I Still Have to Be the Clan Leader

Uchiha Fucheng flicked the blood off his kunai.

With a casual motion, he severed the carotid artery of the Sand Ninja, who no longer had the strength to resist.

An unexpected notification appeared.

It made Fucheng pause for half a second.

[Altered the life trajectory of Sand Ninja Baki]

[Reward: Sand Ninja Baki's Fate Dice]

Baki? Is that the jonin who led Gaara's team during the Chunin Exams? What did I do? Kill his father or his grandfather?

Fucheng did not dwell on it, immediately consuming the minimum 10 points of Recognition Value to use the Fate Dice.

For a common character, that was all it was worth.

Dice roll: 4.

A 4 is a reward for skill proficiency!

Reward: [Sand Ninja Baki's Wind Style ability, Wind Style chakra shape transformation, Wind Style chakra nature transformation]

Fucheng narrowed his eyes, feeling a warm current of chakra manifest out of thin air within his body.

Now, Fucheng possessed four elemental affinities: Lightning, Fire, Earth, and Wind. He was only one, Water, away from mastering all five.

Having taken out three Sand Ninja jonin, the remaining five enemy ninjas were no match for them.

Only one was a puppeteer who could barely be considered a special jonin.

But under the combined assault of Fucheng, Fugaku, Qingming, and Huoying, the enemy didn't even last two exchanges.

By the time Uchiha Fucheng summoned the giant eagle to land, the remaining five Sand Ninjas were already dead beyond any doubt.

Fucheng looked at Fugaku, responding to the previous topic without missing a beat.

"I'm not seriously injured. What about Yashiro and the others? How are they?"

Fugaku's expression turned solemn. "Yashiro saved several severely wounded Konoha ninjas. Because their injuries were critical, he has already taken them to retreat."

Before Fucheng could introduce the people on the giant eagle's back to Fugaku and Qingming, Uchiha Hezi, who had jumped down first, rushed over excitedly.

"Uncle Qingming!"

After some introductions, it was revealed that Uchiha Qingming and Uchiha Hezi's father were actually brothers.

Uchiha Huoying turned out to be a close cousin of Mikoto's mother.

Fucheng mused to himself, It seems it's not just the Byakugan clan; the Uchiha "Red Eye Disease" clan also has a high frequency of consanguineous marriages.

It felt like every member of the Uchiha clan was related to one another in some way.

Seeing everyone dismount from the giant eagle, Fugaku praised, "That summoning beast of yours is truly impressive!"

"His name is Garuda." Uchiha Fucheng tossed a few blood-replenishing pills to the giant eagle, Garuda, who was waiting to the side.

Fucheng looked at Uchiha Hezi and asked, "Hezi, the visibility from high altitude is clear. How is the main battlefield looking?"

Hezi pointed toward the north and northeast. "The Sand Ninjas in the north are still locked in combat with our ninja forces. To the northeast, there is a lot of smoke and explosions; most of the Sand Ninja troops have been scattered.

Because there are many explosive traps in that direction, our ninja forces don't seem to have pursued them too deeply."

Hearing this, Fugaku raised his eyebrows, his tone cold yet tinged with excitement.

"It must be Lord Hatake Sakumo! The northeast is the direction of Lord Hatake Sakumo's advance. It seems he has defeated the enemy's experts."

Qingming and Huoying, who were following Fugaku, both bore light injuries.

Fucheng was also curious. "Weren't you supposed to be intercepting the core Sand Ninja forces alongside the White Fang? Why were you ambushed here?"

Fugaku wore a bitter expression. "The interception plan wasn't exactly a success. The enemies we encountered were too strong, especially the Sand Ninja side—there was a pair of Kage-level husband and wife who controlled powerful, wide-area war puppets.

Many of Konoha's ninja forces died. If Lord Hatake Sakumo hadn't lured those two powerful Sand Ninjas toward the northeast, we might not have even lasted long enough to retreat after being injured."

After a moment of contemplation, Uchiha Fucheng assessed the shift in the battlefield situation.

From the information currently known, Fucheng could deduce:

The Konoha White Fang should have already killed Sasori's parents by now.

Without the leadership of those two Kage-level powerhouses, the Sand Ninja puppeteer forces would inevitably fall into disarray.

This Sand Ninja campaign was destined to end in total defeat.

The front line to the north, where they were still entangled, was merely the Sand Ninjas temporarily holding on against Konoha.

With Hatake Sakumo returning to support and the reinforcements led by Tsunade arriving from the rear, this large-scale battle between Konoha and the Sand would soon enter its final phase.

Fucheng looked at Fugaku. "What's next? What's the plan? Are we going to reinforce the northern battlefield, or head south to rendezvous with Yashiro and the others?"

The group heard Fucheng's question and turned to look at Fugaku, waiting for his decision.

Having narrowly escaped death on the battlefield, Fugaku didn't really want to take the injured Qingming and Huoying back to reinforce the front lines.

But the gaze of his younger brother, the expectant looks of the other ninjas, and the scrutiny of the female ninjas caused Fugaku to fall back into his old habits once again.

He was conflicted!

This "indecision syndrome" could be considered an "old hereditary disease" passed down through the Uchiha clan head lineage for many years.

Take the biological father of Fucheng and Fugaku, for instance.

Regarding the matter of "Uchiha Setsuna's rebellion," he had remained indecisive the entire time.

Lacking strategy and courage—that was likely the best description for the father of those two.

Originally, many within the Uchiha clan were quite dissatisfied with the policies of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, regarding the governance of the Uchiha.

These people had always yearned to seize political power back from the Senju clan.

However, as the head of the Uchiha clan, he was neither willing to fully support the hawkish Uchiha clansmen in their resistance, nor was he willing to abide by the village's rules to keep his head down and live a peaceful life with the honest, dovish Uchiha clansmen.

In the end, the awkward choice of a fence-sitter could only lead to "getting one's crotch caught on the fence"!

The clan head lineage ultimately ended up in the awkward position of being "disliked by both sides."

Later, Uchiha Setsuna was captured by the Second Hokage, Tobirama, for inciting the clansmen to rebel.

Yet, Uchiha Setsuna had also gained the unanimous support of the hawkish members within the clan.

In contrast, the clan head lineage was viewed by the clansmen as "cowardly weaklings" who took no action and lacked responsibility.

When Uchiha Setsuna was imprisoned, Fugaku and his clan head lineage naturally could not stay out of it.

They were also subjected to severe punishment by the Hokage faction following this rebellion.

Damn it, caught between a rock and a hard place!

The "Evil Uchiha" in Tobirama's eyes inevitably included the clan head lineage.

Fugaku's old man, facing the irresistible Senju Tobirama, had agreed to many humiliating conditions.

Living in gloom and depression, he eventually died of melancholy.

Fugaku, who should have inherited the position of clan head, was constantly sidelined by the Second Elder, Uchiha Setsuna, and the hawkish supporters all boycotted Fugaku's succession.

This was also the reason why Uchiha Yan had mocked Fucheng when he first woke up!

Even though Uchiha Fugaku was already an adult, these clansmen had used the excuse that he was "too young and frivolous and needed a few more years of experience" to forcibly prevent him from succeeding as clan head.

The current Uchiha clan would rather leave the position of clan head vacant than let Fugaku take office.

Therefore, Fucheng was not at all surprised that Uchiha Fugaku would later be so indecisive and infuriating during the Uchiha Clan Downfall.

In Uchiha Fucheng's view, this was just a case of ancestral traits running in the family.

When Uchiha Madara rebelled and left the village, the clan head lineage of that time had "difficulty choosing" and ended up hedging their bets in Konoha.

When Uchiha Setsuna attempted to assassinate Tobirama, the clan head lineage once again practiced "difficulty choosing" by staying neutral.

Finally, when it came to Uchiha Fugaku, his strange judgments and bizarre behavior during the Uchiha Clan Downfall were not hard to understand at all.

A perfectly good hand of cards, played into a complete disaster!

Seeing that Fugaku was still struggling, Uchiha Fucheng did not intend to wait for him any longer.

Fucheng shook his head in self-mockery, thinking to himself, Since you have difficulty choosing, then don't choose at all. Anyway, I will be the one to become the clan head in the future! Let me make the choice for the Uchiha.