Group Assignment

It was just that, in Meikyō's eyes, Uchiha Qing was still locked in a fierce standoff with Uchiha Fugaku, neither side willing to yield.

Seemingly noticing Meikyō's confusion, Uchiha Yu explained,

"For an Uchiha, the primary means of combat are Fire Style and the Sharingan. Battles between Uchiha generally come down to those two things. As for the Sharingan, both sides have Three Tomoe, so there is no qualitative gap. In terms of Fire Style, although Uchiha Qing is more seasoned, Fugaku has actually already mastered Fire Style Nature Transformation and Shape Transformation. In that respect alone, he is already considered elite among Jonin. His raw strength is actually a notch above Uchiha Qing's. On top of that, the latter is advanced in years, and both the quality and quantity of his Chakra are long past their peak. As long as Fugaku holds his ground, victory in this battle will certainly belong to him. The reason the fight is so intense now is merely because Uchiha Qing knows he will die and is making the last struggle of a trapped beast."

Meikyō nodded, half-understanding.

His instincts told him that Fugaku's idea of using Uchiha Qing to establish his authority was a good one, but the results might not be all that great.

Although Fugaku's strength was formidable even among Jonin, and his youth could ensure the clan's internal stability to a certain extent, he...

He was going to become the Uchiha Clan Head—the head of the Ninja World's Foremost Great Clan, the head of an Uchiha Clan deliberately targeted and suppressed by Konoha's upper ranks!

Without a Mangekyō Sharingan or strength on par with the Five Kage, he could not truly unite all of the Uchiha Clan's power, because the Uchiha believed only in strength.

The kind of strength that utterly crushed everything!

Otherwise, even if you defeated them, those proud, stubborn Uchiha would still refuse to submit.

Uchiha Qing did indeed lose in the end, but his final counterattack seemed to have inflicted some injuries on Fugaku as well, greatly diminishing the effect of Fugaku's display of authority.

Fugaku publicly reclaimed his pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan as well.

The matter seemed to have ended just like that.

Yet the aftereffects of the incident were far from over.

What followed mainly revolved around how Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Setsuna, and the others would gather in and divide the share of power that had originally belonged to Uchiha Qing.

When Meikyō returned home after helping wash dishes at Uchiha Yu's house, he found the Old Servant who had previously followed Fugaku waiting at his doorstep.

"Excuse me..."

"Meikyō, this is the compensation issued to you by the village, totaling five hundred thousand ryo. This is an additional subsidy of three hundred thousand ryo from the clan. In addition, Clan Head has personally gifted you another one hundred thousand ryo."

The Old Servant took out three bulging money pouches and handed them to Meikyō.

"Clan Head has matters to attend to, so he instructed this old man to handle it. He also asked me to pass along his hope that you will realize your talent as soon as possible and serve the clan."

"I will never forget Clan Head's kindness."

Meikyō respectfully saw the old man out.

"Tch. Uchiha Fugaku really is willing to spend heavily to win me over."

Stroking the banknotes in his hand, Meikyō could not help muttering.

Of course, he knew that Uchiha Fugaku was treating him so well only because he valued his talent. More than likely, Fugaku would also use him as a prime example to promote the image of a good Clan Head who cared for the younger generation of the clan.

The Uchiha Clan was still fairly strong at present, and Konoha was facing external threats, so the village was relatively stable internally. Although many people in the village disliked the Police Force's harsh methods of enforcement, things had not reached the point where everyone despised them. The Uchiha's situation was still passable.

The Uchiha Clan's primary conflict now lay between the old clan elders who refused to relinquish their power and the newly appointed Clan Head, Uchiha Fugaku.

If Uchiha Fugaku truly wanted to become a Clan Head with real authority, he would inevitably need the support of a sufficient number of loyal direct subordinates.

By now, who knew how many years had passed since the last Uchiha awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. The next Mangekyō would not be awakened by Uchiha Fugaku himself until the Third Shinobi War, and he would never truly display it before others even until his death. The next Uchiha publicly known to awaken the Mangekyō was Uchiha Shisui, who had only been born last month.

At this point in time, Meikyō awakening his Sharingan at the age of ten was considered exceptionally outstanding. Combined with his young age and strong potential for growth, Uchiha Fugaku would certainly want to cultivate him into one of his direct subordinates.

Still, in Meikyō's view, if Fugaku truly wanted to become the kind of Uchiha Clan Head he envisioned, it would probably be quite difficult.

Setting aside the fact that Fugaku's strength fell far short of several previous Clan Heads, his indecisive personality alone made him unfit to be a leader.

Clever at plotting, yet incapable of making decisions—those words described exactly this kind of person.

They often possessed abilities that appeared quite impressive to outsiders and could handle the vast majority of matters well. Yet when faced with truly major events, they lacked the courage to resolve them, dragging things out until the situation deteriorated beyond repair.

Not to mention that Konoha's upper ranks would not sit back and watch someone truly consolidate the Uchiha's power and threaten their authority.

Still, Uchiha Fugaku had indeed treated him well.

If he gained the ability in the future, he would have to find a way to repay this debt of gratitude.

Two days passed in a flash.

For Meikyō, those two days consisted of continuing his training and familiarizing himself with the ninjutsu he had already mastered, while visiting Uchiha Yu, the old man who could offer him much guidance, whenever he had time.

The third day, the third day after the graduation assessment, was the day the Genin of this graduating class would be assigned to teams.

Since both the fourth- and fifth-year students had graduated at the same time, they were assigned to teams in the same batch.

In other words, a single team could contain graduates from both the fourth and fifth years.

If Meikyō's earlier guess was correct, this arrangement was likely intended to separate students according to their previous assessment results.

Those with potential and backing, whether fourth- or fifth-year graduates, would be guided by Jonin and cultivated as future Jonin.

For example, according to Kakashi, Naruto's class in the original story had only twenty-seven graduates. But as the military core of a nation and a training ground for military power, Konoha could not possibly produce only a few dozen Genin a year.

The real situation was likely that those twenty-seven were more highly valued and were trained under Jonin leaders.

Those who were somewhat less outstanding would probably be led by Special Jonin, and they would still have a considerable chance of becoming the backbone of Konoha in the future.