What Do You Want

When Shin-getsu woke up again, his nose was filled with the pungent scent of medicine.

He was lying on a clean hospital bed.

Above him was a white ceiling.

Outside the window, the sky was faintly bright.

It must have already been the next morning.

"Awake?"

A low voice sounded.

Shin-getsu's eyelids flickered, and he turned his head to look.

A middle-aged man was sitting by the bedside.

He had short black hair, a stern face, and was wearing the dark clan attire.

Even without his Sharingan activated, his eyes still exerted a powerful sense of oppression.

Uchiha Fugaku.

The current head of the Uchiha clan.

He was also the father of Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke.

In the original story, Fugaku was a complex man.

He possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, yet he never truly resisted his own son until the night of the clan's annihilation.

Some said he was weak.

Others said he was considering the bigger picture.

But regardless, he was by no means a simple character.

To have maintained the Uchiha clan for so many years under the suppression of Konoha's high-ranking officials, Fugaku could never be an ordinary ninja.

Shin-getsu felt wary, but his face displayed just the right amount of confusion.

"Lord Clan Head..."

Fugaku looked at him, silent for a moment.

"Your injuries are severe."

"A knife wound on your left shoulder, blunt force trauma to your chest, a hairline fracture in your right wrist, and two broken ribs."

"There is also minor internal bleeding."

"Under normal circumstances, you shouldn't have woken up this quickly."

Shin-getsu's heart skipped a beat.

This was a probe.

Fugaku was suspicious of his recovery speed.

After the system integrated the entries, although it didn't heal him instantly, it had indeed strengthened his physical foundation and chakra control.

That was what allowed him to recover faster than an ordinary child.

Shin-getsu lowered his eyes, his voice raspy.

"I don't know."

"I just... didn't want to die."

Fugaku stared at him.

The room fell silent.

After a long while, he spoke slowly.

"How much do you remember about last night?"

Shin-getsu had been prepared for this.

He knew he had to tell the truth.

But he couldn't tell the whole truth.

Lies were the easiest things to see through.

The truly clever lie was nine parts truth and one part falsehood.

Shin-getsu whispered, "When I woke up, I heard people talking outside."

"They said I was an orphan and no one would care."

"They also said... they were going to take me away."

Fugaku's gaze darkened.

"And then?"

Shin-getsu continued, "One of them came into the room to grab me."

"I was scared, so I stabbed him with a kunai."

"Then I knocked over the oil lamp, and the house caught fire."

"I don't know how I killed the first person."

"The second person was very strong."

"He almost killed me."

"Later, when the house collapsed, I stabbed him in the neck with my kunai."

At this point, Shin-getsu raised his head and looked at Fugaku.

"Lord Clan Head, who were they?"

Fugaku did not answer immediately.

But Shin-getsu saw the fingers resting on his knees tighten slightly.

Clearly, Fugaku knew the answer.

Or rather, the entire Uchiha upper echelon knew the answer.

It was just that there had been no evidence before.

Nor was there a reason to tear things wide open.

But last night was different.

Two unidentified ninjas had infiltrated the Uchiha compound, attempting to abduct an Uchiha orphan.

One of them had even uttered the word "specimen."

This was no longer just surveillance.

It was stepping all over the Uchiha's face.

Fugaku asked in a deep voice, "Have you awakened the Sharingan?"

Shin-getsu nodded.

The next instant, chakra flowed through his eyes.

Scarlet pupils emerged.

A single tomoe slowly rotated.

A flash of complex emotion crossed the depths of Fugaku's eyes.

Awakening the Sharingan at nine years old.

It was not unheard of.

But to awaken it under such a life-or-death situation, after killing two adult ninjas in self-defense—such mental fortitude was terrifying.

Fugaku suddenly asked, "Do you hate them?"

Shin-getsu did not hesitate.

"I do."

Fugaku asked again, "Do you know who they might be?"

Shin-getsu was silent for a moment.

Then he said in a low voice, "They were like Anbu."

Fugaku's gaze turned icy in an instant.

Shin-getsu immediately added, "But they had no Anbu insignia."

The atmosphere in the room turned heavy in an instant.

Fugaku, of course, understood the implication.

Like Anbu.

Yet without Anbu insignia.

In Konoha, there was only one place that fit that description.

Root.

Shimura Danzo's Root.

Fugaku stood up and walked to the window.

Outside, the Uchiha compound had fully awakened.

Many clansmen were gathered in the streets.

Everyone's face bore suppressed rage.

Shin-getsu's words from last night had already spread.

"I am a specimen."

These four words were more provocative to the Uchiha than any evidence could ever be.

Because the most sensitive thing to an Uchiha was their own eyes.

If the high-ranking officials of Konoha truly treated Uchiha clansmen as experimental subjects, then the conflict between the two sides was no longer a simple political dispute.

It was a blood feud.

Fugaku stood with his back to Shin-getsu and said slowly, "The bodies from last night have already been collected by the clan."

"They had no identification marks on them."

"But the style of their ninja tools and their methods of operation were certainly not those of ordinary rogue ninjas."

Shin-getsu sneered inwardly.

Of course there wouldn't be any marks.

How could Root leave behind evidence when performing dirty work?

However, he had never expected to take down Danzo with just two corpses anyway.

What he needed to do now was to make the Uchiha start to be vigilant.

To make Fugaku start to be vigilant.

To make those in the clan who still harbored illusions understand that the high-ranking officials of Konoha had already drawn their blades.

That was enough.

Fugaku turned around and looked at Shin-getsu.

"Starting today, you will move to the inner circle of the clan grounds."

"I will arrange for people to protect you."

Shin-getsu's heart stirred.

This was the first step toward success.

Moving from a peripheral orphan to the core of the Uchiha's attention.

But on the surface, he still showed a hint of hesitation.

"Lord Clan Head, can I still continue to be a ninja?"

Fugaku frowned slightly.

"You just went through something like this, and you still want to be a ninja?"

Shin-getsu looked up, his voice soft but firm.

"If I hadn't been strong enough, I would have been taken away last night."

"If I am not strong enough in the future, they will come again."

"Lord Clan Head, I don't want to be in a position where I can only fight for my life like I did last night."

Fugaku fell silent.

He looked at the boy on the hospital bed.

Wrapped in bandages from head to toe.

His face was pale.

He was clearly still a child, yet there was none of the fear or dependency that an ordinary child should have in his eyes.

There was only calmness.

And a deep-seated, hidden ruthlessness.

This reminded Fugaku of many Uchiha clansmen.

The Uchiha clan had never lacked geniuses.

Nor had they lacked extremists.

But this was the first time Fugaku had seen a child like Shin-getsu, who at nine years old could calmly calculate between life and death, kill his enemies in return, and clearly analyze his situation after waking up.

"What do you want?"

Fugaku asked.

Shin-getsu's heart jolted.

It was here.

This question was crucial.

Fugaku didn't ask if he was afraid, nor did he simply offer comfort.

Instead, he asked what he wanted.

This meant that Fugaku had begun to take his value seriously.

Shin-getsu said in a low voice, "I want to learn the true Uchiha combat techniques."

"Shurikenjutsu, Fire Release, genjutsu, and the methods for using the Sharingan."