The return to the Hidden Leaf was not a parade. It was a funeral procession.
The Third Shinobi World War was technically winding down, but for the Uchiha clan, the atmosphere was more toxic than ever. They had lost many, including Obito, but the village's suspicion of the "Cursed Clan" had only grown. The fact that a nine-year-old Uchiha—Dan—had returned with a confirmed body count of an entire Iwa battalion made the elders of the village, particularly Danzo Shimura, lose sleep.
Dan stood in the center of the Uchiha Training Grounds. It was 3:00 AM.
[System Notification: Total Synchronization in progress...]
[Mangekyō Calibration: 4.2%]
[Physical Body Adaptation: 92% Complete.]
"Haa... haa..."
Dan leaned against a wooden pillar, his lungs burning. The Mangekyō was a double-edged sword. Every time he pushed the system to simulate its power, it felt like his brain was being scraped with a rusted kunai. But his clone didn't care. In the Mirror Space, the clone was currently staring at a flame for hours on end, mastering the precise chakra frequency required to maintain the Ame-no-Uzume—Dan's unique spatial-memory ability.
"You're pushing yourself too hard. Again."
Dan didn't need to look. The scent of disinfectant and lavender preceded her. Rin Nohara.
Since the incident at the bridge, Rin had changed. She had thrown herself into medical ninjutsu with a desperation that bordered on mania. She was the bridge between Dan and Kakashi, the only thing keeping the "Two Geniuses of the Leaf" from drifting into total coldness.
"The world doesn't wait for me to rest, Rin," Dan said, straightening his back. The tremors in his hands subsided as he forced his chakra to stabilize.
"Kakashi is in the hospital. He's rejecting the eye," Rin said quietly, walking over to him. Her hands glowed with a soft green light as she reached out to touch Dan's forehead. "And you... your chakra coils are frayed. Dan, you're nine. If you keep this up, you won't live to see twenty."
"If I don't keep this up, none of us will see next year," Dan countered, though he allowed her to heal him.
The warmth of the Mystical Palm Technique seeped into his skin. For a moment, the screaming in his head—the simulated voices of the thousands of training sessions his clone was running—faded.
"Obito wouldn't have wanted this," she whispered.
Dan's eyes snapped open. The 3-tomoe Sharingan spun. "Obito died because we weren't strong enough. I won't let that happen again. Not to you. Not to Kakashi."
The Uchiha Council: The Internal War
The next evening, Dan was summoned. Not by the Hokage, but by the Uchiha Clan Council.
The Naka Shrine was cold. Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the clan, sat at the front, flanked by the elders. These were men who saw the war not as a tragedy, but as a ledger of power.
"Dan Uchiha," Fugaku's voice was like grinding stones. "Your performance at the Land of Grass has reached our ears. You are being hailed as the 'Pride of the Uchiha.' The village elders are terrified of you."
"Is that a problem, Fugaku-sama?" Dan asked, standing in the center of the room. He didn't kneel. He had earned the right not to.
"It is a problem for them," an elder spat. "They fear our blood. They fear that a child with your power will realize that the Uchiha should be leading this village, not serving it."
Dan looked at the elders. He saw their greed. He saw the path that would lead to the eventual massacre. If he let them continue, Itachi would eventually be born, the coup would be planned, and the clan would die.
200 chapters of story starts with changing the foundation, Dan thought.
"You want power?" Dan's voice was quiet, but it carried to every corner of the shrine. "You want the village to respect us? Then stop acting like a cornered dog barking at its master."
The room went deathly silent.
"You insolent—!"
"Silence," Fugaku commanded. He looked at Dan with a piercing gaze. "Explain yourself."
"The war has drained the village," Dan said, stepping forward. "The civilians are tired. The economy is failing. While you sit here dreaming of a coup, the village is looking for a hero. If the Uchiha become the ones who rebuild Konoha—if we control the police, the trade routes, and the medical corps—we won't need a coup. We will be the village."
"We are warriors, not merchants!" the elder yelled.
"You are corpses in the making," Dan shot back. "I have seen the front lines. I have seen how the Stone and the Cloud fight. They don't fight with honor; they fight with numbers and resources. I am proposing a new division within the clan. The Shadow Architecture."
[System Notification: New Path Unlocked!]
[Quest: 'The Reformer'. Objective: Gain 50% Clan Approval.]
[Reward: Access to 'Uchiha Forbidden Vault' training data.]
Fugaku leaned back. "And who would lead this... division?"
"I will," Dan said. "In my spare time."
A nine-year-old leading a clan division was unheard of. But Dan wasn't a normal nine-year-old. He was a boy who had mastered the high-speed movement of a Jonin and the fire release of an Elder.
"Prove it," Fugaku said. "The village is struggling with the reconstruction of the western gate. The materials are being blocked by bandits. If you can solve a problem the Hokage's regular forces can't, I will give you your division."
The Grind: Chapter 6.5 (The System's Efficiency)
Dan left the shrine and headed straight for the forest. He didn't need sleep. While his physical body walked toward the bandit camp, his mind was deep in the Mirror Space.
System, report on 'Sage Mode' theory.
[Current Status: 1.2%]
[Analysis: The body requires 'Natural Energy' absorption. However, the Clone cannot absorb physical energy from the real world. Suggestion: Link the Clone to the Host's Tenketsu (Chakra Points) during meditation.]
Do it, Dan ordered.
As he walked, he began to practice "Active Meditation." It was a technique his clone had developed over 1,000 hours of trial and error. He would walk, talk, and fight in the real world, while a small portion of his brain was constantly drawing in microscopic amounts of Natural Energy.
It was dangerous. One wrong move and he would turn into a stone statue. But with the System's 24/7 monitoring, it was a controlled risk.
Suddenly, his senses flared.
[Warning: Hostile presence detected. Number: 12. Rank: B.]
Dan didn't even slow down. He didn't draw his sword.
"Void-Step."
He flickered. To any observer, it looked like he had glitched out of reality. He appeared in the center of the bandit camp. These weren't normal bandits; they were missing-nin from the Hidden Rain, looking to profit off the war's end.
"Who's the kid?" one of them laughed, raising a crossbow.
Dan looked at them. His eyes were cold. "I'm the reconstruction committee."
He raised a single hand.
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder."
Black lightning—a variant he had been perfecting—arced from his fingertips. It didn't just shock them; it magnetized the iron in their blood. The bandits screamed as their own weapons flew toward them, pinned to their bodies by an invisible force.
Dan walked through the carnage, his mind already on the next task.
he thought. I have to build a power base. I have to save Rin from the Three-Tails. I have to stop the Nine-Tails attack. And I have to do it all while making sure no one suspects the 'average' Uchiha boy is actually the strongest being in the Land of Fire.
By the time the sun rose, the bandits were gone, the materials were secured, and the first stone of Dan's new empire was laid.