Personal Guidance

"This is from the Third Elder. There are 100,000 Ryo inside."

Katsuo looked at the bulging wallet the visitor handed him, nodded, and accepted it.

"Thank you! What should I call you?"

"Uchiha Izumi."

Uchiha Izumi forced a smile before answering, then explained why he had come.

"By the Third Elder's orders, I'll be responsible for supervising and guiding your development from now on, as well as... your personal safety!"

Katsuo was startled by this. Delighted, he gave a slight bow.

"Then I'll be in your care from now on, Izumi-sensei!"

He desperately wanted someone to guide his training. The Ninja Academy taught limited knowledge each day, and for someone like Katsuo, who possessed an adult's awareness, it was far too simple.

Having a Jonin personally guide his training was something Katsuo had never even dared to dream of!

He could not help but marvel inwardly at and thank Uchiha Feng for his grand gesture!

"You're too polite, Katsuo-kun. The Third Elder has already told me about your situation. It's my honor to guide a super genius like you!"

Uchiha Izumi said with a smile. For this first encounter with Katsuo, he felt he should not treat him as he would an ordinary child.

Katsuo's speech and mannerisms made Uchiha Izumi feel as if he were facing someone his own age. While this surprised him, the slight doubts he had held toward the Third Elder's words completely vanished.

After all, according to the Third Elder, Katsuo was an astonishing Prodigy. Not only was he exceptionally gifted in ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu, but at merely five years old, he had pinned a group of six- and seven-year-old Uchiha honor students to the ground and beaten them senseless!

When had children of the Uchiha Clan ever been beaten so badly? How gifted were Uchiha children? Which one of them was not a renowned top student in their class? Yet a whole group of them could not defeat a single person?

If the other party had not also been a child of their clan, those children would never have been able to hold their heads high in the Uchiha Clan again!

The Uchiha Clan would also have become the laughingstock of all Konoha. The Uchiha Clan's pride and prestige would have vanished completely.

This incident had frightened the far-sighted higher-ups into a cold sweat.

They even counted themselves fortunate—fortunate that Katsuo had been born into the Uchiha Clan. Even if he beat his fellow clansmen until they shat themselves, he was still a member of the Uchiha Clan. He still bore the Uchiha name!

Thus, in many people's eyes, although Katsuo had committed a grave mistake, he was still only a five-year-old child!

Though many clansmen cherished talent, there were surprisingly few who truly stepped forward to speak for him!

Beating up a group was one thing, but he had even beaten Young Master Fugaku, the Great Elder's most beloved grandson, into a dead dog! He was still lying in bed, unconscious to this day!

The Great Elder was the true authority of the Uchiha Clan. The power he possessed was enough to contend with the other five elders on his own. It could be said that he controlled more than half of the Uchiha Clan's power!

This was an important reason why no one was willing to speak up for this super genius.

Yet Uchiha Feng, the Uchiha Clan's Third Elder, had stood up to say a fair word for Katsuo amid an atmosphere where everyone was too terrified to speak, directly facing the Great Elder's dark expression!

He had forcefully rejected the punishment the Great Elder had just decreed for Katsuo!

Originally, the Great Elder had charged Katsuo with "disregarding clan ties and maliciously harming his fellow clansmen."

But considering that Katsuo was only five years old, the Great Elder had surprisingly forgiven him! He had not intended to pursue his wrongdoing!

Yet the Sixth Elder, who was close to the Great Elder, suddenly proposed:

"At such a young age, he has already harmed his fellow clansmen so cruelly. When he grows up, there is no telling what disasters he may cause to injure more clansmen! He will likely find it difficult to coexist with the others. Rather than leave such an unstable presence unchecked, why not destroy his Chakra pathways? Let him live properly as an ordinary person. That would give the victims' families an explanation, uphold justice for them, preserve the dignity of the laws, and eliminate an unstable factor for the clan!"

Upon hearing the Sixth Elder's proposal, the Great Elder let out a deep sigh!

Then, as expected, he agreed with the Sixth Elder. The two intended to put on a splendid performance of "tearfully executing a genius"!

But this time, the Third Elder, that "elderly man who cherished talent," firmly rejected it!

He also berated the Sixth Elder, the "proposer," until he was drenched in verbal abuse, even cursing him as a beast worse than pigs and dogs!

Many people in the clan knew that Katsuo did not belong to the Third Elder's faction, nor had they heard of any prior connection between him and the Third Elder!

In the eyes of ninety-nine percent of the clansmen, the Third Elder's staunch support for Katsuo was simply because an old man had come to cherish talent!

Seeing the white-haired Third Elder, agitated and furious, many clansmen sincerely urged him to take care of his health.

Most of them were not blind. They understood that doing this would inevitably make the Third Elder enemies with the Great Elder.

Yet he had still acted without hesitation. What did that mean?

It meant he no longer cared about power. He had truly done this to preserve a genuine genius for the Uchiha Clan!

This was the broad-mindedness the Uchiha Clan, as a great clan, ought to possess!

By fiercely condemning the Great Elder's lackey through this incident, he earned the respect of more than eighty percent of the clansmen!

A five-year-old child and an elderly man in his twilight years—both were symbols of respecting the old and caring for the young. Quite a few Jonin qualified to attend clan meetings stepped forward to mediate. Basically none of them approved of the Sixth Elder's proposal.

Even the immensely powerful Great Elder could only compromise under the combined pressure of public opinion and righteousness!

He was not a fool. He could clearly sense the clansmen's sentiments, and because of that, even though Uchiha Feng had embarrassed him—everyone knew the Sixth Elder was his man—he could not erupt in anger!

After all, Uchiha Feng had denounced the Sixth Elder from the moral high ground.

The Great Elder could only begrudgingly forgive Katsuo's "mistake," gritting his teeth as he pretended to be magnanimous and waived the insignificant punishments proposed by the Third Elder!

Does Uchiha Feng think he's the only damn good man? The only one with the broad-mindedness of a great clan? And he's making this old man and the victims' families out to be villains? Narrow-minded petty people?

Fine. Very fine! You old bastard, I'll show you what happens to those who stick their necks out.

The Great Elder, Uchiha Sou, gritted his teeth as he thought this.

Among the Uchiha Clan's six elders, Uchiha Feng was the oldest. The Great Elder, third in age, was truly experiencing for the first time what it meant that old ginger was spicier!

In Uchiha Izumi's understanding—

Ordinarily, no matter how a five-year-old child fought, they could only inflict minor bumps and bruises. There was no need for adults to intervene at all...

Yet a Prodigy like Katsuo had appeared, brutally beating the Great Elder's pride, the Uchiha Clan's little genius, until he suffered mental trauma and fell unconscious!

That group of children had also sustained no light injuries. Uchiha Izumi found it incredible.

But if that were all, it would at most make Uchiha Izumi marvel at him as a true genius.

But were geniuses scarce in the Uchiha Clan? The Uchiha Clan had never lacked geniuses!

This was a fact acknowledged by every clansman, and one recognized by Konoha and even the entire ninja world!

What truly horrified Uchiha Izumi was...

This fellow clansman child who had stirred up such waves in the clan, this true genius everyone was curious and astonished about, had actually been hiding a pair of Two-Tomoe Sharingan!