"Excuse me, when will I be allowed to leave?"
"Wait for the ANBU's investigation."
"Don't ANBU usually question the parties involved during an investigation?"
"Wait for the ANBU's investigation!"
After saying this, the ANBU wearing a cat-faced mask fell completely silent. No matter how much Uchiha Yoichi questioned him afterward, he was ignored entirely.
Seeing this, Yoichi had no choice but to give up. At this point, he could only wait for the ANBU to release him on their own initiative—or for his clan to intervene and pull him out.
However, given Uchiha Fugaku's somewhat soft and compromising temperament, he would probably negotiate with Konoha's higher-ups first and then patiently wait for the ANBU's conclusion.
Thinking of this, Yoichi couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
The heavy casualties among his teammates weren't his fault. It was clearly Konoha's intelligence failure. In a C-rank mission, they had run into a Jonin, a Chunin, and two Genin. Under those circumstances, the fact that he managed to bring back even one teammate was already commendable.
Uchiha Fugaku should have seized on this point—Konoha's failure in intelligence—and pressed the mission department hard, accusing them of nearly getting a Chunin of the Uchiha clan killed.
When would the Uchiha clan finally become a little more hard-line?!
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Uchiha Yoichi was a transmigrator who had arrived in the ninja world one year ago.
His original body's talent was quite impressive. He had graduated early, become a Chunin two years later, and even awakened the Sharingan. Although it was only a single tomoe, awakening the Sharingan at all already placed him among the minority within the Uchiha clan.
It could be said that he had the bearing of a true powerhouse.
However, after the original owner was replaced by a transmigrator, things became a bit awkward.
The current Yoichi was not the original person. Although he inherited the memories, his combat experience was essentially like replaying a movie in his head.
Right after transmigrating, Uchiha Yoichi decisively requested half a year of leave from Konoha through his clan. For six months, he accepted no missions and focused solely on mastering his own abilities.
He knew how to refine chakra.He knew how to form hand seals and release ninjutsu.He could even activate the Sharingan.
What he lacked was turning all of that into his own real strength.
So Uchiha Yoichi trained within the clan for half a year.
During those six months, he made considerable progress. By practicing ninjutsu and chakra based on his inherited memories, he essentially fully inherited the original body's strength.
And during that time, he also suffered greatly from his many "cheat codes."
Speaking of Uchiha Yoichi's cheat codes—his Superpower Roulette—its defining feature was "endless variation."
Every month, a random superpower would refresh. Some were so strong they defied all logic. Others were so useless that not even a dog would want them.
For example, during this mission, the reason an ordinary Chunin like him, along with three Genin, managed to survive—and even completely eliminate an enemy force consisting of a Jonin, a Chunin, two Genin, and a group of bandits—was entirely thanks to the superpower he had this month.
[Catching a Blade Barehanded]:When you swing your blade, your primary target will unconditionally drop to one knee and clamp the blade between both hands.When the enemy releases their grip depends on when you withdraw your blade.However, once you pull the blade free, all of your stamina will be completely drained.
Uchiha Yoichi relied on this ability, cooperating with a Genin, to kill that Jonin.
There had actually been another time before this when a ninja squad Yoichi joined was almost completely wiped out.
At that time, the squad was on a border patrol mission when they happened to encounter two elite Cloud Ninja squads crossing the border.
If not for the fact that his superpower at the time was perfectly suited to the situation, Uchiha Yoichi would have been reporting to the afterlife just six months after transmigrating into the ninja world.
[Turning Enemies into Friends]:Instantly raises the favorability of anyone hostile toward you to 99.However, you must flatter and fawn over them continuously for three hours.If you fail to do so, their favorability will immediately drop to -99.
Without this ability, Yoichi would have died alongside his teammates.
Fortunately, after activating this superpower, Uchiha Yoichi successfully became sworn brothers with the two elite Cloud Ninja squads. He spent several hours hanging out with them—not only extracting full details about their mission…
He even slung arms around their shoulders and led the Cloud Ninja squad, who were technically still on duty, into a small town they passed by. They had a few drinks, and along the way, Yoichi casually asked one of the squad leaders about the training method for Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
There was also another mission where no one died, but the four-man squad somehow ended up in a collective accident. Aside from Uchiha Yoichi, the other three all suffered broken legs or arms. After those three recovered, the squad inexplicably disbanded.
Having effectively broken up three mission squads within half a year, Uchiha Yoichi was immediately taken away by the ANBU for investigation upon returning to the village.
Although they called it an investigation, Yoichi felt the ANBU were simply restricting his personal freedom.
He had already been locked up for four or five hours. Aside from two rice balls and a cup of water, he hadn't eaten anything else—even though he had just returned from a life-and-death battle.
His chakra consumption had been heavy. At the very least, he needed a proper meal to recover.
He didn't know how much time passed, but Uchiha Yoichi ended up falling asleep in the holding cell. In a half-dazed state, he heard the sound of knocking.
"Uchiha Yoichi, you can come out now."
After speaking, the cat-masked ANBU directly opened the cell door.
"You guys are really efficient," Yoichi couldn't help but mock. "I thought I'd be living here for a month. Didn't expect to get out in just a few hundred minutes."
The cat-masked ANBU gave no response.
Soon after leaving the cell, Uchiha Yoichi saw Uchiha Mabayashi waiting outside—a squad leader in the Police Force and a well-known Jonin of the Uchiha clan.
"Yoichi, let's go back."
"Thank you for coming to get me, Mabayashi-senpai," Yoichi said.
He glanced at the sky. It was already pitch black. He had been detained for at least six or seven hours.
"Mabayashi-senpai, what's the situation with this mission? When the ANBU let me out, they didn't tell me the outcome."
Mabayashi didn't answer immediately. He led Yoichi some distance away from the ninja building before speaking.
"There's still no final conclusion. The higher-ups haven't reached a unified opinion. However, someone suggested that the Interrogation Division perform a brain scan on you—but the clan head refused."
"This mission was very strange. A Jonin and a Chunin appearing in a C-rank mission. The mission department refuses to admit that the intelligence was flawed. They brought up your past incidents, but since you brought back that Jonin's head, the investigation confirmed it was a coincidence."
"That Iwa ninja infiltration squad was likely trying to gather information about the capital and the daimyo's movements. You just happened to disrupt them. That's why the clan head opposed the brain scan."
"So I'm still a hero, then?" Yoichi said coldly. "What exactly are Konoha's higher-ups thinking?"
Even with his good temper, Yoichi nearly cursed someone's ancestors.
"I risked my life to bring back intelligence for Konoha, and they want to scan my brain? Mabayashi-senpai, don't you think that's unreasonable? I'm the one who killed an Iwa ninja Jonin!"
Besides, accidents during missions were extremely common. Kakashi's team, with Naruto, had their first C-rank mission upgraded straight to A- or even S-rank. If it weren't for certain people being overly kind, Kakashi's team would have ended up with at least two orphans.
"It is unreasonable," Mabayashi sighed. "The clan members in the Police Force were furious when they heard about it. But the clan head has only been in office for a short time. You have to understand him."
The clan head wanted to develop the Uchiha clan in his own way, and as clan members, they could only support him.
"But Yoichi," Mabayashi asked, "how exactly did you kill that Iwa ninja Jonin?"