Eye of Truth

After leaving the clan meeting, Fugaku led Hane and Itachi onward in silence.

Hane had no interest in trying to read Fugaku's mind either. Instead, he quietly opened his system panel. When he saw that his Gratitude Points had reached thirty-five thousand, a deep sense of fulfillment filled his heart.

Although his Malice Points had dropped to only twelve thousand, most of them had come from a single leek. But when he thought about how he had completely lost such a fat leek, Hane wanted nothing more than to slap himself.

He shouldn't have made it so obvious. In the end, he was just too outstanding!

Just as Hane was lost in thought, Fugaku, who was walking ahead, stopped. With his back to Hane, Hane had no idea what this nominal father of his intended to do.

As Hane and Itachi stopped and looked at Fugaku, they heard his somewhat restrained voice. "Hane! You did well today. Take Itachi home. Father is going to the Hokage's office." With that, Fugaku vanished from before the two brothers in a Body Flicker Technique.

Leaving only the two of them utterly confused.

"Ha ha ha!"

Fugaku raced toward the Hokage Building, unable to stop himself from laughing along the way. Today had undoubtedly been the most satisfying day of his life. Whenever he thought of Uchiha Liehuo's miserable appearance, and how the old man had been forced to praise his own son with a stifled expression, Fugaku's heart blossomed with joy.

Back when they had competed for the position of clan head, that old bastard Liehuo's son had lost to him, allowing Fugaku to take the position. Ever since then, the old man had found fault with him at every turn. For the sake of the clan head's bigger picture, Fugaku had endured again and again, but that fellow always acted like a jumping clown, constantly opposing him.

Though he did not want to admit the old man's words, Hane's calm performance during the clan meeting truly surpassed his own by far. Everything Hane said had been logical and well-founded.

Thinking of this, Fugaku suddenly felt like retiring early. But when he considered Hane's age, he shook his head and held himself back. "I'll carry the burden for Hane for a few more years."

With the powerful hearing granted by his cultivation technique, Hane heard the distant laughter and could not help pursing his lips. "What a two-faced guy."

"Brother, what are you talking about?" Itachi leaned closer, his adorable little face full of curiosity. Hane could not help finding him especially cute.

"Mm, I was talking about our irresponsible father. It's so late, and he just left two six-year-old children on the street. Isn't he afraid human traffickers might abduct us?"

Hane knew there were plenty of people in the ninja world who specialized in kidnapping children. Not to mention that Orochimaru himself was an expert in that area.

Madara was no less capable, along with the Obito he had trained...

"Hehe, Brother really knows how to joke. Father is only so at ease because Brother is so strong." As he spoke, Itachi looked at his brother as though light were shining from his eyes.

Today, Brother had displayed his might at the clan meeting. Itachi had seen it all clearly through the crack in the door: powerful Fire Release ninjutsu and stirring words. Although some of it conflicted with his own beliefs, it did not affect Itachi's admiration for his brother.

Seeing Itachi's sparkling eyes, Hane felt an intense sense of accomplishment. He reached out and rubbed Itachi's fluffy head. "Itachi, you'll become an outstanding ninja too."

"Mm! I'll catch up to you, Brother!"

The moonlight stretched the two boys' shadows long as they soon arrived at their home. The moment they knocked on the door, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded.

The door flew open, and Mikoto let out a sigh of relief before pulling Hane and Itachi into her arms.

"Hane, Itachi, welcome back. Are you hungry? Shall Mother make you something to eat?" Mikoto gently asked, stroking one small head with each hand.

"No need, Mother. We're not hungry." Hane smiled and shook his head.

Seeing that the two brothers looked perfectly normal and showed no signs of having suffered any grievance, Mikoto's hanging heart finally settled.

After comforting their worried mother, Hane quickly sent his younger brother Itachi back to his room, then impatiently returned to his own room and made his way to his little bed.

Hane quickly sat cross-legged and opened his system panel.

Uchiha Hane

Realm: "Refining Essence into Qi"

Cultivation Technique: "Azure Nether Art: Qi Refining Chapter" — Earth Realm

Techniques: "Five Elements Ninjutsu"

Fire: "Proficient" Lightning: "Proficient" Wind: "Ordinary" Water: "Ordinary" Earth: "Ordinary"

"Artifact Manipulation Art" Proficient "Basic Fist, Body, and Movement Technique" Proficient

"Artifact Refinement" Ordinary "Alchemy" Ordinary "Planting Art" Ordinary Formation Art: "Ordinary"

Gratitude Points: 35000

Malice Points: 12000

Looking at the Gratitude and Malice Points, which had never before been so abundant, Hane felt a surge of excitement. At this moment, he wanted nothing more than to rapidly increase his cultivation.

He may have displayed great power at the clan meeting, but only he knew that if old man Liehuo had not confronted him head-on, then with the old man's strength as an elite jonin, once he started fighting Hane with guerrilla tactics...

Hane would definitely be the first to run out of energy. His lack of spiritual power had always been his shortcoming. The strength of his skills had increased, but after using them only a couple of times, he would be drained dry. That was Hane's current helplessness.

Hopefully, raising his cultivation would solve this problem, Hane silently prayed.

"System, put all my Gratitude Points into my cultivation technique."

As soon as Hane's words fell, powerful spiritual energy surged in from all directions of the void. Streams of spiritual energy, like divine nectar, rapidly poured into Hane's body, passing through the twelve regular meridians, reaching the eight extraordinary meridians, and finally flowing into his dantian.

The mist within his dantian was rapidly compressed. The already dense mist was squeezed bit by bit into crystal-clear droplets, slowly gathering into a pond. As endless spiritual energy continued to pour in, it became an azure sea.

Suddenly, a ray of rosy light rose from his dantian like the rising sun, transforming into a five-colored glow that shot straight into Hane's sea of consciousness. In an instant, Hane felt a violent explosion erupt in his mind.

His tense mind immediately entered a state of utter clarity. Countless sacred maxims of the Great Dao appeared from nowhere within Hane's sea of consciousness.

At the same time, three blue, green, and red petals slowly unfolded behind Hane's head, radiating an aura of the Great Dao that stood apart from this world.

Just as Hane was immersed in the mysterious and unfathomable maxims of the Great Dao in his mind, the blood in his body rapidly gathered at his brow along with the circulation of spiritual energy.

An intense, piercing pain instantly dragged Hane back from that indescribably wonderful state.

"Pain!" At that moment, that was Hane's only sensation. It felt as though something were about to break through his skull and drill out from the center of his brow.

Hane clutched his brow tightly, his entire body convulsing. Cold sweat streamed down his face while blood continuously flowed from between his fingers.

Hane clenched his teeth so hard that he wanted to scream from the pain, but his powerful mind kept him rational. He understood that if he cried out in agony now, his secret might be exposed.

It was not that he did not trust his mother and Itachi. He simply did not know how he would explain everything if it were exposed.

He could not exactly tell that gentle woman that he had come from another world, could he?

The pain made Hane roll back and forth across the bed. Hane swore that if this bloodline mutation did not satisfy him, then he would rather not have it at all!

About half an hour later, the pain slowly faded. Hane lay limp on the bed, as though he had just been pulled from the water, his entire body soaked in cold sweat.

Hane trembled as he climbed to his feet and staggered toward the mirror beside him. In the reflection, his handsome face was deathly pale, and a slightly curved vertical blood scab had formed on his forehead.

The blood scab slowly fell away, revealing a thin golden vertical line on Hane's forehead, like a birthmark.

The golden line gave off faint glimmers of light, adding a touch of mystery to Hane's already handsome little face.

Hane carefully sensed the newly formed birthmark on his forehead. Suddenly, vague information entered his mind, and Hane instantly understood what the vertical mark between his brows was.

It was a Daoist Dharma Eye. It was said that those with profound magical power would automatically awaken a third eye within the human brain. The outward manifestation of this third eye varied. Some could observe ghosts and gods, some could foresee the future, and some possessed the power to suppress all demons and evil spirits...

Hane's Dharma Eye was called the Eye of Truth. It could see through the true nature of all reality. According to the information it provided, once cultivated to a high level, it could observe the Nine Heavens above and explore the Ten Earths and Nine Nethers below. It could penetrate time and space, comprehend the ultimate principles of the world, and trace a thread of the Great Dao.

But all of that was still far too distant for Hane. For now, it could only see through all genjutsu, directly attack the spiritual origin of others, perceive the spatial layers of this world, and see events three seconds into the future through the river of time.

Even so, Hane felt that the half hour of suffering had been worth it. Those four abilities might sound simple, but in the world he lived in, they were already incomparably powerful.

Not to mention how important the ability to foresee three seconds into the future was in battle. Just the ability to see through all genjutsu and attack another person's spiritual origin was already an unimaginably powerful trump card.

As for seeing through the spatial layers of the world, there was even less need to say. It would be a powerful aid in mastering spatial Dao arts in the future. Being able to see through it meant being able to touch it. This had planted within him a seed capable of comprehending great spatial and temporal divine powers!

Among the many Dao arts, the laws of space and time were not something ordinary people could comprehend. Either one had the talent, or one did not.

Otherwise, why would there be such an exaggerated saying as: space reigned supreme, while time was emperor?