The feeling was stronger than before—more intense, more ferocious. More chakra welled up out of thin air inside Uchiha Yorin.
Oh oh oh!! Power—power is flooding in!
He had the sudden urge to crack into a deranged grin and strike a full-on JoJo-style manic pose. But he held it back.
Hold it back. Gotta damn well hold it back.
If he let his smile break here, his lifelong friendship with Shisui would probably be over.
Yorin forced himself to look gentle and unbothered, then said to Shisui:
"It was only a spar—and a limited one at that. If we'd used genjutsu and ninjutsu, your chances of winning would've been much higher. Not to mention… those eyes of yours."
"Even so… a loss is a loss. You're really magnanimous, Yorin-nii. Is this the composure of the victor?"
Shisui had minded it a little at first, but after hearing Yorin, the last of his concern vanished.
At the same time, he made a quiet decision.
There was a problem the two of them needed to solve—unspoken, but real:
In this mission to save the Uchiha and protect Konoha… who leads and who follows?
You can't decide that by debate. So they chose the ninja way.
Like Hashirama and Madara back then.
In the end, Yorin won. Shisui felt a twinge of disappointment, then realized—this was for the best.
Yes, he might be a bit stronger, but his temperament suits a battlefield captain, not a supreme commander.
Someone calm and unflappable like Yorin-nii fits the commander's mantle better.
They hadn't spent that much time together, but Shisui trusted his read:
Uchiha Yorin was born to do big things.
Being the right hand to a man like that isn't shameful—on the contrary, it's an honor.
With that thought, Shisui's heart settled, and he smiled.
Then he remembered that, in raw ability, he was actually stronger than Yorin-nii, and he laughed even louder.
"Hahahahaha—"
Yorin: "Uh, hey—"
He'd worked so hard to hold back the signature Uchiha cackle, and now he kept a straight face while Shisui couldn't. How odd.
But if the guy who lost didn't mind… maybe he didn't have to keep it together either?
With that, Uchiha Yorin joined in: "Hahaha." And laughed along, happily.
Hearing Yorin laugh, Shisui was even happier—and laughed louder.
He got louder; Yorin matched him. The laughter fed on itself. Yorin finally leaned back into a dynamically taut pose, showing off the well-honed physique his taijutsu training had carved out.
Seeing this, Uchiha elders were moved; a few with softer hearts even teared up. One after another they said that seeing Yorin laughing like that was like seeing Madara back in the day.
On the strength of that laugh alone, everyone felt Yorin had the bearing of a future Mangekyō.
…
With the match over, much of the clan's resentment toward Yorin dissipated.
Call the Uchiha a clan of love, a tragic clan, a tsundere clan, a beautiful-strong-tragic clan—sure, those fit.
But at the same time, the Uchiha are a clan that reveres power.
The Uchiha follow only the strong.
Honestly, that's true of most clans in the ninja world.
Leaders like Yahiko—who held a group together on charisma without overwhelming power—are rare. That's why Akatsuki felt like a breath of fresh air in troubled times.
Shame Shimura Danzō ruined it all.
…
The aftershocks of the spar kept spreading.
The clan's opinion of Yorin climbed; some even said he'd surpassed Shisui to become the strongest of the new generation.
Shisui had already resolved to defer to Yorin. So when people asked, he smiled with crescent eyes and said:
"Yep—Yorin-nii is really strong. Even I might not be his match."
Uchiha Itachi: "For real???"
Hearing that, the ninja world's number-one dutiful son was half suspicious, half convinced.
"For real," Shisui said gently to Itachi—half little brother, half disciple in his eyes. "Yorin-nii can bring change—to the ninja world, to Konoha, to the Uchiha. So trust him, Itachi. Trust him like you trust me."
They were talking in Yorin's newspaper print shop. After the Yorin-vs-Shisui fight, it had become the hangout for the Uchiha's younger crowd.
There, young Uchiha lounged in their downtime—sipping tea, petting cats, reading the latest Konoha Times—and grumbling as they read, "Damn it, Yorin-nii, what nonsense is this?"
Like Shisui, more and more of the new generation gravitated toward Yorin. A small circle was forming around him as the center.
Yorin was all for it—and even had the sweet worry of what to name the group.
Should it be the "Konoha One-Heart Society"? Or the "Free Officers Organization"?
…
Fugaku was torn about letting Itachi spend time with Yorin. On one hand, he figured Itachi could learn from him; on the other, he worried about him learning the "wrong" things.
But could a dutiful son like Itachi be stopped just by being told "don't go"? Of course not.
And so Yorin's secret base gained a new member: a little squirt who liked to act mature but knew squat.
The first time Yorin saw Itachi show up, he couldn't help sucking in a breath. But seeing how much Shisui trusted Itachi, he pinched his nose and grudgingly accepted the kid as a peripheral member of the "Konoha Young Guards."
Here's hoping this time he doesn't grow into the beast he was before.
Here's hoping.
Uchiha Itachi: "So… what is Yorin—Yorin-nii doing now?"
"At the Hokage Tower," Shisui said. "He must be discussing something important with the Fourth."
Hearing that Yorin was already able to meet the Hokage and discuss affairs of state, a flash of envy and longing crossed Itachi's eyes.
What else could you expect from the kid the Third Old Man praised for "seeing things from the Hokage's point of view"? For some reason, Itachi's affinity for the Hokage's faction was naturally sky-high…
But was that really what was happening?
Cut back to the Hokage Tower, where Uchiha Yorin was pitching Minato Namikaze:
"Do you know how much my paper made in three days? Fifty million ryō!
How much is an S-rank mission?
One million!
That means I basically did fifty S-rank missions in three days, Hokage-sama!
Trust me—let's found Konoha Culture & Entertainment Co. I'll be CEO, you be Chairman. We'll scale up and dominate, reach new glory—raking in tens of trillions of ryō—and then we can bury the other four great villages in cash till they suffocate!"