Chapter 184: I'll Cover the Rear
The heavy canvas flap of the command tent had barely settled behind Uchiha Kagami when an Intelligence Ninja practically threw himself inside. The scout gasped for breath, his uniform stained with mud and sweat, as he thrust a tightly sealed, encrypted scroll toward the commander.
"Report from Danzo's division!" he panted.
Kagami broke the seal, his dark eyes scanning the cipher. "The elite vanguard of the Land of Water, along with Hōzuki Gengetsu, have vanished from the border. Danzo suspects they've rerouted to reinforce the Land of Lightning."
Danzo was not a man prone to baseless paranoia., with a sensory specialist of Kato Dan's caliber attached to his unit, the intelligence was virtually guaranteed to be accurate. Kagami lowered the scroll, the blood draining from his face as the terrifying reality of their tactical position set in. A cold, clammy sweat prickled along his spine. Had they pressed their pursuit even a mile further, the entire Konoha force would have marched blindly into a slaughterhouse.
He turned his gaze to the young woman standing quietly by the war map. "Stelle... did you rush all the way out here because you intercepted this report?"
"Where could the Mist reinforcements possibly be hiding?" Akimichi Torifu muttered, his thick fingers tracing the jagged topography of the map.
Stelle didn't answer immediately. Her gaze lingered on the miniature dunes and valleys of the sand table. Then, without a word, she closed the distance between herself and Kagami. She raised a hand, pressing her palm flat against the cold metal of his Konoha forehead protector.
Kagami flinched slightly.
"Don't move," she ordered, her voice uncharacteristically sharp.
A surge of warm, dense chakra flowed from her fingertips. Beneath the metal plate of his headband, hidden seals suddenly flared to life. The reaction didn't stop there. The steel pauldrons resting on Kagami's shoulders and the heavy leather bracers strapped to his wrists began to emit a soft, azure glow. complex, jagged runes materialized across the armor plating, crawling over his uniform to form a complex, spiraling array directly over his heart. With a soft hum, the glowing formula sank beneath his skin, merging with his chakra network.
"What is this...?" Kagami breathed out, his chest tightening. Stelle's eyes were shadowed, her expression carrying a solemn weight that made his stomach plummet.
"Every birthday gift I've given you over the years contained a dormant defensive seal," she explained quietly, pulling her hand back. "When linked together, they form an absolute barrier array. Kagami, there's no time to explain the mechanics."
She spun around, jabbing a finger at a narrow gorge on the tactical map. "You and Torifu need to integrate the main army immediately. I mean everyone—including the medical corps and logistics personnel. Evacuate the Land of Lightning's borders through this exact route."
Internally, Stelle was already calculating her mood-value harvest. The Four Nations Alliance had finally united under a single, burning banner of hatred directed entirely at her. They would not rest until her head was mounted on a pike. The intelligence networks of four great shinobi villages had synchronized their efforts, undoubtedly spurred on by Black Zetsu, who lurked in the shadows, gleefully fanning the flames of this continental war.
She had intercepted the critical intelligence in the dead of night and departed Konoha before dawn. Discarding her Anbu escorts to maximize her travel speed, she had burned through her chakra reserves to reach this frontline camp. Yet, the moment her boots crossed into the Land of Lightning, she had walked straight into a carefully woven net.
The Sand Village was particularly rabid. Chiyo, driven to madness by Kazushi's death, had pinned the entirety of the blame squarely on Stelle's shoulders. The old crone had actually handed supreme command of Suna's military to a Magnet Release specialist, freeing herself to personally lead an elite hunter-killer squad. She really is the stubborn old bat who survives all the way into the Shippuden era, Stelle mused dryly. You have to admire that level of ruthless dedication. She didn't hesitate for a second when she put Kazushi down.
Evacuate?
Kagami and Torifu exchanged a sharp, alarmed look. The sheer scale of the order was absurd. Just as Kagami opened his mouth to demand more information, Stelle's head snapped toward the tent flap. Her eyes narrowed. Without another word, she swept past them, striding out into the biting wind of the encampment.
She closed her eyes, letting her sensory net expand outward in a massive, invisible dome. The topography, the shifting winds, the heartbeat of every living creature within miles—it all flooded into her mind. Massive, oppressive chakra signatures were flaring up from every point on the compass. The elite killers of four nations were drawing the noose tight.
"Hokage-sama!" A patrol ninja from the Inuzuka clan vaulted over a barricade, his ninken whining nervously at his heels. "Massive chakra signatures detected on our left flank! It's an entire battalion of enemy reinforcements!"
Before the Inuzuka could even catch his breath, Hyuga Gen materialized from the treeline. The Byakugan user's face was chalk-white, the veins around his eyes bulging as he stammered out his report. "Underground! To our right flank! The numbers are... they're impossible to estimate! It's Iwagakure. They're using the Earth Release: Hiding in Rock Technique to maneuver directly beneath us. Judging by the density of their chakra networks, every single one of them is an elite Jonin!"
One by one, the perimeter scouts fell back to the command center, delivering a chorus of doom. When the scattered reports were pieced together, the grim reality painted a suffocating picture: they were entirely boxed in.
Kagami's hands clenched into fists. Remembering how Stelle had instantly mapped out an evacuation route the moment she arrived, the truth slammed into him. She hadn't come to lead a counterattack. She had come to be the bait. Faced with total annihilation, the Uchiha prodigy forced his panic down, his mind shifting into a state of hyper-focused clarity.
"The Clan Head's Guard and the First Vanguard will remain with me," Kagami barked, his voice ringing with absolute authority. "Everyone else, break camp immediately! Fall back through the western canyon at maximum speed! Torifu, take command of the retreat and ensure the logistics train doesn't bottleneck!"
He turned slowly to face Stelle. His chest heaved with ragged breaths. A thousand unspoken words—fears, regrets, pleas—swirled in his dark eyes, but he swallowed them all down.
"Stelle," he said, his voice cracking slightly. "The entire new generation of the Uchiha Clan is in this camp. I am leaving their future in your hands."
His plan was simple and suicidal: he would lead the veteran Uchiha Jonin to form a bloody wall against the three-pronged assault, buying enough time for the youth to escape.
Stelle merely shook her head, her expression maddeningly calm. "No, Kagami. I will cover the rear. You are going to lead them out—"
"Absolutely not!" Kagami roared, the sudden explosion of fury shattering his usual composed demeanor. He stepped into her space, his Sharingan blazing to life in the dim light. "Stelle, for once in your life, I will not listen to you!"
Stelle let out a soft, weary sigh, playing her tragic heroine role to perfection. "Kagami, you cannot stop the people coming for us. It isn't just the Second Mizukage and the Third Raikage. The Second Tsuchikage is out there too. I can feel his chakra signature tearing through the atmosphere, approaching at terrifying speeds. And if my guess is correct, Chiyo of the Sand is already in position."
She laid out the brutal mathematics of their survival, her tone gentle but unyielding. "The only viable tactical choice is for you to lead the vanguard. You need to use your Susanoo to smash a hole through the canyon blockade and escort the main force back to Konoha. I will hold the center and buy you the time you need."
"If you let those four Kage-level monsters converge on this camp, not a single one of us will leave this valley alive."
The best course of action.
That cursed phrase echoed in Kagami's ears. Why was 'the best course of action'always him running away? His jaw locked, a vein pulsing violently at his temple. He felt like he was losing his mind. Years ago, right before Master Izuna fell in battle, his'best course of action' had been to order Kagami to retreat and find reinforcements. He had followed orders, and it had cost him his master.
Now, Stelle was handing him the exact same script. Was he supposed to just walk away and lose her too?
The cruelty of the universe felt suffocating. Why was he always the one forced to turn his back on the people he loved most, leaving them to die in the mud while he survived?
"Kagami, we are out of time," Stelle urged, her voice dropping to a heavy, sorrowful register. "We cannot let the future of the Uchiha Clan be buried in this wasteland. We made a promise to Master Izuna. You are the Clan Head. It is your absolute duty to bring them home alive."
For a single, agonizing second, time seemed to freeze. Kagami wanted nothing more than to cast aside his duties, to scream at her to let Torifu handle the retreat so he could stand by her side and die fighting.
But the battlefield cared nothing for a shinobi's broken heart. Every second he wasted drowning in his own sentimentality was a death sentence for the men and women waiting outside the tent. They had all marched to the front lines carrying their own convictions, their own families to protect. As their commander, how could he selfishly throw their lives away just to satisfy his own desperate need to stay with her?
Trapped by the unyielding resolve in Stelle's eyes, the words died in his throat.
A bitter, hollow wave of regret washed over him. If only he had never awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. If only he had never accepted the mantle of Clan Head. If he had just been a mediocre, unremarkable shinobi who never rose to the rank of commander... then perhaps, as a useless pawn irrelevant to the grand scheme of the war, he would have been allowed the simple luxury of staying behind to die with her.
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