On the battlefield, Uchiha Itachi witnessed the cruelty of human nature.
He only wanted to give a dying Iwagakure ninja a sip of water. Yet when the Iwagakure ninja regained consciousness and saw that the one before him was a Konoha ninja, he immediately tried to kill Itachi.
Years of relentless training took over instinctively—and Itachi slit the man's throat.
This left him deeply confused.
He had wanted to save him.
So why did that man want to kill him?
Wen Lan and Uchiha Mikoto walked side by side down the road, both unusually quiet.
Seeing Mikoto's tightly clenched fists, Wen Lan spoke softly.
"You're still thinking about Itachi, aren't you?"
Mikoto didn't answer. She merely raised her head and looked toward the distant sky, a trace of worry flickering in her eyes.
Wen Lan sighed and continued,
"The clan head, he—"
"I understand," Mikoto interrupted gently.
"Fugaku just wanted Itachi to understand the reality of a ninja's life a little earlier… but for a child, it's still too much…"
She trailed off and looked at Wen Lan.
Pain flashed through her eyes.
The child before her was only a year older than Itachi—yet he had already been to the battlefield.
The two arrived at Kushina's house and knocked on the door.
Kushina opened it wearing an apron, spatula still in hand, and immediately laughed.
"Mikoto's here too! Come in, come in—dinner will be ready soon."
"I'll help you," Mikoto said.
The two women went into the kitchen, while Wen Lan sat down on the living-room sofa and flipped through a newspaper. From the kitchen came Kushina's bright laughter.
"I made beef stew today—you have to try it!"
Wen Lan nodded in response, but his gaze drifted to a photograph hanging on the wall—
It was Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina's wedding photo.
The two of them were smiling brilliantly, as if war had yet to cast its shadow upon them.
Wen Lan knew that in just a few years, both Minato and Kushina would die.
Yet he was powerless to stop it.
With his current strength, facing the Nine-Tails would be nothing short of suicide.
Since he couldn't change the future now, all he could do was grow stronger.
Even if there was only the faintest hope, he would fight to protect those important to him.
As for Minato and Kushina—
Once he became strong enough, he would find a way to revive them.
The key lay in the Shinigami Mask at the Uzumaki ruins—and Nagato's Rinnegan.
Wen Lan let out a slow breath and quietly waited for dinner.
Meanwhile—
The afterglow of sunset streamed through the windows of the Hokage Tower, casting mottled shadows across the floor.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at the report in his hands, his brow tightly furrowed.
It detailed the Iwagakure ninja's night raid on the front lines.
Beside him, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura focused instead on the material losses and how best to bring the war to an end.
"Uchiha Wen Lan…"
Hiruzen murmured the name softly.
This report—submitted by Orochimaru—stated that a child who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy had killed a jōnin.
Not only that, but he had awakened the Sharingan, and wielded an extremely strange sword style.
The moment Koharu and Homura heard the word Uchiha, it was as if an alarm had gone off. Both immediately looked up.
"Hiruzen," Koharu asked sharply, "has the Uchiha produced another genius?"
"Yes," Hiruzen replied.
"Uchiha Wen Lan. Five years old. Just graduated from the Academy, awakened the Sharingan, and killed a jōnin."
He handed the report to the two advisors.
After reading it, Koharu frowned.
"The Uchiha clan has been acting more and more restlessly lately. If this child truly has such talent, it could lead to unnecessary trouble."
Homura nodded in agreement.
"Indeed. I suggest suppressing him."
"The Uchiha already have Shisui. While that child is exceptionally talented and appears close to our faction, ambition within the Uchiha will only continue to grow."
If Wen Lan had been present, he would've rolled his eyes so hard they'd fall out.
The current relationship between the Uchiha and the village—whose fault was that, really?
Wasn't it yours?
If not for Namikaze Minato becoming a candidate for Fourth Hokage and maintaining friendly ties with Uchiha Fugaku, a rebellion would've started long ago!
Hiruzen fell into deep thought.
The village stood at a crossroads—internal unrest, external threats, and rising dissatisfaction within the Uchiha clan.
He had to make a decision.
"Perhaps," Hiruzen said slowly, "that child Wen Lan could inherit the Will of Fire—just like Kagami once did."
Homura frowned.
"Kagami is dead. Shisui may appear close to us, but no one knows his true thoughts."
"At a time like this, letting Wen Lan—"
"I think it's a good idea," Koharu interrupted.
"The Uchiha's dissatisfaction with the village is already overflowing. If we show goodwill toward Wen Lan, it could serve as a friendly signal to the entire clan."
"The Third Shinobi World War is nearing its end, but if the Uchiha were to rebel now, the village's strength would be severely weakened. Other villages would surely take advantage of that."
Hiruzen pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"Then we'll proceed this way—for now."
Wen Lan, of course, knew nothing about the conversation in the Hokage Tower.
If he had, he'd definitely be cursing them out.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura, and Shimura Danzō—the four of them were fundamentally different from Senju Tobirama.
Tobirama didn't like the Uchiha, true—but he always put the village first.
Everything else was secondary.
He suppressed the Uchiha because he understood them deeply—their emotions ran too easily out of control, and the hatred between clans ran deep.
But as long as someone accepted the Will of Fire and genuinely loved the village, Tobirama would hold nothing back—he would teach them everything he knew and treat them as his own.
Uchiha Kagami was the perfect example.
Hiruzen and the others were different.
They spoke endlessly of the Will of Fire, but in reality, they were protecting their own interests.
They merely used Tobirama as an excuse to suppress the Uchiha clan.
In just a few short years under their rule, the Senju clan disappeared entirely.
Hashirama and Tobirama had wanted the Senju to merge into the village—
Not for the four of you to wipe them out!
The greatest clan in the ninja world vanished under their watch.
And now their sights were set on the second greatest clan.
In Wen Lan's eyes, Uchiha Fugaku was also infuriatingly spineless.
Possessing the so-called power of the gods—the Mangekyō Sharingan—yet he acted like a coward day in and day out.
In the end, not only did he lose his family—he dragged the entire clan into ruin.
If Fugaku had been more decisive—
If he'd activated Susanoo and stood before the Hokage Tower—
Those old bastards would've been scared stiff on the spot!
Aside from the Nine-Tails sealed inside Kushina, who in the village could even contend with Susanoo?
And even the Nine-Tails wasn't invincible.
Under Mangekyō genjutsu, it'd turn into a well-behaved mutt!
If things had gone that way, Konoha would've been renamed Uchiha Village long ago.
Instead, Fugaku chose restraint—and eventually, a half-baked coup.
If you're going to rebel, then rebel properly!
Your eldest son slaughtered the clan for the village—and you didn't stop him?
You claimed it was to protect your younger son—
So the rest of the clan's lives didn't matter?!
Just summon the damn mecha already!
In the end, he personally sent the Uchiha clan straight into the abyss.
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