Wherever there were people, there were rivalries. Factional struggles had existed everywhere since ancient times, just like in the current Uchiha Clan, which had already split into three factions: the doves, the hawks, and the fence-sitters, who supported whichever side was stronger.
The doves had grown used to peaceful days and did not want to disrupt their current lives.
The hawks were bent on launching a rebellion, trying to break the Uchiha Clan out of its current predicament and improve its treatment in the village.
The fence-sitters: whoever had the bigger fist was right.
"Itachi, who told you all this?"
When Itachi heard Shisui ask that question, he froze briefly, but quickly recovered.
The Mitsudomoe Sharingan instantly appeared in his eyes as he looked at Shisui with complete seriousness.
"Big Brother Shisui, I figured all this out myself. You underestimate me."
Feeling the aura coming from Itachi, Shisui slowly relaxed his furrowed brow. It seemed Itachi had grown quickly lately! As expected of the genius he had recognized.
"Itachi, it's been a while since we sparred, hasn't it?"
Despite Shisui's abrupt change of subject, Itachi still assumed a fighting stance.
Seeing how readily he caught on, Shisui's lips curved slightly. He drew the short sword from his back and held it across his body, his Sharingan appearing at the same time.
He looked seriously at Itachi before him.
"Itachi, I'm going to fight without holding back now. Don't get hurt."
Almost as soon as Shisui finished speaking, dozens of "Shisuis" appeared around them. Each looked like a clone, yet felt just like a solid body.
In an instant, Shisui moved, charging at Itachi together with those seemingly solid clones.
The short sword and Kunai clashed with ringing clangs, sparks bursting out from time to time as the two exchanged blows.
Itachi knew perfectly well that only Big Brother Shisui stood before him, yet the Kunai in his hand was genuinely blocking dozens of attacks from different directions, each with a different amount of force. Itachi was slightly startled. Big Brother Shisui has gotten stronger again, but you're not the only one who's improved.
The two clashed again. Itachi deliberately exposed an opening, and Shisui immediately seized it, his short sword whipping through the air at high speed, straight toward Itachi's neck.
"Itachi, you were too careless."
Shisui's short sword stopped at Itachi's neck, but Itachi did not panic at all. He even revealed a meaningful smile.
"Big Brother Shisui, aren't you the careless one?"
In an instant, the Itachi before Shisui turned into a mass of crows, re-formed in the distance, and quickly charged at Shisui, only to fall right into his trap.
The clones that had vanished just now instantly appeared from all directions, attacking from every position and sealing off all of Itachi's escape routes almost instantly. Itachi resisted a few times, but the clones still surrounded him, their short swords poised at every vital point on his body.
His throat, heart, the back of his heart, neck, eyes, liver, kidneys, rear entrance, and more all had a short sword waiting for them. It seemed that if Itachi so much as moved rashly, the short swords would turn him into a sieve.
Seeing that he had lost, Itachi could only sigh helplessly.
"Ah, Big Brother Shisui, you've gotten stronger again."
With a smile, Shisui called off his clones' lethal encirclement of Itachi.
"Itachi, this is my new move: Body Flicker Genjutsu: Eight-direction Interception. Your mastery of Genjutsu has improved again. I believe it won't be long before you surpass me."
With that, Shisui formed a release seal with one hand.
"Release."
As the seal was completed, both opened their eyes at the same time. Only an instant had passed, as though the fight had never happened.
Shisui patted Itachi on the shoulder.
"Itachi, don't be discouraged. There's still a bit of a gap, but you've earned my recognition."
Next, Shisui told Itachi everything about his views on the village and the Uchiha Clan, along with his methods of handling their relationship, reciting it all with easy familiarity. They thoroughly enjoyed their questions and answers, forgetting only a certain little fellow who was still sulking at home.
Itachi learned a great deal. So there was another way to handle the relationship between the village and the clan. Big Brother Shisui truly was an outstanding inheritor of the Will of Fire. He could constantly feel Shisui's heart burning fiercely for the Will of Fire. He made up his mind: he would become someone like Big Brother Shisui in the future, to protect the village's peace.
"Itachi, the Uchiha have always been part of the village..."
"Itachi, the village needs peace. We can't keep making mistakes. The Uchiha can't keep making mistakes..."
"Itachi, work with me to preserve peace between the Uchiha Clan and the village!"
After Itachi returned home, Shisui's words still echoed in his mind. He clenched his fists. I'm still not strong enough. Otherwise, I'd surely be able to help Big Brother Shisui more.
Deep in thought, Itachi continued to forget the little tagalong behind him. A world where only Sasuke got hurt had been achieved.
Fortunately, Sasuke had gone to sleep early after exhausting himself like a dog. Otherwise, he would definitely have demanded to know why Itachi had left him behind and gone out alone.
Meanwhile, Naruto shut his consciousness inside the system after school, because the last system update had unlocked plenty of things.
Naruto spent a long time familiarizing himself with it at home before finally figuring out what was going on.
What pleased Naruto most, however, was that he could play ranked matches. Now he could earn large amounts of gold and Shinobi World Recruitment Tickets every month.
As for the other things, the only ones Naruto could currently use were equipment, secret scrolls, and summons. Nothing else had been unlocked, and he had no idea what the system was doing. After all, this thing was only similar to MoreFun's Naruto mobile game, not completely identical. For example, Naruto could only now access "Equipment," which even beginners could unlock in the game.
Looking at the six pieces of equipment, Naruto could only gaze at them longingly. They were familiar, so familiar: shuriken, goggles, a T-shirt, a bell, a necklace, and a copper ring. A classic little Genin equipment set. Naruto knew them all too well.
He briskly leveled up and advanced the equipment, but merely advancing the shuriken and goggles to the Chunin stage left Naruto running low on stamina. He knew this was not something he could rush. He would get them leveled up eventually.
He checked the secret scrolls next. Although only three had been unlocked for him-Earth Release: Rockfall, Fire Style: Ghost Lantern, and Water Release: Water Shockwave-Squad Assault had not been opened, meaning he could only obtain secret scroll fragments from certain daily gift packs.
"Holy crap, holy crap! Isn't this way too overpowered?"
After checking the system, Naruto had discovered that he could actually use these secret scrolls, though they had a five-minute cooldown. Wasn't that pretty much like the Ninjutsu he had drawn? Once he had a huge pile of secret scrolls, casually using a few dozen would amount to blanket fire, wouldn't it?
At that thought, Naruto felt a bright future beckoning to him. At some point, he had developed insufficient-firepower phobia. The mere thought of lacking firepower during battle left him anxious and afraid.
Looking at the summons made Naruto envious all over again. Although he currently had only one-no, a pack, rather, because this summon called forth a pack of Ninja Dogs to attack the enemy-the effect was similar to the secret scrolls: they could all be summoned into reality. However, each could only be summoned once per day and remain for three minutes each time. Summons also had a restriction: at most, he could summon three summons per day.
"Three? That's enough."
After checking all these things, Naruto began today's main event. He was going to fight in the Duel Arena, play ranked matches, climb the ranks, and earn rewards.
With his 3,000-point Super Kage experience, coupled with all the torment of matchmaking over this long period, Naruto's skill had improved rapidly. Soon, he passed through the Trainee rank, Genin rank, Chunin rank, Chunin I, Chunin II, and Chunin III.
His winning streak and the beginner protection period sent Naruto straight to Chunin III. A long time had passed, too. He had originally planned to go to bed after this promotion match, but when he entered the loading screen, he was utterly dumbfounded.
Opponent: Super Armor [Kizaru], Cutting Technique [Impure World Reincarnation Hashirama], Deflection [White Mask].
Naruto: Ghost Lantern [Akatsuki Itachi], Rockfall [Sichuan Opera Jiraiya], Water Shockwave [Sasuke Uchiha] (B-rank ninja).
"Seriously, bro, how am I supposed to fight this?"
Sure enough, just as Naruto expected, his opponent started spamming the head-pat emote as soon as the match began, behavior so familiar it was outrageous. This was peak [Kizaru] Naruto was facing! The [Sichuan Opera Jiraiya] he had earned after a month of check-ins had already been nerfed before he even got to use him. Fight this [Kizaru] with that? How would he dare?
"Seriously, dude, I'm already on the ground, and you can still scoop me up? With basic attacks, too? You insane devs, do you even know how to make a ninja? This bullshit Kizaru could scoop my second grandma up after she'd been lying in the ground for two years, and you're telling me this isn't dirty?"
Unsurprisingly, Naruto lost his composure. The moment he carelessly ran out of substitution points, his opponent started toying with him. He watched [Kizaru] combo him to death just by holding down basic attack. Even more infuriatingly, his opponent kept furiously spamming the head-pat emote at him.
"Fuck, rematch! Don't run if you've got the guts."
Naruto frantically jabbed the rematch button, but what he feared most still happened.
"Damn it, accept the rematch! Accept it!"
Only at the very last second did his opponent decline the rematch. Naruto completely broke down. Someone would not be sleeping tonight, but no names would be named.
[See? You're cursing the devs again.]
Even now, Naruto's system did not forget to pop out and mock him.
"Piss off! Now you're yapping too?"
Host: Naruto Uzumaki Strength: Jonin tier 1 (can kill Chunin of average strength) Abilities: Shadow Clone, Clone Great Explosion, Gallant Rasengan, Rasenshuriken, Chidori, Lightning Release: Kirin, Byakugan, Sharingan... Combat power: 514564 Chakra: 88,000 System evaluation: (I never expected you to grow this much, but you're still a bot.)
Looking at the system's evaluation of him, Naruto struggled to keep it together. Was this system really not targeting him? Unfortunately, he could not find the report button. Otherwise, he would absolutely report this unscrupulous system as hard as he could.