Sarutobi's Worries

Now under Hane's Heart-Refining Formation, there were already twenty young clan members in the Uchiha Clan with just the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and this was still under the condition of a shortage of medicinal pills. It was just that clan members who improved this way had a certain flaw, which was that their bodies would easily remain in a state of depletion for quite a long time.

Fortunately, some highly nourishing medicinal herbs could still be bought in Konoha. After Hane researched for a few days, a Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup was developed by Hane to solve this difficult problem.

However, there were still shortcomings. This merely replenished the physical depletion, while the lingering mental effects remained. The specific manifestation was that clan members who improved this way so rapidly had relatively less ocular power, and using the Three-Tomoe Sharingan for too long placed a heavy burden on the body.

Hane temporarily had no way to solve this point and could only wait for the spiritual herbs to mature before making up for it.

Yet even so, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan was still the Three-Tomoe Sharingan! It was unmatched by ordinary ninjas!

This was just the Three-Tomoe Sharingan clan members; those twelve teenage clan members who had followed Hane in the early days had now all awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. Each and every one of them also possessed strength comparable to the Quasi-Kage Level, and once they became familiar with the Mangekyo Sharingan, surpassing the Kage Level would just be a matter of time.

With such formidable strength, it was virtually impossible for Konoha to break the rules of the game and suppress the Uchiha with brute force.

As for Hane, he was now unequivocally determined to be the next head of the entire Uchiha Clan.

It was only out of consideration that Fugaku was Hane's father that a large crowd of hot-blooded young clan members felt too embarrassed to shout for him to abdicate.

At this moment, Hane was in the courtyard watching Itachi train three-year-old Sasuke, with Izumi, who had matured quite a bit, right beside them. At that moment, Izumi was attentively peeling an apple for Hane, then cutting it into small pieces.

She gently brought it to Hane's mouth with a toothpick, and Hane looked at Izumi with doting eyes, swallowing the apple Izumi handed over without hesitation.

"Hane-kun, is it sweet?!" Izumi asked with a hint of joy in her eyes.

"Sweet, as sweet as Izumi!" Hane answered with a beaming smile.

"Hane-kun, you're being smooth-tongued again." Izumi gave Hane a coquettish look. Afterward, she turned her head to look at Sasuke and Itachi, who were training.

"Young Sasuke is really training hard!"

"Haha, with two such outstanding older brothers, if I were Young Sasuke, I would have checked out long ago. Clearly able to rely on his brothers, yet he still has to work this hard—my tsundere little brother!"

"Pfft! Hane-kun, you still talk so hilariously!" Izumi covered her small mouth and chuckled softly.

Hane looked at Izumi, who was narrowing her eyes and chuckling lightly, and could not help bringing his head a bit closer. Izumi instantly felt her small face turn slightly red, and her heartbeat pounded rapidly.

"Hane-kun, what are you going to do!" Izumi murmured softly.

"Izumi looks truly pretty when she smiles." Hane suddenly pulled out a purple scarf from his hand as if performing a magic trick.

"Izumi, happy New Year. This is a New Year's gift for you." Having said that, Hane placed the purple scarf around Izumi's rosy neck.

A wave of warmth welled up in Izumi's heart, and then she felt a little disappointed. "Hane-kun, I haven't even prepared a New Year's gift for you yet! You beat me to it again."

"Haha, then you'll have to prepare a good one for me when we get back!" Hane looked at the scarf worn around Izumi's neck.

On the girl's well-behaved face, although she still appeared youthful, set off by her tear mole, a few extra points of maturity were added.

Dressed in a small purple cotton-padded jacket and matched with a scarf featuring a little bear pattern, her cheeks, frozen red, appeared remarkably cute.

"As expected, Izumi matches purple clothes even better!"

"Big Brother actually gave Sister Izumi a gift, but didn't prepare one for me." At this point, Young Sasuke, who had originally been training with Itachi, ran over in jealousy.

"Alright! Alright! Smelly little brother, who says your big brother didn't prepare a gift for you!"

Helplessly, Hane pulled a small tachi from his Sleeve Dimension and handed it to Sasuke. This was the entrance gift Shisui had given him back then, and since it had never been of any use and he had kept it until now, it was just right to give to Sasuke.

Itachi frowned slightly from the side. "Big Brother, giving Sasuke a weapon right now—isn't that too dangerous!"

Hane glanced indifferently at Itachi. "Sigh! Itachi is getting less and less cute as he grows up. Now he even dares to talk back to his big brother!"

Itachi's face darkened. "Big Brother, you are only older than me by half an hour." Itachi retorted.

"So what if it's half an hour? A big brother is always a big brother! Do you dare deny it!" Hane feigned anger.

Itachi lowered his head in a hurry. "I don't!"

Seeing this, Hane let out a bitter laugh. "Itachi is no longer like he was when he was little! Although merely a year has passed, Itachi's mental growth far exceeds that of ordinary people."

"Here, this is the New Year's gift your big brother got for you." Hane produced a golden bracelet and handed it to the lowering-headed Itachi.

Itachi raised his eyes slightly, failing to understand what this bracelet his big brother gave him was, but he knew that whatever his big brother gave was definitely not some simple bangle.

"This is a Heart-Link Ring. Everyone in our family has one, including Izumi.

Inside it is a shield ninjutsu that can block three strikes of an S-Rank Ninjutsu. The moment you are in danger, your big brother can sense your location through this bracelet." Hane explained indifferently.

Itachi solemnly accepted the bracelet and put it on his own hand without hesitation. "Big Brother is still caring about me just like this."

With some emotion, Itachi looked at his big brother, who had not changed in the slightest, and felt somewhat dazed for a moment.

Over this past year, far too many things had changed. The changes in the entire Uchiha Clan alone were earth-shattering.

Smiles gradually increased on the faces of the clan members, and fewer people complained about the village. During clan meetings, as long as Big Brother was present, things were generally harmonious and amicable, completely free of the arguments and chaos of days past.

All of this was the change brought about by Big Brother. Even the villagers in the village looked at him differently; although a sense of aloofness remained, the expressions of the two were vastly different—the former was disgust, while the latter was fear mixed with a trace of respect.

Yet why would Lord Third say things like that?

Itachi could not help thinking of the time shortly before the winter break when the Third Hokage had sought him out alone.

"Itachi, you are already an outstanding ninja. I have always kept my eye on you." Sarutobi looked at the young man before him with a kindly expression.

He had no choice but to seek out the young man ahead of schedule. Originally, he had wanted to wait another half a year or so before approaching Itachi, but the current transformation of the Uchiha was simply too immense.

First came the reputation of the Uchiha enforcing justice impartially spreading throughout the village, followed by the transformation in the daily lives of the Uchiha clan members. Originally, he had wanted to use four storefronts to make the Uchiha appear increasingly detestable in the eyes of the other clans.

He had achieved this objective; at the very least, Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, and Inuzuka remained full of exclusion toward the Uchiha.

Originally, those shops were the compensation Sarutobi had promised their families. Yet after such a ruckus by the Uchiha, they had all turned into the Uchiha family's property instead.

How could such enormous benefits fail to make their eyes turn red? Others would consider themselves lucky to get one, yet the Uchiha had actually obtained four in one go.

Although Sarutobi later swapped them for three training grounds, could training grounds be as useful as storefronts?! Their clan members were not as numerous as the Uchiha Clan.

Well-equipped training grounds were indeed more expensive than storefronts, but you had to see who they were being given to!

Those clans were not without training grounds; one was enough, and any more would go unused. Storefronts were different, however—used well, they were major trump cards for improving life within the clan, and just like that, they had cheaply benefited the Uchiha.

Originally, Sarutobi had thought that with the Uchiha's proud temperament, they would absolutely never use them to do business. After all, this bunch of fellows was extremely arrogant and simply disdained to delve into the ways of commerce.

In the end, by spending a bit of money, those storefronts might have returned to his own hands—whether handed over to clan members to engage in commerce or used to reward clans following him, it was simply a matter of the left hand trading for the right hand.

As a result, the Uchiha ran them so thriving and prosperously that going to the Uchiha Clan Grounds now was simply like visiting a bunch of wealthy people.

Such changes left Sarutobi and the other three dumbfounded. Although the Uchiha, with their improved lives, no longer made a fuss, this was definitely not the state Sarutobi and the others wanted to see.

With the Uchiha not making a fuss, how were Sarutobi and the others supposed to suppress them? In fact, a bad premonition vaguely surfaced in the hearts of several of them.

The Uchiha were slowly breaking away from Konoha's control, because the Uchiha were gradually becoming no longer in need of Konoha.

They had money, and they created their own positions and jobs. Aside from still needing Konoha as a big family to shelter their clan members, the entire clan now had virtually no unfulfilled desires toward Konoha.