Time passed amid all the commotion. Fugaku spent most of it growing closer to Mikoto.
The clan's development was on track, and Uchiha Jin could handle many of its affairs.
Since awakening their Mangekyo Sharingan, Jin and Takigawa had grown much stronger. During this period, Fugaku had also helped Fujimoto awaken his.
The Uchiha had become so powerful that many in Konoha were taking notice.
Fugaku had once held the clan together, and his brilliant record across multiple battlefields had already surpassed that of Konoha's prodigies of his generation.
Fugaku had largely stepped back from clan affairs these past few years, while Jin and Takigawa had risen one after the other. Fujimoto mostly served as Uchiha Tenjo's bodyguard and rarely drew attention.
No one would have guessed that the ninja who had always guarded Uchiha Tenjo had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The ninja of Konoha's major clans understood that the Uchiha were no longer a clan the Konoha leadership could suppress at will.
The Hyuga, long ranked alongside the Uchiha as Konoha's foremost clan, seemed unremarkable by comparison. No extraordinary prodigy had emerged, but neither had the clan declined. Everything was developing normally.
And that normal development was no longer enough to keep pace with the Uchiha.
It was the first day of school at the Ninja Academy. A boy wearing goggles and an Uchiha uniform headed there to enroll, accompanied by an elderly woman.
He had an honest face and clear eyes that held a trace of shyness.
This was Obito Uchiha, the first child born under the Uchiha's High Birthrate Plan. Fugaku had even gone to celebrate his birth in person.
But fate had been cruel. Obito's parents had died while carrying out a routine mission, and his grandmother and the clan had raised him ever since.
After