The casino's basement was brightly lit.
Its facilities were quite crude. There was only a table in the center, its surface piled high with stacks of papers.
A blackboard stood against one wall, covered in just as much writing.
A closer look revealed that—
It was covered with words like "God-Making Plan," "Newspaper Office," and "Entertainment Section," all of which were hard to make sense of.
Yan stood before the blackboard, sometimes furrowing his brow and sometimes relaxing his expression as he continuously scribbled across it with a pen.
In the quiet room, the pen slowly scraped across the blackboard with a "screee" sound. The grating noise seemed to hold some strange, eerie power, sending a chill down one's spine.
Bang!
Just then, someone pushed open the basement door, and two people walked in.
One of them was Uchiha Yashiro.
He pointed to the young man behind him and said to Yan, who was standing by the blackboard, writing and drawing.
"Lord Yan, I've brought him. He's absolutely trustworthy!"
Hearing the noise, Yan put down his pen and looked up.
A handsome young man with a tall, straight build stood beside Uchiha Yashiro.
After looking him over for a moment, Yan nodded, his face showing approval.
He had asked Uchiha Yashiro to select this person from within the clan.
He was handsome and talented, too.
Though still young, he had already awakened the Two Tomoe Sharingan. He wasn't quite at Jonin level, but he was far stronger than most Special Jonin. Most importantly, he hadn't joined Konoha's ranks of ninja.
"What's your name?"
"Uchiha Hideto!" The young man looked nervous, and he spoke with a slight stammer.
"Good name!"
Yan walked over to Uchiha Hideto. "Do you know why I asked you to come?"
"Yes!" Uchiha Hideto nodded. "Uncle Yashiro said you had an important mission for me."
Yan smiled faintly, then turned and searched through the pile of papers on the table. After a moment, he pulled out a file.
He handed it over and said, "This contains your next mission and the persona you'll need to cultivate. Go back and study it carefully!"
Uchiha Hideto accepted the file but didn't open it. Instead, he bowed to Yan.
"Please rest assured, Lord Yan. I won't let you down."
"You were recommended by Yashiro, so of course I trust you!" Yan clapped him on the shoulder. "But apart from the people here, I don't want a fourth person to know about this mission."
"That includes Clan Head Fugaku and the elders!"
Uchiha Hideto nodded firmly. "Please rest assured, sir. No one else will find out about this." His voice held not the slightest hesitation.
Yan patted his shoulder again, then waved a hand.
"Go. Just pretend you've never been here."
"..."
Uchiha Yashiro remained where he was. Only after Uchiha Hideto had left did he speak.
"Lord Yan, don't we need to support Hideto with his mission?"
"Of course we do!" Yan nodded. "His mission is very important. It concerns my plans going forward."
"Understood!" Uchiha Yashiro said no more.
He only knew part of what Hideto's mission involved, but since Yan showed no intention of explaining further, he naturally didn't ask.
After all, he was just a subordinate. He did what his boss told him to do.
Yan smiled faintly, took a file and some documents from the table, and handed them over.
"Yashiro, this is your next assignment. Train Hideto well, and be careful. It's not time for him to make his move yet."
"Yes, Lord Yan!" Uchiha Yashiro took the file and read it carefully, his expression focused. It took him a long time to reach the last page.
Yan walked past Yashiro toward the door, his figure slowly disappearing from view.
The basement grew quiet once more, save for the occasional rustle of paper as Uchiha Yashiro turned the pages.
Over the next two and a half months,
Yan gradually gained great prestige within the Uchiha Clan, and for a time, even eclipsed Shisui.
It was all thanks to the success of the Casino Plan.
The plan had already helped more than twenty clan members awaken the Sharingan, including Uchiha Teuchi, whose fortunes had risen and fallen again and again.
Most of them were ordinary clan members, but even that was enough to send them into a frenzy of joy.
The Uchiha Clan had roughly 2,400 members, of whom only a little over 600 were ninja—a ratio of nearly four to one.
But that didn't mean the remaining ordinary clan members had no desire to awaken the Sharingan.
On the contrary, they dreamed of awakening it. It was only after their hopes had been dashed again and again that they were forced to accept reality.
Now that they knew the clan had a plan that could increase their chances of awakening the Sharingan, it was hardly surprising that they became fanatical.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Yan could walk down the street and shop without paying!
At the same time, large and small casinos sprang up all over the Uchiha Clan, along with plenty of rules that skirted the line.
For example, anyone who awakened the Sharingan would get all their money back—and even receive a bonus. Those who didn't awaken it, however, could only blame their bad luck!
No matter how brazen those casinos became, they all knew who was in charge.
They were willing to obey Yan's every order and cooperate with all his actions.
As a result, the atmosphere within the clan grew increasingly bizarre.
Then, under Yan's deliberate guidance, the idea of class divisions gradually took root.
Whether or not they could awaken the Sharingan had become an obsession for them.
Those who had taken part in the Casino Plan but still hadn't awakened their Sharingan were even called useless!
This left many clan members with no interest in working. They spent all day in the casinos instead.
At first, Yan had thought that promoting the Casino Plan would prepare the clan members mentally and thus lower the chances of them awakening the Sharingan.
But he hadn't expected that the stark visibility of class divisions would be so terrifying, driving them to so many actions under immense pressure.
The elation of getting rich overnight, the despair of losing everything, their parents' disappointment, the scorn of friends and relatives, their jealousy of those who had awakened the Sharingan, and the constant taunts of "useless" from those around them—
All these extreme emotions hung over the Uchiha Clan like an invisible shadow, suffocating every clan member.
At the same time,
The number of clan members who awakened the Sharingan began to surge under all this pressure.
In just a month and a half, more than seventy clan members awakened the Sharingan. With a little training, they could become competent Genin.
This drove those who hadn't awakened it into an even greater frenzy!
Chaos spread throughout the clan. The civilian economy nearly collapsed, and several bloody incidents broke out.
If Yan hadn't contacted the clan and the Military Police Force in time and mobilized a large number of people—
The three sides had joined forces and forcibly suppressed them. Otherwise, who knew how many people would have died?
Faced with such chaos, even Uchiha Fugaku finally realized what was going on.
But before he could summon Yan, a message from the Anbu had already arrived.
The year was drawing to a close. The Third Hokage had called a Jonin Meeting to review the year and insisted that Uchiha Fugaku attend.
And he had to go now!
Before you continue