Contact Bird? Calm Before the Storm! Yuan's Confusion and Killing Intent

Yuan stood beside Kisame Hoshigaki's corpse, which had been reduced to a heap of rotten mud, and slowly withdrew his gaze from the depths of the darkness.

The crimson Mangekyo Sharingan in his eyes gradually stopped spinning. The hexagram pattern faded bit by bit, turning back into black pupils so deep they seemed bottomless.

He lowered his head and spread his blood-soaked right hand. In the center of his palm, the core fragment he had forcibly torn from Samehada's body was wriggling extremely weakly like a living thing, trying to absorb the chakra left on the surface of his hand.

"Still pretty hungry." Yuan gave a cold laugh and clenched his five fingers. There was a stomach-turning, muffled squelch, and that tough core fragment was crushed by sheer monstrous strength into a lifeless mush of rotten flesh.

In his mind, the cold system notification rang out right on time.

[Beep! Detected that the host has killed the Kage-level target Kisame Hoshigaki. Fragment drops complete.]

[Obtained orange fragments ×50. Exchange and fuse abilities immediately?]

"Exchange for [Water Release Specialization] and [Tailless Tailed Beast Chakra Capacity] immediately! Use all the remaining fragments to cleanse my meridians and strengthen the carrying limit of my physical cells!" Yuan decisively gave the order in his heart.

Boom! A vast, cold water-natured chakra, like an entire ocean, instantly exploded from his dantian. Like a flood bursting through a dam, it surged madly through the extraordinary meridians throughout his body. Yuan's bones let out a series of crisp cracks like firecrackers. His already lean, powerful muscle lines, under the scouring of that berserk chakra, took on an almost metallic, icy texture. He could even clearly sense the tiny water molecules drifting in the surrounding air. At that moment, they were like extensions of his body. With just a thought, he could instantly drain the moisture within a hundred meters and turn it into killing blades.

Yuan exhaled a long breath of white vapor. The instant that mist left his lips, it actually condensed into ice crystals and fell to the ground. He turned around, his long black trench coat snapping in the night wind thick with the stench of blood. Chakra erupted beneath his feet, and his entire body turned into an afterimage impossible to catch with the naked eye, shooting straight toward Hidden Leaf Village.

After a night of bloody carnage, Hidden Leaf Village welcomed a rare morning.

The continuous autumn rain had finally stopped. Thin sunlight pierced the heavy clouds and fell on the newly renovated bluestone slabs of the Old Uchiha Clan Compound. Because the Third Hokage, Tsunade, and Jiraiya had fallen one after another in battle, the entire Hidden Leaf Village had sunk into a vast panic and grief that was almost deathly still. But inside the Uchiha Clan Compound, this enclave enclosed by high walls, there was a completely different vitality, one that could even be called bustling.

Aunt Mihui wore a clean, plain single-layer garment. Although the bandage on her right arm was still there, her movements had become much more nimble. Carrying a bamboo basket full of fresh wild chrysanthemums, she stepped through the morning dew and walked, one step at a time, to the most conspicuous grave on the back mountain of the compound.

The tombstone had been carved from the hardest obsidian. Several large characters were engraved on it: Grave of Uchiha Makoto.

Mihui crouched down and carefully pulled out a few newly sprouted weeds from the grave mound. Then she took out a bunch of wild chrysanthemums still beaded with water from the bamboo basket and placed them neatly before the tombstone. Her movements were very gentle, and her eyes were as tender as if she were looking at someone asleep.

"Makoto, the village has changed." Mihui's fingers gently stroked the cold tombstone, her voice a little hoarse in the morning wind. "That child Yuan... has collected the debt owed to you. He killed many higher-ups and many Anbu. The people left in the clan can finally walk openly under the sun now."

She paused, her eyes slightly red, but no tears fell. There was only a resilience that had seen through life and death. "That child has become very strong now. Strong like a monster. So strong everyone fears him. But I know the fire in his heart is burning too fiercely. If no one holds him back, sooner or later, it'll burn him to ash too. Watch over him from below. Don't let him lose his way."

Mihui stood up and patted the dirt from her knees. Just then, an extremely faint landing sound rang out on a rooftop more than ten steps behind her.

She did not look back. She only smelled the thick, lingering stench of blood in the air.

"You're back?" Mihui's voice was very calm.

Yuan stood on the moss-covered tiles, looking down at Mihui and that tombstone. The edges of his black trench coat were still dripping dark red blood, and his whole aura was cold and hard, like a blade just drawn from an Asura battlefield.

"Mm. Kisame is dead. I scared off that crow Itachi hiding in the shadows." Yuan leapt down from the rooftop and landed steadily beside Mihui.

Mihui did not ask about the details of the battle. She knew Yuan's methods far too well. She turned and took a bowl of steaming white porridge from the food box beside her. A golden-fried egg rested in it, and she handed it to Yuan.

"Fill your stomach first. You're covered in blood. Don't frighten those children in the school who just woke up." Mihui's tone was like she was instructing a younger relative who had just come home from farmwork.

Yuan stared at the bowl of porridge for a second, then silently took it. He tipped his head back and, in two or three gulps, poured the scalding porridge and egg into his stomach. The warm food slid into his abdomen, barely suppressing the chakra inside him that had grown somewhat frantic from the repeated slaughter.

He handed the empty bowl back and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

The two faced each other in silence. The atmosphere seemed somewhat oppressive in the morning breeze.

"You killed Tsunade, and you killed Jiraiya." Mihui held the empty bowl in both hands, her knuckles whitening slightly from force. She did not look at Yuan, but stared at the stone slabs underfoot, her tone carrying an indescribable heaviness.

"They blocked my path." Yuan's answer held no hesitation. Cold, stiff, and as a matter of course.

"Then how many more people are you going to kill?" Mihui abruptly raised her head, her equally pitch-black eyes fixed hard on Yuan. "Half of Konoha's higher-ups are dead. The Hokage is gone. The Three Sannin are gone. These past few days, funeral banners are everywhere in the village. Are you going to make all of Konoha be buried with what happened back then?"

"As long as anyone dares shelter Danzo, as long as anyone dares scheme against the Uchiha behind our backs, I'll kill until no one blocks my path." A trace of hostility flashed in Yuan's eyes, and his fingers subconsciously rested on the hilt of the short blade at his waist.

Mihui took a deep breath, and the questioning in her eyes did not retreat. "And then?"

Yuan froze. The fingers resting on the hilt stiffened slightly.

"Even if you dig Danzo out and chop him into meat paste, even if you kill every last person who took part in the clan massacre back then. And then?" Mihui pressed a step closer, her voice trembling a little. "What do you plan to do? Guard this village full of dead people every day and be a vengeful ghost living in hatred?"

Yuan fell silent. In that instant, a trace of confusion actually appeared in the Mangekyo Sharingan that could see through the trajectories of all ninjutsu. And then? He had endured six years in the system space, listening every day to the resentful wails of over a thousand people. His only obsession had been to kill his way back. But when the butcher's blade of revenge was truly raised, when he trampled the enemies who had once stood high above him underfoot and crushed their hearts, he truly had never thought about where this blade would be sheathed after it was done cutting.

"You don't even know what you're going to do after you finish killing. Then right now... what exactly are you killing for?" Mihui looked at his hollow eyes, and a stab of pain rose in her heart.

"For Uncle." Yuan clenched his teeth tightly, the muscles in his cheeks drawing into a hard line. "For everyone who died that night."

Mihui shook her head and let out an extremely bitter sigh. "Your uncle has been dead for six years. You killed over six hundred Anbu and higher-ups for him. So much blood flowed it clogged even Konoha's drainage ditches. Is that enough?"

"Not enough." Yuan's eyes turned cold and hard again, even carrying a touch of obsessive madness. "As long as Danzo is alive, as long as Itachi is alive, this debt will never be settled!"

Mihui looked at Yuan's face, which had already been thoroughly carved by hatred into that of an evil ghost, and knew there was no use saying anything more. She withdrew her gaze and lifted the empty food box.

"Do as you like. You are the Uchiha's sky now. If you want to go kill, I can't stop you." Mihui turned around, her back looking a little lonely in the morning light. "But remember, us being alive is the best revenge against them. Don't let yourself become an empty shell that only knows how to kill."

With that, Mihui walked toward the school without looking back. From there, the childish shouts of several seven- or eight-year-old children could already be heard. They were waiting for Mihui to teach them how to grip shuriken and how to use the most basic techniques to stop bleeding from external wounds.

Yuan stood in place like a black statue. After a long while, he lowered his head and looked at the name "Makoto" on the tombstone.

"Uncle, the debt is almost paid." Yuan slowly crouched down, reached out, pinched up a small handful of soil before the tombstone, and ground it to dust between his fingers. "But there are still a few people... who must die."

While Yuan was immersed in that brief tranquility, in a hidden underground chamber several streets away from Hidden Leaf Village...

In the darkness, a single remaining left eye gleamed with a venomous light like that of a viper beneath the flickering candle flame. Danzo sat in a wheelchair, his right arm still wrapped in thick bandages. Before him, two Root loyalists wearing patternless masks knelt on one knee.

"Jiraiya and Tsunade are both dead... the foundation that old fool Hiruzen left behind has now completely become a pile of loose sand." Danzo sneered, tapping the wooden armrest with his remaining left hand. "That madman Uchiha Yuan is indeed a problem, but he is far too arrogant. Sooner or later, he'll leave Konoha to hunt down Akatsuki or search for my whereabouts. Once he leaves, there will be no one in the village who can suppress me."

"Lord Danzo, Shikaku is gathering the Jonin Squad and attempting to reorganize a temporary elder council to seize administrative power," the Root ninja kneeling below reported in a low voice.

"That clever slippery fox Shikaku will be a scourge if he's left alive." Tangible killing intent burst from Danzo's left eye. "Notify the First Assassination Squad. Infiltrate the administrative department tonight. Before Uchiha Yuan can react, bring me Shikaku's head. As long as those nails leading the resistance are pulled out, this old man can openly take the Hokage's seat in the name of saving Konoha!"

Meanwhile, in the Old Uchiha Clan Compound, just as Yuan stood up, a black messenger crow carrying strange chakra fluctuations dived down from high above and landed accurately on Yuan's shoulder.

This was a contact bird belonging to Akatsuki that he had forcibly controlled with the system.

Yuan tore the miniature intelligence scroll from the crow's leg and unfolded it for a glance. Several red coordinate points were densely marked on it.

The corner of Yuan's mouth slowly pulled open, revealing a bloodthirsty smile so cold it reached the extreme. A ball of berserk flame mixed with Lightning Release rose from his fingertips and instantly burned the intelligence scroll to ash.

"It's time to close the net."