The clan's medical corps bound for the Fire Daimyo's capital lined up at the gate, families in tow. Their escorts were two ten-nin, ten-hound squads: Fugaku's newly reorganized team and the veteran Renji squad.
Twenty shinobi, twenty ninja hounds, and a convoy that rolled slowly toward the capital. The wagons were quiet. The little ones wore worried faces; leaving home for years until school-age would change everything. By the time they returned, friends might be strangers. The women medics and preschool teachers stayed calm. They had made their peace.
After a long stretch, Renji raised a hand. "Halt. We camp here. The road ahead gets rough."
Retsu hopped down, grinning. "Same rest spot as last time. Wonder if my stash is still here." He crouched beside a tree and dug furiously.
Nothing. He scowled. "No way. It was right here."
Yan watched, shoulders shaking. Xingye finished that wine the week you left. Keep digging, buddy.
Xingye wiped sweat and tried to look innocent. Please don't remember it was me.
Duantian just sighed. That bottle's long gone, little bro.
Renji clapped. "Enough. Move out. We still have distance to cover."
Retsu resisted. "You go ahead. I'll dig a little more. That wine didn't sprout legs." The others hauled him away by both arms.
Dusk fell. Fatigue set in. As they began raising camp, the sentry hounds bristled and barked warning.
Children and teachers were herded to the center. Shinobi fanned out. The hounds growled at two directions at once the forest ahead and the road back toward Konoha.
"Heh. Looks like we've got company," Retsu said.
"Figures. They never disappoint," Yan smiled, shaking his head.
"Fugaku, your team covers the rear, the Konoha side. Blackclaw, you and the pack ring the wagons. The forest friends are ours," Renji said, a cheerful glint in his eyes.
How many times will they feed us free heads to take? Xingye thought.
Duantian tightened his grip on his blade. Watch me, little junior. Half a year of grind wasn't for nothing.
"Finally some action. Wish my senior could see this," Ue-kun joked, rolling his shoulders.
"Mugetsu, Yakumi keep extra eyes on the convoy. Everyone else, with me!" Fugaku's tomoe spun as he flash-stepped toward a cluster of shadows.
The forest lit up. Ninjutsu roared. A battlefield bloomed among the trees.
The children stayed startlingly calm. They trusted their big brothers. This would be over soon.
The kunoichi in the convoy formed a second shell. Every direction was covered.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall!" A masked shinobi hurled a crashing torrent at the wagons.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!" Lisa and another kunoichi countered in tandem, splitting and diverting the flood.
"Earth Style: Flowing River!" Another ambusher turned the ground to sludge behind the walls, aiming to drown the line.
Figures burst from underground, blades flashing toward the wagons. The hounds slammed into them mid-lunge, but two attackers slipped through the chaos.
Steel rose. The nearest children could see the killers' eyes. One more heartbeat and blood would fall.
Three children's irises spun into full three-tomoe. Two intruders were severed cleanly before their blades even fell.
"Showtime. Cull these tools," a dual-blade fighter snarled as he carved through a masked man and plunged into the fray like a wolf in a sheepfold.
Two other three-tomoe comets streaked off one toward Renji's side, the other toward Fugaku's.
Renji held four enemies by himself and hadn't lost an inch. All around him, his comrades traded two and three at a time. The distant shriek from the convoy made him smile. So, it begins. Time to flash a card.
"Light Release: Luminous Chain Step." Golden bands flared at his ankles. His speed spiked.
"Light Release: Radiant Fist." He batted aside a strike with his blade, then slammed a glowing left straight into the earth. Dust boiled up.
"Light Release: Refraction Blitz." A beam stitched the four foes together like points on a line. A shining silhouette rode that beam and four masks fell in silence.
"Chidori."
"Light Release: Luminous Chain Step."
A red-eyed youth, lightning hissing in his hand and gold fire at his feet, tore through the melee. Wherever he passed, Root masks crumpled.
The three-tomoe observer who had rushed over saw the field and chuckled. "Looks like I won't be needed. Renji, you've birthed another monster." It was Uchiha Sa, already en route to the capital and folded into Renji's counter-ambush design. The dual-blade reaper was Uchiha Kirito.
Renji flicked blood from his edge. "Sensei Saka, with me. We're reinforcing Fugaku. First-time team-ups can have seams."
Saka grinned. "No worries. Ming is already there. His son is on that squad, remember?"
Retsu grabbed Renji's shoulders, eyes shining. "That golden speed… what was that?"
"A new line I've been building. A fusion of fire, lightning, and wind into a fresh attribute. I call it Light Release. Half a year of work." Renji kept the deeper truth to himself. Even family didn't need the full map.
Everyone stared like they were watching a dragon molt. Sa knew the hellscape of fusion. He had taught Renji combo theory, nature transformation, shape transformation, all the dry bones that took years to knit into living jutsu. To reach this so fast… genius was common in Uchiha. Monsters were not.
The others had trained like mad for months, afraid to be left behind by their friend, junior, old captain. They had hoped to show off today. Then Renji dropped Light Release. Three natures fused. In six months. With a name that sounded like sunrise. Progress like that meant the ceiling was still somewhere in the clouds.
"I can't live like this. Teach me. Now," Retsu barked, shaking him.
Duantian exhaled a laugh. "Junior, your sword forms leveled up too. Throw your big brother a bone before I become the slow kid."
Xingye's eyes shone. Senior? Captain? Forget titles. This was the thigh you hugged and never let go.
Yan swallowed hard. He remembered that talk from years ago. Ideals were nothing without power. Light Release meant their dreams were catching up to reality.
When they returned to the wagons, Fugaku's crew was already home. A quick debrief, a few glances passed from face to face, and then they all ended up staring at Renji, grinning like an idiot.
In each heart, the same prayer burned bright.
Heaven, keep favoring the Uchiha.
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