"Who are you?"
The girl rose from the stone coffin and asked, looking at Yuzuru in front of her and the two behind him.
"We're your future companions."
"Companions?"
"Do you still remember your name?"
Yuzuru looked at her as he asked.
"My name?"
Uchiha Hikari blinked. Then, as though she had remembered something, her entire aura began to turn cold and sinister.
"My name is Uchiha Hikari!"
"My name is Minazuki Yuzuru. The one behind me is my older brother, Kakashi Hatake, and the other is Rin Nohara, who was nearly turned into a tailed beast weapon of war by Kirigakure."
"A weapon of war."
At those words, Uchiha Hikari immediately looked at Rin Nohara.
She could see the Three-Tails still sealed inside Rin Nohara.
Isobu, the Three-Tails, was immediately startled awake from his slumber. When he saw Uchiha Hikari's jutsu, his entire body trembled.
Rin Nohara immediately felt the chakra inside her surge out of control and instinctively clutched her abdomen.
"Rin, are you all right?"
Kakashi immediately spoke up.
"I can feel it. The tailed beast inside me seems to be... afraid!"
When he said that, Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply, and he looked at Uchiha Hikari in disbelief.
"Xiao Xian, who exactly is she?"
Yuzuru shook his head and took the initiative to reach out to Uchiha Hikari. "Hikari, come with us."
Uchiha Hikari's gaze left Rin Nohara and settled on Yuzuru before her.
"What time is it now?"
"Hundreds of years have passed since you were sealed."
Yuzuru told her the truth.
"No one among today's Uchiha or Senju remembers you. Only I found a trace of you in ancient texts and tracked you down."
"So you need my power."
Uchiha Hikari stared at him as she asked.
"Yes. Not just you, either. I need more companions. Everything is for the sake of overturning this Shinobi World that's rotten to its roots."
"There will be no more wars in the new world. We will be its creators. So I hope you can become our companion, no longer Hikari the ultimate weapon, but the light of the new world."
"The light of the new world."
At those words, life finally appeared in Uchiha Hikari's eyes, and they slowly began to brighten.
"All right! I'll join you."
With almost no resistance at all, Uchiha Hikari accepted Yuzuru's invitation.
Yuzuru took her hand himself and led her over to Kakashi and Rin.
"Let me introduce you. This is Uchiha Hikari, the most gifted girl in the Uchiha Clan's history."
"Just call me Kakashi."
"My name is Rin."
The three briefly introduced themselves.
Uchiha Hikari relished this feeling, because ever since awakening her Mangekyō, she had lost all her freedom. Her family and friends had all left her.
She could sense that the three people before her bore her no ill will whatsoever.
The feeling intoxicated her, and tears glimmered in her eyes.
"Oh, what's wrong? What's wrong? Why are you suddenly crying?"
Seeing Uchiha Hikari suddenly shed tears, Rin Nohara immediately grew flustered. She hurried over to hug her, took a handkerchief from her ninja tool pouch, and wiped her eyes.
"I'm just... so moved."
Uchiha Hikari leaned against Rin's shoulder, her own shoulders trembling slightly.
At the sight, Kakashi fell silent without saying anything and merely looked at Yuzuru.
Yuzuru said nothing and patted Hikari on the shoulder.
"Let the past stay in the past. Embrace the present and seize the future. From now on, you're no longer a weapon. You're a living, breathing person, just like us."
Only after Uchiha Hikari's emotions had settled did they leave.
Yuzuru casually buried the place, and the group flew toward Kirigakure.
Having just been freed, Uchiha Hikari looked curiously at the present-day Shinobi World.
Yet even after hundreds of years, the Shinobi World was still just as chaotic, with unrest and war never ending.
Yuzuru explained the current system of the Shinobi World to Uchiha Hikari.
When she learned that the Uchiha Clan had actually joined forces with the Senju Clan, Uchiha Hikari's face filled with shock.
Back when she had served as the ultimate weapon, her purpose had been to destroy the Senju Clan.
No wonder she had been forgotten. Now everything made sense.
"To think that even after someone that powerful appeared, the Shinobi World would still be this chaotic. What's more, small-scale wars have evolved into large-scale ones."
Uchiha Hikari could not help but sigh.
"Not everyone has a brain. Your junior, Madara Uchiha, is still being manipulated as someone's pawn."
"In short, as far as I'm concerned, this Shinobi World is rotten through and through. There's no point saving it. What we need to do is overturn it completely and eliminate everything old. The ninja profession ought to disappear into history."
The four rode Yakyū to a small town in the Land of Water.
"Let's stay here for now."
"This war should end soon. Kirigakure should suffer a devastating blow, and we can use that opportunity to carry out our plan."
Kakashi checked once more. "Yuzuru, are you really going to kill the daimyo?"
"What else? Why keep a bastard who sits back and reaps the rewards, bleeds the people dry, and harms ordinary people?"
"Ninja aren't the only people who count. Ordinary people are people too. What I want is for everyone to live as human beings, instead of being treated like livestock, left for the nobles and ninja villages to squeeze value out of."
Yuzuru watched the ordinary people coming and going through town. Their faces were filled with numbness.
"But if we do that, once the other countries find out, we'll be facing the entire Shinobi World. This won't be a simple war anymore."
Kakashi warned him.
"The entire Shinobi World?"
At those words, Uchiha Hikari blinked.
"If you have the strength but don't act, what good is that strength? It'll just be a massacre, except the targets will be those ninja under the old order. Every new order is inevitably born in blood. In that case, I'll be the one holding the butcher's knife."
Yuzuru spoke those chilling words in a relaxed tone.
"I'll help you."
Uchiha Hikari looked at Yuzuru with an utterly serious expression.
"I believe the new world you spoke of will definitely be better than the Shinobi World we have now."
"Of course. That's a fact."
"I suppose I've boarded a pirate ship. But there's nothing I can do. You're my little brother, after all."
Kakashi smiled helplessly.
"I don't really understand, but since Kakashi thinks Yuzuru is right, I trust his judgment."
Rin spoke softly too.
"Before that, focus on mastering the Three-Tails' power inside you. Kirigakure gave us quite a gift. With the Three-Tails' help, you won't just be a medical-nin anymore."
"Will I be as strong as Big Sister Kushina?"
Rin Nohara asked expectantly.
"That's not very realistic."
Yuzuru shook his head.
"Big Sister Kushina is already very strong herself. She has the Uzumaki Clan's bloodline and all sorts of powerful Sealing Jutsu. The Nine-Tails only makes her stronger."
"You could say there's no one in Konoha stronger than Big Sister Kushina right now. She just can't act lightly."
Rin's face filled with shock at those words. "Even stronger than Minato-sensei?"
"Minato's Flying Thunder God can't fly at all against Kushina. And, to put it bluntly, in chakra alone, a hundred Minatos couldn't compare to Kushina. That's a conservative estimate."
At those words, the corners of Kakashi's mouth twitched twice.
He had seen what having vast amounts of chakra meant. Yuzuru and he were an example. Although he did not have little chakra himself, when it came to sheer quantity, Yuzuru still took the lead. Bloodline limit ninja really were unfair in that respect.