Xuan and the rest of the group returned to the clan compound. Along the entire journey, Uchiha Madara wore a deeply dark expression, his body radiating a chilling aura that kept anyone from daring to approach him.
Xuan knew that the psychological blow Madara had just suffered was unimaginable. Growing up with such an arrogant personality and absolute heaven-defying talent meant Madara looked down on practically every Uchiha peer except for Xuan and Izuna.
Among them, Izuna was his little brother. While Izuna's strength was decent, a significant gap still existed between them; their bond was deep, but it wasn't the kind of relationship where Madara could truly bare his soul.
As for Xuan, he was essentially the only peer Madara could talk to on equal footing, and their relationship was quite good. However, Xuan was ultimately his cousin. Their dynamic hovered somewhere in the gray area between brotherhood and friendship.
Senju Hashirama was the only person who could truly be called Uchiha Madara's first—and possibly only—genuine friend. Furthermore, as the reincarnations of the Sage of Six Paths' sons, there was an invisible, fated bond pulling them together. Severing that tie today was undoubtedly the equivalent of violently twisting a knife directly into Madara's chest.
One only needed to look at the fact that his Sharingan had instantly evolved an entirely new tomoe to understand exactly what kind of emotional state he was in.
Upon returning to the compound, Madara silently headed straight for his own quarters. Watching his retreating back, Uchiha Tajima frowned. He shot a meaningful glance at Izuna, who immediately understood and hurried after his older brother.
This left only Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Xuan standing in the courtyard. Suddenly, the atmosphere completely froze. Xuan felt a terrifying surge of chakra erupt from Tajima, firmly locking onto him.
Xuan simply raised an eyebrow. His expression remained perfectly calm, acting as if the suffocating pressure didn't affect him in the slightest. He smiled and asked, "Uncle, is there anything else you need?"
Tajima turned and stared at him with freezing, dead eyes. Hidden within his long sleeves, his right hand had already securely gripped the hilt of a kunai. Xuan's performance today had genuinely ignited his killing intent. An Uchiha clan member whose heart did not align with his own—no matter how absolute of a genius they were—would never become a useful asset. In fact, because of that genius, they needed to be violently strangled in the cradle before they could grow into an obstacle.
However, seeing Xuan's unbothered, tranquil expression as he completely ignored the oppressive chakra, Tajima hesitated. In a brief moment of trance, he realized he actually couldn't see through this six-year-old nephew of his.
Thinking it over, Tajima stealthily released his grip on the kunai. Xuan was, undeniably, the recognized genius of the Uchiha clan, and he had been acting alongside Madara this entire time. If Tajima rashly murdered him right now, the numerous clan elders would definitely stir up trouble and openly question his leadership. If they used the incident as an excuse to demand the reinstatement of the Three Great Elders, it would bring him endless headaches.
"It's late," Tajima snorted coldly. "Go back and rest." With that, he turned and headed toward the Patriarch's estate in the center of the compound.
Watching his retreating back, the polite smile vanished from Xuan's face, replaced by a gaze of profound, abyssal coldness. Old bastard, Xuan thought internally. If I weren't so young, if the new generation hadn't matured yet, and if Uchiha Madara didn't lack the corresponding strength to back me, I would have schemed to kill you a long time ago. Hmph. I'll let you act arrogant for a few more years. We'll talk again once I have the power to sway the factions within the Uchiha clan.
Returning to his own courtyard, he dismissed his little maid to cook dinner and began plotting his next moves. First, he needed to acknowledge an absolute truth: he had thoroughly offended Uchiha Tajima to the death this time. The man had already harbored murderous intent toward him on more than one occasion.
This was not a good thing. Previously, Tajima had merely been highly suspicious of him. Now, that suspicion had mutated into active killing intent. Given Tajima's current strength and his iron grip over the Uchiha clan, Xuan's days ahead were not going to be comfortable.
Of course, Tajima actively assassinating him within the compound was impossible. No matter what, Xuan still carried the prestigious title of "Genius of the Uchiha." For him to suddenly drop dead inside the clan's own borders was entirely unjustifiable. The clan elders weren't idiots; they would instantly spot the foul play.
Which means, if Uchiha Tajima wants to kill me, his first step has to be transferring me out of the clan compound.
Xuan analyzed the situation silently. Leaving the compound wasn't necessarily a bad thing. His current raw strength was still insufficient, and operating outside the clan would make it much easier to farm System points. Only by gathering enough strength could he quickly stabilize the situation and seize total control of the Uchiha clan after Tajima's inevitable death.
My current Jutsu arsenal consists of the Rasengan, the Flying Raijin Jutsu, Intangibility, and Kamui. If chained together properly, even Kage-level powerhouses can't do anything to me, and I even have a decent chance of assassinating an Elite Jōnin in a one-on-one duel. But in the grand scheme of the Warring States Era, this level of baseline strength is still a bit too weak.
Xuan pondered his arsenal. His four strongest Jutsu covered both offense and defense perfectly. Intangibility, in particular, was an absolute god-tier defensive skill from the original series. As long as he didn't recklessly launch an attack, it rendered him practically invincible.
Technically speaking, "Intangibility" wasn't its true name. This ocular Jutsu was, plainly speaking, just another application of Kamui—automatically shifting the user's physical body into the Kamui dimension the exact moment an attack made contact. It was an incredibly simple yet flawlessly practical effect. Since the original series never explicitly gave this specific application a formal name, the System simply categorized it as "Intangibility" in the shop.
As for his offensive Kamui, the casting speed was indeed a slight issue. Xuan desperately wanted to put it through intensive training until he could fire it off instantaneously. Unfortunately, he simply didn't have the points. Just thinking about the astronomical 10,000-point cost to restore his ocular prowess made him smile bitterly. It truly was hard to move a single inch without money.
Kamui's core mechanism involved forcefully sucking a target into the pocket dimension. However, by strictly controlling the size of the spatial focal point, Kamui could infinitely condense the mass of space itself, effectively using sheer spatial density to crush and sever the target before sucking the remains inside. Of course, if the caster wished, they could also teleport a person entirely intact into the dimension, exactly how Kakashi utilized it later in the timeline.
After eating dinner, Xuan checked on his little maid's chakra cultivation progress and was quite satisfied with the results.
The earliest stages of the original plot had now officially begun. Madara and Hashirama had completely severed their ties. It was time to seriously consider building his own personal faction. And laying that groundwork would be vastly easier if he was operating outside the clan compound.
The next morning, just as Xuan was preparing to head out and practice his Ninjutsu, a young girl wearing the Uchiha crest ran frantically up to him. "Lord Xuan! Lord Xuan! The clan has convened a general meeting!"
Seeing the girl's face flushed bright red from sprinting, Xuan smiled and asked the little maid to pour her a cup of water. The girl's name was Uchiha Suzu. She was one of the more talented members of the new generation and, naturally, one of the youths closest to Xuan.
"It's perfectly normal for the clan to hold meetings. Why did you run all the way here in such a panic?" Xuan asked warmly.
"But... but! We saw Uchiha Izuna go inside! And he sat in your seat, Lord Xuan!" the little girl exclaimed indignantly, her face twisted in a deep sense of injustice.
Xuan's eyes narrowed slightly into thin slits. So he's making his move this quickly? The very first step is to strip away my political rights in the clan meetings and replace me with Izuna? Hmph.
Looking at the little girl furiously defending his honor, Xuan smiled faintly. These children were the absolute key to his future authority within the Uchiha clan. The fact that they cared enough to run all the way here to warn him about this proved that his prestige had already firmly taken root in their hearts.
A single seat in a clan meeting? It means nothing. Once this new generation fully matured—once the elite among them earned the right to attend those very same clan meetings—Xuan would command absolute obedience with a single word.
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