In the darkened lab, a pair of bloodshot eyes stared at the entrance, filled with fury.
Creak~~
The lab door swung open. Uchiha Chen walked in, kitted out with all his fishing gear, and tossed the three-inch fish he'd finally managed to catch into a fish tank.
"Shisui? Why are you still in the lab?"
Uchiha Chen jumped.
"I haven't left this room in two days!"
Uchiha Shisui wasn't using his Sharingan, but nearly the whole whites of his eyes were shot through with red veins, making him look even more terrifying than when he had it activated.
"Chen, where did you go today?"
Shisui, who was usually so gentle, was anything but polite to Uchiha Chen now. He didn't even call him "bro" anymore.
Feeling guilty, Uchiha Chen hid the fishing rod in his hand behind his back and said quietly, "Hikari and I went fishing."
"So you two went fishing and left me here to do the cell nucleus transplants?"
Shisui's eyes widened as he fixed Uchiha Chen with a death glare.
Cell nucleus transplants required extremely precise observation and technique. Only the Mangekyō Sharingan could really meet the requirements. Kirigakure had recently begun pulling back its forces, so Uchiha Chen had brought Shisui in to help out.
But every day, he took Hikari out to enjoy the sights, often leaving Shisui all alone to perform the transplants with his Mangekyō activated.
"Ahem!" Uchiha Chen cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed. "Hikari wants to try all kinds of new things! Besides, I'm back in the lab helping you now, aren't I? How many have you transplanted from this batch?"
"Hmph!"
Shisui gave a cold laugh as he deftly washed the glass dishes. When he was done, he even used a wisp of Fire Style Chakra to dry them.
"I stayed up for two days straight. My eyes are practically worn out, but I finished transplanting the whole batch!"
Excellent, Shisui. You've become a proper research grunt!
No, wait. He still didn't know how to write a paper. But he didn't need to be listed as the third author anyway—at most, Chen could thank him in the acknowledgments!
"Great work, Shisui!
"Once we're done, you can get yourself a Lava Release Samehada, and I'll get a Boil Release Samehada. We'll build up our business and make it great again!"
Uchiha Chen dangled a carrot in front of Shisui, then hurried over to the incubator to check the experimental records and see how the fish eggs were hatching.
"Chen, Kirigakure has almost completely withdrawn!"
Shisui had vented his anger and returned to his usual gentleness. He sighed from the bottom of his heart.
"The Third Shinobi World War should be coming to an end. Peace—"
"Kumogakure and the village are still fighting in the Land of Frost!"
Without turning around, Uchiha Chen shattered Shisui's hopes and talk of peace with a single sentence.
"Even if the Fire and Lightning countries stop fighting, that won't be peace. It'll just be a ceasefire agreement to prepare for the next Shinobi World War."
A month later.
Uchiha Chen put away the scrolls containing all kinds of equipment. Standing at the laboratory entrance, he took a deep breath, then opened his mouth and unleashed a stream of fire dragons, burning away all the research and traces inside.
The war was over. He had to return to Konoha.
"Gurgle!"
A little fish, eight centimeters long, latched onto Uchiha Chen's pinky and desperately sucked at his Chakra.
Unfortunately, it was so small that it soon got "Chakra-drunk," then lay woozily in his palm.
Over the past two months, he'd spent more than ten million ryo. Between him and Shisui, they'd gone through nineteen bottles of eye drops alone. In the end, only 189 fry had hatched from the sixty-three batches of transplanted fish eggs, and this was the only one that had developed normally.
"You've eaten up so much of my research budget. You'd better be useful!"
Uchiha Chen picked up the little Baby Samehada between his index finger and thumb and shook it vigorously. It grew dizzy and began blowing bubbles.
Maybe it was because it was still a juvenile, or perhaps because Uchiha Chen had implanted an "Attribute Body" with all five natures into it,
but the little Baby Samehada's skin was very soft, and it was a pale, rosy pink rather than the original Samehada's purplish black.
"Gurgle?"
The little Baby Samehada stuck out its tongue, clearly unable to understand what Uchiha Chen was saying.
"Chen, everyone's here. You're the only one missing!"
A cold voice suddenly came from the forest.
"Oh, Inabi, you—"
Uchiha Chen turned around, but the words died in his throat. His eyes fell on Uchiha Inabi's empty right sleeve.
Uchiha Inabi had lost an arm.
After a moment's hesitation, he followed Inabi toward the Uchiha camp without saying a word.
On the way, Inabi spoke about how he'd lost his arm as though it didn't bother him.
There was no dramatic, thrilling tale behind it.
He'd used up too much Chakra in a fierce battle, then retreated without activating his Sharingan and got caught in an Explosive Tag trap.
"I got off easy. Losing an arm is nothing. I'm lucky I survived!"
Uchiha Inabi sounded as though he'd accepted it, but his clenched fist showed he wasn't nearly as at ease as he made out.
Of course, Uchiha Chen didn't call him out. Instead, he tried to change the subject.
"I saw that Tekka has awakened his Two-Tomoe Sharingan?"
"Yeah!"
The moment his little brother came up, Uchiha Inabi immediately started bragging, looking terribly pleased with himself.
"When he saw me on a stretcher with a severed arm, his Sharingan evolved on the spot!"
Wait, what was there to be proud of?
Maybe that was just how the Uchiha were!
Uchiha Chen continued listening as Inabi summed up the fighting on the Eastern Front.
Setting aside the fact that five out of every ten sentences were Inabi bragging about himself and four were him praising other clan members, Uchiha Chen still got a general picture of the Eastern Front from him.
Konoha had over four thousand people, with a casualty rate of roughly 25%. Kirigakure's losses were over 30%.
Konoha had held a greater advantage among the jonin. Nine jonin had been killed in action, while more than twenty Kirigakure jonin had been killed, four of them by Uchiha Chen.
The Uchiha's casualty rate was much lower. Of the four hundred clan members, only a little over twenty had died. Among the eighteen clan members with Three-Tomoe Sharingan, one had died and one had been seriously wounded.
One clan member had gotten carried away and chased the enemy all the way to the outskirts of Kirigakure's camp, where he'd been killed in a concentrated attack. The other seriously wounded man was the unlucky Inabi.
Now for a math question. When they set out, eighteen Uchiha had the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. One had died. How many had it when they returned to Konoha?
That's right!
Twenty-one!
And that didn't even count Uchiha Hikari, whom Uchiha Chen had arranged to take the place of a clan member killed in action.
On the battlefield, four clan members had evolved their Sharingan to Three-Tomoe, and plenty of others had awakened and evolved their Sharingan.
Everyone else got weaker the longer they fought. The Uchiha were the only ones who got stronger—as long as they weren't all wiped out overnight.
Now that's what you call the Shinobi World's number one clan! (Nose in the air.jpg)
"Chen!"
Uchiha Chen could already see Hikari waving to him from the convoy in the distance.
"Inabi!"
Uchiha Chen turned to look at Uchiha Inabi beside him and suddenly called out a mysterious number: "131!"
"Chen, you..." Uchiha Inabi's face immediately turned red.
"I'm looking forward to your 132nd challenge!"
With a mischievous grin, Uchiha Chen waved and headed toward Hikari.
"I will!" Uchiha Inabi's eyes were practically spitting fire. He enunciated every word. "I, Uchiha Inabi, will beat you!"
There, wasn't that better? Why had he been putting on that mature, brooding act the whole way?
Uchiha Chen didn't look back.
Inabi didn't need his pity or comfort. What he needed then was a little motivation, so—
Uchiha Chen flashed the "131" gesture several more times before turning toward the sun just rising in the east, accompanied by Inabi's furious roars.
Konoha, I'm back. Are you ready?
Before you continue