On the banks of the Naka River, the shouting match between Senju Toka and Uchiha Hōkaku continued.
Uchiha Shingetsu, who had long since memorized their insults and taunts, silently rolled her eyes. She was sick of hearing about the same ancient grievances.
Her poor, empty stomach was the real victim here. Even in impoverished Konoha, where breakfast consisted of only a small slice of grilled salmon and some rice, she could at least eat her fill as an elder's daughter and the clan leader's student.
So hungry. So miserable.
Shingetsu rubbed her flat, empty belly and let out a melancholy sigh.
If she had never transmigrated, she would never have associated the word "poverty" with Konoha. If even Konoha counted as a poor village, what did that make Sunagakure—a Beggar's Gang? Yet reality was cruel. This Konoha, founded less than six years ago, really was poor enough to make her heart ache and bring tears to her eyes.
First, a question: were the Uchiha short on money?
Absolutely not.
The Uchiha Clan's assets included more than a dozen mines alone, all forcibly seized from other Shinobi Clans by the fan-bearing clan during the Warring States period. Only their old rivals, the Senju, could match them in either quantity or quality. Although all those mines had been handed over to Konoha for centralized management after the village's founding, the annual dividends alone were substantial. Add their mission payments and profits from other businesses, and the sum would make even some small nations green with envy.
Yet despite all that wealth, the Uchiha could barely manage to keep the entire clan fed.
Shinobi needed to extract energy from their cells to produce chakra, and that lost energy naturally had to be replenished through food. A skilled Shinobi inevitably consumed large quantities of meat and staple foods every day, and regular medicinal meals were essential as well.
But even Shingetsu, an elder's daughter and the clan leader's student, could not eat well at every meal. She could only just eat her fill, and even that was a benefit the Uchiha Clan granted her because she had begun Shinobi training and needed substantial daily nutrition. Ordinary clan members had it worse and ate even more poorly.
And that was the current state of the Uchiha, one of the two clans that had founded the village.
Yet compared with the rest of Konoha, they were actually doing quite well. At least none of them went hungry. The worst off were the penniless lower-ranking Shinobi and ordinary civilians, who struggled every day to keep themselves fed and clothed, scrambling to secure their next meal.
It was understandable that people without money had miserable lives, but why did the wealthy Uchiha have it so bad too?
The reason was simple: even money could not buy food. With the chaos of the Warring States period only just over and no unified currency yet in existence, money had pitiful purchasing power. Unfortunately, Konoha bought practically all its food from outside the village.
Yes, all of it!
What could they do when Shinobi produced nothing and lived solely on missions? In these early days, when civilians were far outnumbered by Shinobi, nobody farmed or grew crops despite the fertile land they occupied. Konoha had no choice but to buy its food elsewhere.
Shingetsu had heard from her clansmen that the Land of Fire's harvest had been poor this year. That probably meant food prices would rise again, and Konoha's finances would slip into the red once more.
Short on money and food, short on people and resources-Konoha really was terribly poor.
Actually, solving this predicament would have been simple. If the Land of Fire had no food, why couldn't Konoha grow its own? With such an excellent location and vast stretches of fertile farmland, even Uchiha Shingetsu, a Chinese woman who had hardly farmed at all in her previous life, was itching to try. Add Hashirama Senju, that powerhouse who could use Wood Release, and forget solving Konoha's food shortage-they could solve the shortages of all the Five Great Nations!
Yet that was utterly impossible.
There was no helping it. Shinobi underwent brutal training from early childhood until they mastered the art of killing, then spent their days dancing on the edge of death's blade. Had they gone through all that just to have more strength for farming?
Once she understood that, Shingetsu could not help shaking her head and sighing again. The Shinobi world was far too twisted.
By now, the sun was directly overhead, but Senju Toka and Uchiha Hōkaku were still trading insults. Faced with the prospect of missing lunch as well, Shingetsu rubbed her stomach as it growled in protest and found herself longing for the delicious food of her previous life.
Only after losing something did you learn to treasure it. Now that little cakes, chocolate, cream puffs, and matcha ice cream were gone for good, Shingetsu finally understood how bitter her life could be without those soft, sweet desserts!
I really want an ice-cold cola...
As Shingetsu's thoughts wandered, a black figure dropped from the sky, rushing toward Senju Toka and Uchiha Hōkaku like a wild, furious bolt of black lightning!
Two powerful whipping kicks struck mercilessly toward their faces. Every movement carried tremendous force, and a direct hit would surely have been fatal. But Tōka and Hōkaku were elite Shinobi who had survived countless battles. At that critical instant, they forcibly twisted their bodies aside and dodged the dangerous blows.
"Not a bad dodge. Now, how about this?"
The black figure immediately shifted his posture in midair. His lean, battle-honed body readied itself to unleash its strength in an instant. Tremendous power gathered in both fists, and then he punched-
Boom-
Still reeling from the previous attack, Tōka and Hōkaku had no time to dodge. They could only raise their hands and take those devastating blows head-on!
An immense shock surged through them from the points of impact, sending them flying. Like kites with severed strings, their bodies drifted helplessly through the air before plunging into the icy river.
Meanwhile, Shingetsu, tucked under Tōka's arm, was caught in the attack and sent flying along with her parents. Before she could fall into the river, however, a large hand in a black glove caught her by the scruff of her neck, holding her up like a kitten.
"Shingetsu."
At that familiar male voice, deep and slightly resonant, Uchiha Shingetsu silently swallowed. She suddenly remembered that she seemed to have a tiny little bit of training left unfinished.
What do I do? Is it too late to beg for mercy?
"M-Master, good morning-uh, no, good afternoon!"
Shingetsu forced out an innocent, sweet smile, trying to look like a well-behaved child. Madara Uchiha, however, was not buying it. He looked at her with a faint, ambiguous smile, his already handsome face taking on a striking allure that made him resemble some dangerous, captivating big cat.
"Have you finished the training I assigned you?"
Shingetsu blinked her big, innocent eyes and immediately looked away, pretending she had no idea what he meant.
Hmm, the river's so clear today. Come to think of it, what are those things floating over there? Oh, right. My parents...
"Uchiha! Shingetsu!"
A terrifying chakra presence instantly flooded the surroundings, and Madara's face darkened. Grabbing Shingetsu by the collar, he dragged her step by step toward the training grounds inside the Uchiha Clan Compound. Immense power gathered beneath his feet. Wherever he walked, the river parted and the earth cracked-a clear sign of just how furious he was!
"All of today's training is doubled!"
Aaaaah, help! I don't want double training! I'll die! I really will die!
At that horrifying punishment, Uchiha Shingetsu's eyes rolled back. She felt her little life was over.
In Shingetsu's short life, the age of four could be considered a turning point.
Before she turned four, she had been the Uchiha's little princess. Whatever she wanted, she got. Everyone treasured her as though she might melt in their hands. Even Madara Uchiha indulged her every whim and granted every request.
But the moment she turned four, her good days were over-Madara began training her as a Shinobi.
More than eight hours of physical exercise and hand seal practice every day, over three hours of academic lessons, and, newly added this year, more than an hour of chakra extraction training. Madara Uchiha was more of a capitalist than the capitalists of her previous life, exploiting a child without the slightest hesitation. Under him, Shingetsu was practically a pitiful child laborer sold into a sweatshop. He all but wanted her working twenty-four hours a day. "Miserable" did not begin to cover it!
Was this any way for a human being to live? I can't take this anymore!
There was no helping it. Madara Uchiha was, after all, a man who had lived through the Warring States period.
His ideas about education remained rooted in an era when even children of five or six had to go to war. To improve their chances of survival, he would use any means necessary to strengthen them, however cruel-even if that meant squeezing out their bodies' potential and shortening their cells' lifespans.
The problem was that nearly twelve hours of ninja training a day was far more than the now five-year-old Shingetsu could handle. Leaving aside whether her young body could withstand that enormous amount of exercise and exertion, she had lived in a peaceful, prosperous society in her previous life and was already accustomed to a leisurely lifestyle. She simply could not be like the ninja who lived amid bloodshed-cold-blooded, ruthless, and no different from tools.
But what happened if she failed to finish her training?
What else? She got beaten.
The fan-bearing clan's traditional philosophy of education was that the rod produced the strong. Uchiha Hōkaku, however, could not bear to hit her at all. Shingetsu only had to blink her big eyes pitifully, and that doting fool of a father would surrender and put down his stick.
But just because Uchiha Hōkaku could not bring himself to hit her, did that mean Madara Uchiha couldn't either?
Of course not!
Not only did he beat her, but he was remarkably skilled at it. He made it hurt like hell while ensuring he neither damaged her body nor left any wounds. One look at that exquisite technique told her he had perfected it on his younger brothers.
Moreover, Madara Uchiha could always gauge the limits of Shingetsu's abilities. In other words, he would never let her stop training until he had squeezed the very last scrap of potential out of her body.
To her esteemed master Madara Uchiha, whose educational prowess towered higher than Mount Tai and whose virtue and benevolence as a teacher surpassed even Confucius, Shingetsu had only one thing to say:
Madara Uchiha, you're my real dad! You're even harsher than my actual father!
Before you continue