"Mom! There's a huge bird flying in the sky!" A child in Konoha who liked watching the stars suddenly shouted, his eyes widening. "There seems to be someone on it too! Mom, I want to fly too!"
"Kiba! What nonsense are you talking about? Who would be flying around Konoha in the middle of the night? Go to sleep! Tomorrow, we still have to pick out your ninja hound!"
Kiba's nearly three-year-old face showed an eager desire to prove himself. "Mom! It's true! I really saw a huge bird flying, and there was someone on it!"
"Kiba, don't make Mommy smack your little butt. It's time to sleep!" Kiba's mother walked over helplessly, looking at the unconvinced Kiba Inuzuka before casually glancing out the window at the night sky.
A huge full moon hung in the sky. Where was there any silhouette? In her impression, there were only a handful of ninjas in Konoha who could fly, let alone ones with giant bird-type summoned beasts.
"Kiba! Children who lie aren't good children!"
"I didn't lie!" With that, Kiba ran to the window and looked into the sky, his large eyes searching continuously. Yet to his disappointment, the fiery-red giant bird had long since vanished, and a trace of disappointment appeared on his little face.
"Mom, I really didn't trick you!" Kiba's little face was full of grievance.
"Alright, good children need to learn to sleep obediently, not become kings of lies." Kiba's mother spoke sternly.
"Hmph! Once I find my ninja hound, I'll definitely make it carry me into the sky!" Kiba snorted stubbornly. Under his mother's unfriendly gaze, he obediently lay down on his little bed, pulled up the blanket, and happily drifted into a pleasant dream.
In his dream, he rode atop a very cool giant dog and flew past the enormous full moon.
After returning home, Hane saw Fugaku still sitting at the table the moment he walked through the door.
Fugaku was silent, and after hearing his wife's explanation, his heart was filled with complicated emotions.
Although he had heard his eldest son's analysis of the Konoha Elder Council's attitude toward the Uchiha, he still held onto a sliver of hope for Konoha. He did not want his son getting too close to the radicals.
"Hane, come sit down," Fugaku said softly.
Hane silently walked over and sat across from Fugaku. "Father, is there a problem?"
"Hane, do you truly want to fight the Hokage's side to the bitter end?" Fugaku asked gravely.
"Father, I believe I've already made this very clear. It isn't that we want to fight the Hokage's faction to the bitter end. It's that the Elder Council has never given up on destroying the Uchiha. I hope Father won't hold onto any wishful thinking about this. Otherwise, you'll harm not only yourself, but the entire clan!"
Hane's expression was exceptionally serious, completely unlike his usual flippant demeanor.
"Hane..." Fugaku hesitated, wanting to find a reason to persuade Hane not to be so extreme. But after searching through every possible argument, he discovered that not only could he find none, he himself had nearly been pushed toward extremism by recent events.
Leaving aside the Hokage faction's Anbu testing his son, the more he thought about the clan compound's recent relocation, the more wrong it felt.
"Enough! Father, as the clan head, I hope you can take a firm stance instead of constantly hesitating. Acting like this only makes you seem incompetent!
"A real man knows what to do and what not to do. Since you understand who the enemy is, you should show the attitude needed to face an enemy, rather than leaning left one moment and right the next. You'll only divide the clan further. Where do the Moderate Faction and the radical faction within the clan come from? For the most part, it's your ambiguous attitude that gave these two factions the soil to grow."
Hane no longer wanted to explain too much about whether the Uchiha should be aggressive or adopt a more moderate attitude toward the village.
From beginning to end, he had always said that the Uchiha needed to be tough against not the village, but the Hokage's faction. Yet people in this world always believed that the village was the Hokage, and the Hokage was the village. They could never escape that strange cycle.
Fugaku fell into deathly silence. Looking at Hane's impatient expression, Fugaku suddenly felt like a failure. Was this truly the impression his eldest son had of him—indecisive and hesitant?
"Hane, go upstairs and sleep. I'll make a decision," Fugaku replied somewhat dejectedly.
"Father, perhaps I spoke too harshly tonight. But some things cannot be accomplished through wishful thinking alone. You should rest early too, Father. Don't work yourself too hard." Seeing Fugaku's somewhat dispirited state, Hane could not bear it and offered some comfort.
"Hane, you've grown up. Father should place more trust in you." Fugaku, who had been utterly dejected moments ago, revealed a relieved smile upon hearing Hane's comfort. This was the first time he had set aside a father's dignity before his son—though his childhood did not count.
"Father, I'm only six. I'm still far from grown up," Hane replied with a faint smile.
Fugaku's relieved expression froze. Pulling a stern face, he glared at Hane. "What's wrong with six? During the Sengoku era, clan members went to war at eight. You're only two years younger than them."
Seeing Fugaku return to normal, Hane gave a faint yawn. "Alright, Father, that was the Sengoku era. Times have changed now. I'm going to sleep. I still have school tomorrow. I'm clearly just a baby, yet I have to worry about you adults. My childhood is truly miserable!"
Without waiting for Fugaku's reply, Hane jogged upstairs. He still had to check today's gains. After being busy all day, the harvest was the part that made him happiest.
Growing stronger every day—this fulfilling and diligent life was what he desired most.
"Brat, saying your childhood is miserable... Is he saying that I'm an incompetent father?" Fugaku muttered complaints for a while, then suddenly felt that he sounded like a resentful housewife and had no choice but to stop.
There was no helping it; his son was simply too outstanding. But Fugaku suddenly felt that Hane possessed the potential to become Hokage. Whether it was his methods of managing subordinates, his clever mind, or his formidable strength, all of it filled Fugaku with confidence in Hane.
Returning to his familiar little bed, Hane eagerly opened the system panel.
Uchiha Hane Realm: "Refining Qi into Spirit" Cultivation Art: "Azure Nether Art: Spirit-Refining Chapter" Yellow Rank +2 Techniques: "Five Elements Ninjutsu" Fire: "Mastery" Lightning: "Mastery" Wind: "Ordinary" Water: "Ordinary" Earth: "Ordinary" "Artifact Manipulation Art" Mastery "Basic Fist, Body, and Movement Technique" Mastery "External Incarnation" Ordinary "Artifact Refinement" Ordinary "Alchemy" Ordinary "Planting Art" Ordinary Formation Art "Ordinary" Gratitude Points: 20200 Malice Points: 27000
Looking at his abundant Gratitude Points and Malice Points once again, Hane could not help sighing inwardly. Only the Uchiha—clansmen so prone to extremism—could provide so many Gratitude Points and Malice Points at once.
Subtracting the 9,000 Gratitude Points and 11,000 Malice Points he already had, and adding in all the things he had done in the village throughout the day, he had gained a total of 11,200 Gratitude Points and 16,000 Malice Points that day.
Of that, the Gratitude Points and Malice Points provided by Uchiha Retsuyō alone added up to twenty thousand.
After working himself to the bone all day, he had not earned as much as a single clansman had provided. He would have to cultivate more high-quality leeks like this in the future.
With that thought, Hane turned his attention to his skills. His current Gratitude Points could raise his cultivation art twice, bringing it to Profound Rank +1.
As for skills, reaching perfection from mastery was not something to consider for now. But he could first raise all his skills to mastery. That way, he would have more trump cards when facing enemies in the future.
The only thing he had exposed to the outside world was his mastery of Fire Release. Once his enemies had thoroughly figured him out, he could reveal Lightning Release, Wind Release, Water Release, and Earth Release. Their expressions would surely be very entertaining then.
Enduring once more the pain of a massive flood of knowledge pouring into his mind, Hane looked at his current panel with deep satisfaction.
Uchiha Hane Realm: "Refining Qi into Spirit" Cultivation Art: "Azure Nether Art: Spirit-Refining Chapter" Profound Rank +1 Techniques: "Five Elements Ninjutsu" Fire: "Mastery" Lightning: "Mastery" Wind: "Mastery" Water: "Mastery" Earth: "Ordinary" "Artifact Manipulation Art" Mastery "Basic Fist, Body, and Movement Technique" Mastery "External Incarnation" Ordinary "Artifact Refinement" Ordinary "Alchemy" Ordinary "Planting Art" Ordinary Formation Art "Ordinary" Gratitude Points: 200 Malice Points: 7000
Hane had become poor again, but he was not too worried about it. After all, he now had quite a few leeks, and there was another person wholeheartedly developing new recruits for him. Once some time had passed and Hane gathered together the people Retsuyō had recruited, there would surely be another great harvest.
Thinking that, Hane happily sat in meditation and entered cultivation once more.
Before you continue