Uchiha! Uchiha!

It was night.

The bright moon was hidden behind thick clouds. Firelight was the only source of illumination in the darkness, its flickering glow casting mottled shadows across the room. Ming Tang's room was packed with overlapping silhouettes.

Normally, a larger crowd meant a livelier gathering. But this crowded room felt rather deserted.

Everyone sat in silence. The arrival of a group of old men finally broke that stillness.

"I thought today wasn't a day for a clan meeting."

"And I thought only the elders and the clan head had the authority to call one. Am I right, Uchiha Yuji?" One of the Uchiha elders, his face showing his age, stared hard at the boy seated in the place of honor.

"Even if you are the genius our Uchiha Clan recognizes as the equal of that man, that doesn't give you the right to act recklessly."

"Normally, that's true. But there are exceptions to everything."

The boy's voice was youthful, and his appearance matched it. He sat upright with his eyes closed.

His unconcerned attitude made the old men's blood pressure shoot up.

"We have high hopes for you, but the time for you to act as you please hasn't come yet." Uchiha Setsuna was also displeased at being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.

He wasn't from the same faction as those old men from the dove faction. He agreed with what that "young man" had said.

"If a genius doesn't turn his talent into strength, that day will never come. Or have you already made the leap from genius to the strong?"

Uchiha Setsuna watched the boy, his hopes tinged with uncertainty.

At the boy's age, there was only one way, as far as Setsuna understood, to turn that talent into strength. And Uchiha Yuji had the potential to reach that level.

"I think the time you're talking about has come."

Uchiha Yuji slowly opened his eyes.

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eyes spun wildly, its tomoe quickly merging into one. The strange, windmill-like pattern deepened the silence in the room, and an invisible pressure swept in every direction.

Feeling the pressure coming from the front, the Uchiha seated around the room simultaneously activated their Kekkei Genkai.

Countless pairs of scarlet eyes, tinged with fervor, stared at Uchiha Yuji.

His chakra was even colder than that of countless Three-Tomoe Sharingan users. There was no doubt that his eyes were genuine.

In this era, the Mangekyō Sharingan was not yet a legend.

"The Mangekyō Sharingan."

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in Uchiha Setsuna's eyes couldn't hide his astonishment. He confirmed once more that those eyes were genuine. "I never thought I'd get to see eyes like these again."

At his age, he was already considered old for a shinobi. He had seen countless Kekkei Genkai and secret techniques, but only two stood above all other abilities:

Wood Release and the Mangekyō Sharingan.

To possess either of them was to possess power.

"So, what do you want to do with those eyes?"

"The Uchiha as we are now won't be enough."

"Even the power of a single Mangekyō Sharingan won't be enough."

His voice was calm, as if he were simply asking whether anyone had eaten breakfast.

Yet the summer night remained unbearably hot, especially after being woken in the middle of the night.

"What? Uchiha Yuji, do you even know what you're saying?" The pampered old men began their endless muttering again.

The Mangekyō Sharingan had always been recorded in the archives as Divine Power.

Those who possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan were generally beyond ordinary people's understanding. Uchiha Setsuna had learned as much while following Uchiha Madara. And the boy before him, who calmly declared that the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan wasn't enough, belonged to that same category of [extraordinary people].

They were all men destined to lead their era.

Ignoring the noisy old men, Uchiha Setsuna got straight to the point. "What should we do? Or rather, what should the Uchiha Clan do?"

"Let me lead the Uchiha!"

"Agreed."

Their exchange hadn't even paused.

"Do you know what you're saying?"

"Elder Setsuna, even you can't speak for the Uchiha on your own!"

"We elders won't agree to this either."

A terrifying, icy force of ocular power suddenly burst forth. The crushing pressure didn't just weigh on their bodies; it felt as if an invisible hand had seized their hearts.

"Enough of the old men's nonsense."

The boy slowly rose to his feet. Though his body was still young and slender, he now seemed impossibly imposing.

"I didn't call the elders here tonight to ask for your opinions. I called you here to inform you. Whatever you choose won't change my mind."

"Here's another piece of advice, elders—the times have changed."

"It's best for remnants of the old era to leave the crest of the tide as soon as possible."

He didn't say the rest, but everyone understood what he'd left unsaid.

The Uchiha Clan was proud, which meant few of them had good tempers—even among the dove faction, who wanted to integrate into Konoha.

"Then let me see the power of the new generation." He stared at Uchiha Yuji's youthful face, the corners of his mouth lifting in a faint, disdainful smile.

So what if he had the Mangekyō? At this age, did he have enough chakra? If Setsuna could defeat a Mangekyō Sharingan user—

The blood in the old man's aging body suddenly began to warm. He had just started to rise when he felt a sharp chill at his throat.

Though he was old and his body had lost much of its strength, the experience he'd gained from countless brushes with death told him at once what was pressed against his throat.

A kunai.

A kunai held by the person behind him.

And the person behind him was his own son, the child he'd always been proud of.

The heat in the old man's blood cooled faster than he could have imagined.

"So that's how it is, Toshihiko. You've all already made your choice."

"Yes, Father," Uchiha Toshihiko replied calmly.

"Then the clan head has too..." The old man stared at those bewitching Mangekyō, already understanding the answer.

"Wolves aren't strong because they stand alone. They're strong because they run in packs."

Uchiha Yuji surveyed the old men. Though seated, he didn't look like a wolf.

He looked like a live volcano, ready to erupt at any moment.

"If you can't even understand something that simple, then the elders really are too old. So old that they've grown senile."

"Toshihiko, see that the elders are sent home to rest."

The firelight in the room flickered. In its glow, several shadows, almost stacked on top of one another, slowly retreated until only a neat row of dark silhouettes remained.