Master Yamashita

Chapter 49: Master Yamashita

When the door opened and the person leading the way turned out to be a child not even six years old, Master Yamashita, who had been meditating, raised his head for a glance, then lowered it again and continued chanting.

"Hey!"

Uchiha Shin had entered, but Master Yamashita was still being so uncooperative. Uchiha Nobuhide was getting annoyed.

What, were you trying to make me look bad in front of my superior?

Uchiha Nobuhide was about to reprimand Master Yamashita.

"Big Brother Nobuhide, you can go out first."

"I'll talk to Master Yamashita."

Uchiha Shin turned and smiled warmly at Uchiha Nobuhide.

"This..."

"Then, Young Master Shin, take care."

Uchiha Nobuhide hesitated, but still nodded to Uchiha Shin.

Before leaving, Uchiha Nobuhide glared fiercely at Master Yamashita, as if to say, "You'd better behave."

But faced with Uchiha Nobuhide's fierce, warning look as he left, Master Yamashita remained like a monk deep in meditation, head bowed as he chanted, utterly unmoved.

Uchiha Nobuhide's glare had been like a punch thrown into cotton.

Heh, this is interesting...

Uchiha Shin looked at Master Yamashita and smiled faintly without a word. He sat cross-legged in front of him and stared straight at him.

Heh, a test of patience?

From the moment he entered, Uchiha Shin had been observing Master Yamashita in secret.

There were people with no desires or attachments, but after observing him, Uchiha Shin was certain that Master Yamashita wasn't one of them.

As the saying went, a person without desires was invincible.

Anyone who wanted something had a weakness.

Master Yamashita was someone who wanted something, so he had a weakness too.

It was like taming a hawk. Uchiha Shin couldn't show any impatience in front of Master Yamashita, or the negotiations would go poorly later. Right?

Weren't you free of desires and attachments?

Weren't you unyielding and incorruptible?

Heh...

Uchiha Shin sat in that room for an entire day.

During that time, a shinobi came in and brought Uchiha Shin food and water.

Uchiha Shin ate heartily. As for Master Yamashita's portion...

Sorry, weren't you unyielding and incorruptible?

Then don't even drink water.

If you're so tough, go ahead and starve and dehydrate yourself to death!

There were plenty of Fire Temple warrior monks who had been captured, and the Fire Temple was right there.

Uchiha Shin wasn't in a hurry.

Death was a source of great terror, and Uchiha Shin didn't believe that everyone was so unafraid of death, so unyielding and incorruptible.

Otherwise, during the Battle of the Canyon, even if they couldn't win, they could have taken their enemies down with them. Why surrender?

Because they were afraid of dying, weren't they?

That night, Uchiha Shin went back and asked Uchiha Nobuhide to make sure the captured Fire Temple warrior monks stopped drinking water too, since they dared to refuse food.

As for the poisons that weakened the body, they could simply force them all down the throats of the captured Fire Temple warrior monks.

They were prisoners, yet still acting so tough?

Did they really think the Uchiha Clan were pushovers?

Hmph! He could wipe out the Fire Temple's lineage in no time...

Uchiha Nobuhide had wanted to do this for a long time, but he hadn't wanted to take responsibility...

Now that Uchiha Shin had given the order, if Uchiha Nobuhide didn't seize the opportunity to deal with those bald monks from the Fire Temple, he'd be letting the anger he'd been swallowing for the past few days go to waste.

Early the next morning, Uchiha Shin appeared right on time in the room where Master Yamashita was being held.

To learn how to practice the secret technique called Talent of the Immortal Clan, Uchiha Shin was truly willing to do anything.

"Ah..."

"Benefactor, if there's something you want to ask, just ask."

After going without food for several days, Master Yamashita was already terribly weak.

On top of that, the day before, that Uchiha Clan fellow had even cut off his water.

Master Yamashita didn't actually want to die...

He'd only wanted to stall for time so the temple could rescue them.

But he hadn't expected that Uchiha Clan fellow to act so unpredictably and deny him even water.

From the look in the Uchiha Clan fellow's eyes, Master Yamashita could tell he really did intend to starve and dehydrate him to death.

Heh, it was like running into young men fighting in the street in his previous life: you kept as far away as possible.

Those fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youths didn't care about bystanders getting caught up in it, getting shot, or going to jail.

When those kids fought, their eyes turned red and they went straight for their knives. As for the consequences?

Heh, they didn't care.

That was why even the tough sometimes feared the reckless.

Clearly, Master Yamashita was afraid Uchiha Shin would really starve and dehydrate him to death. Then there'd be no way out for him.

So the moment Uchiha Shin walked in that day, Master Yamashita finally cracked and spoke up.

After all, a quick death was one thing, but being starved and dehydrated to death was a process few could endure.

"I want the exact training method for Talent of the Immortal Clan."

Uchiha Shin gave a cheeky grin and got straight to the point.

"Shh..."

"Don't even think about lying to me..."

"There are dozens of captured warrior monks in the next room."

"The Fire Temple is right there too. It can't run away."

"If I can't get what I want from the living, I'll have no choice but to turn my attention to the dead."

Before Master Yamashita could refuse, Uchiha Shin laid out everything he planned to do.

"The choice is yours..."

Uchiha Shin narrowed his eyes and grinned at Master Yamashita.

But to Master Yamashita, that smile looked more like the grin of a demon from hell.

Uchiha Shin waited quietly for Master Yamashita to make his choice.

After struggling with it for a while, Master Yamashita finally made his decision.

The situation was simply beyond his control, and the Uchiha Clan really did have the power to wipe out the Fire Temple's lineage.

It wasn't worth it to sacrifice the temple's future over a secret technique like Talent of the Immortal Clan.

Besides, even if he gave the technique to this man, there was no guarantee he'd be able to learn it.

Talent of the Immortal Clan was powerful, but easy to learn and difficult to master.

Otherwise, the Fire Temple would have used this technique to rise above the other shinobi clans in the Land of Fire long ago.

He was only doing this to protect the Fire Temple's legacy.

That was how Master Yamashita consoled himself after giving in.

Heh, that was some impressive self-delusion. Haha.

Uchiha Shin had a shinobi outside bring in paper and a brush, then had Master Yamashita write down the entire training method for Talent of the Immortal Clan.

Would Master Yamashita try to tamper with the method as he wrote it down?

Uchiha Shin wasn't stupid. He would verify it afterward with the Fire Temple warrior monks being held in the large room next door.

As long as Master Yamashita wasn't a fool, he wouldn't give Uchiha Shin a fake version of the training method for Talent of the Immortal Clan.

After Master Yamashita finished writing...

Uchiha Shin asked Uchiha Nobuhide to bring him water and food.

Then Uchiha Shin took the training method for Talent of the Immortal Clan to the captured Fire Temple warrior monks in the next room to verify it.

There was no need to rush into deciding what to do with the Fire Temple group. They could talk about it after the Uchiha Clan negotiated with the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.