Fugaku Arrives

After "accidentally" discovering Yin Jie in the town last night and confirming his identity, Uchiha Yasashiro relayed the news back to the clan through his summoning beast—the Ninja Cat Clan, which had cooperated with the Uchiha Clan for generations.

For any ninja clan with an inherited bloodline, children were the most important.

Especially for a powerful bloodline limit like the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan, which also possessed a certain degree of difficulty in awakening.

After all, every child had the potential to awaken a bloodline limit.

It could be said that only when the clan's population increased could enough bloodline limits emerge within it, allowing the clan to be properly passed down.

This was especially evident within the Uchiha Clan.

As everyone knew, most Uchiha clan members had rather awkward personalities.

Even when facing fellow residents of the Hidden Leaf Village, they wore cold and arrogant expressions. Some Uchiha did not even show much emotional fluctuation when facing members of their own clan.

They kept all their emotions deeply buried within their hearts and rarely revealed them easily.

However, when Uchiha faced children belonging to their clan, everything changed.

The kind and doting smiles on their faces were so unlike them that, if not for the fan-shaped clan crest embroidered on the backs of their clothes, no one would have thought they belonged to the famously aloof Uchiha Clan.

Thus, it could be said that before Uchiha Obito—the oddball Uchiha who did not fit in with normal members of the clan at all—entered the Ninja Academy, children generally received exceptional treatment within the Uchiha Clan.

Of course, that was not to say that Uchiha Obito lacked talent or strength.

After all, among his peers, there was the genuine "dead last," Might Guy, who could do nothing but taijutsu. If Guy claimed second place, no one would dare claim first.

Even comparing only the age at which they advanced from genin to chunin, Uchiha Obito becoming a chunin at eleven was absolutely among the very earliest.

After all, aside from Hatake Kakashi, who became a chunin at the age of six, Sarutobi Asuma, Yūhi Kurenai, and Morino Ibiki, who were in Uchiha Obito's class, became chunin at twelve, thirteen, and fifteen respectively—far later than Uchiha Obito.

Therefore, Uchiha Obito's "underwhelming" performance was entirely due to his personality, which was truly difficult to put into words...

Crying easily, being late, spacing out in class, acting tough, and other "traits" completely at odds with the Uchiha Clan, combined with his tendency to drop the ball at crucial moments and fail at the very last step when success was already in sight.

All of that eventually earned him the not-quite-deserved title of "the shame of the Uchiha" within the clan.

Although those clan members who were not ninja, such as Uchiha Teyaki and Uchiha Uruchi, the couple who ran the rice cracker shop, remained as kind and friendly toward him as ever.

Among the Uchiha clan members who had become ninja, and even among the clan's higher-ups, Uchiha Obito's persona, so different from that of ordinary Uchiha, caused their expectations of him to gradually wear away as he grew older.

So, given the Uchiha Clan's current circumstances.

In Uchiha Yasashiro's estimation, what Yin Jie had experienced would absolutely be scorned by the entire Uchiha Clan and never tolerated!!!

Five days later.

While Yin Jie was training his Sharingan-related abilities indoors under Uchiha Yasashiro's guidance, the people dispatched by the Uchiha Clan, having received Yasashiro's message, arrived.

The visitor was Uchiha Fugaku, who had only recently taken over as captain of the Hidden Leaf Police Force.

At the same time, he was the openly designated next clan head of the Uchiha Clan.

During this period of war in the ninja world, although the conflict between the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Rain had ended, and the Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village—both among the Five Great Ninja Villages—had yet to truly enter the fray.

The Hidden Leaf still stationed part of its ninja forces along the borders facing those directions, guarding against possible surprise attacks from the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Mist.

And it should be known that the divide between the Uchiha Clan and the Hidden Leaf's higher-ups had not yet reached the depth it would after the future Nine-Tails Rebellion.

Therefore, most of the Uchiha Clan's chunin and jonin had accepted the village's deployment and been sent to various borders.

After all, whether it was the Hidden Cloud's Lightning Release ninja body techniques or the Hidden Mist's Water Release ninjutsu, both were "countered" by the Uchiha Clan, whose bloodline limit was the Sharingan and whose members almost universally possessed Fire and Lightning chakra affinities.

As such, even though the Uchiha Clan was currently the largest ninja clan in the Hidden Leaf Village, its manpower was not particularly abundant.

Of course, the Uchiha Clan could still spare a few genin and chunin.

However, this trip was to bring back a genius child of their clan who had been stranded outside, so after careful consideration, the Uchiha Clan decided to have Uchiha Fugaku, who had just taken charge of the Hidden Leaf Police Force, make the journey personally.

After all, Uchiha Fugaku was not yet the Uchiha Clan's head, and besides, regardless of status or strength, he was currently the most suitable person the clan could send.

The two accompanying Uchiha Fugaku were Uchiha En and Uchiha Chen, two Uchiha Clan ninja who had not been officially registered with the village.

The two had been specially trained by the Uchiha Clan to serve as guards. In terms of strength alone, with the support of their two-tomoe Sharingan, holding their own against ordinary jonin for several dozen exchanges would not be much of a problem.

"Captain! I knew you'd be the one coming!"

Upon seeing Uchiha Fugaku, whom Tsunade had brought to the door, Uchiha Yasashiro was not surprised in the slightest.

At the same time, Yin Jie rose and came to stand beside Uchiha Yasashiro, his gaze sweeping over Tsunade and Uchiha Fugaku, who stood at the entrance.

Black hair, black eyes, a faint hint of fierceness in his gaze, and two shallow lines beside his mouth—such distinct features made Yin Jie recognize him at once, even in this younger form.

A trace of interest, mixed with a hint of complicated emotion, flashed through Yin Jie's eyes.

The last clan head, whose reputation was mixed—though in Yin Jie's view, the criticism far outweighed the praise—and who had ultimately led the Uchiha Clan into a pit and buried it completely.

This was a little hard to deal with...