In the span of a fraction of a second, Ui realized he was about to eat dirt.
There was good news and bad news.
The bad news: his assessment was 100% correct. He was about to hit the ground. Hard.
The good news: at the very least, he could ensure his face wasn't the first thing to make contact.
Fortunately, he'd had the foresight to lower Yata's altitude before the summoning snapped. Had he still been at his original cruising height, he wouldn't just be falling—he'd be a smudge. He'd be flattened.
In those few milliseconds, the only thing Ui could do was instinctively coat his body in a layer of defensive chakra. As for more "high-end" technical maneuvers—it wasn't that he didn't have the time, it was simply that they weren't the sort of things one should show off in front of a massive crowd.
Thus, the highly-regarded Uchiha Ui, who had spent the day stylishly dominating the airspace, suddenly found his "mount" vanishing into thin air. He plummeted from the sky, arms and legs flailing in a frantic, undignified dance.
Safe to say, he was now even more highly-regarded.
To his credit, he didn't fear heights, nor did he let out a pathetic scream. Objectively, he remained quite calm. A seven-meter vertical drop isn't enough to kill an average shinobi; taxonomically speaking, ninjas are a remarkably "durable" breed of human.
THUD!
The sound wasn't world-shaking. It was more akin to a massive slab of pork being slammed onto a butcher's block by two strong men. Ui hit the ground, rolled, and kicked up a modest cloud of dust.
Tuck and roll. Protect the head. Brace the core.
He followed the technical manual to the letter, tumbling across the dirt several times before finally coming to a halt.
Ui hissed through his teeth. The fall itself hadn't done much damage, but the impact had reignited every single one of his previous injuries. After a rapid-fire series of pained facial contortions, he finally managed to lift his head.
He froze. Right in front of his eyes was a foot.
It was a stroke of luck that he'd stopped rolling when he did. Otherwise, a "kind soul" would have surely helped him stop... likely by stepping on him without mercy or punting him like a soccer ball in the opposite direction.
The owner of said foot was none other than the Supreme Commander of the battlefield, clad in full mission gear: Tsunade.
Ui's landing spot was actually quite strategic. It seemed the key figures—Tsunade, Minato, and the Third Hokage—were huddled together for a post-battle debrief.
Seeing that Ui had stopped moving, Tsunade retracted her foot as if nothing had happened.
Because of the "obstructive" nature of certain feminine physical traits between her shoulders and waist, Ui—currently lying at her feet—couldn't see her facial expression no matter how hard he craned his neck. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that she had just looked quite disappointed, as if some secret wish to kick him had gone unfulfilled.
Lucky break, Ui thought. If I hadn't braked in time, she definitely would have launched me.
"Well? What were the results of your little 'infiltration'?"
Despite the serious matters they had been discussing, Tsunade was the first to speak, her voice cutting through the silence.
The Third Hokage and Minato looked on, not quite catching her drift.
"He just flew to the Hidden Sand," Tsunade explained, her tone casual. "He used that bombing summon of his to conduct a sabotage mission."
She was covering for him. While she didn't state it explicitly, saying it in front of the Hokage made it sound as though Ui had been acting under her direct orders, rather than running off on a whim.
Without that verbal shield, Ui might have found himself facing charges for deserting his post.
"Now that you mention it, I didn't see him during the latter half of the battle," Minato remarked, reflecting on the engagement.
Indeed, the aerial presence of the "White Yaksha" had vanished mid-fight. Minato had assumed the summoning had been forcibly dispelled for some reason; hearing Tsunade's explanation, he realized the boy had actually gone on a high-stakes deep-strike mission.
To attempt such a feat at his age... his courage was undeniable. But was it successful?
Tsunade and Minato's brief exchange cleared the air. The Third Hokage didn't speak immediately, but the look he gave Ui was laced with a certain spark of expectation.
Ui didn't answer immediately. He had a more pressing priority: getting his dusty self off the ground.
The topic might have been serious, but their eyes betrayed them. They were looking at him like he was some kind of rare, exotic beast. Look, I didn't choose the 'human projectile' lifestyle, he thought irritably. Stop staring.
He stood up, expressionless, and brushed the dust from his clothes. He took a moment to observe the group.
Tsunade, who had been commanding from the rear, was spotless. Minato, despite being at the vanguard, fought with such clinical precision that not a single drop of enemy blood touched his skin.
As for the Third Hokage... he had already changed out of his battle gear. If he hadn't, the sheer amount of blood soaking his clothes would have made it impossible for him to stand near Tsunade without making a mess.
Despite the losses, Konoha had won. The mood was generally positive.
"Ui?"
Tsunade prodded him again. He snapped out of his thoughts and straightened up.
"Generally speaking, the raid was a success. The enemy has no effective anti-air measures. My primary focus was on sabotaging key infrastructure. However, since I didn't have detailed intelligence, I had to rely on my own impressions and judgment at the time. I can't be 100% certain of the specific impact."
He didn't want to oversell it. For all he knew, he'd just leveled a bunch of irrelevant storage sheds.
To his surprise, the Hokage immediately summoned an Intel Division shinobi. A few whispered commands later, the man vanished and returned with a map.
Hiruzen spread the map out himself and shoved a pen into Ui's hand.
"This is an intelligence map of the Sand. It's not perfectly detailed, but it's accurate enough. Ui, mark the locations you destroyed."
As Ui took the pen, a wave of annoyance washed over him. If you had just given me this map five hours ago, I could have been surgical.
He conveniently forgot that the entire raid had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
He circled several locations. As he did, a smile began to spread across the Hokage's face.
"It's done," Hiruzen said, his voice brimming with satisfaction. "Even if some of these were minor targets, you hit several critical facilities. Given the losses they took on this field today, and the sight of their village in flames, the Kazekage has only one path left: he must sue for peace."
The Hokage's smile faded, replaced by a tone of profound weight.
"The war on this front... is coming to an end."