-------------
📢 Support the Novel & Read Ahead!
Love the story and can't wait to see what happens next?
Join my Patreon and get access to 50+ early chapters before anyone else! 🔥
https://www.patreon.com/UK21
Thank you for reading, and I truly appreciate your support! 💖
--------
Uchiha Haru had easily eliminated the Hidden Cloud Village envoy and rescued Hinata.
The first thing he did was examine Hinata's condition. His eyes scanned her from head to toe, checking for injuries.
Fortunately, nothing was seriously wrong.
"Haru… Brother Haru…"
"Am I… am I dreaming…?"
Hinata's soft voice trembled as she barely opened her eyes. Her words were faint, disoriented.
But before she could fully awaken, her body gave out and she fainted again.
Moments later, Asuma, Hayate Gekkō, Might Guy, Uzuki Yugao, and Yuhi Kurenai arrived at the scene. As they came upon the bloody spectacle, their expressions darkened immediately.
"Is that Hinata?" Yuhi Kurenai asked, her voice tight with concern.
"Is she alright?" Uzuki Yugao added, rushing forward.
"She's fine," Haru answered calmly. "Just unconscious. No major injuries."
The tension eased slightly at his words, though the unease remained.
Their attention then shifted to the corpse lying in a pool of blood.
"Who is he?" asked Might Guy. For once, his usual bright energy was replaced by a grim seriousness.
Haru motioned to the enemy's forehead protector. "He's from the Hidden Cloud Village."
"Cloud Village?" Asuma's brow furrowed. "I just heard from my father this morning that an envoy from the Hidden Cloud was visiting the Hyuga clan…"
His voice trailed off.
"Could it have been him?" he muttered, his mind racing. "But why… why kidnap Hinata?"
None of them had an answer. The theory didn't make sense at first glance.
Hayate, Kurenai, and Yugao were equally baffled.
Might Guy didn't say anything, but the confusion was clear on his face.
Then Yuhi Kurenai turned to Haru. "What do you think, Haru?"
All eyes shifted to him—even Asuma and Hayate, who usually held a measure of suspicion toward Haru, listened intently.
They might clash over petty matters, but when it came to life-and-death issues, they stood as comrades. That was the Hidden Leaf's way.
No matter their disagreements, they knew when to unite.
Haru didn't answer directly. Instead, he posed a question:
"What is the Hyuga clan most known for?"
"The Byakugan," Asuma replied automatically. His expression darkened as realization struck.
The others caught on just as quickly.
Hinata's abduction wasn't random. It had everything to do with the Byakugan—the Hyuga clan's powerful dōjutsu.
They fell silent.
The gravity of the situation settled over them like a heavy fog.
"This is serious," Asuma finally said. "We need to inform the Third Hokage immediately. Let him decide how to handle it."
Killing an envoy from the Hidden Cloud Village could spark a war.
This was no longer a matter that a few jōnin and chūnin could resolve.
Only the Hokage could shoulder the responsibility.
No one objected.
Asuma, being the Third Hokage's son, left immediately to report what had happened.
The rest stayed behind to guard the scene—and the corpse.
Hayate and Might Guy stood watch, vigilant against any more attacks.
Yuhi Kurenai and Uzuki Yugao turned their attention to Hinata, carefully tending to her.
Haru remained apart, standing silently atop a tree branch.
His eyes stared into the distant dark.
He was thinking.
According to the original timeline, Hinata's kidnapping by the Cloud envoy hadn't occurred the night before the Uchiha massacre.
And it certainly hadn't been him who intervened—it had been Hyuga Hizashi, Hinata's uncle, who stopped the abduction.
He had only just returned from a mission, and yet here he was.
Things are changing.
Ever since he arrived in this world, the sequence of events had begun to shift.
Hinata's kidnapping tonight, Orochimaru appearing on the night of the Uchiha massacre, the resurrection of the First and Second Hokage—none of it was supposed to happen this way.
It was a warning.
He couldn't cling to the assumptions of his past knowledge.
He had to think for himself, remain cautious, stay flexible.
Only that would ensure survival—and victory.
But what Haru didn't realize was that even now, in the depths of the forest ahead, a dark vortex had silently opened.
Two figures hidden in the shadows were pulled into it.
In the blink of an eye, they emerged atop the Hokage Monument.
Orochimaru stood there, eyes gleaming with shock—and hunger.
"So… we were discovered?"
"Such terrifying perception, from such a distance…"
His voice was hushed, but the excitement in it was clear.
"Is this the power of the Sharingan… What terrifying insight…"
Beside him, a masked man stood tall and silent.
Uchiha Obito—though masked and composed on the outside, was anything but calm inside.
He had followed the Cloud envoy from the start, hidden in Kamui's dimension, observing from afar.
With his Kage-level power and space-time ninjutsu, he had no fear of being discovered.
When Haru appeared, Obito had withdrawn further to avoid being seen.
But now…
He had still been noticed?
Is that really the perceptive range of a three-tomoe Sharingan?
Impossible.
Orochimaru's voice cut into his thoughts, laced with curiosity and glee.
"I wonder just how far the Mangekyō Sharingan's perception can reach," he mused aloud.
As one of Konoha's most twisted scientists, Orochimaru had studied the Sharingan in great detail.
The three-tomoe Sharingan boasted three core abilities: insight, replication, and illusion.
But how powerful those abilities became depended entirely on the user.
A stronger user meant stronger jutsu, better perception, more precise genjutsu.
But even those strengths had limits.
And the leap from three tomoe to Mangekyō was not just one of degree—it was one of kind.
A true evolution.
If Haru's three-tomoe Sharingan already possessed such terrifying perception, then…
Orochimaru fell silent, the implications clear.
Obito, too, said nothing.
His masked face remained stoic, but inside, a storm raged.
He can't just have the three tomoe…
Even with the Mangekyō Sharingan, Obito himself couldn't reach that level of sensory precision.
Could it be?
Has Uchiha Haru already awakened the Mangekyō?
If so, the implications were grave.
Unreal physical prowess combined with Mangekyō-level genjutsu and insight—Haru's power far surpassed what Obito had anticipated.
But he had a plan.
One that he'd put in motion well before tonight.
One that involved the man standing beside him.
"I trust your preparations are complete?" Obito asked.
Orochimaru smiled, his lips curling into a serpent's grin.
"Of course. There won't be any mistakes."
His tone was confident—arrogant, even.
He trusted in his own forbidden ninjutsu.
"Good," Obito said with a nod.
He turned his gaze to the horizon, eyes burning with resolve behind the mask.
The Night of Extermination was coming.
He would ensure it went off without a hitch.
------------------
This Week Bonus Chapter - 200 Power stones
2nd Bonus Chapter - 400 Power Stones
3rd Bonus Chapter - 600 Power Stones
-------------
📢 Support the Novel & Read Ahead!
Love the story and can't wait to see what happens next?
Join my Patreon and get access to 50+ early chapters before anyone else! 🔥
https://www.patreon.com/UK21
Thank you for reading, and I truly appreciate your support! 💖
---------