Naruto: Ghosts of the Warring States

Chapter 406: The Smile That Shattered Steel

The Uzumaki clan mobilized its entire fighting force, a little over sixty ninja marching toward the battlefield.

In an era defined by nonstop warfare, that was all the Uzumaki could spare. Even so, by Warring States standards, it still counted as a healthy population.

Of course, compared to a major power like the Uchiha, the gap was obvious.

The Uchiha had sent just over twenty ninja, led by a minor elder who barely mattered within their own clan yet the Uzumaki treated it as a full-scale crisis.

"Come to think of it… what even caused this war?" Akio murmured, listening intently as Yingfu negotiated with the Uchiha representatives.

But the conversation came through as static.

Akio had no memory of the negotiations themselves. Back then, his attention had been elsewhere.

Not on Uchiha Chiri, though she was the first truly striking anime-style beauty Akio had seen in this world. Amid a sea of black hair and dark eyes, her long sky-blue hair stood out immediately.

Still, Akio wasn't the type to freeze just because he saw a pretty face.

Former shut-in or not, he had standards.

What really caught young Akio's attention were the one-eyed Uchiha in their ranks.

"Izanagi…" he thought grimly.

"What kind of era did I land in?"

There was no answer.

So lost in thought was he that a probing kunai nearly took his head off.

"Akio, focus," Yingfu warned, frowning.

"Have you chosen your opponent?"

Young Akio's gaze sharpened, locking onto Chiri's face.

"Relax," he said lightly.

"With someone that pretty, there's no way I'd mistake her."

Used to his son's unreliable mouth, Yingfu gave one final warning.

"Watch out for genjutsu."

"Yeah. I know."

"Move out! Stick to the plan!"

The plan was simple: divide evenly and ensure three-on-one engagements.

In a straight duel, Uchiha of the same rank were nightmares, especially with genjutsu in play.

The battlefield fractured accordingly, and young Akio quickly found himself facing Chiri alone.

Following the unspoken anti-Uchiha rule, he avoided eye contact entirely, his gaze staying firmly below her neck.

Real combat wasn't like sparring.

You had to watch not just your opponent, but stray kunai, surprise ninjutsu, even attacks from your own side. And Chiri was genuinely strong, leaving Akio no room for trash talk.

After countless clashes of blade and kunai, he finally adapted to the battlefield's rhythm and began pressing the advantage.

For his age, he truly was exceptional.

Then everything changed.

A maniacal laugh echoed across the battlefield.

"Hahahaha! You thought you killed me?! Die to my Izanagi!"

Hesitation on the battlefield was lethal.

Fortunately, or unfortunately Chiri's next strike lacked its usual precision, allowing Akio to barely block it.

Akio now knew why: she despised Izanagi.

But at the time, young Akio came to a far stupider conclusion.

She hesitated… because she likes me?

To confirm it, he instinctively glanced up and met her Sharingan.

"So that's it," Akio realized bitterly.

"I wasn't being reckless… I was under genjutsu."

Her two-tomoe Sharingan burned crimson.

Against his will, young Akio's hands formed three seals

and he unleashed Sexy Technique: Chiri Version.

Strategic smoke concealed the critical areas, Naruto-style, but the battlefield went utterly silent for a heartbeat.

Then

Chaos.

Every Uchiha nearby went berserk, trying to kill Akio on the spot.

The Uzumaki threw themselves in the way, desperate to stop them.

Chiri stood frozen.

She had cast a genjutsu, a basic disruption illusion, meant to create an opening.

She just never imagined that would be the opening.

"You bastard!"

It was the first time Akio had heard her voice sweet and clear, completely mismatched with the fury that drove her Sharingan to evolve from two tomoe to three.

What followed was Chiri's relentless pursuit, Akio's panicked retreat, and a stream of incoherent apologies.

"No, wait I didn't mean—!"

"My hands moved on their own!"

"I'll take responsibility, just don't cut me!"

This was the first time Akio's unreliable personality was fully exposed.

Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw his father pierced through by a long blade.

He froze.

"This is war," he thought.

"People die here. What am I… doing?"

That was his last thought before Chiri's blade struck him down.

At least his face survived.

He woke up three days later, lying beside his father and older brother.

His brother had nearly died saving him.

His father had survived only because internal Uchiha conflicts forced someone to rewrite reality with Izanagi, killing the Uzumaki clan head was a feat worth paying that price for.

In the end, the Uzumaki won barely.

As for Akio's "battlefield seduction incident", his father and several elders were disturbingly forgiving. Some even praised him, lamenting only that his inexperience prevented him from killing Chiri during her moment of shock.

War has no rules, they said.

Most of his peers, meanwhile, were just annoyed.

"Using tricks like that in front of a girl? Disgusting."

But Akio, reborn with modern values couldn't reconcile it.

He felt fundamentally out of place in this world.

"I want to marry Uchiha Chiri," young Akio said one day.

His father exploded.

"Are you insane?! She's the enemy! Uchiha women never marry out, especially not the clan head's daughter!"

Akio knew that.

But he believed he'd ruined her honor and felt compelled to make amends.

That naïveté defined him.

He didn't realize the Uchiha would never allow such rumors to spread. Even if they did, the story would be twisted into Uzumaki Akio stripping naked on the battlefield, with no clear target.

He became a laughingstock.

To grow stronger faster, he chose a shortcut.

He abandoned all ninjutsu training, focusing solely on the Three Basic Techniques and shuriken throwing.

He refused to believe his cheat was that limited. He pushed those basics to the absolute limit, hoping quantity would transform into quality.

To outsiders, it looked like the Uzumaki prodigy had been broken by gossip.

People looked down on him.

Akio endured it.

Then, at twenty, he learned Chiri had died in internal Uchiha strife.

For the first time, something inside him shattered.

At twenty-two, after maxing out his chosen skills, all he gained were a few niche techniques and a rank of Special Jonin.

That broke him completely.

He drifted until thirty-three, when Mito was born, his first familiar face from canon.

Only then did he regain purpose.

His goal became simple:

Survive. Live well.

He resumed training, but his talent was gone.

At forty-eight, he finally became an ordinary jonin.

…

"My heart really was fragile back then," Akio sighed quietly.

"All of that… from a simple disruption genjutsu."

"Uchiha Chiri… just thinking about it again nearly breaks me."

"…Still."

He straightened.

"I've endured the worst. The headwinds are over."

"Now it's time to ride the wind and live."