Chapter 178 Kikyo Castle (4)

It was July, the hottest month of the year. The summer sun scorched everything in the world, and the heat evaporated in the air, causing Uchiha Masato to feel a little dry in the mouth.

He left everyone behind and walked out of the headquarters. The first thing he saw was a patch of green land. Then, as his eyes moved left and right, most of the camp came into view. This was a place that could accommodate more than a thousand people. The entire building was made of wood and a wind and rainproof roof. Due to the proximity to the edge of the desert, the dust was very strong and the cleaning was not done diligently. The originally green roof became gray and looked quite shabby.

It is worth mentioning that even the Konoha Village, which is famous for its wealth, cannot make the garrison points under its jurisdiction suitable for living. It is not because of the shortage of related convenient living materials, but the main reason is caused by the special profession of ninja. Ninjas are highly mobile and have amazing destructive power. Even the best buildings can be turned into a pile of ruins by a ninjutsu. This practice of throwing money into the river to see the sound was naturally stopped early.

Moreover, in Uchiha Masato's mind, life in the camp was not really hard at all, at least the food and drink were enough to meet a person's daily needs. He was a true elite who survived the Second Ninja World War and had experienced a lot of hardships.

When the Second Ninja World War entered its climax, Uchiha Masato, as a well-known genius in the family, naturally stepped into the battlefield. During this period, he encountered life and death several times, and his companions changed several times, but he was lucky enough to survive to the end. Even his talent was not excellent, but the better seedlings in the family had died, so he got more political resources and training resources.

In Uchiha Masashi's decades of ninja career, he owed at least five or six lives to the God of Death, and each time he survived was full of ups and downs. The one that impressed him the most and often appeared in his dreams was the encounter on the sea. Whenever he thought of it, he felt sad.

That was when Uchiha Masato had just opened his two-magatama Sharingan and was emerging. In order to hone his character, the family assigned him to a sea patrol. The patrol was very luxurious, with two three-magatama jonins and two two-magatama elite chunins, a fully equipped ninja team composed of the bloodline awakeners that the Uchiha clan was proud of, enough to strike at any enemy village scout. This was also a way for the family to cultivate good seedlings, but they still hit a wall.

When did death begin? Over the years, when Uchiha Masato recalled this unbearable memory, he still couldn't find an accurate answer. He only knew that it came very suddenly, so suddenly that he lost the most basic qualities of a ninja.

On the vast blue sea, it was calm and beautiful the moment before, and the next second it became a duel arena between ninjas from two rival ninja villages.

The huge waves, which were powerful enough to block out the sun and the sky, were driven by chakra and smashed down like a ferocious beast. In the critical moment, the serious captain only had time to shout "disperse" and then left in an instant. Uchiha Masato stood there in a daze, his eyes wide open, completely forgetting his identity as a ninja, and then he was swept away from the sea by the sea as expected.

A moment later, Uchiha Masato, with his blood boiling, launched his own attack from the bottom of the sea. He waved his hands and threw out ten kunai, which flew towards the attacker with drops of sea water. Then he quickly surfaced and came to the side of his teammates, drew out the ninja sword behind him and prepared to attack.

"Om..."

The moment he saw the enemy, Uchiha Masato's head buzzed and he fell into fear. Then his hands holding the knife trembled slightly, and the chakra in his body stagnated.

This elite Uchiha team encountered attackers that were several times their number, and these were only the enemies in the open, not to mention the Reapers lurking in the dark.

Uchiha Masato knew that he was doomed this time and the time to fight had come. Even if such resistance was meaningless to the outcome, ninjas, especially ninjas who had reached the bloodline limit, must never be taken prisoners. That would be a consequence ten thousand times more horrible than death.

When people are highly concentrated and extremely panicked, they become insane and slow to respond to language because all their attention is used to deal with fighting and attacking. This is also what Uchiha Masato has always regretted.

Fast forward a month, on the first night that Uchiha Masato joined this elite team, the four ninjas with close blood ties had a small dinner together.

Of course, the dinners during the war were extremely simple, and alcohol was strictly prohibited, so smoke rose in a dirty and messy tent. Apparently, tobacco became the best stress-relieving partner for most ninjas.

The captain named Uchiha Ling opened his scruffy bearded mouth, held a burning cigarette in his left hand, and swallowed his food in three or two puffs. Then he couldn't wait to put the cigarette to his mouth and took a big sip. The ensuing smoke filled the small space.

"Hey, you whore, do you smoke?"

A wrinkled cigarette clipped to the ear was handed to Uchiha Masato, making him a little overwhelmed: "Thank you, Captain, I don't smoke."

"Oh"

The captain, Uchiha Ling, withdrew his hand regretfully, thought for a moment, then lit the cigarette butt that was about to burn out, and started smoking as if no one was around. Judging from his half-closed eyes, he was quite happy at that moment.

A moment later, there was a ninja smoking in the tent. It was the deputy captain who also started smoking. A moment later, another person in the team also lit a cigarette, and the smoke filled the entire tent, and even the face that was close at hand became blurred.

Uchiha Masato hesitated for a moment, picked up the cigarette box that was casually placed on the ground, took out a cigarette and lit it up. He didn't smoke before, but the atmosphere was right so he smoked one.

"cough cough"

As expected, Uchiha Masato was choked by the irritating smoke and almost coughed up tears, which made the three people happy.

"This is a true man of the Uchiha clan. Next time I'll take you out for a drink."

"Hey Captain, Masato is still a child, it's not appropriate for him to drink."

Uchiha Ling glared and said, "There is no difference between children and adults here. We are all comrades. What's wrong with drinking a little wine?"

"How old are you, boy?"

Uchiha Masato was stunned for a moment, and before he could recover from the previous conversation, he hurriedly said, "It's two months to the fifteenth."

"Tsk tsk, a 14-year-old double-magatama seedling, no wonder he was assigned to our place, not bad, not bad."

"Relax, there's no need to be so restrained. This is a good thing for us. Who knows, maybe in a few years we'll call you 'sir' when we see you."

After these words were spoken, the other two echoed in unison and started to clamor for saluting Uchiha Masato. The atmosphere in the small tent became lively, but the person involved was a little at a loss and could only quietly take a puff of cigarette to calm down.

"Alright, alright, let's end today's dinner here. Next time I'll go to the Quartermaster's Office and get two bottles of wine for Zhengren to celebrate his fifteenth birthday. Don't die without a drink, you two."

Uchiha Ling put out his cigarette and stood up, saying some ominous words with smoke leaking out of his mouth, but it did not cause any complaints from the two men. Instead, they became more excited.

"You can die but I'm still alive and well, so shut up." This was the deputy captain's response.

"Tsk, Captain, when are you going to die? I'm waiting to take over!" These were the bold words of another team member.

"You two guys, go work for me. You really want to start a dyeing factory when you give me some color."

Two months later, still in this dirty tent, Uchiha Masato took a bottle of wine and filled four cups, then drank them one by one with an expressionless face, and celebrated his fifteenth birthday.

"These three dishonest bastards, damn it."

After cursing, Uchiha Masato lay on his back on the ground, staring straight at the tent. His chest rose and fell slightly, and two lines of tears flowed down unconsciously.

"Zhengren, there are a lot of enemies. We are doomed." said the deputy captain.

"Masato, you have to stay alive," said another teammate.

"Yes, you are still young and you need to live. Don't forget to send us some cigarettes and alcohol during the holidays." said the captain.

Afterwards, the team member who was less than 20 years old, with detonating tags wrapped all over his body, launched a suicide attack, successfully blowing a brief gap in the enemy's encirclement; then the deputy captain came behind Uchiha Masato like a ghost, and threw him out of the gap with a pair of big hands; finally, the captain's signature fire-style ninjutsu spread out, turning the two enemies who stood up to block Masato into charcoal.

Uchiha Masato's mind went blank as he flew out like a cannonball. He subconsciously looked back, and what caught his eyes was the two family elders who were only attacking and not defending. They actually held back the enemy who outnumbered them several times and made them unable to move.

The wind whistled in his ears, blowing away the cigarette that Uchiha Masato was holding next to his ear. He reached out to grab it, but his hand was holding the ninja sword and he missed the opportunity. He could only watch the wrinkled, salty cigarette disappear before his eyes.

At this moment, what surged in Uchiha Masato's mind was not some tragic and exciting thing worthy of being written about, nor was it any lofty words of bloodthirsty revenge. At this moment, he had only one thought.

"Luckily I survived, and fortunately it wasn't me who died..."