Yamanaka Kagetsu's sensory range had reached 22 meters, surpassing Uchiha Yuan's Mind's Eye of Insight. That was good news.
Moreover, this might just be the beginning—Uchiha Yuan and Yamanaka Kagetsu had essentially found a way to "exploit a bug."
Kagetsu's sensory perception could be enhanced through resisting genjutsu.
Which meant that in the future, once Yuan mastered more genjutsu techniques, he could keep training Kagetsu this way.
However, for now, Yuan only knew two genjutsu techniques—both of which had been passed down through generations in Konoha since its founding.
Of these, he had only mastered one D-rank genjutsu: Demonic Illusion: Naraku Seeing Technique. The other, Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death (a B-rank), he had only barely begun learning—it had lower success and was less effective than Naraku Seeing.
Once he became proficient in Tree Binding Death, it should also help expand Kagetsu's sensory range.
Of course, that didn't mean that Yuan's Mind's Eye of Insight was now useless just because Kagetsu's range had expanded.
Yuan had already noticed before that compared to the Yamanaka Clan's sensory abilities, the Mind's Eye of Insight was incredibly effective at detecting various types of lifeforms.
Thinking of this, he activated the Mind's Eye and immediately sensed all life within a 20-meter radius.
Like the Body Flicker Technique, the Mind's Eye could be upgraded by using it frequently—though Yuan wasn't sure how many uses it would take.
Although the Mind's Eye consumed no chakra, Yuan found that activating it and receiving feedback from so many life signals made him uncomfortable.
It felt like standing in a noisy marketplace surrounded by loudspeakers blaring nonstop—so he didn't keep it on for long.
Still, now that Kagetsu had improved, Yuan felt the urgency to level up his own sensory ability too. So he resolved to keep using the Mind's Eye more often to build proficiency.
He kept it active as he walked back to the Uchiha camp.
As soon as he entered, he stopped in his tracks.
His Mind's Eye had sensed an abnormally powerful life force beneath the camp—stronger than anyone Yuan had ever encountered.
What made it more terrifying was that this life force seemed to be silently watching all the Uchiha members in the camp—and none of them had noticed.
Yuan was about to report this to Uchiha Mei when he suddenly thought of something and stopped.
"Wait a second—could this be White Zetsu?"
Beneath the camp… a powerful life force… able to evade detection from both Uchiha Mei and Uchiha Cai's Three Tomoe Sharingan—that perfectly matched White Zetsu's traits.
White Zetsu's Mayfly Technique allowed it to merge its body with the ground and plants, enabling high-speed travel through root systems and underground streams. While active, it emitted no detectable chakra—making it nearly impossible to detect.
White Zetsu was created from those who had fallen under the Infinite Tsukuyomi in the previous era—a product of the God Tree, possessing immense life force.
White Zetsu also had a valid reason to monitor the Uchiha camp. At this point in time, Uchiha Madara was still searching for someone to inherit his will after his death.
That successor had to be from the Uchiha clan—so Madara had likely dispatched White Zetsu to monitor Uchiha members on the battlefield to identify a suitable candidate.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced Yuan became: the presence below the camp was either White Zetsu or a spore clone of his.
And right now, Yuan had no way of dealing with something like that. It was best not to act at all.
Madara wasn't dead yet—who knew what might happen if White Zetsu's presence was exposed? It could even draw Madara's attention.
Though the current Madara was an aged man hooked up to tubes and unable to move freely—he was still Uchiha Madara. Even at that age, Yuan dared not take him lightly.
So Yuan decided—so long as White Zetsu didn't act, he would pretend he didn't know it was there.
—
The next day, Yūhi Kurenai arrived at the Bear Country camp with reinforcements from the village.
With fresh troops now available, Orochimaru's tent hosted a full day of meetings.
That night, the captains of all reconnaissance squads were summoned to Orochimaru's tent.
An hour later, under the cover of darkness, all of Konoha's recon teams moved out—target: the main battlefield ahead.
"Sensei Shibi, what's our mission this time?" Hyuga Asana asked as they moved through the woods.
"To locate and clear any enemy ambushes or traps on the battlefield," Shibi replied.
"Is the village preparing for a decisive battle with the Mist?" Yamanaka Kagetsu asked.
"Of course not. In terms of numbers and elites, we're inferior to the Mist. The village's goal has always been to stall the Mist and prevent them from completely occupying the Land of Bears.
A full-scale war with them? Not happening," Shibi said.
"Then why clear traps and ambushes?" Kagetsu pressed.
This time, Shibi didn't answer directly. Instead, he turned to Uchiha Yuan. "Yuan, what do you think?"
"I think it's because we've been getting beaten down by the Mist lately. Morale is low. Now that reinforcements have arrived, Lord Orochimaru probably wants to launch an offensive to boost morale."
Shibi nodded. "Good analysis. That's exactly what Lord Orochimaru and Shikaku are aiming for—morale recovery."
"Primary goal? So there are other objectives too?" Asana asked.
"There are, but they don't concern the recon teams. That's someone else's problem."
Seeing that Shibi didn't want to elaborate, the others didn't press further.
But Yuan had a few guesses.
He figured Orochimaru likely had his eyes on the Mist's top-tier forces—like the Seven Ninja Swordsmen or the bloodline limit clans.
Orochimaru probably wanted to take this opportunity to eliminate some of their elites.
And if the opportunity arose, collect corpses of Mist bloodline limit ninja for research.
And indeed, that was the plan.
Orochimaru was aiming for the Mist's bloodline limit elites.
When the time came, the Uchiha clan, Yūhi Kurenai, and the heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans would work together to contain the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru would deal with the bloodline-limit powerhouses.
This portion of the battle was beyond Yuan and his team's current level, and since it involved the Swordsmen, Shibi had deliberately withheld details from them.
(To Be Continued...)