,” Kaoru whispered, taking advantage of the mont as Uta moved a few steps ahead. “Are we really going to hand Sako Noda over to Konoha?”
Shin didn’t answer. Instead, he simply smiled.
‘Is soone listening?’ Kaoru wondered, stopping himself from looking around to check their surroundings. ‘That’s the only reason sensei wouldn’t answer openly right now…’
This was the only explanation he could find, but he didn’t have ti to dwell on it. Uta’s voice broke through his internal monologue.
“I found the trail,” she called out, straightening. “It leads toward the river. We need to hurry, the longer we wait, the harder it’ll be to follow.”
Only now did Kaoru notice the faint crimson glow and the familiar pattern of three tomoe.
‘Three tomoes at such a young age? Was she ntioned in the series?’ Kaoru narrowed his gaze as he followed. In this world, new faces regularly appeared even inside familiar clans and villages, but truly powerful ones, those who could make waves, were still rare. In Konoha, the only strong person he had t who was not from the series was from the Senju clan…
He flickered forward, still lost in thought, keeping pace behind Uta as she pushed ahead, slowing only when she reached another part of the trail. She kept stopping, crouching down to check for signs, making sure the path they followed hadn’t been laid as a trap. Several tis already, she had cut off a path and backtracked, finding spots where fake trails had been planted to confuse anyone tailing the fugitive.
Kaoru watched her carefully as they moved. She barely spoke, yet every ti she paused, her eyes scanned the ground and the trees like she was pulling apart a puzzle only she could see. The red glow of her Sharingan stayed faint, but steady.
‘Would sensei or I even be able to do any of this?’ Kaoru frowned. He didn’t think so. Tracking had never been sothing he cared about. Shin could track targets, that much Kaoru knew, but what Uta was doing now felt on a different level. He felt useless watching her work.
“Based on his movents, he had a clear destination in mind,” Uta said suddenly, her voice cutting through the silence as she turned toward Shin and Kaoru. “We’re close. He spent too much ti laying false trails, and thanks to that, we’ve caught up.”
“So all this must have been planned beforehand…” Kaoru muttered without thinking. The more he saw, the more everything pointed to sothing bigger. Sako betraying his clan and Takimura at this exact ti felt far too convenient to be a coincidence. There was a hand guiding all this - the question was whose.
Uta led them across an open field. It looked entirely empty. No signs of recent activity, no animals, nothing alive. But as Kaoru activated his eyes, the Suijingan flaring to life, the reality beneath the surface revealed itself. He saw it clearly now - human forms gathered below, hidden inside what must have been an underground chamber.
“There are eight people,” Kaoru reported to Shin. Shin’s own sensory field wasn’t picking up anything, not even a faint pulse.
“There must be seals…,” Shin nodded, his voice low. “They’re blocking my sensory field.”
“There are,” Uta confird, raising her hand to point at what looked like an ordinary small hill a short distance away. If they hadn’t known better, it would have seed completely unremarkable. “The entire entrance is saturated with seals. It’s an old structure. They were laid long ago.”
“Uta, can you disarm them?” Shin asked. Even for soone like him, these were beyond standard field work. At so point, even experienced shinobi reached their limit if a true seal master had been involved.
“No, these seals require seal master…” Uta shrugged, stealing a glance at Kaoru, whose eyes were still fixed on the ground, looking at people underneath.
Kaoru furrowed his brow. “Aren’t seal masters rare? Why would one be here, helping rogue shinobi? None of this adds up.”
Uta shook her head. “I can guarantee applying this many seals in such a short ti would’ve been impossible. And if they worked on it for a long ti, our patrols would have noticed.” She paused, her gaze shifting back to the hill. “Whoever placed these seals did it long ago. This place has been prepared ahead of ti. The rogues were told to co here.”
‘So soone handed them this location…’ Kaoru’s eyes narrowed as the pieces ca together. ‘Are they from Konoha. Or soone close enough to them to know every detail…”
Uta remained silent but didn’t move. Technically, her role was already done. She had led them to the hideout, just as Fugaku ordered. But she wasn’t leaving. She lingered, standing near Kaoru, her Sharingan faintly glowing.
‘Should we send her away?’ Kaoru gaze darted toward Shin, trying to catch any subtle signals, but Shin’s focus never shifted from the hill. His eyes moved slowly across the treeline, scanning everything.
‘Is she here to gather information about us?’ The question gnawed at Kaoru, but he shook it off. He trusted Fugaku’s desire to use Takimura. Uchiha had no reason to turn hostile. Not yet. Not with Konoha being stronger than them.
“Alright then,” Shin finally spoke as he drew both Kiba blades from his back. “Since we can’t enter, let’s force them out.”
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