Hands Moving on Their Own

Uchiha Yu's unconventional behavior surprised the administrative ninja slightly, but no more than that.

Lone wolves were not uncommon among Konoha's ninja, especially among jōnin. There were many ninja who carried out missions alone.

Ninjutsu had existed for over a thousand years. After the development of generations of outstanding ninja, a flourishing civilization of ninjutsu had taken shape.

Especially after two Ninja World Wars, more than a hundred thousand ninja had tested it on a massive scale with their lives. Low- and mid-level ninjutsu had been thoroughly refined and summarized, forming a mature ninjutsu system.

Genin and most chūnin were limited in strength and could not independently master a complete combat system. Thus, squads built around the ninjutsu system gradually became widespread. Forming teams allowed low- and mid-level ninja not only to compensate for one another's weaknesses, but also to better leverage their strengths. An outstanding ninja squad could crush ninja of the same rank and even challenge stronger ninja to a certain extent.

Large-scale ninja villages thus gained an unshakable advantage, completely overwhelming the organizational model of ninja clans.

But once a ninja reached the jōnin stage, everything became different again.

The development of B-rank and A-rank ninjutsu was still in full swing. Many new techniques were created every year, and every few years, a legendary ninja would make several techniques wildly popular.

Among them, Konoha's late Second Hokage was an outstanding representative in the development of advanced ninjutsu and even forbidden techniques. It was said that most of the forbidden techniques recorded in Konoha's Scroll of Sealing had been developed by him, while the few remaining ones were traditional techniques of the Senju Clan and sealing techniques of the Uzumaki Clan.

Moreover, after the death of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, no master capable of systematizing advanced ninjutsu had appeared in the Ninja World. Advanced ninjutsu could not form a unified standard.

Without standards for advanced ninjutsu, the development paths of high-level ninja became wildly varied, making them extremely difficult to coordinate with one another. For powerful ninja, carrying out missions alone was more convenient than forming teams.

A few years later, when the Third Hokage sought to build up Namikaze Minato's reputation and arranged for jōnin to assist him, a thoroughly awkward situation arose: no one could keep up with Minato's speed.

In the end, he could only face the enemy alone. Though instantly killing fifty Iwagakure ninja was a miracle, he also lost the chance to share the credit with his subordinates.

The Fourth Hokage had only one confidant and was easily sidelined by the Konoha F4. That was inseparably connected to how he had been forced to keep all the spoils for himself on the battlefield.

No one liked a leader who could not bring them benefits.

In short, the administrative ninja did not find Uchiha Yu's solo activities strange. He simply recorded that Yu had no squad, then moved on to question the next chūnin.

Soon, all the procedures were complete, and the newly promoted chūnin scattered in a hubbub.

Uchiha Yu left without drawing any attention, but he was not in a hurry to return home. Instead, he slowly walked along the streets, testing the abilities of the Omniscient Mind's Eye while experiencing the benefits brought by his initial taming of the Heart Monkey.

The Heart Monkey was not something that truly existed. It was a spiritual entity on the level of the mind, yet it could genuinely affect Uchiha Yu's body and had caused him considerable trouble.

So after he hammered the giant ape into a Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, digesting the giant ape's body brought enormous benefits as well—namely, the strengthening of his heart meridians.

Uchiha Yu knew that biologically speaking, bone marrow was the factory that produced blood. But in the grand system of the human body passed down in China, the heart meridians were the source of qi and blood. When the heart meridians grew stronger, qi and blood flourished; when qi and blood flourished, all meridians opened; and when all meridians opened, no illness could arise.

Now, Uchiha Yu's experience told him that strengthening the heart meridians was far more than simply becoming immune to illness. His bones, muscles, and chakra activity were all improving in ways he could clearly perceive. Most importantly, his eyes felt swollen and cool at the same time, just like...

Just like that afternoon when he successfully reached Foundation Establishment, and his Sharingan evolved from Two-Tomoe to Three-Tomoe.

The feeling had not been as intense then because he had undergone an earth-shaking transformation. His entire body had experienced similar but even stronger sensations, and he had felt the exhilarating rush of his whole life level ascending. He had overlooked the sensations in his eyes.

But Foundation Establishment had also strengthened his memory. Looking back now, every sensation from a few days ago was vivid in his mind, allowing him to determine that the symptoms in his eyes after leaving the Hokage Building were a good thing.

The Uchiha Clan's Kekkei Genkai was famous throughout the Ninja World. Uchiha who awakened the Sharingan were said to be unbeatable, requiring at least two opponents working together to defeat them.

Uchiha Yu could not help fantasizing. Could he awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan while still at the Foundation Establishment stage?

An eighteen-year-old Mangekyō Sharingan—now that would be truly awesome.

But the next moment, Uchiha Yu dismissed the idea.

First, the cool, swollen sensation in his eyes was not very intense. The degree of enhancement and growth was far below that of the day he reached Foundation Establishment, and the improvement from Two-Tomoe to Three-Tomoe was nowhere near comparable to awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan. This could not possibly be the awakening of the Mangekyō Sharingan. At most, the strengthened heart meridians had directly enhanced his spirit, indirectly increasing his ocular power.

Second, while the Mangekyō Sharingan was certainly a good thing, a good thing was only truly good when one could bear it.

In the peaceful era of his previous life, under a social environment with increasingly refined laws, even having a modest fortune was an extremely dangerous thing for an ordinary person.

Let alone a Kekkei Genkai with supernatural power like this—one that could directly threaten his life.

Hatake Kakashi had become a chūnin at nine and reached the pinnacle of jōnin at thirteen. What heaven-defying talent that had been.

Yet after having a Sharingan implanted, he became utterly ordinary and was even plagued by insufficient chakra. By middle age, he still had failed to enter the ranks of Kage-level ninja.

The Uchiha Clan had not fared much better. Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Itachi were both geniuses who awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at thirteen or fourteen, yet both fell into difficult circumstances after awakening it.

Obito could only rely on half of White Zetsu's body to sustain his life. Only after fully adapting to White Zetsu in his thirties did his strength begin to show signs of growing again.

Uchiha Itachi, on the other hand, ended up riddled with injuries and illness. Despite using the Mangekyō Sharingan very cautiously, he still nearly went completely blind. Soon after reaching adulthood, his body collapsed and he reached the end of his life.

Uchiha Yu felt that his current physical condition at the Foundation Establishment stage still could not support the consumption of the Mangekyō Sharingan. If he truly awakened it, it would instead become an enormous burden and affect his progress in Foundation Establishment.

He was only a chūnin. For a chūnin's combat needs, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was more than sufficient. There was no need to pursue power beyond what he could withstand.

As Uchiha Yu sensed the changes in his body and eyes, his thoughts wandered without restraint, and he inevitably neglected his surroundings somewhat.

Of course, this distraction was not much of a problem. Konoha's overall environment was very safe, and Root had no surveillance or assassination plans targeting him, so his life was not in danger.

There was no issue with the ordinary people on the streets either. Even if his attention completely drifted away, his body's instinctive reactions would automatically avoid people running toward him.

But ninja sprinting at full speed were an exception. Just as he passed through the bustling market and entered the territory of the Uchiha Clan, a ninja slammed hard into his arms.

Uchiha Yu felt his lower abdomen shake violently, and he nearly lost his breath. His wandering thoughts snapped back at once, and his hands immediately produced senbon needles and a kunai as he took up a defensive stance.

When he saw clearly who had collided with him and been bounced away, Uchiha Yu put away his weapons and fiercely smacked him on the head.

Hey, why did this hand move on its own?