Trap

Qiu Shan Uchiha waited patiently for Kojiro Shimamura to finish venting before he spoke.

"I've already reviewed the information on you and your student. Even if he was in the wrong, you had plenty of ways to handle him. You could have sent him back or given him a poor evaluation. Either would have seriously affected his future, more than enough to make up for his provocation. With your strength, you could also have taught him a physical lesson."

At this point, Qiu Shan Uchiha shook his head. "In the end, you were simply too extreme. Yes, he provoked you and made you furious, but it hardly warranted killing him outright."

After venting, Kojiro Shimamura had finally calmed down somewhat. He did not get angry at Qiu Shan Uchiha's words. "You're from a Shinobi clan too, aren't you? You're far too naive. Do you know why he provoked me? Because he looked down on me and thought there was nothing I could do to him. Even if I sent him back, his clan would just find him a stronger Shinobi to be his teacher."

"I couldn't even hit him. If I did, plenty of people would stand up for him. And what good would a poor evaluation do? With his clan pulling strings, it wouldn't affect his promotion to Chunin or Jōnin."

"Besides, he was practically begging me to send him back. At worst, he'd graduate a year later, and then they'd assign him an even better teacher."

Kojiro Shimamura's face twisted as he spoke. "Do any of you clan Shinobi ever spare a thought for us Shinobi from civilian families? Do you have any idea what I went through to get here?"

"Unlike you clan Shinobi, all we civilian Shinobi learned by the time we graduated from the Ninja Academy were the Three Basic Techniques. Most of the teachers assigned to us were Chunin from civilian backgrounds too. They barely knew any jutsu themselves, and they certainly wouldn't teach us for free."

"I earned all my jutsu by working hard, diligently completing missions and exchanging my rewards for them. I saved up little by little and improved step by step. I risked my life several times before finally becoming a Special Jōnin. If I couldn't even deal with some brat fresh out of school, how could I hold my head up?"

Qiu Shan Uchiha fell silent at that. Compared with Shinobi like him who had clans behind them, civilian-born Shinobi like Kojiro Shimamura truly had to work much harder to improve and rise through the ranks. They also had to bow to the whims of clan Shinobi.

This was also why Qiu Shan Uchiha wanted to leave Konoha. The Senju Clan had disappeared, and the Uchiha Clan's numbers and strength were dwindling by the day. Every matter in Konoha, large or small, was controlled by clans close to the Third Hokage. During his rule in particular, Hiruzen Sarutobi's Sarutobi Clan and Shimura Danzō's Shimura Clan had grown into behemoths within the village. All those tangled connections and unspoken rules had turned Konoha into a stagnant pool, faintly reeking of decay.

If the Uchiha Clan wanted to grow, it had to break free and leave Konoha. Even if it survived until the Fifth Hokage took office, Tsunade came from the Senju Clan, so her attitude toward the Uchiha Clan would hardly be favorable. And with the old fossils on Konoha's advisory council stirring up trouble, they certainly would not let the Uchiha live in peace.

Still, he had a mission to carry out. If a few words from Kojiro Shimamura were enough to make him abandon it, all his years as a ninja would have been for nothing.

Kojiro Shimamura might have suffered injustice, but where in this world was there any fairness? If the world were fair, the Uchiha would not be wiped out in a few years.

Once someone did something, they had to take responsibility for it. Since he had committed this act, he had to bear its consequences.

Qiu Shan Uchiha felt a little regretful. Kojiro Shimamura was simply too extreme in how he handled things. Otherwise, he could have tried winning him over and putting him to work.

Unfortunately, even if he treated someone like this well, the man might turn around and bite him later. And he was not worth using Kotoamatsukami on.

Qiu Shan Uchiha took two steps forward, about to say something, ideally persuading Kojiro Shimamura to stop resisting and return quietly to Konoha with him. Just then, Kojiro Shimamura's expression suddenly changed. The fury on his face vanished, replaced by the grin of someone whose scheme had succeeded.

Qiu Shan Uchiha's heart lurched. Before he could react, Kojiro Shimamura vanished with a pop. At the same instant, countless steel wires appeared all around Qiu Shan Uchiha, forming an inescapable net as they raced in to bind him. Numerous Explosive Tags hung from the wires.

Just as the wires wrapped around Qiu Shan Uchiha, a glimmer flashed along them. Immediately afterward, the Explosive Tags that had been pulled against Qiushan detonated with a boom.

A short distance from the woods, Qiu Shan Uchiha rubbed his head helplessly. He had not expected Kojiro Shimamura to have a few tricks up his sleeve. The man had set a trap for him without giving anything away. Moreover, the timing of those Explosive Tags had been unusual. They had detonated so quickly that his Shadow Clone had been destroyed before he could break free of the wires.

Qiu Shan Uchiha immediately created another Shadow Clone and sent him over. It was no problem. Ever since awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan, combined with his extraordinarily powerful mind-which was actually a perk of transmigrating-his chakra reserves had become chakra by the ton. The tiny cost of a Shadow Clone no longer concerned him.

Meanwhile, Kojiro Shimamura's expression had turned ugly in the woods. He had never expected a Shinobi from the illustrious Uchiha Clan to be so cautious that he would send a Shadow Clone to approach him.

Indeed, the moment he spotted Qiu Shan Uchiha, he had recognized him as a member of the Uchiha Clan. After all, there was an unmistakable ping-pong paddle emblem on his clothes.

That was why Kojiro Shimamura had lured Qiu Shan Uchiha into the trap he had set beforehand. He simply had not expected a member of the notoriously arrogant Uchiha to be cautious enough to send a Shadow Clone to meet him, ruining all his efforts.

When he saw another identical figure stroll openly into the woods, Kojiro Shimamura's expression grew even uglier, and he could not resist sneering.

"To think someone from the illustrious Uchiha Clan would be such a coward, only daring to send in Shadow Clones. Are all those rumors about never fighting an Uchiha one-on-one just lies?"

Qiu Shan Uchiha did not get angry at Kojiro Shimamura's words. Instead, he looked at the man, who had emerged again and was standing on a horizontal tree trunk, and asked:

"What you just used was Lightning Release: Change in Chakra Nature, wasn't it? That isn't something a civilian-born ninja like you should have access to. So you were lying, weren't you? You didn't kill your student just to vent your anger, did you?"