"Little Sosuke's here."
His elder uncle weighed the money pouch in his hand, the malice in his eyes almost entirely undisguised.
After suffering two major losses in a row, he knew his son wouldn't be able to regain face anytime soon.
Even though he had turned misfortune into fortune and awakened the Sharingan under the shock of his defeat, Uchiha Takeshi didn't want his son challenging Sosuke right away.
He had heard that the little brat had gone out with the Young Clan Head and killed a Captain-level powerhouse from the Senju Clan. Just based on that courage alone, his son was currently no match for him.
To reclaim the face he had lost, Uchiha Takeshi decided to take his son onto the battlefield as well, using the trials of life and death to accelerate his son's growth.
Either he endured it and didn't fight, or, if he did fight, he would make sure that little brat fell into the dust completely. The conflict between them was no longer a simple family dispute.
Before leaving, Uchiha Takeshi, who had lost face, wanted to personally cause that brat some trouble.
He didn't need to challenge him properly in the arena. He had plenty of ways to make a little kid suffer.
He raised his hand and tossed the money pouch over. When he saw the boy instinctively catch it, Takeshi sneered and darted straight behind him.
He placed an arm across Sosuke's shoulders. The heavy force instantly bent the boy at the waist, forcing him to struggle desperately to support his body and keep himself from falling to his knees under the pressure.
The pedestrians passing nearby couldn't see anything unusual between the two. It looked as though an elder was merely concerned about a child who felt unwell.
"Not bad. You can endure quite a lot." Uchiha Takeshi sneered inwardly. He didn't increase the force of his arm. He had come today simply to let the little brat experience the gap between their strength.
If he could make him deeply experience that despair and helplessness, he might even take the opportunity to destroy Sosuke's confidence and make a rising new star fall into the dust.
As for fighting back—
The boy couldn't even straighten his back. The slightest movement from his body would immediately end with both knees hitting the ground.
He might never be able to get back up again.
At the thought, Uchiha Takeshi's heart was nearly filled with a twisted pleasure.
He could hardly wait to see that scene.
Just then, a pale-blue arc of electricity suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Before Uchiha Takeshi could react, terrifying lightning suddenly erupted in front of him. At such close range, he had no strength to dodge.
Chidori Stream!
This was the result of Sosuke's recent cultivation. Thanks to his excellent chakra control, he was extremely proficient in the field of shape transformation for ninjutsu.
Now that he had developed Chidori Stream, anyone who dared to get close to him would have to be careful.
The elder uncle, who knew nothing about it, took almost the full force of Chidori Stream head-on. Even with his formidable strength, he could no longer stand.
His entire body was torn and bloody, completely unlike the scene he had imagined. Barely holding himself up, the elder uncle glared furiously at the boy with slightly unfocused eyes.
He couldn't understand how things had ended this way even after he had personally taken action.
That ninjutsu had been completely unheard of. He couldn't even guess how the boy had developed it.
Only now did he suddenly recall that a rumor had circulated within the clan some time ago, claiming that Uchiha Sosuke was a once-in-a-century ninjutsu genius.
At first, he had thought it was merely the Clan Head's usual method of creating a god. To give the clan members confidence to keep fighting, the Clan Head would always create a few so-called geniuses.
But looking at his current state, Uchiha Takeshi was filled with immense regret over his former contempt.
If he had known the truth beforehand, he would never have stood so close to his opponent. Ultimately, it was because he had never taken the boy before him seriously.
Though Uchiha Takeshi was consumed by humiliation and shame, he suddenly understood one thing: why his son had never been able to gain an advantage against Sosuke.
"Heh. He didn't lose unfairly."
With that, the elder uncle tilted his head and fell completely unconscious.
Sosuke's strength was still too weak. If his chakra had reached the Chunin level, that move just now would have killed his opponent outright.
Of course, Sosuke wasn't going to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. He still had great plans for the elder uncle and his son.
In the end, this farce failed to cause much of a stir within the camp.
The reason was simple. In the battles at the front, the Uchiha had successfully achieved a phased victory with the help of the Hagoromo Clan.
The invading Senju Clan had been driven back to their homeland, and all the lost territory had been recovered. It could be said that they hadn't achieved such a great victory in the past two years.
Amid the clan members' joyous celebrations, the elder uncle and his son quietly left the clan grounds. Their exact destination was unknown, but they would most likely be heading to one of the several small- and medium-sized battlefields currently locked in confrontation.
The Uchiha had more enemies than just the Senju.
There were the Uzumaki overseas, secret-art clans to the south, and the Fuma, Sarutobi, and other medium-sized clans eyeing them hungrily on the western battlefield.
None of them were pushovers. Perhaps their overall strength was far inferior to the Uchiha's, but they understood perfectly well how to take advantage of an enemy's weakened state.
Whenever the Uchiha and Senju went to war, those clans would start causing trouble in secret.
With their troops stretched thin, the Uchiha truly had no way to deal with them for the time being.
"Maintaining friendly relations with distant powers while attacking nearby enemies is the superior strategy. How did that idiot Tajima turn everyone into enemies?!"
To be honest, if the Uchiha hadn't been powerful, any other clan would have been wiped out long ago.
But for Sosuke, the more chaotic the battlefield became, the more easily he could fish in troubled waters.
If everyone lived together in harmony, where would he earn the vast number of Points?
"Now that the Senju Clan has temporarily withdrawn its troops, the focus will shift to encircling and annihilating the other clans."
"This time, I have to find a way into the reinforcement force no matter what."
Starved for action, Sosuke had already made up his mind in secret. If the Clan Head still forbade him from leaving, he would sneak off to one of those battlefields.
Although Uchiha Tajima was domineering and usually had the final say, there were still a few powerful figures within the clan who didn't give a damn about him.
"That settles it."
Having made up his mind, Sosuke silently looked forward to the day the heroes returned.
Only after the main forces returned from the front could they arrange the personnel to send as reinforcements to the other war zones.
After fighting bitterly for so many years, not everyone was willing to continue slaughtering their way across the battlefield.
How to make that choice had always been a tremendous challenge throughout the generations.
"Ugh, I want to go." Sosuke threw his head back and sighed, wishing he could immediately prove his strength to the Clan Head.
After an agonizing wait in which he watched the horizon for their return, the victorious forces from the Eastern War Zone finally returned in triumph.
Early that morning, the clan members spontaneously went out to welcome them. Uchiha Tajima walked at the very front, with a vast procession behind him.
Yet on such a festive day, a group of people happened to be walking in the opposite direction.
Every one of them wore a tense expression, forming a stark contrast with the celebrations around them.
Judging by the direction they were heading, they were most likely going to the clan's most important location.
Uchiha Academy.
Before you continue