After explaining things to Ryouma, Shiori also began to ponder. If their goal truly was to take down the "Byakugan Killer," how should they proceed?
"The opponent possesses the Byakugan, making ambush tactics extremely difficult. Considering the target holds a high tactical position in Kiri, we need to be prepared to simultaneously engage multiple enemy ninjas."
Shiori furrowed her brows and rested her chin on one hand, lowering her head slightly in thought. Suddenly, as if something came to mind, she asked, "Didn't you just say you're now an advisor here?"
"Yup, ah—nom." Ryouma, having finished his bowl of ramen and still not quite full, sneakily grabbed a few grilled codfish from Shukaku's plate.
"Then you should have quite a few subordinates, right? Have them distract the target's bodyguards," Shiori suggested.
"Uh…" Ryouma looked a little awkward at hearing her plan. That was because, as an advisor, he had already dumped all command responsibilities onto Fugaku and Hizashi from the start.
"What's wrong?" Shiori was a bit puzzled by his reaction.
Ryouma quickly waved his hand dismissively. "Nothing! You need backup, right? Leave it to me!"
He planned to go ask Fugaku for help tomorrow. He figured Fugaku probably wouldn't say no.
Heiji didn't know what to say anymore. Every word of gratitude he could think of seemed pale and powerless in this moment. He had never imagined that someone like him, born into a cage and destined to be insignificant, could be so lucky as to gain two friends .
In a life where he could see no future, to have met them and become their friend… it truly was a blessing.
The next morning, Ryouma found Fugaku in the command room and explained his request.
Unlike the unusually quiet and scheming group of Kiri's elite ninjas lately, Ao had been very active on the battlefield recently.
Fugaku closed his eyes, thought for a moment, then opened them and said, "I understand. It just so happens I have a very suitable candidate."
With his support, Ryouma felt much more at ease. For him, killing Ao wasn't particularly difficult, but taking him down and recovering the Byakugan intact was another story.
That required a ninja with strong control abilities. Shiori's genjutsu was originally the best option, but she had mentioned her eyes were uncomfortable recently, making her genjutsu less precise, something she, proud as she was, normally wouldn't admit.
Thinking of that, Ryouma reminded Fugaku, "Is the person you mentioned skilled in genjutsu? If we can't control Ao with genjutsu, the Byakugan might be destroyed."
Fugaku responded with full confidence, "Don't worry. If his genjutsu doesn't cut it, then I'd say there's probably no one left in Konoha who meets your requirements."
Seeing him speak with such confidence, Ryouma felt like he had already guessed who this person was.
Fugaku clapped his hands and summoned an Uchiha ninja. After giving him a few instructions, the ninja quickly left.
Not long after, the office door was knocked on.
"Come in," Fugaku called out.
"Sorry to disturb you," a figure pushed the door open and walked in.
As Ryouma expected, he had guessed correctly. The person who entered had short black hair, was dressed in a black ninja combat uniform, and had a sharp, well-defined face, a classic Uchiha pretty boy.
"This is Shisui, currently the strongest ninja in our Uchiha clan," Fugaku introduced him to Ryouma.
Then he introduced Ryouma to Shisui as well.
"This is Ryouma, the newly appointed advisor to the Kiri frontline."
And just like that, they were formally introduced.
"May I ask what mission I've been called for?" Shisui was the first to speak. He had been summoned suddenly by Fugaku and still wasn't sure what was going on.
"I'll explain," Ryouma said as he stepped forward.
After listening to the mission briefing, Shisui nodded with a serious expression.
"I understand, Fugaku-sama, Ryouma-san. I will do my best to complete this mission."
Ryouma left his seat, walked over, and casually patted Shisui on the shoulder.
"No need to be so formal. Just call me Ryouma."
Shisui quickly waved his hands in protest. "I couldn't possibly! You were personally appointed by the Hokage as an advisor, I can't be that informal…"
"It's fine, it's fine. Come on, I'll take you to meet the rest of the team for this mission."
Ryouma grabbed Shisui by the hand and started leading him out. Fugaku stood watching with a smile on his face, everything was going exactly as he had planned.
As a high-level combat asset, there was no way Shisui would be left idle at the camp. Fugaku had already learned through his own channels about the situation with Heiji.
That was why he had delayed all of Shisui's other tasks, to earn a favor from Ryouma. Now it seemed not only had that favor been secured, but Shisui and Ryouma were also getting along quite well.
He walked to the window and looked up at the sky. It really was a nice day. He felt his luck had been quite good lately, maybe it was time to head home and see if he and Mikoto could try for a brother for Itachi.
After Ryouma regrouped with Shisui, Heiji, and Shiori, they first made a stop at the Intelligence Division. There, they obtained intel about a possible location where Ao might be hiding. Without delay, they set out from the camp.
This was all thanks to the Advisor title Ryouma carried, if not for that, intel of this level wouldn't have been so easily disclosed.
They searched for about half a month. During that time, he also tried to track down the whereabouts of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, but unfortunately, came up with nothing.
From what he understood, those seven shouldn't have been staying in Kiri, yet despite all this time, he couldn't find any trace of them. It was strange.
Finally, at the end of the month, his group received solid intel on Ao. Without any hesitation, they packed up and set out immediately.
He led the way. The intel came from a high-level spy from Kiri's Root-like unit, very reliable.
According to the report, Ao had infiltrated the Land of Fire for multiple missions, though the exact details were unclear. The spy, based on the internal trends in Kiri, made a few educated guesses and included a map with potential locations where Ao might appear.
What Ryouma had to do now was eliminate each of those locations as quickly as possible. Behind him, Shiori and Shisui followed, acting like strangers, neither said a word to the other during the journey.
At first, when they met, Shisui had warmly greeted both Heiji and Shiori. Heiji naturally responded politely, while Shiori just gave Shisui a cold glance and a slight nod in return.
Ryouma had thought they knew each other, especially from what he had heard about them when rescuing a Konoha team earlier. But now, it seemed he had been overthinking it.
No sign of Ao at location A, nothing at B, and at location C...
Ryouma, using his Rikugan to scout from afar, quickly eliminated several possible targets. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he abruptly changed direction.
Shisui froze in surprise, found already?
Without hesitation, Heiji and Shiori followed Ryouma and made a sharp turn in a new direction. Seeing this, Shisui also quickly followed. He figured Ryouma must have some powerful sensing ability.
In a dense forest within the Land of Fire, a six-man ninja squad was moving swiftly among the trees. All of them wore Kiri forehead protectors.
Leading them was a man with an eye patch over one eye, this was Ao.
They had entered the Land of Fire on an important mission. To prevent sensitive intel from leaking through deeply embedded spies, Kiri had assigned several decoy missions to his team as a cover.
Unfortunately, they had encountered Ryouma, a monster who had simply used basic elimination methods to find them.
As Ao's squad ran between the massive trees, suddenly, two members in the middle of the group collapsed, clutching their heads and screaming in agony.
The sudden incident caused Ao to stop immediately.
Seeing the two comrades babbling nonsense in fear, as if they'd seen something terrifying, he urgently tried to wake them up.
"Calm down… Genjutsu? When did this happen?" Suddenly sensing something, he turned to look into the shadowy depths of the forest. Forming a hand seal, he guided chakra into his remaining eye.
With his Byakugan activated, his vision immediately cleared.
He saw a Konoha ninja standing on a distant tree branch.
In an instant, he understood, it was Shisui. That meant their mission intel had been leaked! Had the village's intelligence system really turned into a sieve?
In any case, their mission could no longer proceed. To prevent the Byakugan from falling into Konoha's hands, he decided to retreat immediately.
But just as he turned to tell his squad his decision, a uniquely-shaped triple-bladed kunai came flying toward them at high speed.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
From a nearby tree, Ryouma formed a single hand seal. Chakra surged, and in the blink of an eye, the Flying Thunder God kunai in mid-air multiplied into thousands.
The kunai, like floating cannons, tore through the dense forest, blasting apart trees, toppling trunks, and leaving deep craters in the ground.
The entire scene looked like it had been hit by a brutal artillery bombardment, utter devastation.
Of the six Kiri ninjas who were still on the move, two, previously knocked down by Shisui's genjutsu, were killed on the spot.
The remaining four barely escaped the range of the shuriken barrage using Body Flicker techniques.
Ao stared grimly in the direction the kunai had come from.