Experimental Base Construction Begins

The reason for today's gathering was that Madara was celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday. Yes, twenty-four years old—an important birthday!

In this Warring States era, any ninja who lived past thirty without dying was practically a rare species. It was hardly strange for Madara to celebrate such an important birthday at his age.

"Hehehe, I dug out a jar of good liquor from Third Brother's house. We're not going home until we're drunk today!"

Izuna rushed in from outside, excitedly hugging a small wine jar. Hearing him, Uchiha Yuan looked over and noticed the jar in Izuna's arms as well.

"...Second Brother, you said you were going out to get a treasure. So you just went to raid my house for liquor?"

"Hehe, couldn't be helped. This stuff is way too expensive outside."

Uchiha Yuan's mouth twitched. Of course it was expensive. That was alcohol! In these turbulent times, grain was not cheap. High-proof liquor was already beyond the means of ordinary people, and alcohol was even rarer.

"Drink less. I don't have much of it either."

"How stingy. Third Brother, you don't even drink. Why keep it around instead of letting me have it?"

"Sigh, you wouldn't understand."

Uchiha Yuan could not explain it. Was he supposed to say that the alcohol was for experiments?

His laboratory was already being prepared, and the equipment was nearly finished. It would absolutely crush ninety-nine percent of the machines in the current Naruto World.

There was no other reason.

He had money.

Under Uchiha Yuan's lavish spending spree, many technological inventions sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain and rapidly became finished products.

After eating, Uchiha Yuan packed a portion of food and brought it back to his little home.

Something was wrong with Uchiha Haru's body. She had fallen ill frequently over the past few years, and her constitution had worsened day by day. Today, she had finally collapsed from illness.

"I'm back."

"Cough, cough... Lord Yuan..."

"Don't move. What your body needs now is rest and recuperation."

"Meow~"

Before Uchiha Yuan could even sit down, Little Kuro scampered over to beg for food.

"I brought some for you."

He fed the packed meal to Little Kuro, then turned and entered the kitchen. Before long, he had prepared a bowl of medicinal porridge.

"Lie still."

Seeing Haru trying to sit up again, Uchiha Yuan stopped her sharply. Did this woman not have the slightest awareness of her current condition?

"Lord Yuan... cough... I..."

"Stop talking. With me here, you'll be fine."

Two streams of tears flowed uncontrollably down Uchiha Haru's cheeks. She was merely an untalented, ordinary clanswoman, yet Yuan, the acting clan head, cared for her so deeply.

"Why are you crying? So sentimental."

He helped Uchiha Haru sit up, placed a cushion behind her back, and began examining her body.

He placed his fingers on Haru's wrist and released Chakra, slowly guiding it into her body and circulating it through her system.

Yet this serious examination made Haru's face flush crimson. The sensation of it moving through her body was simply...

"Mm~ ah..."

"What are you crying out for? It seems your body suffered hidden injuries years ago, and they were never fully treated. Your internal organs are now showing signs of failure. An ordinary person really wouldn't be able to cure this."

After Uchiha Yuan's Chakra circulated through her body, Haru felt indescribably refreshed.

"Am I beyond saving, Lord Yuan?"

"No. On the contrary, saving you will be easy."

Uchiha Yuan picked up the medicinal porridge and fed it to Haru spoonful by spoonful. Once he had cleaned up, he sat by the window with his back to her and spoke in a grave tone.

"I'm asking you formally now. Are you willing to become my subordinate? You should understand what I mean."

"I am!"

"Good! From now on, I'll guide your training and cultivate you into my capable assistant. It may be very difficult."

"I'm willing."

"Fine! No more nonsense. Come on—I'll teach you."

This was Uchiha Yuan's first time personally teaching someone ninjutsu. Unlike his two brothers, whose talents were each more monstrous than the last.

The first skill he taught Haru was the Breathing Technique he had created at the very beginning. The longer Chakra nourished the cells, the stronger the effect would become over time. If it continued for a hundred years, attaining cells like Hashirama's was not impossible.

However, Haru's aptitude still made Uchiha Yuan see her in a new light. It took Uchiha Haru a full three days before she could barely circulate the Breathing Technique on her own.

"Whew... Take it slowly. We're not in a hurry."

"Lord Yuan... am I very stupid?"

"Being stupid has its advantages. You may not know this, but the Senju clan head, Hashirama Senju, was even more foolish than you when he was young, and his emotional intelligence was worse too. He couldn't even handle a clan's administrative affairs."

"Really?"

"Of course. When have I ever lied to you?"

Genius was merely a title bestowed by people. If someone received too much praise and truly started believing they were a genius, that would be laughable.

Nothing in this world came easily. If success felt effortless, then there must have been unseen causes and consequences offsetting the price for you.

Naruto, the protagonist of Naruto, was born into that kind of environment. Everyone despised him, and he lacked food and decent clothes, yet he still became Hokage.

Did he achieve that through his own efforts? Heh. Without Kurama, he would have died a hundred times over in that state. He always spouted grand words. Only Japan would consider that lofty ambition; in China, it was called daydreaming.

Uchiha Scroll Chamber.

At present, Uchiha Yuan had already recreated in advance most of the forbidden techniques Tobirama was known for.

Aside from forbidden techniques involving the human body, the Spirit Transformation Technique, research into Hashirama's Wood Release cells, and Impure World Reincarnation, Tobirama had nothing left that Uchiha Yuan needed to squeeze out of him.

"The Eight Gates Formation and the Lightning Release Chakra Body Tempering Technique are quite promising."

There were currently no legends of the Eight Gates in the Shinobi World. The Senju side still focused on Super Strength, so Tobirama likely had yet to create the Eight Gates.

"As for human experimentation..."

Uchiha Yuan rubbed his temples. This was the sort of thing considered a human taboo, something everyone would think was no good, but just like atomic bombs, even if you did not develop it, plenty of others would.

"Sigh... Having a sword and choosing not to use it are two different things. I'm doing it!"

The current Uchiha Yuan was no longer the child who had just arrived. Every movement he made carried extraordinary significance.

Once the order reached the people working for him outside, vast quantities of resources began moving. Ships traveling overseas changed their routes with increasing frequency, and even prices in the Land of Fire began to fluctuate.

Such strange, large-scale activity drew the attention of many people. Some great nobles spent heavily to investigate, but the power of Uchiha Yuan's people had grown too great. Half of the Land of Fire's upper ranks stepped forward to provide cover.

Uchiha Yuan created a Shadow Clone Technique, gave it half his Chakra, and quietly left the Clan Land himself.

Along the coast of the Land of Fire, in an underground valley at the border with the Land of Wind, countless transport convoys moved back and forth. At the bottom of the valley, innumerable bare-chested men labored in a downpour of sweat.

A middle-aged man wearing a red safety helmet repeatedly compared the terrain against the plans. The blueprints described an underground base covering more than five thousand square meters.

Their construction company had dispatched over a hundred geological surveyors before finding this ideal location. The ground was extremely solid and could fully withstand an enormous project.