Shisui's Body Flicker Technique

The system chimed with a mission notification.

Uchiha Gray's first reaction was, of course, delight. The system usually issued a mission only once every few months, and each time it was random, entirely dependent on his own "exploration."

After he reached different locations, the system would discover the so-called points of fortune and then issue a mission.

Of course, places he had already checked in at could be checked in at again, but the rewards were next to worthless—practically negligible.

Gray: (ˉ▽￣~) Tsk~~

"Tsk, system, what happened to all that talk about points of fortune? What a load of crap." Uchiha Gray waved a hand, his face full of disdain. "You used to issue a mission only once every few months. Now you're giving me three check-in missions in one day?"

"If I'd known you were such a gutless system, I would've threatened you as soon as I got here and gone straight to the battlefield of the Third Shinobi World War. Maybe you would've given me a check-in reward that could make anything I said come true!"

The system lagged for a moment, as if offended by the word "gutless."

[Please complete the mission as soon as possible!]

Oh?

It sounded angry.

Gray's lips curled into a faint smile. He didn't take it to heart, leaping lightly onto a high treetop. His gaze casually fell on the Hyuga Clan in the center of Leaf.

In Leaf, the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had once been the dominant powers, while the Hyuga Clan had been suppressed to the point where it could barely breathe. But now the Senju Clan had dissolved and blended into Leaf.

The conflict between the Uchiha Clan and Leaf had grown ever more intense, and the Uchiha had long since been shut out of politics.

Even their clan grounds were on the outskirts of the village.

So now, of the three great Kekkei Genkai clans, only the Hyuga Clan—once the weakest of them all—stood out on its own.

Wandering around at random, Gray had stopped at the Hyuga Clan without giving it much thought.

By now, the moon had risen, and the stars shone sparsely across the sky. The Hyuga guards on night watch froze when they spotted him.

"That's someone from the Uchiha Clan. He's got their crest on his back. But why's he just a kid? It's so late—shouldn't he be asleep?"

"Did he get lost?"

The two Hyuga Branch Family members gradually let their guard down.

After all, there was no way a child from the Uchiha Clan could pose any threat to the Hyuga Clan.

But the notification that Gray expected to hear, announcing a successful check-in, never came.

Suddenly, Gray glanced to the side.

"Whoosh!"

A sharp whistle split the air—the sound of a ninja moving at high speed.

In the darkness, two black-clad ninjas fled from the Hyuga Clan. Under Uchiha Gray's Two-Tomoe Sharingan, they had no chance of hiding their faces!

A little girl lay unconscious in their arms.

It was Hinata Hyuga!

Gray instantly remembered: after the Third Shinobi World War ended, relations between Leaf and Cloud Hidden had gradually improved. The two villages had agreed to sign an alliance treaty and end their fighting.

And the day they were signing the treaty was today.

On the surface, Cloud Hidden seemed entirely sincere about the alliance.

But in reality, the Cloud Hidden ninjas who had come to sign the treaty were primarily there to abduct Hinata Hyuga, a member of the Hyuga Clan's Main Family, and study the secrets of the Byakugan!

Gray frowned. The two ninjas would be a bit troublesome for him, but they weren't impossible to deal with.

But they were from Cloud Hidden. Should he kill them or not?

If he let them go, he wouldn't be able to swallow his anger. Was he just supposed to let people from his own village get robbed? But if he killed them, Cloud Hidden would accuse Leaf of violating the alliance treaty, then threaten to start a war—and that would ultimately lead to Hizashi Hyuga's death!

Gray had a headache. How had he ended up caught in this mess?

"Damn brat, get out of the way!"

The two guards at the entrance had done nothing to stop them. The kidnappers had clearly planned this in advance, and when they saw Uchiha Gray standing right in their path, their initial surprise gave way to gleaming eyes.

"Aka, he's a kid from the Uchiha Clan, and he's awakened the Two-Tomoe Sharingan. If we take him back to Kumogakure, he'd be even more valuable to study than someone from the Hyuga Clan!"

"But wouldn't that make things too obvious? More importantly, compared to the Hyuga Clan, the Uchiha Clan's reaction to anyone taking their Kekkei Genkai is terrifying..."

The ninja named Aka had clearly been reminded of some unpleasant memories.

He remembered clearly that someone had once coveted the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan.

But after someone kidnapped a member of the Uchiha Clan during the war, the Uchiha had gone mad and retaliated furiously. Even after the war ended, a powerful Uchiha with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan had left the village.

He'd gone to take revenge!

And didn't stop until every last enemy had been wiped out!

"Yamafu, the Uchiha Clan are all lunatics. If we kidnap one of them, we have to be ready for them to start a war against Cloud Hidden, no matter the consequences."

"If we kidnap someone from the Hyuga Clan, they'll threaten us with war. But the Uchiha Clan won't waste time arguing with us. They'll just start a war!"

Uchiha Gray had excellent hearing. He couldn't help but freeze when he heard what the Cloud Hidden ninjas said.

???

Wasn't that a bit of a double standard?

Gray couldn't help laughing. No wonder they were bullying the Hyuga Clan. They'd clearly planned this out already, knowing that even if a member of the Main Family was kidnapped, the Hyuga would only use official channels. They wouldn't let things get out of hand.

But when it came to the Uchiha Clan, they got cold feet.

They were a bunch of idiots who really would risk their lives to fight you.

Wait, he'd just insulted himself too!

The ninja called Yamafu sneered. "If you don't tell and I don't tell, who's going to know Cloud Hidden did it? Once we've raised a new generation of Uchiha, what the hell will we have to fear from Leaf?"

"That's what they mean by the bolder you are, the greater the harvest!"

Uchiha Gray sighed helplessly. How had he gotten caught up in this mess? "Guys, let's leave ourselves some room to get along in the future. How about we pretend we never saw each other today?"

"Foolish brat. Is that how all the Uchiha think?" Yamafu sneered. "Kid, if you weren't from the Uchiha Clan and potentially useful to us, you'd already be dead by my blade."

It was obvious.

The other side had no intention of letting him go, so Uchiha Gray chose to strike without hesitation.

[Ding! Check-in successful. Congratulations, host, you've received: Uchiha Shisui's Body Flicker Technique and the Kizaru Glint-Glint Fruit template (7%)!]

[Uchiha Shisui's Body Flicker Technique: Instantly creates multiple Shadow Clones with physical bodies. Each one appears to be an illusion, but can instantly become solid!]

[Kizaru Glint-Glint Fruit template (7%): Can turn 7% of the body into light and move at an incomplete light speed!]

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!

Uchiha Gray chuckled softly. In an instant, more than a dozen identical copies of him appeared before the Cloud Hidden ninjas.

They wore detached expressions and sighed. "I told you not to get too arrogant. Since you won't listen, you'll just have to stay here."

"Just a brat, making a few extra clones. Quit trying to scare us!" Yamanaka Fu scoffed, slashing his katana viciously at one of Uchiha Gray's clones.

"Kids these days are so arrogant, even though they haven't seen the world."

But in the next instant, he froze.

His katana cut through Uchiha Gray's clone, but there was no sensation of hitting a Shadow Clone. And the clone was still there. It was as if his blade had just passed through thin air.

Even an idiot could tell something was wrong.

"Who the hell are you?!"

Gray couldn't be bothered to answer. He darted forward, a flash of steel gleamed, and a fine head went flying. Its face was still frozen in shock and disbelief.

How could a mere kid have killed him, a Chunin?

The other ninja, Aka, looked terrified.

Were all the Uchiha kids this frightening?

But before he could say a word, the Two-Tomoe Sharingan spun. He froze as if he'd been hit by a paralysis technique, eyes wide with terror and face blank.

Gray walked slowly up to him, then swung his blade down.

"Ah, I told you already. Why wouldn't you listen?"