The Core Team

The fire was still burning.

The nearby forest had drawn the short straw by crossing Sōken.

With his Fire Style Jutsu empowered by his innate skill, [Magic Release], even the Uchiha Clan of today would be hard-pressed to claim anyone stronger. His Great Fire Annihilation had not only burned down a large swath of forest and taken two lives; the flames left behind were still consuming the surrounding trees and undergrowth.

Sōken laid the unconscious Naruto on the grass.

He hacked a tree stump out of a trunk and sat down on it without a care for the dirt. He was too lazy to stand around waiting for those important people to arrive at their leisure. And to be honest, although he hadn't suffered so much as a scratch and had cut down twelve attackers with ease, it had only looked effortless—like cooking a meal.

In truth, he'd been on edge throughout the fight, unable to let his guard down for even a second.

To be honest, his Chakra reserves were still above the danger threshold. The mental exhaustion was what wore him down most.

"My Mangekyō! Why won't it awaken already?! I'd even settle for a lousy ocular technique..." Sōken sat on the stump, resting and muttering resentfully about his far-off Mangekyō.

If he had the Mangekyō Sharingan, he wouldn't care if its ocular technique was a little lousy. Susanoo was the real deal!

But—

The next second,

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

Sōken spat several times. He'd changed his mind.

A powerful ocular technique really was preferable. If he ended up with a lousy one like Haruto's Kagutsuchi, he'd be the one crying.

"Are they really this slow? Why hasn't anyone shown up yet?"

Sōken looked down at the unconscious Naruto, wondering whether to wake the kid so they could chat for a while. Before he could act, he sensed movement behind him. He turned sharply and saw Shisui, his short sword strapped to his back, come into view.

"Finally."

"Sōken, what... happened here?"

"Shisui, you're too late. The name Body Flicker Shisui is weeping!"

"Cut the nonsense, Sōken. What happened here? Why would you use a Fire Style Jutsu on this scale inside the village?" Shisui hurried over, and at the sight before him, his mind went blank for a moment. As soon as he recovered, he shouted in alarm, "What the hell are you doing? The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki... Right, is the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki okay?"

"Hey, that's rude, Shisui."

Sōken stopped Shisui from approaching Naruto. "The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki... That's a terribly rude way to refer to him. This child has a name, one his parents gave him. 'Nine-Tails Jinchuriki' isn't his name."

"Uh—"

Shisui's momentum faltered. He opened his mouth, looked at Naruto sleeping on the grass, and took a step back. "Um, sorry. I... I was rude."

"That's more like it!"

Sōken nodded in satisfaction.

"..." Shisui frowned suspiciously at Sōken's smug face. Something felt off. Why had he apologized? No, apologizing was the right thing to do. Calling him the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki really was rude.

The problem was Sōken. He and the Nine-Tails... No, what was his name again? Uzumaki... Uzumaki Naruto, right. He'd apologized to Naruto-kun, and it had nothing to do with Sōken. Yet Sōken had brazenly accepted his apology...

Honestly—

What a headache!

"Sōken, quit messing around. What happened here?"

"What happened?"

Sōken sneered. "Shisui, can't you see for yourself? Don't deceive yourself! I'll think less of you if you do."

"..."

Shisui fell silent.

His gaze roved across the area. He saw Shuriken and Kunai scattered among the grass, traces of ninjutsu attacks on the ground, and a number of headless bodies, so badly disfigured by their self-destructing Fuinjutsu that their original forms were unrecognizable.

As the Uchiha Clan's only Anbu member at present,

he knew exactly what had happened to those strange corpses. Only dead soldiers whose bodies had been implanted with self-destructing Fuinjutsu formulas ended up looking so inhuman after death.

"I was escorting Naruto home when I was attacked here. There were twelve attackers, all top-notch. Judging by my assessment, four Jonin and eight Special Jonin... They struck together, and some of them had secret techniques. I couldn't hold back; I had to kill them with everything I had."

"Secret techniques?"

Shisui looked up at him.

"One pig, one deer, and a nest of bugs."

"...Are you sure?" Shisui asked with some difficulty.

"Hmph! Do you think I'm blind? Naruto passed out after the pig used the Mind Body Switch Technique on him. The deer immobilized me, too. If I hadn't reacted quickly... Shisui, by the time you got here, you probably wouldn't have found enough of me to bury."

Shisui's expression went blank.

He knew Sōken sometimes said strange things and occasionally told lies even a child could see through. But as someone who had fought alongside him and trusted him with his back, Shisui could tell Sōken wasn't joking.

"Also, the attackers had Cursed Seals on their tongues."

Sōken added this, which made the attackers' identity clear.

"Cursed Seals... the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal?"

"Danzo sent them. Maybe he wanted to kill me, or maybe he wanted to use Naruto to challenge the Third. He could have had some other purpose I don't know about, too. But... this matter, the Third..."

Sōken didn't finish.

Someone else had arrived, coming from the direction of the Uchiha Clan Compound.

"Sōken!"

"Brother Sōken."

"Are you all right, Sōken?"

There weren't many of them—six men and women in all. Their clothes bore the Uchiha Gunbai emblem, and they all had black hair and eyes... There was no doubt they were Uchiha, and every one of them was a Jonin.

They were young Jonin, too, not much older than Sōken. The oldest among them was still under twenty.

"Arashiyama, Futaba, Chihaya, Jun, Akitaro, Hokuto... Why are you the ones who came?" Sōken's eyes widened in surprise.

"It was Elder Genshi."

Uchiha Arashiyama was the one who answered.

He was Sōken's cousin, three years older than him, and the oldest of the group. Before Shisui and Sōken had come into their own, Uchiha Arashiyama had been the family's lone standout genius. But Shisui and Sōken had later overtaken him, eclipsing his brilliance.

Still, silver was silver. Even if gold stole the spotlight, silver didn't become bronze.

His promotion to Jonin at thirteen was proof of his talent.

"The clan head isn't at the compound tonight, so the elders have taken charge. Elder Genshi knew you were here, Sōken, and sent us to support you... But Shisui's already here, so it looks like you don't need us." Uchiha Arashiyama scratched his head, then greeted Shisui as well.

Sōken immediately understood.

No wonder Arashiyama and the other young ones had come instead of the clan's veteran Jonin.

Unlike those older relatives who expected him to call them uncle and were hard to direct, Arashiyama and the others were the core team Sōken had assembled. Every one of them knew he wanted to usurp the clan head, and they were staunch supporters—his "we," as he'd told Shisui.

As expected of Grandfather. That was a really thoughtful arrangement!