How Are You Going to Teach Me a Lesson?

"Clang."

With a sharp ring, Setsuna Uchiha turned his kunai around and blocked the samurai sword thrust at him from behind.

"Did you think leaving a Shadow Clone in the Earth Prison would fool me and let you sneak up on me?" Setsuna Uchiha said disdainfully, looking utterly in control.

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet." Setsuna Uchiha formed Hand Seals with one hand. A dragon of earth burst from beneath Shisui, opening its enormous jaws to bite down on him.

"Bang."

The Shisui being bitten by the earth dragon turned into a cloud of white smoke.

"Another Shadow Clone?" Setsuna Uchiha swept his Sharingan around, searching for Shisui.

"Phantom Body Flicker Technique." Five Shisuis suddenly appeared beside Setsuna Uchiha, surrounding him. The samurai swords in their hands swung down at Setsuna.

"Genjutsu? Shadow Clones? Or..." The Three Tomoe in Setsuna's eyes spun wildly, yet he still couldn't tell which one was the real Shisui.

"Bang." After Shisui struck him, Setsuna Uchiha turned into white smoke and vanished. This, too, had been a Shadow Clone.

Though Shisui's carefully planned attack had missed, he showed no emotion.

"What a wary old man." As the other four Shisuis' illusions vanished, the real one stood still, waiting for Setsuna to reveal himself and attack.

"Done hiding? Are you going to face me head-on now?"

As he spoke, Setsuna Uchiha emerged from the earth some distance away, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan fixed firmly on Shisui.

"I've heard that Elder Setsuna was skilled with the sword when he was young. I'd like to see for myself." Shisui tossed his samurai sword to Setsuna Uchiha, then took the one Itachi handed him.

"I don't like sneaking around, either. Come on, then."

Once Setsuna gripped the sword, his presence changed dramatically.

Before, he'd seemed like a sly old schemer. Now, Setsuna and the sword in his hand seemed to have become one. Just standing there, he radiated killing intent.

"Here I come." Before Shisui had even finished speaking, he was at Setsuna Uchiha's side in an instant.

"Scrrrk..." The two identical samurai swords crossed, their blades scraping together with a piercing sound.

Setsuna Uchiha was surprised that Shisui's strength with the sword could match his own. Shisui, too, was astonished that his opponent had so easily blocked his full-speed strike.

Shisui didn't keep up the deadlock. With a nimble sidestep to the left, he guided Setsuna's blade downward, then turned his wrist, reversed the direction of his sword, and used both arms to drive it upward. The sharp blade slashed toward Setsuna's shoulder and elbow.

Even Setsuna Uchiha couldn't help praising the swordsmanship. "You're good with a sword. At your age, I was nowhere near as skilled. But this is where it ends."

As he spoke, Setsuna Uchiha jerked both arms upward and reversed his grip on the hilt, using the back of his blade to block Shisui's attack.

Shisui didn't panic. He kept pushing with one hand while quickly forming Hand Seals with the other.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."

As Shisui performed the technique, Setsuna Uchiha quickly retreated, dodging the Great Fireball Shisui spat out.

"To combine swordsmanship and ninjutsu so well at your age... In the past hundred years, apart from Lord Madara and Lord Izuna, I doubt there's been another clan member with such talent."

At this point, Setsuna Uchiha no longer looked at Shisui with contempt or disdain. Instead, admiration filled his eyes.

"How about it? Interested in joining the Hawk Faction? I'll train you as my successor, and even help you awaken the legendary dōjutsu of the Uchiha Clan."

An eight-year-old with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and extraordinary talent for training—at least within the Uchiha Clan, no one had greater potential than Shisui.

"Old man Setsuna, what do you mean by that? You're trying to poach my man right in front of me?"

Tenwa Uchiha, who had been watching the fight, couldn't help scolding Setsuna for trying to steal Shisui from under his nose.

"Shisui is also the perfect successor for me. Don't waste your effort, old man Setsuna."

For the elders of both factions to compete over the same junior and offer him the position of successor was unprecedented in Uchiha history.

"How would you know if you don't try? Maybe Shisui's already sick of the Dove Faction's preaching." Setsuna Uchiha wasn't giving up. He was determined to win Shisui over.

"Stop arguing," Shisui Uchiha said, interrupting them with a helpless sigh when it became clear the fight wouldn't continue.

Then he said something even more shocking: "I'm not interested in either the Dove Faction or the Hawk Faction."

Tenwa Uchiha: "???"

Setsuna Uchiha: "???"

"Boy, aren't you a little too arrogant?"

Though Setsuna Uchiha still wanted to recruit Shisui, he kept his anger out of his voice.

As far as he was concerned, the first step was to get Shisui to join his side.

"Can you really call yourself young if you're not a little arrogant?"

Setsuna Uchiha's persuasion had no effect on Shisui.

"Starting today, neither the Hawk Faction nor the Dove Faction has any reason to exist. From now on, everyone answers to me, except the clan leader!"

The scene fell silent. Apart from Fugaku Uchiha and Itachi, everyone present was stunned by Shisui's sheer audacity.

"You! I take back what I said earlier. It looks like you need a lesson you'll never forget."

This time, Setsuna Uchiha wouldn't tolerate it. He was going to teach this insolent brat a lesson.

The Dove Faction elders nearby had also fallen silent as a group. They, too, were deeply displeased by Shisui's words.

"You're going to teach me a lesson?" Shisui asked lightly. Even Setsuna Uchiha could hear the disdain in his voice.

Setsuna Uchiha was just about to unleash his full strength when he suddenly heard Shisui's voice again, coming from behind him.

"How are you going to teach me a lesson?" Another Shisui had appeared behind Setsuna, and he hadn't noticed a thing.

"Trying to fool me with a Shadow Clone? You're still too green!" Setsuna Uchiha thrust his samurai sword backward into the Shisui behind him. Real or Shadow Clone, he'd take it down first.

But the scene Setsuna Uchiha expected never came. The Shisui behind him gripped the blade with one hand and pulled the hilt from Setsuna's grasp with the other.

"Is that what makes you so confident? It's nothing special to me."

Faced with the unsettling Shisui before him, Setsuna tried to counterattack, only to find he couldn't move.

"That's not a Shadow Clone, and it's not genjutsu. What is it?" one of the watching elders asked in shock. But there was no response. The clansmen around him stood frozen, as if turned to stone.

"I can't move, either..."

Everyone present except Fugaku Uchiha's family found that they couldn't even open their mouths to speak.

Suddenly, they felt the space around them rapidly losing its color. The scenery all around them began to shatter.

"When did it happen? We fell under a genjutsu without even realizing it..."

Unable to speak, the Uchiha elders could only exchange thoughts with their eyes. A deadly fear spread through them.

But the suffocating feeling didn't last long. Once the surroundings had completely disappeared, a gigantic eye spanning the entire sky appeared before them.

Its scarlet gaze and the strange patterns slowly turning within it revealed its identity.

"That's the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"

That was the only thought left in the minds of everyone present.