Take Down Minato Namikaze

"Kill Minato Namikaze."

"Elder, what did you say? I didn't quite hear you."

"I said... go and kill Minato Namikaze. Do I need to repeat myself again?"

Uchiha Sen lowered his head, his expression obscured.

But his clenched fists and white-knuckled joints betrayed his true feelings at this moment.

Me?

A student who hasn't even graduated from the ninja academy.

Go dance around in front of the Yellow Flash, then announce loudly:

Minato, I'm going to kill you!

Even if you, Elder Yashiro, are ready to discard me, there's no need to use me as a sacrificial pawn, is there?

Isn't it just that I took a few of your resources?

So what if my growth is a bit slow?

This makes you look incredibly petty, very un-Uchiha.

Inside the old-fashioned courtyard, a few cherry blossom branches swayed slightly in the breeze.

Cherry blossoms drifted down.

A few petals were swept along by the breeze, passing through the veranda and landing on the tatami mats.

The room fell into a brief silence.

One old, one young, they sat kneeling face to face.

Uchiha Yashiro looked at the youth before him, his brows furrowed.

"What? You are unwilling?"

The youth's fists tightened further.

"I—"

"I will go."

"Very good. You have not disgraced the surname of our ancestors. Rest assured... regardless of success or failure, I can grant you one condition."

The youth did not speak; silence was also a form of answer.

Elder Yashiro's goal had been achieved; as for the youth's attitude, it was unimportant.

"Very well, you may withdraw. When you have decided what you want, tell Taohuo."

Uchiha Sen bowed respectfully.

He stood up and exited the courtyard.

The room returned to silence.

Uchiha Yashiro picked up the teacup from the table and took a light sip.

"Come out."

A figure flashed from behind the landscape screen, came before Yashiro, and knelt respectfully.

"Great Elder."

"Taohuo, tell me your thoughts on the current state of the Uchiha clan."

The Great Elder's movements were standard, following the inherited tea ceremony; every step was performed with great care.

Uchiha Taohuo organized his words, a flicker of fanaticism flashing in his eyes.

"The Uchiha surname is glory itself; there is no need for further words."

The Great Elder nodded with satisfaction: "Taohuo, there are not many pure Uchiha like you left in the clan today. They have forgotten the honor of the Uchiha, their eyes blinded by false lies."

Uchiha Taohuo agreed with the Elder completely, the fanaticism in his eyes intensifying.

His performance was entirely observed by Yashiro, who nodded inwardly.

"Regarding the arrangement I just made, what are your thoughts?"

The Great Elder's intention to groom him was already very obvious, and Uchiha Taohuo suppressed his excitement as he spoke:

"The Great Elder intends to show the Konoha high-ups that our Uchiha blades remain sharp."

"That is a consideration, but it is not comprehensive."

"Please enlighten me, Great Elder!" Taohuo bowed deeply.

"Sigh!" Uchiha Yashiro completed the final step of the tea ceremony, then turned solemn, his voice deep:

"In the last great war, forty-two of our clan's elites died in battle."

"I know."

"No, you don't understand!"

Yashiro's tone rose sharply, the hatred in his eyes no longer possible to conceal.

"They treat this old man like a fool, and they treat the Uchiha clan like trash they can knead and flatten at will."

Taohuo widened his eyes: "Could it be that they didn't die in battle?"

"It doesn't matter."

The Great Elder waved his hand.

"Whether they truly died in battle, or... it no longer matters."

Calming his emotions, Uchiha Yashiro returned to being that unflappable Great Elder.

"The situation is already set; pursuing the truth is meaningless, especially since they covered their tracks so cleanly. Now, our Uchiha clan stands at the edge of a cliff, so..."

The old man paused here, meeting Taohuo's gaze, and said word by word:

"So, I am going to give Hiruzen a warning. No matter who dares to scheme against the Uchiha, I will use the same methods to attack his Hokage faction, regardless of the cost."

Uchiha Yashiro's words were resonant and firm.

Taohuo thought for a moment: "Great Elder, as far as I know, it should be Danzo..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly realized the implication, and then looked at the Great Elder with admiration.

"You finally thought of this layer."

Uchiha Yashiro nodded with satisfaction; his guidance had not been in vain.

"Yes, balance. Konoha needs balance, and the Hokage needs it even more. This is his strategy, but also his weakness. He will not let anyone destroy the system of checks and balances he worked so hard to establish. Hmph! Danzo is no exception."

So that was it. Taohuo felt genuine admiration for the Great Elder's capacity, then thought of the young man who had just left and sighed:

"Uchiha Sen, what a pity."

"A piece of trash!"

The Great Elder held deep resentment toward Uchiha Sen.

"He awakened his eyes at six, and I spent a massive amount of resources to cultivate him. And what was the result? Three years later, how did he repay this old man? 'The Shame of the Uchiha'! Since he has already abandoned the glory of his surname, let him provide some final residual heat."

Speaking of Uchiha Sen, Taohuo naturally thought of that genius from three years ago, who awakened his eyes at six and stunned the entire clan.

The Great Elder had gone to great lengths to bring him under his wing, but who could have imagined that the following three years could not even be described as "fading into the crowd."

It simply dropped everyone's jaws; not only did he fail to show the talent he should have, but he was instead pinned to the ground and rubbed into the dirt by others.

It would be one thing if it were top-tier clans like the Hyuuga, but even disciples from obscure, nameless small clans could step on him twice.

It was no wonder the Great Elder was angry; not only was his investment washed away, but Sen even earned the nickname "The Shame of the Uchiha," making him even worse than Obito.

Now everyone knew that the Uchiha clan had produced two oddities: Obito and Sen.

How could he not be angry?

"What does the Great Elder want me to do?"

Mentioning Uchiha Sen nearly caused Yashiro to lose his composure again, a mouthful of resentment stuck in his chest.

After calming down for a long while, he said bitterly:

"Three days from now, if you haven't heard news of him assassinating Minato Namikaze, spread that rumor throughout all of Konoha, and then hand him over to Hiruzen."

"Understood!"

The conversation inside the room continued.

Meanwhile.

Sen, who had successfully taken the title of "The Shame of the Uchiha" from Obito's head, was walking alone through the clan compound.

He treated the surrounding whispers and side-eyes as nothing more than a passing breeze.

He was already used to it.

His expression remained unchanged, and every step he took seemed measured, precise and accurate.

A two-story wooden building with a courtyard on the edge of the compound was his current place of residence.

Although the small building was old, it was fully equipped with all the necessary facilities.

What satisfied him most was this small courtyard.

Although the area was not large, only about fifty square meters, it was enough for his current training.

He pushed the door open and placed his shoes at the entrance.

The house was somewhat cold and empty, only gaining a bit of life once he stepped inside.

Sen had long been accustomed to living alone.

After a simple meal, he went to his workshop alone.

This was a small room partitioned off separately; wood carving was the only hobby he had retained from his previous life.

It was laughable to say; there was no reason for it, he simply woke up one day to find himself an infant in this world.

Although his parents had both sacrificed their lives on a mission shortly after he was born, he relied on his adult mindset to carve out a reputation as a genius within the Uchiha clan.

A genius who awakened his eyes at the age of six.

But then...

"Sigh!" Uchiha Sen looked at himself in the mirror, feeling helpless.

There was no need to mention his looks; the name Uchiha itself was a brand.

The black pupils in the eyes of the person in the mirror had been replaced by blood-red, with a single black dot like a comma rotating around the pupil.

A one-tomoe Sharingan!

Unfortunately, it was fake.

It was merely a facade; there wasn't even a shred of ocular power within these eyes.

As for the functions of the Sharingan, they were even less worth mentioning.

In fact, it wasn't just his ocular power; his chakra was also pitifully scarce, only about one-tenth that of his peers.

Having completed his daily task of checking the mirror, Uchiha Sen picked up the unfinished work on his table as he did every day and began to carve it with care.

The pieces he had already finished sat quietly on the wall cabinet.

In the room, there was nothing but the sound of the carving knife sliding across the wood.

An hour later.

The carving knife finished the final stroke.

Looking at the work in his hands, Uchiha Sen smiled with relief and placed it carefully on the wall cabinet.

Come to think of it, the reason he had fallen from a genius to a laughingstock was all because of a speck of light in his sea of consciousness.

It had come to this world with him, and three years ago—the very day he awakened his Sharingan—it had suddenly come to life.

Regardless of the season, ninety percent of the chakra he refined was fed to it, including his ocular power.

The situation felt somewhat familiar, so much so that Uchiha Sen highly suspected that some old immortal was hiding inside the speck of light.

After years of nourishment, a certain mysterious connection had formed between him and the speck of light.

Sen had a feeling that the speck of light in his sea of consciousness was nearing perfection, and perhaps today would bring a change.

After carving, his essence, energy, and spirit were all elevated to their peak, making it the perfect time to cultivate.

Uchiha Sen sat cross-legged and, once again, began to refine chakra with practiced ease.

Threads of energy were produced from his 130 trillion cells, mixing with spiritual energy to generate the energy known as chakra.

In Sen's perception, the chakra he had just produced was suddenly sucked away by that mysterious speck of light, taking ninety percent of it.

The sense of perfection in the speck of light grew a fraction more.

Not enough?

Again!

Three years of stifled frustration turned into resentment; today, he would see exactly who was messing with him.

Threads of chakra were generated, only to disappear for the most part, over and over again.

Uchiha Sen was like a precision instrument, tirelessly repeating the refinement process.

Until he reached a certain critical point.

When the speck of light absorbed the final thread of chakra, it suddenly began to pulse like a heartbeat.

Once, twice...

As if it were gestating something.

"Thump, thump, thump, thump..."

The sound resonated from his sea of consciousness, and his heart began to beat in a rhythmic pattern, faster and faster.

In reality, Uchiha Sen, sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, began to breathe rapidly as blood rushed to his head.

Just as he felt he could no longer hold on and was about to explode.

The speck of light in his sea of consciousness transformed into a cloud of mist in the blink of an eye.

His thoughts seemed to freeze at this moment.

Dazed and wooden, he watched like an outsider as the mist slowly dissipated.

When the last wisp of mist scattered.

An exquisite scale occupied the space.

Abruptly.

A sentence appeared in his mind.

Every gift of fate has its price marked in secret.

--Balance of Fate.