Broken, Then Discarded

"Suifeng, this is Shisui from the Kagami Clan. He's a genius who became the top student the moment he entered the Ninja Academy. You two should get close in the future!"

Inside the Great Elder's residence in the Uchiha compound.

Uchiha Haruki pointed at the little boy in front of him with a beaming smile as he spoke to Suifeng.

Shisui?

A spirited little boy should be adorable, but Suifeng couldn't bring himself to like him.

A genius, huh...

He originally held no prejudice against Shisui, but ever since he arrived in this world and became a member of the Uchiha Clan, he had grown to despise this Shisui.

What kind of damn genius? He was nothing more than a piece of trash, a coward!

What was the point of such trash? Useless, and he even led other children astray—what was he good for?

"So it's Shisui. I've heard of you. I hear your Body Flicker Technique is quite impressive!"

At this moment, Shisui was only a six-year-old boy. Facing the eight-year-old Suifeng, he remained very reserved. After all, this Suifeng, only two years his senior, was not only the most famous genius in the clan but also a Chunin. Even more terrifyingly, he had just repelled Juzo Biwa, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and his reputation was gradually spreading.

All of this made the young boy, who had just enrolled in school, feel a sense of awe.

"Sui—Suifeng-nii, please look after me in the future!"

I'm not your brother, you're my ancestor! Suifeng thought to himself, though he smiled on the surface. "If you have any problems in the future, come find me. In school, if anyone dares to bully you, just beat them back. If you can't beat them, come to me; I'll help you beat them. I'll make sure they learn their lesson!"

"Uh... Shisui, you should head back first!" Uchiha Haruki felt his head throb. Was it appropriate for a Chunin—one with the strength of a Jonin, no less—to go around picking fights with Ninja Academy students and acting so righteous about it?

But thinking about his age, if this kid really went to the academy to fight, no one could say much. He was only eight, and his peers were just starting their third year!

"Suifeng, you did well this time!"

He couldn't even remember how many times he had said the same thing.

"That guy Danzo is getting more and more out of line. He actually reached his hand into our Uchiha Clan. Last time it was you, this time it was Obito. If we don't teach him a lesson, he'll really think our Uchiha Clan is a pushover!"

"Last time?!"

"The Chunin Exams. Those three guys weren't spies from another village; they were Root ninjas under his command."

"Danzo, Root... so he's our enemy?!"

"You could say that." Uchiha Haruki nodded. "Root and we have never seen eye to eye. Danzo has always wanted to recruit members of our Uchiha Clan into Root, but we've blocked him every time."

"Danzo, Root... Great Elder, how does our Uchiha strength compare to Root?!"

"They certainly can't compare to our Uchiha Clan! Root is relatively darker and their methods are devious, but our Uchiha Clan is the strongest ninja clan, the number one noble family in the ninja world. With a thousand-year legacy, how could a Danzo and his Root compare to us?!"

"I understand!"

Listening to the Great Elder's boastful words, Suifeng sneered internally. It was exactly this kind of arrogance that eventually doomed the thousand-year-old Uchiha legacy. Just think about it: a thousand-year-old noble clan destroyed by an organization like Root that had only been established for a few decades—it was truly laughable.

"Each generation is worse than the last" didn't even begin to describe this stupidity. Having weathered a thousand years of storms and established the prestige of the ninja world's premier clan, they were ultimately destroyed in this generation's hands.

This generation of Uchiha was hopeless, from the elders to the clan head, and from the clan head to the clansmen—none of them were any good.

But looking at it from another perspective, since the establishment of the hidden village system, the strength of every ninja clan had been severely weakened.

"That idiot Hashirama!"

In Suifeng's view, the entire "Eye Legend" was just a world dominated by people with "chuunibyou" syndrome.

Obito was in the late stages of chuunibyou, actually wanting to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to create an illusory world without war. Ridiculous, right? But if you think about it carefully, isn't the current ninja world already under Hashirama's Infinite Tsukuyomi?

Did this "one village, one country" system bring peace to the ninja world? Obviously not. Instead, it turned small-scale skirmishes between families into large-scale slaughter between nations, to the point where seven or eight-year-old children had to go to the battlefield. The Tailed Beast, meant to ensure peace, became the ultimate tool of war. And then you tell me this system is perfect? You're fooling idiots!

Hashirama's Infinite Tsukuyomi was far more powerful than Madara's. Madara could only create a dream world, while Hashirama used his Infinite Tsukuyomi to create a "real" world.

So, Madara didn't lose unjustly.

The establishment of the ninja village system led to the emergence of a large number of civilian ninjas. The more ninjas there were, the larger the scale of war, the wider the scope of the fallout, and the ultimate result was chaos and slaughter.

Therefore, this so-called "one village, one country" system was actually a lie.

That a deceptive system could be maintained for so long only meant that those who benefited from it were very powerful. Who benefited from it?

In Konoha, it was the Hokage faction. By leveraging this system, they grew rapidly and had already surpassed the various ninja clans in strength—the Uchiha were no exception.

This was also why Suifeng generously gave the few techniques he had brainstormed to the clan; the clan's strength needed to be improved!

The author might as well change the title to "Raising the Uchiha."

If he didn't want the clan to be exterminated, he needed strength. The Uchiha Clan's strength was far from as optimistic as the Great Elder imagined, and Root was not as weak as he thought.

That was why he repeatedly provoked conflicts with Root, intensifying the friction between Root and the Uchiha Clan.

He wanted the Great Elder and the power-holders in the clan to recognize reality, while also raising their vigilance and helping them see their own strength clearly.

Although Root had been left humiliated in several conflicts because of him, wouldn't the Uchiha Clan investigate these Root Jonin?

Through investigation, they would discover that the quality of these Root ninjas exceeded that of the Uchiha Clan, which would create a sense of crisis. This served as a wake-up call and helped clear their heads.

Uchiha Fugaku was a piece of trash; he had awakened the Mangekyo but couldn't even suppress the Council of Elders. Having such trash as the clan head was advantageous to him. As long as he waited a few years and took over the power of the Great Elder's faction, gaining the corresponding voice in the clan, he could reshape the Uchiha in his own way.

Shisui was already six years old; heaven knows if he had already been brainwashed by the Third Hokage. In this world of generally precocious children, it was very likely he was already "broken." He wouldn't waste time on this broken piece of trash. If it's broken, throw it away—why try to save it? The Uchiha Clan tended to go to extremes; they were all damn lunatics. Once they formed a fixed mindset, you couldn't pull them back even with nine oxen. Want to persuade him with words? He wasn't the "Prince," and he didn't have the "Talk-no-Jutsu" skill. He only had the skill of spouting nonsense, so why bother trying to save him?

However, Uchiha Itachi hadn't been born yet. He could be saved; he could start from scratch and train this little lunatic properly.

The key events leading to the Uchiha clan's annihilation had yet to occur, leaving him room to intervene. Compared to when he first arrived, he was now capable of reaching out at critical moments, while simultaneously leveraging the clan's power to achieve his own ends.

The Great Elder chatted with Suifeng for a while longer before asking once more about his current progress in cultivation.

Suifeng had not yet reached the prime window for a ninja's strength to skyrocket, but every time he performed, it was as if he were telling everyone: I've gotten stronger again. I've gotten stronger again. How the hell did I get stronger again?

This left everyone full of anticipation regarding Suifeng's strength. As for the Strength Enhancement Technique and the like, no one doubted that Suifeng would eventually master it; it was only a matter of time. Furthermore, the few Ninja Taijutsu techniques derived from his chakra control training while researching the Strength Enhancement Technique had already brought immense benefits to the Uchiha clan.

Of course, everyone who knew this information had been sworn to secrecy.

Iron Body, Shave Body Flicker, Ninja Art: Circle.

These three techniques had already been classified as the clan's secret heritage arts. Since everyone in the clan possessed different aptitudes, they were suited for different techniques. Shisui was the seed the Great Elder had selected to master Shave Body Flicker, and the reason he had been summoned to meet Suifeng was the hope that Suifeng could personally guide him in its practice.

Yet, he hadn't even had the chance to bring it up before a single sentence from Suifeng piqued his interest.

"Recently, I've had some ideas regarding genjutsu, and I need the clan's help!"