Under the "Elite Policy" (III)

Autumn, Konoha Year Five.

The autumn air was crisp and clear, but now it was a little too crisp. The cold cut right to the bone.

The elite training ground lay at the western end of the clan compound, beside the hill behind Naka Shrine. It was a newly cleared plot, its earth tamped flat, with wooden posts and targets set up around it. A crude shelter stood to one side, holding weighted sandbags and wooden swords and blades. Dawn had barely broken, yet figures were already moving about.

By the time Uchiha Yinglang arrived, twenty or thirty children had gathered. They ranged from six to twelve, tall and short, stout and thin, wearing training clothes prepared by their own households. They stood in twos and threes, speaking in hushed voices, but their eyes darted like little hooks as they sized one another up.

He wore a dark blue training outfit prepared at Elder Xuan's residence. The fabric was sturdy and the cut fit him well. Among the children, it was neither conspicuous nor shabby. He did not join the crowd, choosing an inconspicuous corner beside the shelter instead. Leaning against a post, he quietly surveyed the grounds.

Soon, he spotted Yutian.

Yutian stood at the very edge of the training ground, far from the children gathered together, chatting and laughing. He too had changed into a new training outfit, dark gray, but there was something indefinably stiff about the way he wore it-not because the clothes were too small, but because he was ill at ease. He stood ramrod straight, his hands at his sides, gazing at an unoccupied wooden post ahead, his face expressionless. But Yinglang saw that the fingers hanging at his sides were slightly curled, clenched tight.

A few of the older children glanced sidelong at Yutian as they talked, their lips curling as they snickered quietly. Yutian seemed not to hear. He kept looking at the wooden post, his back straightening a little more.

Yinglang looked away and did not go over. Approaching now would do nothing but draw more attention to Yutian.

After roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, nearly everyone had arrived. The instructor responsible for that day's basic training appeared: a dark-faced, stern-looking Uchiha Chunin named Tetsu Uchiha. He took his place in the middle of the grounds, his gaze sweeping over all the children like a brush. The clamor immediately subsided.

"Form ranks!" Tetsu Uchiha's voice rang out, carrying an unquestionable firmness.

After some confusion, the children finally formed several crooked lines according to height. Yinglang was young but not small, so he stood toward the back of the middle ranks. Yutian, of middling height, also stood toward the back of the middle ranks.

"Starting today, your morning training here will run from seven until noon." Hands clasped behind his back, Tetsu Uchiha paced twice in front of the ranks, his heavy footsteps thudding against the earth. "I'm Tetsu Uchiha. For the next three months, I'll be responsible for your basic physical conditioning and ninja-tool throwing practice. My rules are simple-I speak, you do. Fail to do it properly, and you train more. Slack off, and get out. Understood?"

"Understood!" the children answered unevenly.

"Haven't you eaten?" Tetsu Uchiha's brows shot up.

"Understood!" This time, their voices were somewhat louder and more unified.

Only then did Tetsu Uchiha give an almost imperceptible nod. "Good. First, basic conditioning. Twenty laps around the training ground at a jog. Start now!"

The moment the order came, the formation fell apart. The older, faster children shot forward, leaving the younger and weaker ones behind to chase them, panting. Yinglang stayed a little behind the middle, his pace neither fast nor slow, his breathing even as he managed his speed and stamina. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yutian running steadily in the middle of the group, his complexion unchanged.

After twenty laps, most of the children were drenched in sweat, bracing their hands on their knees and gasping for breath. A few of the very young ones had gone pale and crouched on the ground, dry-heaving. A thin sheen of sweat covered Yinglang's temples. His breathing was slightly quicker, but still fairly steady. Yutian was panting harder than he was, but stood firmly.

Tetsu Uchiha surveyed the grounds coldly. He frowned at the children who were dry-heaving but said nothing about them. "Rest for half an incense stick. Then hold a horse stance for one incense stick."

Quiet groans rose, only to be silenced by a glare from Tetsu Uchiha.

Holding a horse stance was tedious, grueling work. As the seconds and minutes passed, the autumn morning sun gradually grew warm, beating down on the children's sweat-soaked backs. Legs began to tremble, muscles aching and stiffening. Sweat trickled down their temples and necks, soaking dark rings into their collars.

Yinglang's stance was textbook-perfect, his lower body as steady as if it had been nailed to the ground. Dragon Essence circulated slowly within him, nourishing his aching muscles. This level of exertion was almost negligible for him. But at the appropriate moments, he showed a look of strain, his small face flushing slightly as he deliberately made his breathing heavier.

A child stood diagonally ahead of him in the front ranks, several people away.

The child was about seven, of middling height among the ranks. He wore a finely tailored black training outfit, its fabric showing faint woven patterns in the light. His hair was neatly combed, his skin the pale white of someone who rarely saw the sun. His horse stance was not the steadiest, and his legs were already trembling slightly, but his face showed little pain. Instead, he held his chin slightly raised, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the children around him who were gritting their teeth and struggling, their faces contorted. A nearly invisible, condescending curve touched his lips.

Kagami Uchiha.

Yinglang glanced at him once, then looked away, sneering inwardly.

Kagami's lofty manner was practically identical to his father Yuanguang's. Yuanguang was already an oddity within the clan, bent solely on attaching himself to Konoha. Every other word out of his mouth concerned the bigger picture or the Will of Fire, while behind the scenes he spoke up for the Senju and the village leadership at every turn, all but eager to hollow out the Uchiha's strength to prove his loyalty.

With a father who could well be called "a Senju who stole the Sharingan," it was perfectly normal for Kagami to look at his fellow clansmen that way.

So this was the Kagami Uchiha whom Tobirama Senju described in the original story as possessing the "Will of Fire" and being "unbound by the Uchiha's narrow clan loyalties"?

What a joke!

Tobirama Senju said he had the Will of Fire, so he had the Will of Fire! Had the Will of Fire ever had even the slightest clear standard? No! Whoever bowed and scraped before Konoha, whoever was willing to suppress their own clan to accommodate the "bigger picture," was an heir to the Will of Fire.

If he had the Will of Fire, then I, Uchiha Yinglang, had the fucking "Will of Flame"! Double the Will of Fire!

In what way was Kagami unbound? Wasn't this the most textbook example of an Uchiha young master, brainwashed by his father, using Konoha's rules to keep his own clansmen down?

The Will of Fire, my ass. Sooner or later, he'd climb over his own clan to get ahead and become an out-and-out traitor to the Uchiha Clan!

To Yinglang, the Will of Fire was nothing more than a pretext Konoha used to control and hollow out the Uchiha.

Just like Uchiha Itachi, who would slaughter his entire clan for Konoha years later-wasn't he also exalted as a representative of the Will of Fire? Kagami was already walking the same path.

Just like Uchiha Itachi in later years, who wiped out the Uchiha Clan for Konoha-wasn't he also a paragon of the Will of Fire? Kagami had merely started down that path earlier.

At last, the incense stick burned out.

"Stop!" At Tetsu Uchiha's command, several children collapsed straight onto their bottoms, clutching their legs and groaning. Yinglang slowly straightened and flexed his stiff knees. Yutian also stood up, his movements somewhat sluggish, but he made no sound.

"Rest for fifteen minutes. Then we'll practice basic shuriken throwing." With that, Tetsu Uchiha walked over to the water vat beside the shelter on his own, picked up a dipper, and drank.

As though granted a pardon, the children sprawled or sat down, massaging one another's legs and quietly complaining about the grueling training. A few who knew one another gathered together and took out the water skins they had brought to share.

Three or four children immediately gathered around Kagami. All were seven or eight, with training outfits made from good fabric. Judging by their expressions and manner, their families likely held some standing within the clan. They surrounded Kagami, some offering water, others talking, their attitudes plainly ingratiating.