24 A snake sheds its skin

With the last thing he saw being Sakumo's reassuring back figure, Jin finally managed to relax and fell into a deep a deep slumber.

Sakumo looked at the enemy in front of him with relaxed, cold eyes. Earlier, his shadow clone had purposely 'lost' to Renko in order to gouge her strength and make a decision to either let them fight her or taking her down.

This would be an easy fight.

He lunged towards the opposing Jonin and as usual, took out his loyal blade. A flash of white light could be observed as he cleanly cut off Reo's head before the former could even react to the situation.

Toga had been watching from afar as the situation constantly kept worsening for him. He panicked and started shouting towards the two weak Chuunin who had barely survived he earlier flames. "JIROU! GIICHI! YOU TWO GOOD-FOR-NOTHINGS! DISTRACT HIM WHILE I ESCAPE!"

If this was a typical situation, the would have never agreed t such demands. The problem lied in the fact that Toga also had blackmailed them before coming, they simply couldn't take the risk of disobeying his orders at the moment.

They nodded at each other and ran towards Sakumo, one drawing his blade while the other readied his fists. They had to go all out.

Sakumo's remained serious and expressionless as he also beheaded them in a flash, In this environment, he was unstoppable. Were a bunch of Chuunin and a Jonin going to stop his onslaught? No.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and Toga dropped to his knees as he realized he that was doomed. How could the great Toga's existence end here? He was resigned, as he slowly took out a pill from his back pocket. As his hand held the little black ball, it could not stop shaking.

"If I am meant to die here... I will take you with me!" Immediately after he swallowed the pill, the energy around him started to gather into his chakra system; bloating it.

"Not good..." Sakumo didn't recognize this pill, but from the looks of it, it most probably wasn't good news. He immediately flickered to where his students lied unconscious, and he summoned a bunch of dogs.

If Jin was awake he would have noticed that they looked similar to Kakashi's albeit being completely different dogs. It seemed Kakashi wasn't the first Hatake to have a contract with Ninken.

The dogs did not need to have the situation explained, as they smelled the massive chakra accumulation not too far away. The big Bulldog stood still while the rest of the smaller dogs placed the kids and the dead girl on it's back.

"No time to delay. Let's go!" Sakumo did not speak much and he left along with the dogs at to speed, only stopping once he felt they were at a safe enough distance.

Back in the clearing, Toga was madly cursing as his body started to grow disproportionately and lost what made it human.

"Damn that scientist! Why does this pill take so long to explode!" His death was in vain as he exploded, creating a massive sphere of turbulent energy that covered all of the forests in the nearby three-hundred to four-hundred meters. Sakumo had barely managed to avoid the explosion along with the rest.

The Shockwave pushed him back as e raised his arms and crossed them in front of his face to maintain some form of visibility despite the wild wind pressure.

"Damn it... I was planning on retrieving their bodies and handing them over to the intelligence division... I guess it just wasn't going to happen." Sakumo was now thinking of the earlier pill. He had never seen such a thing, the fact that it had a delay was what saved them. If it didn't, he did not know what the final outcome would've been.

"Sigh..." He slowly performed hand-seals and bit his finger, releasing blood before summoning a little messenger-bird. It flapped its wings as it landed on his shoulder.

Sakum took out a small message scroll and wrote down the result of the mission, It had been a success, not only that, but he had managed to secure the body of a powerful unknown Kekkei-Genkai user. The main target had been achieved, and they had received additional spoils of war.

"Take this to Konoha. Go!"

The bird screeched loudly and departed, while Sakumo stated to look for a new place to stay the night. He had to tend to Fugaku's and Jin's injuries as soon as possible, or their situation could worsen.

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Jin woke up from his slumber somewhat muddled. He had no idea how much he had slept, as his eyes started to ache from the sun.

"Argh! Mom... Not yet! I can sleep some more..." He could not help but utter those words out of habit before immediately realizing his mistake. He took a look around him and saw that Fugaku and Hideki were still asleep.

"Thank goodness..." His relief was short-lived though, as Sakumo giggled a little while training in the way of the sword like usual. Jin immediately got flashbacks from the other day's events as he panicked.

"Sakumo-Sensei! Is the target still alive? I would like to dig into their head with my eyes." Jin was honest with his intentions as Sakumo cold-heartedly sot them down almost instantly.

"He killed himself with the help of a bomb. I am afraid that is going to be impossible." Sakumo h did not know why Jin wanted to do such a thing, but he decided to just ignore it.

"Argh... Oh well, I guess she died with a smile on her face at least." Jin felt incredible guilt. He made a promise that he could not keep anymore, and the consequences were not light on the psyche as he felt like he had failed.

"Now I have no way of knowing where the hell her parent is located... How is she going to rest in peace?" Jin was going through a strong realization at this moment. Humans were weak, even ninjas were. He did not want to change places with Renko and be the one going through all of this. He would not be able to take such a thing.

He stopped moving as he stared blankly towards the sky. Sakumo, who was next to him pat his shoulder and smiled.

"As a ninja, there are things you can and can't do. We are not all mighty so we can't dictate our fate or the fate of others. If we want to do something along the lines of that, the only way is through hard work and perseverance." His face became serious as he continued: "This world is plagued with war, people die every day and people lose one another. When hate or greed accumulates in people's hearts for a long period of time due to loss or lack of resources, it reaches a stage in which it is inevitable for the person to remain themselves. I have seen many people over the years go through such things, and apart from working hard I believe that I am blessed for not having suffered such things yet."

Sakumo had experienced his fair share of trauma in the first Shinobi world war, some of his friends and companions died, and others lost their minds to grief or hate. He was there to watch it all and understood how much a person could change due to these things. Jin was an Uchiha, and they were genetically prone to such emotion, thus Sakumo made it his responsibility to make sure that his students did not fall to this stereotype.

Jin listened to his sense's advice and took it in stride. He knew how prone he now was to emotion, even though he had been reincarnated, the blood in his body and the brain he currently possessed messed with his past life's self. Turning him into somebody completely different. He had never thought that he would cry if he lost something, but he nearly did just seeing his cousin also cry.

He remained silent as he continued to stare at the clouds, this time with even more resolve than last time. He would not sit there and do nothing as his clan risked extinction, he would take them to the top of the Shinobi world. Who said the Hyuuga were better? Who said the Senju were stronger? He would prove them all wrong.

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Back at Hiruzen's office, he had finally finished a mission that he had been on with his students. It was no less than a B-rank mission, and he was proud of them for pulling through.

"Good morning Shimpei, we are back to report that we have successfully completed the mission."

"Hokage-sama! Welcome!"

Shimpei was glad to see him back, all of this paperwork was starting to get on his and his clone's nerves already.

"Hahahaha! Tell me the last time you saw genin complete a B-Rank after a couple of months!" Jiraiya loved to boast.

When he heard that, Shimpei smiled awkwardly. It indeed was an achievement, but recently...

"I have received a message from Sakumo telling me that Jin and his cousins have managed to complete an A-rank mission and got a body with a special bloodline on the way. The village will reward them highly for this occasion since it's the first time that a genin has completed an A-rank since the founding of the village..."

Jiraiya's smile froze, before turning into an expression of rage.

"How does my subordinate dare to eclipse me in achievements! Old man, let's do an A-rank!" He was livid.

Hiruzen did not listen as he looked seriously toward Shimpei. "Was the bloodline specified? Or is it new?"

"Unknown bloodline, at least to Sakumo. The body of such a ninja will indeed be a treasure trove. If we can find the secret to it, it will undoubtedly bolster our military strength."

Hiruzen went into deep thought as Tsunade's eyes shined brightly.

"Jin is so cool..."

When Jiraiya heard her say that involuntarily, his mood improved as he burst out laughing. Tsunade then became a demon and punched him in the face, knocking one of his back-teeth out easily.

"WHY?!"

"SHUT UP YOU RETARD PERV!"

Hiruzen could only watch as his students went crazy. He was worried for Orochimaru though because when they arrived, they received the news that his parents had died. They had to go and check if he was alright.