Sarutobi Hiruzen furrowed his brow, lost in deep thought.
Uchiha Hikari stood up gracefully, brushing off her hands. "That's all I've got to say. Think it over at your own pace. I'm heading back to cook dinner…"
"Oh, one more thing to keep in mind."
She paused, her tone casual but pointed. "The guy who caused the Nine-Tails incident back then, the one who killed Namikaze Minato and called himself 'Uchiha Madara,' he's still alive. He's got some tricky space-time ninjutsu that lets him slip through Konoha's barriers. You'd better have the barrier team step up their patrols, especially around the Naka River area where the Uchiha clan lives. Don't let him exploit any gaps."
With that light but heavy warning, Uchiha Hikari breezed past Sarutobi Hiruzen and strode out of the room.
The Anbu stationed around the area instinctively parted to let her pass.
A long silence followed.
Then, a hidden door on the side of the room creaked open, revealing Mito Menma and Koharu Utatane as they stepped out.
"Menma, Koharu, what do you think?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked, his eyes shifting between his two advisors.
The pair exchanged a glance. "I still can't stand that arrogant little brat," Koharu admitted, "but… her proposal isn't a bad one. It's worth considering."
Menma nodded. "The Uchiha clan does occasionally produce level-headed members, like Kagami back in the day. If we keep a tight grip on who gets selected—only approving Uchihas who meet our standards for Anbu or jōnin squads—we won't have to worry about the clan using those positions to build their own power base."
"As long as we set clear rules upfront and stick to them, even that kid shouldn't have much to complain about, right?"
Hiruzen considered this for a moment before nodding. "…Alright. I'll draft a proposal and talk it over with Fugaku again."
With that, the three old comrades reached a tentative agreement.
Then Koharu hesitated, a trace of concern in her voice. "Hiruzen, are you sure it's okay that you showed her the *Book of Seals*? That won't cause any problems, will it?"
"It's fine," Hiruzen said softly. "It was just a copy, after all. And I made sure to remove the sections on sealing techniques and the *Flying Thunder God Technique* beforehand. Even if she learns a few other forbidden jutsu, she won't be able to tamper with the seal the Fourth left on Naruto… Besides, this is also a way to test whether she's really met the Fourth. Those were Minato's signature techniques, after all."
At the mention of the "Fourth," a heavy silence fell over the three elders.
"Hiruzen," Menma said after a pause, his voice low, "do you really believe that kid has met the Fourth? And this 'Uchiha Madara' she mentioned… is it possible that the Mangekyō Sharingan that controlled the Nine-Tails back then was actually…"
"Unlikely," Hiruzen cut in, shaking his head. "Uchiha Hikari only awakened recently. If she'd been awake four years ago, she would've been around eight years old at the time. Shisui hadn't unlocked his Mangekyō yet, and Fugaku… he has an alibi."
"For now, let's treat the information she provided as credible and act accordingly."
Hiruzen let out a weary sigh. "If only Minato were still here… I'm sure he'd handle this better than we ever could."
…
Uchiha Hikari, of course, knew that the *Book of Seals* she'd been shown had been deliberately edited.
For example, techniques like the *Four Symbols Seal* and *Reaper Death Seal* were nowhere to be found.
But that was fine.
The forbidden jutsu she really wanted to learn were still there. She'd focus on mastering those first and worry about the rest later.
That evening, after finishing her usual daily training regimen, Uchiha Hikari opened her notebook. She thought for a moment before writing a single line at the top of a blank page:
**Uchiha Clan Bloodline Tracing Plan**
If she was going to get involved in the tensions between Konoha and the Uchiha clan, she needed to figure out how to maximize her own gains.
She didn't have high hopes for the current Uchiha clan members. Most of them were a bunch of useless deadweights—only a handful showed any promise. The rest were like mud that couldn't stick to a wall.
But…
The Sharingan itself, as a kekkei genkai, was undeniably valuable.
Hikari had long suspected that the Mangekyō Sharingan came with genetic flaws, but she hadn't delved deeply into why. Now, Senju Tobirama's theories had given her a new angle to explore.
"The Uchiha clan's genetic defect probably isn't something we're born with," she mused. "It's likely something that develops over time as we awaken and use the Sharingan."
"According to Tobirama's theory, the essence of eye power is a special chakra produced in the brain during moments of extreme pain. So, for normal people, the negative emotions from pain would fade over time. But for Uchihas, those emotions get locked in when we awaken our Sharingan, feeding our eye power. The stronger the emotions, the stronger the eye power, creating a vicious cycle.
"All those negative emotions pile up in the brain, circulating and affecting the cells and genes. That's what damages the optic nerves and causes drastic personality changes. The bloodline disease is probably a side effect of this process…"
Take Uchiha Itachi, for example—the fastest case of the bloodline disease manifesting.
At four, he was on the battlefield, scarred by war. At eight, he awakened his Sharingan after a comrade's death. At eleven, he joined Anbu. By thirteen, he slaughtered his entire clan… His negative emotions piled up faster than anyone's, so the disease hit him hardest.
Compare that to other Mangekyō users, like Uchiha Madara from the Warring States era. As a kid, he was still skipping stones with Senju Hashirama, and he had his brother Izuna to help him vent his emotions. That's probably why his disease progressed so slowly.
Hikari set down her pen, her fingers lightly tapping the desk.
"Tomorrow, I'll go talk to Fugaku."
"Through him, I can organize a large-scale sampling survey within the Uchiha clan. Collect blood, hair, and skin tissue samples from Uchihas of different ages and Sharingan stages—single tomoe, double tomoe, triple tomoe. Then have Dr. Brief analyze them to track how the gene sequences change with each Sharingan evolution and compare differences within the same tomoe stage. That might be the key to why Mangekyō abilities vary…"
"If the Mangekyō's changes follow a pattern, there has to be a way to figure it out."
If she could crack that, it wouldn't just be about fixing genetic defects or creating a cure. It would mean tracing the Uchiha bloodline back to its origins—unlocking the secrets of Indra, the ancestor, and even the Ōtsutsuki clan's Rinnegan!
And beyond that…
Maybe she could find a way to skip the step of accumulating negative emotions altogether. Reverse-engineer the process to artificially create Mangekyō Sharingan or even Rinnegan.
This wasn't just a pipe dream.
In *Dragon Ball*, Super Saiyan transformations were triggered by extreme emotional shifts—anger, much like the Sharingan. But in the original story, Bulma and her father studied Goku and Vegeta's cells, discovered the secret of "S-cells," and helped Vegeta, who lacked the natural potential, take a shortcut to becoming a Super Saiyan.
If it worked for Super Saiyans, why couldn't it work for the Uchiha bloodline?
Even if it didn't pan out, Hikari had a fallback. She could mark the entire clan with seals, turning them into backup energy sources for her *Yasogami* technique. The combined eye power of hundreds of Uchihas would be a formidable reserve, ready to fuel her in a pinch.
With these ideas swirling in her mind, Hikari got up early the next morning. She stepped out onto the porch and spotted an Uchiha clansmember delivering vegetables.
It was a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve, with long, glossy black hair and a small mole under her right eye. When she looked up and saw Hikari, she bowed hastily, a little flustered. "Uchiha clan junior… g-greetings, Great-Grandmother!"
Hikari studied the girl, who seemed vaguely familiar. "…What's your name?"
The girl answered politely, "Izumi. My name is Uchiha Izumi."
**(End of Chapter)**