"Comrades, thanks for all your hard work!"
Standing on an award podium formed from Earth Release, Uchiha Jin held the championship trophy and a bouquet of flowers, warmly greeting everyone below the arena.
Beside him, Uchiha Habara and Uchiha Tonan also held trophies and flowers. Yet they still wore cold expressions, gazing proudly up at the sky with their heads tilted at a forty-five-degree angle.
But the faint smiles tugging at the corners of their mouths made it clear that the two Uchiha, who had successfully advanced to Kage Level, were delighted by their clanmates' cheers and approval.
Obviously!
No Uchiha was actually going to begrudge Uchiha Jin for defeating them in the final.
If anyone did feel resentment, it was toward their own lack of talent and insufficient effort.
As for Uchiha Jin not having competed in the earlier rounds, yet somehow managing to secure himself a spot in the final four...
That had left the Uchiha present a little speechless. But after Uchiha Jin had displayed his formidable strength, no one cared about that minor detail anymore.
After all, the tournament rules had stated it clearly: the final say on all matters concerning the World's Number One Ninja Way tournament belonged to its chief referee, Uchiha Jin!
Fair enough!
"Make the Uchiha great again!"
"Make the Uchiha great again!"
"Make the Uchiha great again!"
Feeling the thunderous cheers, Uchiha Jin nodded in satisfaction. As his plan gradually got underway, it was time for him to step into the spotlight.
He glanced at Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Setsuna, who were still grinning foolishly on the platform, and curled his lip in disdain.
It wasn't that Uchiha Jin had some overwhelming desire to control everything. It was just that those two useless partners were hopeless cases. If he wanted the plan to proceed smoothly, he had no choice but to step out from behind the scenes.
And for the Uchiha Clan, who had always respected the strong, nothing earned their approval more than a display of strength.
Just as expected!
The Uchiha were a stubborn lot. As long as you beat them into submission, everything else became easy!
Senju Hashirama hadn't hit hard enough back then. That was why Uchiha Madara had come up with all those crazy ideas, giving Black Zetsu the chance to sow discord.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was the same. If only...
Oh!
This "strongest Hokage" probably couldn't beat the entire Uchiha Clan into submission. Never mind...
If the "strongest Hokage" couldn't do it before, he could forget about ever pulling off that pipe dream from now on.
After this round of matches, the Uchiha Clan's top fighters had all improved considerably. But barring any surprises, that was probably the limit of what they could achieve in the short term.
After all.
What held the Uchiha Clan back now was the time they needed to absorb and consolidate their gains. An even greater constraint was the number of ninja in the clan.
Across all of Konoha Village, Genin might seem completely insignificant. And although the Uchiha were the only ones with more Chunin than Genin, that didn't mean Genin numbers were unimportant.
As long as they weren't facing an out-of-scale ceiling like Uchiha Madara, even these Genin whom everyone looked down on still had a chance to injure Chunin or even Jonin. If things went their way, even Kage Level opponents weren't necessarily out of reach.
After all, when it came to ninja...
Most of them couldn't escape the class's defining trait: high attack, low defense!
Especially in large-scale battles, even a Genin could kill a Jonin. That was exactly why freshly graduated Ninja Academy students sometimes got sent to the battlefield.
One more Genin on the battlefield meant one more human bomb when it mattered!
But even with Uchiha Jin's perspective from beyond this world, the shortage of Genin was an extremely thorny problem with no easy solution.
The Uchiha's reputation had been smeared so badly that recruiting ninja en masse wasn't an option, while the bloodline clans' ability to reproduce was, frankly, nothing to write home about.
On top of that, although being a ninja sounded incredibly prestigious, the actual income was enough to make anyone's heart sink. The only people with the means and energy to have a second child were probably high-ranking clan members like Uchiha Fugaku.
Huh!
Looks like someone had spotted the key point!
Uchiha Jin silently criticized the injustice of the Ninja World, then slowly shifted his gaze from the cheering crowd below the arena back toward the platform.
After this event, the number of Uchiha Jonin had increased by a full thirteen. With the two Kage Level fighters beside him, their top-tier strength was now more than respectable.
Unless they were surrounded and attacked by an enormous ninja village, this strength was more than enough to suppress any of the great clans in the Ninja World.
Uh...
The Otsutsuki Clan on the moon didn't count, unless they agreed not to use the giant Tenseigan as a cheat.
So...
Uchiha Jin slowly swept his gaze across everyone on the platform, finally letting it linger, without drawing attention, on Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi's troubled faces.
"After three days of letting things simmer, certain people must be getting impatient by now!"
Uchiha Jin gave a scornful laugh to himself. The killing intent in his eyes began to roil as he murmured, a little wistfully,
"Good. I'm getting impatient too. Let me add one more spark to your grand finale!"
"What?"
Uchiha Habara and Uchiha Tonan sensed the fleeting killing intent. Curious, they both turned to look at Uchiha Jin.
"It's nothing!"
The killing intent vanished from Uchiha Jin in an instant, replaced by a warmth like a spring breeze. He gave Uchiha Habara and Uchiha Tonan a slight wave, then turned his gaze back toward the arena.
"Everyone, attention!"
"Yes!"
At Uchiha Jin's loud call, the Uchiha, who had grown accustomed to receiving orders these past few days, snapped to attention and waited quietly for their leader to speak.
"The results of the matches aren't important. What matters is what you've learned from them. Now, I announce—"
Uchiha Jin didn't bother to demonstrate his mastery of empty motivational speeches. Instead, he continued, shouting decisively at the crowd,
"Genin and Chunin, listen up!"
"Here!"
"You're free to disperse, or you can stay here and discuss what you learned from the matches. Do your best to work those lessons into your very bones, and as long as you can do that, becoming a Jonin will be within your grasp!"
"Yes!"
Several hundred people answered with delighted roars, setting off another eruption in the quiet Uchiha Clan Compound. The Root members stationed outside couldn't help but feel their spirits shaken yet again.
After giving his instructions to the Genin and Chunin, Uchiha Jin turned his gaze toward the line of Uchiha Jonin.
"Uchiha Jonin, listen up!"
"Yes!"
Though their numbers were far fewer than the others, the Uchiha Jonin now radiated even greater vigor. Every one of them wore a confident smile.
"Come on, let's go get some barbecue!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
Before you continue