Yu's Approach

However, what Mikoto did not know was that this was Hane's true demeanor when facing enemies. He reined in his formidable spirit, transforming vast amounts of mental energy into intense killing intent.

When Hane wanted to kill someone whose mental energy was weaker than his own, his powerful mental energy alone could crush them until they could barely breathe, giving them a sense of mortal danger as though they had encountered a natural predator.

Itachi was led upstairs by his mother. Unable to suppress the grievance in his heart any longer, he threw himself into Mikoto's arms and burst into tears.

Mikoto patiently stroked Itachi's back. Though she did not know what had happened between Hane and Itachi, she believed that if Itachi wanted to talk, he would tell her.

Sure enough, under Mikoto's gentle comfort, Itachi gradually explained what had happened between sobs. At the end, he looked up at his mother through tearful eyes.

"Mother! Was I really wrong?" This was the first time Itachi had shown his vulnerability before his parents.

Itachi might become a brother-obsessed younger brother in the future, but right now? He was merely a younger brother controlled by his older brother.

Ever since childhood, Itachi had thought his brother was amazing. When Itachi was barely over two and could not do anything himself, his brother could already change his diapers and help him get dressed.

At three, Hane could help their mother with housework and look after himself. At four, he had dared to talk back and argue with their strict father.

At five, he had even fought their father to protect Itachi, earning their father's approval.

All those little things had left Itachi, as he grew, with the illusion that his brother was capable of anything—of Nothingness itself. As a result, when faced with his brother's anger, he felt even more despair than when faced with his father's.

Watching Itachi cry his heart out, Mikoto almost could not hold back her laughter. Now Itachi finally looked like a real child. When he was sad, he even knew to seek comfort from me. Mikoto sighed inwardly.

"Itachi, Hane is your older brother. If he got that angry, then you must have done something wrong. Compared to outsiders, you actually chose not to trust Hane, the brother who has taken care of you since you were little. I think that is what made Hane angry," Mikoto answered gently.

"But Brother Shisui said we should work hard to build a bridge for the village. I only wanted to persuade my brother because I did not want Brother Shisui's efforts to go to waste," Itachi said, suddenly sounding aggrieved.

"Shisui..." Mikoto said softly. "He has his own path to walk, and Hane has his own. Shisui inherited his grandfather's will, while Hane is now the young clan head trusted by so many clan members. Compared to the burden Shisui carries, shouldn't you be more understanding toward your brother?"

"He is a child the same age as you, yet with a body only six years old, he must bear the trust of hundreds, even thousands, of clan members. Itachi, do you understand the weight of that?"

Itachi shook his head. At six years old, he still did not understand the difference.

Mikoto smiled. "Put simply, Brother Shisui is only pursuing his own dream. If he fails, at most, his dream will be lost.

"But your brother bears far more responsibility. The clan's expectations of him and their trust in him cannot allow him to fail. Once he fails, he will have let down far more than just himself. One mistake by him will become the mistake of the entire clan!"

As she said this, a trace of pity appeared in Mikoto's eyes.

Itachi stared blankly at his mother. His young mind began placing itself in his brother's position, and in an instant, he felt a suffocating pressure that made it hard for him to breathe.

Only then did he realize how heavy the friendly smiles of the clan members on the road home every day must have felt to his brother. No wonder Hane had clearly left that day, only to turn back. Was it because Nothingness could not betray those feelings?

Itachi felt miserable. This time, he was not upset because his brother had scolded him, but because Nothingness had kept him from understanding the brother who was the same age as him.

Perhaps Hane had always been an impossibly tall mountain in Itachi's heart, so Itachi believed that the weight Hane carried was only natural.

Meanwhile, Hane was considering his meeting with Uchiha Retsuyō that night.

Through this confrontation with the Third Hokage, Hane realized that the path of allowing the Uchiha to integrate into the village through mutual understanding was impassable.

This was not merely a problem with Konoha's upper ranks, but also with the indifference the villagers showed toward the Uchiha.

Hane did not want to understand how the people of the village viewed the Uchiha, but he understood one truth: from beginning to end, the Uchiha had never wronged Konoha.

Expecting a group of people filled with prejudice to truly accept the Uchiha was Nothingness short of wishful thinking.

If they did not want to be bullied, they could only keep growing stronger. This strength could not belong to Hane alone; it had to be the strength of the entire clan. After all, he had parents and relatives, and might even have a wife and children in the future.

His energy alone would ultimately be limited. One moment of negligence might allow an enemy to find a weakness. The solution was to raise both his own strength and the clan's strength without limit, toward Nothingness.

Since the path of a king would not work, then he would take the path of a conqueror. With the strength of the entire clan, he would crush all of Konoha. Those who obeyed would prosper, and those who defied him would perish. When it truly came down to it, did the Ninja World not desire peace?

It was not as though Hane could not accomplish it. He could also walk the path of the First Emperor. With his long lifespan, as long as he remained in the Ninja World, it would not fall into chaos.

To accomplish such a thing, Hane needed sufficiently powerful and loyal enforcers. To build such a force, he already had the necessary foundation: pill refining and Formation Arts.

What was the essence of the Sharingan? Nothingness beyond spiritual energy and intense emotional stimulation.

Hane could provide both. This incident had also earned him another huge wave of Malice Points, so he could raise his Formation Arts and pill refining a little.

Then he would find a secret base, set up a large Heart-Refining Formation, and use the formation to imprint the clan members with ideological seals of loyalty to himself.

As for spiritual energy, that was even simpler. The herbs in his medicine field had ripened. After tonight, he would harvest them and refine them into pills that enhanced spiritual energy.

He would first raise the spiritual energy of the younger generation Uchiha Retsuyō had gathered, then throw them into the Heart-Refining Formation to suffer torment beyond endurance. Finally, he would appear within the clan members' illusions as their savior, subtly branding them with ideological seals of loyalty to himself. He believed that many Mangekyō would soon emerge within the clan.

With an Uchiha like Hane, he refused to believe any clan in Konoha would still dare to challenge him.

As for the ordinary clan members, were jobs not scarce right now? He could arrange for them to cultivate medicinal herbs for him and pay them wages. Then he could refine some pills that were not particularly important to cultivators, such as Health-Nourishing Pills or Beauty-Enhancing Pills, and sell them through the shop he had just acquired in central Konoha.

That was a perfect closed loop. At the thought, a cold smile appeared at the corner of Hane's lips.

"Sarutobi, Danzo, what will you have left to fight me with? When the time comes, I will make you watch helplessly as Konoha becomes what I want it to be. By then, I imagine you will have become fat enough chives."

As for Konoha's civilians, Hane would give them enough ways to survive. If they still refused to obey, he would make them properly experience what it meant for a king's majesty to be inviolable!