Planning the Toyotomi House, awakening the three-tomoe

Spring, the seventh year of Konoha.

The weather stubbornly refused to warm.

On the afternoon of the third day after taking the Fake Immortality Pill, Elder Xuan finally woke. Though he was still too weak to leave his bed, the light had returned to his eyes, and his life had been sustained. Once the news spread, those in the clan who had been craning their necks, waiting to see which way the wind would blow, finally drew back a little.

Yinglang had just left the shabby building where the elders met. The arguing inside had given him a headache. Yuanguang's case had yet to be fully settled. A few old men clung to "insufficient evidence," their every word aimed at getting him off. Uchiha En had slammed the table and cursed, Uchiha Wen had leisurely played peacemaker, and the rest had muddied the waters. Sitting there listening to their bickering, Yinglang had felt his impatience spring up like weeds.

He finally understood. In this great Uchiha family, each was more ruthless than the next when fighting among themselves, yet when trouble truly came, their hearts had never been united. Outside, Konoha was watching, and Tobirama Senju's eyes were like searchlights, all too eager for the Uchiha to fall into chaos first. Staying here was stifling.

As he walked along the bluestone path back to his courtyard, the wind brushed his face with the damp chill of melting snow. His pace was unhurried, but the thought in his mind grew clearer and clearer.

I can't stay in the Uchiha Clan much longer.

The thought had not come to him only today. Ever since learning that his father had died at Tobirama Senju's hands, ever since recognizing the Uchiha's awkward position in Konoha, ever since witnessing the clan's tangled intrigues and the rotten business of everyone pursuing their own interests... he had known this was not where he belonged.

Konoha had no room for a truly powerful Uchiha. Those who shouted about the "Will of Fire" guarded against you like a thief behind your back. And the people in the clan? Those with some ability thought about climbing higher and gaining benefits; those without either muddled through their days or nursed their resentment. They could not pull together.

He had to leave. Take his own people, his own core followers, find somewhere quiet, and start from scratch. Konoha's waters were too muddy, its rules too numerous, and the mountain pressing down on him too heavy.

Establish the Toyotomi House.

That name had turned over in his heart through countless days and nights. Toyotomi Yinglang. From then on, he would shed the Uchiha surname, sever these hopelessly tangled ties of blood, and escape the shackles and fate that came with the Uchiha Clan. He would establish his own power, set his own rules, and carve out his own path in this chaotic world, without having to mind anyone's displeasure or suffer constraints from any faction. He would live openly and freely.

But before leaving, some debts had to be settled, and some kindnesses had to be repaid.

Of course, it was Elder Xuan's kindness he meant to repay.

Elder Xuan had brought him out of that broken-down courtyard on the edge of the compound, given him standing and protection, and refrained from probing even though he knew there was something strange about him. Yinglang remembered that kindness.

As for the Uchiha surname, and all the clan's rights and wrongs, favors and grudges, he wanted no further part in them, nor could he afford one. His future had never been tied to the Uchiha.

"Young Master Yinglang." Yutian's voice suddenly came from the fork in the path. He hurried over, his expression somewhat grave, and lowered his voice. "The Hokage Office has sent someone again. They're still asking the 'Acting Elder' to come discuss matters. This time it's Anbu, and their tone is much firmer."

Yinglang stopped, the corner of his mouth twitching. Tobirama Senju was growing restless. With Elder Xuan down and Yuanguang ruined, the pawn he had planted in the Uchiha was useless. Now a "wild card" like Yinglang had appeared and made it plain that he would not follow the path Tobirama laid out. How could Tobirama not be anxious?

"Understood." Yinglang nodded. "Come with me. Right, any movement from the person I asked you to watch?"

"Young Master Kagami has spent the last few days training alone in the back hills. Apart from going to the Hokage Building to see Lord Tobirama, he hasn't met anyone. But..." Yutian hesitated. "His training has been quite noisy. Some clansmen saw him practicing Fire Release and setting half a forest on fire. He forced it out himself with chakra. His mood... seems off."

Yinglang gave a quiet grunt of acknowledgment and asked no further questions.

He did not need to guess to understand Kagami's current feelings. His father, Yuanguang, had been stripped of authority, and his backing was gone, while Yinglang, his "enemy," was steadily gaining a firm foothold, exercising the clan's authority in the elders' stead and enjoying boundless prestige. Proud and haughty as Kagami was, recognized as a genius within the clan since childhood, when had he ever suffered such humiliation? His resentment, hatred, and anger had likely long since piled into a mountain.

And Tobirama Senju had chosen precisely this moment to summon Kagami. His intentions were plain. He simply had his eye on Kagami's hatred and his status as an Uchiha genius, hoping to win him over and cultivate him into a new pawn to counterbalance Yinglang and the Uchiha.

Neither spoke along the way as they headed silently toward the Hokage Building.

As they passed through the streets in central Konoha, the ninja coming and going looked at Yinglang with particularly complicated gazes. There was curiosity, wariness, surprise, and distance. A child of only six could act in place of an Uchiha elder and even hold his own against Tobirama Senju. Such courage and strength had never been seen in the entire shinobi world.

By the time they reached the Hokage Building's entrance, the guards had already spotted them. Exchanging glances, they stepped aside to let them pass without the slightest obstruction, only looking at Yinglang with a little more awe.

Inside the office, Tobirama Senju stood by the window with his back to the door. Hearing them, he turned, his calm gaze behind his lenses settling on Yinglang.

"You're here." He pointed to the chair opposite him. "Sit."

Yinglang sat without ceremony. Yutian quietly withdrew to stand guard outside the door.

"How is Xuan?" Tobirama Senju asked, his tone as casual as if he were asking about the weather.

"Awake. Still needs to recover." Yinglang's answer was brief.

"Good." Tobirama Senju nodded, then walked behind his desk and sat, folding his hands on its surface. "How does the clan intend to handle Yuanguang's case?"

"The evidence is conclusive. He colluded with an outside enemy to murder the clan's disciplinary elder. Under Uchiha clan rules, his chakra should be destroyed, he should be expelled from the clan, and he should never be allowed to set foot in the Uchiha Clan Compound again." Yinglang raised his eyes to Tobirama Senju. "Lord Tobirama, do you find that punishment inappropriate?"

"Evidence?" Tobirama Senju did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. "You mean those deductions?"

"Tsuchigumo's attack is a fact. The leak of Elder Xuan's secret travel route is a fact. Yuanguang having both motive and opportunity is also a fact." Yinglang's tone was level. "Some things don't require witnesses and physical evidence lined up in a row. Everyone can weigh things for themselves."

The office fell silent for a few seconds.

"You're very clever, Yinglang," Tobirama Senju suddenly said, his voice giving no indication whether it was praise or mockery. "Cleverer than many people who have lived for decades. You know how to leverage circumstances, how to turn 'possible' into 'certain.'"

"You flatter me, Lord Hokage." Yinglang's expression did not change. "It's all for the clan's stability."

"For the clan's stability..." Tobirama Senju repeated, his gaze sharpening. "Then what sort of Uchiha do you think would mean 'stability' for Konoha?"

Here it comes. The real subject.

Yinglang met his gaze without flinching. "Uchiha who obey the village, follow the rules, complete their missions, and don't cause trouble."

"Correct." Tobirama Senju leaned forward slightly, bringing an invisible sense of pressure with him. "But you, Yinglang-do you think you're that sort of Uchiha?"

"I'm trying," Yinglang said.

"Trying?" Tobirama smiled, but there was little warmth in it. "Using a forbidden technique paid for with your lifespan to strip a fellow clan elder of power within two days and make your word absolute within the clan. Is that 'following the rules'? Is that 'not causing trouble'?"

He stared into Yinglang's eyes and enunciated every word. "Konoha needs stability. It needs control. To my eyes, you and that 'Dragon-Slaying Breathing Technique' of yours are the greatest source of instability."

With that, the veneer of courtesy had been torn away.

The anger Yinglang had kept suppressed flared up. Not because of Tobirama's doubts or threats, but because of that condescending attitude, as though he were born entitled to control everything. Just like when his father had been casually cut down by Tobirama Senju, in the eyes of these "important figures," the lives and paths of people like them seemed to have been decided long ago. Refusing to follow their way meant "instability," meant "trouble."

What gives you the right?

Just because you're Senju? Just because you won and built Konoha?

An overwhelming surge of anger and resentment mingled with the heavy pressure born from his long-standing, clear-eyed understanding of his circumstances, his clan's fate, and the dangers ahead. It churned and crashed through his chest like volcanic magma. Tobirama Senju's calm, authoritative face before him seemed to overlap with that fleeting figure in his memory, the one who had killed his father with the Flying Thunder God Slash.

This again... always this!

Why should you decide my path? Why should the Uchiha's future be held in your hands?

I'll walk my own path! Build my own nation! None of you can stop me!

Bzz-

Something seemed to explode in his mind. It was not a sound, but a violent tremor originating deep within his soul.

A sharp, burning pain suddenly shot through his eyes, as though two fires were blazing in his sockets! A wash of blood-red instantly stained his vision. Tobirama Senju's figure and the office furnishings became incomparably clear in an instant, so clear that he could see the finest texture of the skin on Tobirama's face and catch the fleeting change in his eyes.

No, it was more than clarity.

The world seemed to slow. He could "see" the paths of dust motes floating in the air, "see" the rise and fall of Tobirama Senju's chest as he breathed, and even faintly "sense" the direction of the vast, ocean-like flow of cold, fierce chakra within him.

At the same time, an immense, pure surge of yin release power poured from deep within his eyes and instantly coursed through his entire body. His already vast dragon essence seemed to receive some stimulus, its circulation abruptly accelerating as it grew denser and more aggressive. Even the layer of disguised chakra, held at the threshold of jonin level, faintly loosened under the wash of this newborn power, seeming to show signs of breaking through.

Yinglang instinctively closed his eyes. Yet the burning pain and strange sensation did not disappear. Instead, they grew more distinct.

He knew what had happened.

The Sharingan... evolved.

And not from one-tomoe to two-tomoe. It jumped straight to... three-tomoe!

Forcing down his shock, he opened his eyes again. His vision had returned to normal, but that lingering feeling of being able to see through everything remained. He did not use his eyes' abilities, merely looking calmly at Tobirama Senju as though that momentary anomaly had never occurred.

But Tobirama Senju was no ordinary man. He had clearly caught the fleeting blood-red in Yinglang's eyes, and the uncanny way they had become unfathomably deep in an instant, as though capable of swallowing everything. Though it had lasted only a moment, that was certainly no ordinary fluctuation of the Sharingan.

"...It seems that forbidden technique has given you more than strength." Tobirama Senju spoke slowly, his voice betraying no emotion.

"Just a negligible improvement." Yinglang's tone was flat as he concealed every emotion in his eyes. "If there's nothing else, Lord Hokage, there's still a pile of messes waiting for me to clean up in the clan."

Tobirama Senju stared at him for several seconds before finally waving a hand. "Go."

Yinglang rose, bowed, turned, and left. His steps were so steady that nothing unusual showed.

Only after leaving the Hokage Building and reaching a deserted alley did he stop, lean against the cold brick wall, and slowly exhale a stale breath.

He raised his hand and looked at his still slightly trembling fingertips. It was not fear. The eruption of power just now had been too sudden, too fierce.

Three-tomoe...

With a slight shift of his intent, three dark-red points quietly emerged deep within his pupils, then rapidly spun and stretched into three jet-black tomoe, slowly revolving around them. His vision became incomparably clear once more. The world revealed more details, and faint traces of chakra flow appeared before his eyes.

It was not just a leap in perception. He felt a marked improvement in his mental strength, his control over chakra (and dragon essence), and even the speed of his thoughts. More importantly, as the Sharingan evolved, a subtle connection seemed to form between the yin release spiritual power originating in his Uchiha bloodline and the dragon essence seed in his dantian. They were no longer as sharply separated as before.

This was a good thing. It meant his system of power was integrating and refining itself further.

But the trigger for his awakening... had actually been his immense anger and resentment toward Tobirama Senju, Konoha, and his own fate, along with his fierce resolve to "strike out on his own and break free of every restraint."

Sure enough, the Sharingan were eyes that reflected the heart. They mirrored the deepest, strongest emotions.

He deactivated his Sharingan, his gaze becoming calm and deep again.

After this incident, his determination to leave the Uchiha grew firmer and more urgent. Konoha was no place to stay for long, and the Uchiha were not where he belonged either.

But before he left...

He started walking toward the courtyard where Elder Xuan was recovering.

There were some things he needed to discuss properly with the man who had woken up.