At this critical moment.
"Clan Head?!"
A figure landed before them like a ghost. It was Uchiha Shisui.
He should have been assigned to keep an eye on the Uchiha Clan,
but just moments ago, Uchiha Fugaku had deliberately sent him away in his capacity as clan head.
He had only just arrived, yet what greeted him was a shocking sight.
"Yatsuhashi, stop!"
Seeing the two men fighting for their lives in the quicksand, Shisui panicked,
and his eyes instantly activated the Mangekyō Sharingan.
After all, Yatsuhashi now had the added status of an Anbu Ninja.
Nothing could be allowed to go wrong.
Likewise, Uchiha Fugaku was the head of the Uchiha Clan.
If he died at Yatsuhashi's hands,
his Anbu status would only fuel the conflict between the village and the Uchiha Clan.
Fortunately, he had awakened his own Mangekyō Sharingan by chance a few days ago.
Now, in order to put an end to the conflict between Yatsuhashi and Uchiha Fugaku,
Shisui was even willing to use his unique ocular jutsu, Kotoamatsukami.
Yatsuhashi knew how terrifying Shisui's Kotoamatsukami was.
It was a fearsome ocular jutsu that could alter another person's will without them even realizing it.
The moment Shisui activated his Mangekyō Sharingan,
Yatsuhashi closed his eyes.
To his surprise, Uchiha Fugaku closed his eyes in perfect sync with him.
"Clan Head! Yatsuhashi!"
Seeing the two of them, Shisui was at a loss, unsure which one to save first.
In the sand pit, Yatsuhashi suddenly jerked his arm and broke free of Fugaku's grip.
Using the momentum, he leaped backward and easily escaped the quicksand.
"Cough... cough, cough!"
Still trapped in the quicksand, Fugaku barked, "Shisui! Do you even recognize me as your clan head?!
Hurry up and pull me out! Are you really going to stand there and watch me get swallowed by the quicksand?!"
Shisui jolted and hurried forward,
pulling the bloodied Fugaku out of the sand pit
before quickly unrolling a medical scroll.
"Clan Head, why did it have to come to this?!"
As he bandaged Fugaku, Shisui glanced at Yatsuhashi with lingering apprehension.
Yatsuhashi wiped the blood from his face, his gaze ice-cold.
"What a shame..."
If he hadn't sensed Shisui approaching,
Uchiha Fugaku would probably be a corpse by now.
Getting rid of Uchiha Fugaku would have been easy. But killing him right in front of Shisui
would bring Yatsuhashi plenty of unnecessary trouble.
Especially now that Shisui had awakened Kotoamatsukami.
If Shisui controlled him with Kotoamatsukami and turned him into a puppet,
that would be disastrous.
Yatsuhashi snorted and turned to leave.
"Yatsuhashi."
Uchiha Fugaku's weak voice rang out behind him.
Enduring the pain, he picked up the paper bag of Okonomiyaki,
took one piece out, and hurled it toward Yatsuhashi as hard as he could.
Yatsuhashi didn't look back. He simply reached behind him
and caught the still-warm dinner.
"Don't forget our agreement."
Yatsuhashi didn't answer. He quickly vanished from their sight.
"Cough... cough..."
Uchiha Fugaku coughed up another mouthful of dark blood.
"Clan Head, don't move! Your internal organs are badly damaged!"
Shisui anxiously continued treating Uchiha Fugaku.
But Uchiha Fugaku seemed not to hear him.
He took the two remaining pieces of Okonomiyaki from the bag and handed one to Shisui.
"Eat up. It's still warm."
Then Uchiha Fugaku lay back on the grass and let Shisui treat him.
With his eyes closed, he couldn't stop seeing the moment Yatsuhashi pierced his heart.
"Heh... forget it. Let it be."
After a long while, Uchiha Fugaku finally opened his eyes again.
But his once-black pupils
had lost all their color, leaving them a dull gray.
That was the result of overusing the Mangekyō Sharingan—
his eyesight was on the verge of failing completely.
Even after returning to his rented room,
Yatsuhashi remained unsettled for a long time.
Looking at the blood on his hands, he muttered, "Seriously, what's wrong with him?!"
Yatsuhashi let out a deep sigh,
his prejudice against the Uchiha Clan deepening yet again.
He took out the Susanoo he had tucked away.
It was just about the only thing that could comfort him tonight.
"At least I got something out of it."
Another half hour passed before Yatsuhashi had a basic grasp of the Susanoo.
Then he took a deep breath. "Four Symbols Seal: Release!"
Inuzuka Yuka's scroll appeared in his hands.
Back at the archives,
Yatsuhashi had already sensed that Inuzuka Yuka had something he wanted.
Now he finally had time to take the experimental tools out of the scroll.
Looking at the various precision instruments,
even Yatsuhashi, who had seen plenty in Orochimaru's laboratory, couldn't help but remark,
"Now that's a rich woman..."
Although several key instruments needed for the cell extraction process were missing,
Yatsuhashi knew the experimental procedure inside and out,
so he could think of several ways to make do.
Early morning. Hokage Office.
Minato Namikaze sat at his desk, holding two Ninjutsu Scrolls that had just been delivered by the archives.
He had only meant to give them a routine look,
but he hadn't expected Yatsuhashi to get results in just a few days.
He opened the blue Ninjutsu Scroll first.
It recorded the C-rank jutsu Yatsuhashi had learned: the Summoning Technique.
Minato nodded. That was about what he had expected.
"The Summoning Technique isn't difficult. A few days is enough to master it."
But then he fell into thought. "Learning the Summoning Technique is pointless without a contracted summon."
Minato figured it was time to visit Mount Myoboku
and ask the Great Toad Sage
whether Yatsuhashi could sign a contract with Mount Myoboku as well.
After all, among the Uchiha Clan,
besides Shisui, Yatsuhashi was the only one who truly cared about the village.
It was just a shame that Shisui wasn't nearly as steadfast as Yatsuhashi.
"If he can make his way into the village's upper ranks in time..."
A glint flashed in Minato's eyes.
He would be the best representative the Uchiha Clan could have in the village's upper ranks.
Then the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the village would naturally be resolved.
That had been Uchiha Obito's mission.
If Obito, who had once dreamed of becoming Hokage, were still alive,
he would probably have become an excellent Anbu Ninja, just like Yatsuhashi,
taking on the mission of bridging the Uchiha and Konoha.
A flicker of sadness crossed Minato's eyes, but he quickly pulled himself together.
It was precisely because of this long-term strategic vision
that Minato was willing to devote every resource to training Yatsuhashi.
With that in mind, Minato set down the blue Ninjutsu Scroll and casually opened the golden one.
The moment his gaze fell on the page, he froze.
The golden Ninjutsu Scroll clearly stated: "Four Symbols Seal"—Mastered.
"This..."
Minato's eyes, usually so warm and smiling, widened in disbelief.
Even he had needed a full half month to learn this S-rank Sealing Technique.
"Kakashi!"
Minato suddenly shot to his feet and slapped the desk, his voice echoing through the office.
"Yes, Sensei."
Kakashi appeared before him almost instantly.
As the leader of Anbu Squad Six, he was, in effect, the Hokage's closest bodyguard.
"Go inform Inoichi Yamanaka and tell him to come see me right away!"
Minato had to verify that this was real.
After all, a Jinchūriki was a strategic weapon of the village,
and anyone capable of using the Four Symbols Seal to seal a Tailed Beast was incredibly rare.
A jutsu of the Four Symbols Seal's caliber
couldn't possibly be mastered without months, or even years, of grueling training—not even by a genius.
On top of that, when Kushina, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, gave birth,
the seal would be at its weakest.
At this critical juncture,
if Yatsuhashi had truly mastered the Four Symbols Seal, it would be an enormous blessing for the village.
"Yes!"
Watching Kakashi leave, Minato settled back into his chair.
He hadn't expected
that what had started as a mere spur-of-the-moment decision
would bring the village such a tremendous gain.
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