Yagokoro Omoikane

At night, a series of explosions jolted the resting Senju ninjas awake. The veteran shinobi on the battlefield got up and rushed out, cursing as if by habit.

The newly arrived shinobi followed the group, bewildered.

Hiugo was among them when he reached the city wall. He saw figures dressed in black running toward them. Before the Senju ninjas could attack, they set off the Explosive Tags on their own bodies...

Explosions rang out one after another, mixed with the sound of rushing water.

At some point, Senju Meima appeared beside him. Watching the scene calmly, he said,

"That's the sort of nerve the Kaguya Clan has. You probably haven't heard about this situation from Genma, have you?"

No matter how well you gathered intelligence, someone still had to verify it on site. His father handled the front line against the Uchiha, and rarely, if ever, came here, so of course there were gaps.

A wooden step appeared beneath Hiugo's feet. Looking down at the scene below the wall, he asked,

"What's going on with these people? They're willing to sacrifice themselves to damage the wall. Wouldn't it be better to just throw Explosive Tags?"

Senju Meima replied quietly,

"Hiugo, you need to understand that these subordinate clans are accepted by the great clans because they have value. And these people's only value is that they're human."

"They don't need to practice throwing weapons. They don't need training. They don't even need Chakra."

"They only have to sacrifice some of their clansmen to earn the Kaguya Clan's protection. The laughable part is that all they accomplish is keeping us from resting, not damaging the wall."

Was this an exchange, too?

Watching the shinobi hurling themselves to their deaths, Hiugo felt conflicted.

"I already knew back in the clan how cheap life was, but seeing it for myself made me realize how optimistic I'd been."

Meima sighed.

"If all your enemies were like this, what would you do?"

"If they don't even care about their own lives, what's the point of saving them? I'd send them on their way and hope things went better for them in their next lives."

Though the Senju were a great clan and had always treated weaker clans well, not every clan could become their subordinate. Their strength was limited, and they couldn't protect everyone.

Meima was pleased with Hiugo's answer.

"Good. Now go back and rest. You need to get used to the battlefield. This isn't the clan compound, where everything is safe. Your enemies will attack in shameless ways. What you need to do is your best..."

Before he could finish, he realized the boy beside him had vanished. As soon as Meima said "rest," Hiugo had already started back.

Rather than grieve over other people's misfortunes, he'd rather get some rest and grow stronger so he could face what lay ahead than listen to Senju Meima ramble on.

In this dog-eat-dog world, only strength could change everything.

Lying in bed and listening to the explosions rumble intermittently, Hiugo gradually drifted off. Perhaps it was because his body was tired, but he felt his soul slowly rising out of his body and flying upward.

When he regained control of his body, Hiugo looked around in confusion.

Where was he...

The soil around him was stained red. He seemed to be on a battlefield. A light rain fell from the sky, washing over mutilated corpses. Shinobi tools lay scattered everywhere.

As he continued forward, Hiugo stopped in his tracks, his pupils contracting. He saw another "himself."

His hands were stained with blood. It was impossible to tell whether the wetness on his face was rain or tears. His whole body trembled as he knelt before a corpse. Three-Tomoe revolved in the Sharingan in his eyes, then finally transformed into a black Nine-Pointed Star Array.

A hoarse voice came from "his" mouth, and an enigmatic power erupted.

"Yago...goro...Omoikane."

Yagokoro Omoikane?

Hiugo tried to see what had happened, but a sharp pain shot through his eyes. Then came the sensation of falling. The scenery around him vanished in an instant. When he came to, he was sitting on his wooden bed. A faint glow spread across the sky, bringing a trace of warmth.

The pain in his eyes had faded, but they felt slightly swollen. After what had happened in the blood-red space, Hiugo didn't dare take it lightly. His dreams were no longer just dreams.

He immediately formed several hand seals, and water flowed into a mirror. Looking into it, Hiugo saw a hazy Nine-Pointed Star Array appear over his black pupils. As he watched, the pattern gradually became a "black veil" that covered his pupils.

Hiugo channeled Chakra to activate his Sharingan and saw that the black veil concealed his original Two-Tomoe.

His visual prowess hadn't been affected at all, and he still had all the abilities of the Two-Tomoe beneath it. It just looked exactly like his original black eyes.

Hiugo rubbed his eyes and wondered,

Maybe I should go test it out. If nothing goes wrong, I'll be able to use the Sharingan from now on.

His eyes had always been a source of worry. He'd awakened the Sharingan, but because he couldn't use it, he'd feared that his connection to the Uchiha, the Senju's sworn enemy, would cause trouble. But now the clan's shinobi thought he'd awakened Wood Style, and that he was a true Senju.

Revealing the Sharingan wouldn't be as dangerous now. Hiugo had also planned to "suddenly" awaken it at some point on the battlefield, so he could get the training he needed.

Still, if he had to choose, he'd rather not reveal the Sharingan in front of his clansmen. It would save him trouble.

Who should he ask?

Hiugo thought for a moment, then went straight to Senju Meima. He was practically a clan head, after all. If even he couldn't see through it, Hiugo would be at least halfway safe.

After what had happened earlier, it was clear that the man was eager to get "closer" to him.

A child didn't know much. A child had a temper. A child...

Anyway, there were advantages to being this age, and he didn't need to worry about saving face.

So Hiugo, who had only yesterday cursed Senju Meima out, sauntered into his room to ask for guidance.

Senju Meima didn't think anything of it. He'd been the First Elder for many years; how could he hold a grudge against a child? Besides, offering a little training advice wasn't a big deal.

After observing him for a while, Meima showed no sign that anything was amiss. He even praised Hiugo's eyes, saying that they were just like having the Uchiha's Sharingan fixed on him.

Clearly, the black veil conjured by the Nine-Pointed Star Array perfectly concealed the changes to his eyes, though its lingering power could still draw people's attention.

This visual prowess couldn't be maintained indefinitely. It was still being depleted; it just took very little to sustain the "black veil." At least for the time being, there was nothing wrong.

In the days that followed, the Kaguya Clan's attacks came intermittently, but they were relentless. The reasons given by captured shinobi were all over the place:

The weather was nice, so they came to fight. The bright sunshine was perfect for battle.

The weather was bad, so they came to fight. Poor visibility was perfect for a sneak attack.

They had supplies, so they came to fight, then went home after weakening the Senju.

They had no supplies, so they came to fight and steal some to replenish their strength.

In short, the reasons were all over the place. Hiugo seriously suspected the Kaguya had muscles for brains. Why else would they love fighting so much, as if they felt uncomfortable when they went a single day without a brawl?

Under this intense fighting, Hiugo's experience kept growing. After a brief period of adjustment, his Sharingan and Sage Body worked in tandem, making him stronger still. He gradually earned a reputation on the battlefield, and the other Senju shinobi grew used to dropping the word "genius" and treating him as a shinobi.