The search for the Dodai's remains was nothing short of agonizing. Jugo had called upon every single bird under his control... creatures that Itachi had originally put them under Genjutsu for salt-spraying reconnaissance to clear the fog... sending them sweeping across every nook and cranny around canopy for hours on end. The frantic beating of wings filled the silence.
Not far away, Guren was relentlessly conducting her own desperate search through the kill zone. Her eyes scanned the undergrowth until they played tricks on her, making her think every shadow was a clue. Desperate for any sign, she turned sharply on her heel, but her foot caught on a patch of slick loose mud.
She skidded, tumbling to the saltwater ground. In a burst of fury and exhaustion, she hammered her fist into the mud but no matter how hard she hit it yielded nothing. Her energy was spent or rather her hope to continue the search, she simply fell back, lying flat on her damp back as she stared blankly up through the gaps in the branches. Tears welled in her eyes as they streamed down her wet cheeks.
"Damn it..." she choked out. "Sensei... show me a sign. Anything. Just... just anything to let me know you're still out there."
From her position on the ground, she could still see a few of the birds returning from their endless patrols, drifting lazily across the darkening sky. But they, too, were hitting their physical limits. One by one, their wings grew heavy, and they folded them in, perching despondently onto nearby branches to rest.
Just then, the soft rustling of leaves heralded the arrival of a figure as they stopped right in front of her, but Guren didn't even bother to turn her head or look up. The man's silence had already answered the question she was too afraid to ask out loud.
"No luck," Jugo murmured quietly. With a weary sigh, he let his frame go slack and sat down heavily on the ground, leaning his exhausted body back against a sturdy tree trunk.
A short distance away, perched up on the branch of a towering tree, Itachi kept a watchful eye over his grieving friends. He knew all too well how dangerous grief could be when mixed with unbridled desperation, they could drive a person to do reckless and irreversible things.
"This is the least I can do for now," Itachi thought to himself, his Sharingan spinning slowly in the shadows. "I still have to circle back and check on the explosive tags Juzo Biwa used." Even with those duties on his mind, he refused to step away, keeping his unblinking gaze locked on the duo below.
~~
Meanwhile, Kaien was painfully coming to understand just how difficult Dodai's role truly was. Leading an entire division wasn't just about giving grand speeches; it required an astronomical mental load. You had to meticulously divide thousands of squad groups based not only on their individual tactical utilities, but also on their situational roles: who was meant to stall the enemy, who was meant to act as a frontline tank, and who was positioned simply to hide and wait for a fleeting opening. Now, multiply that logistical nightmare across an army of at least five thousand shinobi, and the pressure was enough to crush anyone.
Despite the the grief of Dodai's loss weighing down his chest... Kaien simply did not have the luxury of time to properly mourn. The war did not stop for anyone. Still, before diving back into his command duties, he made sure to take a moment to check on his mother. He issued a quick commands and minor adjustments to his most capable captains, ensuring the front remained stable, before turning on his heel and making a beeline toward the commander's tent.
When he arrived, he found Aya standing outside looking out over the churning ocean. A small team of frontline Medical-Nin were gathered around her, applying healing salutes and bandages to her severe burns.
As Kaien drew closer, he noticed that while the Medical-Nin were working overtime to close the wounds, the burn marks still remained vivid against her skin. The sight instantly yanked him back into his memories, replaying the moments he had witnessed through his Byakugan. He could easily wrap his head around Mei Terumi's lethal capabilities... acid-style jutsu was her specialty, after all. But Juzo? That was entirely different, it was what that spiraled around.
Kaien vividly remembered the distinct iconic Kanji seals printed on the explosive tags Juzo had used. They weren't standard Mist village seals; they were explosive tags bearing the distinct symbols of Uzushiogakure.
"Did he scavenge those off the corpses of Uzushio shinobi he slaughtered?" Kaien pondered internally furrowing his brow. He had zero definitive leads. "Let's just hope Itachi manages to pull a miracle out and find something useful."
"How are you holding up, mother?" Kaien asked in a low tone as Aya lifted her head away from the sprawling maps spread out before her on a makeshift table. "Ah, little one," she greeted softly as a faint smile crossed her face. "I didn't notice you slip in."
"I was just standing outside, thinking about how Fuguki died," Aya expressed, leaning in closer. "I was certain that my Light Bullet technique hit him dead-center of his skull. But his body was completely incinerated to ash... and that destructive heat wasn't caused by my jutsu at all. Maybe that is why we could not find Dodai's head it must burned down while we were in the Lava dome."
Aya continued, voicing her own doubts. "Do you suppose he triggered a self-destruct mechanism to purposefully deny us the chance to harvest his DNA? If we can't get a biological sample, we can't secure intelligence or potential reanimations... it's safer for us to assume they hold more information on our capabilities than we do on theirs."
"Exactly," Kaien agreed as he scanned the perimeter of the camp. Without shifting his head or making any sudden suspicious movements, he subtly gestured his eyes toward a seemingly empty sky to their left, signaling his mother to look in that specific direction without tipping off the potential eavesdropper.
~~
A/N: With this Dodai gets a proper closure he deserves, with Guren and Jugo failing to find anything and Itachi being a charm for keeping an eye on them. Kaien having to handle Dodai's role.
I feel like he had a role in every new gen prodigies. And I have completed writing third arc, I have the major plot for the fourth arc.
Upto 20 Advance chapters available @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0