Chapter 199: The Risks of Being in the Spotlight

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: The Risks of Being in the Spotlight

After leaving the Uchiha residence, Shisui walked down the long street of the clan district, his mind weighed down with thoughts.

Clan members came and went along the street. Some hurried about their business, while others strolled leisurely without a care in the world.

The vast majority of them had never even awakened the Sharingan. They would live ordinary lives from beginning to end, and some of them weren’t even shinobi.

Walking among his passing clansmen, Shisui let out a quiet sigh.

"It’s time to make up your mind. Otherwise, what awaits the Uchiha is the extermination of the entire clan—young and old, not a single one spared..."

The words Hyuga Kagami had spoken to him before echoed through his mind.

Slowly, Shisui came to a stop.

He looked around at the familiar, vibrant faces of his clansmen passing by, and silently made up his mind.

He absolutely could not allow the entire clan to be buried alongside the ambitions of a handful of power-hungry men!

Suddenly, a figure stepped in front of Shisui and blocked his path.

"Well, well. If it isn’t Shisui!"

Shisui calmly asked, "Ryota, is there something you need?"

The Uchiha clansman who had blocked Shisui’s path was named Uchiha Ryota.

Twenty-four years old, he was regarded as a genius within the Uchiha Clan and served as the captain of the Police Force’s Third Division.

He had awakened the Sharingan at the age of eleven and possessed the three-tomoe Sharingan by sixteen. During the Third Shinobi World War, he had distinguished himself greatly on the battlefield.

Within the Uchiha Clan, he was an elite jōnin whose strength was surpassed only by Fugaku and Shisui, the clan’s two Mangekyō Sharingan wielders. At the same time, he was also among the small handful of the clan’s most radical and arrogant members.

Before Shinichi and Shisui successively revealed their Mangekyō Sharingan, Ryota had been second only to Clan Head Fugaku in strength.

He commanded one of the Police Force’s divisions, and his standing within the Uchiha Clan had been far above that of the much younger Shisui.

But after Shisui publicly revealed his Mangekyō Sharingan, Ryota instantly lost his position as the clan’s second-strongest member, leaving him in an extremely awkward position.

Naturally arrogant by temperament, Uchiha Ryota could not tolerate being completely overshadowed by a clansman nearly ten years younger than himself.

And so, one night, he sought Shisui out and challenged him.

The result went without saying!

In terms of ocular power, the gulf between the three-tomoe Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan was enormous. Even though Ryota possessed greater chakra reserves and physical stamina than Shisui, neither was enough to make up for the difference in ocular power.

As a result, Ryota fell to Shisui’s genjutsu in their very first exchange.

From that day onward, Ryota regarded Shisui as his greatest rival, determined to compete with him in everything and prove who was superior.

At the same time, he began relentlessly training himself, hoping to awaken a Mangekyō Sharingan of his own.

But how could the Mangekyō Sharingan possibly be so easy to awaken?

Despite all his efforts, he had gained nothing. Even his ocular power had barely improved.

This was also one of the reasons his behavior had become increasingly extreme in recent times.

Uchiha Ryota looked at Shisui mockingly.

"I heard you lost to a bounty ninja yesterday?"

Shisui had no desire to talk about what had happened the previous night, so he replied, "That’s none of your business!"

"What a shame. I had a mission yesterday, so I couldn’t participate in the clan’s hunt. Otherwise... hehe..."

Ryota deliberately left his sentence unfinished, then chuckled softly, seemingly mocking Shisui for possessing the Mangekyō Sharingan yet still suffering defeat and injury.

Shisui ignored Ryota’s taunts. He stepped around him and prepared to leave.

Ryota’s figure flickered, blocking Shisui’s path once again. He snorted coldly.

"Just you wait! One day, I’ll awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan too. And when I do, I definitely won’t be like you and lose to some nobody bounty ninja!"

Shisui’s expression darkened as a thought flashed through his mind.

"If he awakens the Mangekyō Sharingan too, wouldn’t the clan immediately launch its rebellion?!"

At the same time, Shisui suddenly remembered that Ryota had an older brother named Uchiha Hideki.

Hideki was also a jōnin of the Uchiha Clan, but compared to the exceptionally talented Ryota, he seemed rather ordinary...

...

At Hyuga Kagami’s home.

After calling Rei, who had been bustling around cleaning the house, over to sit beside him, Kagami wore a rarely seen stern expression.

"Why didn’t you tell me your squad had been assigned to patrol the outer wall?"

Rei replied quietly, "Yesterday was just an accident."

Even now, Rei still felt lingering fear whenever she thought about what had happened the previous night.

She had never imagined that someone could be so audacious as to infiltrate Konoha and commit murder right inside the village.

Kagami said, "I’ve already spoken with the Clan Head. He agreed to have you transferred to the clan district."

Rei knew Kagami was only doing this for her own good. Biting her lip, she nodded.

Although every member of the Hyuga Clan was capable of awakening the Byakugan, their individual talent still varied greatly.

Rei’s talent was fairly average, only somewhat better than Kagami’s had been before he injected himself with the gene serum. As a result, at her current age, she possessed only chūnin-level strength. If she encountered any truly powerful enemy, her life could easily be in danger.

Looking at Rei sitting there with her head lowered as though she had done something wrong, Kagami let out a soft sigh.

This was also one of the reasons Kagami was reluctant to step into the spotlight.

Once he did, his situation would become just like the Fourth Hokage’s—constantly watched and plotted against by enemies lurking in the shadows.

Everything around him—his lover, his friends, his clansmen—would become a weakness his enemies could exploit and target.

Kagami knew himself well.

When it came to reacting to sudden crises, he was nowhere near as sharp or decisive as the Fourth Hokage.

Especially when his wife and child were attacked and the village itself was thrown into disaster, the Fourth had still remained calm and composed. With only a handful of probing exchanges, he had seen through the secrets of Obito’s Kamui and calmly driven him back.

That alone was astonishing!

Looking across the entire shinobi world, there were very few people who possessed such extraordinary battle intelligence and such unshakable composure.

If the Fourth Hokage possessed power on the same level as Madara and the two were made to fight, Kagami believed the Fourth’s chances of victory would actually be slightly higher than Madara’s.

And yet, even someone as exceptional as the Fourth Hokage—a man who had surpassed the Three Legendary Sannin while still young and prompted the Third Hokage to willingly step down in his favor—had ultimately fallen victim to Obito’s scheme.

From this alone, it was clear just how disadvantageous it was to stand out in the open in the shinobi world, especially when one’s strength had not yet reached the point where they could sweep aside all opposition.

As his thoughts wandered, Kagami’s mind gradually returned to the experiments that could lead him down the path to godhood.

He had gained quite a lot from last night’s fierce battle.

Setting aside the forty-five million ryō bounty he had received from the black market in exchange for Gloya’s corpse, the increase in compatibility between his soul and his Water Release clone alone was an immeasurable treasure.

After this latest period of adaptation, the compatibility between his Water Release clone and his soul had improved significantly.

On top of that, using the Water Release clone, he had successfully completed the nature transformation fusion of Water and Wind chakra, truly mastering the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

This had greatly increased the Water Release clone’s overall strength, bringing it to the point where it was now almost comparable to his original Yin Release body...