[Thank you all for taking the time to read my story during Chinese New Year. I'm sincerely grateful, and I wish you all success in everything and a year full of good fortune.]
Manji's expression tightened slightly, but he felt no anger. Instead, he gave a subtle nod to himself.
After living for hundreds of years, he had long since stopped caring about worldly honors and insults, seeing them as little more than passing clouds. If a few reckless words could still make him angry, wouldn't those hundreds of years have been wasted?
Manji had deliberately taken the form of a white-haired old man to conceal his true identity and avoid causing a commotion and drawing crowds of people to worship him the moment he appeared.
He had come into the world this time only to visit the Nine Tailed Beasts, not to attend a "fan meet-and-greet."
"Old man, if you're looking to die, go somewhere else. Don't stand around getting in the way! The Uchiha are handling business. Bystanders, get lost!"
A Uchiha clan member glared and barked at him, his Chakra surging with hostility. He clearly didn't take the old man seriously.
But Uchiha Senichi, the clan leader, suddenly fixed his gaze on the old man, waves of shock rising in his heart.
Something was wrong!
When had this old man appeared?
A moment ago, Senichi had been completely focused on suppressing the Nine-Tails. Yet with the perceptiveness of his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and even his Mangekyō Sharingan, he hadn't sensed the man's presence at all.
It was as if he had always been there, a withered tree in the forest or a breeze, appearing silently in the middle of the battlefield!
Facing the enraged Nine-Tails and the cold killing intent of dozens of elite Uchiha, the old man