Was Uchiha Madara seizing power opportunistically? Objectively, yes—his actions essentially amounted to "purging the clan head's advisors." But Yūshin felt that subjectively, Madara didn't seem to view his behavior as politically motivated elimination.
This person's thinking was probably quite straightforward—he simply couldn't stand certain people's actions, so he seized the opportunity to act.
Regardless of whether Uchiha Madara had political sensitivity, his ability to seize opportunities was certainly impressive.
Everything unfolding before them could barely be called a good show, but Yūshin wasn't in the mood to keep watching.
Consider this: if the Uchiha internal situation was like this, might there be similar events within the Senju Clan? If Madara could gradually consolidate power this way, couldn't Senju Hashirama do the same? Once these two leaders of mutually hostile ninja clans took charge, wouldn't that provide a foundation for reconciliation between the feuding clans?
Optimistically speaking, could Yūshin say he was seeing the dawn of peace?
After all, once Konohagakure was established, other major ninja clans followed suit quickly. Though a village's internal structure was complex and various contradictions needed time to resolve, ending the scattered state meant the great clans' decision-making would have consistency—at least consistency across a nation's broad territory.
Thus, war frequency would rapidly decline, while correspondingly, war scale would expand... So the next war after peace could be called the "Great Ninja War."
The Uchiha village drama still had a second act to perform, but Yūshin inconspicuously slipped away from the crowd. After avoiding all surveillance including the White Zetsu, he used the Mayfly Technique to leave.
Shichimi and Nameless's departure was now inevitable. With Madara suppressing the Uchiha internally, there would be no more variables. Now Madara led the Uchiha ninja to turn back and purge the other group of infiltrators.
Since the current Madara hadn't yet reached his later level of arrogance, he even understood the necessity of uniting allies. Therefore, he chose not to slaughter those infiltrators completely, even deliberately letting some escape while leaking news that the pair of Sharingan had been destroyed.
With such actions, Uchiha Madara felt he had shown utmost benevolence. If the Hagūgen Clan still didn't know better, then armed conflict would be unavoidable.
Of course, he could afford such magnanimity because the opponents hadn't caused substantial losses to the Uchiha... In this incident, those harmed were the traditional elder faction's forces—they were like putrid flesh emanating foul odors from the Uchiha Clan's body.
It didn't matter if the putrid flesh got stabbed a few times—after all, pus wasn't the same as blood.
Yūshin chose to leave directly for an important reason: he didn't want to witness that kind of wound-draining scene. Just thinking about lancing festering sores made him feel nauseated.
After quietly leaving the Uchiha village, he didn't blindly try to catch up with Shichimi. He could imagine Shichimi and Nameless would be extremely cautious, leaving virtually no traces during their withdrawal. So Yūshin simply didn't pursue them—he chose to wait ahead instead.
Yūshin dove underground, then rapidly headed toward the first rendezvous point they had agreed upon.
At a location over fifty kilometers from the Uchiha Clan, Yūshin arrived and waited about another hour before Shichimi arrived with Nameless.
"A bit slow. Shichimi, you were overly cautious. You could have completely trusted Uchiha Madara—he had already fully controlled the situation," Yūshin said as he emerged.
Shichimi shook her head, saying:
"I don't distrust Madara, but I don't trust certain people's bottom lines within the clan. Madara controlling the situation doesn't mean he immediately purged those people's influence—you know their tentacles extend throughout the clan... At the final moment, being cautious doesn't hurt. I don't want to fail due to carelessness."
"Makes sense."
Yūshin helped support Nameless from Shichimi's back, letting her lean against a nearby large tree... Well, Shichimi's thinking was very reasonable, but spending this extra time also meant Nameless had lost much more blood.
"Can we... perform direct bleeding control treatment?"
Looking at Nameless's condition, Yūshin hesitated slightly. As everyone knew, the Uchiha Clan could achieve hot-swappable functionality between eye sockets and eyes—normally they could use clan members' eyes plug-and-play. But if he directly healed the injury, would it also restore this ability?
"Of course you can. What's there to hesitate about?" Shichimi said. She was worried about Nameless's condition—why consider so many complications?
Yūshin nodded, then placed his palm over Nameless's eyes (eyelids), thinking this is what you said—if any side effects develop, it's not my responsibility.
Chakra filled with life force covered Nameless's eye sockets, promoting wound healing in an extremely gentle manner.
"Thank you," Nameless said.
"It's nothing. In the future... well, you should be able to become an organization member too."
Probably during the journey, Shichimi had already introduced Yūshin's background to Nameless, so Nameless understood why two people had rescued her from prison.
Yūshin's hand covered Nameless's eyes and forehead. He felt she had an extremely severe fever—apparently the violent destruction of the seal hadn't only harmed her eyes, but perhaps impacted her brain nerves as well... This actually made sense. Any sealing technique capable of restraining Mangekyō Sharingan power would surely have corresponding sinister aspects.
But Nameless was indeed ruthless. Her displayed endurance completely contradicted the first impression given by her physical appearance. She had silently endured the eye damage and other impacts from destroying the seal all by herself.
Yūshin examined his conscience—if his own eyes were injured, he would definitely cry out in pain on the spot, because this wasn't just physical pain, but psychological phantom pain as well... Everyone knew eyes were such important yet fragile organs, instinctively treating them as body parts that absolutely couldn't be harmed.
Truly worthy of someone who could make a considerable portion of Uchiha ninja feel fear—this could be called an Uchiha among Uchiha. Yūshin felt that even without Sharingan, such a ninja would become the kind of powerhouse beyond ordinary imagination.
While treating Nameless's injuries, he tried to distract her attention with small talk.
"By the way, since you've abandoned the Sharingan and left the Uchiha Clan, shouldn't the name Nameless be changed too? Do you want to restore your original name, or need a new name?"
Nameless thought carefully and found the Uchiha had nothing worth her nostalgia, so she said:
"I can't remember my original name anymore. The word Nameless only brings me disgust, so a new name is exactly what I need..."
Shichimi actually remembered Nameless's original name, but felt the other party hadn't forgotten—she simply didn't want to mention it. Therefore, she tactfully said nothing superfluous.
"A new name, let me think..."
Yūshin pondered carefully, preparing to display his naming talent, but personal names should primarily be simple and clear—he seemed to have little room for creativity here.
"I've got it. How about 'Lan'? Wind over water creates waves—I think this name is quite good."
Simply put, "Lan" meant waves even larger than ripples, embodying a beautiful hope... that Nameless could continue surpassing the Uchiha after leaving them.
However, the other two present didn't appreciate this beautiful expectation—Yūshin's good intentions were wasted.
"Good. Lan—truly very good."
Nameless agreed without hesitation. She didn't care about the new name's meaning—anything would be better than "Nameless."
Under Yūshin's continuous treatment, the bleeding quickly stopped. Perhaps because she'd escaped the tense environment, Nameless—now called "Lan"—soon fell into deep sleep.
"Let's go. Since we're being cautious, we should be thorough to the end. We shouldn't linger here too long," Yūshin said quietly to Shichimi.
Shichimi nodded, completely agreeing with this suggestion: "Right, we should return to Kikyō Castle as soon as possible."
Yūshin gently lifted Lan onto his back, then the three of them began moving toward areas even farther from the Uchiha under cover of night.
Shichimi was in quite good spirits now. She felt this return to the Uchiha had gone quite smoothly overall—except for Lan unhesitatingly destroying her Sharingan, everything else had proceeded without major surprises.
After reconfirming her feelings about the current Uchiha Clan, Shichimi now felt somewhat eager to return to Kikyō Castle.
But Yūshin wasn't internally so optimistic. Shichimi couldn't sense White Zetsu, so naturally she wouldn't fear them, but Yūshin was different.
For a moment, he felt Shichimi had been completely targeted by White Zetsu, making him extremely nervous—he didn't even know how to handle the situation.
But now he was somewhat self-doubting, because if White Zetsu were closely watching Shichimi, they should be tracking her. Shichimi receiving the kind of surveillance service Uchiha Madara provided wasn't impossible, yet the fact was that White Zetsu weren't following behind Shichimi and Lan.
Yūshin was momentarily puzzled. Could the large number of White Zetsu that had appeared around Shichimi earlier have been there merely as spectators?
...
The return journey to Kikyō Castle was uneventful.
Yūshin first sent Lan to the hospital... well, calling it a hospital was somewhat grandiose. Currently, The Fireflies organization's medical department was at most a small clinic, staffed only by barefoot doctors like Yūshin and Akimichi Ninjing's wife... Only afterward did he begin catching up on organizational events from the past few days.
The good news was that nothing major had happened these past days. The Land of the River Source's situation remained generally stable. Occasional enemy force invasions were promptly discovered by Yamanaka Keiya, then repelled by organization-dispatched ninja.
After handling various minor matters, Yūshin finally had time to assess his personal gains from this Uchiha expedition.
First were improvements in physique and basic chakra quality. Though Yūshin didn't highly value White Zetsu that could enhance personal constitution—always feeling that minor physical improvements wouldn't bring significant combat power increases—he shouldn't forget the principle of "many a little makes a mickle."
For comparison, if ordinary ninja physique was 1, before going to the Uchiha Clan, Yūshin's physique was merely around 1.3 or 1.4. But after returning from the Uchiha Clan, his physique definitely exceeded 2.0.
Such physique couldn't be classified as ordinary ninja anymore—at minimum, it was comparable to ordinary ninja within major clans... Yūshin certainly couldn't match elite ninja's exceptional physique, let alone monsters like Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama.
With enhanced physique and improved chakra quality and quantity, using later classification standards, Yūshin had undoubtedly reached Jōnin level. Even if he could fully leverage his strengths in battle, calling him an elite Jōnin wouldn't be excessive.
His strength already looked quite impressive, yet he would never become self-satisfied... Yūshin had full awareness of his own strength and what constituted genius ninja.
Elite Jōnin seemed like high-level ninja, yet above elite Jōnin lay an insurmountable chasm that couldn't be crossed through personal effort alone.
Yūshin calling himself "Flame Kage" was merely joking—Kage-level powerhouses were one in ten thousand.
Elite Jōnin—put differently, elite cannon fodder. This strength tier was superior to lower levels but severely insufficient compared to higher ones... Same-level battles were life-and-death struggles, but if higher levels suppressed them, it could very likely mean instant death.
So how was Yūshin different from before? Actually, not much different. Forces he couldn't provoke before, he still couldn't provoke now.
Second, another gain Yūshin valued most was mastering Earth nature transformation during this expedition.
Possessing Water, Fire, and Earth attributes simultaneously, the variety of Kekkei Genkai available for cultivation seemed to suddenly increase dramatically.
With Boil Release development experience, Yūshin felt mastering another Kekkei Genkai wouldn't be difficult. He had long planned to acquire Wood Release, which would tremendously help his self-recovery abilities.
Though White Zetsu weren't literally wood, as Divine Tree products, they possessed certain wood-like properties. If such bodies suffered damage, using Wood Release abilities could instantly restore injuries...
According to Yūshin's conception, with Wood Release abilities, even if his vital organs were half-destroyed, he wouldn't face death threats—he could even recover quickly.
This situation differed from the First Hokage's recovery abilities. The First Hokage had self-recovery—even without Wood Release abilities, he could achieve seal-less self-healing due to his powerful "Sage Body."
But Yūshin was different—he would patch holes with wood after his body developed them. The difference between them was enormous.
In any case, returning to Kikyō Castle without other duties binding him, Yūshin immediately began attempting Wood Release development.
Then he discovered something was wrong—Water and Earth couldn't fuse together no matter what, unable to achieve the "perfect harmony" that Water and Fire had managed.
After repeated attempts, Yūshin found the key problem... He needed not just nature chakra, but also the meridian circulation methods for both chakra types.
Reconsidering his Boil Release learning process, Yūshin suddenly gained some understanding.
Damn it—on his body, this thing seemed to fuse one portion at a time. The Water nature transformation obtained from White Zetsu had fused with his own Fire nature transformation, jointly acquiring Boil Release meridian circulation methods. Then this portion of Water nature transformation could no longer synthesize with other natures.
In other words...
Worst case scenario: Yūshin might never again obtain other Kekkei Genkai related to Water-Fire natures.
There was another possibility...
"To obtain Wood Release abilities, do I need to scrape out Water nature transformation abilities from White Zetsu again? What kind of principle is this?"
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