The Great Hero Uchiha

"Ugh--"

Looking at the dense forest not far away, Kurenai suddenly sighed regretfully.

Sarutobi Asuma asked in bewilderment.

"what happened?"

Uchiha Miyuki, however, still understood what Kurenai Yuhi was lamenting.

This place was originally just a vast Gobi Desert with only a few scattered patches of green. It wasn't until the end of the Warring States period that the First Hokage, Butsuma Senju, learned about the situation and used Wood Release ninjutsu to change the ecology, creating a large forest. According to the First Hokage's plan, this forest, under the power of nature, would one day turn the surrounding Gobi Desert into an oasis and the desert into Gobi.

This greening project will eventually radiate from the border of Konoha to the Land of Rivers, and then from the Land of Rivers to the Land of Winds.

however--

The First Hokage was far too ideal.

After several major battles, only a few scattered patches of dense forest remain, and they are being gradually encroached upon by the Gobi Desert. The forest area is barely maintained only by the people of the nearby River Country planting trees every year.

Kurenai's next words confirmed Uchiha Miyuki's guess.

"What was supposed to be a win-win project for all three parties has been ruined by repeated wars."

It was only then that Sarutobi Asuma realized what was happening, and he couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes."

Uchiha Miyuki didn't say anything, but suddenly stopped and gave the two of them a "something's up" gesture.

"what happened?"

"It's too quiet around here."

"Could it be due to the effects of yesterday's battle?"

"The battlefield was quite far from here yesterday. Even if it had an impact, there shouldn't have been no birdsong at all. Something must have happened nearby."

The image of Sasori of the Red Sand flashed through Uchiha Miyuki's mind immediately, but he quickly dismissed it.

The current multi-national standoff is only influenced by World War II, while Sasori's killing of the Third Kazekage was the fuse that ignited a full-scale war. Yesterday's border skirmish was within the normal range and did not reach the point of full escalation. Therefore, it can be seen that Sasori has not yet killed the Third Kazekage.

07. Daily Life on the Front Lines

Uchiha Miyuki thought for a moment.

"Just to be on the safe side, let's send Ninja Crow to scout out the situation first."

As soon as he finished speaking, he summoned all thirteen ninja crows to conduct a full search of the forest.

Kurenai Yuhi said with a hint of surprise.

Are ninja crows cheap?

Uchiha Miyuki naturally knew why Yuhi Kurenai asked that question. A year ago, he only had six ninja crows. Normally, it would be impossible to increase the number of ninja crows to thirteen based solely on the mission rewards distributed over the past year. After all, ninja crows need to be fed by their masters, which is also an expense.

The reason he was able to grow the Raven Squad to thirteen members was entirely due to the way he secretly hoarded spoils after each battlefield cleanup and over-reported losses.

“My father paid part of the bill for me.”

"Oh."

Kurenai was only curious at the moment, so upon hearing this explanation, she naturally didn't pursue the matter further.

Meanwhile, Sarutobi Asuma was quietly setting up traps around him. Having spent a year with Uchiha Miyuki, he noticed how cautious Miyuki was on every mission. Although he always felt that Miyuki was too cautious, he was still somewhat influenced by him. In addition, after experiencing several border clashes over the year, he gradually came to accept this idea.

Genin are too weak. To defeat enemies stronger than themselves, they can only rely on the terrain to make up for the difference in combat strength.

The same goes for Kurenai Yuhi.

Normally, if Uchiha Miyuki saw this situation, he would definitely chuckle to himself, since he always managed to steal a few ninja tools from his teammates after setting up a trap. But this situation is not normal, and they might actually encounter the enemy.

While setting the traps, they kept an eye on the ninja crows' condition.

"Quack quack—"

A ninja crow suddenly let out a strange cry, clearly indicating that it had discovered something in the forest.

Uchiha Miyuki summoned the ninja crow to his side using a summoning jutsu. Sarutobi Asuma and Yuhi Kurenai also gathered around at that moment. Seeing the bloodstains and cloth on the crow's claws, the three immediately realized that someone had died in the dense forest. As for how many people had died, and who had died, they still did not know.

The ninja crows in Uchiha Miyuki's hands are only low-level summoning beasts. They cannot speak and have only low intelligence, so they cannot convey much information.

The three people can only deduce one piece of information.

"The fabric is of high quality, so the deceased was probably from the aristocracy or a merchant."

Uchiha Miyuki did not take any immediate action, but waited for a while and did not receive any news of other ninja crows being injured or killed. This did not make him happy, but instead his expression became serious.

The crows suffered casualties.

That means the enemy didn't want to cause them trouble, and instead sent a warning by killing the ninja crows.

Since there were no casualties among the ninja crows, there are only two possibilities—

1. There are no enemies, or the enemies have left.

2. The enemy did not want to alert the enemy, so they planned to find them by observing the flight path of the ninja crows.

"You all stay alert. I'll use my clone to check out the situation first."

The three-person team had been formed for a year and had naturally developed their tactics. Among the three, only Uchiha Miyuki had relatively high reconnaissance capabilities. Therefore, Uchiha Miyuki usually carried out reconnaissance and genjutsu interference when carrying out missions, while Sarutobi Asuma was responsible for frontal restraint and output, and Yuhi Kurenai was responsible for genjutsu interference and healing.

He controlled his ninja crow clone to enter the dense forest, and guided by the ninja crow, he moved toward the area where the corpse was found.

More than a dozen corpses were quickly discovered, and there were also traces of a fight between several ninjas on the ground.

Uchiha Miyuki didn't slack off at the Ninja Academy, so he immediately determined that it was a caravan from the Land of Rain.

It is not surprising that caravans are intercepted and killed.

After all, this is a world where children as young as nine or even six are sent to the battlefield.

The main reasoning is based on geographical location. Rain Country caravans, whether trading with River Country, Wind Country, or Fire Country, should not be in this vicinity. Theoretically, the only caravans that would pass through here are those trading with River Country and Fire Country. However, with the border between Wind Country and Fire Country in a standoff and frequent battles, any caravan that isn't stupid would definitely not travel this way.

Besides this, based on the surrounding environment and the condition of the corpses, he roughly deduced that the caravan had been dead for no more than an hour.

After organizing the information, he used the Sharingan's Imprinting Technique to seal it in the eyes of the ninja crows, allowing them to transmit the intelligence back. The clones stayed in place, while the other ninja crows searched for the enemy's whereabouts based on the remaining traces on the ground. Just then, a corpse suddenly moved and spoke to Uchiha Miyuki in a weak voice.

"Sunagakure..."

The other party died after only uttering the words "Sunagakure".

Uchiha Miyuki maintained his distance from the other party throughout and did not rush over to check the situation before he realized what was happening.

I'm just an clone, so if I die, I die; it won't cause any problems...

This must be because the original body was too cautious.

The clone went forward to check and found that the 'corpse' was not completely dead. As long as it was rescued in time, it should not die. However, Uchiha Miyuki did not relay this information back immediately to prevent Kurenai Yuhi and Sarutobi Asuma from rashly entering the dense forest. After all, he had a hidden mission to protect Sarutobi Asuma, so he naturally had to do his best to avoid any possible dangers.

and--

Everyone in the caravan died except for this one person, which doesn't seem normal at all.

He knew very well that there would be no casualties among the genin on the main battlefield, but outside the main battlefield, the ninjas of the Land of Wind had laid many traps and killed genin squads in the past year to deplete Konoha's war potential. After all, genin could not remain genin forever; given enough time, they could grow stronger.

Just then...

The corpse, which was already on the verge of death, suddenly opened its eyes.

"Seriously, Konoha genin are getting harder and harder to fool these days. Why don't you just call your teammates over? At least you'll have company on the road to the underworld—"

Hmm? These eyes—

"So he's just a brat from the Uchiha clan. Genin from big clans are definitely different."

While Uchiha Miyuki's attention was drawn to the person in front of him, a puppet equipped with various sharp blades silently circled behind him, giving him no chance whatsoever. The blades, radiating a chilling light, sliced ​​Uchiha Miyuki in two. However, the two halves of Uchiha Miyuki disappeared like a phantom.

"An illusion! Damn it—I shouldn't have made eye contact with those eyes..."

The Sharingan is one of the three great dojutsu in the ninja world. Coupled with the terrifying combat power displayed by Madara Uchiha, this has led to almost every ninja learning about the Sharingan at the ninja academy.

The puppeteer immediately formed hand seals.

[Illusion - Dispelled]

However, they still could not find any trace of Uchiha Miyuki.

"Left??"

The puppeteer immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had an absolute advantage in strength, he had suffered a loss before, which made him somewhat wary of Uchiha Miyuki's Sharingan genjutsu.

etc--

The eyes of that brat from earlier.

Two magatama!

The puppeteer gasped. Two tomoe, or even three tomoe, were not uncommon, but the problem was... that genin looked to be only about ten years old, and was just a genin, yet he already possessed two tomoe Sharingan. This was clearly a new generation genius of the Uchiha clan!

Damn!

Konoha has produced another genius even more talented than Kakashi—

Why doesn't our Wind Kingdom produce such a genius?!

08. Being a genin isn't so easy either.

Hiding in the shadows and watching the puppeteer, Uchiha Miyuki's clone secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Trust the original source with sufficient caution, otherwise...

This means we're going to lose a ninja crow.

The Ninja Crow Clone Technique is different from traditional clones; it's a pay-to-win ninjutsu.

When used, it mainly consumes the chakra of the ninja crow itself, and does not consume the chakra of the main body. However, this effect is not very useful for ordinary ninjas. As the lowest-level summoning beast, the ninja crow has too little chakra and it is difficult to exert any combat power. Moreover, once the clone is killed, the ninja crow is also very likely to be killed as well.

To others, the ninja crow is a summoning beast only suitable for delivering intelligence and conducting reconnaissance.

However, for members of the Uchiha clan, such as Uchiha Miyuki and Uchiha Itachi, who were skilled in Sharingan genjutsu, the ninja crows could be used to an extremely terrifying degree.

Given the host's cautious nature, there shouldn't be any problems... but let's send the information back first.

Although the clone technique couldn't eliminate the puppeteer in front of him, it could be used to stall him for a while using illusions and the terrain. However, compared to that, transmitting information back was more important. He immediately dispelled the clone technique and used the ninja crow clone's ability to transmit the information about what happened next back to him.