Chapter 6: The Uchiha Born Beyond Konoha
The unfamiliar silhouette remained suspended upon the golden scroll.
Black-and-red armour covered the man from his shoulders to his boots. It was thinner than the heavy armour worn during the Warring States Period, yet strange metallic lines ran across its surface like veins.
A broad weapon rested diagonally across his back.
At first glance, it resembled a sword. However, the unusual handle, mechanical components and narrow opening running through the blade left even the greatest weaponsmiths of the Elemental Nations uncertain of its purpose.
Most shocking of all was the enormous city behind him.
Even as a mere outline, its scale surpassed anything the shinobi world understood. Towers rose higher than the Hokage Monument. Wide roads crossed one another at different heights, while countless lights shone beneath the darkness.
The Uchiha fan was displayed proudly upon the man's chest.
Yet no one recognised him.
Not Fugaku.
Not Itachi.
Not Madara.
Not even Black Zetsu, who had secretly observed the descendants of Indra for centuries.
Golden light finally destroyed the shadows concealing the figure.
A young man appeared.
He looked approximately twenty-seven years old. His black hair had been cut short, and several crimson strands crossed the right side of his head. His expression was calm, but the confidence in his posture could not be concealed.
Both eyes possessed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
[Nineteenth Place: Uchiha Akira.]
[Status: Alive.]
[Age: Twenty-Seven.]
[Place of Birth: City of Hope.]
[Affiliation: Empire of Hope.]
[Position: Captain of the Second Uchiha Guardian Division.]
[Title: Crimson Lightning.]
[Prime Combat Classification: Kage Level.]
The shinobi world stared at the information.
He was alive.
Unlike Kagami, this Uchiha was not a forgotten warrior from Konoha's past. He was a living military captain belonging to an empire no one within the Elemental Nations had known existed.
[Uchiha Fugaku: Uchiha Akira? I have never heard this name.]
[Uchiha Itachi: Neither have I.]
[Uchiha Madara: He bears the Uchiha fan, yet I do not recognise his armour, weapon or territory.]
[Senju Tobirama: His place of birth is listed as the City of Hope.]
[Onoki: Then Uchiha Ryu's claim was true.]
[Fourth Raikage A: One unknown Uchiha does not prove that fifty-five thousand exist.]
A new message appeared.
[Uchiha Akira: Whether you believe in our existence is irrelevant. We do not require recognition from the Elemental Nations.]
The Fourth Raikage's expression darkened.
Akira had answered a Kage without the slightest hesitation.
Before A could reply, Sasuke's message appeared.
[Uchiha Sasuke: Were your parents originally from Konoha?]
Akira looked at the question from a military command centre within the City of Hope.
Around him stood dozens of officers, several of whom also carried the Uchiha fan upon their uniforms. None appeared frightened by the God List. A few were even amused by the confusion spreading throughout the Elemental Nations.
Akira finally answered.
[Uchiha Akira: Boy, did you not hear Lord Ryu?]
Sasuke frowned at being called a boy, but Akira continued before he could protest.
[Uchiha Akira: My parents, my grandparents and my ancestors have all lived here since the City of Hope was founded eight hundred years ago.]
[Uchiha Akira: I was born here. My parents were born here. Their parents were born here.]
[Uchiha Akira: None of us escaped from Konoha because none of us ever belonged to Konoha.]
Eight hundred years.
The number struck the shinobi world harder than the revelation of fifty-five thousand Uchihas.
Konohagakure had existed for less than a century. Even the hidden-village system was relatively young.
Yet the City of Hope had apparently existed for eight centuries.
[Senju Hashirama: Eight hundred years? The City of Hope is that old?]
[Senju Tobirama: That would make it several times older than every hidden village.]
[Onoki: An empire cannot conceal itself for eight hundred years.]
[Uchiha Ryu: We never concealed ourselves.]
[Uchiha Ryu: Your ancestors did not know our continent existed. Their ignorance was not the result of our secrecy.]
[Hōzuki Gengetsu: In other words, we spent generations believing we understood the world while knowing only one part of it.]
[Uchiha Ryu: Precisely.]
Inside Konoha, Hiruzen unfolded a world map across his desk.
The Elemental Nations occupied its centre. Several islands and smaller countries surrounded them, while uncertain markings filled its distant edges.
There was no City of Hope.
There was no Empire of Hope.
There was no continent large enough to support a civilisation containing fifty-five thousand members of a single clan.
Danzō studied the map with his visible eye narrowed.
"Either every map in our possession is incomplete," Hiruzen said, "or their continent lies far beyond the seas our people have explored."
"An empire that has developed undisturbed for eight centuries," Danzō muttered. "Containing tens of thousands of Uchihas."
Neither possibility comforted them.
Sasuke continued questioning Akira.
[Uchiha Sasuke: Then how did the Uchiha reach your city eight hundred years ago?]
Akira considered the question.
[Uchiha Akira: That history belongs to our people.]
[Uchiha Akira: The God List may reveal it, or His Majesty may choose to explain it himself. I will not speak of matters I have no authority to reveal.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: Who is His Majesty?]
This time, Ryu answered.
[Uchiha Ryu: The founder and eternal ruler of the Empire of Hope.]
[Uchiha Madara: Eternal ruler?]
[Uchiha Ryu: Yes.]
[Uchiha Madara: Is he an Uchiha?]
[Uchiha Ryu: No.]
Madara responded immediately.
[Uchiha Madara: Fifty-five thousand Uchihas bow to a man outside their clan?]
Akira's Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated.
[Uchiha Akira: We do not serve His Majesty because we are weak or enslaved.]
[Uchiha Akira: We serve him because he founded the civilisation that protected our ancestors, gave every clan an equal future and transformed a barren land into the greatest empire beneath the heavens.]
[Uchiha Madara: An Uchiha should not require another man to give him a future.]
[Uchiha Akira: Your pride contributed to generations of conflict, separation and death.]
The Worldwide Chat became silent.
Very few people would speak so directly to Uchiha Madara.
Akira continued.
[Uchiha Akira: In the Empire of Hope, an Uchiha child does not inherit hatred for the Senju. A Senju child does not inherit fear of the Uchiha.]
[Uchiha Akira: We compete in academies, serve in the same military units and protect the same nation.]
[Uchiha Akira: His Majesty accomplished eight hundred years ago what you and Hashirama only attempted to create with Konoha.]
Madara's expression turned cold.
Hashirama, however, did not become angry.
[Senju Hashirama: If the Uchiha and Senju have truly lived together peacefully for eight hundred years, I would like to see it.]
[Uchiha Akira: Perhaps the God List will grant your wish.]
The golden scroll shone brighter.
[Uchiha Akira's complete abilities will now be displayed.]
[Primary Chakra Nature: Lightning Release.]
[Additional Specialities: Kenjutsu, Body Flicker Technique, battlefield command, high-level genjutsu and precision chakra control.]
[Dōjutsu: Three-Tomoe Sharingan and Mangekyō Sharingan.]
The moment those words appeared, Fugaku rose from his seat.
Itachi's eyes narrowed.
Sasuke stared at the announcement with disbelief.
Akira possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Golden light gathered around his eyes. The three tomoe began spinning before joining together. They transformed into three curved lightning bolts surrounding each pupil.
[Left-Eye Ability: Raijin's Body.]
[The wielder may temporarily transform his entire body into living lightning.]
[While transformed, the wielder may travel through conductive materials, electrical currents and Lightning Release techniques.]
[Most conventional physical attacks become ineffective while the transformation remains active.]
Even the Fourth Raikage leaned forward.
His Lightning Chakra Mode used lightning to stimulate and protect his body. Akira's Mangekyō ability did something fundamentally different.
It turned his body into lightning itself.
The God List revealed the power of Akira's other eye.
[Right-Eye Ability: Raijin's Dominion.]
[The wielder gains complete control over naturally occurring lightning and Lightning Release techniques within his effective range.]
[Controlled lightning may be redirected, divided, compressed, expanded or reshaped according to the wielder's will.]
[Raijin's Dominion cannot produce unlimited lightning. The wielder must generate lightning using his chakra, draw it from the environment or seize control of another source.]
[Simultaneous use of both eyes allows the wielder to transform into lightning and freely control the lightning composing his body.]
For several seconds, no one spoke.
[Fourth Raikage A: Complete control over lightning?]
[Darui: If that description is accurate, using Lightning Release against him would only provide him with another weapon.]
[Hatake Kakashi: He could seize control of a Lightning Release technique before it reached him.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: How did you obtain your Mangekyō?]
Akira's expression hardened slightly.
[Uchiha Akira: Through a trial permitted by the Imperial Uchiha Council.]
[Uchiha Sasuke: You killed someone important to you?]
[Uchiha Akira: No.]
That answer startled every Uchiha from Konoha.
[Uchiha Fugaku: The Mangekyō awakens through overwhelming emotional trauma.]
[Uchiha Akira: Trauma is one method. It is not the only one.]
[Uchiha Akira: Our clan has studied the Sharingan for eight centuries. Did you believe we learned nothing during that time?]
Fugaku could not answer.
The Uchiha clan of Konoha had treated the Mangekyō as a legendary eye awakened through unbearable loss. Its powers were feared, but its history was incomplete and surrounded by secrecy.
The Uchihas of Hope had apparently spent centuries researching their own bloodline.
Before anyone could demand more information, the heavens changed.
[The battle projection will now begin.]
A vast wilderness appeared across the sky.
Black mountains stretched beneath violent storm clouds. Reinforced walls, each hundreds of metres high, encircled an enormous area of forests, lakes, rocky valleys and artificial ruins.
Observation towers stood beyond the walls. Strange barriers shimmered across the sky like layers of transparent glass.
At first, many believed they were looking upon a city protected by monstrous defences.
Then golden words corrected them.
[Location: Imperial Mutated-Beast Training Area—Region Seven.]
[Purpose: Advanced combat training for Imperial Kage-class personnel.]
Silence descended across the Elemental Nations.
A training area.
Those colossal walls and barriers had not been constructed to keep an army out.
They had been built to keep something inside.
The vision moved toward a reinforced platform overlooking the artificial wilderness.
Several officers stood behind a transparent barrier. Some carried the Uchiha fan, while others possessed the features of the Senju, Hyūga and Uzumaki clans.
A woman wearing a white research uniform studied several screens.
"Subject Seven has awakened," she announced. "Chakra output has reached the predicted level."
Another officer examined the information.
"Confirmed. The Iron-Thunder Tyrant has entered the Kage classification."
The shinobi world froze.
[Onoki: They classify beasts by the same standard used for Kage?]
[Fourth Raikage A: What kind of animal possesses Kage-level strength?]
[Orochimaru: Not an ordinary animal. The location is called a mutated-beast training area.]
The projection moved deeper into the wilderness.
Trees suddenly bent beneath an invisible pressure.
Birds fled into the sky.
The ground trembled.
A roar erupted from beyond the mountains.
It was so powerful that the surface of a nearby lake exploded upward. Trees were torn from the earth, and cracks spread across the surrounding cliffs.
Then the beast appeared.
It stood more than thirty metres tall.
Its body resembled a monstrous black panther, but overlapping metallic scales covered its back, shoulders and limbs. Four curved horns emerged from its head. Blue lightning flowed continuously between them.
Its two tails struck the ground, each impact leaving a crater.
The beast's crimson eyes possessed none of the mindless confusion expected from an animal.
There was intelligence within them.
And fury.
Golden words appeared beside it.
[Mutated Beast: Iron-Thunder Tyrant.]
[Combat Classification: Kage Level.]
[Primary Attributes: Extreme speed, metallic armour, lightning generation, chakra absorption, high regeneration and advanced predatory intelligence.]
[Threat Assessment: Capable of destroying a fortified city if released beyond containment.]
Even the Tailed Beasts watched with interest.
[Shukaku: That oversized cat thinks a little lightning makes it powerful?]
[Kurama: It possesses more chakra than most of the humans commenting here.]
[Fourth Raikage A: And they use such creatures for training?]
[Uchiha Ryu: The safest method of preparing warriors to face Kage-level threats is to let them fight Kage-level threats.]
The vision shifted.
Akira stood alone upon a metal platform inside the containment region.
There were no soldiers beside him.
No hidden support teams.
The broad gunblade rested across his back. His black-and-red armour remained inactive, and his eyes were still ordinary black.
A voice came through the communication device near his ear.
"Captain Akira, all barriers are stable. The beast has fully recovered from its previous containment procedure."
"Understood."
"Your objective is to defeat it without killing it. Region Seven requires the specimen for future training."
Akira looked toward the distant mountains.
"And if it refuses to surrender?"
The researcher answered calmly.
"Then make it incapable of continuing."
Akira smiled faintly.
The enormous beast sensed him.
Its head turned.
Dozens of kilometres separated them, yet its crimson eyes immediately locked upon Akira's position.
Lightning erupted around its body.
It disappeared.
The viewing platform shattered an instant later.
Akira crossed his arms as a massive paw slammed into him.
The impact produced a thunderous explosion.
Metal fragments scattered through the air, and the entire platform collapsed into the valley below.
Sasuke stared at the destruction.
"Was he hit?"
Akira emerged from the smoke, falling toward the ground.
His arms trembled from the force of the attack, but he was uninjured.
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan rotated within his eyes.
"So that is your speed."
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant appeared above him.
Its jaws opened.
A sphere of concentrated blue lightning formed between its fangs.
Akira drew his weapon.
The gunblade's central channel opened, and crimson lightning flowed across its edge.
The beast fired.
A beam of blue lightning descended with enough force to vaporise the rocky valley.
Akira raised his blade and activated his right Mangekyō.
Three curved lightning bolts formed around his pupil.
"Raijin's Dominion."
The beam stopped less than a metre from his body.
It did not weaken.
It did not disappear.
It simply froze.
Shock spread across the faces of the Lightning Release users watching throughout the Elemental Nations.
Akira moved two fingers.
The enormous beam twisted around him, divided into six streams and curved back toward the beast.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant crossed its armoured forelegs.
Six explosions struck its body and hurled it through a mountain.
The creature vanished beneath tonnes of stone.
Akira landed lightly upon the ground.
[Hatake Kakashi: He redirected a Kage-level attack with a single eye.]
[Darui: Fighting him with lightning would be suicide.]
[Fourth Raikage A: Control is not the same as power. Let us see how he handles the beast physically.]
As if it had heard the Raikage, the Iron-Thunder Tyrant erupted from the ruined mountain.
Several scales upon its shoulder had cracked.
They immediately began repairing themselves.
The beast roared.
The metallic scales across its body opened, revealing hundreds of glowing channels beneath them.
Lightning exploded outward in every direction.
The valley became a sea of electricity.
Akira's left Mangekyō activated.
"Raijin's Body."
His flesh disappeared.
His body transformed entirely into crimson lightning.
The blue electrical wave passed through him without causing harm. Instead, his right eye seized control of it.
Akira's crimson form entered the beast's lightning.
He travelled through the electrical current and appeared directly above its head.
His body reformed.
The gunblade descended.
"Lightning Kenjutsu: Crimson Severance!"
The blade struck between the beast's horns.
A concentrated line of crimson lightning tore across its skull and drove its enormous body into the earth.
The ground collapsed.
Before Akira could move away, one of the creature's tails struck him.
His body transformed a fraction of a second before impact.
The tail passed through crimson lightning.
Akira travelled across the metallic scales covering the limb and reformed upon the beast's back.
He drove the gunblade between two scales.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant twisted violently.
Dozens of metallic spikes erupted from its body.
Akira pulled the trigger.
A concentrated blast of lightning entered the beast's back.
The creature roared and threw itself against a mountain.
Akira jumped away just before its body struck the stone.
He landed upon a distant cliff.
Blood had begun gathering beneath his left eye.
The repeated transformations were already straining him.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant noticed.
Its crimson eyes narrowed.
[Nara Shikaku: The beast understands that his transformation has a limit.]
[Orochimaru: Its intelligence may be more dangerous than its chakra.]
The creature lowered its body and stopped releasing lightning.
Akira's expression became more serious.
By suppressing its lightning, it had deprived him of the easiest pathways for Raijin's Body.
The ground exploded beneath the beast.
It crossed the valley using pure physical speed.
Akira barely raised his gunblade before its horn struck him.
The impact launched him through several rock formations.
He struck the ground, rolled and drove his blade into the earth to stop himself.
One section of his armour had cracked.
The beast gave him no time to recover.
Its paw descended.
Akira vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
The valley shattered where he had stood.
He reappeared beside the creature's head and swung his blade, but the beast turned and caught the gunblade between its teeth.
Its jaw tightened.
Cracks spread across the weapon.
Akira looked directly into its crimson eyes.
His Sharingan spun.
"Genjutsu: Crimson Labyrinth."
The beast froze.
Within its mind, the valley split into a thousand identical paths. A thousand Akiras surrounded it, each releasing a different attack.
But the illusion lasted for less than a second.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant released a burst of chakra and shattered the genjutsu.
Its paw struck Akira in the chest.
He crashed through the forest, breaking hundreds of trees before finally stopping.
[Uchiha Fugaku: It broke his Sharingan genjutsu almost immediately.]
[Uchiha Itachi: Its chakra is powerful, but that is not the only reason. Its instincts recognised the false world before its conscious mind did.]
Akira rose from the destroyed forest.
Blood touched the corner of his mouth.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant approached slowly.
It no longer treated him like prey.
It now recognised him as a dangerous rival.
Akira wiped the blood from his face.
"You learn quickly."
The beast growled.
"Unfortunately for you, so do I."
Akira drove the gunblade into the ground.
Lightning erupted from his body and spread through the earth in thousands of narrow streams.
The beast immediately jumped into the air to avoid the attack.
That was what Akira wanted.
His right Mangekyō rotated.
The scattered lightning rose from the ground and transformed into hundreds of chains.
"Lightning Release: Crimson Heaven's Prison!"
The chains wrapped around the beast's legs, tails and horns.
It roared and attempted to absorb them.
Blue light entered the metallic scales covering its body.
Akira's eyes narrowed.
"So you can absorb chakra as well."
The creature pulled.
The lightning chains began breaking.
Akira raised his right hand and altered their structure. Instead of opposing the absorption, the chains entered the beast's body willingly.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant froze.
Akira had allowed it to absorb his lightning.
Now Raijin's Dominion controlled that lightning from inside it.
The creature's muscles contracted against its will.
Its front leg collapsed.
[Tsunade: He is interfering with its nerves.]
[Fourth Raikage A: Precise control at that scale should be impossible.]
[Uchiha Ryu: Impossible according to whose standards?]
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant released a deafening roar.
Its chakra surged.
The lightning within its body was expelled, and the beast regained control of its limbs.
The four horns upon its head began glowing.
Storm clouds rotated over the training area.
Natural lightning fell from the sky and entered its body.
Its chakra pressure doubled.
Golden words appeared.
[The Iron-Thunder Tyrant has activated its Berserk Mutation.]
[Combat power temporarily approaching the upper boundary of the Kage classification.]
The officers outside the barrier became tense.
"Captain Akira, the specimen's mutation is unstable."
"Should we activate the suppression formation?"
Akira looked up at the creature.
Its armour had expanded. Lightning flowed from its mouth with every breath, and the ground melted beneath its paws.
"No."
"Captain?"
"If the formation suppresses it now, this exercise has no meaning."
Akira removed the broken armour covering his right arm.
"Maintain the barriers. I will finish the battle."
The beast raised its head.
Thousands of lightning bolts descended from the storm.
The entire region vanished beneath blue-white light.
Forests burned.
Lakes boiled.
Mountains broke apart.
Akira stood at the centre of the destruction.
Both Mangekyō Sharingan rotated.
His left eye transformed his body into crimson lightning.
His right eye seized control of the storm.
The blue lightning surrounding him stopped.
One bolt turned crimson.
Then another.
Within seconds, the colour of the entire storm began changing.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant roared and fought for control.
Blue and crimson divided the heavens.
[Fourth Raikage A: He is contesting control of the beast's entire storm.]
[Hatake Kakashi: Not only the beast's lightning. He is controlling the natural lightning inside the clouds as well.]
Blood flowed from both of Akira's eyes.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant possessed enormous chakra and instinctive authority over the storm.
But Akira's right Mangekyō granted absolute control over lightning within his effective range.
The final blue bolt turned crimson.
For the first time, fear appeared within the beast's eyes.
Akira's body dissolved into the storm.
He was no longer standing beneath the lightning.
He existed within all of it.
Crimson electricity spread across the sky, the mountains and the metallic scales covering the beast.
Hundreds of bolts gathered together above the training area.
They formed the outline of an enormous armoured warrior wielding a colossal blade.
It was not Susanoo.
It possessed no flesh or chakra skeleton.
It was a construct created entirely from lightning under Akira's control.
His voice descended from every bolt simultaneously.
"Lightning Release: Crimson Judgment."
The enormous warrior raised its weapon.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant gathered all its remaining chakra between its horns. A sphere of compressed lightning expanded above its head until it resembled a small sun.
The beast released it.
The lightning warrior brought down its blade.
Crimson and blue collided.
The resulting explosion illuminated the Empire of Hope's distant horizon.
All seven containment barriers became visible at once. The first shook violently. The second cracked. The remaining five absorbed the force before it could escape the training area.
When the light finally faded, the wilderness had been transformed.
Several mountains were gone.
A glass-covered crater stretched across the centre of Region Seven.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant lay at its bottom.
Most of its metallic scales had shattered. Its four horns were cracked, and smoke rose from its enormous body.
Yet it was still alive.
One of its claws moved.
Akira reformed upon the creature's head.
His face was pale. Blood ran down his cheeks, and his breathing had become heavy.
The beast's crimson eye opened.
It growled weakly.
Akira raised his gunblade.
The Iron-Thunder Tyrant attempted to stand.
Crimson lightning entered the weapon.
For several seconds, man and beast stared at one another.
Then the creature lowered its head.
Its remaining chakra settled.
A researcher's voice entered Akira's communicator.
"Subject Seven's chakra has stabilised."
Another officer confirmed the result.
"It has surrendered."
Akira released the lightning surrounding his blade.
"Training exercise complete."
The projection froze.
The people of the Elemental Nations remained silent.
They had not watched Akira stop an army.
They had watched him enter a training area voluntarily and fight a mutated beast possessing Kage-level strength.
Worse, the Empire of Hope had not treated the beast as an emergency.
It was a training opponent.
[Onoki: You keep Kage-level beasts for combat practice?]
[Uchiha Ryu: Several.]
[Fourth Raikage A: Several?]
[Uchiha Ryu: Mutated beasts are common upon certain regions of our continent. The dangerous ones are captured, studied and used to strengthen our warriors.]
[Orochimaru: Fascinating. The creature possessed metallic armour, regeneration, chakra absorption and control over natural lightning.]
[Tsunade: And Akira was ordered to defeat it without killing it. That made the battle more difficult.]
[Uchiha Madara: He required considerable effort to defeat a beast.]
[Uchiha Akira: It possessed Kage-level strength and was specifically selected to challenge my abilities.]
[Uchiha Akira: Perhaps you expected me to destroy the Empire's valuable training specimen merely to impress strangers.]
Hashirama laughed loudly.
[Senju Hashirama: I like this young man.]
[Uchiha Madara: No one asked you.]
The projection continued.
The heavens displayed an enormous academy.
Hundreds of children trained together upon carefully divided fields.
Some possessed the Sharingan.
Others carried the pale eyes of the Hyūga.
Several Uzumaki children practised sealing techniques beside Senju instructors. Children from unfamiliar clans laughed, competed and ate together without separated compounds or guarded clan districts.
Akira walked through the academy gates.
A little Uchiha girl noticed him and ran forward.
"Father!"
Akira knelt and caught her in his arms.
Her mother followed more slowly, shaking her head at their daughter's excitement.
"You were supposed to remain with your class."
"But Father defeated the Iron-Thunder Tyrant!"
Akira smiled and placed a hand upon her head.
"It was a training battle."
"You destroyed three mountains!"
"That is why we have training regions."
The child looked at the blood dried beneath his eyes.
"Were you hurt?"
"Only a little."
She placed both hands against his face.
"Then you should have fought a weaker beast."
Several nearby children laughed.
Akira's stern military expression finally softened.
"I will consider your tactical recommendation."
Sasuke stared at the scene.
The little girl wore the Uchiha fan proudly. So did dozens of other children surrounding her.
Their parents were alive.
Their homes were filled.
No one looked at the Uchiha with suspicion.
For the first time since the massacre, Sasuke saw what his clan could have been.
Not empty streets.
Not graves.
Not a duty placed upon the final survivor.
A living people.
Kagami watched the same scene in silence.
[Uchiha Kagami: Eight hundred years of peace between the clans…]
[Senju Hashirama: It appears my dream succeeded somewhere else long before Konoha existed.]
[Uchiha Madara: Do not become sentimental after seeing a few children.]
[Uchiha Ryu: Those children are the result of a civilisation that rejected the cycle which consumed you.]
Madara offered no response.
The projection ended.
Golden light surrounded Akira's name.
[Historical Evaluation:]
[Uchiha Akira awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at the age of nineteen after completing the Imperial Trial of Reflection.]
[He mastered both Mangekyō abilities without murdering or deliberately traumatising a loved one.]
[He has completed seventy-three Kage-class combat exercises within the Imperial Mutated-Beast Training Areas.]
[During his battle against the Iron-Thunder Tyrant, he defeated and subdued a Kage-level mutated beast without taking its life.]
[Nineteenth-Place Reward:]
[Stormheart Physique.]
[The recipient's body will permanently adapt to Lightning Release.]
[Resistance to lightning-based damage will increase greatly.]
[The physical and neurological strain caused by Raijin's Body will be reduced.]
[The recipient's Lightning Release power and control will increase by thirty percent.]
Crimson lightning surrounded Akira within the City of Hope.
It entered his body without injuring him. His muscles tightened, his chakra pathways expanded, and the exhaustion that normally accompanied his Mangekyō faded.
When the transformation ended, Akira opened his eyes.
The lightning-shaped Mangekyō rotated without releasing blood.
Akira turned toward a distant golden palace visible from the command centre.
He lowered himself onto one knee.
[Uchiha Akira: I thank the God List for its reward.]
[Uchiha Akira: This strength will be used to protect His Majesty, the Empire of Hope and every citizen beneath its banner.]
[Uchiha Madara: Even after receiving power from the heavens, your first thought is to offer it to your king.]
[Uchiha Akira: Strength without purpose is merely destruction.]
[Uchiha Akira: My purpose was decided long before the God List spoke my name.]
Golden light covered the heavens once again.
[The Nineteenth Placement has concluded.]
[The Eighteenth Strongest Uchiha will now be revealed.]
A new silhouette appeared.
This figure wore Konoha's old military uniform.
His posture was firm and dignified. Dark hair framed a face Sasuke recognised even before the shadows began to disappear.
Behind the silhouette, a Mangekyō pattern slowly rotated.
Sasuke rose so quickly that he nearly fell from the roof.
"Father?"
The God List released its final announcement.
[A clan leader whose true power remained concealed until his death.]
[A man feared across battlefields as Wicked Eye Fugaku.]
[The Eighteenth Strongest Uchiha will now be revealed.]
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Author's Note
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