Uchiha Fugaku's Backing, Hero Water Experiment

Uchiha Fugaku's breathing stopped for several seconds as he stood there, stunned.

He looked at Uchiha Jun, trying to find even the slightest trace of a lie on his face, but found nothing—Uchiha Jun's expression was far too calm.

Damn it, what kind of awakening trigger was this?

Throughout the Uchiha Clan's history, awakening the Sharingan had required an extremely intense emotional shock.

During the Warring States Period, there had been no shortage of ruthless Uchiha who awakened their Sharingan by "killing their wives to attain enlightenment," "killing their husbands to attain enlightenment," or even manually upgrading themselves into some kind of "innate bridge-blocking physique."

Yet no matter how he looked at it, Uchiha Jun's experience should not have been enough to support his awakening.

Uchiha Fugaku's brow furrowed slightly. He hesitated for a few seconds before asking in a low voice, "Why did you choose to tell me now? You could have kept hiding it."

Uchiha Jun fell silent for two seconds, then raised his head and met Uchiha Fugaku's gaze.

"Because I need an identity that will let me act freely within Konoha, and an Uchiha genius capable of displaying the Three-Tomoe Sharingan fits that role perfectly."

"Besides, I trust Clan Head Fugaku. Our interests are aligned, and I assume you already know that I previously turned down Uchiha Setsuna."

"To be honest, I only look at the so-called 'radicalism' of those old fossils and their hangers-on as childish playacting."

"A group that does not even have a Kage Level powerhouse—what right do they have to contend with the Hokage?"

"Everything they do will not help our Uchiha Clan escape danger. It will only drag us deeper into it and make the Hokage's faction more wary of us!"

"If the Hokage's faction weakens in the future, I do not even dare imagine what will become of our Uchiha Clan."

After hearing that, Uchiha Fugaku remained silent for a long while.

Then he smiled. It was an immensely complicated smile, containing relief and self-mockery, but more than anything, a deep speechlessness at the absurdity of this world.

Unbelievable. Among the Uchiha Clan's old guard and their followers, not one of them could see things as clearly as a child who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy!

"Haha... hahaha..."

He laughed a few times, then composed himself and returned to his usual steady, imposing demeanor.

"You are right. Elder Setsuna and the others are old. Their era has already passed."

Uchiha Fugaku patted Uchiha Jun's shoulder. "And now, this is our era! Since you have chosen to trust me, I will not betray that trust."

"After this mission is over, I will recommend you to the Third Hokage in my capacity as the Uchiha Clan Head. You will be promoted to Chunin and enter the Anbu at the same time."

Uchiha Jun froze for a moment and could not help asking, "The Anbu?"

"Konoha's Anbu is the village's highest-level elite shinobi organization. It answers directly to the Hokage. Not only will you gain access to more high-level missions, but once the war ends, you can leave the Anbu and use that experience to be promoted directly to Jonin."

"By then, with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and the status of a Konoha Jonin, you will be able to enter Konoha's upper ranks!"

Uchiha Fugaku watched Uchiha Jun, his voice calm. "Your talent as a shinobi should not be wasted on missions like these."

"Besides, after entering the Anbu—this will become one of your protective talismans."

Uchiha Jun's heart stirred. Information access within the Anbu, building up qualifications, staying out of Danzo's sight—those were all things he needed right now.

"Then thank you in advance, Clan Head Fugaku." He gave Uchiha Fugaku a solemn bow.

Uchiha Fugaku waved a hand and turned toward the cliff. "Let's go. It is time to carry out the mission. Come find me after it is done."

The moment he finished speaking, his figure vanished from where he stood, leaving behind an afterimage that slowly dissipated in midair.

Uchiha Jun stood where he was, watching the direction in which Uchiha Fugaku had disappeared. After several seconds of silence, he let out a breath.

"Three-Tomoe Sharingan... Anbu... This time, I have finally laid down an initial foundation in Konoha."

Uchiha Jun took a deep breath and headed toward the cliff.

Just as he was about to return to the observation point, a sharp whistle of wind suddenly sounded behind him—

"Whoosh!"

It was a Crow.

Without even turning his head, Uchiha Jun reached back with his right hand and precisely caught the Crow. Looking down, he saw the tiny bamboo tube tied to its claw.

It was intelligence sent by Uchiha Hikari, whom he had dispatched to gather information.

[Iwagakure's Explosion Release Unit has split into three groups. Gari's team has changed direction and is withdrawing northeast.]

[According to the latest intelligence, Kumogakure is currently advancing along another front against Iwagakure. Iwagakure's frontline commander, the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, is suspected of preparing to concentrate his superior forces and first encircle Kumogakure's main force that has pushed deep into the Land of Earth!]

Uchiha Jun's gaze fell on those lines, and his pupils contracted slightly.

Concentrating superior forces?

...It looked like the incident where more than ten thousand Iwa-nin besieged the Third Raikage had arrived.

The Third Raikage... that guy was an absolute stat monster.

In the original story, even in the Impure World Reincarnation state, he could tank a Rasenshuriken from Uzumaki Naruto in Nine-Tails Chakra mode head-on. If someone said that, while alive, he could have taken an arrow from Sasuke's Susanoo era head-on too, it would not even sound strange.

His raw stats were so absurd that he could trade blows with the Eight-Tails' true body without either side gaining the upper hand. In one fight, he smashed off the Eight-Tails' horn and even shaved its tails bald!

If that guy did not have some ancestral genetic throwback in him, Uchiha Jun would not believe it.

Maybe, like Kinkaku and Ginkaku, he had won the genetic lottery and possessed some kind of beneficial mutation.

Though the Fourth Raikage came from the same lineage, he did not possess the Third Raikage's physical qualities.

Uchiha Jun crushed the note, turned around, and quickly headed toward the other side of the cliff. At the same time, he released a Shadow Clone and sent it toward Takigakure.

"—Looks like I need to arrange a little 'kill stealing.' The Third Raikage's heart can be given to Kakuzu, further strengthening Takigakure's defensive power. As for the corpse, it can be brought back for Orochimaru to study."

"During the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations era, taijutsu reigns supreme. In that version, even some stray dog by the roadside can absorb chakra. Specializing in ninjutsu alone will only lead to a dead end. I need to start with taijutsu and natural chakra!"

Takigakure, lowest level of the dungeon.

Torches crackled in iron sconces along both sides of the dim corridor, their light casting twisted shadows across the floor.

The air was thick with damp mildew, mixed with rust and a faint smell of blood.

Uchiha Jun's Shadow Clone followed behind Kakuzu, descending the spiraling stone steps for nearly three minutes before stopping in front of a heavy iron door.

Kakuzu pulled out a key from his waist, inserted it into the lock, and turned it halfway. The iron door gave off a harsh scraping sound before slowly swinging inward.

The sight beyond the door made the Shadow Clone raise his brow slightly.

This was a modified cell—no, more accurately, a laboratory that had been hastily converted from one.

Half of the stone chamber originally used to imprison captives had been cleared out. A long stone table stood against the wall, covered in all sorts of containers and scrolls.

Quite a few oil lamps had been lit around the room, illuminating several rows of labeled glass test tubes on the table.

A small sealing formula was carved into the floor at the center of the chamber. Several prisoners in different clothing were bound at the center of the formula.

They were all spies from other shinobi villages who had come to gather intelligence.

—A man in his early thirties, his face waxy and yellow, his eyes covered by black cloth, a bit in his mouth, and his hands firmly restrained behind his back by chakra ropes.

"Boss, these are the first batch of experimental materials. Here are their files. Please review them."

Kakuzu walked over to the stone table, picked up a test tube containing milky-white liquid, and shook it under the lamplight.

Uchiha Jun walked to the edge of the sealing formula, crouched down, and carefully observed the condition of the bound prisoners.

At last, he nodded and said, "All right. I'll conduct a preliminary experiment for you first. After that, you can take over and record the data yourself."

"Okay!"

Uchiha Jun picked up a graduated glass dropper and carefully drew out roughly 0.01 milliliters of undiluted Hero Water from a sealing bottle bearing a red label, preparing to dilute it.

The instant the azure liquid left the sealing bottle, a strange chakra fluctuation spread through the air—as though some long-suppressed biological instinct was awakening.

It carried both primal savagery and the sweetness of Life Force.

This unusual phenomenon did not surprise Kakuzu. Decades ago, before he defected, he had already seen Hero Water and the effects of consuming it.

Uchiha Jun, however, silently committed the phenomenon to memory.

It was not difficult to see from the original story that, even before Otsutsuki Kaguya descended, the Shinobi World had already had its chakra extracted by the God Tree formed from the Ten-Tails.

Considering the Ten-Tails' almost instinctive "greed" for chakra, it was not difficult to guess that this Hero Water before them was not simple in nature!

"First group: diluted five hundred times. Expected to triple the test subject's chakra while ensuring survival, at the cost of at least ten years of Life Force."

Uchiha Jun injected the undiluted liquid into a beaker filled with diluent and gently mixed it. Then he walked over to the prisoner, pried open his mouth, and poured every last drop down his throat.

What followed was silent waiting.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty seconds.

At first, there was no movement—the prisoner's body merely trembled slightly, as if from a simple stress reaction.

But at the forty-fifth second, a sudden change occurred.

"Urgh—ahhh!"

The prisoner's body abruptly arched upward. A muffled roar, blocked by the bit, came from deep in his throat, while black vein-like patterns surfaced across his skin.

His chakra fluctuations surged at a visible rate, and the entire sealing formula buzzed and trembled under the impact of that explosively rising chakra!

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and reported the data detected by the instruments. "Chakra volume has exceeded the upper limit of a Jonin and is still rising... the current projected peak has reached Elite Jonin level, approaching the Kage Level threshold."

Uchiha Jun lowered his head, charcoal pencil flying across the page as he recorded every data point.

"Heart rate has exceeded one hundred eighty. Blood pressure is off the charts... pupils dilated. Consciousness assessment: completely out of control, incapable of any combat ability."

Kakuzu added another line, forming a hand seal as he did so to strengthen the binding force of the sealing formula.

Another minute passed.

The prisoner's struggles gradually weakened, and the trembling stopped—not because he had returned to normal, but because his Life Force had been exhausted to its limit.

His chakra fluctuations rapidly receded like the tide. His breathing became weak and ragged, his flushed skin turned deathly pale, and visibly, nearly half of his originally dark-brown hair had turned white.

"Estimated Life Force loss: roughly seven years of Life Force in exchange for two minutes of uncontrollable combat power."