Naruto: Konoha Spring of the Uchiha Prodigies

“I understand,” Uchiha Touko nodded. “For the next two hours, do not let anyone disturb the study.”

"Understood." Uchiha Keiko accepted the order and left.

Uchiha Touko pushed open the door and entered the study. As soon as he entered, he saw Sasuke flipping through the textbook that Uchiha Touko had helped him compile.

Sasuke was startled by the sound of the door opening. He looked up and saw that Uchiha Touko had returned before putting down his book.

"Teacher, you are back."

"You've been waiting a long time, haven't you?" Uchiha Touko said with a gentle smile.

"No, Master, your business is more important. I'll wait a bit," Sasuke said.

Uchiha Touko looked Sasuke up and down. He had to admit that what he had taught Sasuke before had some effect. Sasuke had changed a lot compared to the arrogant and aloof kid he used to be. Sasuke could now be called a gentleman.

"Speak, what brings you here?" Uchiha Touko asked as he sat down in the study.

“Teacher, you said that when I feel that what you taught me can no longer explain the world I observe, I should come back to you,” Sasuke said.

"Is it because of your brother?" Uchiha Touko asked.

Sasuke nodded.

"Do you think your brother did anything wrong in this incident?" Uchiha Touko asked.

Sasuke thought for a moment before speaking, "My brother shouldn't have stood against the clan."

"What if we set aside our family's position?" Uchiha Touko asked.

Sasuke fell silent upon hearing this.

"Don't worry, speak freely," Uchiha Touko said with a smile.

"Teacher, you once taught me that when someone entrusts you with a task, you should be loyal to that person. From the village's perspective, as the captain of the village's ANBU, my brother is trusted by the Hokage and entrusted with such an important responsibility. Naturally, my brother should fulfill his duty." Sasuke said, then looked up at Uchiha Touko's expression, which was somewhat nervous.

"Don't be nervous," Uchiha Touko patted Sasuke's head. "Since you think your brother did nothing wrong in this matter, do you think the clan did something wrong?"

“No.” Sasuke shook his head. “Whether it was imposing martial law in the village or arresting Jiraiya-sama who broke the law, the security department was doing its duty. So, the clan did not do anything wrong in this matter.”

"So, who exactly made the mistake in this incident?" Uchiha Touko asked.

“I don’t know…” Sasuke lowered his head helplessly, “But my brother died that night.”

“Sasuke, in this world, some things are not about right or wrong,” Uchiha Touko said.

"This... I don't understand." Sasuke looked puzzled.

“Actually, Sasuke, the clan was actually staging a coup that night. From the village’s perspective, your brother was on the right side,” Uchiha Touko said with a smile.

Sasuke's pupils contracted after hearing Uchiha Touko's words.

“However, from the perspective of the clan, the clan also had reasons to stage a coup,” Uchiha Tokō said. “Some people in this village cannot tolerate the Uchiha clan, so the clan was already standing on the edge of a cliff, and a slight mistake would lead to utter destruction.”

"How...how could this be?" Sasuke asked, puzzled.

“You may not know what happened before, but now I will tell you everything in detail.”

After speaking, Uchiha Tokō recounted the Uchiha clan's previous predicament.

"So, Sasuke, do you think the clan's coup this time was right or wrong?" After explaining the reasons, Uchiha Touko asked Sasuke.

Sasuke initially wanted to say that a coup was wrong, but then he thought about it again. Given the situation his clan had faced in the past, if the Uchiha clan did not take any action, it would probably decline and perish under constant suppression before long. This was something that Sasuke, who had always taken pride in the Uchiha clan, could not accept.

“Sasuke, this is the second lesson I’m going to teach you,” Uchiha Touko said. “Some things are not about right or wrong, but about perspective.”

"In terms of right and wrong, your brother did nothing wrong, but he made a mistake by choosing the wrong side," Uchiha Touko said. "In order to continue to exist in the village, the clan chose to stage a coup, but your brother chose to stand on the side of the village. However, he made the wrong choice, so he became the enemy of the clan. It's that simple."

"Why...why is this happening?" Uchiha Touko's words had a huge impact on Sasuke's worldview, which had been shaped by a hodgepodge of Confucian introductory texts. Unconsciously, Sasuke's Sharingan suddenly opened, with two tomoe spinning continuously within it.

"Sasuke, do you know why I taught you those things from before?" Uchiha Touko didn't answer Sasuke's question, but instead asked him in return.

"Teacher, do you want me to become the kind of gentleman depicted in those stories?" Sasuke asked.

“No, no, no.” Uchiha Touko shook his head. “You only understand the first layer of meaning. Becoming a gentleman is certainly valuable, but what I’m teaching you is more important. I hope you can learn how to make others become gentlemen as defined by these things. In other words, these standards are not set for yourself, but for others.”

"I...I don't understand," Sasuke said, full of confusion.

"It's okay if you don't understand for now. Let's go back to today's lesson. Regarding stance and right and wrong, why do you think I taught you these things?" Uchiha Touko asked again.

"Master, do you expect me to always stand on the side of the clan?" Sasuke asked tentatively.

“If you were just an ordinary member of the Uchiha clan, then this would be my purpose,” Uchiha Touko said with a smile. “However, you are my disciple, so it’s naturally not that simple.”

"So, what should I do?" Sasuke asked.

"Sasuke, do you know how to play chess?" Uchiha Touko asked with a smile.

"Shogi?" Sasuke was taken aback, but quickly came to his senses and nodded. "Shikamaru taught me a little about shogi."

"So, what do you think the positions of the pieces on the chessboard are?" Uchiha Touko asked.

"The pawn's stance?" Sasuke pondered. "To capture the opponent's pawn? To win the game?"

"That's right. In any game of chess, the moment each piece is placed on the board, its position and purpose are only one. In shogi, that is to trap the opponent's king."

"Then, what about the players outside the chessboard?" Uchiha Touko asked with a smile.

Chapter 105 Black Zetsu: I knew it!

"The players outside the chessboard?" Sasuke repeated Uchiha Touko's words, thought carefully for a while, and then said uncertainly, "Their position should also be to win this game."

“That’s right. From the moment the players in a normal game sit down across the chessboard, their position is also to win against the other. So, Sasuke, what do you think is the difference between the two?”

“The pieces are controlled by the player; the pieces themselves cannot decide where they should go on the board…” Sasuke finished speaking and suddenly fell silent. He seemed to understand why his brother had ended up like this.

"Of course, that's the normal situation, but what if one of the players doesn't intend to win the game from the start? In that case, do the pieces still stand their original positions?" Uchiha Touko asked.

Sasuke was taken aback after hearing what Uchiha Touko said, and then seemed to be deep in thought.

"So, teacher, you want me to transcend my own position and become a player, the one who decides the position of the pieces, is that right?" Sasuke said.

Uchiha Touko nodded in satisfaction before saying, "You're a promising student, but Sasuke, you're still a long way from becoming a chess player. To put it simply, Sasuke, do you even have any chess pieces?"

"Please teach me, teacher," Sasuke said.

“Didn’t I already teach you this?” Uchiha Touko said, staring into Sasuke’s eyes.

Upon hearing this, Sasuke froze on the spot.

After a while, Uchiha Touko patted Sasuke's head and said to him, "That's all for today's lesson. When you're qualified to sit at the chessboard, I'll teach you the skills of playing chess."

When Sasuke left, his mind was still buzzing. What Uchiha Touko had told him today was still too shocking for him. The boy might need a considerable amount of time to digest it.

After Sasuke left, Uchiha Touko began his daily Sage Mode practice.

After this period of practice, Uchiha Touko's Sage Mode perception ability can now completely cover the entire Uchiha clan's territory.

After a cursory scan of the clan's territory, Uchiha Touko suddenly sensed something interesting in the clan's cemetery area.

Uchiha Touko revealed a meaningful smile, changed his clothes, and went out to walk towards the clan's cemetery.

Itachi Uchiha was buried in the far corner of the cemetery, and at this moment, bouquets of flowers were placed in front of his grave.

Although Uchiha Itachi did not cause any substantial losses to the family, not standing on the family's side in major events was in itself a betrayal of the family. Considering that most of the family members worked diligently for the family, the Uchiha clan did not hold a decent funeral for him, and even the location of his grave was chosen at the very edge of the family cemetery.

However, some of Fugaku's peers would still sneak over to give him a bouquet of flowers, after all, they had watched Itachi grow up.

As for the young people in the clan, very few came here. Even in the Uchiha clan, which is full of geniuses, he was a genius among geniuses since childhood. However, he was not well-liked among his peers. Apart from Shisui, who stayed here for two days, it seemed that no one else came.

No, there are still some.

Uchiha Touko bent down and picked up a bunch of cornflowers with obvious tear stains on the petals. Involuntarily, the image of a girl with a beauty mark at the corner of her eye floated into his mind.

"Itachi, you've let down so many people," Uchiha Touko said.

"However, perhaps this ending was already destined from the moment you were taken to the battlefield at the age of four," Uchiha Touko sighed softly. "What is wrong with this world? Why does this tragedy keep repeating itself? When will this world finally have true peace?"

At that moment, just a few meters beneath Uchiha Touko's feet, a figure entirely in black suddenly stopped moving.

Three days ago, when Obito Uchiha was turned into a stone statue and shattered, Black Zetsu was filled with utter despair.

Black Zetsu had been working for thousands of years to save his mother, who was sealed away by his two filial brothers. More than ten years ago, the moment when Madara Uchiha's Rinnegan was born in his eyes was the closest he had ever come to success in all these thousands of years.

However, after Madara Uchiha had planned everything and fallen into an eternal slumber, many new variables were added to the situation.

First, Nagato, who is the vessel for the Rinnegan, has gradually deviated from the right path. He seems to have no intention of carrying out the Eye of the Moon Plan. Instead, he plans to use the power of the nine tailed beasts to make the world feel pain and understand the preciousness of peace after collecting them. He himself will act as a god to deter the great ninja villages. This is completely contrary to his Eye of the Moon Plan.

Fortunately, Obito Uchiha, the contingency plan left by Madara Uchiha to control Nagato, never escaped his control.

Just three days ago, Obito Uchiha died because of a moment of impulsiveness!

Although Black Zetsu still doesn't know why Obito Uchiha, who possessed Kamui, possibly the strongest life-saving eye technique of the Uchiha clan to date, and Izanagi as a backup plan, died so easily at the hands of Tokio Uchiha.

When Black Zetsu saw Obito Uchiha turn into a stone statue and shatter into pieces, his heart broke as well.

After thousands of years of planning, the closest we've ever come to success has come to this!

However, after recovering, Black Zetsu got busy again. So what if he failed? How many failures had he made over the years? As long as he could rescue his mother, what did this little bit of torment matter! This time he was already close to success, and he was sure to succeed next time.

With this in mind, Black Zetsu made another plan, the first step of which was to hide and wait for Nagato and Uchiha Touko, who had thwarted his plan, to reach the end of their lives.

We'll reclaim the Rinnegan later and plan for the long term.

And today, the reason he came to the Uchiha clan's cemetery was to collect some of Uchiha Itachi's DNA.

Decades ago, a peerless genius named Tobirama Senju emerged in the ninja world. He created a technique that could connect the human world and the Pure Land: the Impure World Reincarnation.

After learning about this technique, Black Zetsu immediately set his sights on it. It could be said that Black Zetsu spent almost all of that time underground in Tobirama Senju's laboratory. He also learned that this technique required the DNA information of the summoned person to succeed. Although this technique was written into the Book of Seals after it was created, and Black Zetsu did not have the opportunity to see it for the time being, there would always be an opportunity in the future. What he had in abundance was time.

So, in order to find a future fighter with the Mangekyou Sharingan, he came to the Uchiha clan's cemetery. But before he could even get started, the appearance of Uchiha Tokō scared him half to death.

Over the years, Black Zetsu has seen many people who have mastered Sage Mode and knows how terrifyingly strong their perception is in this state.

Although Uchiha Touko hasn't activated Sage Mode yet, what if he suddenly decides to practice it here? Black Zetsu didn't dare to gamble.

Therefore, the moment Uchiha Touko appeared, Black Zetsu wanted to run away.

However, what Uchiha Touko said at Uchiha Itachi's grave made Black Zetsu stop in his tracks.

When will there be true peace in this world?

Wait a minute, it seems there's still hope for my plan?

Uchiha Touko's words were undoubtedly heavenly music to Black Zetsu.

[I knew it! Indra's bunch of lunatic descendants will start thinking about world peace once they get strong enough! Mom! I'll be able to rescue you right away!]