I Tie Myself Up

"This..."

Hyuga Tokuma was so excited he couldn't find the words.

Even though Uchiha Yu possessed the Sharingan, to have copied the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm in such a short amount of time was incredible.

Without a doubt, Uchiha Yu was also a genius in taijutsu!

"Not only Konoha-Style Taijutsu, but he is even this proficient in the Gentle Fist Technique?"

Hyuga Hiashi furrowed his brows slightly.

An outsider, yet he knew the secrets of his clan's taijutsu like the back of his hand.

For a moment, Hyuga Hiashi didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Yu-kun..." Hinata widened her eyes.

She hadn't expected Uchiha Yu to be so well-versed in the Gentle Fist Technique.

The copying ability of the Sharingan truly far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

Uchiha Yu chuckled softly and withdrew his arm.

After activating the Sharingan, one could not only predict every move of an opponent but even replicate almost all of their previous actions.

Although the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm had been an impromptu strike, it still left Hiashi and the others breathing heavily.

Hyuga Hiashi's gaze softened.

Although the Gentle Fist Technique was the Hyuga Clan's closely guarded secret, there was nothing to be done now that Uchiha Yu had learned it.

Furthermore, Uchiha Yu's talent had truly won them over.

So, why couldn't Uchiha Yu become part of their family?

Why not?

"Yu, if you have nothing else to do, stay and have dinner at the Hyuga estate. I will have a fine meal prepared for you," Hyuga Hiashi said with a grin.

Uchiha Yu: "Anything works, anything is fine."

After leaving the Hyuga estate, Uchiha Yu patted the twenty thousand ryo in his pocket, his heart blooming with joy.

He needed one hundred gold points to fuse bloodline limits, and he already had twenty.

Should I pull off something big?

Uchiha Yu scratched his head.

If he kept harvesting the ninja academy students like leeks, it would be impossible to scrape together one hundred thousand ryo without taking several months.

But what he lacked most right now was time.

If he didn't have Wood Release by the time the Shisui incident occurred, his chances of success would drop by at least fifty percent.

Once Shisui died, the Uchiha Clan would lose a major general, and the coup would inevitably be delayed.

Once delayed, it would lead straight to the night of the Uchiha Clan's annihilation.

Right now, Uchiha Yu was in desperate need of a good project!

Rob a bank? Kidnapping? Robbery?

Uchiha Yu hesitated for a moment, feeling that he couldn't be that shameless.

Be good; he wouldn't do anything illegal!

Wait, if I just do a little extortion without going overboard, asking them for one hundred thousand ryo should be a piece of cake, right?

Uchiha Yu paced back and forth for a moment.

Come on! Kidnapping!

Who to kidnap?

Hyuga Hanabi!

The current Hyuga Hanabi was the heir to the main branch.

And she wasn't very old, only two years old.

As long as he was quick about it, kidnapping her would be easy!

But the Hyuga family had just treated him to dinner; turning around and kidnapping them felt a bit unjustifiable.

Besides, he wasn't very familiar with the Hyuga estate, and if he ended up capsizing in the gutter, he'd be finished.

Uzumaki Naruto? Who would pay a ransom for him?

Sarutobi Konohamaru? Forget it, the Sarutobi family's strength is no weaker than the Hyuga's; it would be even easier to flip the car!

How about... kidnapping someone from my own clan?

I kidnap myself?

Uchiha Yu's eyes lit up.

This could actually work!

He knew the Uchiha Clan like the back of his hand; there was absolutely no way this plan would backfire!

Nighttime.

The Uchiha Clan compound.

A sudden explosion sent flames surging toward the heavens!

"What's going on?"

"Someone is raiding the Uchiha at night!"

"Damn it! Could it be that the people of Konoha have finally made their move against us? Brothers! Are kings and nobles born with more noble blood than us?"

Amidst the flames, a sturdy man dressed in black, his head wrapped in black cloth with only his eyes visible, held the securely bound Uchiha Yu in his palm, his gaze fierce.

They shouldn't be able to tell that this is my Shadow Clone, right? Uchiha Yu muttered to himself, looking at the "zongzi" bound at his feet.

To ensure they wouldn't recognize him, he hadn't just dressed in all black; he had even worn two layers of shoe lifts.

"Who goes there?"

A group of Uchiha clansmen immediately surrounded Uchiha Yu.

Uchiha Fugaku stood before Uchiha Yu with his arms crossed, his eyes brimming with murderous intent.

"Who are you? How dare you sneak into our Uchiha compound to launch an attack!" Uchiha Fugaku snorted coldly.

Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke rushed over as well, and upon seeing the scene before them, they all gasped in shock.

"Are you after Uchiha Yu?" Uchiha Itachi activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, staring fixedly at Uchiha Yu.

Uchiha Shisui also arrived in the crowd in an instant.

"What do you intend to do to our clansman?"

Uchiha Shisui's Sharingan locked onto Uchiha Yu.

"Nothing much, just a kidnapping."

Uchiha Yu lowered his voice and pulled out a kunai, pressing it directly against his clone's throat.

"As long as the price is right, letting him go won't be a problem."

Nonsense, it's not like I'm going to kill myself, right?

Relying on the fact that they couldn't see through his clone with their Sharingan, Uchiha Yu's Shadow Clone let out a miserable howl.

"Dad! Brother! Save me! I'm so scared! He's going to kill me! I still want to live, wuwuwu!"

Uchiha Itachi and Shisui kept trying to meet Uchiha Yu's eyes.

But Uchiha Yu knew exactly what they were trying to do, so he made sure to avoid their gaze.

Stupid, right? I'm not falling for your genjutsu!

If Uchiha Yu activated his Sharingan, he could technically immunize himself against most of their current genjutsu.

But that would expose his identity.

"How much money do you want?"

Uchiha Fugaku snorted coldly and spoke.

"This much!"

Uchiha Yu held up two fingers.

Uchiha Fugaku frowned slightly.

"How bold, trying to extort the Uchiha Clan!"

With that, the Uchiha clansmen all drew their kunai and shuriken.

It seemed that in the next second, they would turn Uchiha Yu into a sieve.

"Two hundred thousand ryo! Not a single ryo less!"

Uchiha Yu steeled his heart and simply asked for an exorbitant amount.

Two hundred thousand ryo?

Uchiha Fugaku took a deep breath and put his hands behind his back.

"Hurry up and give him the two hundred thousand ryo to send him packing! What kind of animal comes to kidnap someone only to demand two hundred thousand ryo? Is he looking down on me?"

With that, a few Uchiha clansmen stepped forward, pooled together a bag of money, and tossed it toward Uchiha Yu.

"Here, two hundred thousand ryo. Take it and get lost!"

Uchiha Yu: "..."

Was I just looked down upon on a personal level?

Should I have asked for more?

He did a quick mental calculation; a C-rank mission for a ninja usually paid between thirty thousand and one hundred thousand ryo.

When you put it that way, two hundred thousand ryo really isn't much.

At the very least, for the Uchiha Clan, it was a mere drop in the bucket.

"I miscalculated; I should have asked for a million."

Uchiha Yu let out a sigh.

Uchiha Yu tucked away the two hundred thousand ryo and let out a cold sneer.

"Tomorrow morning, I will return Uchiha Yu, and I guarantee not a single hair on his head will be harmed!"

With that said, Uchiha Yu formed hand seals.

"Water Style: Hidden Mist Technique!"

In an instant, his chakra surged, conjuring a massive amount of mist.

At the same time, as Uchiha Yu continued to pour in his chakra, the mist grew increasingly dense.

By the time the mist dissipated, Uchiha Yu had already departed from the spot.

In the forest on the outskirts of Konoha.

Uchiha Yu looked at the two hundred thousand ryo in his money pouch, his heart blooming with joy.

"This is great, that's two hundred recharge points right there!" Uchiha Yu rubbed his hands together and chuckled.