I Have a Plan

"He's still a kid?!"

Danzo completely lost it. He pointed at Sen in the crystal ball, trembling with rage.

On Sunday, he'd just gotten home from a mission when his precious nephew came crying to him, complaining that Uchiha Sen had given him the nickname "Shimura Eunuch."

At first, Danzo had thought it was a compliment. But after asking around, he learned—

"Eunuch" meant someone without "that"!

It was the greatest humiliation imaginable!

The more Danzo thought about it, the angrier he got. He burst out cursing, "Unbelievable! I'm furious! I've lived for over forty years, always thinking the Uchiha were merely ordinary evil. Today, I've finally seen the true extent of it!

"I... I mean, how could he spread that sort of thing around?! Only you and a few people in the clan knew about it!"

It was the most important part of a man! And now the whole world knew!

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched him gasp for breath in his fury, silently covered the crystal ball, and said calmly, "Look at you, getting worked up again."

"Damn monkey! Believe me, I'll expose how you use the crystal ball to spy on the women's bathhouse!"

"You're slandering me!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Sarutobi Hiruzen leaped to his feet, slammed both hands on the desk, and roared, "That's slander!"

Danzo wasn't intimidated in the slightest. He stepped forward and slammed his hands on the desk too. Face-to-face, less than twenty centimeters apart, they glared at each other.

"You're the only one in the whole village who knows that jutsu. You can call it slander, but who do you think everyone will believe, you or me?!" Danzo delivered the fatal blow.

"I only... saw it by accident! I didn't..." Realizing he'd let something slip, Sarutobi Hiruzen snorted and sat back down, forcibly changing the subject. "It's so late. Did you break in just to argue with me?"

"Are you going to deal with Uchiha Sen or not?!"

"I've already told you, peace in the village is hard-won! The other nations are skirmishing along the borders, and war could break out at any moment. Do you really have to start an internal conflict now?!" Sarutobi Hiruzen stood by his principles.

The Nine-Tails' rampage hadn't happened yet. In the eyes of the world, Madara Uchiha had been gone for a long time. The Uchiha, both openly and behind the scenes, were now Konoha's greatest fighting force.

As for the Sharingan's ability to control Tailed Beasts, that was just an extreme case.

Hearing his words, Danzo stopped leaning on the desk and straightened up, putting some distance between them.

"I can't believe the teacher chose such a weak-willed Hokage! Why didn't he choose me back then?!"

Hearing the same old complaint, Sarutobi Hiruzen's forehead veins bulged. "You have no idea how to govern the village! Your hawkish attitude would only lead Konoha into the abyss! Only balance—"

"Enough!" Danzo couldn't be bothered to listen to his nonsense any longer. He turned and headed for the door. "If you won't send anyone, I will!"

"Danzo! Stop! I'm the Hokage!"

Danzo stood at the doorway and glanced back at him, a cold sneer tugging at his lips. "You're nothing but a lucky monkey. You'll regret this!"

With that, he walked out of the Hokage Building and slammed the door shut.

"Bang!"

As Danzo left the building, two Root Ninjas fell in behind him, waiting for his next order.

Danzo turned his head, his voice icy. "Send someone to beat up Uchiha Sen. Break two of his ribs, then threaten him. Tell him he fell by accident."

"Yes, Lord Danzo." One of the Root Ninjas asked, "Is this... the promising new talent who's recently emerged among the Uchiha?"

"What promising talent?! He's an elementary school kid who hasn't even graduated!" The very thought made Danzo's anger flare up again. "If I weren't swamped with missions lately, I'd go to the school myself!"

"Huh?"

The two Root Ninjas exchanged bewildered looks.

The Root did plenty of dirty work, and their reputation wasn't exactly good.

But... sending someone to beat up a six-year-old kid who hadn't even graduated? Wasn't that a little too outrageous? If word got out, they'd really become rats in the street, despised by everyone.

The two exchanged a knowing look and made their decision: they'd send a rookie for this job.

Their records were already black enough. They couldn't add "shameless" to the list.

The next day, at the Ninja Academy.

Kushina secretly watched Sen and was delighted to discover that, for once, he wasn't dozing off. Instead, he was seriously... looking at something.

He looked utterly bewildered, though, and kept scratching his head.

She thought happily, He must have listened when I told him to go to bed earlier last time! Hehe.

In fact, Sen really had stopped staying up all night to train. For the sake of growing taller, he'd been going to bed on time lately.

But as for paying attention in class? No way.

He had a scroll spread out in front of him, and it was making his head spin.

It was packed with guidelines for training in the "Shadow Clone Jutsu":

Shadow Clone Jutsu: From Beginner to Practical Use

Step One: Gather chakra and release it outside the body.

Step Two: Understand the structure of a "person." A Shadow Clone isn't a Transformation Technique; it uses chakra to make a complete copy of a new "self," so you need to study human anatomy.

2.1: Human proportions: an adult's head-to-body ratio is about 1:7, while a child's is about 1:5. When using the Shadow Clone Jutsu, you need to account for clothing...

2.2: Human skeletal structure...

2.3: Human musculature...

Sen scratched his head in confusion.

When he'd watched the anime, Naruto had just formed a cross-shaped hand seal and made hundreds or thousands of Shadow Clones. Why did it seem so complicated now?

This was much harder than the Clone Technique. Wouldn't it take weeks to learn? He'd be better off spending that time building up more attributes with Kushina.

How could he make this work?

Just as he was getting a headache, the teacher at the front of the classroom asked a question:

"The inheritance of Kekkei Genkai is a rather complicated topic. Minato, why don't you answer?"

Namikaze Minato stood up and answered confidently, "The inheritance of Kekkei Genkai mainly depends on dominant and recessive genes. For example, the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan: all of their members have it, which means they all carry two AA genes. Even if they marry into another clan, the first generation will have the Byakugan 100% of the time, while the second generation and onward will have it 50% of the time.

"But the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan is different. It seems that not everyone can awaken it. This suggests that the Sharingan's genetic trait may be recessive, aa, and that both parents need to carry the relevant genes for their child to have the potential to awaken it.

"So if they marry into another clan, there's a 100% chance their children won't have the ability to use the Sharingan."

"That was a perfect answer!" The teacher praised him and gestured for Minato to sit down.

Quite a few girls in the classroom turned admiring looks toward Minato.

In the back row, Sen scoffed to himself.

What the hell do you know about the Uchiha? The Sharingan also needs Mental Power to support it, and it takes an emotional shock to awaken. Otherwise, did Sarada just pick up her Mangekyo off the ground?

Still... he really does know this theory inside and out...

Thinking of this, Sen suddenly raised a finger. His eyes lit up as he looked at Minato, and a mischievous smile tugged at his lips.

"I have a plan."