Deconstructing the Will of Fire

"Sharingan Activate!"

After Tiehuo took the lead in activating his Sharingan, Youhu unhurriedly activated his own Three Tomoe Sharingan, gripped his katana, and pounced toward Tiehuo.

The Sharingan possesses powerful abilities such as observation, copying, and hypnosis; it is the primary reliance that allowed the Uchiha Clan to gain fame throughout the Ninja World.

Chiyo, a retired Five Star Jonin from Sunagakure, once said that encountering an Uchiha one-on-one on the battlefield makes escaping the best choice; even in a two-on-one situation, one cannot afford to be careless.

However, for a civil war within the Uchiha, activating the Sharingan is somewhat humorous.

According to the Relativity of the Ninja World, if both the enemy and oneself have activated the Sharingan, it is approximately equal to neither having activated it at all. This is also the reason why the Sharingan is rarely used in Uchiha civil wars.

"Youhu, I knew you weren't that simple!"

Upon seeing Youhu's Three Tomoe Sharingan, Tiehuo was both surprised and delighted. He held his sword, formed hand seals, and shouted, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

In an instant, a giant fireball was spat from Tiehuo's mouth, rumbling toward Youhu.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Youhu followed suit, simultaneously casting the Great Fireball Technique.

BOOM!

The two giant fireballs collided in the air, merged, and exploded. Countless sparks splashed in all directions, illuminating the darkness above the Nanka River.

Under the cover of the firelight, Youhu used the Body Flicker Technique to appear right in front of Tiehuo.

After clearly reading Tiehuo's move, Youhu struck Tiehuo's back fiercely with his scabbard. The intense pain nearly made Tiehuo drop his dagger. He was met head-on by Youhu's Sharingan, and demonic whispers echoed in his ears.

"Illusionary Technique!"

Even with the same Three Tomoe Sharingan, there are differences in quality.

Tiehuo's Three Tomoe was no match for Youhu's Three Tomoe, which was on the verge of evolving into a Mangekyo Sharingan; the resistance he could offer was truly limited.

After the defensive line constructed by his ocular power was shattered, Tiehuo quickly fell into the illusion, seeing the truth within it.

In the illusion, Tiehuo saw the outcome of the Uchiha Coup: Clan Head Fugaku and Elder Yachiyo were dead, and the entire Uchiha Clan had been wiped out at the hands of the Konoha Anbu.

After breaking free from the illusion, Tiehuo was incredibly weak. He didn't even have the energy to care about the fact that Youhu's ocular power was stronger than his own. He gasped for air and said:

"Youhu, what did you do to me? Why did I just see the clan being slaughtered?"

"This is the future of the Uchiha."

Youhu's tone was extremely calm, as if he were speaking of a matter that had nothing to do with him.

"Uchiha's Future?"

Tiehuo was stunned for a moment, then shook his head desperately and said, "The Uchiha's future cannot be like this. We have dozens of Jonin and hundreds of Chunin and Genin. It is impossible for the Uchiha to be annihilated."

Youhu walked over to Tiehuo and said lightly:

"Konoha has hundreds of Jonin, and the total number of ninja even reaches over ten thousand."

"Do you have the confidence to defeat ten Jonin?"

"I cannot."

Tiehuo shook his head subconsciously; the answer was clearly impossible.

There are few weaklings among Konoha Jonin. An Uchiha Jonin can at most suppress an ordinary Jonin one-on-one; if they encounter two, they will be stretched thin, and if they encounter three, they can only choose to escape.

Ten people is even less worth mentioning; they would struggle to even manage an escape.

At this moment, as if remembering something, Tiehuo grabbed onto it like a drowning man clutching a straw and said, "Youhu, our enemies are not the entire village, only the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzō. We only need to eliminate them, and Konoha will belong to the Uchiha."

Youhu chuckled and crouched in front of Tiehuo: "Why would the other clans in the village trust the Uchiha Clan? Just because of the notoriety of the Uchiha Security Force?"

"Do you think my suggestion for the Clan Head to sacrifice himself was a lie?"

"If the clan truly had the strength to resist, I wouldn't have said such things."

"As far as the current situation goes, I see no hope for the clan to defeat the Hokage Building, nor do I want to see the tragedy of the clan being wiped out for launching a coup."

After hearing Youhu's words, Tiehuo fell into silence. It was the first time he had seen Youhu so calm.

In his impression, Youhu was just an unremarkable junior. He was mediocre in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu—useless aside from his good looks.

Just now, everyone had treated Youhu's speech at the clan meeting as a joke. Everyone believed that the First Hokage and Clan Head Madara might have had some kind of bond that transcended friendship, but they only listened to it as a story.

At the very least, Tiehuo himself was unwilling to believe those words.

But after seeing Youhu's powerful strength, Tiehuo began to waver.

Since Youhu had been hiding his strength, it was not impossible that the successive Hokage had hidden the secret of their preference for men.

Thinking that the seemingly glamorous Hokage were actually so dark and twisted in private, Tiehuo felt incredibly disgusted.

When he thought back to Youhu's proposal for Clan Head Fugaku to sacrifice himself, Tiehuo felt as if the sky were collapsing.

"Youhu, you said the Uchiha are on the verge of annihilation. Do you have a way to save the Uchiha?"

[Detected that the Host has woven the lie "Secrets Behind Successive Hokage" and gained the approval of Uchiha Tiehuo, who is now [deeply convinced]]

[Reward: 100 Deception Points]

Youhu did not reply to Tiehuo immediately. Instead, he put on a mysterious expression and silently began to add points.

After pouring all his Deception Points into rewriting the Three Tomoe Sharingan, Youhu's Sharingan underwent a sublimation. In an instant, it transformed from a Three Tomoe Sharingan into a Mangekyo Sharingan.

Possessing a Mangekyo Sharingan meant he finally had the strength to protect himself in the Ninja World.

With these eyes, he should be able to persuade Tiehuo.

With a thought, Youhu revealed his Mangekyo Sharingan to Tiehuo. A four-leaf clover-like Mangekyo Sharingan appeared before Tiehuo's eyes.

"Is this a Four Tomoe? No... a Mangekyo Sharingan?"

The moment he saw the Mangekyo Sharingan, Tiehuo's eyes widened, and he was too shocked to speak. After a while, he said in a hollow tone:

"So that's it. You actually awakened the Mangekyo. No wonder you could see through the future fate of the clan."

"My capacity and vision were too narrow."

"But even with these eyes, is there no way for you to change the clan's fate?"

Speaking of this, Tiehuo's tone was somewhat bleak. The Hell Viewing Technique had been too great a shock to him; he never expected that the clan's final fate would be total extermination.

Youhu deactivated his Mangekyo and reached out a hand toward Tiehuo:

"Senior Tiehuo, what did you think I was doing at the clan meeting? I have actually always wanted to save the clan, and I have been working hard toward that end."

"The clan is always filled with unrealistic fantasies about the position of Hokage, and filled with fantasies about the Will of Fire."

"Do we really need this Hokage position? Why shouldn't the Guard Division be above the Hokage?"

"If we want to defeat the Hokage faction, we must remove our filters regarding them. The Hokage is not flawless, and the Hokage is no more noble than the Captain of the Guard."

"If you truly want to change Uchiha, then bring a few trusted clansmen to wait for me at Naka Shrine tomorrow."

Tiehuo agreed deeply. Why hadn't he thought of these things before?

Uchiha did have unrealistic fantasies about the Hokage, but the Uchiha simply wanted to obtain that honor and couldn't bear to shatter the myth of the Hokage.

But today, Uchiha had reached a life-or-death moment; things were no longer the same as before.

Thinking of this, Tiehuo bowed to Youhu and said, "Lord Youhu, after I go back tonight, I will contact some trusted clansmen to defect to you."

"However, Lord Youhu, I would still like to ask one thing: this matter of the Third Hokage's preference for men..."

Hearing this, Youhu was momentarily speechless. How would he know the Third's sexual orientation? But to maintain his previous lie, he could only say with an innocent face:

"Judging by the fact that the Third Hokage never remarried, he should prefer men. Perhaps he is bisexual, it's hard to say."

Tiehuo nodded, then activated the Body Flicker Technique and vanished into the night.