Madara looked at his spirited younger brother on the platform and felt genuinely happy. To be honest, he did not care who became clan head. If the clan head was incapable, the clan members themselves could pull that person down.
"Our third brother is getting more and more imposing, isn't he, Izuna?"
"That outfit looks really cool!"
"..."
After the clan meeting, Uchiha Gen spent half a month relaxing within the clan. He specifically went to see the little brat named Kagami Uchiha. He was quite adorable—or rather, all Uchiha children were good-looking.
"Sigh~ Haru, why are they so cute when they're little, but grow up looking so ruined?"
"Lord Yuan means..."
"I mean most of our clan members in the Clan Grounds. They all look rather... distinctive."
"Maybe the pressure is too great."
"Or perhaps their worries are too heavy. As they say, the face reflects the heart~"
Uchiha Haru felt that there seemed to be another meaning behind his words, so she could only pretend not to understand.
The New Year holiday ended, and February was about to begin. After leaving behind a Shadow Clone Technique, Uchiha Gen returned to the laboratory a day early.
"Not a single person came early. They'd better not have really run off. Otherwise, even if they ran back to the Clan Grounds, I'd drag them back here."
Uchiha Gen narrowed his eyes, picked up a broom and rag, and began cleaning. Then he made a trip to the Ninja Cat Clan Grounds and had them relay a message to the lackeys.
"Get me some death-row prisoners, scum guilty of heinous crimes and the like. The more, the better. Send them over in batches every week. Let's settle on a hundred at a time."
After recording his words, the orange cat vanished with a bang. Uchiha Gen then prepared to leave.
"Is that child doing well with you?"
"Hm? You mean Little Kuro? She's doing pretty well. At the very least, she's gained ten pounds?"
"Then she really is doing well..."
He waved goodbye to Dabai and began preparing for the next round of gene extraction. Only three bloodlines remained, and he intended to handle them all at once.
At present, the Yuki and Uzumaki genes within his body were performing exceptionally well. There was no discomfort whatsoever, and his strength was steadily improving.
Early the next morning, the stone sealing the cave entrance was moved aside, and the five test subjects entered one after another.
"Oh? Not one of you ran away?"
"Hehe, Lord Yuan, you must be joking. The treatment here is so good—why would we run?"
"Heh, Big Fool Shibaki, your ideological awareness is pretty high~"
"Who is Big Fool Shibaki?"
"A powerhouse from the Shinobi World long ago."
"Oh!?"
With the experience from the first two times, the gene extraction process was much more efficient. However, the white mice the lackeys were supposed to deliver had not arrived yet, so live testing could not be conducted.
Uchiha Gen did not wait around idly. He began deducing the Yin Seal; after all, he had promised Haru.
"The Yin Seal, the ultimate masterpiece of Uzumaki Sealing Arts. It uses the center of the forehead as a medium to gather a large amount of Chakra within the body, keeping the brain cells active and the body in peak condition year-round."
Its drawback was that Chakra accumulated too slowly. After using it once, who knew how long it would take to gather enough again? Moreover, in the original work, it could only be passed down to women, not men, which was why the ninjutsu had the word "Yin" in its name.
"I remember facial markings appearing when the Yin Seal is used? In other words, this is actually a Sealing Art cast upon oneself."
The principle felt somewhat familiar. After thinking for a long time, Uchiha Gen realized it was very similar to a Sealing Scroll.
In theory, the things stored inside a scroll were sent to a designated extradimensional space, while the storage capacity depended on the caster's Chakra and the quality of the scroll.
After understanding the basic principle, Uchiha Gen began exploring, step by step, how to draw a sealing circuit within the body.
Three days later, a diamond-shaped red mark had appeared between the brows of Uchiha Gen, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation within the laboratory.
"It doesn't seem that difficult..."
Using his body as paper and his meridians as the canvas, he easily completed the internal circuit formed by the Yin Seal.
Uchiha Gen found it easy because he could control his body without the slightest obstruction. If someone else tried it, just the step of moving Chakra through the meridians to form a Chakra circuit would stump countless people.
"The body extracts Chakra, then stores it through the Yin Seal's circuit, but this speed..."
If the body was a large water tank and the water inside was Chakra, then the Yin Seal was a reservoir beside it. Yet the channel connecting them was only a straw as thick as a thumb, and that straw was slowly drawing water from the tank into the reservoir.
"How long is this going to take?"
Uchiha Gen had even widened his meridians specifically to increase the Chakra storage speed. Even so, he roughly estimated that it would take three years to fill it completely.
Knock, knock, knock!
"Lord Yuan, someone is looking for you outside."
"Oh, right away."
When he opened the laboratory door, Hoshigaki Kuroto stood outside. This shark-faced man looked vicious, but after spending time with him, one would discover that he was actually simple and honest by nature. He did not speak much, yet he had always maintained good relationships with everyone. He truly had social graces figured out.
"Who is it?"
"Looks like a merchant. No Chakra. He has a group of people tied up with ropes behind him."
The lackeys had delivered the white mice? Pretty efficient.
At the Uchiha Clan Grounds, February had just begun. It was the busiest time of year, yet something major happened.
Between the Uchiha and Senju territories lay a mining area. It was not large, but the ore within was extremely valuable. For thousands of years, the two clans had fought over it, and at least half their wars had been caused by it.
The Uchiha had been powerful in recent years, possessing three pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan, and had forcefully seized control of it. Now, however, the Senju had once again raised troops to fight for it.
In the clan head's office, Uchiha Gen's Shadow Clone sensed that things were not so simple.
"So that gold mine was taken again? How were our casualties?"
"Reporting to the clan head, we followed your orders exactly. We did not fight to the death and retreated immediately. Aside from a few who were injured due to unexpected circumstances, the rest of the clan members are fine."
"Mm, I understand. You may leave first."
Afterward, Uchiha Gen went to find Madara and Izuna and informed them of the matter.
"Damn Senju. We didn't beat them up before the New Year, and now they're getting itchy again. Big Brother! Let's hurry over and give them a beating!"
"Wait first. We have no intelligence on their numbers or their purpose. We cannot act rashly."
"Then what do we do? Send people to scout? What if they keep pushing their luck? The area around that vein is full of rare minerals."
Madara pondered for a moment. He could not quite understand Hashirama's move either. Even if they wanted to fight, they should have given notice beforehand, right?
Hashirama had actually wanted to give notice, but Tobirama had kept a close eye on him, leaving him no chance to slip away.
"How about this? Izuna and I will take half the clan members over and see what the Senju want. Given how powerful we are now, they can't possibly be doing something foolish. Gen, you... you're not still a Shadow Clone, are you?"
"Uh... he left two days ago."
The Shadow Clone scratched his head. It was only right to dump all the responsibility on the original body.
"Hurry and call him back. Izuna and I will head out first."
"Mm, alright."
Before you continue