My Chadonla

Mingye's intentional—or perhaps unintentional—warning made Kaede's heart go cold in an instant.

He was Uchiha Kaede, after all, one of those "naturally evil brats" of the Uchiha Clan!

Within Konoha, the Uchiha appeared to hold a lofty status and acted with dominance; they were the premier powerhouse of the village, bar none. The Senju Clan, once their equal, had already been transformed into seeds by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and integrated into the very fabric of Konoha.

Yet, beneath the Uchiha's glorious facade lurked the crisis of total annihilation.

The Sharingan Bloodline was a pair of eyes that made countless shinobi green with envy.

Within the village, the suppression of the Uchiha had never ceased, starting from the Second Hokage. The entire life of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, could be described as an effort dedicated to the destruction of the Uchiha Clan.

Aside from his Water Release techniques designed to bolster his own strength, every other forbidden jutsu he created was aimed, either overtly or covertly, at countering the Uchiha's Sharingan.

[Flying Thunder God] and [Flying Thunder God Slash]—the speed of his Space-Time Ninjutsu meant that even with the Sharingan's dynamic vision, the user's physical reaction speed simply couldn't keep up.

[Impure World Reincarnation], a forbidden jutsu that manipulated life and death—Kaede had always felt that Tobirama must have been planning to summon his own elder brother back from the Pure Land with it.

Wood Release was, for all intents and purposes, the bane of almost every ninjutsu.

[Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags] allowed a single explosive tag to infinitely summon more in a continuous chain, focusing the detonation on a single point; once a tag attached itself to a target, there was no escaping it.

Just listen to that—is that something a sane person would create? Was he planning to use it on Uchiha Madara, or perhaps reserve a [Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags] for every single member of the Uchiha?

The powerful forbidden jutsu created by Tobirama were all techniques that the Uchiha Sharingan could not dodge.

And, naturally, they were techniques that could not be copied.

How could a man as calculating as Tobirama Senju leave behind such a flaw?

After Tobirama's death, his successor, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, inherited his will, and the vigilance against the Uchiha never wavered.

In his prime, the Third Hokage could be considered the strongest person standing at the pinnacle of the Shinobi World. No one in this era dared to easily face his powerful compound ninjutsu of all five nature transformations, save for Madara, who was busy licking his wounds.

More importantly, Hiruzen was a man of many faces.

When it came to the village, he was the Third Hokage who inherited the First Hokage's Will of Fire: "Where the leaves dance, fire shall burn." He was the light of Konoha, the respected Third Hokage in the hearts of the villagers; even the Uchiha Clan could find no fault in him.

Yet in the shadows, Danzo—also a student of the Second Hokage—carried out all the dirty work. As the Hokage who controlled the village, how could the Third not know?

In fact, from Kaede's perspective, the Third was even a participant in certain things; for instance, he was well aware of the human experimentation Orochimaru conducted in the Land of the Sea during the later years.

The radiant Third Hokage wore the cloak of the Will of Fire and, in the name of love for the village, brainwashed countless aspiring youths.

Kaede also believed that the Third's vigilance toward the Uchiha was absolutely no less than the Second Hokage's.

It was just as Orochimaru said when he faced the Third during the plan to destroy Konoha.

The Third was a hypocrite.

For the entire Uchiha Clan, the only good Hokage had been the First, Hashirama Senju, and the Fourth, Minato Namikaze. Neither of these two had ever harbored hostility toward the Uchiha, but both had died far too young.

"Don't worry, Father, I won't go around announcing my talent for ninjutsu."

The joy in his heart vanished; he was now worried whether the Third's [Telescope Technique] was watching him at this very moment.

"Kaede, you are a smart child, but there are many things you shouldn't be involved in at your age. You still have your father and the Uchiha Clan, so just enjoy your childhood to the fullest."

Perhaps feeling that his previous warning was too heavy for a child like Kaede, Mingye put on a gentle smile, stroked Kaede's hair, and began to soothe him once more.

The time for Kaede to shoulder the burdens of the Uchiha Clan had not yet arrived.

"Father, I will study diligently with you, I promise."

Having lived a comfortable life for a few years under the protection of his parents, Kaede finally remembered that he was in the dangerous Shinobi World. As an Uchiha, danger existed not only outside the village but within it as well.

Kaede felt it was time to work hard.

"Let's test your chakra levels first. Isn't that the question you've been concerned about?"

Mingye signaled for Kaede to continue releasing ninjutsu.

Beyond their powerful Sharingan bloodline, the Uchiha Clan's chakra reserves were not particularly outstanding, though they were by no means low; they remained at the average level of the great clans in the Shinobi World.

They didn't have as much as the Uzumaki or Senju clans, but they had more than members of smaller clans like the Yamanaka or Nara.

Aside from rare exceptions—like the previous clan leader, Uchiha Madara, whose chakra was rumored to rival that of the First Hokage.

"Then here I go. [Lightning Release: Ground Run]!"

Kaede released the lightning technique again and again. As he continued, even though his body began to feel fatigued, his heart grew increasingly joyful and excited.

He even discovered that with each repeated release of [Lightning Release: Ground Run], his understanding of the technique deepened. If his [Lightning Release: Ground Run] had been a clumsy, amateur attempt moments ago, it was now a ninjutsu that truly possessed the power to kill.

This time, Mingye was truly shocked.

At the tenth time, he nodded slowly; at the twentieth, he watched with suspicion; at the thirtieth, he wanted to speak up and warn him; by the fortieth and fiftieth, he had become numb.

By now, Mingye didn't even want to count anymore; it was meaningless. In any case, this was not the normal state of a beginner.

"Do you not feel your chakra depleting?"

Mingye stopped Kaede from releasing any more ninjutsu. Releasing techniques so frequently, even low-level ones like [Lightning Release: Ground Run], could easily attract the prying eyes of those with ill intentions.

"Not at all! I feel like my chakra has only been consumed by a tiny bit!"

In reality, every time he performed the hand seals to release [Lightning Release: Ground Run], he drew a small amount of chakra from his lower abdomen. However, after the release, the consumed chakra recovered almost immediately.

The time it took to recover was roughly the same as the time it took to prepare and release the jutsu.

In other words, the Chakra he refined now was not only greater in quantity but also faster in recovery speed. Theoretically speaking, releasing Lightning Release: Ground Run did not reduce the total amount of Chakra within his body.

And this was merely his first time refining Chakra; as he refined it more often in the future, the Chakra accumulated within him might even catch up to the Nine-Tails.

Kaede began to daydream once again.

He was right; the Divine Body Rune and Divine Soul Rune had altered the very essence of his body.

Not only had he mastered lightning, but he also possessed nearly infinite Chakra.

"I feel like the Thunder Emperor is beckoning to me, heh... heh..."

This time, Kaede was truly grinning from ear to ear.