The Temptation of Returning to the Village (Seeking Recommendations and Follows)

In the darkened laboratory, a pair of blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the doorway, the gaze filled with hostility.

Squeak~~

The laboratory door was pushed open, and Uchiha Chen walked in with a full set of fishing gear, tossing a three-inch fish he had finally caught into a water tank.

"Shisui? Why are you still in the lab?"

Uchiha Chen was startled.

"I haven't stepped out of this door for the past two days!"

Uchiha Shisui did not have his Sharingan activated at this moment, but the whites of his eyes were almost entirely covered in bloodshot veins, looking even more terrifying than if he had activated his dōjutsu.

"Chen, where did you go today?"

Shisui, who was usually gentle, was not polite to Uchiha Chen at all now, not even bothering to call him brother.

Uchiha Chen guiltily hid the fishing rod behind his back and whispered, "I went fishing with Hikari."

"So you two went fishing, leaving me here to perform nuclear transplantation?"

Shisui widened his eyes, giving Uchiha Chen a death glare.

Nuclear transplantation required extremely precise observation and manipulation, something basically only the Mangekyō Sharingan could handle. Since Kirigakure had recently begun to pull back their forces, Uchiha Chen had pulled the idle Shisui over to help.

As a result, he spent every day roaming the mountains and waters with Hikari, often leaving Shisui all alone to keep his Mangekyō active for the transplantations.

"Ahem!" Uchiha Chen cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed:

"Hikari wanted to try all sorts of new things! Besides, didn't I come back to the lab to help you? How many of this batch have you transplanted?"

"Hmph!"

Shisui sneered, cleaning the glass dishes with practiced ease, and didn't forget to release a wisp of Fire Style Chakra to dry them after washing.

"I've stayed up for two days and two nights, my eyes are almost ruined, but I've finished transplanting that entire batch!"

Very good, Shisui, you are already a qualified scientific laborer!

No, wait, he doesn't know how to write papers yet, but he doesn't need to be listed as a third author anyway; at most, I'll thank him in the acknowledgments!

"Well done, Shisui!

When the time comes, you'll get a Lava Style Baby Samehada, and I'll get a Boil Style Baby Samehada. We'll grow strong and create a new legacy!"

Uchiha Chen painted a grand picture for Shisui, then hurried over to the incubator to check the experimental records and the status of the fish eggs.

"Chen, Kirigakure has almost completely withdrawn!"

Shisui, having vented his temper, returned to his previous gentle self and sighed from the bottom of his heart:

"The Third Shinobi World War should be coming to an end soon, and peace..."

"Kumogakure and the village are still fighting in the Land of Frost!"

Uchiha Chen, without turning his head, shattered Shisui's sentiment and hope for peace with a single sentence:

"Even if the Fire and Lightning nations declare a ceasefire, that isn't peace—it's just an armistice agreement in preparation for the next great war."

A month later.

Uchiha Chen packed away the scrolls containing various equipment, stood at the laboratory entrance, took a deep breath, and exhaled a stream of fire dragons, burning all the data and traces within the lab to ash.

The war was over; he had to return to Konoha.

"Gurgle!"

An eight-centimeter-long fish bit onto Uchiha Chen's little finger, desperately trying to absorb his Chakra.

Unfortunately, it was too small, and after absorbing for a while, it became 'Chakra-drunk,' lying dizzy and limp in the palm of Uchiha Chen's hand.

Over the past two months, he had spent tens of millions of ryō, and he and Shisui had gone through 19 bottles of eye drops alone. In the end, only 189 fry hatched from 63 batches of transplanted eggs, and only this little thing was able to develop and grow normally.

"You've swallowed so much of my funding, you'd better be useful!"

Uchiha Chen pinched the Baby Samehada with his index finger and shook it hard, causing it to dizzyingly blow bubbles.

Perhaps because it was still in its juvenile stage, or perhaps because Uchiha Chen had implanted 'Attribute Bodies' of five different natures into it, the skin of this Baby Samehada was very soft and a delicate, pale red color, rather than the purple-black of the original Samehada.

"Gurgle?"

The Baby Samehada stuck out its tongue, clearly not understanding what Uchiha Chen was saying.

"Chen, everyone has arrived; we're just waiting for you!"

A cold voice suddenly came from the forest.

"It's Inabi, you..."

Uchiha Chen turned around, the words he originally wanted to say coming to an abrupt halt as his eyes fell upon Uchiha Inabi's empty right sleeve.

Uchiha Inabi had lost an arm.

After hesitating for a moment, he followed silently behind Inabi, heading toward the Uchiha camp.

On the road, Inabi spoke about the experience of losing his arm with surprising indifference.

There was no heart-pounding or soul-stirring story to tell.

It was simply that after a brutal battle on the Eastern Front, his Chakra was depleted, and he hadn't activated his Sharingan while retreating, leading him to trigger an Explosive Tag trap.

"I consider myself lucky; what's losing an arm? Being able to survive is good enough!"

Uchiha Inabi seemed to have a very open-minded attitude, but his tightly clenched fist revealed that his heart was not as relaxed as his words suggested.

However, Uchiha Chen certainly wouldn't expose him, so he tried to change the subject:

"I saw that Tekka has already awakened his Two-Tomoe?"

"That's right!"

The moment his younger brother was mentioned, Uchiha Inabi immediately became cocky, boasting with pride:

"The moment he saw me lying on a stretcher with a severed arm, his Sharingan evolved on the spot!"

Wait, what? Is that really something to be proud of?

Perhaps this is just what the Uchiha are like!

Uchiha Chen continued to listen as Inabi summarized the recent war on the Eastern Front.

Setting aside the fact that five out of every ten sentences were him bragging about himself and four were him bragging about others in the clan, Uchiha Chen managed to grasp the general situation of the Eastern Front from Inabi's account.

Konoha had over four thousand men with a casualty rate of about 25%, while the opposing Kirigakure had a casualty rate exceeding 30%.

Konoha held a greater advantage at the Jonin level, with nine Jonin killed in action while they had slain over 20 Kirigakure Jonin, four of whom were contributed by Uchiha Chen.

The Uchiha casualty rate was much lower; out of four hundred clansmen, only twenty-odd had died, and among the eighteen Three-Tomoe clansmen, one had died and one was severely injured.

One clansman had lost his head and chased the enemy all the way to the vicinity of the Kirigakure main camp, where he was focused down and killed, while the other severely injured one was the unlucky Inabi.

So, here is a math problem: when they arrived, the Uchiha had eighteen people with Three-Tomoe, one died, so how many Three-Tomoe were there when they returned to Konoha?

That's right!

It was twenty-one!

And that didn't even count Uchiha Hikari, whom Uchiha Chen had arranged to take the identity of a fallen clansman.

On the battlefield, four clansmen had evolved their Sharingan to Three-Tomoe, and a great many others had awakened or evolved their eyes.

Everyone else became weaker the more they fought, but only the Uchiha—as long as they weren't wiped out in a single night—only became stronger the more they fought.

What does it mean to be the number one noble clan in the Shinobi World! (Nostrils flared.jpg)

"Chen!"

Uchiha Chen could already see Hikari waving at him from the convoy in the distance.

"Inabi!"

Uchiha Chen turned to look at Uchiha Inabi beside him and suddenly uttered a mysterious number: "131!"

"Chen, you..." Uchiha Inabi's face immediately flushed red.

"I'll be waiting for your 132nd challenge!"

Uchiha Chen waved his hand with a mischievous grin and walked toward Hikari.

"I will!" Uchiha Inabi's eyes were practically spitting fire as he enunciated each word:

"I, Uchiha Inabi, will definitely defeat you!"

Isn't that better? Why were you pretending to be so mature and profound the whole way here!

Uchiha Chen did not look back.

Inabi didn't need his pity or comfort; at a time like this, it was better to give him a little motivation, so—

Uchiha Chen gestured the '131' sign a few more times before looking toward the rising sun in the east, amidst the sound of Inabi's exasperated roar.

Konoha, I have returned; are you ready?