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However, from another perspective, Kagaya also came to understand why Tobirama had so despised the Uchiha, and why, even after reconciling, he had always remained on guard against them.
Indeed, the Uchiha needed hatred to obtain greater power. This destined the Uchiha to be a clan incapable of peace.
Perhaps on an individual level, there might be some exceptions. But when placed on the scale of an entire clan, one could clearly understand just how terrifying the notion of "needing hatred to gain power" truly was. Even if some members wouldn't let power corrupt their minds, there would always be others willing to throw everything away for power.
Across the long river of history, had there truly never been an Uchiha who killed their own parents, siblings, or children with their own hands to obtain power? Had there truly never been someone driven by hatred into becoming a killing machine?
If the answer was "no," then...
"Heh."
Kagaya himself didn't even believe that answer. Once time stretched long enough and numbers grew large enough, there would always be some scum.
And for that kind of scum, the Uchiha was the finest cradle for growth. There was no place better suited for them than the Uchiha.
So, what Tobirama guarded against wasn't the Uchiha itself, but the "scum" that might emerge from within the Uchiha.
Of course, this was getting off-topic.
Kagaya shook his head and prepared to follow Yuki as they explored the Uchiha of this era. No matter what the Uchiha was like, he was still a member of the Uchiha. He could never hate this clan.
"Are we really going over there? Will it be okay?"
For a rare moment, fear appeared in Yuki's eyes. No matter what it was, Yuki rarely felt afraid. But this clan—whenever it involved this clan, she couldn't help but show fear.
"We've already come this far. Do you really want to back down now? You shouldn't be asking me whether we should go. You should be asking yourself. I can only unilaterally fulfill the requests you make."
Kagaya spoke calmly. He didn't want to comment too much on the matter between Yuki and her father, nor did he want to give her any advice.
He hadn't even fully understood the situation, hadn't experienced anything similar, hadn't even witnessed it. How could he offer advice?
Was he supposed to just open his mouth and act like some keyboard warrior? No, he'd rather not.
In the very next second, Kagaya heard a faint sound—the sound of someone swallowing.
The resolve returned to Yuki's eyes.
"Go! I have to go!"
She raised her hand and clenched her fist in front of herself, as if psyching herself up.
"I've already made it here. I've already chosen to believe in Kagaya-san's strength. I have no way back, and I don't want a way back. Forward! Uchiha Yuki... there are some things I must ask him!"
With that, Yuki looked up at Kagaya.
"Kagaya-san, let's set off!"
Kagaya nodded without a word and followed Yuki toward the Uchiha clan grounds.
Chakra condensed within Kagaya's body, and his sensory range rapidly expanded.
At first, Kagaya sensed nothing. But as they drew closer and closer to the Uchiha clan grounds, things began to emerge.
One... two... seven... eleven. Good grief, that many!
It was the presence of the Mangekyo. In Kagaya's perception, as they approached, there were eleven Mangekyo wielders watching them from the shadows!
And this was only the gate!
Very soon, a tall wooden gate blocked their path.
In this era, the Uchiha clan grounds were surrounded by tall wooden walls, situated within a forest. However, the trees directly ahead had been completely cleared away. Only the rear and the left and right sides still had somewhat dense woods.
Although the walls were made of wood, they didn't give off a "primitive" feeling at all. Every bit of craftsmanship was extremely neat and orderly. There was no need to guess—this was surely thanks to the Uchiha clan's Sharingan and its meticulous observational abilities, which allowed them to craft precise "tools."
In the shadows.
"Who are those two? That little girl... she looks familiar."
"She seems to be from Kenichi's family. The one who fled the clan a long time ago. She no longer has the Uchiha's eyes—she's already useless. So the clan couldn't be bothered to send anyone after her, and just let her go. To think she'd actually dare come back. Does she have someone backing her? Is it that young man beside her? But in my perception, that young man is just an ordinary person."
Two Mangekyo wielders were discussing in low voices. During this bloody period in Uchiha history, although the Mangekyo wielders slaughtered one another, alliances would still form among some of them to fight together.
These two were one such alliance.
The man on the left had a very prominent scar over his right eye. His right eye was also shut tight, with only his left eye open. Clearly, his right eye had been blinded by a blade at some point. This man, blind in his right eye, was named Uchiha Masaru.
The other person beside Uchiha Masaru was named Uchiha Takehara, a young man who looked to be around eighteen or nineteen.
In comparison, Uchiha Masaru was a middle-aged man, looking close to forty.
There was a story behind how these two, with such a large age gap, had formed an alliance. But that story wouldn't be told here.
"Old man, I also feel like these two are just ordinary people with no abilities. Which is why I don't understand why you dragged me out here to watch them."
Uchiha Takehara spoke with a face full of confusion. He had no interest in watching two ordinary people live or die. Since awakening his Mangekyo, he faced the possibility of death at any moment. As one of the few in the clan to awaken the Mangekyo before twenty, Takehara much preferred to spend his time training.
Uchiha Masaru spoke helplessly.
"I don't want to watch these two either. But... this is an opportunity."
"An opportunity?"
"That's right! An opportunity! A chance to get the other Mangekyo wielders to start fighting! There's no need to know who these two are, nor what they came here for. All we need to know is that someone can use these two to manufacture an excuse to start the slaughter."
"An excuse? The clan is already killing each other so brazenly. What need is there for an excuse? If you want to kill, just do it."
"What you say isn't wrong. But there are always some people who like to do things this way. They like to find an excuse to stand on the side of so-called 'justice.' You can't stop them from doing so, can you?"
"Then why do we need to come watch them put on their show?"
"There's no need? No, no. Of course there's a need. Our position just now wasn't far from the gate. We may very well have already been marked as targets by them. The first ones to flee... might be sniped by everyone."
Masaru's aged, weathered face revealed deep helplessness. He didn't want to get involved either. But he also knew—whether fleeing or fighting—the first one to stick their neck out was always the easiest to get shot. He didn't want to be that first one.
Takehara frowned beside him but didn't complain. During this period within the Uchiha clan, once you awakened the Mangekyo, you had to accept the possibility of mortal danger at any moment. If you couldn't accept that... then you could either commit suicide with your Mangekyo, or, with a bit of luck, escape the Uchiha.
Meanwhile, at the gate of the Uchiha clan grounds.
Kagaya still had no idea they had been regarded as outsiders meant to manufacture an excuse. What Kagaya was currently considering was—should he just blast open the gate before him?
Why had no one come out after all this time?
Couldn't they see the people standing at the gate?
Yuki was also somewhat helpless. She had called out twice, but no one paid her any attention.
Yuki could only look at Kagaya. But before she could even speak, Kagaya beat her to it.
"Want me to blast it open?"
Yuki was startled by the sudden suggestion.
"B-blast it open? Isn't that... a bit bad?"
Although she held very poor feelings toward her father, toward this clan itself, Yuki didn't harbor much ill will.
Kagaya shrugged.
"You decide. We can just keep waiting like this if you want. But not for too long—I still need to teach you the Impure World Reincarnation. In any case, from my perspective, as long as it doesn't delay me teaching you the Impure World Reincarnation, everything else is fine. I don't mind either way."
"This..."
Yuki fell into hesitation.
However, that hesitation didn't last long. Not because Yuki quickly made a decision, but because someone interrupted her decision-making.
A faint glint of cold light, carrying dense killing intent, shot toward Yuki's neck.
Kagaya was quick—he grabbed Yuki's wrist and pulled her back a step, dodging the kunai.
He sighed. Kagaya was just about to demand why the attacker had struck. But very quickly, Kagaya was completely dumbfounded. Someone beat him to the punch.
"Who sent you?! Has the infighting within the clan now dragged in outsiders?! To all of you hiding in the shadows—these two must have been sent by one of you, am I right?! We fight and kill, but this is ultimately an internal clan matter! How can outsiders be dragged into this?!"
The resounding, forceful questioning echoed through the surrounding air.
At first, Kagaya hadn't expected that the person who had attacked them would actually dare to proactively demand who they were.
But after listening to that person's words, Kagaya more or less understood. Although he didn't know exactly what was happening, that person probably wasn't here to pick a fight with Kagaya and Yuki. He was purely using them to pick a fight with someone else.
In plain terms—before the fighting started, throw a baseless accusation at the other side's head. Then everything else would be easy to justify.
At this moment, Kagaya suddenly found himself disliking his own chakra control.
As Kagaya had trained, his strength had reached a bottleneck. It had become very difficult to make any significant progress. So, Kagaya had no choice but to focus on refining his abilities in other areas. Among those was chakra control. Thus, over time, Kagaya's chakra had been brought under increasingly fine control.
This had considerably improved Kagaya's strength. But there was one downside Kagaya really didn't like: as his chakra control improved, it became very hard for outsiders to sense his chakra. In fact, as the gap in strength widened, he appeared to others just like an ordinary person.
In reality, it wasn't that Kagaya was weak. It was that the other party couldn't even perceive Kagaya's chakra at all.
Kagaya was very dissatisfied with this. He didn't want to play some "pretend to be weak" game. The less trouble, the better. If he could intimidate his enemies into retreating with a single display of power, why bother fighting?
Unfortunately, in Kagaya's current state, even if he didn't deliberately conceal himself, many people still couldn't sense his chakra—unless Kagaya intentionally emitted his chakra for others to feel.
But doing that felt far too contrived, like walking around holding a sign that said, "I AM VERY STRONG."
Kagaya pressed a hand to his forehead. Forget it. Thinking about that now was pointless. First, he had to deal with this surrounding group.
An immense amount of chakra instantly erupted from Kagaya's body. The entire surrounding area suddenly felt as if gravity had doubled, making it hard for anyone to even breathe. Centered on Kagaya, the very ground began to crack and fissure without pause.
"Everyone... I know you're all getting ready to start your battle. But could you please not drag us into it? In other words... could you all just get lost?"
Kagaya spoke coldly.
To be honest, if there had been fewer Mangekyo wielders present, Kagaya wouldn't even have bothered speaking to them—he would have just directly beaten them to death.
But eleven Mangekyo wielders would still be somewhat troublesome to fight. It was faster to just scare them off.
"Th-this... this..."
Masaru's teeth chattered uncontrollably. To Kagaya, this was just "a bit of intimidation." But to Masaru... this wasn't intimidation—this was practically a horror movie.
This terrifying chakra... was this something a human could possess? No, wait—was this even human??
"We're retreating!"
The veteran shinobi instantly made his decision.
Takehara didn't dare object. Following Masaru, he immediately fled the area.
Earlier, Masaru hadn't wanted to be the first to stick his neck out, so he hadn't wanted to be the first to flee. But now, before that immense chakra, Masaru was certain—if they were too slow to run, the first to die would be them!
At a time like this, who cared about sticking one's neck out? Just run!
In fact, some people ran even faster than Uchiha Masaru and Takehara.
In just a few seconds, without any agreement whatsoever, the surrounding Mangekyo wielders all simultaneously withdrew.
It wasn't that they were cowards. It was that they, having constantly fought and killed, understood even more clearly just how insurmountable that chakra was.
The more one knew, the more one feared.
Kagaya withdrew his chakra. He wasn't surprised by their flight. If anyone had dared to stay behind, they would have been a fool.
He looked at Yuki and spoke.
"Alright. Continue making your decision. Do you want to blast open this gate or not?"
Yuki didn't answer. She stared at Kagaya with wide eyes. Yes—she had also been terrified by the chakra Kagaya had just released.
For a moment, she even had the feeling—she hadn't brought back a polite young man, but a colossal, sky-obscuring monster.
"Kagaya-san?"
Yuki even began to doubt whether the person before her was still the Kagaya-san she knew.
Inside the Uchiha clan grounds.
A pair of crimson eyes snapped open, revealing confusion, bewilderment, and a faint, almost imperceptible trace of joy.
"Is this... an illusion? Or is it really her? How dare she come back?"
Before the words even finished, that crimson figure shot toward the gate of the Uchiha clan grounds at incredible speed.