Uchiha Clan Regular Meeting

April 30th, it had been a month and a half since Akaseki graduated.

It had also been over a month since he returned from the Flower Capital. In these past six weeks, Akaseki had completed a total of six C-rank missions and six D-rank missions.

The reason he only completed six C-rank missions was that there was only enough time for six; the reason he only did six D-rank missions was that he was limited to six—Konoha only allowed each squad to accept one D-rank mission per week.

Although fresh genin were technically an exception, Jiraiya clearly didn't view them as "fresh."

Purely from the perspective of making money, because D-rank missions were simple, safe, and quick to complete, they were actually more cost-effective than C-rank or even some B-rank missions.

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Therefore, they were essentially a form of "minimum subsistence allowance"...

Generally, once a ninja became a chunin, they wouldn't take D-rank missions unless they were leading students or occasionally strapped for cash.

Of course, there were some unusual ninjas, such as a certain someone who frequented casinos and had hundreds of D-rank missions recorded on their ninja card...

Today was a good day for Akaseki.

For one, it was his first time attending the monthly clan meeting; for another, it was the day he planned to finish watching Family Happiness.

Inside Naka Shrine, the Uchiha Clan was holding its routine monthly assembly.

As a genin, Akaseki was now eligible to attend...

At the end of March, Akaseki hadn't been able to return because he was away on a C-rank mission, so this month was his first time participating. Clan Head Jiancheng introduced Akaseki formally first.

"Akaseki is attending the clan meeting for the first time today. Although he just graduated, he has not only awakened the Sharingan, but his squad leader is Jiraiya. He has already begun executing C-rank missions, which is why he wasn't in the village last month..." Jiancheng introduced Akaseki with great enthusiasm.

Mainly because he had already awakened his eyes, the clansmen were very warm toward Akaseki, hoping he would also become a pillar of the Uchiha Clan in the future.

Because the other fresh genin of the Uchiha were introduced last month, only Akaseki was presented this month, making it feel a bit grand and leaving Akaseki feeling slightly awkward.

Fortunately, out of a desire to protect and temper him, Jiancheng and Lanyu did not deliberately publicize his "talent," so everyone just assumed he was normally gifted. Among the ordinary clansmen, aside from Fugaku and Yashiro who had more contact with him, no one truly regarded him as a "genius."

After offering some words of encouragement, Clan Head Jiancheng said: "Alright, Akaseki, you may step down now and listen carefully to the meeting content!"

The meeting then entered its formal phase. First, everyone reported on which clansmen had achieved breakthroughs in strength this month. The most eye-catching news was naturally the clansmen who had awakened their eyes and evolved to the Two-Tomoe stage, though unfortunately, there were still no clansmen who had evolved their Sharingan to the Three-Tomoe stage this month.

However, everyone kept this excitement to themselves. It was an unwritten rule within the clan not to directly congratulate someone for awakening their eyes; they would only express relief or praise for so-and-so's awakening when discussing it afterward.

After all, the awakening of the Uchiha Sharingan was often accompanied by personal grief and rage—situations where one could be happy enough to awaken and transform were far too rare.

Then, the important segment of the Clan Head's speech began...

"Regarding the new secret agency that Shimura Danzō is secretly establishing, I submitted a request to the Third Hokage at the jonin meeting last week. I demanded that its functions be disclosed to the jonin and its roster be made public to all major ninja clans. The reply has arrived... and it was denied!" Clan Head Jiancheng said with a resonant, forceful tone, slamming his hand on the table in anger.

"What? It has to be kept secret? Isn't the Anbu enough?"

"This Shimura Danzō has always been at odds with our Uchiha Clan; I fear he comes with ill intent!"

"Indeed, back when the Second Hokage was alive, this man was often the one whispering slanders..."

"What does Kagami say? Why didn't he become the Hokage's advisor?"

Upon hearing this, the clansmen began to murmur, their resentment clearly running deep.

Thus, the meeting entered its main topic—cursing the Third Hokage and cursing Danzō...

It was no wonder the Uchiha clansmen were dissatisfied.

When the First Hokage was in power, the functions of the Military Police Force were far greater than they were now.

The Second Hokage had established the Anbu, stripping away a large portion of the power that originally belonged to the Military Police Force, and now the Third Hokage was establishing yet another secret department outside of the Anbu...

Akaseki, sitting in the corner, watched the scene before him with a strange expression.

He had originally thought the clan meeting would be more serious and cover more important matters, but as it turned out...

"Not used to it? Actually, everyone is family. When we hold meetings, we are usually quite relaxed, so don't overthink it," Fugaku said to Akaseki, showing high emotional intelligence.

"Indeed... it's very intimate." Akaseki suddenly realized that the clan meeting was just like this.

Well, it wasn't petty; it was "intimate."

"After the meeting, do you want to copy a few more Lightning Style ninjutsu?" Fugaku asked.

Fugaku was now accustomed to Akaseki's ability to recover his ocular power faster than the average clansman...

Normally, after an Uchiha awakened their eyes, they could copy everything they needed within a month with the help of their clansmen.

However...

Although Akaseki recovered quickly and was efficient, he not only had three types of chakra nature transformations, but he had also been away from the village for more than half of the last month and a half. Therefore, Akaseki had only finished copying Fire Style, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu, while his progress in Lightning Style and Earth Style was still lagging.

"Let's skip it tonight; I need to rest as well," Akaseki politely declined Fugaku.

"Hmm, resting is good too." Fugaku usually worried that Akaseki worked too hard.

But Akaseki wasn't actually resting tonight...

He was doing it for the final three hours of Family Happiness!

The 180-hour Family Happiness was finally about to be finished by Akaseki.

Over this past month and a half, although Akaseki's ninjutsu copying hadn't been completed as scheduled, his chakra growth had basically finished. It had now reached the level of a normal chunin and had essentially stopped growing at a high speed.

Because he had been utilizing the time difference to constantly practice chakra control during his periods of Immersion, Akaseki basically suffered no side effects from the loss of control that usually followed a sudden surge in chakra, and he consistently maintained proper command over his increased reserves.

Regarding the nature transformation of his chakra, Akaseki had finally pushed the Scorching Heat of his Fire Style chakra transformation to 10% over the past two days, further increasing the temperature of his flames!

His Incineration (difficulty to extinguish) and Overspread Burning (range) had also both seen improvements.

As the younger generation, Akaseki, Fugaku, and Yashiro basically didn't speak during the meeting; they only chimed in with a few words about "what to eat" whenever a clan member announced their marriage and invited everyone to the wedding banquet, slacking off from start to finish until it ended...

After the meeting adjourned, although Akaseki's ocular power was quite abundant, he surprisingly didn't go to copy any ninjutsu, instead preparing to return to his residence to begin his Immersion.

However, on the way back to the clan grounds, Akaseki happened to see a girl with red war paint on her face riding a dog, looking extremely impatient. Upon seeing him, she rode her dog directly toward him, blocking his path.

"Hm? Tsume, is something the matter?" Akaseki recognized her as his classmate from the Ninja Academy—Inuzuka Tsume.

Back at the academy, Tsume, who hailed from the Inuzuka Clan, was an honor student who consistently ranked in the top ten. If Akaseki didn't consider the Fan Clan status he carried, he could only look up to her, but after awakening his eyes, he couldn't say he was arrogant, yet he did look down on everyone else just a little...

"Of course there's something! If you made an appointment for a delivery, don't go out!" Inuzuka Tsume said impatiently.

Ah...

Right, Akaseki remembered; he did indeed have an appointment for a delivery today.