The two ran for their lives. They had no idea how long they had been running before they finally heard someone calling to them.
"Hey, you two..."
Hearing the voice, Uchiha Takashi and Aka Uchiha hurriedly turned to look at the speaker, whose Sharingan were active.
At the sight of those familiar blood-red eyes, they immediately relaxed. He was one of their own.
"Did you two escape from the clan grounds?" the Uchiha asked.
Uchiha Takashi nodded. "Yes. We ran into quite a few enemies in the clan grounds and only managed to find an elder after a lot of trouble. He got us out."
The Uchiha clansman nodded, then suddenly swore. "Bastards! What a bunch of assholes! Which clan was it? How dare they launch a sneak attack on us Uchiha?
"We have to make them pay! Show them what happens when they ambush the Uchiha Clan!
"What the hell were the outer patrols doing, letting the enemy launch a sneak attack on our home base? Those on the perimeter are just freeloaders, a bunch of useless trash!"
Uchiha Takashi and Aka Uchiha watched the three tomoe spinning in his eyes, completely unsurprised.
Wasn't it only natural for an Uchiha with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan to have a volatile temper? If this guy wasn't losing his temper, shouldn't you be wondering whether he was cooking up something big?
Now that they had made it here, Uchiha Takashi looked around by the firelight. Quite a few clansmen had gathered here, most of them children.
Many other clansmen stood around them, keeping constant watch with their Sharingan active. They had no idea what exactly had happened in the clan grounds, or how many people had escaped.
All of that would have to wait until daylight the next morning.
"Takashi, where do you think Homura went? I don't think I've seen him here." Aka Uchiha nudged Uchiha Takashi with his elbow.
At those words, Uchiha Takashi hurriedly looked around and found that Homura Uchiha really wasn't there.
"Oh, crap. Don't tell me Homura's still asleep back in the clan grounds. Nothing's happened to him, right?" Aka Uchiha said worriedly.
Hearing Aka Uchiha's words, Uchiha Takashi grew uneasy too. "Probably not. Homura seems pretty quick-witted. He should be able to get out, right?"
"Oh, damn... I'm so pissed. Chasing me for that long-I'm exhausted."
Just then, the two suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Homura? Is that you? If it is, give us a couple of squeaks," Uchiha Takashi called.
The other boy paused, then asked uncertainly, "Takashi? Are you here?"
Aka Uchiha picked up a torch and went over to look. Sure enough, it was Homura Uchiha, leaning against a tree trunk and panting.
He paused when he saw Aka Uchiha. "Aka, you're here too? Great, all three of us made it out alive. We're so lucky."
Then he asked, "Do you two know what actually happened? I was just sleeping at home, but halfway through, someone woke me up. I found someone had come into my house, saying he was going to kill me.
"I was so scared I ran without even putting my shoes on. Holy shit, I nearly died of fright. That guy kept chasing me, too. If I hadn't gotten lucky and run this way, where the seniors noticed me, I'd probably be dead."
Uchiha Takashi walked over and patted his shoulder. "As long as you're okay. That's what matters. I don't know what happened either, but it looks like we were attacked.
"We still don't know who did it, but I'd guess the Senju or the Uzumaki, something like that. After all, they're the only ones who'd dare attack us Uchiha."
"Argh, that damned Senju Clan! I'll kill them all!" Aka Uchiha erupted at those words. "Sooner or later, I'll wipe out every last one of them!"
Uchiha Takashi shrugged at that and said nothing. The enmity between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan went all the way back to Asura and Indra.
The feud between the two clans had lasted for centuries. How could it be so easily resolved? In this era, though, it would probably take the extermination of one side to settle it.
Uchiha Takashi wasn't a naive pacifist like Hashirama Senju, either. He wasn't going to clamor for peace like that. Staying alive came first. As for when he grew stronger in the future... perhaps he could consider it then.
The three stayed there until the next day. After what had happened, none of them felt like sleeping, and they spent the entire night discussing the clan grounds and the Senju Clan.
Finally, they heard a whistle. It was the Uchiha Clan's signal whistle, meaning it was safe now.
Only then did everyone return to the clan grounds, but the moment they arrived, Uchiha Takashi was stunned by the sight before him.
Bodies littered the ground, blood flowing everywhere. Some wore the Uchiha Clan's clothing, while others were dressed entirely in black. Those were probably the ninja who had launched the sneak attack last night.
The scene was gruesome. Naturally, the ninja accustomed to fighting on the battlefield weren't bothered and immediately set to work cleaning up.
But Uchiha Takashi was only six and had never seen anything on this scale. At most, he had only killed two or three people...
In the modern world, that statement would have been utterly absurd. Only killed two or three people? But in the Warring States period, it was commonplace.
Children generally had to draw blood by five. Although six was still too young to go to the battlefield, they would already have killed ordinary bandits, robbers, and the like.
That was also why Uchiha Takashi had been able to calmly attack his enemy and even kill him with a surprise attack.
But this was Uchiha Takashi's first time seeing anything on such a scale. Even when he had killed bandits and robbers on missions before, it had never been like this. There had been five or six at most, or just one or two at times. When had he ever seen corpses covering the ground?
The other two weren't doing much better. They were six too. How much more could they have seen than Uchiha Takashi? At the sight before them, all three looked unwell.
Not to mention that most of those lying on the ground were their own clansmen. Some were only children, already lying there without a breath.
"These people are animals! They wouldn't even spare the children!" Many members of the Uchiha Clan cursed as they cleared away the bodies, cursing eighteen generations of the attackers' ancestors.
Uchiha Takashi carefully returned home. The elder who had raised him had given him this house and made him move here after he turned five.
That elder was specifically responsible for raising the Uchiha Clan's orphans. The war was the main reason there were so many of them.
The most important thing for a clan was nurturing the next generation. They couldn't simply abandon orphans who had lost their parents. If they really did, the Uchiha Clan would be finished.
So an elder was specifically assigned to raise them and teach them how to survive on their own. Once they turned five, he could simply find a house and haul them out there.
During the Warring States period, the land was vast and sparsely populated, with houses everywhere. The owner of any given house might die on the battlefield one day.
Meanwhile, as Uchiha Takashi and the others returned home, a heated argument was taking place inside the Uchiha Clan's headquarters.
The current head of the Uchiha Clan was named Ryō Uchiha. When their home base had been attacked the previous night, he was the one who had discovered it and hurried back with his men.
There were also two elders at headquarters: the first elder and the third elder, who was specifically responsible for raising the orphans.
Ryō Uchiha glanced at the two elders.
"Elders, I'd like to ask what you were doing last night. Why did the clan grounds suffer such a large-scale attack? What were the patrols under your command doing?"
The first elder gave a bitter smile. "The enemy attack was too sudden. Our patrols didn't discover them at all. And their objectives were clear: they went straight for the children throughout our clan grounds.
"They wanted to cut off the Uchiha Clan's next generation! To destroy our clan's future!"
"Those damned bastards! It must have been those damned Senju!" the third elder said angrily. "Who else would have the nerve?"
The corner of Ryō Uchiha's mouth twitched as he watched the two dodge his questions. He said nothing about it, taking a deep breath before speaking.
"Send word to the front lines first. Have them investigate thoroughly. How did the enemy get past the front lines and come straight to the clan grounds?
"And for now, investigate which clan was behind this. If another clan did this to provoke a war between us and the Senju Clan, wouldn't our people have died for nothing?"
Oh my god, this was actually an Uchiha with a brain!