Uchiha Yoru had already formed his Golden Core.
His life had undergone a fundamental transformation, and from a certain perspective, he was gradually stepping beyond the boundaries of humanity.
For example, his memory had become something that could only be described as a superpower.
His ability to remember details even surpassed so-called hyperthymesia.
Every event that had happened in the past, every person he had met, every word he had spoken—
He could recall all of it without the slightest deviation, ensuring that not a single detail was missed.
When his memories retraced all the way back to before he stopped the undersea volcanic eruption in the Land of Rivers, when he had beaten the Fourth Mizukage into fleeing in panic—
He finally realized what he had forgotten.
Uchiha Yoru stared blankly.
[I forgot about the Yuki clan!]
"Damn it."
"How could I forget about them?"
"This is bad."
"Is Ying still all right?"
"Can an Edo Tensei body really last until now?"
"I need to hurry."
"I need to check on them immediately and bring Ying's soul into the Hall of Heroes!"
"Please don't let anything have happened."
Uchiha Yoru hurriedly sent Uchiha Shisui home.
When he returned to his own house, he immediately picked up Miwa Masayo and created a Wood Release: Wood Clone at the same time.
Before Miwa Masayo could understand what was happening, Yoru used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport them to the River Capital.
Immediately afterward, he shot into the sky and raced toward the Land of Wind.
Only after they had flown high into the air did Miwa Masayo finally react.
She jumped out of Yoru's arms and landed on his shoulder.
"What happened, meow?"
Yoru answered in frustration,
"I completely forgot about the Yuki clan."
"It was only when my intuition suddenly started warning me that I remembered."
"If something is strong enough to trigger my intuition like this, then the Yuki clan's situation is probably very bad."
Miwa Masayo's expression froze.
Just like Uchiha Yoru several minutes earlier—
She had forgotten about them too.
Yoru suddenly said,
"The fact that both of us forgot about this is suspicious in itself."
"Maybe some unexpected force influenced us."
"You're right, meow."
Miwa Masayo nodded repeatedly.
"You've been absurdly busy lately, but I haven't had anything to do, meow."
"Every day, aside from eating and sleeping, most of my time has been spent cultivating, meow."
"With such an easy life, there's no reason I should have forgotten something this important, meow."
Yoru shook his head.
"No point thinking too much about it right now."
"We'll find them first, settle everything properly, then spend time investigating what happened."
"Okay, meow."
Following the faint fluctuations left by the Edo Tensei he had cast, Uchiha Yoru flew in a straight line.
After crossing the border of the Land of Rivers, they saw a large number of Sunagakure shinobi.
Miwa Masayo asked curiously,
"Why are there so many Suna shinobi here?"
"Did they gather all their forces in this area, meow?"
Yoru nodded.
"Yes."
"Nagato displayed overwhelming power in the Land of Rain and defeated the allied forces of the three great shinobi villages in a single battle."
"Of the more than forty thousand, nearly fifty thousand shinobi involved, more than thirty-six thousand died."
"He became a legend in a single battle."
"And the Land of Rain became a forbidden zone of the shinobi world."
"Since the Land of Rain, which serves as a major transportation route, can no longer be crossed, the Land of Fire, Land of Wind, and Land of Earth have effectively been separated from one another."
"So each side had to change its direction of attack."
"In fact, both the Land of Earth and Land of Wind were freed from the difficulty of fighting on two fronts."
"Iwagakure is currently focusing all its strength on attacking the Land of Lightning."
"Kumogakure has been thrown into chaos and forced to contract its forces, retreating again and again in the Land of Hot Water."
"Sunagakure is the same."
"They only have one remaining direction of attack."
"So naturally, all of Suna's shinobi are concentrating in the southern Land of Rivers."
Miwa Masayo asked,
"There are this many shinobi, but I didn't notice any changes in Konoha at all."
"Won't that cause problems, meow?"
Yoru answered decisively,
"No."
"The Fourth Hokage is Orochimaru now."
"He isn't like the Third Hokage, who only knew how to wait for enemies to attack, defend, and then counterattack."
"As far as I know, Orochimaru has prepared a huge pocket in the south and is waiting for Sunagakure to crawl inside."
"The Tiger Unit, Snake Unit, former ANBU, and former Root shinobi have already gathered in southern Land of Rivers."
"They'll act as bait and fight Sunagakure in the opening stages, drawing them into the trap."
"Then they'll be responsible for sealing off the escape routes at the end."
As Yoru explained things to the calico cat, he continued accelerating.
Once they entered the Land of Wind, he could sense Ying's Edo Tensei body much more clearly.
The distance between them was rapidly shrinking.
…
Ying's condition was worsening.
His body was continuously breaking apart.
The fragments of Edo Tensei matter that fell away would immediately crumble into dust and disappear completely.
Clearly, his body had reached its absolute limit.
He estimated the speed of his collapse.
At most—
He had another hour.
Ying sighed and spoke to the children caring for him.
"Gather your younger brothers and sisters."
"Whether the Yuki clan lives or dies will be decided within the next hour."
Several of the older children nodded tearfully.
They quickly gathered the younger ones and brought them to the northern side of a sand dune to avoid the brutal sunlight.
After Uchiha Yoru stopped Kirigakure's pursuit force, Ying immediately reunited with the children.
But afterward—
Accidents kept happening.
First, they accidentally encountered a group of Sunagakure shinobi.
The two groups had originally had nothing to do with one another.
Yet conflict suddenly broke out.
As a Kage-level shinobi, Ying easily defeated the Suna shinobi even in the desert.
Only after interrogating the prisoners did he learn that they had actually taken a liking to the children.
More than a hundred "girls," the oldest only thirteen or fourteen years old—
In the desert regions of the Land of Wind, that represented an enormous amount of wealth.
As everyone knew, Yuki clan boys were even prettier than the girls.
So the Suna shinobi had mistakenly assumed that the group consisted of over a hundred young girls.
That led them to misjudge Ying's party as a slave-trading caravan.
And so—
They decided to rob the robbers.
Unfortunately, although Ying was overwhelmingly strong, he was unfamiliar with the desert environment.
After killing the attackers, he failed to completely erase all traces of the bodies.
From that point onward, trouble from Sunagakure never stopped.
The entire group was constantly harassed.
They could not smoothly reach the hidden oasis according to plan.
Under Suna's persistent tracking, they couldn't even escape the Great Desert.
They were forced to wander endlessly through the sands.
For more than two months—
Ying exhausted everything he had.
Through every difficulty, he managed to protect all of the children.
But yesterday—
His own body suddenly began collapsing.
Clearly, he could no longer continue.
And yet Ying felt a sense of relief.
The difficulties he had encountered ultimately came from one thing—
An accident had cut him off from Uchiha Yoru, leaving him isolated and without support.
Every method of communication the two had agreed upon before separating had failed because of Sunagakure's pursuit.
Ying knew there was still one possibility.
Once his body began collapsing, Uchiha Yoru should notice.
But that was only a possibility.
He had never dared bet everything on it.
Now that his body had reached its limit, there was nothing left he could do.
So he finally relaxed and waited for Uchiha Yoru's rescue.
If Yoru didn't come—
Then there was nothing left to say.
As time passed, the sun rose higher and higher.
The shade on the northern side of the sand dune grew smaller and smaller.
But the first shinobi to appear—
Were Sunagakure scouts.
The desert shinobi quickly discovered traces of the Yuki clan.
Before the older children could even react, the scouts immediately withdrew.
Only a dozen minutes later—
Large groups of Sunagakure shinobi appeared from every direction at once.
After forming a complete encirclement, they slowly approached.
After hearing the children's report, Ying was surprised as well.
"More than two thousand?"
"That's far too abnormal."
But he quickly guessed the reason.
"So many Suna shinobi means the density of troops nearby has increased."
"For them to organize a force of this size for an encirclement, some important figure must have personally arrived nearby."
"It seems Konoha and Sunagakure are about to fight again."
"We've been caught in the crossfire."
"Heh…"
"This time, there's probably a Kage-level shinobi among them."
"I can't defeat a Kage-level shinobi anymore."
"That means our luck is actually pretty good."
"My body chose the perfect time to collapse."
"If I had only decided to end myself now, even if Lord Zhurong noticed, he probably wouldn't have had enough time to save us."
The children anxiously surrounded him.
"Clan Head, what should we do?"
Ying looked at them.
Then he smiled.
"Sit down."
"Put away your ninja tools and weapons."
"And wait…"
"If Lord Zhurong comes, we'll leave with him."
"If he doesn't make it in time, then give up resisting and go with the Sunagakure shinobi."
The Yuki clan children cried out in shock.
"Sir!"
Their reaction was perfectly normal.
Any child who had followed Ying this far naturally possessed an extremely strong sense of identity toward the Yuki clan.
For the young—
Especially children—
Persistence and pride were always at their purest and most intense.
They had never once considered the possibility of giving them up.
Ying patiently explained,
"Children."
"The responsibility of continuing the Yuki clan lies with me."
"Not with you."
"Even if the Yuki clan is destroyed, all of you still need to live well."
"No matter how difficult the future becomes, you must…"
Ying suddenly stopped speaking.
He felt an entirely new power pour into his body.
He could not control this power.
In fact, it sealed away what little chakra he had left.
But at the same time—
Ying was delighted to discover that once his remaining power was sealed, the collapse of his Edo Tensei body stopped.
"Ah."
"Looks like we don't need to think about that anymore."
"Lord Zhurong is here."
Remembering how Uchiha Yoru had casually erased the force led by the Fourth Mizukage—
Ying was absolutely certain that the Sunagakure shinobi before him were no match for Yoru.
Escaping from certain death filled Ying with excitement.
Yet even now, he carefully continued using Uchiha Yoru's alias.
"Lord Zhurong has arrived."
"Some mere Sunagakure shinobi are nothing to fear!"
…
As Ying finished speaking, Uchiha Yoru's voice rang out.
"Sunagakure shinobi!"
"I am giving you one final solemn warning!"
"The children here belong to me."
"They are under my protection."
"Withdraw now, and I will overlook all previous conflicts."
"Otherwise, you will be attacked by me!"
Within the Suna formation, Ebizō, who was commanding the troops, immediately felt his scalp go numb.
That voice was far too familiar.
It belonged to the killer of his son.
And to the terrifying sage who had directly resisted the undersea volcanic disaster at the River Capital.
Ebizō knew perfectly well how terrifying this man was.
He also knew that neither he nor the more than two thousand shinobi here had any chance of defeating this sage.
Especially…
Ebizō raised his head.
Following the voice, he finally found the figure.
Only then did he realize in shock—
The man was floating in the sky.
Ebizō swallowed.
"He became stronger again…"
Sunagakure had pursued the Yuki clan because their fallen shinobi had to be avenged.
And because lost face had to be recovered.
But they could not continue now.
Otherwise—
The price would become far greater.
Ebizō immediately decided to retreat and began passing orders to the surrounding shinobi.
Unfortunately—
His order came too late.
The prolonged war had left Sunagakure's shinobi emotionally suppressed.
The disastrous defeat in the Land of Rain had made things even worse.
Far too many of them were in unstable mental states.
After more than a month of encirclement and pursuit, they had finally cornered this group of enemies.
And then some inexplicable person suddenly appeared to stop them.
Among more than two thousand Sunagakure shinobi—
There were inevitably a few who couldn't endure it.
Before the retreat order could make its way around the encirclement—
They attacked Uchiha Yoru in the sky.
Some shinobi lacked ninjutsu with enough range to reach him.
So instead—
They attacked the gathered Yuki clan children.
And once these people moved—
Other Sunagakure shinobi followed.
Wind pillars.
Wind blades.
Wind spears.
Senbon.
Kunai.
Shuriken.
A dense storm of attacks flew toward Uchiha Yoru and the Yuki clan.
Ebizō's expression changed drastically.
He stared despairingly at the sage in the sky.
Uchiha Yoru raised both hands.
A crimson cylindrical barrier instantly expanded outward, protecting both himself and the Yuki clan on the ground.
The moment Wind Release ninjutsu struck the barrier—
It disintegrated.
Metal ninja tools passed through the barrier—
And instantly melted into molten iron, dripping down inside.
"Jiehehehehe!"
"Excellent!"
"You attacked me first!"
"So even if I beat all of you to death, the Heavenly Dao can't blame me!"
"Sunagakure shinobi!"
"You launched the first ninjutsu."
"And I, Zhurong…"
"Will not allow you to launch a second!"
Before his words even finished—
The sky above the Sunagakure force filled with countless fiery meteors, dense as a torrential downpour.
Sage Art: Fire Spirit: Meteor Shower.
This was the senjutsu-advanced version of Fire Release: Flame Meteor.
It was a Fire Release technique particularly suited to precisely controlling its area of destruction.
It was also a Sage Art that Uchiha Yoru had improvised on the spot after seeing the current battlefield situation.
At Yoru's current level—
Creating senjutsu had already become something he could casually accomplish.
The problem was that these techniques consumed far too much power while their individual destructive force was not especially high.
They could only be supported by enormous quantities of senjutsu chakra.
In anyone else's hands—
They would be considered failures.
But for Uchiha Yoru—
Such techniques could display far greater power.
The Sage Body he had built around his Golden Core could gather, store, and mobilize enormous quantities of natural energy.
It also possessed unimaginably precise control.
One could say that Uchiha Yoru himself had already become a powerful, systematic immortal cultivation system.
By relying on this systemic advantage—
He could compensate for the weaknesses of these hastily developed Sage Arts.
He could even produce greater combat effectiveness while displaying extraordinary control.
This Fire Spirit Sage Art immediately demonstrated astonishing power.
Not only did its coverage perfectly match the positions of the Sunagakure shinobi—
Every single fiery meteor had been assigned a precise target.
The number of meteors in the first wave was exactly equal to the number of Sunagakure shinobi.
And every meteor struck one shinobi.
Including Ebizō—
Not a single Suna shinobi managed to evade the attack.
Any shinobi who attempted to dodge would find the fiery meteor turning nimbly in pursuit.
Then it would hit.
And they would die.
The fragile nature of shinobi bodies meant that without defensive ninja tools or ninjutsu—
Even a C-rank technique could be absolutely lethal.
Those who chose to defend were not safe either.
Most genin and some chūnin either lacked defensive ninjutsu entirely or possessed defenses that were too weak.
The fiery meteors tore straight through them.
Among more than two thousand shinobi—
Over twelve hundred died in the first wave alone.
But the attack did not end.
The second wave of fiery meteors immediately descended.
This time—
The number of meteors was twice the number of surviving shinobi.
Two meteors attacked each target simultaneously.
Several hundred more shinobi died.
The third wave followed the same principle, increasing the attack density against each individual target.
Again—
Enormous casualties.
After the fourth wave—
Then the fifth—
Only a dozen or so jōnin and Ebizō remained.
Each of them stared upward in despair.
Thirty-two magnificent meteors hovered above every survivor.
They had already done everything possible to stay alive.
They had even abandoned their dignity and hidden beneath the sand.
But quantity could eventually create a qualitative transformation in power.
The sixteen meteors of the fourth wave had been simply too violent.
Under the continuous impacts, they could completely blast away the sand and even damage the bedrock beneath it.
Those jōnin had been forcibly smashed back out of hiding.
Several who reacted too slowly and failed to escape in time had died deep underground.
Now—
The number of meteors had doubled again.
No one knew how to withstand thirty-two fiery meteors.
Uchiha Yoru was extremely satisfied with the results.
He smiled.
"Although it can't be used continuously, the Mōryō computer really is useful."
"When it comes to precision targeting and control, humans ultimately can't compare with computers."
Miwa Masayo stared in shock.
She had experienced the massive construction project in the Land of Demons.
Back then, the Mōryō computer had still been clumsy and its performance had been far from ideal.
At the time, the calico cat had not understood why Uchiha Yoru insisted on continuing with it.
She had only supported him out of trust.
But today—
She had no choice but to praise him.
"Your foresight really was better, meow."
"Mōryō's potential really is enormous."
"With its assistance, fighting ten thousand enemies alone isn't difficult anymore."
"Yoru, your power now really is incredible."
"You truly have the ability to pacify the shinobi world."
Uchiha Yoru burst out laughing.
"See?"
"I wasn't bragging!"
On the ground—
Ebizō suddenly gritted his teeth.
"Everyone, get to me!"
"Quickly!"
He dragged an enormous scroll out from beneath his cloak.
With a flick of his hand, he opened it.
Eight puppets were released.
Ebizō immediately selected a land-turtle-shaped puppet and attached chakra threads to it.
Puppet Technique: Chakra Shield Seal!
As Ebizō poured all of his chakra into the puppet—
An enormous glowing blue chakra shield appeared.
He raised it above his head.
"Quickly!"
"Other puppet masters, control my puppets!"
"Defend!"
"Concentrate everything into defense!"
"Yes!"
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> [email protected]/SorenSwiftTL (replace @ with a)