The Name Vermilion Bird

Inside the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage set down the report in his hand and thought.

"Uchiha Clan and Naruto... I hope this is only a test."

At the Root base, Danzo likewise set down the report and muttered to himself, "Uchiha Natsuri, Uchiha Yushu's younger sister?"

"Someone, bring Uchiha Yushu and Uchiha Natsuri to me!"

"Yes, Lord Danzo!"

Several figures immediately vanished from the Root base.

At the edge of the Hidden Leaf Village, Uchiha Yushu, freshly off duty from the Konoha Military Police Force, headed home.

Suddenly, a masked ninja appeared in front of him.

"Uchiha Yushu, come with us."

The newcomer gave the order in a voice devoid of emotion.

Not knowing what had happened, Uchiha Yushu had no intention of following them. He ignored the person before him, walked around him, and continued toward home.

"Move. Bring him back by force!"

At the man's command, five people leaped out from the surrounding area. Together with the first man, they surrounded Uchiha Yushu and attacked him with their own techniques.

Seeing them make a move, Uchiha Yushu had no intention of surrendering without a fight.

"Fire Style: Flame Wings."

His hands rapidly formed several seals almost casually, ending with the Tiger seal. At the same time, two enormous wings of flame sprouted from Uchiha Yushu's back, carrying him into the air.

Looking down at the ninjas below, their methods closely resembled Root from the original story.

Even to clan ninjas, the Anbu and Root were mysterious departments.

As for Itachi Uchiha joining the Anbu and making it known to every Uchiha, that had been a political consideration.

Not bothering to determine whether they were Root or Anbu, Uchiha Yushu had already classified them as enemies the moment they intended to attack.

And when it came to enemies, there were only dead enemies and living enemies.

Uchiha Yushu did not hesitate. He spread all ten fingers and aimed them at the enemies below.

"Fire Style: Finger Gun."

Tiny fireballs shot out from his ten fingers at high speed, quickly covering the entire area below.

Some Root ninjas failed to dodge in time. Their combat uniforms, skin, and muscles were all pierced through by the fireballs.

The tiny but searing fireballs directly cooked the flesh and tissue around the wounds, so no blood flowed out.

Other than two Root ninjas who had perhaps only recently completed their training, the rest were unharmed.

More fireballs ignited the grass below, and flames dotted the entire area like a field of stars.

The two injured ninjas did not lose their combat ability, nor did they make a sound.

The remaining ninjas showed no hesitation or reaction. They all began forming seals, preparing to attack Uchiha Yushu in the sky.

Having more or less confirmed that they were Root ninjas, Uchiha Yushu had no interest in gathering intelligence.

He immediately changed form. Scorching flames erupted all over his body, making him look like a man made of fire. Combined with the enormous flaming wings on his back, he resembled an angel of flame.

Having decided to eliminate every enemy, Uchiha Yushu did not bother with any performative hand seals. Instead, he snapped his fingers.

"Fire Style: Flame Pillar!"

From every spot struck by the earlier fireballs, including the wounds of the two rookies, pillars of fire roughly two meters in diameter erupted in an instant, soaring into the sky.

The fire pillars swallowed the ninjas below and swallowed Uchiha Yushu in midair as well.

Once the hundreds of fire pillars vanished, the grassland had been burned bare. Aside from six piles of black ash that differed slightly in color from the surroundings, indicating that six ninjas had once stood there, no trace remained.

Uchiha Yushu also returned to normal and slowly descended. The blue ceremonial robe he had been wearing over his clothes had long since turned to ash.

He was now wearing a strange skintight combat suit.

"What a shame. It was only the second time I'd worn it since buying it. I really liked that outfit," Uchiha Yushu muttered.

The reason Uchiha Yushu had been able to deal with six Root ninjas so easily was simple.

Though he was not the standard transmigrator whose parents had both died, he had still received the standard cheat.

His golden finger was a giant roulette wheel. When Uchiha Yushu focused his mind inward, he could see that enormous wheel blotting out the sky. It was so large because it contained so much.

Uchiha Yushu discovered that it was filled with portraits of characters from anime and movies he had watched.

The cheat's function was simple and crude: whoever the wheel landed on, he would receive that person's ability template and one accompanying item.

When Uchiha Yushu had first entered the Ninja Academy and when he graduated from it, he had received a prompt granting him one chance to use the giant roulette wheel each time.

The first time, he received the ability template of Fire Man from X-Men. The accompanying item was Fire Man's lighter, which could produce fire in any environment.

The second time, he received the ability template of Human Torch from Fantastic Four. The accompanying item was Human Torch's combat suit, which would never be damaged as long as the damage was caused by his own abilities.

The first ability template was neither especially strong nor especially weak. It was precisely through his ability to control fire that Uchiha Yushu had become a genius at the Ninja Academy, renowned alongside Shisui.

The Flame Wings Uchiha Yushu had used earlier had been developed by combining the Fire Man ability template with Fire Style ninjutsu.

After gaining Human Torch's ability template, Uchiha Yushu, who had innate flight and could absorb heat from the outside world to generate flames on his own, had still retained this ability.

The first reason was that it looked cool, giving off an instant VIP vibe. The second was that it truly increased his flying speed.

Thinking he had found a pattern, Uchiha Yushu actively took part in the border conflicts with the Hidden Mist Village. However, he soon discovered that his cheat gave no response when he became a chunin or a jonin.

But it was no longer possible for him to withdraw, so he could only vent his frustration on Kirigakure ninjas.

Because of Uchiha Yushu's iconic image of wings and a body enveloped in flames, coupled with the massive damage he inflicted on Kirigakure—

Uchiha Yushu became another Uchiha ninja besides Shisui to earn a title: "Vermilion Bird."

"Vermilion Bird" Yushu and "Body Flicker" Shisui became the nightmares of Kirigakure ninjas during that period.

After eliminating the enemies, Uchiha Yushu knew from the original story that Danzo hardly needed a reason to target the Uchiha Clan.

But directly using force inside the village as he had now, practically tearing off all pretense, was not something that an old schemer like Danzo would do.

"Unless he found an excuse. What could that excuse be?"

After carefully reviewing his recent actions, Uchiha Yushu found that he had done nothing unusual that could give the village an excuse.

Just as Uchiha Yushu was wracking his brains without finding an answer, a frail figure flashed through his mind—the child isolated by everyone in the crowd when he had accompanied his younger sister to enroll today.

Could it be because of Natsuri?