Chapter 203: Sharingan Awakens x Hundred-Meter Long Sword Pierces the Shrine
Colorless... odorless... formless... traceless... born only from the voice of the heart, obeying only Roy's command...
Compared to the Aburame clan's manipulation of physical insects as weapons for battle, the Heart Worms... were more like illusory, ethereal, and mysterious entities carrying Roy's will.
One split into two, two into four, four into eight... In the blink of an eye, thirty-two separate worms emerged, corresponding to the thirty-two Uchiha clan members below. Their abdomens contracted and writhed, following the causal lines of the Uchiha bloodline, infiltrating every crevice of their hearts...
Roy slightly closed his eyes, standing close to Fugaku Uchiha with his eyelids lowered. A thought flashed through his mind, and images immediately appeared... all shrouded in dark, ominous energy... just a glance was enough to make one's breath catch in their throat.
Among them was a young Uchiha whose father had just died, crying out loudly about the injustice his father suffered.
There was also the death of a wife... the death of a son... the death of siblings... the death of beloved relatives and friends...
Roy's consciousness was immersed, becoming an outsider, driving the Heart Worm to devour this black energy... He walked slowly along the film formed by the sea of "images"... The calm and composed hearts began to intentionally "twist," "go mad," and become "hysterical"... The eyes hidden by his bangs gradually turned blood red...
"Clan Leader,"
"Fugaku,"
"Fugaku-sama..."
Those seeking justice... those complaining... those venting their emotions... those protesting... At the climax, it formed a storm of "anger and dissatisfaction"!
It "stormed" towards Fugaku Uchiha.
Shisui sat cross-legged next to Roy, gulp, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and his small hand unconsciously grabbed the hem of Roy's clothes.
At the very edge of the hall, Obito sat cross-legged, leaning against a thick pillar. He kept his mouth shut, knowing that interrupting at this moment would easily get him into trouble, so he moved even closer to the doorway.
He was an orphan and had never lost parents, brothers, or lovers, so he couldn't truly empathize. But... the boy only glanced at the surging crowd of clansmen before immediately clutching his head, feeling utterly overwhelmed!
"Being the Clan Leader is hard... isn't being the Hokage even harder?"
"Isn't there even more trouble every day?"
Obito, who aspired to become Hokage, kick away his rival Kakashi, marry Rin Nohara, and reach the pinnacle of life, grabbed a handful of his hair in distress.
"Ahem..."
At that moment, a faint, aged cough rang out...
The main hall of the shrine immediately fell silent, silencing the clamor that had been raging. Setsuna Uchiha, leaning on a cane, had served over a decade of imprisonment, spanning from the Second Shinobi World War to the Third. His back was bent, his hair white, but... his blood-red eyes and the imposing presence of a clan elder showed no signs of diminishing.
The old man coughed lightly, then slammed his cane heavily on the ground with a dull thud.
Looking up at Fugaku Uchiha, he said softly, "Fugaku, did you hear that?"
"Elder..." Many eyes converged...
Setsuna Uchiha, trembling, rose with his cane, nodding slightly to Yashiro Uchiha who came to support him. The two slowly and unsteadily walked towards the group of coffins...
The old man's white beard was disheveled, his fingers tracing the surface of each coffin, his voice hoarse as he said, "The lives of Konoha are lives, and the lives of the Uchiha are lives too. During the Second War, it was just like this... But, I truly didn't expect that after more than ten years, the Uchiha who were supposed to die are still in this ghastly state... So, Fugaku!"
Setsuna Uchiha suddenly stopped, leaning on his cane and looking at Fugaku Uchiha, saying, "You've always known that those people sitting in the Hokage Building don't want us to be well; they'd rather... all of us be dead!"
"Am I right or wrong?"
Fugaku Uchiha remained silent... He wasn't a novice; he had been the Clan Head for some years, and he knew better than anyone present what the policies were, and what the Third Hokage and the other elders' attitudes were towards the Uchiha.
In this war, he had done everything in his power to preserve the Uchiha clan's strength, even persuading the Third Hokage to reduce the quota from sixty to thirty. Otherwise... the number of coffins here wouldn't be just a dozen or so; it would at least double. Then even the Police Force wouldn't be able to function properly, and they might even have some of their power taken away by the Anbu. And that was not what Fugaku wanted to see.
"Why aren't you speaking?" Setsuna Uchiha slammed his cane heavily on the ground again, making a dull thud. His eyes, which had endured years of imprisonment yet showed no signs of weariness or despair, suddenly turned from white to red. Three tomoe appeared, rotating in the pupils. Yashiro Uchiha, the pillar of the younger generation supporting him, Inabi, Tekka... and many other Uchiha clan members present, even Obito Uchiha, who had no interest in attending the meeting and only wanted to find Rin, all stared intently, exclaiming, "Three tomoe!"
"It's a Three-Tomoe Sharingan!"
"The Grand Elder, like the Clan Head, has also condensed three tomoe!"
In an instant, the quiet shrine's main hall exploded like a clay bomb casually tossed by Deidara!
The atmosphere instantly became tense!
For the Uchiha, the Sharingan was everything!
The Uchiha who haven't awakened their Sharingan are not even in the same league as the Uchiha who have!
It is an emotional fluctuation that combines "great love" and "great hatred," a spiritual reflection that transcends the mundane and achieves the extraordinary, a powerful Dojutsu that directly enhances combat power and combines "Genjutsu" and "Dynamic Vision" to derive physical Ninjutsu such as "Susanoo"!
Activating it, a One-Tomoe Sharingan is comparable to a Chunin, Two-Tomoe to a Special Jonin, Three-Tomoe to an Elite Jonin... Above Three-Tomoe, the Mangekyou Sharingan, fulfilling the prerequisite for activating Susanoo! Comparable to Kage level, even above Kage level... Beyond Kage!
And now... following Clan Leader Fugaku Uchiha, another Three-Tomoe Sharingan had appeared.
The commotion resumed...
Fugaku Uchiha looked up, also startled. He never expected that the more than ten years of imprisonment would not only fail to eliminate the hatred in Setsuna Uchiha's heart but would instead allow him to condense a third tomoe with that hatred. This surprised and delighted him. However, after calming down, he immediately sensed something was wrong, something he had never anticipated beforehand.
Whoosh~ A gust of wind blew by, carrying a hint of early spring chill...
Excitement... exhilaration... high spirits... spread throughout the Uchiha ancestral land today...
Roy sat quietly next to Fugaku Uchiha, his head drooping. He lowered his eyes, using the Heart Worm to move through the hearts of everyone, constantly devouring negative emotions while silently observing the immense emotional fluctuations that occurred in everyone due to Setsuna Uchiha's Sharingan... such as his father's staunch supporters, Yashiro, Tekka, Inabi, and even their mental faltering, beginning to waver... The boy silently calculated the time; he was still halfway to accumulating enough "negative emotions" to match his visualization object, the sun...
Buzz... Red and white intertwined in the boy's pupils... Shisui Uchiha gripped his sleeve, swallowing hard...
A tomoe materialized unnoticed, then rapidly raced towards the second tomoe...
Setsuna Uchiha stared intently at Fugaku Uchiha, raising his voice at the opportune moment, slamming his cane into the ground again, and glaring at Fugaku, he said sharply, "Look into my eyes and answer me!"
Everyone fell silent, including Shisui, Obito, Yashiro, Tekka, and Inabi, all looking at him...
As the Clan Head, Fugaku was instantly overwhelmed by the gazes of the entire clan. He took a deep breath and calmly looked at Setsuna Uchiha... "Since Uncle already knows, why ask me?"
The man stood up frankly, facing the surging crowd, silently shielding Roy behind him, and said openly, "Forgive my incompetence, I have tried my best to mediate. Uncle, if you have a way, could you teach me how to get out of this predicament?"
After Fugaku finished speaking, he bowed deeply to the Uchiha clan...
In everyone's hearts, another wave of emotion surged... Roy quietly strolled along the bloodline boundary hidden within all Uchiha through the bonds of the Uchiha bloodline, connecting the threads of cause and effect, walking through everyone's hearts... The panel notification: ["Emotional Fluctuation" Accumulation: 50% → 60%]
Along with Roy's eyes hidden under his bangs, the shadow of a second tomoe gradually condensed.
Crunch... crunch... The Heart Worm, carrying the boy's will, extended its slender mouthparts, suddenly increasing the speed at which it absorbed the black energy...
Inside the main hall.
Facing Fugaku Uchiha, who was bowing almost to the ground, Setsuna Uchiha's momentum faltered, and he fell into a rare silence. Yes... what could he do? Hadn't he rebelled before?
Now... Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, and their gang were like a dull knife, cutting him down whether he faced it or not. They were clearly leaving him no way out, forcing the Uchiha to their deaths.
Setsuna Uchiha looked up at the shrine's beam. This shrine, which had witnessed the Warring States period, World War I, World War II, and now World War III, still preserved the stone tablets left by its ancestors.
The old man remained silent for a long time. Beside him... Yashiro Uchiha, Inabi, Tekka, and the others, who knew the Uchiha's current predicament, all fell silent...
Everyone knew the problem; how to solve it was... the most important and urgent issue at hand.
Everyone looked at Setsuna Uchiha. The old man snapped back to reality after a moment, as if he had made a momentous decision. He looked around at everyone, then finally at Fugaku Uchiha, and said quietly, "The only option is to defect!"
"Defect?!?"
Yashiro Uchiha's hand supporting Setsuna Uchiha trembled. Everyone below him, including Inabi, Tekka, Obito, and Shisui, was stunned, then exchanged bewildered glances...
"Yes, only defection!" Setsuna Uchiha said decisively, "Rather than staying and waiting to die, it's better to defect. Perhaps there's still a way to survive!"
Setsuna Uchiha narrowed his eyes at everyone: "We are Uchiha, Uchiha with Sharingan. If we want, we can carve out our own territory. Even if we can't compare to Konoha, at least... we won't be weaker than some small villages."
Peace sought through struggle will survive, peace sought through compromise will perish.
As Setsuna Uchiha dropped several bombshells with a few words, another wave of emotional turmoil ensued... Roy's consciousness was immersed, wandering through the hearts of the crowd. The panel displayed... ["Emotional Fluctuation" Accumulation: 64 → 84%]...
The young man stopped, traversing the hearts of Inabi, Tekka, and Yashiro, until he reached Setsuna Uchiha's heart. Looking at the old man's past, a series of scenes unfolded before his eyes. He suddenly remembered this phrase and couldn't help but feel a surge of respect for Setsuna Uchiha!
This was a wise man who genuinely sought a way out for the Uchiha clan!
Perhaps as early as the Second Hokage's time, when he chose to rebel, he had already foreseen the future predicament of the Uchiha!
But, easier said than done, Konoha was not just Konoha; there was also the Land of Fire behind it... Defection meant betrayal of one's country, facing not only the encirclement and exploitation of external forces but also the eternal pursuit by the Land of Fire, with Konoha as a secondary force and the Land of Fire as the primary target!
Whether it would succeed, Roy wasn't sure. At least... there was a living example right before his eyes: the Kaguya clan, wiped out by Kirigakure, with only Kimimaro remaining!
Creak... creak...
85%... 86%... 87... 90...
The Heart Worm continued... in the main hall of the shrine.
After Setsuna Uchiha's words caused a huge stir...
Fugaku Uchiha remained silent for a long while, giving Setsuna Uchiha a deep look. His profound gaze then swept over the other Uchiha clan members, including Yashiro, Inabi, and Tekka. The man slowly shook his head: "Defection only leads to death. I don't agree."
"Yes, isn't defection a bit too radical?"
"Elder, at least it hasn't come to that yet, has it?"
"Uncle," Yashiro Uchiha grasped Setsuna Uchiha's arm, his voice filled with worry, "You've just been released from prison and awakened the Three Tomoe. With you and Fugaku in charge, there might still be a chance. Calm down, think about it again; perhaps there's a better way?"
"There's no way, absolutely nothing. Staying here means certain death!" Setsuna Uchiha had seen through it all. The old man ignored everyone in the clan, focusing solely on activating his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, locking his gaze directly onto Fugaku Uchiha: "Fugaku, I'll ask you one more time. Think it over before you speak... will you agree or not?"
Fugaku Uchiha met Setsuna Uchiha's gaze without fear, his own eyes flashing with a blood-red light, revealing three tomoe, and firmly declared: "If my uncle knows, I... am the Clan Head!"
"You!" Setsuna Uchiha, his anger rising, roared, "You'll regret this!"
With that, he turned to the crowd, forcefully pushing aside Yashiro Uchiha, and slammed his cane heavily on the ground, declaring, "Those who want to leave, come with me! From today onwards, the Uchiha branch family is here!"
The old man finished speaking and led the way out of the hall...
Suddenly, a sword's cry rang out... accompanied by a flash of snow-white light...
Under the horrified gazes of Fugaku Uchiha, Yashiro Uchiha, Inabi Uchiha, Tekka, Obito... and Shisui...
[Swamp - Divine Spear]!
A large sword, suddenly elongated, extended through space, stretching a hundred meters, piercing the air, embedding itself in a corner of a pillar, spanning the entire shrine, blocking Setsuna Uchiha's path!
The old man abruptly stopped, turning his head...
A pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan appeared before his eyes, causing his pupils to shrink and him to gasp!
[Hint: "Emotional fluctuations" have accumulated... Sharingan activated!]
Roy slowly rose, his blood-red eyes and three tomoe slowly rotating as he calmly said, "My father didn't say we were leaving, so let's see who dares to leave!"
☆☆☆
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