The Land of Fire was not far from the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation that Uchiha Mu had just founded. At full speed, they could reach it in a day, but with a battle ahead of them, they took time to rest and arrived at the Hundred-Clan Country's new village after two days.
Naturally, there was no barrier. Uchiha Mu coveted the Uzumaki Clan's sealing barriers, but unfortunately, he lacked the standing to obtain them and could only rely on Hyuga Rino's periodic scans.
Meanwhile, inside the village.
"Mu, I spotted Konoha ninja," Hyuga Rino called to Uchiha Mu's clone.
"All right, I'll be right back." Uchiha Mu knew this was no lasting solution. He planned to trade with the Uzumaki Clan, exchanging the Rasengan for their Barrier Ninjutsu. As for Sealing Jutsu, he knew the Uchiha Flame Formation, and that was enough.
Outside the village.
"How long has it even been? He's already built a village this big?" Hyuga Tenka could hardly believe it. Through his Byakugan, he could see that the village was even larger than Konoha.
"Hmph, not bad," En Uchiha said. For one thing, Uchiha Mu had chosen to strike out on his own rather than betray them, which made it hard to hate him.
But he still had to be dealt with, or the Uchiha in Konoha would face trouble. They carried their clan's honor and would never allow it to be tarnished.
"You'll give it everything you've got, right?" Hyuga Tenka asked, unconvinced.
"Heh, you'd better stay out of the way." The Uchiha thought nothing of the Hyuga, whose strength was a tier below theirs. Their pride left room in their eyes for only the Uchiha and the Senju. Everyone else? Worthless trash.
The next moment, Uchiha Mu arrived with the Body Flicker Technique and raised a hand in greeting. "Hello. Want to join my nation? The Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation welcomes every shinobi clan."
"Uchiha Mu, you took the nobles' money, didn't you?" En Uchiha asked.
"I did." Uchiha Mu nodded. There was no way to conceal everything he had done, so he simply admitted it.
"Where is Hyuga Rino?"
"In the village." Uchiha Mu answered every question.
"Be careful. I've only ever seen that much chakra in the Hokage and Madara," Hyuga Tenka warned.
"What?!" The three Uchiha immediately eyed Uchiha Mu warily. They had never expected someone whose strength had always seemed unremarkable to possess so much chakra.
"Yes, he's right. You'd better be careful." As Uchiha Mu spoke, his eyes changed. The Three-Tomoe spun into an intricate pattern—unmistakably the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"The Mangekyō!" En Uchiha's expression darkened. An immense gulf separated the Mangekyō from the three-tomoe Sharingan. They understood now: Uchiha Mu had been hiding his strength all along. But was that necessary? Hiding his strength meant receiving no attention from the clan, earning no glory, and getting no support for his training.
"Well, people in this era still know it when they see it. I'll use genjutsu next, so watch out." Uchiha Mu's voice was supremely arrogant.
All four looked grim. To be warned like this was humiliating. Apart from battles between Madara and Hashirama, fights between ninja were contests of information. Yet Uchiha Mu had simply announced the technique he was about to use. He was looking down on them far too much.
"Don't underestimate us! We'll kill you even if you have the Mangekyō!" The furious Uchiha activated their three-tomoe Sharingan and charged at Uchiha Mu.
"I think you'd better check what you're actually doing," Uchiha Mu reminded them, then released the genjutsu.
Two of the Uchiha saw that their swords were about to strike each other, while En Uchiha and Hyuga Tenka were also on the verge of attacking one another. Once their senses returned to normal, their expressions turned utterly grim. They had fallen under a genjutsu just moments ago.
"Is this the Mangekyō's ocular power?" En Uchiha stopped. There was no point in fighting any further.
"Of course. If you were as strong as Hashirama or Madara, this genjutsu wouldn't work on you," Uchiha Mu said cheerfully.
"Uchiha Mu, why did you leave the village? And why did you hide your strength?" another Uchiha shouted. He could not accept that he had nearly died because of a genjutsu, especially at the hands of one of his own.
"Why did I leave the village? There was no hope of becoming Hokage. I'm an Uchiha, after all. As for hiding my strength, wasn't Lord Izuna strong? He still died after being singled out." Uchiha Mu laid out his reasons.
His words left them speechless. They had simply never expected Uchiha Mu to be so easy to talk to.
"All right, just wait here. More people will come before long, and I'll settle everything at once. You'd better not leave, or the information you hear from other people later might sound a little unbelievable." Uchiha Mu turned and returned to the village.
The four wanted to hurry back and report what they had learned, but their feet would not move. They had been caught by the most basic paralysis jutsu.
It took them quite some time to break free. They knelt on the ground, gasping for breath. The enormous gap in strength left them unable to fight.
"So this is the Uchiha?" Hyuga Tenka gave a bitter smile. After this, did his clan still think themselves nobler than the Uchiha? The Uchiha had Madara and Mu. What did the Hyuga have? His father, the Heavenly Shinobi? Could he beat men like them? Tenka did not think so.
"Hmph, of course you Hyuga can't compare to us Uchiha," one of the Uchiha said proudly.
"Heh, you might not even be able to beat me." Hyuga Tenka had a temper too. These men were far too arrogant. If they possessed strength like Mu's or Madara's, that would be one thing, but they were just as arrogant without it.
No wonder the Uchiha Clan was unpopular in the village. Who could like people like this, bringing up their clan at every turn?
"Heh, then let's fight. Don't underestimate the Sharingan." The Uchiha immediately activated his three-tomoe Sharingan, ready for a fight.
"Stand down! Look at how you're behaving! What were you doing when Uchiha Mu glanced at you just now? Don't disgrace the Uchiha's honor," En Uchiha said, stopping him.
"Yes." The Uchiha lowered his head. He had his pride and still could not believe that a single glance had defeated him.
"En, are we going to keep waiting?" Seeing that En could still be reasoned with, Hyuga Tenka asked him.
"Let's wait. Otherwise, Lord Hokage won't believe information we've only heard from others." By that, En Uchiha meant Tobirama Senju, who was all but the Hokage himself.
"All right. I wonder if we can go inside." Hyuga Tenka was rather curious about this newly founded village.
"You can come in and have a look." Hyuga Rino walked over.
"You damned woman." The Uchiha immediately bristled. It had not bothered him much before, but now it turned out that someone as powerful as Uchiha Mu had gotten together with a Hyuga. Damn it, he needed to pass on that bloodline!
"What did you say?" Veins bulged on Hyuga Rino's forehead.
"Ahem, there's something wrong with his head. Don't stoop to his level." As En Uchiha spoke, he jabbed the man with his elbow, finally calming him down.
Whatever else, Hyuga Rino was already the lady of the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation. They needed to think before speaking, or if the earlier situation happened again, this idiot might well get beaten to death.
"I've decided. He can't come in. The rest of you can."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm Hyuga Rino." Hyuga Rino snorted. When he said nothing more, she led the other three into the village.
Although its population was smaller than Konoha's, there were still plenty of people here. After all, the small countries had suffered years of constant warfare. Now that someone had taken control of this place, quite a few people had hopes for it. No matter how bad things got, they could hardly be worse than before.
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