Chino appeared suddenly and cast her genjutsu. Before he knew it, it wasn’t just she who had vanished; Nowaki and their comrades had also disappeared. The woods had been mowed down by Nowaki’s Typhoon Style; the island was a wretched sight.
“Hey, you okay?” But in the midst of all this, he was able to find several of the ninja imprisoned by Chino and her gang. When he woke them with a counter-genjutsu, they quickly regained consciousness. Because they had been blown about by Nowaki’s wind, they were all injured in one way or another, but they were still alive. They offered their deepest gratitude to Sasuke—although a little reluctantly on the part of the Kumo ninja.
In the past, Sasuke had attacked the Raikage’s younger brother, the Eight-Tails’ Killer B, and tried to abduct him. Later, he had also fought the Raikage and taken one of his arms. These ninja adored the leader of their village, so it was no wonder their feelings now were a little complicated.
To begin with, Sasuke decided to take them home to their own villages. First, Kirigakure. Then Kumogakure.
When they arrived at the port in the Land of Lightning where the village of Kumogakure was, there was a bit of a commotion.
“Whoooaaaaaaa! You guys are okaaaaaaay!!”
“Raikage?”
“It’s the Lord Raikage!”
“Lord Raikage is coming to welcome us!”
Smashing buildings along the way, the Raikage charged toward the port. Perhaps having heard the news of the ninja rescue, he had been unable to simply sit still and had shown up here. Next to the Raikage, Sasuke could see his close aides, Darui and C.
Once the brawny leader had arrived at the port at something approaching the speed of lightning, he clapped the ninja on the shoulders, shouted “Good work making it back safely!” as if rewarding them. He hit with such force that Sasuke wondered if he wasn’t going to break some bones, but with the Raikage directly praising them, perhaps the tension was released; tears sprang up in the eyes of the Kumogakure ninja.
Watching this out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke moved to slip away from the scene.
“Boy!”
However, the shout of the Raikage stopped him. Unable to ignore it, he turned around to find the Raikage glaring at him with a complicated expression on his face. Sasuke looked at him. It was hidden by his jacket, but the Raikage had no left arm. Sasuke’s past actions had affected the Raikage’s future. The Raikage glared at him silently.
Instead, Darui opened his mouth. “Sorry. You really helped us out.” He probably also had complicated feelings about Sasuke. Even so, he offered his thanks as a representative of Kumogakure.
C followed him. “The medical ninja in Konoha say they’ve found a way to treat the ninja who attacked the villages under the genjutsu; they were able to save everyone. But the treatment requires a high level of skill, so right now, the Konoha medical ninja are on their way here.”
In Konoha, they had Tsunade, famed for her medical ninjutsu, and if Sasuke considered freedom to move about, there was probably Sakura as well. So she’s become a ninja people count on, huh, Sasuke thought. Then he couldn’t stop either one.
Sasuke had to find Chino. He set his feet in motion again; he had to stop that strange jutsu she used.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” the Raikage shouted after him.
“I’m going to go find the ringleader.”
“Then Kumogakure will help. This criminal attacking the villages with such brutal methods! They need to be caught right away!” the Raikage raged.
“No.” Sasuke shook his head from side to side. “Only I can do this.”
“What?!” The air was instantly electrified.
Feeling the wrath of the Raikage, Sasuke continued. “The enemy has a special ocular jutsu. It goes beyond genjutsu. This ability’s still an unknown variable. Considering the fact that the ninja that went missing this time were abducted without the chance to resist, if we approach her carelessly, there will just be new sacrifices.”
The Raikage’s mouth pulled down at the corners.
“I was also caught in her genjutsu, but I was able to release the technique myself. The only things that can resist those red eyes are my eyes.”
Red eyes. He had said it quite casually. But the Raikage’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Did you say red eyes?”
“Yeah. The enemy has eyes that are red like blood.”
The Raikage shifted his gaze away as if in thought, and then looked at Sasuke once again. “It couldn’t be the Chinoike clan with their ketsuryugan.”
“Do you know them?” Chino had said she was a member of the Chinoike clan.
Seeing Sasuke’s reaction, the Raikage asked in return, “You don’t?” Sasuke couldn’t understand the intent behind the question. “Hmm. I have no choice, really. I’ll tell you this much, at least.”
The story went back to even before the era of ruthless competition between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
The Chinoike clan. Living in the Land of Lightning, they had had ketsuryugan, eyes wet with red blood. They were able to manage a variety of techniques using blood. They particularly excelled in genjutsu; apparently, once a person was caught in those eyes, they couldn’t escape.
A daughter of this Chinoike clan had married into the family of the daimyo of the Land of Lightning as a concubine. She was a beautiful girl with a lovely disposition, and the first wife was jealous. Unfortunately, the daimyo fell ill and died not long after he took her as a concubine.
“It’s because he married this woman!” The first wife then made everything the girl’s fault. She said that the Chinoikes had deceived the daimyo and killed him.
It was a just a fabrication, lies from start to finish. But the people around them who knew the strange nature of the Chinoikes swallowed the words of the first wife. As a result, the girl, together with her clan, was banished to a place called Hell Valley.
“At that time, it was the Uchiha clan the first wife hired to chase out the Chinoike clan.”
“What … ?”
“In every era, the Uchiha name has been widely known. More than anything, the only ones who could have resisted the Chinoike clan with their special ocular jutsu were the Uchiha clan with their sharingan. Apparently, the Chinoikes sought a place to talk with the Uchihas, but they wouldn’t listen.”
Long persecuted and suffering in Konoha, the Uchiha clan had inflicted persecution on others. That was the nature of war. Sometimes, you chased someone into a corner and crushed them irrationally.
Here, the image of Itachi came back to life in his mind. Itachi had probably seen not only the achievements of the Uchihas, but also the darkness that lay within them. Perhaps that was why, rather than reproaching them, he had taken it all in by himself, carrying the darkness and deciding to die with it, so that the hatred wouldn’t be disseminated.
The people involved in this incident now had been forced to bear the burden of the irrationality of the world, an absurdity they could do nothing about under their own power. They were running in the darkness. A crime was absolutely a crime, but would defeating them really end this?
“Boy.” Here, the Raikage opened his mouth. “For your sake, Naruto once put both his hands on the ground and bowed his head to me in the middle of the snow.”
Sasuke’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
“It was when you abducted my little brother B, and Danzo gave his permission to deal with you as a rogue ninja at my request. Naruto wanted me to withdraw it; he said he was your friend, and he couldn’t just watch it happen without saying something.”
Sasuke was stunned into silence.
“Know yourself, know people, don’t mistake your path again. Understand what it means that you are allowed to walk freely in this world now. And create a reason for others to accept that.” His words were very direct.
Sasuke had previously tried to execute the five Kages and control all the villages himself. He had thought that was right. However, as he stood and listened to this advice from the Raikage, who was a little rough around the edges but still adored by the ninja of his village, he had the thought that if he had succeeded in executing the Kages, he would have been hated by an even greater number of people, and perhaps created an even greater shadow.
“After being banished to Hell Valley, the Chinoike clan vanished from the ninja world. It was thought that they had been destroyed. However, if someone with the ketsuryugan has appeared now, they might have lived on in secret. Hell Valley is in the Land of Steam. The location should only be known to the Uchiha clan and the ninja of Yugakure.”
The Land of Steam. That was where Sasuke had met Chino and Nowaki. Also, the Land of Steam was relatively close geographically to the villages of Konoha in the Land of Fire, Kirigakure in the Land of Water, and Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning.
Chino was in Hell Valley. For some reason, that was what his gut was telling him. But although Sasuke was a member of the Uchiha clan that had driven the Chinoike clan out, he didn’t know where Hell Valley was.
“I’ll talk to Yugakure for you. The rest is up to you.” The Raikage snorted, and returned to the shinobi of his village.
Sasuke bowed his head slightly at the other man’s departing back. And then he stared in the direction of Yugakure and kicked at the ground.