After tidying up his room, Makiya left his tent and headed toward the Great Elder's residence.
The Land of Hot Springs was full of hot springs. The camp was established next to the largest vent, which was also where the high-ranking members of Konoha's great clans resided.
The Uchiha Great Elder, however, was different. He had specifically chosen a dry spot on the highest terrain for his residence. According to private discussions among the clan members, the Great Elder likely hated dampness and detested the unique scent of sulfur in the air.
When Makiya arrived at the Great Elder's door, two Uchiha sentries greeted him respectfully before turning to announce his arrival.
"Ah, Makiya is here. Come in," a raspy, aged voice called out from within the tent.
Makiya stepped inside. The silver-haired Great Elder, Setsuna Uchiha, sat behind a low table. Upon seeing Makiya, he immediately offered a kind smile and handed him a cup of tea.
Because his face was covered in scars and blade marks, his attempt at a kind smile looked terrifyingly grotesque. It was no wonder the children of the clan were afraid of him; the Great Elder's name was enough to make a crying child stop in an instant.
Makiya sat opposite the Great Elder and took a sip of tea. His brow furrowed instantly, but he managed to suppress the expression with sheer willpower.
It didn't taste good at all. There was no fragrance, only bitterness.
Setsuna Uchiha, however, drank with relish, looking quite satisfied. He had been a member of the Konoha Police Force back when the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was in power. Inheriting the will of Madara Uchiha, he was deeply dissatisfied with Tobirama's policies regarding the Uchiha clan.
Setsuna had always longed to reclaim sovereignty from the Senju clan. He was a quintessential Uchiha hawk who had once incited clan members to rebel. The Second Hokage had discovered his plot and dispatched the Anbu to arrest and imprison him.
It wasn't until the Second Hokage died and the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, took power that Setsuna—who had been tortured in prison—was released, mostly out of respect for Hiruzen's old comrade, Kagami Uchiha.
Returning to the family as a 'hero' who dared to resist the village, Setsuna gained a following among the more radical clan members and eventually rose to the position of Great Elder.
Putting down his teacup, Elder Setsuna began to chat idly about daily life, acting like an old man who simply cared about the younger generation of the clan.
Makiya humored him, rambling on about various topics. Then, Elder Setsuna suddenly shifted the conversation to the topic he cared about most: "Speaking of the village... Makiya, what do you think of the relationship between us Uchiha and the village?"
'Good grief, finally. My rear end was starting to get sore from sitting here...'
Makiya breathed a silent sigh of relief. Talking to the elderly was an exhausting ordeal. He would rather fight a hundred rounds with Yugito than discuss which girl in the clan should get married with Elder Setsuna.
"The village and the clan?" Makiya pretended to think for a moment before answering. "There's a significant issue. Some of the village higher-ups don't treat the Uchiha as their own, and some of our clansmen don't see themselves as part of the Hidden Leaf. There are problems on both sides."
Elder Setsuna sighed deeply. "Actually, you can't blame those clansmen. As the number one clan in the Hidden Leaf, the Uchiha never had a chance to enter the village's center of power, let alone the position of Hokage. The village owes us far too much."
Speaking of the Hokage position, Elder Setsuna grew agitated. He sat up straight and shouted, "It's one thing for the Senju to be above us, but what right does the Sarutobi clan have to usurp the Hokage's seat? During the Warring States period, if not for the Senju, the Sarutobi would have been wiped out by us long ago."
Setsuna drained his tea in one gulp and continued, "Makiya, you're not in the upper echelons, so there's much you don't know. Hiruzen and those other families have used their positions to embezzle vast amounts of resources. Much of the funding meant for training newcomers has ended up in the pockets of the Sarutobi clan. The resources that reach the Uchiha are just their leftovers."
"The stipends the clan gave you when you were a child were funded by the Uchiha merchant convoys. Without that, the meager pension the village provides would barely keep you fed, let alone healthy enough to train properly..."
Setsuna rambled on, his words filled with complaints and grievances against the village, hoping to undermine the village's standing in Makiya's heart.
At the same time, he slipped in some disparaging remarks about Fugaku, hinting that the Clan Leader was a weak-willed coward who only knew how to compromise with the village.
Of course, he knew not to overdo it. Setsuna didn't expect to win Makiya over to his side in a single conversation.
Good things take time. Setsuna believed he would eventually win Makiya over. He wasn't in a rush; the Uchiha's current situation in the village was still tolerable.
The topic of the village ended abruptly, and Setsuna began probing Makiya about his Sharingan, stopping just short of asking if he had awakened the Mangekyo.
The jump from three-tomoe to Mangekyo was a significant power boost. Setsuna didn't believe Makiya could defeat the Five-Tails and Eight-Tails and kill the Two-Tails with ninjutsu alone. He must have awakened his eyes.
Makiya brushed him off vaguely. 'Whether I've awakened them or not, keep guessing.'
His visual prowess had indeed reached the level of the Mangekyo. Unfortunately, aside from Susanoo, the unique abilities granted to the left and right eyes were the most important features. If one was lucky, they could reach the heavens in a single bound. Makiya was currently, at most, a third of the way to a full Mangekyo.
Fortunately, he didn't rely on his eyes to make a living.
The Great Elder picked up his teacup and tapped it lightly against the table. A clansman emerged from behind a curtain carrying a tray with several ninjutsu scrolls.
"These are all ninjutsu related to the Sharingan. Consider them a small token of my appreciation. Take them and study them well."
"Thank you, Great Elder." Makiya never turned down a gift. He skillfully tucked the scrolls into his robes.
After a few more words, Makiya rose to take his leave. As he reached the door, the Great Elder suddenly spoke up. "Oh, by the way, I have some good news for you."
Makiya looked back, confused.
The Great Elder tossed the latest intelligence report to Makiya. "You're good friends with Shisui, aren't you? Just two days ago, Shisui awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan!"
After the Stone Shinobi retreated their front lines, the intensity of the friction between Konoha and the Stone had steadily decreased. Although the main forces had moved to the Cloud front, some shinobi had to stay behind to guard against a sudden sneak attack.
Shisui, who had performed exceptionally well, was chosen to stay in the Land of Grass with others. He led two Uchiha squads responsible for patrolling and anti-infiltration work across a large stretch of the border.
One day, Konoha patrol ninjas suddenly saw a giant green skeletal giant standing tall in a distant forest, swinging a spiral sword to battle an unknown enemy. When they arrived, they only found the corpses of four Uchiha clansmen and Shisui, who was weeping tears of blood.
"Is that so..." There wasn't a hint of joy on Makiya's face as he scanned the report. "Then he must have lost important friends or comrades. He must be devastated right now."
Elder Setsuna shook his head with a smile. "That is the price that must be paid for power. It is our fate as Uchiha. There's no need to be sad. It's just the deaths of a few... mediocre talents who hadn't even awakened three-tomoe. Trading them for a pair of precious Mangekyo Sharingan is a worthy sacrifice."
Makiya glanced back at Setsuna, shook his head, and walked out of the tent. He couldn't agree with the old man's worldview at all. A single word was too many when philosophies clashed.
Setsuna was used to Makiya's reaction. Young people were sentimental and overly sensitive about the deaths of their companions. They didn't realize that in the eyes of a mature adult, only benefits mattered. Between a few pairs of ordinary Sharingan and a pair of Mangekyo, even a fool knew which to choose.
Back at his residence, Makiya rested his chin on his hand and thought in silence.
No one knew exactly when Shisui awakened his Mangekyo. The original story lacked a detailed description. There were rumors it was triggered by Kagami's death, while others said it happened on the Hidden Mist battlefield...
But none of that mattered now. The butterfly had flapped its wings. The once-hidden Shisui had actually used Susanoo directly on the battlefield.
One could imagine how ecstatic the militants in the clan would be.
But who could have forced Shisui to awaken his Mangekyo in battle? According to the intelligence, even after using Susanoo, Shisui had failed to protect his comrades and had suffered massive ocular strain, weeping tears of blood.
It couldn't be that Ohnoki had brought the Four-Tails and Five-Tails to the front lines himself.
If it really were those three, Makiya believed Shisui could have at least taken one of them down.
The Mangekyo Sharingan naturally countered Tailed Beasts. Unless something went wrong, Shisui's Mangekyo was likely a rare genjutsu-based eye, just like in the original story. He shouldn't have been beaten that badly.
The support patrol found no enemy corpses at the scene. Shisui was also preoccupied and silent, making them think for a moment that an internal Uchiha conflict had occurred.
"No, I need to check things out." Makiya felt something was fishy. After weighing his options, he decided to go in person.
Leaving a Shadow Clone in the camp to wait for Minato's return, Makiya's real body slipped out of the camp without alerting anyone.
Shisui's enemy remained unknown. Caution was paramount; he didn't want his movements exposed.
Of course, there were only so many masterminds in the ninja world. If it wasn't the Stone, it could only be Madara Uchiha.
It couldn't possibly be Danzo, right?
He would draw his conclusions after seeing Shisui.
The next day, in the woods near the Land of Grass defense line.
"Yoshikawa, are you done yet?" a companion's voice called from outside the woods.
"I just got here, stop nagging!" An irritable Chunin named Yoshikawa shouted back. Hunching over, he walked to a large tree and unzipped his fly, preparing to relieve himself.
He didn't like the look of a stone under the tree and planned to give it a warm "bath."
Just as he spread his legs and took his stance, he felt an inexplicable killing intent permeating the air. A chill enveloped his body, concentrating right on his groin.
Yoshikawa couldn't help but shiver. The urge to urinate vanished. When he tried to push a little harder, that causeless killing intent washed over him again.
"What the hell!" Yoshikawa muttered under his breath, looking around. Seeing no one, he shrank his neck. "Is this place haunted?"
Not even bothering to zip up, Yoshikawa scrambled out of the woods to regroup with his teammates.
After Yoshikawa left, white smoke billowed from the stone under the tree, revealing Makiya's figure.
He looked around, confirmed the locations of the hidden sentries, and approached the Konoha defense line until he finally brought the entire base within his perception range.
He didn't find any sign of Shisui.
"Is he at another base?" Makiya searched twice. After confirming Shisui wasn't there, he immediately set off for the next Konoha outpost.
Not long after Makiya left, a team of Konoha ninjas arrived at the spot where he had been hiding.
"Quick, it's right here! There's definitely an intruder!" Yoshikawa led his teammates on a search, but they found nothing.
His companions complained one after another, mocking him for making such a fuss over a bathroom break.
After searching three outposts, Makiya finally sensed Shisui's soul fluctuation at the fourth one.
Perched in a tree, he mimicked a bird's cry—three longs and one short, repeated twice. The sound drifted into the base.
This was a secret signal Makiya and Shisui had agreed upon back on the Hidden Mist battlefield. He didn't know if Shisui still remembered it.
A moment later, Shisui walked out of the base alone. After greeting the patrol team, he disappeared into the dense forest.
The two used bird calls to locate each other and met by a small stream.
"Makiya, it's really you!" A weary Shisui greeted Makiya with a happy smile.
"Shisui, I heard you awakened the Mangekyo?" Makiya got straight to the point. "What happened? Did the Tsuchikage lead an ambush against you?"
"No." Shisui shook his head with a bitter smile. "It was the mysterious person you mentioned before... the one who uses Wood Style."
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