A black eagle soared steadily in the distant sky, its sharp eyes fixed on the village below. Its occasional cries drew the attention of the villagers. What stood out most was that the eagle carried something on its body—undoubtedly, it was a trained bird, with a small bamboo tube tied to its claw, much like a messenger pigeon. Its piercing screech echoed throughout the village, captivating many onlookers.
An eagle's vision far surpasses that of humans, and its power of observation is on another level entirely. Unfazed by the attention it attracted, the eagle flew past boldly before suddenly picking up speed and sweeping past the rocky cliffs near the village.
It came and went quickly. Having completed its task, the eagle soon vanished from sight. As if it were a signal, countless dark figures leaped onto the rooftops. Before anyone could clearly make out their features, they were already darting across the roofs with astonishing speed.
There were many of them, and their target was the heart of the village's power—the leadership center. Figures leaped up and down like dumplings dropping into a pot, making it impossible to distinguish one from another, let alone count their numbers. No one could have kept track in such a short time.
Of course, to those with sharp eyes and intentions, nothing remained hidden. In this world, talents emerged in endless streams, and all kinds of abilities made it impossible to guard against everything.
Not far away, three lifelike human head sculptures were orderly arranged on tawny rocky cliffs. The craftsmanship was clearly superb—otherwise, such perfect artworks could never have been created.
Yes, that was the Hokage Rock, the place where the faces of all the Hokage were carved. It was a sacred ground in the hearts of the villagers and the dream of countless young ninjas, including students at the Ninja Academy. Becoming Hokage was the ambition of countless children.
Among those who witnessed all of this was one person—or more accurately, a child. Judging by his height, he appeared to be seven or eight years old, but he was actually not even six. With black, slightly messy hair and a fair, delicate face, he was the picture of a young pretty boy.
There was nothing particularly special about his clothing, except for the fan emblem on the back. Those familiar with it would recognize it immediately—it was the symbol of the Uchiha clan, one of Konoha's most prominent families. Anyone wearing clothes with this emblem was a member of the Uchiha clan.
Around him, a large group of children, also adorned with the fan emblem, were running laps around a small training ground. This indicated that the place was one of the Uchiha clan's training facilities.
"Tsukiki, what are you spacing out for? Hurry up and keep running! No one stops until they've finished thirty laps—otherwise, it's double! And the rest of you, what are you looking at? Without pushing yourselves, you'll never stand out in the future!"
The speaker was a middle-aged Uchiha clansman with a small scar on his face. His weathered features bore the marks of time, but to the children on the field, he was a figure of terror.
The boy named Tsukiki snapped back to reality, quickly joining the flow of runners. The other children had no time to complain about him—they gritted their teeth and picked up their pace.
The middle-aged man nodded in satisfaction as he watched, then glanced up at the sky, lost in thought for a moment before his eyes fell upon Tsukiki among the runners.
"His perception is quite sharp, though too obvious. Still, noticing something like this shows decent talent. It's just a pity…" He shook his head slightly.
"It's happening again, and more frequently. That must have been the signal summoning the jonin earlier. This is the third time this month—more than three times the usual frequency. Something big is about to happen."
Amid the group of children running laps, Uchiha Tsukiki quietly reflected. His body was already exhausted, much like the others. Though he hadn't reached his physical limit, the fatigue from lack of oxygen permeated his entire being, forcing him to divert his attention elsewhere to ease the strain.
Uchiha Tsukiki was born into a distant branch family of the prestigious Uchiha clan. Though still considered part of the Uchiha, his lineage was far from the main family. As a clan with a millennia-long history, the Uchiha had maintained a sizable population through centuries of expansion.
To protect their bloodline limit, the Uchiha rarely married outside the clan. Most often, women from other clans married into the Uchiha, while Uchiha women seldom married out—unless their bloodline had diluted significantly.
However, if a child born from such a union awakened the Sharingan, they would naturally return to the Uchiha clan. In the ninja world, countless people coveted the Sharingan, but under the Uchiha's relentless enforcement, few dared to act openly.
This naturally led to the emergence of various branch families. They practiced endogamy while avoiding close relatives, and also incorporated outsiders through marriage to branch family members, ensuring the clan's continuity.
This was how families like Uchiha Tsukiki's came to be, and most of the children around him shared similar backgrounds. Tsukiki's grandfather had been a chuunin who awakened the one-tomoe Sharingan but died in the prolonged wars against the Senju during the late Warring States period.
His father was also a chuunin but never awakened the Sharingan, making him an ordinary chuunic by clan standards—though he would still be considered elite among civilian ninjas or rogue ninjas.
Unfortunately, in the twenty-ninth year of Konoha, not long after Tsukiki's birth, his father succumbed to old injuries and passed away. His mother, unable to bear the grief and hardship, left him behind not long after.
In a clan as large as the Uchiha, such situations were not uncommon. The Uchiha were often called the "clan of evil" because their Sharingan awakening was said to require the sacrifice of loved ones—a judgment passed by countless ninjas who had faced them in battle.
After all, it was not rare for Uchiha to awaken their Sharingan on the battlefield. Many who did became arrogant and obsessive, their personalities and chakra leaning toward darkness, which led to misunderstandings among outsiders.
But that wasn't the main point. What mattered most was that most Uchiha believed this themselves. Many had lost loved ones upon awakening, leading to drastic changes in their personalities and a tendency toward darkness.
Only their rivals, the Senju, knew this was a misjudgment. During the Warring States period, the Uchiha were arguably the most powerful clan, enemies to almost everyone. They had fought nearly every clan in the Land of Fire except the Senju.
Their rivalry with the Hyuga clan was particularly bitter, and their reputation extended beyond their homeland, earning them enemies in other countries as well. As for alliances? The arrogant Uchiha disdained such notions.
For centuries, throughout the Warring States period, the ninja world's turbulence was dictated by the Uchiha. When the Uchiha rested, the world was calm; when a new generation of Uchiha emerged, the world was thrown into chaos.
The battle between the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End led to the First's premature death shortly after returning. After briefly enjoying peace, the Uchiha, unwilling to reignite war, turned against Madara.
During the First Great Ninja War, as Konoha's pillars, the Senju and Uchiha suffered heavy casualties. With Konoha surrounded by enemies and other countries fielding powerful clans, their numbers dwindled drastically—leading to situations like Tsukiki's.
Many remembered that after the First Great War, the Second Hokage sacrificed himself, and the Senju clan lost most of its elites. They integrated into Konoha, leaving behind only a hollow shell. But who remembered that the Uchiha also paid a great price in that war?
The Senju core was reduced to a handful, while other branch families abandoned the Senju name and blended into Konoha as civilian ninjas, bringing the overall strength of Konoha's civilian ninjas on par with the branch families of major clans.
Except for the top-tier combatants, the Uchiha's high-level strength far surpassed that of the Senju. It could be said that the First Great Ninja War was fought by the Senju and Uchiha, leading a divided alliance of Konoha clans against four nations.
The Senju were nearly wiped out, and the Uchiha were severely weakened. By the time the Third Hokage took office and began his diplomatic maneuvers, the Uchiha had lost their glory as the top clan of the Warring States period, their numbers hitting a historic low.
As a result, a new policy was introduced to train and absorb branch family members to strengthen the Uchiha clan. The idea was to cast a wide net in hopes of catching a few promising talents—which was how Uchiha Tsukiki found himself in this situation.
Inevitably, once the Uchiha clan's numbers recovered enough to disrupt the Third Hokage's balance, and internal strife eroded their unity, this policy would come to an end.
Uchiha Tsukiki was not a native of this world but a transplant who arrived halfway. By the time he arrived in this world, his parents were already gone. All he knew was that his father had named him Tsukiki because he was weary of war and yearned for peace.
Passing by a flower shop, his father learned that the monthly rose (tsukiki) symbolized peace and insisted on giving him this neutral-sounding name. The transmigrated Tsukiki didn't even know his mother's name until he visited her grave and saw it on the tombstone.
At four and a half years old, Uchiha Tsukiki was brought to the training ground by a clan elder. The children training there were all descendants of the Uchiha clan—though not from the main family—undergoing unified foundational ninja training.
Millennia of experience had given the Uchiha a clear understanding of how to nurture the next generation. They neither stunted growth at the cost of透支生命 nor treated them as cannon fodder. After all, those without sufficient strength were not permitted to enter the battlefield.
As Uchiha Fuhei, the middle-aged man in charge of their group, had put it during his earlier lecture, this batch was mediocre at best. Some were even less talented than civilian ninjas, far behind the geniuses in the first tier.
There was also a significant gap between the second and third tiers. Without relentless effort, they would never catch up—truly, unable to compete with the best and not necessarily better than the worst.