A Lifetime as an Extra
Some people just refuse to accept that their script is a lifetime as an extra.
Minato and Mimura Yamakura’s conversation had not been concealed from Obito. Obito had been in poor shape lately, so Minato always kept him by his side.
As his teacher, Minato did care about him. Anyone who had gone through all of this would have been in a terrible state.
A loved one had died right in front of him. A brother he trusted had his eye gouged out before his very eyes. As the sole surviving member of Uchiha Kei’s faction, the reason he had managed to survive was simply because of his relationship with his teacher.
Minato had rescued him at the very first opportunity.
For a young man who had once aspired to become Hokage, only to watch the Hokage’s authority be overturned with his own eyes, all of this amounted to having his entire worldview shattered.
The fact that he hadn’t gone insane already was proof of how strong his mind was.
And in that sense, Obito obtaining a Three-Tomoe Sharingan could even be considered a blessing in disguise. At least now, he had earned the qualifications to go onto the battlefield.
Unfortunately, Minato really wasn’t good at being a warm, big-brother-type figure who could open his heart and comfort others. He couldn’t even resolve the doubts that Konoha had planted in his own mind. How could he possibly help someone else overcome such a profound ideological shock?
The innocent Obito had grown up listening to the legends of Uchiha Kei. He had grown up alongside Shisui, a successor to the Will of Fire. Although the two were nearly the same age, Obito had always regarded Shisui as his idol.
A powerful, gentle, and kind-hearted companion was naturally someone worthy of admiration!
They were both descendants of Uchiha Kei and firm believers in the Will of Fire.
Yet in the end, Uchiha Obito had watched helplessly as Shisui’s eye was gouged out right in front of him. And the person who had taken Shisui’s eye was now being hailed as a savior.
Not the savior of Konoha, either.
He was the savior of the Land of Waves.
A savior spontaneously cheered by the common people.
"The Uncrowned Shadow, Danzō Shimura!"
That was a title even more noble than that of a Kage! It was a title bestowed upon him because he had earned the trust of the entire populace.
Even the Kage of the Five Great Hidden Villages had never received such treatment.
And yet, a villain like that was being showered with such praise, while the Uchiha who believed in love and kindness had suffered such a shameless betrayal.
Who wouldn’t be unable to make sense of it?
Even now, Obito couldn’t understand how someone like himself—someone who was always helping old ladies cross the street—could be considered Konoha’s disgrace and a traitor to the Uchiha, while Danzō, who had raised a blade against Konoha, had somehow become the hero.
It was simply too absurd.
This time, the Land of Whirlpools was one of the few forces that had actually volunteered to go to the battlefield.
Yes, Obito had become a citizen of the Land of Whirlpools.
The Uchiha of Naka looked down on him. The Uchiha of Konoha were unwilling to take him in. The only reason they hadn’t gouged out his eyes was because of Minato and Kushina.
And this time, Obito intended to prove himself on the battlefield to those Uchiha who looked down on him.
He would reclaim all the honor that Uchiha Kei’s faction had lost.
What surprised him was that Konoha had once constantly preached the Will of Fire, whereas the prevailing ethos in Konoha now was actually honor.
A shinobi’s honor.
At this moment, when Obito saw Minato preparing to leave and operate alone, he wanted to follow him. He wanted to make contact with those Uchiha who had been elevated to the heavens and see what gave them the right to live such happy lives while he had become a rootless drifter with no home.
"Teacher Minato, can you take me with you?"
Obito made the request sincerely.
Minato looked up at the sky.
Sand and stones were flying everywhere, while yellow earth filled the air. The Land of Grass had once been a vast green oasis beneath a clear blue sky, but now it had been completely transformed. Its condition was even worse than Konoha’s had been back then.
"Obito, it’s too dangerous there. Stay with the main force."
Minato didn’t consider Obito’s thoughts. On a battlefield, an individual’s feelings simply weren’t something that needed to be taken into account.
After saying that, Minato used the Body Flicker Technique and left.
Obito watched helplessly as Minato disappeared, an ominous feeling rising in his heart.
He had experienced the same feeling just before Shisui was killed.
Obito wanted to stop his teacher, but his teacher was already gone.
And shortly after Minato departed, a figure with a black-and-white face appeared in the distance, watching the scene unfold.
Black Zetsu looked at everything before him and gave a low, mocking chuckle.
"The situation is becoming more and more complicated. I hope all of you can hold on until the end. Perhaps only an Uchiha can restrain an Uchiha. Madara really is too old!"
As a qualified mastermind behind the scenes, he naturally had to add fuel to the plans for the future.
Unfortunately, lately, there had always been people exceeding his expectations and throwing obstacles into Madara’s Eye of the Moon Plan.
Hanzo was dead, yet Nagato and Yahiko were still alive and well. Black Zetsu wasn’t a combat-oriented individual, so he had no chance against the three of them.
The war between the Four Great Nations and Konoha had also broken out, but its intensity was far lower than he had expected. Two of the four nations had already submitted.
Konoha, despite having gone through an internal conflict, wasn’t as weakened as everyone had imagined. Instead, it had consolidated the forces that needed to be consolidated, becoming united as one and even stronger than before.
None of this was beneficial to Madara’s plan.
Yet the self-confident Madara still believed that none of it mattered and that no one could obstruct his plan.
That gave Black Zetsu quite a headache after choosing to work with Madara.
"As expected, the older people get, the more stubborn they become! If I’d known this would happen, I should have waited a few more years and found a younger partner!"
Black Zetsu looked toward the Land of Rain, his expression filled with regret.
His intelligence-gathering ability was truly exceptional. Although he couldn’t probe into Naka’s internal affairs, he could infer quite a bit of useful information simply by observing what was happening around it.
At the very least, Black Zetsu could be certain of one thing:
Uchiha Kei of Naka held the Sage of Six Paths in utter contempt.
Perhaps he was the best possible partner.
After all, the enemy of one’s enemy was a friend.
But after more than a decade of work, with the harvest finally within sight, he couldn’t simply abandon everything halfway.
The aging Madara was already incapable of completing the plan himself. Before reviving Madara, Black Zetsu needed to choose a successor.
That man called Uchiha Kei was undoubtedly the best candidate.
But Black Zetsu also felt that perhaps he was aiming too high.
Someone who didn’t even respect Madara—how could he possibly obediently follow Black Zetsu’s arrangements?
It was easy to deceive the simple-minded Madara because Madara possessed such pure emotions.
But deceiving someone like Kei was useless.
He was even better at deceiving people than Black Zetsu himself.
If Black Zetsu hadn’t lived for more than a thousand years, he might have genuinely believed the mythology Uchiha Kei had fabricated.
A person like that couldn’t be deceived.
He could only be partnered with.
But Black Zetsu also understood deeply that cooperating with someone like Uchiha Kei, while offering a greater chance of success and making it easier to rescue his mother, meant that the course of events would no longer be under his control.
He had no idea what might happen to his mother after she was rescued.
Perhaps her fate would actually be worse than remaining sealed away safely.
Thinking about this, Black Zetsu felt both regretful and worried.
"You were born while I was already old..."
As Black Zetsu, who had devoted himself wholeheartedly to rescuing his mother, lamented that he had been born at the wrong time, the net being cast to capture Obito had already begun to close.
"Luring the remnants of the Land of Grass here really wasn’t easy. Damn those Stone shinobi. They’re actually so cowardly. ōnoki really is skilled at judging the situation!"
Following Black Zetsu’s gaze, there was a towering stone cliff built against a mountain in the distance.
Five muscular middle-aged men stood solemnly at its edge, their hands clasped behind their waists.
Behind them stood more than a thousand shinobi, all dressed in the uniform of the Stone shinobi.
But unfortunately, they weren’t Stone shinobi.
They were Grass shinobi.
And they were the elite among the Grass shinobi.
Anyone capable of maneuvering between three Great Nations without being destroyed was naturally no fool. Their current predicament could only be attributed to being outmatched.
He had already determined that the fighting in the Land of Grass would definitely not be conventional warfare.
With three thousand shinobi at their disposal, there was naturally no need for the Grass shinobi to leave their elite forces in the Land of Grass.
Disguising themselves as Stone shinobi and launching an attack against Konoha had originally been part of the Land of Grass’s plan.
Using their elite forces to strike the enemy’s logistics while employing unconventional power to attack the enemy’s elite troops was, by anyone’s standards, a pretty good plan.
Unfortunately, plans could never keep up with changes.
No one had expected the last force to leave the battlefield to be something other than the Uchiha’s supply unit.
Even less did anyone expect unconventional warfare to escalate to such an extent in the Land of Grass that even the Stone shinobi, one of the Five Great Nations and a village possessing a Tailed Beast, would be frightened into retreating.
The original strategic plan had been to use a force of one thousand shinobi disguised as Stone shinobi to attack Konoha, then flee toward the Land of Earth and draw Konoha’s attention in that direction.
Now, it was on the verge of becoming impossible to execute.
At the same time, the Land of Grass was engulfed in fierce fighting. Their homeland was already under threat, so the Grass shinobi’s worries were very real.
"Lord Menma Yulin, what should we do now?!"
This was the moment when a commander had to make a decision.
With one thousand Grass shinobi against five hundred Konoha shinobi, even if the enemy was in a state of disorder, Menma Yulin still lacked the confidence to attack.
After all, they would be facing Minato Namikaze, once known as the Yellow Flash of Konoha and now the Fourth Mizukage of the Land of Whirlpools.
There was no difference between this and a suicidal attack.
Menma Yulin forced himself to remain calm.
"Wait a little longer. Wait a little longer!"
Under no circumstances could they lose their composure, especially when the lives of everyone depended on his decision.
But just as Minato had used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave, a burly man appeared beside Menma Yulin in an instant. He lowered his head and reported:
"My lord, Minato Namikaze has separated from Konoha’s main force!"
At precisely that moment, the giant Buddha of the Grass Shinobi Village delivered a powerful strike against the monster.
The monster responded with a violent struggle.
The monster itself had not suffered any fatal injuries, but the Grass Shinobi Village could no longer withstand the impact. It had already been reduced to ruins.
The moment these words were spoken, they affected the entire force in the Land of Grass. No one had time to consider where the information had come from.
"My lord, we can’t wait any longer!"
The elite Grass shinobi became increasingly agitated.
They had to do something.
Menma Yulin’s expression remained as calm as still water, revealing nothing.
He knew they couldn’t wait any longer.
But should they really charge in recklessly?
What meaning would such a reckless attack have?
The people before them weren’t Konoha’s forces.
They were forces from the Land of Whirlpools.
What would be the point of attacking them?
Yet if they did nothing, there would seemingly be no way to explain themselves.
Seeing that Menma Yulin still hadn’t made a move, the Grass shinobi who had delivered the report spoke again.
"My lord, the Land of Rain is also gathering forces at the front. Perhaps we can give it a try!"
The shinobi spoke loudly.
It didn’t sound like a simple report to Menma Yulin.
It sounded as though he wanted everyone to hear it.
And just as he had anticipated, those words made the Grass shinobi even more anxious.
"My lord, don’t overthink it. We have to act now. Give the order!"
Menma Yulin genuinely couldn’t understand what the Land of Rain gathering troops had to do with them throwing their lives away.
Yet placed within the current situation, those words somehow made this seem like the perfect moment to launch their attack.
The four men standing alongside Menma Yulin might respectfully address him as "my lord," but their status wasn’t much lower than his.
Even if the cautious Menma Yulin refused to issue an order, the four of them had enough authority to act independently.
At this point, Menma Yulin was no longer allowed to hesitate.
After all, it wasn’t his life being thrown away.
So be it.
The Land of Grass was already finished.
They might as well do one last thing for their homeland.
The furious cries of the Grass shinobi finally forced Menma Yulin to make his decision.
In a calm voice, Yulin said:
"March with me. Remember this: from this moment until our deaths, we must be Stone shinobi!"
"Yes!"
One powerful response after another rang out, heralding their farewell.
The four men nodded simultaneously, tensed the muscles in their legs, and firmly stepped forward, walking out from behind Menma Yulin.
Their apricot-yellow, high-collared robes rustled against the wind.
In the blink of an eye, the Grass shinobi disappeared.
Their next target was the most strategically important point in their assault on Konoha.
Kannabi Bridge!
Meanwhile, the people of the Hidden Whirlpool Village, still unaware that danger was approaching, had begun resting their forces as soon as Minato departed.
No matter how much Mimura Yamakura urged them onward, they refused to advance any further.
The once lush landscape, covered in dense forests and rolling terrain, had already been reduced to a flat, barren wasteland.
At this moment, countless white dots moved actively throughout the camp as numerous large, peaked tents were erected.
Ten kilometers away, a dense mass of yellow-and-red figures stood across the rocky brown earth.
As the troops continued moving, the Grass shinobi dressed in the crimson uniforms of the Stone shinobi stood ready for battle.
Menma Yulin gazed toward the direction where the Konoha shinobi of the Hidden Whirlpool Village were setting up camp, his brows tightly furrowed.
There was a hint of confusion in his expression.
"Are these people actually here to fight a war? Why are they so relaxed? They don’t seem to have any defenses at all! Could this be a trap?"
Yulin couldn’t believe that Konoha’s shinobi could be this undisciplined.
The shinobi who had reported Konoha’s movements had already successfully infiltrated Menma Yulin’s side. After half a day of contact, he had earned Yulin’s trust.
"My lord, according to our intelligence, these Konoha shinobi are only here to earn some battlefield merit. They should no longer technically belong to Konoha. They are now part of the Land of Whirlpools. Uchiha is bringing them along simply to establish a reputation of friendship between Naka and the Land of Whirlpools."
The shinobi rubbed his nose twice and sighed.
"Perhaps they were never expected to do anything in the first place. Or perhaps the outcome of the fighting in the Land of Grass has already been decided, leaving them with no desire to advance."
The shinobi insignia worn by the Land of Whirlpools’ forces was the same as Konoha’s, making the two groups genuinely difficult to distinguish.
Menma Yulin rolled his shoulders. His yellowish face was filled with suspicion.
The situation before him looked favorable, but it was almost too favorable.
"A bunch of pampered young masters would be easy enough to deal with. I just don’t know whether there are any other powerful shinobi here besides Minato Namikaze."
In truth, Menma Yulin had already begun to suspect something.
It seemed as though an unseen hand was pushing this battle forward.
And this was fundamentally a meaningless battle.
Even if they defeated a group of pampered troops from the Land of Whirlpools, it wouldn’t provide the Land of Grass with any real benefit in its current dire situation.
It wouldn’t even be enough to boost morale.
Yet it was the man standing behind him who had pushed the situation to this point.
What exactly was he trying to accomplish?
But it didn’t matter anymore.
Sometimes, knowing too much was meaningless.
He was nothing more than a minor figure in this world.
All he needed to know was that regardless of what someone intended to use the Land of Grass for, the fact that they were still worth using at least proved that the Land of Grass still had value.
That was enough.
Anyone capable of manipulating events from the shadows was naturally no ordinary person.
At last, a trace of emotion appeared on Menma Yulin’s face.
He opened his five fingers and released the rough stone he had been holding. Then he snorted coldly.
"If that’s the case, there’s no need to be so cautious anymore."
He turned toward his troops.
"Pass on the order. Advance with the entire army."
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