Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Kirito was also very sad, but he had more important things to do now. He had to do the things his teacher had assigned him perfectly, and he absolutely could not allow any mistakes.

After speaking with the Third Hokage, he quickly came to Kushina and said, "Kushina, come with me for a moment, I have something to tell you."

Chapter 101: The Iron Rules of the Uchiha

In Konoha, Mito was Kushina's closest person. Although she spent very little time with Mito, she was able to enjoy a kind of doting love from Mito, who cared for her like her own grandmother.

Now that her only relative and clansman in Konoha is leaving, Kushina is not only heartbroken, but also very uneasy and afraid.

Upon hearing Kirito's words, she immediately opened her tear-filled eyes and looked at Kirito, her junior brother who was about the same age as her but far more capable than her.

She looked at the familiar blue diamond mark between Kirito's eyebrows, and at his confident, bright eyes.

At this moment, she seemed to see the shadow of Mito in Kirito.

"Don't be afraid. As your senior brother, I will always be by your side to support you and protect you. Even if you become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki in the future, don't worry. I will keep an eye on that monster and will never let it hurt you."

Kirito looked at Kushina's tear-streaked face, made a solemn promise, and then extended a hand to Kushina.

When Kushina heard Kirito make that promise, she stared at him blankly. For some reason, the unease and fear in her heart suddenly disappeared.

Kirito's consistently displayed strength reassured her.

"Hmm~"

Kushina wiped away her tears, sniffled, nodded, and then placed her hand on Kirito's outstretched hand.

Kirito successfully gained Kushina's trust, and a happy smile immediately appeared on his face.

He then took Kushina to an empty room, set up a sealing barrier inside, and began to tell Kushina some secrets about sealing the Nine-Tails.

Meanwhile, as the Third Hokage continued to issue various orders from the Hokage Building, the behemoth that was Konoha began to awaken rapidly. A large number of ninjas within Konoha were secretly mobilized, and many foreign spies lurking within Konoha gradually realized that something was wrong.

Every step leaves a trace.

Although ninja operations are highly secretive, such a large-scale mobilization is still difficult to conceal from shrewd enemy spies.

These spies dared not delve too deeply into the secrets involved, and could only use their own clandestine channels to transmit the information as quickly as possible.

Soon after, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure all received intelligence reports from their own intelligence agents.

Upon receiving the intelligence, the leaders of each ninja village immediately realized that Konoha was about to undertake some major operation, and they all convened emergency meetings to discuss what exactly Konoha was doing.

……

In the underground chamber of the Chizuru family's residence in Konoha, at the Uchiha clan's residence, a fire was burning.

A group of Jonin from the Uchiha clan secretly gathered here, and most of them had angry expressions on their faces.

"Clan leader, what does the Hokage mean by this? All the other ninja clans received his secret order and quietly dispatched a large number of clansmen to take action, so why is it that only our Uchiha clan did not receive the secret order?"

"That's right, Konoha is clearly about to launch a major operation. What does the Hokage mean by this? Does he not trust the Uchiha clan?"

"Clan leader, please ask the Third Hokage. We Uchiha cannot be excluded from this operation..."

……

One by one, the Uchiha Jonin spoke with excited and angry tones, many of them unable to suppress their resentment and activating their three-tomoe Sharingan.

Chizuru was also there, sitting on the edge of the very back corner of the crowd.

The petite woman remained silent, coldly observing the impassioned group of her kinsmen.

Why was the Uchiha clan excluded from the operation by the Third Hokage?

Although Chizuru was young, she was very clear-headed.

She had been secretly communicating with Kirito and knew a little about Mito's situation, in addition to some top-secret information about Konoha that she had learned from her grandfather.

Unsurprisingly, this major operation in Konoha is related to the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

The Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki is about to be replaced, and the Nine-Tails will naturally reappear in the world.

In this way, everything makes sense.

The Third Hokage was wary that the Uchiha would once again use the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails, just like that person did back then, and feared that the Uchiha would use the Nine-Tails to cause trouble.

Why has the Uchiha clan been unable to integrate into Konoha for so long?

She had once asked this question to the exceptionally intelligent Kirito, despite her shame.

The answer was that the person used the Nine-Tails to kill the First Hokage, which directly led to the decline of Konoha. This incident created an irreparable rift between the Uchiha and Konoha. In addition, the Uchiha clan members were too arrogant and unwilling to humble themselves and actively integrate into Konoha.

Hearing this answer, Chizuru felt angry and ashamed, but she couldn't find a way to refute it.

Because she knew in her heart that Kirito's answer was correct and hit the nail on the head.

The death of the First Hokage is a pain in the hearts of countless people in Konoha. If the First Hokage were still alive, Konoha would never be mired in the quagmire of war, leading to countless tragedies. This is the belief of countless people in Konoha who grew up listening to the legend of the God of Shinobi.

Even she thinks so.

Although that person left the Uchiha clan early on, he was still a member of the Uchiha clan and an important figure.

It's good that he's dead; it's all over now. But the poor living members of the Uchiha clan are now hated by the people of Konoha in his place. All the hatred directed at that person has been transferred to the entire Uchiha clan because of his death.

Unless the Uchiha clan can become heroes of Konoha, make sufficient contributions and sacrifices to resolve this hatred, or the Uchiha clan is wiped out, this hatred will never be resolved.

That person is truly a sinner of the Uchiha clan.

The arrogance of the clan members is also a huge problem. This has been a long-standing problem of the Uchiha clan, and very few clan members are aware of this. Reversing this negative personality trait is extremely difficult.

Thinking about these issues, Chizuru, an Uchiha who wanted to change the Uchiha clan's awkward position in Konoha, felt immense pressure, making it hard for her to breathe.

Fortunately, she doesn't have to bear this pressure alone; she now has a very reliable helper by her side.

Once they grow up, they will have the strength and confidence to change all of this.

However, before they can change all of this, they must first grow up successfully and then gain sufficient status in Konoha.

Her current goal is to become the head of the Uchiha clan with absolute strength. Only by becoming the head of the clan can she control this unruly beast and slowly tame it over time.

Upon realizing this, Chizuru subconsciously looked at a boy a few years older than him beside her.

Fugaku Uchiha was the second most talented person in the Uchiha clan after her. He possessed the three-tomoe Sharingan at the age of twelve, graduated at the age of ten, and then went to the Land of Rain to participate in the war. When he returned, he was already a Jonin of Konoha.

As one of the very few clansmen and genius ninjas in the Uchiha clan who made outstanding contributions in the war, Fugaku Uchiha enjoyed a high reputation in the clan and even among the Konoha ninja community, and was highly regarded by the Uchiha clan.

Without a doubt, this person will be a formidable rival for Uchiha Chizuru's future claim to the clan headship.

The Uchiha clan has never distinguished between the main family and the branch family; the position of clan head can only be inherited by the strongest member of the clan.

The capable rise, the mediocre fall.

This has always been an ironclad rule within the Uchiha clan.

No one is an exception.

nobody.

Chapter 102: Uchiha Fugaku

Fugaku Uchiha was feeling rather down. He had planned to go out and play with his neighbor's little sister, Mikoto Uchiha, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, but he was stopped by his clansmen just as he was about to leave, and had no choice but to come here.

To be honest, he had absolutely no interest in this kind of boring temporary gathering.

He had only recently returned from the battlefield in the Land of Rain with Lady Tsunade and the others, and he had absolutely no interest in fighting.

He hated killing and conflict, and was uninterested in the strange sense of honor among his people.

Wasn't it better that the Third Hokage prevented the Uchiha clan from participating in the operation? At least the clansmen wouldn't have to fight or die. Would they only be satisfied when people died?

On the battlefield, the daily battles made him deeply weary of fighting, and the deaths of familiar comrades with whom he had shared life and death filled him with grief and fear.

War is not a good thing, not at all. It is like a ferocious beast that devours all good things.

And the eyes on his own body, which held a deep darkness, weighed heavily on his heart.

These are evil eyes that grow stronger as those they know and love die.

If he could, he would never want to open those evil eyes again, never want to step onto the battlefield again, and never want to send his descendants to the battlefield.

However, after he returned to Konoha as a hero of Konoha, things did not go as he wished.

Whether it was his family or other clansmen, they all placed high hopes on him, hoping that he would be successful in the future, continue to make contributions on the battlefield, bring more glory to the Uchiha clan, and even hope that he would become Hokage in the future.

After returning to his clan, it was as if an invisible hand was pushing him from behind, forcing him to choose a path he did not want to take.

He had considered rebelling. But when he thought of his family and other familiar clansmen, the deep expectations they had for him and their selfless support, he had to accept reality, force himself to become the person they expected him to be, and continue down the path that his family and clansmen expected of him.

But is this really a good idea?

Fugaku asked himself this question again and again, but he remained hesitant and unsure of what was truly the right thing to do.

Suddenly, Fugaku realized someone was watching him.

It was a hostile gaze.

On the battlefield, he was looked at with such hostile gazes countless times, not only by enemies, but also by some people in Konoha who were hostile to the Uchiha.

Having been stared at like that so often, he naturally got used to it and developed a special intuition that allowed him to detect such hostile gazes immediately. This directness had helped him escape death many times on the battlefield.

Therefore, he was certain that someone was watching him.

He didn't need to turn around to know where the gaze was coming from, and he quickly realized who was looking at him.

The source of the hostile gaze was none other than Lord Chizuru beside him.

Fugaku certainly knew this Lady Chizuru; she was the clan head's granddaughter, the most outstanding genius of the Uchiha clan, and her family and many clan members often used her as an example to inspire him.

For a moment, he couldn't understand why this Lady Chizuru would be hostile towards him.

He remembered that he hadn't had much contact with the other party over the years. He had gone to the battlefield with some of his clansmen right after graduation, and in the past two years, he had no chance to make enemies with the other party. How did he offend the eldest daughter of the clan chief?

Of course, Fugaku was not afraid of Chizuru.

No way! He's someone who's escaped death multiple times, and his Shinnin skills are no joke. He's honed his skills through hardship and bloodshed. How could he possibly be afraid of a kid who's never even been on a battlefield?

In fact, when his family and clansmen used Chizuru to encourage him, he felt only disdain.

However, since the other party was the clan leader's granddaughter, he decided to be patient for the time being. Moreover, as a senior, he needed to appear magnanimous.

Then, Fugaku turned his head slightly and gave Chizuru a friendly smile like that of a big brother next door.

"Hmph, hypocritical, stupid dog."