"Shiyu Uchiha, you're back. Come have dinner," Uchiha Shizhi happily said after sensing his return.
Before Shiyu Uchiha could reply, Uchiha Shizhi felt the residual technique she had placed on him activate. She immediately approached for a closer look before finally relaxing and asking, "You triggered my safeguard. Did you encounter danger?"
"Yes. Thank you, Mother. Without your protection, I might not have returned." Shiyu Uchiha then detailed his mission experience.
After hearing Shiyu Uchiha's account, Uchiha Shizhi finally relaxed but wanted to leave another safeguard on him.
However, Shiyu Uchiha refused. He understood how precious the Mangekyō Sharingan abilities were, and using such techniques was physically draining for her. He didn't want her paying such a heavy price for his safety.
Moreover, he believed this close call resulted entirely from his own complacency following over a year of smooth sailing. Normally cautious by nature, he wouldn't have acted so recklessly and endangered himself.
Already feeling guilty about wasting Uchiha Shizhi's valuable dōkuriki, he refused to let her use this technique again.
Mother and son continued their standoff for a while, but eventually Shiyu Uchiha got his way.
After dinner, at Shiyu Uchiha's insistence, Uchiha Shizhi began special training to strengthen his abilities.
They first exchanged sword techniques. Thanks to a year of training, Shiyu Uchiha's swordsmanship had improved greatly, though their sparring revealed several weaknesses he still needed to fix. With Uchiha Shizhi's guidance, he gradually corrected them.
He also got a rough beating out of it—clearly, Uchiha Shizhi hadn't forgiven his earlier refusal and used the session to remind him who was in charge.
Next, Shiyu Uchiha demonstrated the three Fire Release techniques he currently mastered—the Great Dragon Fire, Dragon Fire, and Great Dragon Flame—which he treated as one cohesive series. Seeing this, Uchiha Shizhi expressed satisfaction with his progress and suggested he study the Sarutobi clan's Fire Release techniques for new insights.
Her exact words were: "You should cross-reference the [Great Flame Technique] with the Uchiha Clan three basic [Fire Release] techniques. Combining different styles will greatly benefit your development of unique Fire Release techniques, while simultaneously deepening your current mastery."
To Shiyu Uchiha, learning techniques was like passing exams—you pass once you've mastered them; developing techniques, however, was more like writing a thesis—demanding and full of unknowns.
Finally, Uchiha Shizhi expressed genuine satisfaction with Shiyu Uchiha's overall abilities. Aside from lacking slightly in Sharingan proficiency, he matched her capabilities at her age. Given his current strength, combined with the Ninja World gradually shifting toward peace, he should be able to survive missions as long as his luck didn't turn too bad.
With this understanding, Uchiha Shizhi finally felt reassured about Shiyu Uchiha's safety and stopped worrying about leaving another Transcriptive Seal for him.
Since Shiyu Uchiha's team had completed an A-rank mission, according to Konoha's rules, they were entitled to some rest time. Unless war broke out, their leave wouldn't be cut short or interrupted by a battlefield recall.
So during this period, under Uchiha Shizhi's supervision, Shiyu Uchiha resumed his rigorous training. Each day was packed with sword technique drills and honing his Fire Release skills. Of course, he'd occasionally get a brutal beating from Uchiha Shizhi—passed off as just another "test" to build real combat experience.
Shiyu Uchiha knew that Uchiha Shizhi still hoped he would accept the Transcriptive Seal. However, Shiyu absolutely refused to yield, even if beaten badly. Still, he endured it, since injuries were only superficial anyway—Uchiha Shizhi never truly went all-out against him.
With the Whirlpool Country incident concluding, Konoha's F4 faction had already been terrified by war and dared not provoke revenge against the openly implicated Land of Water and the secretly involved Land of Lightning. Moreover, intelligence reports indicated that both the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth had joined the hunt. Under pressure from the Daimyo as well, the entire affair inevitably fizzled out in a tiger-head-rat-tail kind of way, with even the frontline shinobi forces gradually returning home.
At this point, with returning front-line ninja, the Konoha village atmosphere, previously heavy with sorrow, now carried cheerful laughter that masked much sadness—and also resulted in many new births.
Inside the Hokage Tower, Hiruzen Sarutobi sensed this atmosphere and thought to himself: "The damage caused by war is simply too great. I shouldn't allow it to continue further. It's time peace arrived."
Shortly afterward, Hiruzen secretly made his decision—war would end, and there would be no further pursuit of allies' destruction. This unexpected move surprised the other four Kage, especially the Mizukage—or rather, the shadow manipulating the Mizukage, Madara Uchiha—who once again felt the unpredictability of fate.
Madara Uchiha had already prepared for a defensive battle to protect his village, as he saw this as the perfect chance to severely weaken Kirigakure. He wanted to seize this opportunity to cultivate a qualified heir. Who could've predicted, however, that Hiruzen would drop the ball on a sure win like this?
This enraged Madara Uchiha to no end. He hadn't expected that a guy like Hiruzen—a supposed monkey among tigers—could actually outsmart him. Thinking about the man's teacher, hatred for the wicked Tobirama Senju grew even stronger within him.
However, initiating an offensive war was currently unsuitable for Kirigakure—even if The Third Mizukage tried forcing it through with authority alone. Therefore, using the excuse of nurturing the next generation, Madara Uchiha began forging his pawns. Yet compared to his Warring States Era methods, his training approach was naturally far more brutal.
Still, the results weren't bad—Kirigakure churned out a batch of elite ninja in just a few years. Yet none perfectly met Madara Uchiha's requirements, which greatly frustrated him, as his intentions were never about serving Kirigakure itself.
Later, Hiruzen Sarutobi called an important meeting—this time with the inner circle. His proposal received consistent support from Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado. Only Danzo Shimura voiced a differing opinion, but ultimately had no choice but to concede when outnumbered by the other three.
Hiruzen could feel Danzo's anger and planned to make it up to his old friend later. He believed Danzo was the only capable one among Koharu, Homura, and himself, as he had achieved victories on the battlefield, though the methods used were questionable. Yet, as always, Hiruzen—who lacked clear concepts of good and evil—didn't care much about that.
Hiruzen never saw the people Danzo sacrificed as mere bait; instead, he regarded them as acceptable sacrifices. Unbeknownst to him, this exact mindset gradually cost him the support of everyone else.
On the other hand, Danzo felt frustrated afterward, believing his opinion hadn't been taken seriously at all. Eventually, he thought about the only real difference between himself and Hiruzen—the fact that he wasn't the Hokage. But soon after, Danzo discarded this idea. Still, the seed had already been planted, destined to take root and sprout in the future.
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