Chapter 16 – Minato Namikaze: Yujiro, You're the Only One I Trust
The moment Obito slipped away with Kamui, Shisui stiffened, hand gripping his blade, his body instinctively ready for combat.
"Did you sense that?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah. A distortion in chakra flow—space–time ninjutsu." Yujiro answered lazily, still lying back in the wagon's canopy, arms folded behind his head, eyes closed. "Stronger than even the Flying Thunder God. Guess the Land of Rain really hides a few dragons among the mud."
"So besides Hanzō, Rain has other monsters lurking?" Shisui frowned.
"Not necessarily Rain," Yujiro replied, his voice calm and unhurried. "Could be another faction entirely."
He wasn't tense like Shisui. He already had a pretty good idea who the watcher was — Uchiha Obito.
A little brother puffing himself up… our clan really does breed arrogance so easily. From humble to self-important in the blink of an eye.
Yujiro sighed inwardly. Obito hadn't always been like this. Was this the power of… love?
Decision made: in a few days, he'd track down Orochimaru, master Edo Tensei, revive Rin, and let her and Obito settle this face-to-face.
Yes, it was a morally bankrupt idea. That was why Yujiro wasn't worried at all.
People with weaknesses are easy to control. The bigger the weakness, the easier the control. Isn't that right… Kakashi?
"If we can, we should investigate," Shisui pressed. "After all, this is the Hokage's request."
Their official mission was escort duty—guarding a caravan of luxury goods bound for the Rain daimyo and nobles. But Minato had added a personal assignment.
"The Land of Rain doesn't feel right," he'd confided. "I suspect Danzō is hiding something. Other than Kakashi, I can't trust anyone in ANBU. So I'm counting on you two."
Minato, being Jiraiya's student, knew his master had three other disciples in Amegakure. He also knew the ugly truth: during the Third Shinobi War, Danzō had led an ANBU squad to "negotiate" with Hanzō… and returned in tatters. Danzō had claimed it was an ambush. By whom? He refused to say.
Minato couldn't press him too hard — not on something the Third wouldn't back. But he wasn't about to ignore it either. Amegakure sat at the crossroads of Fire, Wind, and Earth. Its position was too strategic to leave a black hole on the map. And yet, for years, any squad sent in had either returned empty-handed… or never returned at all.
Rain swallowed spies like a bottomless swamp.
So when the Uchiha extended an olive branch, Minato seized it. Two young geniuses — Shisui and Yujiro. Maybe they'd bring back answers.
Or maybe not.
"Best if we can dig something up," Yujiro murmured, half-asleep. "But if we can't, no big deal. Hokage's personal commission doesn't count toward the official record anyway."
"But isn't success better?" Shisui argued. "If we pull this off, the Fourth will look at us differently."
"Of course it'll be a success," Yujiro muttered, voice drifting as if he were about to doze off. "Amegakure's intel? I know it inside and out already. Just sit back and watch me perform."
"Eh?! What? Yujiro, you know what's been happening in Amegakure? Tell me, tell me! Yujiro? Hey—don't fall asleep now!"
Shisui's panicked chatter was ignored. Yujiro lay back in the wagon canopy with his eyes closed, thinking through the next move.
As one of the major antagonists of the later Hokage era, the Akatsuki had not yet reached its later "every rogue is S-rank" peak—but even so, Yujiro would not go charging into them blindly.
Come on—Jiraiya in Sage Mode had fallen to those guys. Two of them, even with Shisui, might not be enough. Reconnaissance could be perfunctory; all that mattered was accurate intelligence.
Akatsuki was still in its lull. Nagato had real talent—recruiting, consolidating, building an organization that would one day eclipse the Five Great Villages. If Nagato's body had been a bit stronger, a bit longer-lived, he might have enforced decades of stability—perhaps even established a temporary peace on the scale Hashirama once did.
What a pity. Maybe a dose of Hashirama cells could extend his life—worth the chat, at least.
Yujiro let his thoughts drift, then—truly—fell asleep.
Shisui sighed. Seeing Yujiro like that left him helpless.
"When we finish escorting the goods, we should visit Amegakure," Shisui finally said. "If we don't go check, I won't be at ease. But Yujiro… what should we do about him?"
The Hokage's orders and Yujiro's laid-back approach were in conflict. Shisui's mind churned until, a few minutes later, another spatial ripple—Kamui—ripped the air on the ridge beside the caravan.
Before the distortion fully formed, a group of rogue-nin with scratched forehead protectors burst from the trees and charged the convoy loaded with luxury goods.
They were numerous and unevenly skilled.
Rain village ninjas? Rogue band? It didn't matter—the fight had begun.
"Help! Konoha ninja—save us!!!" the caravan master screamed.
Yujiro and Shisui wouldn't ignore him—indeed, before the man's cry finished, they'd already sprung into action and divided the battlefield. "You take left, I'll take right!"
"Got it!" Shisui answered.
Two streaks of light flared down both sides of the convoy—red and blue blades flashing. Before many of the attackers even registered what was happening, their throats were cut, blood spouting, and everything went dark. In the blink of an eye, a vicious raiding party lay broken under the blades of Shisui and Yujiro. True body-flicker specialists—perfect reapers for fodder.
From a distance, masked figures watched. Uchiha Obito's eyes flickered as he took in the carnage, then he folded space and vanished again. This time the chakra signature had been stronger than before—he'd provoked no reaction merely by observing.
Recruiting those kids failed—time to try recruiting Yujiro instead, he thought. Unleash the aura of Madara and make that brat kneel before me.
And with that, Obito slipped away, scheming.