When the City Gate Caught Fire, the Fish in the Moat Suffered

In Year 25 of the Hidden Leaf Village, the Ninja Academy ushered in another graduation season.

Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya graduated successfully and were taken on as the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen's personal disciples, with limitless prospects ahead of them.

At the same time, highly anticipated talents such as Hatake Sakumo, Kato Dan, and Uchiha Kirito became genin with outstanding grades, forming the backbone of Hidden Leaf Village's "Silver Generation."

But there was also a group whose halos did not shine quite as brightly, receiving their genin forehead protectors in unnoticed corners.

It was worth mentioning that Might Duy, unable to master Ninjutsu no matter what, had been held back once again and was now Uchiha Nian's junior.

That day, Uchiha Kirito, who had just passed the genin exam but had yet to join a team, was urgently summoned back to the Clan Territory.

The reason was that the current Uchiha Clan Head had personally named him for a mission. Pressing him with the authority of the Clan Head, his attitude was forceful and left no room for refusal.

"The clansmen originally stationed in Hell Valley lost contact three months ago. As one of the clan's future talents, I'll leave it to you to travel to Hell Valley and investigate."

"Hell Valley?!" Tong Ren's eyes widened. Upon hearing those three words, he instinctively recalled a certain past event.

Many years ago, he had fussed about not wanting to sleep. His older sister had told him this story as a bedtime horror tale to scare him into going to bed.

It was a piece of history that had nearly been forgotten, so ancient that even the dust seemed to have long settled. Deep within the shinobi world's memories lay events even older than Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara facing one another in battle.

During the Warring States Period, a hundred clans stood side by side. Back then, the concept of shinobi villages did not yet exist. One clan known as the Blood Pond Clan stood alongside the Uchiha Clan at the pinnacle of Illusion Technique eye-type Kekkei Genkai.

They lived far away in the Land of Lightning and possessed a Kekkei Genkai known as the Blood Dragon Eye. Not only could they control blood, but it was said that once someone fell under their ocular technique, escape was absolutely impossible.

Once, the Blood Pond Clan Princess became a concubine and set out for the Feudal Lord's family of the Land of Lightning, carrying her clan's hopes and expectations for the future.

The girl was gentle and beautiful, with a pure heart. Yet she never imagined that this very gentleness would become the shackles of her fate.

The Feudal Lord's principal wife had once looked down upon all other women, but the new bride's arrival silently stole the radiance that had belonged to her.

Jealousy shrouded the principal wife's heart like a dark cloud. She schemed in secret, vowing to remove this thorn from her heart.

Fate toyed with them. Not long after the girl married in, the Feudal Lord suddenly died of illness. The principal wife seized the opportunity and pinned fabricated charges on the girl, claiming that her arrival had been an ill omen and the direct cause of the Feudal Lord's death.

From then on, the fate of the Blood Pond Clan was rewritten.

With the Land of Lightning Daimyo's Residence offering a massive bounty, all the clans rose up against them. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the Blood Pond Clan was swiftly defeated and exiled to an inescapable forbidden land... Hell Valley.

And the ones capable of guarding them were the Uchiha Clan.

The Land of Lightning's Feudal Lord had promised the Uchiha Clan a huge reward in exchange for guarding Hell Valley. Faced with pairs of scarlet Sharingan, the Blood Pond Clan had no way to escape. They could only live cut off from the world in the valley, struggling through hunger and cold.

Blood and tears filled the valley; flowers bloomed by the pond.

The clansmen had nowhere to air their grievances, and no one understood them. Over time, resentment turned into hatred, and they shifted their boundless fury from the Land of Lightning Daimyo's Residence onto the Uchiha Clan.

For that very reason, even after the Warring States Period ended and shinobi villages were established, even after the Land of Lightning stopped providing funds, the Uchiha Clan refused to give up suppressing the Blood Pond Clan.

Later, Uchiha Madara left the Hidden Leaf Village, and the Uchiha Clan suffered a severe shortage of top-tier combat strength. They could only rely on the Hidden Leaf Village, making it even more impossible for them to lower their guard against the Blood Pond Clan. Even now, they stubbornly remained in Hell Valley, constantly monitoring the Blood Pond Clan's movements.

"You want me to handle this kind of mission alone?" Tong Ren was stunned.

He sought out Orochimaru and Nian to discuss it. The three went to the Secret Base and talked it over, eventually reaching one conclusion:

When the city gate caught fire, the fish in the moat suffered.

This newly appointed Uchiha Clan Head had not been in office for long. He was using this to pressure the clan and establish his authority, while Tong Ren had merely been caught in the crossfire.

"I don't think this is aimed at you specifically. We should tell Sister Zhi Li," Uchiha Nian analyzed calmly.

"Yeah. I remember that not long ago, she was exceptionally promoted by the village to Military Police Force Captain. That probably made this new Clan Head nervous, didn't it?" Orochimaru offered his own advice. "This isn't something we can influence right now."

Soon, amid the three children's pitiful complaints, Uchiha Chiri learned of the matter.

She was furious. Although the Blood Pond Clan's abilities would be restrained by the Uchiha Clan to a certain extent, their overall strength was still not to be underestimated. This was not a mission a mere genin could handle. If things went wrong, it could cost him his life.

Sending her younger brother on a mission from which there might be no return was clearly a provocation against her!

Years in the Police Force had forged her decisive personality. She immediately took Tong Ren to confront the current Clan Head.

"Withdraw the order? Ridiculous! Do you think my orders are some child's game?"

"This kind of mission is practically a death sentence!"

"As a shinobi, you must be prepared to sacrifice yourself at any time. A shinobi's nature is to obey orders! And as a member of the Uchiha Clan, you must obey the Clan Head's orders all the more!"

"Damn it! What you're doing is clearly strangling the clan's future!"

"You dare question me?" The current Clan Head let out a cold "Heh heh," his words dripping with mockery. "Have you grown so used to wagging your tail and begging at the village's feet that you no longer even respect me, the Clan Head?"

After Uchiha Kagami died, Uchiha Fire Core was jointly removed from office by the village and the Uchiha Clan because of Kagami. From then on, the position of Clan Head remained vacant. Undercurrents surged within the clan, and many people coveted that position for a long time.

For a full nine years, the Uchiha Clan had remained leaderless. Over time, the clan severely lacked cohesion. If this continued, it feared it would soon lose its status as the Hidden Leaf Village's strongest clan.

It was not until Year 23 of the Hidden Leaf Village, after many meetings, that the clan finally decided to select a Clan Head who possessed both virtue and talent. But after nine years of growth and training, there were no shortage of capable candidates. With the competition too fierce, the council of elders unanimously decided to determine the victor through personal death matches.

To avoid internal resource consumption, contestants were forbidden from using resources from either inside or outside the clan. The duels were held in the valley behind Naka Shrine. Two competitors entered, and whoever came out alive became the Clan Head.

Thus began two years of slaughter.

At that time, the Uchiha Clan had countless outstanding young talents. They emerged in droves like fish crossing a river and vanished like shooting stars. Again and again, they challenged for the position of Clan Head. After every death match, a new Clan Head would emerge—but this also meant the Uchiha Clan permanently lost another promising talent.

This brutal method of election, coupled with the frequent changes in Clan Head, left the entire Clan Territory in a state of constant unease. Sometimes, a Clan Head's term lasted only two short months. Some children had barely seen one Clan Head once before someone else occupied that seat the next time.