"Jonin Yoichi, you're back."
"Mm, thank you for guarding the gate, Mr. Naoki."
"It's no trouble, Jonin Yoichi."
Due to frequently leaving and entering the village this past year, Uchiha Yoichi has grown quite familiar with the ninja guarding the Konoha Gate. After greeting him, Yoichi led Uzumaki Minami into the village.
It's now the forty-sixth year of Konoha, and it's been a year since Uchiha Yoichi copied the Sealing Book from the Hokage Building.
This year, aside from brief periods of training, Uchiha Yoichi has mostly been undertaking high-difficulty missions, earning quite a reputation in the Ninja World.
He and Uzumaki Minami's two-person team are well-known throughout the Ninja World.
Konoha Lightning Fang!
His figure moves like a bolt of lightning, and the blade in his hand is faster than Thunderlight!
This is the nickname Uchiha Yoichi has earned in the Ninja World, and it wasn't a name he gave himself; it was other Ninja Villages who started calling him that.
One Konoha White Fang, and another is Konoha Lightning Fang; having a title similar to Hatake Sakumo's shows the impression Uchiha Yoichi leaves with other Ninja Villages is very similar to Hatake Sakumo's.
Both are mission-oriented ninjas; even when Yoichi's Chunin squad was wiped out, he didn't count it as a mission failure. To this day, his task success rate remains one hundred percent.
Lightning Fang originally was one of the Seven Great Swords of the Hidden Mist Village, but over the past year, others in the Ninja World have gradually gotten used to calling Uchiha Yoichi Lightning Fang.
After all, the Mist's Lightning Fang rarely appears in the Ninja World, whereas Uchiha Yoichi frequently emerges in various major and minor countries for missions; A-Class tasks already involve matters between countries, and the lowest rank mission he accepts is A-Class.
In one year, he completed eighty-four A-Class missions and forty-one S-Class missions; in Konoha, this completion efficiency is among the top.
Only if Konoha White Fang worked tirelessly year-round could he surpass Uchiha Yoichi in task quantity.
The fame he earned is primarily due to accepting an unprecedented Super S-Class mission for Konoha.
Gather intelligence on the Hidden Cloud Village's Perfect Jinchuriki!
After this task was issued, almost no one dared to accept it. Even Orochimaru, who once rampaged in the Hidden Cloud Village and released the Eight-tailed, didn't want to go back.
That time, to retaliate against the Hidden Cloud Village for targeting Kushina, almost abducting Konoha's Jinchuriki candidate, Konoha deployed all spies in the Hidden Cloud Village to assist Orochimaru in infiltrating, then waited a long time to find a chance to release the Eight-tailed directly.
However, after that, the Hidden Cloud Village purged internal spies, and now Konoha has no spies in the Hidden Cloud Village, making intelligence gathering quite difficult.
Moreover, not long after that incident, the Hidden Cloud Village appeared to have a Jinchuriki capable of controlling the Tailed Beast Power.
There must be some secret within, and Konoha would like to know. If they learned the Hidden Cloud Village's method, they might utilize the Nine-tailed's power.
As the strongest Tailed Beast, controlling the Nine-tailed's power would undoubtedly become Konoha's top combat strength; and the current Konoha high tier has seen firsthand how powerful the last generation's Jinchuriki was when controlling the Nine-tailed.
Unfortunately, Kushina couldn't accomplish this, not only unable to control the Nine-tailed's power but also constantly at risk of being affected by the Nine-tailed.
Thus, upon learning that the Hidden Cloud Village has a method of controlling Tailed Beast Power, Konoha's upper echelon promptly issued this nearly Super S-Class high-difficulty task and dispatched Anbu and Root to acquire this method.
However, in the end, they all undoubtedly failed.
The secret technique of controlling Tailed Beast Power in the Hidden Cloud Village is as valuable as Konoha's Sealing Book; acquiring it is exceedingly difficult, so the mission was left as it is, with few attempting it.
Yet, when Uchiha Yoichi learned of it, he accepted the task effortlessly.
And he actually completed it!
Utilizing his growing perception abilities and the Demon Passport, Uchiha Yoichi not only stole the training method for the Perfect Jinchuriki but also copied and took away all of the Hidden Cloud Village's Ninjutsu Secret Techniques.
He used an Explosive Tag to destroy the originals!
If he hadn't attempted to kill the Third Generation Raikage under the influence of the Demon Passport, Uchiha Yoichi could have walked out of the Hidden Cloud Village swaggeringly.
Even though he didn't slay the Third Generation Raikage, the deeds Yoichi accomplished were enough to make him famous in the Ninja World; after this incident, the Hidden Cloud Village immediately issued a kill order against Uchiha Yoichi.
Moreover, they strictly demanded Konoha hand him over, otherwise taking full responsibility for inciting war.
Naturally, Konoha refused; it remains the victor of the Second Ninja World War, with Konoha White Fang still active, Uchiha still the largest clan in the village, and Uchiha Yoichi still a hero completing missions.
Handing him over would jeopardize the village's morale.
Even Danzo, who most resented Uchiha Yoichi, didn't suggest it; if he dared to propose handing Yoichi over to avoid war, the next day Shermura's house would see an influx of people ready to detain and interrogate anyone associated with the 'Shimura' name to find how many Hidden Cloud Village spies were there.
Even a cockroach named Shimura there would be labeled 'from the Hidden Cloud Village.'
Instead of decreasing his reputation, the Hidden Cloud Village's kill order actually enhanced Uchiha Yoichi's status within the village.
Their enemy is our hero; since the Hidden Cloud considers him an adversary, he is Konoha Village's hero.