The Uchiha Clan's territory.
Uchiha Shin walked into the courtyard of the clan head, Uchiha Tajima, with his hands behind his back, like a grown-up.
The moment he entered the courtyard, he raised his gaze and instinctively dodged to the left. A fist missed him by a hair's breadth.
Then he sidestepped behind his attacker, grabbed his arms with both hands, and twisted them, crossing them behind his back and leaving him completely unable to move.
"Wah... wah... wah... It hurts, it hurts! Let go, Shin!"
"Just as I thought!" Shin pursed his lips. The only person who would ambush him outside the Uchiha clan head's home was Uchiha Izuna.
After a moment's thought, Shin didn't let go. Instead, he grabbed Izuna by the back of his collar and lifted him up. Izuna yelped in fright. "Hey, what are you doing? Put me down! My big brother won't let you get away with this!"
Shin paid him no mind and carried him straight to a spring in the courtyard. As Izuna stared at him in horror, Shin tossed him in with a splash.
"Wah... Help... glug... I can't swim... glug!" Izuna shouted for help, but Shin ignored him and turned to leave.
The spring wasn't deep; the water just barely covered Izuna's head. Shin wasn't worried about him drowning. There were plenty of guard ninja in the Uchiha compound, and they would pull him out soon enough.
When Shin reached the room where Uchiha Tajima was staying, he glanced inside without thinking. Through the crack in the door, he saw his uncle discussing something with two elders. A map lay on the table as they pointed at it.
Shin looked away and continued straight to his own room without stopping. As one of the great clans of the Ninja World, the Uchiha Clan was fighting on three fronts. From the bits of news Shin had overheard, the situation seemed grim.
But no matter how brutal things got, children under ten weren't usually sent to the battlefield. Even in an emergency, the age limit would be around eight. A child of Shin's age wouldn't be called up.
After entering his room, Shin sat quietly on the edge of his bed and opened the system. He browsed the items available in the exchange one by one.
Besides the Rinnegan, Sage Body, and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan listed at the top, the Mangekyo Sharingan cost 100,000 points, while the Three Tomoe cost 10,000. There were also Kekkei Tōta, Wood Style bloodlines, secret techniques from the Ninja World, and all sorts of other things. It had everything that had ever appeared in Naruto, without exception.
Unfortunately, no matter how badly Shin wanted them, he was broke. All he could do was stare at the items and drool.
"Hey, system, apart from waiting for you to issue missions, is there any other way to get points?"
"Besides missions, you can earn points by submitting ninjutsu or ninja tools. The payout is one-fifth of their exchange value."
"...What a rip-off!"
Shin thought about the techniques he knew. "I have the Great Fireball Technique. I'll give it to you for 100 points." Exchanging a C-rank technique cost 500 points, so one-fifth came to exactly 100.
He had already learned the technique, so he might as well put it to use. He'd decided that from now on, he would hand over every technique he learned to this rip-off system. Even a tiny bit was better than nothing.
"This system does not buy techniques the host has already learned!"
The day passed quickly. The next day, Uchiha Tajima led a large group of Uchiha clan members away. Shin heard that the war with the Senju Clan on the front lines had reached a fever pitch, with both sides committing everything they had.
Three months later, Uchiha Tajima returned, covered in blood. Shin didn't know how the battle had ended, but the grim expression on Tajima's face suggested that things had gone badly.
It was two days before Shin heard what had happened. Somehow, the Senju Clan had enlisted the Hyuga Clan and set up an ambush. Uchiha Tajima had fought his way out of the encirclement, and Shin also heard that two of the three Great Elders had died covering his retreat.
"Things have gotten serious!" That was Shin's first reaction when he heard the news.
The Uchiha Clan's tradition was to have three elders beneath the clan head, all highly respected members of the clan. Losing two of them was the greatest setback the Uchiha Clan had suffered in fifty years. And judging by the Senju Clan's actions, they had no intention of stopping here. One wrong move, and the two clans would be at war.
Shin could only watch it all unfold, silently and impassively.
Sure enough, after Uchiha Tajima returned, he issued the clan's highest-level summons. Every Uchiha away from home, no matter their reason, was to abandon their mission and return to the clan's territory.
The entire Uchiha compound grew tense. Every day, ninja returned from all over. This was the first time Shin had seen the full strength of one of the two great clans of the Warring States Period, with the entire Uchiha Clan mobilized.
When more than a thousand Uchiha clan members gathered in the Martial Arts Arena, the sight was impossible to describe. A thousand people with Sharingan, even if half of them had only One-Tomoe, were enough to make any enemy tremble.
"Not long ago, our elite forces were ambushed by the treacherous Senju and Hyuga Clans. We suffered terrible losses, and two elders were killed.
"This is a humiliation the Uchiha Clan has not suffered in fifty years. Blood must be repaid with blood! We are the greatest clan in the Ninja World, the Uchiha. We cannot swallow this insult. We will make our enemies understand what a foolish mistake it was to provoke the Uchiha Clan!"
Uchiha Tajima gave an impassioned speech from the platform, delivering the final call to arms before battle. Shin and five other children crouched on a distant wall, watching this rare spectacle.
"I wish I could grow up faster. Then I could go to the battlefield with them and show everyone how mighty I am!"
Shin turned to look at the speaker. It was Uchiha Fei, who was only half a month younger than him. Shin pursed his lips and ignored him. Children who knew nothing of the world thought the battlefield was a place to prove their courage, never considering its brutality. People like that were usually the first to die.
Unlike the other children, who had yet to understand the battlefield's cruelty, six-year-old Uchiha Madara gazed at the crowd in the Martial Arts Arena with deep worry in his eyes.
"What are you worried about, Madara?" Seeing the worry in Madara's eyes, Shin couldn't help asking. He was curious about what Uchiha Madara was thinking at that age.
Madara looked displeased. "You should call me Big Brother."
He hated Shin addressing him by name. Whenever Izuna came crying to him, Madara would stand up for him, and a big part of the reason was Shin's refusal to call him by an honorific.
Shin shrugged, unconcerned. As if he'd call a six-year-old brat his older brother. He'd rather die. Even if Madara would one day stand at the pinnacle of the Ninja World, Uchiha Madara was no exception.
Madara didn't press the matter. It wasn't as if this was the first time.
"I'm worried because the Senju Clan is our equal, and they're powerful. They won't be easy to defeat. With the Hyuga Clan joining them, this war could drag on for a long time. I don't know how many more clan members will die. Sigh!"
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