After bidding Elder Uchiha Raimon farewell, Uchiha Tenshu hurried home. His expression was composed and calm, but his heart brimmed with anticipation and plans for the future. His first step was to return to the place where he and his companions trained together.
When Uchiha Tenshu reached the familiar spot, his companions were all training with intense focus, completely unaware of his arrival.
Good! Not one of them is slacking off. They've kept my instructions in mind. Only those who work this hard are worth investing in. Only people like them deserve to follow me. No matter how much I teach, I can't help someone grow if they refuse to put in the effort.
Uchiha Tenshu nodded with satisfaction and walked toward the group. A warm smile tugged at his lips. He gave a light cough to draw their attention.
They stopped what they were doing and turned toward him, delight shining in their eyes. Then they hurried over.
"Big Brother Tenshu, you're back!"
Everyone gathered around him.
"Mm. I have some news for you," Uchiha Tenshu continued. "For the next few months, you'll have to train on your own. Ikki, you'll be in charge of leading the group."
The news left his companions crestfallen. They began whispering among themselves, speculating, then asked him again,
"Big Brother Tenshu, did something happen? We were all training together just fine!" Shakukotsu Ikki asked in confusion.
"Yeah, Big Brother Tenshu. What happened?"
Kamado Taro was just as puzzled.
"Could someone have objected to you teaching us and tried to stop you?"
Akakagami Taiga suddenly blurted out.
The others began to suspect the same thing.
"Damn it, there must be a bad apple in the clan. Why would anyone do this? Someone's definitely sabotaging us."
"Exactly! They came up with some Elite Ninja Training Program. That's just too much!"
"..."
Seeing their reaction, Uchiha Tenshu felt quietly satisfied. These seven were his trusted followers, carefully cultivated through all sorts of methods and measures. They were not only exceptionally capable but fiercely loyal to him. Under his guidance, they had developed stronger critical thinking and an unusually keen strategic outlook. They had even picked up a tiny bit about political scheming.
Of course, Uchiha Tenshu hadn't taught them much.
Even so,
each of them had turned into a hot-blooded young firebrand, with little reverence for the clan or the village.
And that was exactly what Uchiha Tenshu wanted.
After all, only people like them would follow him wholeheartedly, even if it meant leaving Konoha Shinobi Village.
These seven would form the foundation of his future power. They were far more valuable than ordinary clan members. With them, Uchiha Tenshu believed he could reach even more people through his trusted followers and build a vast faction.
Uchiha Tenshu had no doubt that each of them had enough leadership ability to guide others. With his direction, they could become leaders who brought even more people along with them.
By the most conservative estimate, if each of them could command seven people just as he did now, he would have forty-nine trusted followers he could rely on completely. Each of those forty-nine would then influence even more people. The cycle would continue, and a powerful faction would gradually take shape.
A glint of ambition flashed in Uchiha Tenshu's eyes. He knew this would be no easy feat, but he had confidence in himself. With his intelligence and ability, he would succeed.
Uchiha Tenshu gave everyone a brief explanation of his mission away from the village, then began offering each of them guidance tailored to their individual training needs.
For Kamado Taro, whose family specialized in swordsmanship, Uchiha Tenshu taught him Uchiha Style Swordsmanship.
He also showed him a few secret sword techniques he had developed, shared his ideas about swordsmanship, and discussed some of his theories on breathing methods for sword users.
In the original story, a taijutsu genius from Sunagakure had developed the Seven-Day Breathing Method. Drawing on its feats and the breathing methods from Demon Slayer, Uchiha Tenshu had copied a few moves and techniques. He could be considered a pioneer in breathing-based swordsmanship.
Akakagami Taiga's family was relatively ordinary. It had around a hundred members, but only a dozen or so were shinobi. They had long managed the Uchiha Clan's estate accounts, earning a living through their wits. Akakagami Taiga himself had decent talent, with innate affinities for Water, Fire, and Earth Chakra. His techniques of those three types were somewhat enhanced, so Uchiha Tenshu taught him how to combine them: Fire Style for offense, Water Style for support, and Earth Style for defense. It was a versatile approach.
As for Shakukotsu Ikki, who excelled at Fire Style, Uchiha Tenshu taught him the fundamentals of transforming the nature of Fire Chakra. He had Ikki build a solid foundation first, then showed him how to train in the simplified hand-sealing method he had developed.
As his first trusted follower,
Ikki was a ninjutsu-type shinobi. Once he mastered simplified hand seals, his strength would surely increase by leaps and bounds.
And he wasn't the only one.
The same went for everyone else.
Uchiha Tenshu gave each of them detailed, specialized guidance. In every aspect of shinobi training—ninjutsu, taijutsu, Genjutsu, and swordsmanship—he was unquestionably superior to them all. That was what the boys admired most about him. Their families had followed the Uchiha Clan for years, and they, too, revered strength.
In their eyes, Uchiha Tenshu was a shinobi of extraordinary talent and immense power who treated them with such kindness. Naturally, they trusted and admired him with all their hearts.
"Ikki, you'll be responsible for keeping them on track from now on!"
After completing all the training guidance, Uchiha Tenshu looked at the oldest of them, Shakukotsu Ikki, with a gentle smile, and gave him the instruction in a soft voice. He knew Ikki was the most devoted to him among his trusted followers, as well as the sharpest and most resourceful of those at his side. Ikki could handle the task.
During the turbulent Warring States period, the Shakukotsu Clan had once shone like a brilliant jewel beneath the Uchiha Clan's radiance. It had been a small vassal family dedicated to refining ore for the Uchiha Clan, supplying materials for its war effort. The Shakukotsu Clan had been an indispensable ally, which also made its skilled workers one of the first targets for enemy clans.
But as Konoha rose, a torrent of families poured in, and that once-safe haven began to totter beneath the waves of change.
The major clans kept a small amount of the ore for themselves, but the rest was bought up by Konoha and the Land of Fire, becoming Konoha's war supplies.
At the same time, ore-refining workers from all the clans flocked to Konoha like migratory birds. This dealt the Shakukotsu Clan a heavy blow. The Uchiha Clan needed less ore in peacetime, and Konoha gave them no orders either. On top of that, weapons grew cheaper during peacetime.
From then on, the people of the Shakukotsu Clan who had survived from the end of the Warring States period saw their fortunes worsen year by year. That was how things remained until Shakukotsu Ikki became one of Uchiha Tenshu's followers and started staying by his side. As Uchiha Tenshu's liquor business grew enormously, he couldn't openly use all that money. To give himself a legitimate reason to spend more of it, he came up with several small inventions and had the Shakukotsu Clan make them, sharing the profits with them.
They didn't become rich overnight, but the money helped the struggling Shakukotsu family gradually stay afloat.
That was exactly what had happened.
It made the people of the Shakukotsu Clan support Ikki's decision to follow Uchiha Tenshu. They all believed Uchiha Tenshu was their chance to change the clan's fate, and that once he grew powerful, they would surely be given important roles.
Needless to say, Shakukotsu Ikki himself was deeply moved. He was utterly loyal to Uchiha Tenshu, whom he regarded almost as an object of faith.
That was why,
whenever something important came up,
Uchiha Tenshu entrusted it to him.
Now that Uchiha Tenshu would be away for an uncertain length of time,
the responsibility of keeping this small group together
could only be left to Ikki!
"Yes, Big Brother Tenshu!"
Shakukotsu Ikki thumped his chest as he promised. His eyes were fixed on Uchiha Tenshu, filled with loyalty and respect.
Then,
after waving goodbye to everyone, Uchiha Tenshu returned alone to his quiet home, like a solitary wild goose.
First, he stood for a while in front of his parents' memorial portraits.
Afterward,
he entered the dark secret room alone.
In the secret room, the smile on Uchiha Tenshu's face receded like the tide, vanishing without a trace.
The room was small, like a sealed cage. Its oppressive darkness made it hard to breathe and stirred a deep sense of fear.
But Uchiha Tenshu remained expressionless and unconcerned. He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began regulating his breathing like a meditating monk.
He had to carefully consider how the recent events had affected him, searching for clues among the tiniest details and trying to piece together the connections.
Deep in his mind,
the light of a mysterious fragment glimmered like a star in the night sky, growing ever more profound and captivating.
Uchiha Tenshu sat quietly in the endless darkness as time slipped by, second by second, like grains of sand through an hourglass. Silence and loneliness followed him like shadows, gradually weaving a thick cocoon around him.
Yet Uchiha Tenshu felt no discomfort. On the contrary, he thrived in that environment and enjoyed it. His mind grew more active, like a bonfire being kindled.
Only in the darkness could Uchiha Tenshu shed his disguises like a chameleon, cast aside every mask he wore in the outside world, and reveal his innermost self without reserve. There, he could examine his true nature with the clarity of a mirror.
It was a world full of calculation. He was no longer content to remain beneath others. His ravenous ambition burned like a roaring flame, yearning to devour everything in the world.
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