Father and Son's Showdown

To this day, Itachi still clearly remembered that day. His mother had been silent and repressed, while his brother had tightly held his little hand.

"Father! What were you thinking, taking a five-year-old child to the battlefield?" Hane's expression was remarkably calm—so calm that Itachi, sitting beside him, felt deeply uneasy.

He wanted to pull free of his brother's hand, but no matter what he did, he could not break free.

"What do you know? This is the destiny of the Uchiha Clan!" Fugaku cast Hane a faint glance from across the room.

"Heh, only the weak prattle on about destiny. The strong decide their own fate, not Heaven! I absolutely will not let Itachi, so young, go to the battlefield.

"Itachi! Get behind your brother. This unfit father won't take you away from me today!"

Itachi watched his brother turn to look at him. He did not understand why he had blankly moved behind his brother back then. Perhaps it was because his brother's eyes seemed to burn with flames—scorching and furious.

From childhood until then, it seemed to be the first time he had seen his calm and composed brother reveal such an angry look.

"Hmph! You never train properly, yet you dare call yourself strong? Nothing but the foolish words of a child!" Fugaku's expression instantly turned stern.

As for this eldest son, he had been prepared to give up on him. Even now, Hane had not mastered the most basic Three Body Techniques of a ninja and was far inferior to Itachi.

Though he was somewhat disappointed, part of him also felt relieved that his eldest son could not become a ninja. After all, in these times, perhaps not becoming a ninja was also a kind of fortune.

"Father, then let's try it and see whether I'm merely talking nonsense!"

Hearing Hane's resolute words, Itachi's small body trembled slightly. He was moved, but also worried. He knew his brother was not weak, but that was their father!

The current head of the Uchiha Clan, the strongest one.

"Brother, I'm willing..."

"Itachi! Are you sure you want me to be a failed big brother?"

Itachi swallowed the rest of his words, staring blankly at his brother, who stood firmly in front of him.

For the first time, aside from the pressure of his father's expectations, he felt the reassurance of being protected.

"Hane, are you sure?" A trace of astonishment and surprise flashed through Fugaku's eyes.

Mikoto, standing nearby, wanted to reach out and take Fugaku's hand. But in the end, whether out of trust in him or her habitual respect for the head of the household—

She withdrew her half-raised hand and merely watched Hane, who was shielding Itachi, with concern.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. Itachi is my little brother. Isn't it only natural for an older brother to protect his younger brother? Even if a powerful enemy stands before me and wants to hurt Itachi, they'll have to step over my body first!"

Itachi suddenly felt a wet drop slide down his cheek. It was salty, yet somehow reassuring.

"Then let's see how much resolve you have! Hane, anyone can talk big!"

After saying that, Fugaku turned without hesitation and headed for the training ground in the backyard.

Hane handed Itachi over to their mother, who had been watching him anxiously, and gave her a reassuring look.

Mikoto opened her mouth, wanting to persuade her eldest son that there was no need to go this far.

But seeing Hane turn away so resolutely, she held her words back once more.

Anything she said now would be superfluous. Since things had come to this, she could only trust her husband. After all, Hane was his son!

"Hane, show me your true strength. Otherwise, take back your big words." As Fugaku spoke, a powerful aura surged from his body.

Itachi, standing at the doorway with his mother, instantly felt like he could barely breathe. His back involuntarily bent slightly. Then what kind of immense pressure was Brother, facing Father directly, enduring?

Itachi stared blankly at his brother's figure, still standing tall and straight, and suddenly felt that his brother had become even larger.

A towering blaze erupted from Hane's body. The flames illuminated the dark sky and reflected on Itachi's face, warm and scorching.

His brother, standing in the center of the flames, looked like a fire spirit born from the blaze. Orange-yellow flames covered his body like a fire Dragon coiling around him.

Itachi's childish face froze at the sight. Is this Brother's strength?

Fugaku's pupils contracted slightly. He could not believe that his eldest son, whom he had never thought highly of, possessed such powerful Fire Release, as if he were Nothingness itself.

And those flames circled his eldest son without harming his flesh. What terrifying control that was.

"Hane, it seems Father has underestimated you all this time. Hahaha! Let Father see your true strength!" Fugaku's expression shifted from silence to surprise, then to excitement beyond even Nothingness.

"So this is the strength Hane has been hiding!"

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball erupted from Fugaku's mouth, its searing heat instantly baking the nearby ground dry.

Watching Fugaku form hand seals and breathe flames, Hane's lips curled into a faint smile.

"Fire Release is truly such an inconvenient thing!"

"Fire Release!" Hane's figure vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he seemed to have merged into the enormous fireball, passing through the blazing sphere in an instant and appearing in Kong one meter before Fugaku.

"Fire Dragon Claw!" Hane formed his right hand into a claw and pressed it downward slightly. The surrounding flames seemed to receive some command as the massive fireball was rapidly drawn away, forming an enormous fiery claw in the shape of Hane's palm as it grasped down at Fugaku.

"What! A Nothingness-seal ninjutsu?!"

A flash of disbelieving shock crossed Fugaku's eyes, but he had no time to think further.

The giant claw burning with azure flames radiated such intense heat that it nearly ignited the hair and clothes around his body.

Fugaku's eyes instantly shifted into the Three-Tomoe form. "Body Flicker Technique!"

Boom! The giant claw slammed into the ground, leaving behind a huge scorched claw mark on the training field. Wisps of azure flame rose from the cracked earth.

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Technique!" Fugaku appeared behind Hane and rapidly formed several hand seals in less than a second. A massive fire dragon spiraled through the sky before instantly lunging at Hane, who had not yet turned around.

However, seeing Hane remain motionless with his back to the fire Dragon as though he had not reacted, Fugaku's excitement instantly turned into panic.

"Hane, get out of the way!" After shouting, Fugaku used Flash Step toward Hane, intending to block the charging fire Dragon with his own body.

But they were too close. Even at Fugaku's speed, he could only watch helplessly as the fire Dragon closed in on Hane's back.

In an instant, all three people in the courtyard were wound tight with tension.

Yet the imagined explosion of the fire dragon never came. The moment it touched Hane, the flames maintaining its dragon form instantly dispersed, turning into sparks without end, as though Nothingness itself had filled the air, and lingered for a long time.

With a flick of Hane's finger, the sparks gathered rapidly into his palm like a current of water under his command, forming a massive sphere.

At that moment, Hane looked like a god holding up the sun, calmly gazing at the anxious Fugaku.

At last, a trace of gentle warmth appeared on his normally impassive face.

"Father, do you still want to continue?" Hane's calm voice carried a hint of lightness. Though his father was rigid and chauvinistic, Hane had to admit that he loved him.

Fugaku stared blankly at Hane holding the massive fireball, his emotions tangled and complicated.

There was worry, excitement, and a faint trace of gratification.

"Hane, is this a new Kekkei Genkai..." Fugaku asked uncertainly.

"Mm! I'm not really sure either. It's just that if it's fire, it generally can't hurt me." As he spoke, Hane controlled the fireball in his hand, constantly changing its shape.

At one moment, it transformed into a lifelike fire Dragon; the next, it became a lotus made of flames, as though he were a divine envoy who commanded fire.

Seeing this, Fugaku became even more convinced that his eldest son had awakened another Kekkei Genkai besides the Sharingan.

But when he thought of what had happened today, Fugaku immediately suppressed his shock and returned to his calm demeanor.

"Hmph! Don't think you're so impressive just because you've awakened a Kekkei Genkai. A ninja's methods are not limited to ninjutsu! Train hard from now on! If I hadn't used Fire Release with that taijutsu of yours, who knows how worried your mother would have been today."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Hane dispersed the flames in his hand. For the sake of his obedient little brother, he did not want to argue further with this rigid father, but there were still things that needed to be said.

"Then, about Itachi..."

"Hmph! This ends here!" With a wave of his hand, Fugaku left the training ground.

"Sharp tongue, soft heart," Hane muttered quietly.

Fugaku paused at the doorway. With his back to Hane, an imperceptible smile appeared on his poker face.

Mikoto and Itachi happened to see it.

Mikoto also revealed a gentle smile from the bottom of her heart.

And that very scene etched an image of his incomparably powerful brother, like Nothingness itself, into Itachi's young heart.