February 13, Year 39 of Konoha. Kusagakure.
Akaseki was busy being Akaseki—
More precisely, he was "ruminating" afterward.
That was right. Akaseki had gone into Deep Immersion again!
In his memories, Hong Yan had voluntarily donated blood to save his rival in love and sworn enemy, leading to a happy ending for everyone—
"Aaagh!" Akaseki pounded the floor of the secret chamber in fury.
When he had seen that his "benevolence" had increased in his examination results, Akaseki had already guessed that "Hong Yan" would sacrifice himself to save someone—and that the person would be an enemy. But actually reliving it still made him want to claw his heart out.
For a member of the Uchiha Clan, it was far too much.
Two months earlier, Akaseki had begun choosing Deep Immersion.
The reason was simple: over the previous four months, he had saved enough to pay for surgery on Grandma Chizuru's other eye. After that, there was no longer quite the same urgency—
Before the New Year, Akaseki had asked Tanuki Treasure to take Grandma Chizuru's eye back. She, in turn, had asked Tanuki Treasure to bring him another eye—the right eye of another Clan Elder, Uchiha Dongzhuo.
During the internal conflict, Clan Elder Dongzhuo had belonged to Setsuna's faction. Akaseki had no idea why Grandma Chizuru had chosen him. He certainly looked like he had a foul temper.
These blind or one-eyed Clan Elders rarely went out. They only occasionally "critiqued the state of the clan" at clan meetings to let off steam, so Akaseki did not know much about them.
He only knew that Clan Elder Dongzhuo was the fiercest of them whenever he "critiqued the state of the clan"—
But if Grandma Chizuru believed Dongzhuo was now comparatively the most reliable, despite having once been a rebel,