One day later, Ishiki Kujo summoned President,
inserted the ruby-encrusted key into the slot on the turtle's shell,
and formed a shadow clone to touch the gem — activating the inner room.
President obediently vanished as soon as the technique triggered.
Ishiki immediately bit his finger and summoned again.
When President reappeared, Ishiki's gaze locked onto the ruby.
Through the gem, he could clearly see his clone inside the room,
staring right back at him.
"It worked."
Excitement flashed in Ishiki's eyes.
He pulled the key out.
The clone instantly dropped out of the gem's pocket dimension,
and President disappeared into a puff of smoke.⁵
The clone nodded at Ishiki,
picked up the prepared ninja kit,
and sprinted away toward the Land of Frost.
Ishiki quickly calculated:
at his clone's pace, it would take about three days to reach Highway Star's last known location.
Though the clone only had half of Ishiki's chakra,
even that surpassed most jonin —
he was confident it could reach Frost Country safely if it stayed cautious.
Satisfied, Ishiki picked up a notebook from his desk,
one filled with notes he had gathered while rewinding Pakkun's memories:
records of Minato Namikaze training with the Rasengan.
Mastering the Rasengan wasn't too difficult for Ishiki,
even though it was classified as an A-rank jutsu.
After all, he had not only Minato's notes,
but also personal memories of seeing the Fourth Hokage using the technique,
plus full knowledge of how Jiraiya had taught Naruto.
First, gather chakra in your palm.
Then, learn to inject chakra into a water balloon.
Then a rubber ball.
Finally, compress large amounts of chakra into a devastating, concentrated sphere.
Ishiki had already begun training this,
so the moment he raised his hand, chakra rapidly condensed in his palm.
Pop!
A sudden noise startled him,
but surprisingly, the chakra sphere didn't rupture.
At that exact moment—
a desperate voice shattered the calm:
"Enemy attack!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The alarm bells blared across the outpost.
Ishiki immediately dispersed the chakra,
snapped his notebook shut,
sealed it inside a scroll with a practiced flick,
and slung the scroll onto his back.
Within three strides, he had dashed out of the room.
Ahead, he spotted Mirinae —
the two exchanged a quick glance,
but before either could speak,
an explosion tore through the watchtower.
"Explosive tags!"
Ishiki's face darkened.
No time to hesitate.
He sprinted to a window,
kicked off the ledge,
and launched himself outside.
In midair, he pulled down his goggles —
the Three-Tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly in his eyes.
His hands blurred through seals.
In the instant before he landed,
he spotted two Kumogakure shinobi throwing handfuls of explosive-tag kunai at the tower —
clearly aiming to destroy it.
Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!
A barrage of small fireballs shot from Ishiki's mouth,
raining toward the attackers.
In the same breath,
he completed another jutsu —
his body flickering and vanishing in a spray of sparks.
Fire Body Flicker Technique.
A technique developed by the Uchiha Clan themselves.
The Kumo ninja had noticed Ishiki leaping from the tower,
but they hadn't expected such ferocious speed.
One immediately halted his bombardment and began weaving signs.
Too late.
As he dodged the Phoenix Fire,
Ishiki appeared directly before him.
Before the Kumo ninja could finish his second set of seals,
a kunai was already slicing toward his throat.
In desperation,
the enemy canceled his jutsu mid-sign,
crossing his left arm to block.
His right hand darted for a weapon pouch.
But Ishiki's kunai suddenly twisted —
missing the arm,
and instead stabbing deep into his chest.
An explosive tag was tied to the kunai's hilt.
Before the Kumo ninja could even react,
Ishiki's figure vanished — poof!
"A clone—?! Impossible—!"
the enemy gasped, coughing blood.
BOOM!
The explosion swallowed him whole.
Meanwhile, the second Kumo ninja had taken a different route:
calm and unflinching,
he completed his jutsu instantly as Ishiki appeared.
When Ishiki's kunai struck,
it only sliced through a decoy log —
Substitution Jutsu.
The real enemy had already fled into the trees.
But Ishiki wasn't surprised.
With his Sharingan, no mere substitution could fool him.
He was simply curious —
why hadn't the enemy run further?
Suddenly, hands burst from the earth,
grabbing his ankle.
"Seriously? This trick again? You're Kumo-nin, not Iwa or Suna!"
Ishiki snorted disdainfully.²
Without hesitation,
he drew a short blade and stabbed into the ground.
Blood welled up.
But Ishiki's gaze was already shifting to the distance.
There—
several squads were racing toward them.
But at the forefront...
they weren't Kumo-nin —
they were Konoha shinobi,
and familiar ones at that.
One team was led by Might Guy,
the other by none other than Ishiki's old commander — Kawahara Junji.
Only now did Ishiki notice the ravens circling above,
and realized the other defensive squad seemed missing.
He recognized the warning cry from earlier too:
it was the voice of their own sensor ninja, Hibatake Suzumebachi.
Having eliminated the advance saboteurs,
Ishiki turned to see Mirinae and Yasuhiro following behind him.
Up on the ruined tower, the alarm bells had stopped.
Suzumebachi emerged last,
one hand cradling an injured raven.
"Orders, Captain?"
Ishiki asked, glancing at Mirinae.
She didn't hesitate:
*"Run, obviously! What, you want to stay and die fighting their whole army, dumbass?!"*⁶
Without waiting for a reply,
she bolted into the forest —
and the squad followed close behind.