After several days, Uchiha Kei finally returned to Konoha with a group of wounded. Looking at the familiar Konoha Gate and the three statues standing atop Kage Rock, he was overwhelmed with emotion.
He had finally come back. He had finally made it back alive.
Kei wasn't the only one feeling this way. The wounded from Konoha who had traveled with him were just as moved.
The desire to live wasn't unique to Kei. Nearly everyone who went to war felt the same way.
Though such thoughts weren't helpful on the battlefield, they were the deepest desires hidden in everyone's heart. Once they were safe, those desires resurfaced.
Perhaps because they weren't exactly a victorious force, no one had come to welcome them. Kei didn't mind.
But as he said goodbye to Yamanaka Masato and prepared to head for the Uchiha district, he noticed several Ninja dressed in Uchiha attire walking toward him.
Kei recognized a few of them, but he had no connection with them. They weren't his kind of people.
Within the clan, these people were the sort considered "worth cultivating" or "not needed on the battlefield." They served the Clan elders, or were members of the Konoha Military Police Force.
Simply put, they were the most typical Uchiha clan members. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have thought much of someone like Kei, an "outsider"—especially since he didn't even have the Sharingan.
But things were different now. Word from the front lines had changed how they saw this "outsider": he had awakened the Sharingan, and not just any Sharingan, but the Three Tomoe Sharingan!
"Looks like you've earned the clan's recognition," Masato said with a smile when he spotted the Uchiha. "Well, I won't keep you. I should head back, too. Thanks for saving me."
"You've thanked me