---Third POV---
"No more joking around," Hiruzen said with a serious expression. "The village now needs you to lead a unit to support the battlefield against Kumo."
After several months of escalation, the war over in the Land of Hot Water had grown more intense. Due to a shortage of forces, Konoha often found its positions being breached.
Now that the Kiri front had been ended single-handedly by Ryouma, Konoha finally had many ninja teams freed up and available to be deployed to the last two remaining battlefronts.
Ryouma had been waiting for this and readily accepted, saying, "Leave it to , Hokage-sama. I've been wanting to test Kumo's ttle for a while now."
To be honest, he actually quite enjoyed fighting strong opponents. His last battle with Madara had been especially satisfying. In his previous life, he had been fortunate to be born into a peaceful world with a prosperous and powerful holand.
But as they say, passionate battles were a man's romance, or at least it was this way for Goku.
Seeing Ryouma's eagerness, Hiruzen nodded in satisfaction. "Very well. The support unit will be assembled in three days. You'll lead the team to the Land of Hot Water then."
With that, he handed a list over to Ryouma. "This is the list of jonin assigned to the support unit. Take a look and let know if anything needs to be changed."
Ryouma took the list and, well, good grief, did they stir up the whole Uchiha clan or what?
At the top of the list were Shiori and Shisui, currently two of the Uchiha clan's top experts. And many other nas on the list were also mbers of the Uchiha clan.
After scanning the list, he looked up and asked, "The Uchiha just ca back from the Kiri front. Isn't this pushing them too hard?"
Hiruzen shook his head slightly. "This wasn't sothing I forced. Fugaku ca to himself to request it."
A few days earlier, after the Uchiha and Hyūga clans had withdrawn from the Kiri battlefield and returned to the village, it hadn't taken long for the Uchiha to grow restless.
Previously, many Uchiha ninjas were confined to the Police Force, but after having such a great ti fighting on the Kiri front, the sudden surrender of the enemy left them itching for more. What should have been a good thing beca a bit of a problem, their thirst for battle was now hard to suppress.
So, those returning Uchiha ninjas approached Fugaku and asked him to go to the Third Hokage and request permission for the Uchiha to return to the frontlines.
Fugaku, who had a soft spot for his clan, gave in to their pressure and ca to the Hokage office to speak with the Third Hokage about it.
It just so happened that Hiruzen had been worried, if Ryouma left, would the Uchiha start getting ideas because Shiori had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan? If she followed in Madara's footsteps and tried to use the Nine-Tails to cause chaos, he knew he couldn't stop it alone, he wasn't on the level of the First Hokage.
And if sothing happened to Kushina, he wouldn't be able to face Mito in the afterlife. So, he simply made a sweeping decision and assigned both Shiori and Shisui to Ryouma's unit.
Let the capable do more.
Ryouma didn't mind. His relationship with Shiori was solid, they were old classmates and longti teammates. He also got along well with Shisui. Or rather, soone like Shisui, who was kind and good-natured, rarely had conflicts with anyone.
"One more thing." Hiruzen, afraid that Ryouma hadn't caught his real intention, reminded him directly. "You need to keep a close eye on the Uchiha clan. Their temperants are very unstable. Even those Uchiha you're very familiar with could suddenly change and act irrationally."
This statent was practically naming Shiori directly. Ryouma also knew that Konoha's leadership had been wary of the Uchiha for a long ti, it wasn't sothing they would let go of easily. After all, this caution had been passed down from their ntors.
So he reassured Hiruzen again. "Got it. I'll keep an eye on things."
Seeing the confident smile, Hiruzen also felt his mood ease a bit.
After Ryouma received his mission directly from the Hokage, Konoha's warti mobilization efforts began to intensify. Within the village, the end of the battle on the Kiri front didn't have much of an impact on the general populace.
That was because the main forces fighting Kiri had mostly been made up of the two great clans, Uchiha and Hyūga. It wasn't like the victory over Suna, when many civilian ninjas had returned ho from the front lines, and it happened near the year-end, boosting morale.
So this ti, only the Uchiha and Hyūga clans held modest internal celebrations.
Hiashi even personally invited Ryouma to attend the Hyūga clan's celebration, but Ryouma felt it wasn't appropriate for an outsider to join a private clan gathering, so he politely declined.
---
After receiving the Hokage's approval for his earlier deploynt request, Fugaku imdiately gathered the clan and held a traditional clan eting at the Naka Shrine.
Naturally, Shior was present. Shisui, however, had been recently reassigned by Hiruzen and couldn't attend.
"The Hokage has approved the battle request I submitted a few days ago. In two days, we will be heading to the battlefield in the Land of Hot Water under the command of Ryouma to support the fight against Kumo."
Fugaku stood at the back of the shrine, skipping any pleasantries and getting straight to the point. The gathered clan mbers imdiately started buzzing with excitent. Honestly, they had felt sowhat constrained on the Kiri front.
Now they finally had the chance to go up against the brute-force types from Kumo, and they were quite satisfied. In their excitent, so even let a few rare words of praise for the Konoha leadership slip out.
Seeing the satisfied looks on his clansn's faces, he felt a bit more at ease. But before he could relax too much, soone raised an objection.
"Why do we have to be led by that Ryouma?"
"He just earned a few achievents using space-ti ninjutsu."
"If I rember correctly, he's still just a teenager, right? How could a kid like that know how to lead a team?"
Fugaku's forehead veins bulged in irritation, silently cursing these foolish clansn. There should be a limit to arrogance. Ryouma's accomplishnts were all hard-earned and unquestionably real.
At this point, news of Ryouma killing the Third Mizukage hadn't yet spread. Only a few people in Konoha knew about it. High-level officials in other villages, thanks to their powerful intelligence networks, had at least so awareness.
But the average Uchiha ninjas? Naturally, they didn't have a clue.
In their eyes, Ryouma certainly had strength, but not to the extent that he could lead a team of ninjas on his own. To them, aside from their clan leader, only ninjas on the level of the Sannin were qualified to lead them.
Just as Fugaku was about to scold these arrogant clansn, a cold and clear voice rang out.
"You all have the Sharingan, yet you're still blind?"
That extrely remark made the entire Naka Shrine fall silent for a few seconds. Imdiately after, a few of the most vocal Uchiha clansn shouted angrily, "Who just said that?!"
"The Uchiha's reputation is ruined by brainless fools like you." Shiori's proud voice rang out again.
This ti, her words were even more cutting. Several veteran Uchiha jonin, each with their Sharingan fully activated, walked up to surround her.
"You think a little fa gives you the right to say sothing like that?" Naoto gave her a dangerous look, staring intently at Shiori, who didn't seem to realize the seriousness of the situation.
Fugaku hadn't expected Shiori to be this bold, but to him, it was a good thing, at least it confird his investnt in her was right.
Her relationship with Ryouma was indeed close.
He stepped down from the shrine's central platform, preparing to help her out of the situation.
Indeed, she was very strong, and she had also learned powerful Lightning Release techniques from Ryouma, but her words just now had drawn the ire of many. This was a mont where it was better for him to step in and handle things, for everyone's sake.
"Naoto, Inabi, Sho, you've gone too far. She wasn't wrong, none of you have the qualifications to judge Ryouma's strength."
Upon hearing their clan leader take sides, the surrounding Uchiha mbers imdiately beca agitated.
"Are you saying that he is even stronger than you?"
Fugaku twitched at the corner of his mouth and began scanning the crowd, trying to spot the guy who had said that. Of course he couldn't beat Ryouma, that young man had infiltrated the Five Great Hidden Villages alone and killed the Mizukage. But he couldn't exactly admit his inferiority in front of the clan either. This was the burden of an Uchiha clan leader...
"Hmph~" Hearing soone compare Fugaku to Ryouma, Shiori let out a sneer. Just then, the hot-tempered Sho could no longer bear her arrogant deanor.
He strode up to her, using his height advantage to loom over her, crimson three-tomoe Sharingan glaring down.
"Just because you picked up so Lightning Release technique from who-knows-where and used your elental advantage to get a na for yourself among the Kiri ninjas... You really think you're all that?"
The mont he said this, for so unknown reason, the other Uchiha clansn suddenly felt a wave of dread, as though so terrifying presence had appeared among them.
And they weren't wrong.
Sho saw Shiori close her eyes and assud she was backing down. But the next mont, when she opened them again, the eyes staring back weren't the familiar three-tomoe Sharingan of the Uchiha clan.
What kind of eyes were those?
In her crimson pupils was a slowly rotating six-petaled snowflake pattern, within which three comma-shaped tomoe connected end-to-end, radiating an eerie, srizing beauty.
"Th-this is…?"
His entire consciousness was captured by the image before him, and before he could even react, a powerful surge of chakra burst out from Shiori.
Boom—!
The ocular power of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan radiated out in invisible shockwaves, forcibly pushing back the Uchiha clansn who had surrounded her by several steps.
Everyone, except Sho.
In his eyes, her body seed to rapidly grow taller before him. In the blink of an eye, she was towering above him, looking down.
anwhile, in the eyes of the others who had been forced back, Sho had voluntarily bent over, dropped to his knees. He remained completely still, staring into Shiori's eyes like a puppet.
Shiori ended the genjutsu and allowed his consciousness to return.
His dazed eyes quickly regained clarity. Feeling the cold of the ground beneath him, he suddenly realized he was on the ground, without even knowing when it had happened.
He tried to struggle to his feet, but his body wouldn't respond, as if it had turned against him.
Shiori looked coldly down at the clansman who had mocked the gift Ryouma had given her.
"Th-the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
A shocked voice cried out from among the Uchiha.
No one paid attention to Sho anymore, this was the Mangekyō Sharingan, after all!
"This is great! It's the Mangekyō Sharingan, we finally have one!"
"The next Hokage must co from the Uchiha!"
Shiori found the commotion annoying. Her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan eyes swept across the crowd. Wherever her gaze passed, the Uchiha bowed their heads, not daring to et her eyes.
It was hard for outsiders to understand just how overwhelming the hierarchy of ocular power was among the Uchiha, higher-tier Sharingan exerted absolute pressure over lower ones.
Fugaku felt sothing wasn't right. This ocular power, it was off. Way off. He, too, had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, but just now, when her ocular power surged, he had felt a sense of complete helplessness.
This was definitely not an ordinary Mangekyō Sharingan.
Could it be…? The sa eyes once awakened by Madara?
30 advance chapters!
/Malphegor
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