The afterglow of wisdom in Uchiha Genmei's mind let him know
that Amaterasu had evolved.
With its new property of being undying, its temperature had risen dramatically.
He could freely control it between 200 and 6,000 degrees Celsius!
Only now did Amaterasu live up to its title, Flame of the Sun.
Staring at the golden-red flames dancing in his hand, Uchiha Genmei froze.
When Amaterasu had finished evolving,
a sudden flash of inspiration had struck him. His gaze had sharpened, and the intricate patterns in his eyes had trembled.
He had controlled the Sun Fire to a few hundred degrees, and golden flames tinged with red had appeared in his hand.
He didn't feel the slightest bit of heat from the flames.
Was this still a visual jutsu?!
And as he stared at the flames, lost in thought,
in a sealed pocket dimension somewhere in the Land of Demons,
an indescribable black monster opened the countless eyes covering its body!
Filthy tears of blood streamed from its eyes.
A tremendous roar rang through the sealed land. "That was... Lord of Takaichi?! Is my lord still alive?"
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Damn you, Outer-Heaven Demon!!"
"Gaaah!!!"
After the roar,
Rumble!
Evil black-purple light violently crashed into everything around it.
Meanwhile,
inside a strange shrine in the Land of Hot Water,
a mass of writhing, blood-red filth
shuddered all over.
It murmured softly:
"Yasukawa... Yasukawa... Lord?"
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll absolutely kill you!!"
This mass of filth
was inexplicably furious.
A trickle of filthy blood
slowly gathered from an unfathomable realm!
In a palace,
a beautiful Shrine Maiden jolted awake from a dream.
"What was that?!"
She gasped for breath,
trying to calm herself after suddenly seeing a cruel future in her dream.
She murmured in confusion:
"Was I going to die in that future?"
Her slender hand clutched her collar tightly as she frowned and recalled what she had seen.
"No, there was another future. A pair of blood-red eyes resolved the crisis."
She swallowed,
then said hoarsely:
"But I died..."
The pitiful future filled her mind.
Unable to sit still, she hurriedly summoned her ministers.
"I have foreseen a terrible future. We need to hire ninja, everyone!"
Her ministers were
struck with alarm when they heard their ruler's words!
As her subjects, they knew better than anyone that the ruler of their land possessed the power of a Shrine Maiden to foresee the future.
Otherwise,
who would have submitted to a woman for generations?
"My lady, has Moryo stirred?"
The beautiful Shrine Maiden pictured the owner of those red eyes.
She bit her lip.
"It's not just Moryo... There's also a blood-red demon! I want to hire ninja from Konoha, especially the head of the Uchiha Clan!"
"He's a powerful ninja who can save us all."
The minister bowed low, touching his forehead to the ground.
"Yes! We shall obey your command!"
A month later,
in the Hokage Office in Konoha,
"Minister Yuan Ming, the Shrine Maiden of the Land of Demons specifically requested you for this mission."
Hearing the Third Hokage's words, Uchiha Genmei felt a pang of irritation.
What did he mean, she'd requested him specifically? Couldn't he have phrased it better?
He complained inwardly,
but put on a righteous expression. "As a Konoha Ninja, I'll make sure to do a good job on any mission requested by a client!"
He was quite interested in the Shrine Maiden of the Land of Demons and her ability to foresee the future.
He'd agreed to go on this trip to appease the increasingly disgruntled higher-ups.
"Lord Hokage, I assume I won't be the only one on this mission!"
The Third Hokage exhaled a puff of smoke
and said impassively,
"Don't worry. The Shrine Maiden of the Land of Demons asked for a squad of ninja to protect her."
"Minister Yuan Ming only needs to eliminate the greatest threat to their Land of Demons."
"So I've arranged for you to go with my students!"
He didn't actually trust Uchiha Genmei to go out alone, so he wanted to assign someone to accompany him and keep an eye on him.
However, ordinary ninja wouldn't be up to the task.
His students, despite their youth,
were already elite jonin, so he could only rely on them to carry out the surveillance.
Before long,
three distinctive young people walked in. The one on the right was a foolish-looking white-haired man.
He waved familiarly and said,
"Genmei, long time no see!"
The cool, reserved young man beside him
smiled and nodded.
"It's been many years since we graduated from the Academy, Genmei."
Uchiha Genmei nodded politely in return.
He smiled and said, "It has been a long time, Orochimaru, Jiraiya."
"Hmph! What a hypocrite! It hasn't been a long time since I last saw you!"
The blonde girl beside them turned away with a snort.
Seeing this,
Genmei shook his head and didn't respond.
This blonde girl, who was now a sure thing and showed no signs of change, was Tsunade.
She wasn't wrong, either.
He'd seen her plenty of times.
This gambler would pick a fight whenever she caught someone cheating at a casino.
Ordinary Uchiha weren't wary of her Senju heritage,
but they were wary of her title as Princess Ji, so none of them dared to deal with her.
They could only wait
for him, as a minister, to handle things.
Over time, he'd gotten familiar with the Casino Big Fat Sheep.
When Uchiha Genmei didn't respond,
the furious Tsunade snapped, "Damn you! Are you looking down on me?!"
She rolled up her sleeves, ready to start a fight.
Her companions hurriedly held her back.
After a flurry of chaos,
everything was finally arranged, much to Sarutobi Hiruzen's headache.
Uchiha Genmei
left the Hokage Building with three young men and women who would later become famous.
Orochimaru looked at Uchiha Genmei
and said calmly,
"Genmei, since this is our first mission together, we don't know each other well."
After a moment's thought, he continued,
"We should spar to learn about one another's abilities and work better together during the mission."
"Please forgive me if I offend you."
Hearing the apology in Orochimaru's words,
Uchiha Genmei was also curious to see how the Young Sannin measured up at their current age.
He smiled and said,
"That's a good idea. Let's head to the nearest training ground."
"Yeah! Awesome!" Jiraiya shouted excitedly.
He'd disliked the handsome young man in front of him for a long time.
Tsunade kept staring at him. Damn it!
He was going to beat the guy up and show Tsunade how impressive he was,
then make her fall for him!
"Hmph! Don't go crying in a minute!" Tsunade said mockingly, her fingers cracking as she clenched them.
She was thrilled.
Let's see if I don't smash your face in!
Chances to get revenge under the guise of an official duty didn't come often!
I'll make you cry in front of me!
At a training ground in Konoha,
Orochimaru asked Uchiha Genmei, "How would you like to spar, Genmei?"
"Come at me together."
Uchiha Genmei shrugged and casually answered Orochimaru's question.
Hearing those words,
Orochimaru didn't say anything. After all, he knew that the man facing him was a powerful ninja with the Mangekyō Sharingan.
But beside him, Tsunade heard those words and felt something snap inside her head.
"Who do you think you're looking down on, you bastard?!"
"Die!"
Before you continue