Chapter 4, Chapter 4: Senju did it / Uchiha did it

Kaori had no idea what had happened last night. She had suddenly fainted due to a relapse of her old illness yesterday evening, and when she woke up, it was already dawn.

Ignoring her husband's concerned inquiries about her health, Jiazhi hurried towards Yansheng's room—although Yansheng was still very young, his room had been prepared long ago when Jiazhi learned of her pregnancy.

Jiazhi opened the door and strode into the room. She saw Yan Sheng lying quietly on the bed, and her eyes immediately softened. Afraid of waking the child, she tiptoed over and habitually touched the child's forehead. The next second, her expression changed drastically.

It's so hot!

Yan Sheng has a fever!

Five minutes later.

The medical ninja knelt to one side, fine beads of sweat beading on his forehead. He dared not raise his head, feeling guilty, for he knew the cause of the baby's fever: chakra malfunction leading to meridian damage and resulting in a high fever.

As for the reason for the chakra rampage... does he dare to say?

"Madam, please prepare another basin of cold water."

Panicked, Kaori didn't think much, nor did she have time to. She immediately turned to fetch water. Her steps were unsteady; the injury she sustained during her pregnancy had left a lingering ailment that hadn't fully healed.

Five more minutes passed.

Jiazhi gently placed a towel soaked in cold water on Yansheng's forehead. Seeing the child's pale cheeks flushed abnormally due to the high fever, she felt heartbroken.

"She was perfectly fine during the day yesterday..." Kaori murmured to herself, her fingers unconsciously clenching the hem of her clothes.

Unbeknownst to her, just hours earlier, her husband had stood in this very spot, his hand pressed against their child's neck, a chilling murderous intent gleaming in his eyes.

She was unaware that Yan Sheng's "illness" was triggered by her husband.

The medical ninja withdrew his chakra. "Things are stable for now." He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Madam, you should rest too. Your injuries haven't healed yet."

Kaori shook her head, her fingertips gently brushing against her young son's sweat-dampened bangs: "I'm fine."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade him, the medical ninja replied "Yes" and withdrew.

***

Yan Sheng woke up to the sound of a faint cough.

The power he was born with in this life, which had gone berserk last night, still hadn't subsided. He could still clearly sense that strange energy flowing through his body. However, he still didn't know the name of this power—until his mother in this life walked in carrying a bowl of medicine, accompanied by a strange man.

It wasn't entirely unfamiliar; he had seen this man when he was born, and he had also seen this man yesterday when his father in this life tried to kill him.

“Just keep nurturing it with chakra.” The man placed his hand on Yan Sheng’s chest, his palm glowing with a bright blue light. “Madam, you don’t need to worry too much. The child’s condition is more stable than expected.”

Chakra?

Yan Sheng's eyelashes trembled slightly. He stared intently at the light in the man's hand, trying to understand how it worked.

“Chakra is the foundation of us ninjas.” Kaori noticed the baby’s gaze. Regardless of how young the baby was, what could a one-month-old baby understand? He couldn’t even say “daddy” or “mommy” yet. But she still explained softly, “Chakra is a mixture of physical energy and spiritual energy.” She gently tapped Yan Sheng’s chest with her finger, then tapped his forehead. “When Yan Sheng grows up, he will be able to control it.”

The combination of physical and mental energy...

This is completely different from breathing techniques. The power of breathing techniques comes from heaven and earth, drawing upon the power of nature through specific breathing rhythms; while this power called chakra is born from within the human body, entirely personal energy. No wonder he always felt sluggish when he tried to mobilize it before—he was always using the mindset of breathing techniques to control chakra, which naturally made it difficult to flow smoothly.

“Madam, the young master’s body is too fragile.” The man withdrew his hand and said tactfully, “It’s best not to let him use chakra, otherwise he might hurt himself.”

Kaori's eyes dimmed: "...Yes, I know."

One week later.

The morning mist of late autumn shrouded the abandoned shrine above the river, and the withered yellow leaves rustled in the morning breeze.

Uchiha Kazuhiro led a five-person team that moved silently through the forest, their three-tomoe Sharingan eyes appearing and disappearing in the thin mist.

"Intelligence confirmed, the item is under the altar in the main shrine of the shrine." Uchiha Kazuhiro made a hand gesture, and the team immediately spread out into a defensive formation. "Be careful, the Senju people might also be there—"

Before he could finish speaking, a kunai pierced the air and embedded itself deeply in the tree trunk beside his ear. Senju Katsuhiko appeared from the opposite cliff with six of his clansmen; both sides arrived almost simultaneously.

"As expected." Senju Katsuhiko sneered. "You've come too. Heh, Uchiha cowards always like to act in the shadows."

Without any unnecessary words, the two sides clashed instantly.

Uchiha Kazuhiro's Sharingan accurately predicted the first three shuriken that were about to strike, and the kunai he threw with his backhand drew a sharp arc in the air.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique!"

"Water Release: Water Chaos Waves!"

The blazing fireball and the torrent collided in mid-air, and the rising water vapor instantly enveloped the entire battlefield.

"Scatter!" Uchiha Kazuhiro shouted sternly, "Form a defensive formation!"

Five Uchiha formed a circle back to back, their Sharingan fully activated. Suddenly, a slight tremor came from the ground.

"Earth Release: Heart-Slaying Decapitation Technique!"

The two Uchiha were instantly pulled underground, only managing to let out half a scream. Senju Katsuhiko leaped out from underground, his katana aimed straight for Uchiha Kazuhiro's throat.

"clang!"

The sparks from the metal colliding were particularly noticeable in the fog.

Uchiha Kazuhiro's kunai blocked the fatal blow, and his Sharingan spun wildly. He bent his knee and thrust it upwards with all his might, and just as Senju Katsuhiko bent over, the kunai flashed with a cold light.

"laugh!"

Fresh blood splattered on the withered leaves.

Senju Katsuhiko staggered backward, a deep, bone-revealing gash slashed across his left shoulder. At the same time, Uchiha Kazuhiro was also ambushed from behind by a Senju ninja, three bloody gashes instantly staining his dark blue clan robes crimson.

Meanwhile, inside the main hall of the shrine, a dark shadow was quietly wriggling.

"That was intense." Black Zetsu emerged halfway from the ground, his dark hand stroking the object beneath the altar. "I'll take this."

He skillfully unwrapped the cloth and took out the quest item inside—a piece of jade with an inscription. Then he placed a fake jade stone that he had prepared beforehand inside. Next, he tampered with the cloth so that it would spontaneously combust if anyone touched it.

“Next…” Hei Jue chuckled as he sank into the ground, “let the flames of hatred burn even brighter.”

Outside.

The battle had reached a fever pitch. Two Uchiha members had fallen, and the Senju had lost three combatants. Both sides were bloodthirsty, yet they tacitly avoided the main shrine, neither wanting to destroy their mission objective.

"Captain!" a Uchiha ninja suddenly shouted, "I saw someone go in, it looks like a Senju! They're wearing Senju clan clothes."

At the same time, the Senju clan also noticed something unusual, but what they saw was people dressed in Uchiha clan attire entering the shrine.

Both sides stopped fighting at the same time and moved toward the shrine while remaining in a standoff.

Uchiha Kazuhiro was the first to enter the shrine. Taking advantage of the time his teammates gave him, he quickly opened the hidden compartment of the altar and saw that there was indeed a package underneath, but he didn't see anyone else in the shrine besides himself.

Just in case, he cautiously created a shadow clone and sent it to retrieve it.

Just then, Senju Katsuhiko broke in. He saw Uchiha Kazuhiro reach for something, his pupils contracted sharply, and he immediately sent out a clone to snatch it, while he himself engaged in combat with Uchiha Kazuhiro's main body.

Over there, the instant the two clones simultaneously touched the scroll—

"boom!"

Intense flames shot into the air, and the clone turned into white smoke in the firelight. The quest item was also burning.

"mean!"

"Shameless!"

Both sides shouted angrily at the same time.

Uchiha Kazuhiro's Sharingan spun rapidly: "You Senju did this!"

"Bullshit!" Senju Katsuhiko spat out a mouthful of blood. "It's clearly you Uchiha! Knowing you can't win by force, you resort to underhanded tactics, thinking that if you can't have it, neither can we!"

The enmity only intensified, and the fighting between the two sides became even fiercer.

As the sun set, the fierce battle finally came to an end.

Both sides retreated with their wounded.

The Uchiha lost three members, and the Senju lost four. As for the mission items, no one obtained them.

That evening, the atmosphere in the council chamber of the Uchiha clan compound was heavy.

“The mission failed, and according to the agreement, we have to compensate the employer.” Tajima’s voice was icy cold. “Not only that, we also lost three members of our tribe.”

"Those bastards from the Thousand Hands Sect, they're all using dirty tricks!" An elder slammed his fist on the table and stood up angrily. "They deliberately destroyed the quest items!"

In the corner, Kaori held Yan Sheng and listened quietly.

As the clan chief's wife, Kaori had the right to participate in clan meetings. However, she rarely expressed her own opinions.

At that very moment.

Similar debates are taking place in the Senju clan territory.

Senju Butsuma, the patriarch of the Senju clan, had a grim expression and gritted his teeth in anger: "Uchiha...!"

Deep underground.

Black Zetsu was playing with the jade.

This jade stone, about the size of a palm, was left behind by the previous daimyo of the Land of Fire, and it holds extraordinary significance.

The two employers who hired the Uchiha and Senju were the current daimyo of the Land of Fire and the daimyo of the Land of Lightning. The reason they were fighting was to humiliate (protect) the other (themselves).

As for how the two found out about this, you'd have to ask Black Zetsu.

Black Zetsu smiled with satisfaction: "Let's just keep distrusting each other like this."

......

Uchiha clan territory.

Jia Zhi and Yan Sheng attended the meeting. After listening to the whole process, Yan Sheng felt that something was amiss.

A strange intuition told him that things weren't so simple.

But this is just his feeling, a guess. Not to mention that he's just a baby right now, even if he stopped acting and started speaking, probably no one would believe him.

If Yan Sheng were to analyze the reasons, it would be this: In his previous life, as a city lord, he had witnessed far too many power struggles and intrigues. Having seen so much, he could tell what was going on as soon as a sign appeared, without even having to think about it.

Therefore, he vaguely felt that there was a third party behind this matter—the other party clearly wanted to incite conflict between the two races.

As for the purpose, it is naturally to let the snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman benefit.

But... never mind.

Yan Sheng closed his eyes.

No one would believe a baby, and he didn't want to bother explaining.

A note from the author:

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[Sprinkling flowers]