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"I wonder how the Uchiha are doing now. This cycle's Indra-Asura reincarnations appeared rather late, but by this point, they should have made a name for themselves and reached a certain level."
When Manji finished speaking, his body dissolved into thick mist and vanished.
At that time, in Naka River territory.
Naka Shrine.
The Uchiha Clan held their grand sacrificial ceremony with a serious sense of dignity.
Clan banners flapped in the wind, and the fan crest gleamed in the sunlight.
Uchiha clansmen, all dressed in black ceremonial robes, stood by the riverside altar with their heads bowed, barely breathing.
A tall, stern figure stood at the front.
She was the first female clan head in Uchiha history.
Uchiha Sa—
She looked to be around thirty. Her sharp eyes and eyebrows made her seem cold, but her fine nose and red lips gave her a striking beauty. She moved with confidence, her gaze lowered in a way that showed she didn't care about anything around her.
Manji hovered above the altar, hidden within the void where no one could see him.
He watched Uchiha Sa. With his sage power, he looked into her soul. The corner of his mouth twitched. "So this is Indra's reincarnation in this era? She's proud to the core. She doesn't care about anyone else..."
Manji did not leave. He hovered in the sky, watching the ceremony.
Uchiha Sa walked steadily, leading a group of white-haired elders to the memorial tablet on the west side of the altar.
The stone was carved with names: Uchiha Senichi, Uchiha Kitsune, Senju Uzuki, the one exception allowed into the Uchiha sacred grounds... and farther down, the clan heads and heroes who had devoted their lives to the Uchiha over the past century.
She looked down at the names, her face calm, and carried out the rites just as tradition demanded. Every move was exact. She didn't miss a thing.
After honoring the ancestors and the dead, two respected elders stepped aside and led Uchiha Sa into the Six Paths Hall at the center of the altar.
Incense smoke curled through the hall. On the central stone wall hung a portrait.
The young man in the painting stood alone, with red lips and black hair, dressed in black and crimson robes. The Six Paths Sword rested beside him. This was the Sage of Six Paths, worshipped by generations of Uchiha, and looked just like Manji.
"Clan Head, please kneel and bow before the Sage of Six Paths. Pray for the Uchiha Clan's fortune, for smooth development among our children, and for peace within the clan." The elder on the left bowed and gestured toward the cushion in the hall.
Outside the hall, hidden from view, Manji raised an eyebrow.
He had assumed this female clan head would be like the Uchiha leaders before her, kneeling in prayer.
But Uchiha Sa stood in front of the cushion, straight and still.
The two elders exchanged puzzled looks. Then they asked again with respectful caution, "Clan Head, you stand before the Six Paths. Why do you not bow?"
"Oh?" Uchiha Sa looked up, her cold eyes fixed on the portrait. A mocking smile appeared, and her eyes filled with contempt. "And why should I?"
To her, the so-called Sage of Six Paths was just an empty legend repeated over time.
A fiction!!
She led the Uchiha Clan and held its power. Why should she kneel before something people invented?
Everyone claimed the Sage of Six Paths was the God who protected the Shinobi world—yet war had burned across the mortal world for years. Refugees wandered without homes. Starving corpses littered the roads. And this supposed God had never lifted a finger to save anyone.
"Heh. The so-called Sage of Six Paths looks to me like nothing more than a famous name attached to an empty Myth." Her voice stayed calm, but it echoed through the quiet hall.
"Ah? This..." The two elders behind her froze. Cold sweat ran down their faces, soaking their ceremonial robes.
The Clan Head had stood in the sacred Six Paths Hall and called the Sage of Six Paths a lie. This was more than just rebellion now...
"Heh..." Uchiha Sa saw their sweating, scared faces, and her disdain grew. On the outside, she only smiled. "You two are much too superstitious."
"Great Ninshū fell two hundred years ago—"
"—The legend of the Sage of Six Paths was just an ancient tool used to control people and keep power in place."
"Clan Head... this..." The two elders' lips trembled. They were so scared they could barely speak. Not a word came out.
"You still don't see it..." Uchiha Sa looked away, then back at the portrait, her voice growing sharper. "If there really is an immortal who saves the suffering, how did the Shinobi world become this hell?"
"I was an orphan from childhood. If not for the orphan relief policy Clan Head Kitsune left behind over a century ago, I would have died in the chaos long before now."
"When I was young, I believed in the Sage of Six Paths too. I prayed every day, hoping some God would protect the people..."
"...But as I grew older, I saw the misery of the world with my own eyes. Shinobi clans slaughtering each other without end. Monsters and villains running loose. Refugees so desperate that families traded children for food. I have seen every kind of evil this world can produce, but I have never once seen this Sage of Six Paths appear."
"The whole Shinobi world worships him as a God and burns incense for him year after year. He watches this hell unfold and does nothing. What kind of God is that? Is he blind?!"
Her words echoed through the hall, so sharp it seemed even the incense smoke stopped for a moment.
Uchiha Sa let out a cold laugh, her gaze sweeping over the portrait with open disgust. "A God who sits there enjoying offerings while doing nothing at all? What good would kneeling to him do me?"
Thud!
The two elders behind her couldn't stand any longer. Their knees gave out, and they dropped to the cold floor, shaking. Sweat soaked their robes, and neither dared to look up.
The two elders were terrified, close to tears, and nearly fainting.
"She's cursing me..." In the void, Manji paused, surprised.
Someone dared to curse him. That was a first...
The earlier Indra reincarnations would never have done this.
Indra needed no explanation. The man had practically adopted Manji as his father.
Uchiha Senichi had been arrogant, but outwardly, he had always treated Manji with respect.
Uchiha Kitsune had treated Manji as the unseen hand of fate itself, almost the standard by which destiny was measured.
None of them had ever done what Uchiha Sa was doing now—standing before his portrait and openly criticizing him.
Even so, Manji felt no anger at all.
His long life had worn his heart smooth. A few accusations were nowhere near enough to stir his temper.
"Now that's a real scolding..." Manji sighed quietly, his voice calm.
Before his words faded, Uchiha Sa raised her hand in the Six Paths Hall. She drew the blade at her waist with a cold ring, its light slicing through the incense haze.
Her wrist moved quickly. The sharp blade cut into the stone wall next to the portrait, sending chips of stone falling.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
In just a few moments, four lines appeared beside the portrait of the Sage of Six Paths.
"Pretty face in painted frame, Fed on prayers and empty fame. Better in my arms instead, Than lonely immortal in a cold bed."
She returned the blade to its sheath.
Uchiha Sa looked down at the poem on the wall, a proud smile on her cold lips.
"This Sage of Six Paths has nothing but a pretty face. Useless." Uchiha Sa spoke with disdain.
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