"So it is Uchiha Fugaku."
"I did not expect the clan's greatest prodigy to be this diligent."
Senya felt a spark of respect for Fugaku's work ethic.
Yet the memory of that quiet night of annihilation, where he chose no resistance and walked to his death, tugged at him.
To go that far for his son was rare indeed.
By then Fugaku had awakened the Mangekyo, but he would not fight his child.
No one knew what power his Mangekyo had held.
After taijutsu drills, Fugaku shifted to Uchiha-style Fire Release.
Its speed and force already reached elite chunin.
His Sharingan had two tomoe.
Senya watched a moment, then turned to leave.
Just then, a mass of flame, laced with kunai and shuriken, ripped toward his position.
"Oh, I have been noticed."
His Sage Body moved on instinct, and he slipped clear.
Abandoning concealment, he vaulted the wall and landed before Fugaku.
Seeing his carefully set strike fail against the masked intruder, Fugaku's face hardened.
Anyone who could enter the clan shrine was no simple foe.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
He barked the question, pitching his voice to alert nearby patrols.
Senya, masked, acted as if he had not heard.
In a low voice he asked, "I am curious. How did you find me?"
He wanted to know his flaw. He had believed he left none.
"Simple. I train in the mountains a lot. I can smell a faint trace of blood in the air."
Fugaku frowned and did not attack again, nor flee. He answered instead.
He was stalling for time.
Judging from the intruder's speed, running would be foolish.
Delay him until reinforcements came.
"Blood, huh. I have killed quite a few lately."
Understanding dawned.
Even the tightest net has a gap.
He sniffed at his sleeve and caught the faint metallic tang.
To hone real combat, he had used missions as cover to hunt high-bounty criminals at the underground exchange.
He had built up a tidy fortune.
He would need to mask his scent better from now on.
"Fire Release."
Seeing Senya lower his head, Fugaku seized the opening and launched another blaze.
As the clan's foremost prodigy, his timing and angle were perfect.
But the Sage Body let Senya slip aside with ease.
The instant he landed and met Fugaku's eyes, the two-tomoe Sharingan spun.
Advanced genjutsu.
The fire had only been a feint. The illusion was the true kill.
When flames failed, Fugaku switched tactics at once.
He chose genjutsu.
What he could not have imagined was that the intruder was one of his own clan.
And not just any clansman, but Senya with a three-tomoe Sharingan.
Seasoned by many fights, Senya met Fugaku's gaze without fear.
Three-tomoe Sharingan, genjutsu rebound.
The illusion aimed at Senya snapped back into Fugaku.
"What... you are..."
Seeing tomoe beyond his own, Fugaku froze.
He was caught off guard, and there was no pulling the technique back.
An instant later he was bound by his own illusion, standing rigid where he was.
"You are still green."
On the verge of stepping into Mangekyo, Senya would not be fooled so easily.
He snorted, stepped in, and knocked Fugaku out. Sensing several chakras rushing closer, he flickered away.
He had no intention of exposing himself.
Moments after he left, several shadows ringed the shrine.
The Great Elder arrived in haste.
He knew Fugaku often trained here at night.
At the first word of an intrusion, he rushed over.
Thankfully, Fugaku had only been knocked out.
By the time the Great Elder reached him, he was awake.
When the elder heard his account, his face changed.
"What, a three-tomoe shinobi?"
"What exactly happened?"
...
Guard Tower.
Confirming the clone was fine, Senya stripped off the night gear and mask, then burned them with Fire Release.
He dispelled the clone, dusted himself with scent-killing powder, and headed to the watch room.
Using a clone now might draw the wrong attention.
Moments later, lights flared around the shrine as squads of clansmen began combing the area.
Clearly, it was tied to Fugaku's ambush.
The prime suspect was a shinobi with a three-tomoe Sharingan.
Patrols only questioned Senya and Uchiha Jin briefly, then hurried off.
No one believed a kid two years out of the academy had three tomoe, much less that he had dropped the clan's top prodigy with a single exchange.
Uchiha Mori drew even less suspicion.
...
By the time the search ended, the compound was in an uproar.
They found nothing.
Every three-tomoe user in the clan had an alibi.
The Great Elder quietly suppressed the matter.
In wartime, too much noise would invite the Hokage faction's suspicion, so he would investigate in the dark.
As for Fugaku, an image kept surfacing in his mind, of the intruder raising his head.
Those eyes looked so familiar.
Yet he could not place where he had seen them.