Uchiha Akaishi Tour

"What problems could possibly arise in the Land of Iron? Will those samurai still be able to attack us?"

"Who knows... Since it's an emergency mission, let's patrol it, at least to eliminate the risk."

"Don't you think this mission is too vague? Shikaku, why aren't you saying anything?"

……

October 10, Konoha 42.

Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Choza were assigned to patrol a section of the border adjacent to the Land of Iron.

Speaking of this task, there's a bit of a story behind it.

The three were supposed to be resting in the village, and they should be returning to the battlefield now, which is why they received their orders from the command post.

but……

Although this mission was directly assigned to the Jonin squad leader, it wasn't to the front lines, but rather to patrol the border of the Land of Iron—the reason being that someone had noticed things were not going smoothly there recently.

In short, it's a very perfunctory excuse!

There were no details, no mention of who discovered it, and no specifics of the circumstances.

Even so, they're actually deploying an entire squad of Jonin? The lineup is undeniably overpowered…

The mountain was puzzled by this, especially after they arrived near the mission location and visited two surrounding villages, and the conclusion was... nothing unusual!

At this point, Akimichi Choza, with his inherited easygoing and plump nature, still didn't take it seriously—since it was patrolling, then so be it.

Patrols don't necessarily involve discovering anything; simply confirming that "nothing has happened" is also a way of completing a mission.

but……

Nara Shikaku, the team's strategist, remained silent throughout.

Upon hearing Yamanaka Inoichi ask him, Shikaku said wearily, "Sigh, if something really is going to happen, we'll probably run into it soon."

Haiyi and Dingzuo hadn't yet realized what he meant.

Just then...

"Who is it?"

Nara Shikaku:......

"Oh my, isn't that Ino-Shika-Cho?"

"Great! The children are finally saved!"

Yamanaka Haiichi:...

Suddenly, Akaishi darted out, then looked at the three of them with a "surprised" expression, and finally put on an exaggerated "fortunate" expression.

As soon as Akaishi appeared, Shikaku knew that the stage was set up and the performance was about to begin.

Inoichi was a step slower, but he also realized what was happening—Uchiha Akaishi shouldn't be here. The three of them had inexplicably received a nonsensical mission from Uchiha Orochimaru, and now they were facing Uchiha Akaishi, who shouldn't be here at all…

Can this stroke write two "Uchiha" characters?

Only Akimichi Choza...

"Children? What children?" Ding Zuo chimed in, "By the way, what are you doing here? Didn't you say... you were in the Earth Capital?"

"Actually, this is what happened. On our way back to Konoha from the Land of Earth, we discovered something infuriating and extremely urgent!" Akaishi said confidently.

Lu Jiu and Hai Yi ignored him.

Seeing their lack of enthusiasm, Akaishi took the initiative and asked, "What do you think is the last thing a Konoha ninja wants to see on the battlefield?"

"You mean...?" Choza looked at Akaishi in shock, then tentatively asked, "Uchiha?"

Dingza looked at Akaishi with an expression that said, "You're incredibly lucky."

Akaishi:……

"Someone has dragged innocent children, even babies, into the war... No, to be precise, it can't even be called dragging them into the war, but rather using the war as a cover to harm children!" Akaishi said firmly.

That's not wrong, after all, Konoha was founded to protect children.

Upon hearing this, Ding Zuo immediately asked, "What happened?"

"We have discovered that someone is impersonating a Konoha ninja and has abducted a large number of children... including children from other countries, including the Land of Fire, and is secretly conducting inhumane experiments on them!" Akaishi blurted out.

Shikaku and Inoichi's expressions had already darkened when Akaishi said, "Someone is dragging children into the war."

Hearing "fake Konoha ninjas" now, I feel a heavy weight in my heart, but also a strange sense of relief—as expected, it's... targeting Root, isn't it?

Although the specifics are still unknown, Shikaku knew from the beginning, after discovering that there was something wrong with the mission, that it must be the Uchiha clan trying to lure him here, most likely to witness something.

Of these eight or nine, at least six or seven are related to internal matters—if they weren't internal "enemies," they wouldn't bother doing this; they could just start fighting directly. Even if reinforcements were needed, there would be no need for such a roundabout approach.

Upon seeing Akaishi appear, he became even more certain of his thoughts and began to speculate that it might be related to the advisory group... especially to Shimura Danzo!

Now, hearing about "harming children" and "fake Konoha ninjas" not only made them realize the truth but also made their hearts sink—did Root really do such a thing?

This is somewhat below the lower limit they had anticipated!

While feeling troubled, both of them were also indignant, and as for Akimichi Choza, he was even more indignant.

"What? Using children for experiments? And pretending to be Konoha ninjas? What kind of person is so evil?" Akimichi Choza said angrily.

"I don't know, but they're a group of mysterious ninjas hiding their identities. We've already located their secret base, but... we're worried about the children's safety if we launch a surprise attack. Luckily, we just ran into you." Akaishi had an expression that said, "It's all a coincidence."

Haiyi didn't speak at this moment, but looked at Shikaku.

"Akaishi, is it really... using children for 'dangerous' experiments?" Shikaku asked specifically.

Only Dingza was puzzled, wondering what was there to ask, while Haiyi understood that Shikaku was basically asking "what exactly did the root do?"

If it were something that wasn't too outrageous, Shikaku actually wanted to run away and had no intention of getting involved.

"Yes, as far as I know, it has already caused at least three-digit casualties, and the age of the experimental subjects is constantly decreasing. Now there are even experiments on infants. In order to obtain some babies and children, the indirect casualties may even be in the four digits," Akaishi said sternly.

Upon hearing this, Shikaku and Inoichi's expressions also turned serious, and Choza exclaimed indignantly, "Take us there now!"

"Okay, let's go together then!" Shikaku also made up his mind.

Orochimaru's decision to "assign a mission" to the three of them was deliberate; he didn't just randomly grab a few Jonin.

Firstly, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio already had a good relationship with the Uchiha clan; secondly, the combined strength of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was significant within Konoha, and when they joined forces, they were no less powerful than the Hyuga clan, and even stronger than Sarutobi or Shimura; thirdly... that is, Shikaku and the others themselves are not only heirs to their clans, but they are also only nineteen years old, a time when they are young, vigorous, and full of youthful passion.

Even though Haiyi is calm and collected and Lujiu is deep-thinking, they will not simply consider the pros and cons when faced with matters of principle.

Akaishi then led the three to a place near the entrance of the secret laboratory, where Jiraiya and Ranma were also watching.

However, Maitreya is not here; he is sensing and monitoring from a much farther distance.

On one hand, Akaishi didn't want more people to know about Miroku's strength; on the other hand... this kind of internal cleanup would be embarrassing for the Ino-Shika-Cho trio if outsiders were present.

Seeing this, Shikaku and Inoichi felt even less hopeless—Akaishi could indeed be acting crazy and exaggerating, but if it weren't true, Jiraiya wouldn't have played along with his nonsense, and besides, there was Ranmai...

Thinking about it, there have indeed been rumors lately that something unpleasant happened between Mori no Machi and Root.

"Just how many Jonin are inside?" Only then did Choza realize.

Akaishi and Jiraiya are both here, but they are still worried about their lack of strength and want to ask us to come and reinforce them?

Could it be that the Raikage is hiding inside?

"Well, we were mainly worried about the children getting hurt. We're relieved that Inoichi and Shikaku could come." Jiraiya was still a little embarrassed at this point—now he understood why Akaishi had contacted Orochimaru!

Indeed, our combat strength is currently severely excessive...

However, Choza did not doubt Jiraiya's explanation—as a teammate, he knew best the effects of the Nara family's Shadow Technique and the Yamanaka family's Mind Disruption Technique, which were indeed very suitable for ambushes and rescuing hostages.

However, Shikaku and Inoichi didn't believe it, after all... the Sharingan's wide-range genjutsu could also achieve a similar effect!

"Hmm? Someone's coming." Inoichi suddenly realized something.

Because Miroku was not present, Inoichi, a professional sensory ninja, was the first to detect someone approaching.

The six men immediately went into hiding.

then……

Gradually, Akaishi and the others were also able to hear it directly...

The sound of a baby crying!

Because of what Akaishi had said earlier, all three of them felt a chill in their hearts upon hearing this voice, especially Inoichi and Shikaku. For Choza, it was just anger towards the enemy, but the two of them knew... that the truth was probably even more embarrassing than the "enemy" kidnapping babies for experiments!

……

"They found three babies under one year old and three under six years old this time. They should be satisfied now, right?"

"It's no use being dissatisfied... They're just conducting experiments behind the scenes; how could they know how difficult things are for us right now?"

"It's all those damned Uchiha clans, staring at the battlefield like ghosts..."

"And those damned Senju clan! They're causing trouble too. We could at least use some orphan adoption slots before, but now they've got them all firmly under their control!"

"Alright, stop complaining. Lord Danzo will settle accounts with those who betrayed Konoha later."

"Keep your mouth shut in front of the researchers. I heard the experiments have reached a critical point, and we need to produce results before all this work has been worthwhile!"

Along with the baby's cries, there was also the sound of conversation.

At this point, only Dingza was still puzzled—how could these imposters pretending to be Konoha ninjas be so deeply immersed in their roles in private? Could it be…?

It was that idiot Akaishi who made a mistake; they weren't imposters from Konoha.

Ding Zuo revealed a shrewd look...