"Please forgive me if I'm intruding on Gen's privacy, but for the sake of the Uchiha Clan, I ask that you tell me plainly. I'm willing to pay any price!" Uchiha Fugaku opened his own Mangekyō Sharingan and met Gen's gaze, his expression utterly resolute.
After a long while~
"It's not that I can't tell you, but I hope Clan Head Fugaku can keep this to himself. The fewer people who know about a trump card, the better!" Uchiha Gen considered it for a long time before finally deciding to tell Fugaku. After all, no matter how strong he was, he still had to sleep. If an enemy launched a sneak attack, Izanagi meant he had nothing to fear—but his leek... his dear clansmen weren't strong enough to survive a fight. They'd still die! He couldn't save them all. It wasn't as if he could stand guard over them all the time!
He still had to find a way to make his leeks strong on their own!
"One of my Mangekyō Sharingan abilities is called Divine Grace. It lets me absorb Dojutsu Power!"
"Sōka! I see! Hm? Could it be that you caused that strange illness that swept through the Uchiha Clan before?" Uchiha Fugaku suddenly remembered something.
"That's right. As long as they haven't reached the Mangekyō stage, my clansmen don't need to worry about going blind from using their Sharingan, so I took the liberty!" Uchiha Gen said as though it were perfectly reasonable.
"Um! Even if they don't have to worry about going blind, what you did caused the clansmen a lot of trouble, Gen!" Uchiha Fugaku looked envious.
"Actually, Clan Head Fugaku could do the same thing I did. I have a very well-thought-out idea. Would you like to hear it?" Uchiha Gen gave him a mysterious smile.
"Oh? How well-thought-out? Let's hear it!"
"I could use my Mangekyō Sharingan ability to set up a Dojutsu Power transfer station, like a bank. Everyone could deposit their surplus Dojutsu Power with me, and I'd take a certain percentage as a fee. The clansmen could also buy and sell Dojutsu Power using money and supplies. Ordinary Three-Tomoe clansmen waste all their Dojutsu Power in their day-to-day lives, while you, Clan Head Fugaku, are afraid to use too much in case you go blind. You could buy the clansmen's Dojutsu Power with money and supplies, and I'd just take a small fee. Wouldn't that be a win-win for everyone?" Uchiha Gen smiled as he laid out his grand plan.
"Hmm? You can do that? Your Mangekyō Sharingan ability can not only absorb Dojutsu Power, but transfer it too?" Fugaku looked utterly astonished.
"Of course! Want to buy some now and give it a try, Clan Head Fugaku? The exchange rate is one hundred ryo for one point of Dojutsu Power. One Mangekyō Sharingan is worth ten thousand points, or one million ryo. The service fee is forty percent!" Uchiha Gen pitched his offer.
That's steep! Even loan sharks only charge nine for thirteen!
"Give me a hundred million worth to start!" As it turned out, the irresistible-when-you-tried-it rule applied everywhere. Fugaku dutifully brought out a large box of money.
As expected of a clan head—loaded! That was enough to buy three Asumas!
"Very well. At an exchange rate of one hundred ryo to one point, one hundred million ryo will get you one million points of Dojutsu Power. After the forty-percent fee, you'll receive six hundred thousand points, Clan Head Fugaku!" With that, Uchiha Gen began the transfer.
In an instant, Uchiha Fugaku's eyes filled with an astonishing, chilling power.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha! What incredible power! Hahahahahaha!" Uchiha Fugaku felt the strength pouring into his eyes and burst into a wild, unrestrained laugh—an unmistakably Uchiha-style laugh.
"Clan Head, tone it down a little! We don't want to set a bad example for the kids!" So Uchiha laughter really was hereditary.
"Gen, I want to add more money! Give me another hundred million worth of Dojutsu Power!" Uchiha Fugaku looked so feverish he could have been an internet addict.
"That's all I have for now. To get more Dojutsu Power, the clansmen will have to cooperate. I'm only a middleman, after all!" Uchiha Gen refused Fugaku's request and explained kindly.
"I see. Fair enough. But you're still too young, Gen. With such a useful Mangekyō Sharingan ability, why exchange Dojutsu Power for money? We could simply buy up the clansmen's Dojutsu Power. The ordinary clansmen have no need to buy any themselves!" Uchiha Fugaku looked like a ruthless boss. Who would complain about having too much Dojutsu Power? He certainly wouldn't!
"No, Clan Head Fugaku, that's the wrong way to look at it. The amount of Dojutsu Power available depends on the size of the clan as a whole. A thousand clansmen can work themselves to exhaustion and still produce only so much. But if we make Dojutsu Power freely tradable and equip our clansmen with Izanagi, then every clansman with Three-Tomoe will effectively have two extra lives compared to other shinobi—and they can keep replenishing those lives indefinitely. At an exchange rate of one hundred to one, using Izanagi costs as much Dojutsu Power as one ordinary Three-Tomoe Sharingan: three thousand points. That's only three hundred thousand ryo. Think about it: for three hundred thousand ryo, you get an extra life. Every time our Uchiha Clan goes on a mission, we could send them out with three lives each. As time goes on, every successful return from the battlefield would make them stronger. Keep that up, and even a dog could take off! The more clansmen survive, the more Dojutsu Power they provide; the more Dojutsu Power we have, the more clansmen survive on the battlefield. The cycle goes on forever! Before long, we might even have several more clansmen with Mangekyō Sharingan!" Uchiha Gen excitedly revealed his vision.
"Hiss! If that happens, even if Senju Hashirama comes back to life years from now, he won't be a match for our Uchiha Clan! Good! Excellent! That's what we'll do!" Uchiha Fugaku was completely overwhelmed by the future Gen had described.
It took a long while for Uchiha Fugaku to calm down. Once he had regained his senses, he realized that while the idea sounded wonderful, putting it into practice might not be as simple as he imagined.
Given the way the Konoha High Command operated, if the Uchiha really had an ability like this, they'd simply send the entire clan out as cannon fodder. The Uchiha might end up worse off than they were now. From the perspective of Konoha's other clans and its civilians, when other people died, they stayed dead; when the Uchiha died, they could just keep coming back.
In that case, of course they'd make the Uchiha die first! People were selfish. If things came to that, the Konoha High Command would only need some flimsy excuse to send the entire Uchiha Clan out as cannon fodder, and Konoha's civilians would blindly support them, ignoring any warning signs. After all, faced with the deaths of their own loved ones, they'd rather someone else die—and the Uchiha weren't really dying anyway! Thinking about it that way, they might not feel even the slightest twinge of guilt!
Think of Konoha's White Fang. Who had ever felt guilty on his behalf? And think of Naruto in the original story. Civilians were forgetful. No one had ever taken responsibility for what happened to White Fang. When they wanted to vent their anger, Naruto was the demon fox, with or without evidence and no matter how little sense it made. When they needed him to save their lives, they came crawling back to support him as the Seventh Hokage. When he was a child, they only suspected Naruto was the demon fox—and still treated him that way. Once he grew up and it was confirmed that Naruto really was the demon fox, what did they do? Why didn't they go after him for revenge? What a bunch of shameless hypocrites!
Before you continue