Chapter 126: Dilemma of an Uchiha

Thud!

A head fell to the ground, but Izumi and her giant demonic guardian angel jumped back and looked at it suspiciously.

Sure enough, 'Tobi' turned to wood revealing that the decapitated corpse was merely a clone of some sort.

Kisame likewise had a slightly disturbed expression, although, for a different reason.

"Huh? So, she has eyes like Itachi? Maybe I should avoid her for now..."

Clang!

The ninja shark grunted and focused back on the tyrannical woman that seemed bent on turning him into a pile of roasted shark meat.

Mei on the other hand, was thinking that she needed to get Izumi to calm down.

They had talked about the drawbacks of the Mangekyo sharingan before, and she didn't think it was something to take lightly, when your line of work could end with you silently dying with the only evidence of your existence, your name on a deceased sheet.

Thankfully, she didn't need to worry about that for long when a bolt of lightning descended and graced them with its presence.

With remnants of purple arcs flashing around his body, Hachiro tapped the silver chakra construct on the rib cage.

"He seems to be gone for now, you can deactivate your sharingan, now."

Nodding, she put away her caution as her pupils spun back into their original state.

Rustle!

With a couple cool strides, a somewhat haggard looking Uchiha arrived by making his way past a green bush.

The gaze of Hachiro met Itachi's as they stood motionlessly still for a moment.

Breaking the standstill, Hachiro smiled slightly and languidly lifted a hand.

"Well, hello there. We haven't seen in quite a few years. I hope you accomplished whatever you wanted in that time, as Izumi seems like she will be ready to harvest your life soon!"

Mei halted her offensive strategy and pulled some space between herself and her opponent. Hopping close to her companions, she hurriedly reminded him

"Hachiro, guess what. Yagura was being controlled by the sharingan, and it wasn't Itachi. That means someone else has the sharingan!"

Feeling quite awkward, he nodded and thought.

I know.

Itachi and Kisame also regrouped keeping a battle ready stance.

Mei whispered a few more things into his ear to which Hachiro nodded.

"Let's go, then."

Mei and Izumi glared at the two mercenaries but complied while keeping their guard up.

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Seems like you've got a good chance of ending us..."

Knowing his thoughts, Hachiro replied. "Well, I think two others would like to be the ones to do that and the shark doesn't seem all that interesting."

He also thought mentally, you have way more worth alive than dead anyway.

Kisame didn't seem to pleased but merely tucked Samehada back onto his back while retreating some steps.

With a burden of complicated and tangled thoughts, the male Uchiha's face only change was his knit eyebrows.

"We'll go back too."

Besides, he had no idea what he should be doing.

Konoha had fallen into the hands of their enemies and wasn't capable of protecting Sasuke anymore.

It was unlikely it was the same village he once knew... that was his thoughts, and if it wasn't for his edgy younger brother, Sasuke, he wouldn't have cared any longer than he had too.

Perhaps, Sasuke was the last attachment, the talented ninja had with the world.

...

...

The three Kumogakure shinobi returned to Kirigakure and headed over to Haku for a report on the situation within the enemy village.

One of the vital questions, Mei posed was. "How many ninja does Kirigakure have currently?"

"The number of ninja above chunin totals to roughly, 2712. Around a third are suffering from various degrees of wounds.

Mei gasped in shock, "That's way too little!"

She knew well that the ten years of 'bloody mist' had sapped a lot out of the village. But it was renowned as one of the top five!

And now, you were telling her they were so miserable they had less than three thousand chunin?

Guy and Kakashi were standing closely nearby holding various equipment, even they who had just suffered from felt sympathy for the poor shinobi from this village.

It seemed as if Sunagakure may finally get to proclaim that they weren't the weakest great village!

Just kidding.

Haku shook his head. "It's a confirmed statistic."

Just as Mei collapsed with a groan from grief and despair, Hachiro comforted her with a helpless pat on the shoulder.

"Chill, we can just shuffle some people around to temporally compensate for your lack of manpower. You can create a few policies to promote... well, babymaking, I suppose?"

She gave him an intense glare, most likely due to his odd choice of words.

Switching gears as fast as a car, fake tears started to stream down her beautiful face as she rubbed her massive balloons against him.

"Oh no! I think this requires someone strong~. You know what that means?"

The corner of Hachiro's mouth twitched, he pinched her on the waist and said. "Don't be a drama queen, I'll go talk to my cousin and make some plans. For now, Haku can stay, he seems to have a good talent for management."

keeping up her act, she moaned and continued her one woman coquettish act.

"Ughh~! How about Yugito-nii? I think she's a good candidate!"

Her excessive stretching of her assets and the flirting, annoyed quite a few bystanders.

Thankfully, that was called off soon, as she snapped to attention with her back straight.

Literally. A weak electric current passed through her body causing her to jump as well as feel a pleasant tingle.

The cheeks of the busty women puffed up in anger and embarrassment.

With an increasingly growing creepy smirk, she grumpily thought. You don't know that you'll be missing out on my secret bedtime plan!

To hide her treacherous expression she shifted her vision right and met Yugito who was gently closing the room's door behind her.

Yugito-nii nodded and urgently reported. "Hachiro-sama, the shinobi we deployed earlier have caught sight of Rock shinobi approaching the island from the east."

Hachiro sat down on a wooden chair lying about and asked. "Is the leader, the Tsuchikage?"

In prompt response, the jinchuriki replied. "No..."