In the next few days, Kisuke kept pushing forward with the plan. They avoided the bigger Iwagakure patrols thanks to Aya's Byakugan, and picked off isolated squads when they could. Rescue operations were swift and ruthless—grab who you can, disappear before backup arrives.
After a while, their numbers swelled to nearly twenty. But the composition? Disappointing. Only two Jonin. The rest were Chunin. That alone told him plenty.
Genin, in this war, fell into two camps—those marked for future potential, and disposable meat. The former never saw frontline work. The latter didn't last long enough to matter.
Chunin were the main currency of this war. Survivors. Not clever enough to lead, but not dumb enough to die on day one. These were the ones Kisuke was now relying on.
As for the Jonin? Too rare. The smart ones escaped. The unlucky ones got overwhelmed. No point hoping for more.
Even so, some of the rescued ninjas had doubts. Understandably. Not everyone was eager to march deeper into enemy territory. But luckily for Kisuke, Yamanaka Masato knew how to pull rank. The man leaned on his clan name and experience. Between that and Kisuke's own status, resistance died off quickly.
Still, it all came with a cost.
"My experiment's lagging behind," Kisuke muttered to himself that night, lying in the dark, eyes open.
He hadn't stopped trying. Every night, he attempted to push his Sharingan to evolve. Two tomoe weren't enough anymore. He needed three.
He knew the theory—an emotional or mental shock powerful enough to crack the wall inside his mind. But no matter how hard he tried, that invisible wall didn't budge.
He had strong spiritual energy, yes. But strength didn't matter if it just slid off the surface.
He started experimenting with cursed energy recently. Crude at first. Just scraps of theory and instinct. But It wasn't enough.
"Maybe I'm not broken enough," Kisuke muttered, half-joking. "What kind of lunatic do you have to be to awaken this damn thing?"
He knew the cliché—kill your closest, lose your anchor, crack from within. But Kisuke wasn't like that. He would never kill his parents for power.
Sasuke awakened his Sharingan by being lied to. Then awakened again when the lie shattered. Uchiha Obito weaponized grief and guilt like surgical tools. Maybe that was the trick. Not just emotion—but targeted, purposeful trauma.
"God, the Uchiha really are unhinged," Kisuke sighed. Then, flatly: "Except me. I'm the last sane one."
With no breakthroughs and no proper lab, Kisuke shelved the experiments for now and entered his mind scape to fight Gojo to learn controlling curse energy.
His current goal was learning black flash, but it wasn't easy as the technique depends on luck.
***
They were deep in Iwagakure-controlled territory now. One mistake and no one was making it out. Each day the patrols got tighter, the prisoner camps more fortified. The Rock ninjas were catching on.
The next morning, they moved in small teams again. It worked better. Smaller groups meant less noise, more flexibility. If one team got caught, the others didn't die with them.
From his perch in a tree, Kisuke peered down at the latest target. Another prison camp.
"Too many guards," he muttered. "They're adapting."
Aya appeared beside him, eyes cold. "Fourth holding cell. Seven prisoners—three left. The Jonin from Yamanaka's team says if we can't save them, we at least draw attention and break up their formation for the others."
Kisuke smirked. "Obedient little Jonin, huh? Fine. If they live, they live. If not—distraction works too. We wait for the other teams to start before pulling out."
Aya didn't reply. She was already repositioning. Kenta followed, nodding silently like he always did.
Then, right before the plan kicked off, a hawk streaked through the sky.
A messenger bird.
Kisuke's eyes narrowed.
"Great," he muttered. "What now?"
…
"What the hell is going on?"
Watching the Iwagakure ninjas file out of the camp one by one, Kisuke frowned.
Just when they were preparing to move, a messenger eagle flew in. Pretty standard—these birds were the shinobi world's version of email. But what followed wasn't.
The stronger Rock ninja suddenly grouped up, executed the last three Konoha prisoners, and left. No explanation. No hesitation.
Even Yamanaka Masato looked like he'd just been slapped.
After the Iwa ninjas cleared out, the Konoha side trickled in from the shadows. Masato directed a few to check on the dead while the rest grouped up to assess.
Something was off. And everyone knew it.
"Aya-san," Masato turned to the only Hyūga with them, "see if you can track where they went."
"Alright," Aya replied, almost expressionless. "But if they moved too far or fast, I might not catch them. My range isn't limitless."
"We can follow them," said a Jonin—Kageyama, fresh off the rescue list. "If they're regrouping somewhere, we can hit their base, stir up some chaos, pull heat off Namikaze's team—"
There it was. The Will of Fire. Infectious and stupid.
Kisuke looked at the guy and regretted saving him. Where do they find these idiots?
Do you even know what part of Konoha you came from? Who first spewed this heroic nonsense? No? Then why are you reciting it like gospel?
Kisuke was already planning to bail the second things smelled wrong. He didn't come here to die for ideals he didn't believe in.
Masato looked equally unimpressed. "Kousuke-kun, don't be rash. Let's observe first. Impulsive moves get people killed. Don't make Kisuke-kun's rescue of you meaningless."
Rescue? Kisuke wanted to laugh. He'd saved these people so they could be warm bodies on the chessboard, not because of some deep camaraderie.
Still, everyone was already moving to tail the Rock ninja, so Kisuke had no choice but to tag along. No point drawing attention to himself yet.
The problem was control. If he were a Jonin, even just on paper, things would be different. With the Uchiha name and a rank behind it, he'd be calling the shots.
But being a Jonin meant his Sharingan would be exposed.
And at this point—he only had two tomoe. There was no faking that.
Sure, showing off his Sharingan might earn him quick status. He wouldn't even need to be here. But the reality was brutal: the Hokage's office didn't trust the Uchiha. They never had. War only kept the purge at bay. For a while.
And when the Nine-Tails incident finally came, they'd strike like they were always planning to.
"You don't clear out a whole clan overnight without prep," Kisuke thought darkly. "That was coordinated, top-down. The Nine-Tails was just their excuse."
He couldn't help but think of Uchiha Fugaku. The guy had a Mangekyō, yet died with it hidden. A veteran schemer with cards still unplayed. Kisuke was sure that if he really wanted to save the Uchiha, he might have had a shot.
But maybe Fugaku was just tired. Or maybe, in the end, he loved his son more than his clan.
And so—he, too, had lost the plot.
And besides, Kisuke was mostly wary of Danzo. That old fossil was collecting Sharingan like pokemon since the war started. Revealing that he have two tomoe Sharingan would put him in the watch list for having the potential to awaken the third tomoe, which is exactly what Danzo needs.
No thanks, so Kisuke decided to hide his Sharingan, at least to the point where he was in a life threatening situation where he had no choice, or had sufficient strength or solid connection to higher up.
Ten minutes into the tail, Aya's voice came through again.
"I think I found their rally point," she said. "There's a collapse. A big one. And there are a few people there… Kakashi is one of them."
"Kakashi?" Kisuke turned to her. "You're sure?"
She nodded. Everyone, even Masato, looked surprised.
Kakashi was from the Minato team—the same team this whole mission was built around.
If he was here, that meant they had either failed spectacularly—or they were right on time.
Kisuke, though, wasn't confused. He'd done his homework.
Obito was probably under the rubble by now. Eye swapped. Kakashi would have just activated a new Sharingan that wasn't really his and passed out from the overload.
Next step? Minato Namikaze shows up, wipes the floor with the Rock nin.
It looked bad, but it wasn't. Not really.
Kisuke felt a knot form in his gut anyway. Timing was everything here.
"Where's Namikaze Jonin?" Masato asked.
"Nowhere visible," Aya replied, but both Kisuke and Kenta saw the faint twitch in her expression.
Excitement.
If the mission team was wiped out, they could evac. Game over, war continues, but they live.
But Kisuke didn't share that hope. He wasn't trying to get out. He was trying to stay close.
Because near Minato Namikaze meant safety. Not forever. Just long enough.
"We can't let this fail!" Kageyama suddenly shouted. "We have to go in! They're the mission's core—we can't let everyone's sacrifices be wasted!"
And just like that, Kisuke found the guy tolerable.
What a lovely idiot.
The mission had to succeed. Because being near Namikaze was better than wandering the woods dodging patrols until he caught a kunai in the back.
"I'll go," Kisuke said suddenly. "You intercept the Rock nin. I'll take my team and pull Kakashi and the others out."
"You're going?" Masato blinked.
"Yeah. We've got the Byakugan. We can get in, get them, and find you again before it's too late. Our team's the best fit."
Masato nodded after a pause. "Alright. We'll rely on you."
Damn right you will.
Kisuke gave a small nod and turned to gather his people. He didn't care about the prisoners or the mission.
But if he played this just right, he could stay close to Minato—and maybe, just maybe, finally crack that invisible wall holding his Sharingan back.
If cursed energy couldn't push him through it, maybe war could.
And if that didn't work…
There were always other kinds of pain.
***
100 stone = 1 extra Chapter.
help me reach top 10 collection= 1 chapter