Heart of Steel was a powerful piece of equipment from a certain game.
Its effect was straightforward: smack someone with steel, and you got stronger.
Uchiha Ci was no stranger to this thing. He was a veteran Steel Gate Sion player with ten thousand ARAM matches and a level-seven badge.
His whole strategy was basically planting a marker and selling his head. You dared hit him once? Fine, this head was yours, big bro!
The More You Give, The Stronger You Get!
The More You Give, The Meatier You Get!
And now, just as he wanted to throw his life away, he got a talent like this.
It... probably wouldn't affect his Insurance Fraud Plan, right?
Uchiha Ci's face remained expressionless, but deep down, he had begun to feel that something was off.
Still, he knew absolutely nothing about this talent, and the Heavenly Dao Will hadn't even sent him an instruction manual for using the cheat.
The urgent matter at hand was to accept the mission from Great Elder Uchiha Setsuna.
Before the cheat had time to react, he needed to get himself onto the battlefield and have Iwagakure or whoever hurry up and chop him to death.
Complete the Insurance Fraud Plan!
That was the top priority!
Yet Uchiha Ci still felt vaguely uneasy.
When he turned around to look,
he discovered that the source of his unease was standing right beside him.
This fellow named Shisui Uchiha, who was actually a little demon, suddenly curled his lips in Uchiha Ci's eyes. He smiled gently and whispered with remarkable kindness:
"Uchiha Ci, don't worry. I'll take Elder's mobilization mission."
"You should stay in the clan and train yourself instead."
Uchiha Ci's hairs instantly stood on end. Cold sweat poured down his forehead as he thought, Big bro, why aren't you tormenting Fugaku's eldest son? What are you always staring at me for?
Without daring to hesitate, Uchiha Ci took a large stride out of the crowd before Shisui Uchiha could react.
He excitedly raised three fingers, pointed them at the sky, and swore in an impassioned voice:
"Elder!"
"To restore the glory of the Uchiha Clan is the duty of our generation!"
"I fear no danger. Please let me go to the battlefield!"
Uchiha Ci strode forward and began howling at the top of his lungs, his voice so melodious that its lingering echoes seemed endless.
He held up his arm with a solemn expression:
"Neither the torrential rain of the Land of Rain nor the fragrant jade-hot springs of the Land of Hot Water can shake my resolve to give everything for the Uchiha Clan!"
"If someone must be sacrificed, then I hope that person—"
"Will definitely be me!"
As soon as those words fell, everyone couldn't help but look over, their gazes carrying a hint of admiration.
Whose subordinate was this? How was he so fierce?
"Ci-kun! How could you—"
It was already too late for Shisui Uchiha to stop him. A look of shock appeared on his face, and his voice was filled with sorrow.
Though they had known each other for only a short time, he had already decided
that Uchiha Ci was a companion who shared his will, someone he could trust with his back!
But—
why had he gone and thrown himself away the moment he turned around?
???
Ah, was this what it felt like to lose a companion?
This, this, this...
Shisui Uchiha's face flushed red as he fought down the overwhelming urge to drag Uchiha Ci home, hang him up, and whip him a few times.
Shisui Uchiha's eyes, already at the threshold of a breakthrough from training, had turned completely crimson before he noticed.
A tomoe spun rapidly within his Crimson Sharingan, revealing an air of sorrow.
The opportunity to awaken his eyes was called: the loss of a companion.
As if it were fate, it had been triggered early within him.
However—
"You won't do. You're too trash."
Great Elder Uchiha Setsuna frowned, lowered his head, and glanced at Uchiha Ci. Where had this idiot come from?
He was even an Uchiha Genin who hadn't awakened his Sharingan. How was that any different from being useless?
As those words fell,
the resolute expression on Uchiha Ci's face froze.
His sharp angles looked like they could cut someone to death!
The young man's embarrassment was deafening!
Could you hear it? Uchiha Ci's heart was crying~!
[Uchiha Setsuna looked down on you.]
At that moment, a Large Red Dot suddenly lit up on Uchiha Setsuna's face in Uchiha Ci's eyes.
It blocked out the sky and covered the earth, nearly obscuring Uchiha Setsuna's face entirely.
Yet those eyes filled with contempt remained exposed, as though they had been carved into Uchiha Ci's heart.
They made him feel a surge of anger.
Sure, he really was a little useless right now.
But Great Elder, tearing open his wound like that would make even him angry!
If you break my wings, I'll destroy your heaven!
"Great Elder!" Uchiha Ci's expression turned solemn as he took another great step forward and said sharply:
"This isn't about whether I'm trash or not!"
"I know my abilities are limited, and I haven't awakened my Sharingan!"
Uchiha Ci raised his voice and shouted:
"But Genin who participate in war—"
"Were never meant to be responsible for the defense of the main battlefield!"
"Most of them just moved around the edges of the battlefield, doing auxiliary work."
"Besides, the other clans have all sent Genin to the Battlefield of the Land of Rain—"
"Yet if our Uchiha don't send anyone, won't the other clans look down on us?"
Hearing this, everyone froze before looking at Uchiha Ci with horrified expressions.
There was nothing wrong with what he said.
But the person he was arguing with right now
was a fierce man who had assassinated the Second Hokage!
And he was the Hawk Faction Leader and the Great Elder of the Uchiha!
His influence within the Uchiha Clan could be described with—
four words:
Overwhelming power and authority!
And this kid had just confronted him head-on?
Who gave him the courage?
Uchiha Setsuna's expression sank at once after hearing him. With a dark face, he thought, Did I give this brat too much face?
A useless Genin who hadn't even awakened his Sharingan
actually dared refute his opinion?
This... this was like a sow climbing a tree. It had really gone to his head.
However,
Uchiha Setsuna suddenly reconsidered.
Wasn't this exactly the sort of talent he needed?
Uchiha Setsuna narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment.
He,
as the Hawk Faction Leader, was responsible for developing members of the Hawk Faction within the clan.
And naturally, that wasn't merely about talent.
Personality was even more important!
Especially the sort who
were stubborn-minded, extreme in temperament, and ready to shed their blood for Uchiha's future at the slightest disagreement—the fine young men who would fight on until their next eighteenth birthday!
The more stubborn this brat acted now, the more loyal he was to the clan!
Wouldn't he be screaming with delight as he chopped Hiruzen Sarutobi's dog head into a bowl during the coup?
As a professional coup plotter, Uchiha Setsuna dared pat his chest and guarantee:
No one understood coups better than he did!
People like Uchiha Ci were simply premium cannon fodder for a coup!
Therefore,
he absolutely could not let such talent
die on a ridiculous mission of giving his life for Konoha!
With that thought,
the gloom on Uchiha Setsuna's face instantly turned to sunshine. He even let out a sinister chuckle.
Seeing Uchiha Setsuna smile, everyone present shrank their necks, their backs feeling a little cold.
Even Uchiha Ci felt somewhat uneasy.
Not because he was afraid of that old bastard.
He was just wondering
whether it counted as being covered by insurance if the old man got angry and chopped him to death.
[It counts.]
The Heavenly Dao Will immediately gave him an answer in his mind.
Uchiha Ci's eyes instantly lit up.
Now his heart no longer panicked, and his breathing no longer faltered. He straightened his back and glared right back.
Uchiha Setsuna was nearly angered into laughter by that little look from Uchiha Ci.
Uchiha Setsuna forcibly suppressed the intense urge to hang this brat up and whip him. Thinking of his grand vision, he took a long breath.
He decided
to give this brat another way out.
He immediately glared back coldly and rebuked him in a frosty voice:
"Naive. Ridiculous!"
If the battlefield were really as pleasant as Uchiha Ci had described, the Uchiha wouldn't mind sending some Genin there to gain experience.
But reality was often crueler. Those sent to the battlefield could no longer be called ninja; they were called cannon fodder.
Uchiha Setsuna stared coldly at Uchiha Ci. "Brat, can't you understand human speech?"
However,
Uchiha Ci bared his teeth in a brazen grin, stretched out his neck, and patted it, looking exactly like a stubborn slab of meat at a butcher stall:
"What, Great Elder? If you've got the guts, chop me!"
"If you can't chop me to death, then let me go to the battlefield!"
As he stubbornly pushed back, it was as though he had touched some kind of threshold.
Uchiha Ci immediately heard a crisp sound ring out beside his ear—
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