After traveling through the forest, they reached the main camp.
Calling it large would be an understatement. It stretched so far through the trees that Muzan couldn't find where it ended. But it was well hidden. Without his enhanced senses, he never would have known humans were here at all.
The reserve team didn't push forward. They stopped at the edge and began setting up their own section.
Lord Urashi gathered the squad leaders around him. "Set up camp. No one moves until I return with orders," he said firmly. "We don't know the situation yet. Acting without information gets people killed."
He left with two personal guards toward the command tent at the center of the camp.
Muzan found a spot under thick tree cover and set up his tent quickly. The dark fabric blended into the shadows. He positioned the entrance away from where the sun would rise, then hung a second layer of fabric inside to seal any gaps that might let light through.
He sat down and waited.
Outside, voices moved back and forth. Footsteps crunched over dry ground. Hours passed. The temperature inside the tent climbed as morning came. Nobody bothered him.
By midday, Lord Urashi returned.
"Listen up," Urashi said, loud enough to carry across the camp. "The front line is holding, but barely. The Senju have more numbers than we expected. They've allied with the Sarutobi, Shimura, Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans. Commander Tajima is organizing a rotation. Some of us will reinforce the eastern flank today. I will take command of it as Front Commander."
He paused.
"The previous Front Commander, Uchiha Hiroashi, was killed in action. The Senju ambushed and surrounded him. The one who led that mission was Tobirama Senju, second eldest son of Senju Butsuma." His voice dropped lower. "We will not forget this. We will repay it a thousandfold. Do you understand?"
The camp answered him as one voice.
The rest of the day moved slowly. Squadrons were organized. Supply lines were set up. Scouts were sent out to map the surrounding area. This was how shinobi warfare actually worked. Not dramatic charges, but logistics and careful planning.
When evening came and the sun finally dropped below the trees, Muzan stepped out of his tent. Cooking fires burned in designated areas. Sentries walked the perimeter in steady rotations.
Toshiro found him near the tent and told him their assignment. Night patrol on the forest flank, with Amanai leading the squad. The forest flank was where most stealth warfare happened. Ambush detection, scout hunting, night assassinations, disrupting enemy movement. The Front Commander there was Uchiha Takashi, a clan elder known as one of their best strategists.
The patrol started at sundown.
Muzan and Toshiro met Amanai at the forest edge. Two other squad members had already received their instructions and moved out ahead of them.
Amanai crouched over a rough map drawn on cloth and traced their route with one finger. "North to the river bend, then east along the water for half a mile, then back south," he said. "Check for tracks, broken branches, disturbed earth. If you find scouts, don't engage unless you have no choice. Signal and track them instead."
He handed Toshiro a small metal whistle. "One short blast for enemy movement. Two if you're under attack. Three if you find something the front commander needs to see."
Toshiro tucked it into his vest. "How long is the shift?"
"Four hours. Then the next team takes over." Amanai looked at both of them. "The Senju know we arrived today. They'll test our defenses tonight. Stay alert."
They moved out.
Toshiro led at first, following the route exactly. Muzan stayed a few steps behind and watched their flanks. Both had their Sharingan active. Muzan's eyes were a copy, not the real thing, but his actual senses ran deeper than any two or three-tomoe Sharingan could reach.
The first hour passed without anything.
They checked game trails, low branches, patches of disturbed undergrowth. All of it was clean.
"Did the Senju back down?" Toshiro muttered, scanning the trees ahead. "I expected scouts by now."
Muzan said nothing. He didn't know enough about their tactics to answer.
They slowed near a thick cluster of pines. Toshiro crouched to check the ground. Muzan scanned wider and focused on his hearing.
There. Metal scraping against wood. Faint, maybe sixty feet ahead and left.
Muzan raised his hand. Toshiro froze.
They waited. The sound came again from the same direction.
Muzan pointed. Toshiro nodded.
They left the patrol route and looped wide to approach from a different angle. Every step was deliberate, feet placed carefully on solid ground.
Closer in, Muzan caught a scent. Sweat and weapon oil.
He tapped Toshiro's shoulder and gestured toward the smell. Toshiro reached for the whistle.
Something slammed into his mind.
His hand jerked. The whistle flew from his grip and disappeared into the undergrowth.
Toshiro's body went rigid. His eyes glazed over.
Muzan spun around as a massive figure burst from the trees on his right. The Akimichi was huge, with thick arms and a barrel chest. He swung a fist at Muzan's head with enough force to take it off.
Muzan ducked under it and came up on the man's left side. He drove his palm into the man's ribs. The strike was controlled, a fraction of what he could actually do.
The Akimichi barely moved. He grinned down at Muzan. "You'll need more than that, Uchiha brat."
He swung again. Muzan sidestepped and swept low at the man's knee. The Akimichi raised his leg and dropped his heel like a hammer.
CRACK!
The ground split where Muzan had been standing. Muzan rolled clear and came up on his feet.
He spotted the Yamanaka woman thirty feet away, crouched behind a tree with her hands pressed together in a seal. Toshiro was already reaching for his kunai, his movements stiff and mechanical. His hand was shaking, fighting against her control, but it was rising toward his own throat.
A third figure stood at the edge of the clearing. A lean man with his hair tied back, watching the Akimichi work.
Three against two, and one of the two was being puppeted.
Muzan kept moving. The Akimichi charged again, and Muzan let the man get close before dropping flat. The Akimichi crashed into a pine trunk hard enough to shake loose a shower of bark and needles.
Muzan was up before the man turned around. He landed three quick strikes to the spine and kidney, then stepped back.
The Akimichi snarled and grabbed backward. His fingers closed around Muzan's arm. He lifted Muzan off the ground and slammed him into the dirt.
THUD!
Muzan let the impact carry him. He didn't feel it, but he kept his body loose and let out a short grunt on landing.
The Akimichi raised his foot to stomp down on his chest. Muzan rolled left, taking the impact on his shoulder instead. He kicked out and caught the man's other leg with measured force. The Akimichi stumbled sideways.
Muzan got to his feet.
Across the clearing, Toshiro's Sharingan flared bright. The veins on his forehead stood out as he pushed back against the mind control. His hand stopped moving.
"No," Toshiro ground out through his teeth.
He broke the connection with a snarl and his body snapped back under his own control.
The Nara man moved immediately. He stepped out of the shadows and drew two kunai. He came at Toshiro fast, his footwork clean and efficient with no wasted motion.
Toshiro blocked the first strike and deflected the second. The Nara pressed hard, driving Toshiro backward toward a gap in the trees where a column of moonlight cut through the canopy.
The Yamanaka woman's concentration had slipped when Toshiro broke free. Toshiro caught her eyes before she could reset her seal and pulled her into a Sharingan genjutsu.
She froze, eyes wide and empty.
The Nara clicked his tongue and pushed harder, still moving Toshiro toward the light.
Muzan didn't have time to track the rest of it. The Akimichi's hands started glowing as he formed a seal.
His body swelled. Both arms grew to twice their normal size. When he swung, the impact hit Muzan like a falling tree.
Muzan raised both arms and blocked it. His feet carved two long trenches through the dirt.
He gave ground. He deflected rather than absorbed, moving with each strike and countering with fast hits to joints, throat, and eyes. The Akimichi covered his vitals well, but Muzan was faster and landed three strikes for every one he took.
The Akimichi charged low. Muzan waited, then dropped and drove two fingers into the man's knee at the joint.
The leg buckled.
Muzan followed with a palm to the solar plexus and an elbow to the temple. The Akimichi staggered but stayed up, shaking his head slowly.
Behind Muzan, Toshiro's foot landed in a shaft of moonlight.
The Nara's hands flew through seals. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!"
His shadow stretched across the ground and locked onto Toshiro's. Toshiro went rigid. The Nara raised his kunai, and Toshiro's arm lifted against his will.
The Yamanaka woman snapped out of the genjutsu. She drew a kunai and lunged at Toshiro's exposed back.
"Toshiro!" Muzan called out.
He broke away from the Akimichi and threw his kunai in one clean motion.
It crossed the clearing and buried itself in the Nara man's throat.
The Nara's eyes went wide. He dropped to his knees, both hands going to the blade. The shadow connection broke.
Toshiro spun and caught the Yamanaka woman's wrist an inch from his back.
The Akimichi's fist crashed into Muzan's side from behind.
Muzan took the hit and let it carry him into the ground. He rolled and came up slowly, one hand pressed to his ribs.
The Akimichi stood over the Nara's body and stared at Muzan. His voice came out flat. "You killed Shikyo."
He formed a seal with both hands. His body began to expand rapidly, limbs thickening and torso swelling until he stood fifteen feet tall and growing rounder by the second.
"Multi-Size Technique!"
He curled forward and rolled. Trees snapped under his weight.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The ground shook with each rotation. Muzan moved clear of the path and kept moving.
Toshiro was already ready. He let the rolling mass pass him, then jumped onto the Akimichi's back and slapped a line of explosive tags across the expanded flesh.
"Get clear!" he shouted.
Muzan put distance between himself and the tags.
The Akimichi felt them. "No, wait, stop, I'll give up, I surren-"
Toshiro landed and formed a single seal.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The blasts lit up the forest. The Akimichi came apart in the fire and force of it. When the smoke cleared, there was a crater where he had been.
The Yamanaka woman stared at what was left. Then she bolted.
Toshiro threw a kunai that caught her in the leg. She stumbled and kept going.
Muzan cut around through the trees and stepped into her path. She tried to change direction, but he was already there. He grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back, and put her on the ground.
Toshiro arrived and pressed a kunai to her throat. "Move and you die," he said.
She went still, breathing hard through her nose. "Just kill me. I won't talk."
"You don't have to," Toshiro said.
His Sharingan spun. The tomoe pattern pulled her eyes in and she went under immediately.
"How many teams did the Senju send tonight?" he asked.
"Three," she answered in a flat voice. "Ours covered the northern patrol route. The others went south and east."
"What were your orders?"
"Scout the Uchiha positions. Identify weak points. Cause chaos if possible."
"Who's commanding your flank?"
"Senju Satoshi."
Toshiro worked through the rest of it. Troop numbers, camp locations, supply routes. She answered everything he asked, but most of her answers were incomplete. Scouts were intentionally kept ignorant. It was a standard precaution against exactly this kind of situation.
When he finished, he released the genjutsu and knocked her out with a single strike to the base of her skull.
"We need to tie her up and find that whistle," Muzan said. He kept his breathing slightly uneven.
Toshiro looked at him sideways. "I thought you heal fast."
"Fast doesn't mean painless," Muzan said flatly.
Toshiro held the look for a moment, then turned and started searching the undergrowth. It took a few minutes, but he found the whistle half-buried under a pile of leaves. He brought it to his lips and blew two short blasts.
The signal moved through the trees.
Within minutes, Amanai arrived with two other patrol teams behind him.
"What happened?" Amanai asked, looking at the crater, the bodies, and the unconscious woman on the ground.
"Ino-Shika-Cho trio," Toshiro said. "Two dead, one captured and questioned. They sent three teams total tonight."
Amanai looked at both of them, then back at the crater. He was quiet for a moment. "You two took down a full Ino-Shika-Cho team."
"Yes, sir," Toshiro said.
Amanai nodded once. "Good work." He turned to the others. "Tie up the prisoner. Search the area for the other scout teams."
He looked back at Toshiro. "Full report."
Toshiro walked him through it quickly.
Amanai's expression tightened. "The front commander needs to hear this now. Both of you, come with me."
Muzan pushed off from the tree he'd been leaning against and followed them back toward camp.