Whirlpool Island

The Uchiha Clan's kekkei genkai did nothing to strengthen the body, and the clan had never produced anyone renowned for physical might. They simply were not good at it. Besides, when they could use ninjutsu and genjutsu, why put themselves through the thankless work of training in taijutsu?

As a typical Uchiha, Qiu Shan Uchiha was fairly unremarkable at taijutsu. Thus, when he faced Kojiro Shimamura, whose Lightning Release Armor gave his taijutsu an enormous boost, that weakness became painfully obvious. He could barely hold his own, rather than trade blows on equal footing.

Of course, Qiu Shan Uchiha was not foolish enough to pit his weakness against an enemy's strength.

As Kojiro Shimamura's attacks grew fiercer and faster, Qiu Shan Uchiha gradually struggled to keep up. It was the sort of situation where his eyes could follow every move, but his body could not.

As time passed, Kojiro Shimamura finally caught an opening in Qiu Shan Uchiha's defenses and casually slashed his throat with a kunai.

With a pop, Qiu Shan Uchiha's Shadow Clone vanished. Although Kojiro Shimamura had been prepared for this, seeing the clone disappear still annoyed him. He spat in frustration to vent his displeasure.

Kojiro Shimamura's confidence was now through the roof. He felt that he could overwhelm even a jōnin from the Uchiha Clan, leaving his opponent afraid to face him head-on. He could not help taunting him:

"So this is one of the Uchiha Clan's elite? I wonder how you ever became a jōnin. Does our Lord Hokage lower even the standards for jōnin when it comes to you clan shinobi?"

Just then, the real Qiu Shan Uchiha finally stepped out at a leisurely pace. His eyes no longer bore the three tomoe Kojiro Shimamura had seen earlier. Instead, they displayed an unfamiliar pattern, like a four-pointed pinwheel turning slowly. Although Kojiro Shimamura did not know what this unusual Sharingan was, the sight sent a wave of unease through him.

As Qiu Shan Uchiha slowly approached, his Mangekyō Sharingan gradually stopped spinning. When it came to a halt, fine strands of bright blue lightning began to appear across his body.

Seeing that all-too-familiar color on Qiu Shan Uchiha's body, Kojiro Shimamura's pupils involuntarily contracted. How could he possibly fail to recognize it? The same bright blue lightning was flickering across his own body.

Kojiro Shimamura felt as though his entire understanding of the world had collapsed. His body retreated step after step, seemingly beyond his control, as he muttered, "Impossible. This is impossible. Do you know how much I suffered to learn this secret technique, how long I trained? How could you learn it after watching it just a couple of times?"

As he spoke, something suddenly seemed to occur to Kojiro Shimamura, as though realization had struck him. "Genjutsu. Genjutsu! This has to be genjutsu. Your Uchiha Clan specializes in genjutsu. You must have cast it on me. Everything I'm seeing has to be an illusion."

At that, Kojiro Shimamura formed hand seals repeatedly, shouting, "Release! Release! Damn it, release!"

Suddenly, Kojiro Shimamura turned a vicious glare on him. "If I can't break your genjutsu, then I'll defeat you myself, you fraud who enjoys toying with people."

With that, the bright blue lightning around Kojiro Shimamura intensified, and he charged at Qiu Shan Uchiha.

Qiu Shan Uchiha used neither dōjutsu nor ninjutsu. Instead, watching Kojiro Shimamura charge toward him, he looked eager to give this a try.

While his Shadow Clone had been fighting Kojiro Shimamura, Qiu Shan Uchiha had activated his Mangekyō dōjutsu, the Copying Eye. This was his first time using it since obtaining it, and the process had gone unexpectedly smoothly. As Kojiro Shimamura fought, the Copying Eye had learned his secret technique, Lightning Release Armor. It had even adapted the technique to Qiu Shan Uchiha's own body, easily allowing him to reach Kojiro Shimamura's current level of mastery.

Seeing Kojiro Shimamura charge, Qiu Shan Uchiha sharply increased the chakra output of his Lightning Release Armor. Wreathed in a blue glow far more intense than his opponent's, he rushed forward to meet him.

Qiu Shan Uchiha could feel it clearly. Once he had wrapped himself in Lightning Release Armor, his reflexes had improved enormously, and his speed had increased dramatically as well. Combined with the Sharingan's ability to track movement, this allowed him to utterly overwhelm the charging Kojiro Shimamura.

They had exchanged only a few blows before Kojiro Shimamura's kunai was knocked from his hand, and Qiu Shan Uchiha easily captured him alive.

Now that Kojiro Shimamura had seen his Mangekyō Sharingan, Qiu Shan Uchiha could not release him or hand him over to the village. Nor did he trust the man's character enough to take him on as a subordinate.

The entire Uchiha Clan was now under Qiu Shan Uchiha's control, so he was hardly short of people to command.

Qiu Shan Uchiha's hand brushed Kojiro Shimamura's neck a few times, but he still could not bring himself to snap it and kill this somewhat talented man. In the end, he knocked Kojiro Shimamura unconscious with a chop of his hand. He would lock him up for now and decide what to do later. Besides, he had only learned the first stage of Lightning Release Armor, while the Lightning Release Armor of the Raikage Lineage had three stages. He did not know whether Kojiro Shimamura had the Secret Technique methods for training in the later stages.

Using Takamagahara, Qiu Shan Uchiha returned briefly to the Uchiha Clan Compound and handed the unconscious Kojiro Shimamura over to Uchiha Fugaku, asking him to lock the man in the clan's secret prison. He would come back for him once Kotoamatsukami's cooldown was over.

His mission could be considered complete, but Qiu Shan Uchiha had yet to accomplish the purpose of this journey.

At a seaside dock, Qiu Shan Uchiha found a cargo ship whose route passed the Land of Whirlpools. After some negotiation, the captain agreed to let him aboard, but only because he was a shinobi from Konoha.

Through conversations and inquiries aboard the ship, Qiu Shan Uchiha learned that no ships along this coast actually sailed to the Land of Whirlpools anymore. Although the island was large and had decent resources, its geography had apparently filled the route there with hidden currents and whirlpools. Even approaching it was dangerous for ships, let alone landing on the island. That was also why it was called the Land of Whirlpools; it had previously been called Whirlpool Island.

Moreover, after the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan and the Land of Whirlpools, so many people had died on the island that even fewer were willing to go there. Thus, despite its size, only a handful of people actually lived on it.