After a full day of travel, Uchiha Sen finally arrived at a coastal port in the Land of Fire.
This time, his mission was to eliminate a pirate group notorious for attacking and plundering ships at sea.
According to the intel, several members of this group were shinobi.
Their leader was a missing-nin from Kirigakure, a former jōnin who had gathered a few rogue ninjas to form the group.
Aside from the leader, the other ninja were only genin or chūnin level nothing particularly formidable.
Because of this, the mission was assigned to him alone rather than to a standard three- or four-man team.
Upon meeting the client at the dock, he used a Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as an ordinary crew member and boarded the client's merchant ship bound for the Land of Water.
"Pirates! Pirates!"
Midway through the journey, a ship appeared on the horizon, swiftly closing the distance with the merchant vessel thanks to favorable winds.
Dozens of armed men stood on its deck, looking fierce and aggressive.
The crew aboard the merchant ship panicked and rowed frantically in an attempt to escape.
But weighed down with cargo, the merchant ship was too slow and was quickly overtaken.
"Ahhh!"
One by one, the armed pirates leapt aboard, agile and brutal, taking over the ship.
Any resistance was met with lethal force.
Uchiha Sen made his move.
With a kunai in each hand, he rushed to meet them.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Blood sprayed across the deck like vivid red paint, blooming into flower-like patterns wherever it landed.
The pirates had no chance to resist. Uchiha Sen dispatched them swiftly, slitting their throats without hesitation.
"There's a shinobi on board!"
Realizing something was wrong, several rogue ninja among the pirates charged at him.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Even as shinobi, they stood no chance. Uchiha Sen struck them down one by one, piercing hearts and slicing throats with surgical precision.
He didn't even need to use ninjutsu their strength wasn't worth it.
To him, these rogue ninjas were no different from the regular pirates. None could withstand a single blow.
"He's a Konoha jōnin!"
As his Transformation Jutsu faded, his flak jacket a uniform only worn by Konoha jōnin was revealed.
The remaining pirates panicked and retreated to their ship.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu."
Waves of flame surged across the enemy deck, engulfing the pirates in fire. Screams echoed as they rolled on the floor, ablaze.
The flames spread, igniting the deck itself.
Suddenly, a man leapt from the sea and landed on the pirate ship's deck.
He wore a forehead protector marked with the symbol of Kirigakure, but a deep scratch across it declared his status as a missing-nin.
This was their leader the only one among them with jōnin-level strength.
As soon as he appeared, he began weaving hand seals.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Water surged onto the deck, extinguishing the flames, then coalesced into a massive water dragon that roared toward Uchiha Sen.
"You finally showed yourself."
A cold gleam flashed in Uchiha Sen's eyes.
He had been holding back, masking his full strength to bait this man into revealing himself.
Now that the target had taken the bait, there was no need for restraint.
"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"
A fire dragon, even larger than the water dragon, erupted forward. Steam billowed as it evaporated the water dragon and surged toward the enemy with blazing heat.
At the same time, Uchiha Sen dashed onto the pirate ship, closing the distance between them.
"An elite jōnin?!"
The enemy's eyes widened in shock as he realized the sheer power of Uchiha Sen's Fire Style.
Even on the ocean, where Water Style should have held the advantage, his own jutsu had been overpowered.
There was only one explanation Sen wasn't just a regular jōnin. He was an elite jōnin.
He tried to retreat, evading the trailing flames.
But Uchiha Sen had no intention of letting him escape. While the man dodged, Sen was already upon him.
Their clash was brief.
The fight ended in no time with Uchiha Sen standing victorious.
The gap between a jōnin and an elite jōnin wasn't something that terrain or elemental advantage could bridge.
Besides,Uchiha Sen was no ordinary elite jōnin he possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, making him far stronger than most in his rank.
With the mission complete, he took a small boat back to the port and began his return journey to Konoha.
Hours later, night had fallen.
Rather than continuing through the dark, he started a campfire and chose to rest in a forest clearing.
Suddenly—
Snap, snap, snap!
Footsteps echoed through the night.
Someone was approaching.
Instantly alert, he activated his Sharingan and turned toward the sound.
Whoever it was didn't bother concealing their chakra an immense presence surged toward him like a tidal wave.
That chakra... it was several times greater than his own.
Even as an elite jōnin, Uchiha Sen possessed significant chakra reserves. But this person made his feel insignificant.
Their chakra burned in the darkness like a beacon.
Their footsteps were unhurried, yet each one crunched down on dried branches with chilling clarity like they were treading directly on his heart.
A cold sweat ran down his brow as he felt the oppressive pressure.
He wanted to flee, but his instincts screamed that the figure had already locked onto him. Any sudden move would provoke an immediate and devastating strike.
As the figure drew closer, Uchiha Sen used his Sharingan to get a clearer look and gasped in shock.
"Clan Head?!"
It was none other than Uchiha Fugaku.
His entire worldview cracked in an instant.
After spending sixteen years undercover within the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Sen had long held the belief that Fugaku was unworthy of his position too bland, too weak to match the legacy of the legendary Uchiha name.
He had thought Fugaku was just an elite jōnin hardly fitting of the clan's grandeur.
But now, he knew he had been gravely mistaken.
This immense chakra, this overwhelming presence it wasn't something an elite jōnin could possess.
This was Kage-level.
Dread crept into his heart.
Trying to steady himself, he forced a calm expression and asked, "Clan Head, what are you doing here?"
"Sixteen years... You've worked hard infiltrating the Uchiha Clan."
Fugaku stopped a dozen meters away, his gaze icy cold as it locked onto Uchiha Sen.
Murderous intent rolled off him like a winter wind, biting deep into Uchiha Sen bones.
Allowing a traitor to live undetected for sixteen years such a failure could only be blamed on his predecessor.
But now, there was no difference between the current him and the old one.
And it was time to correct that mistake.