The dawn came wrapped in fog, thick and heavy, clinging to the trees like a warning.
Yahiko crouched at the edge of the riverbank, his chakra rippling subtly around his form. A thin sheen of water misted across his cloak, the fabric hiding the tension in his muscles. Nagato was behind him, breathing slowly, eyes distant. The crimson ripple of his Rinnegan dimmed under the weight of exhaustion and confusion.
"They moved again," Yahiko murmured, watching the faint trail left behind by Hanzo's envoys. The survival task was completed, but the real game was just beginning. The system had gone quiet after rewarding him. No prompts, no guidance. Only the quiet hum of power—the terrifying awareness of his new ability: Vector Control.
Everything that moves, everything that accelerates—I can touch and turn it.
It was overwhelming. And exhilarating.
Nagato exhaled. "I felt… strange during that fight. Like I was drowning in myself."
Yahiko turned, crouching beside him. "It's the eyes. The more you use them, the deeper they dig into you. That power isn't just chakra-based—it's will-based. And you're carrying the grief of the whole world."
Konan stood nearby, quiet, arms crossed. Her gaze didn't leave Nagato for a second. Yahiko didn't need a system prompt to recognize it—guilt, fear, and resolve warred silently in her eyes.
Then she spoke. "The elders summoned us. Again."
Yahiko didn't respond at first. He stood, brushing off his cloak.
"They're afraid," he said finally. "They see what we're becoming."
The council chamber of Amegakure was thick with incense and suspicion.
Three elders sat at the head of the circular chamber, shadowed by veils. Behind them, guards—loyal only to Hanzo—stood like statues. Yahiko entered with Konan and Nagato in tow, moving like storm fronts behind him.
"Yahiko," one of the elders said, voice sharp and formal. "We hear troubling rumors. You and your followers have begun organizing outside the sanctioned zones. What are you planning?"
Yahiko smiled faintly. "I'm planning for the future."
Another elder leaned forward. "There's talk of rebellion."
Konan's paper rustled as she shifted. Nagato said nothing. Yahiko met the accusation head-on.
"No rebellion. Just survival. Freedom. Peace, maybe. The kind we never had under Hanzo's rule."
The oldest elder narrowed his eyes. "Hanzo protected us."
"He ruled by fear. That's not protection—it's domination."
The room tensed. Guards shifted slightly, fingers twitching toward their weapons. One step too far, and this would become a bloodbath.
But Yahiko didn't push further. Not yet.
Instead, he bowed slightly. "We'll leave you to your incense and paranoia."
They walked the corridor in silence, but the moment they turned the corner, Konan exploded.
"What are you doing? That wasn't a speech, that was a threat!"
Yahiko didn't slow. "Because they need to feel it. They need to know we're no longer under their thumb."
"You're provoking them."
"I'm preparing us."
Nagato's voice was soft. "They'll strike. Sooner or later."
Yahiko stopped.
"Yes. But next time… we won't be the ones on the run."
The hideout in the cliffs was dimly lit, a sharp contrast to the golden edge of dusk outside. Yahiko stood before a map, lines and markers laid out. The network of underground contacts, the list of neutral or sympathetic villages, the list of enemy outposts—every inch of their world, turned into a battlefield.
"Recruitment's slow," Konan said, kneeling beside him.
"They're scared. We'll change that. I'll take a team personally—into Kusagakure. Start sowing seeds there."
Nagato joined them, still pale but more composed. "And if Hanzo's men are already watching the borders?"
"Then we test how far my new power goes." Yahiko flexed his hand slightly, feeling vectors spin beneath his skin like threads of lightning.
The system's gacha reward had changed everything.
He closed his eyes briefly.
[System Notification: Daily Training Bonus Unlocked]
Vector Control (Rank: S+)
Chakra Cost Optimization (Current: 82%)
Precision Control Level 2
New Passive: Enhanced Reflexive Calculations
Movement. Force. Trajectory. Gravity. All of it bent at his fingertips.
He opened his eyes. "We move at dawn."
The trip to Kusagakure began in silence but ended in blood.
A checkpoint deep in the forest, far from the patrol zones. Yahiko and his squad approached cautiously, three scouts flanking him in the trees.
But the ambush was waiting. Not Kusagakure's soldiers—but Hanzo's personal assassins. Cloaked in black, chakra flaring.
Yahiko felt it before he saw them—disturbances in the air pressure, the way the leaves shifted against gravity.
"Down!" he shouted, slamming a palm against the air.
Boom—! A pulse of reversed gravity exploded outward, flinging kunai and shuriken off-course and cracking the earth below them.
The assassins didn't hesitate. Three leapt down from the trees, blades gleaming with poison.
Yahiko didn't retreat.
He twisted the vector of their momentum sideways—an impossible angle—and sent all three crashing into each other midair. The resulting impact snapped a tree in half.
His scouts stared in awe.
But more came.
Yahiko ducked, flipping behind a kunai aimed for his neck, redirecting its velocity backward. The blade turned midair, shooting toward the original thrower—impaling his shoulder.
Another assassin lunged, chakra blade humming. Yahiko crouched low, touched the ground, and inverted the gravity below the attacker. The man shot up thirty feet before crashing back down with a sickening crunch.
"Don't stop moving!" Yahiko ordered his team. "We keep pushing forward!"
Shouts echoed in the forest as more assassins poured in. This wasn't a warning squad. It was an extermination.
Konan's paper swarmed like hornets through the air, pinning three enemies against the bark. Nagato unleashed a sudden shockwave of repulsion that split the path in two.
"We need to retreat!" one scout yelled.
"No," Yahiko growled. "We finish this."
He surged forward, taking the lead. Vectors danced around him in a shimmering aura.
They reached the border with Kusagakure by moonrise, bloody and bruised, but alive. Yahiko's cloak was torn, one arm slashed. But his eyes blazed.
Nagato stumbled beside him. "They're escalating fast."
Konan didn't speak, her hands still bloodied from the fight.
"They've made their choice," Yahiko said, voice low.
From behind him, another scout asked quietly, "What now?"
Yahiko turned, his silhouette a shadow against the stars.
"We stop waiting for permission to change the world."
Back in Amegakure, the elders sat in darkness. One of them leaned forward, whispering.
"He's becoming dangerous."
Another nodded. "Contact Hanzo."