When Uchiha Tetsu returned to the clan grounds, the sky in the distance had already begun to turn a very faint blue-white.
His left eye could barely see anything, while his right eye was also constantly bleeding. The traces of his "heavily injured escape" created with the Shadow Clone Technique were perfect. The wounds on his chest, left shoulder, and right arm were deep enough, and there was enough blood.
When the clan members saw him in this state, their first reaction was, "Another one died," until he forced himself to hold on and told them about the failed decapitation and how Sarutobi had been prepared in advance.
An emergency elders' meeting was held at dawn.
The charcoal fire in the stone house had not yet gone out, but the air was cold enough to sting.
Uchiha Tetsu stood in the center, his voice hoarse from blood loss.
"Sarutobi knows my name. He set up barriers, wind blades, explosive tags... in advance. This wasn't a temporary response. It was a complete killing trap."
"There must be a spy in the clan.", Uchiha Tetsu said this with certainty.
As soon as his words fell, the stone house instantly fell silent.
The expressions of several elders from the war faction changed drastically. Someone slammed the table. "A spy? Are you saying someone among us sold the information to Sarutobi?"
Uchiha Tetsu raised his eyes. His blood-red Mangekyo slowly rotated, but he did not refute them. He merely repeated in a low voice, "Otherwise, how could he have known everything in such detail beforehand?"
An elder from the peace faction coldly spoke up. "Or are you saying... you're simply not capable enough and were seen through by Sarutobi, and now you're using a 'spy' to cover up your failure?"
The argument erupted instantly.
Some supported a thorough investigation. Some angrily accused him of shirking responsibility. Others silently watched.
Until a deep and imposing voice came from the highest seat.
"Enough.", The Uchiha clan head slowly spoke.
He sat in the main seat, holding a child no more than two or three years old in his arms, Uchiha Izumi.
The child was sleeping soundly, his little hand unconsciously clutching the clan head's clothes.
The clan head steadily supported the child with one hand, while the other rested casually on his knee. His eyes, however, were as cold as ice.
"Hmph! In the end, he's merely a member of the branch family... His ability is still lacking..."
He glanced at Uchiha Tetsu. His gaze moved from his bleeding eyes to his bloodstained collar, then to the completely awakened Mangekyo in his eyes.
After a moment, the clan head said indifferently, "You can leave for now."
There were no questions, no stance taken, not even the slightest indication that he intended to "investigate the spy."
His tone was so calm that it was almost casual.
In his eyes, Uchiha Tetsu was nothing more than another branch-family member who had overestimated himself.
The failed decapitation was because he lacked ability. Mentioning a "spy" was merely an excuse to cover up his failure.
Uchiha Tetsu stood where he was, his fingers tightening slightly inside his sleeves.
He saw the coldness and contempt in the clan head's eyes.
"...Yes."
Uchiha Tetsu answered in a low voice and turned to leave the meeting hall.
The morning wind passed outside the door, carrying a trace of blood.
Uchiha Tetsu raised his hand and wiped away the blood constantly seeping from his right eye, but the corner of his mouth curved up very slightly, almost imperceptibly.
The clan head didn't believe him.
Perfect.
He had never expected those people to actually investigate anything.
All he needed to do was continue to "silently earn merit," continue recovering from his injuries, and continue sharpening the Mangekyo's abilities through one battle after another.
Uchiha Tetsu did not stop walking. Only a very faint, cold interest flashed through his eyes as he looked at the child in the clan head's arms.
'Izumi...'
'The bloodline of Indra's direct descendants.'
'Interesting.'
Uchiha Tetsu had always felt that there was something unusual about this Izumi.
He entered his stone house surrounded by black rocks, closed the door, and shut the world outside.
His vision was blurred in his left eye, and the pain in his right eye was unbearable, but sitting in the darkness, he had already begun to run through his calculations again.
This failed decapitation was not the end.
It was only the beginning.
———
And on Arisu's side...
Within the void, a light screen slowly unfolded.
Arisu stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze passing through layers of time and space before landing on the young child still sleeping in the Uchiha clan head's arms.
Uchiha Izumi.
The child was sleeping deeply, his little hand unconsciously clutching his father's clothes, his breathing steady and shallow.
Arisu looked at that still-young face and remained silent for a moment.
Then he muttered in a low voice, with an emotion that was difficult to describe, "...We meet again, Izumi."
"If you've already been born, then that also means... the dissolution of Ninshu isn't far away."
Arisu smiled faintly and shook his head.
Once the wheels of history roll to a certain point, it becomes difficult to turn them back.
Ashura had been dead for several years.
The conflict between Indra's lineage and Ninshu was moving from border clashes toward a complete split.
Arisu remembered that in his first life, things had probably begun to collapse around Izumi's era.
Ninshu would not maintain its current state of "semi-unification" forever.
It would ultimately fall apart amid internal strife, suspicion, and ambition.
Arisu withdrew his gaze. The scene in the light screen rapidly shifted. Sarutobi, Uchiha Tetsu, blood and fire on the border, the child in the clan head's arms... all the clues intertwined into a larger web in his eyes.
———
Night fell once again.
Uchiha Tetsu's wounds had mostly stopped bleeding, and the vision in his left eye had also recovered considerably.
He sat in the deepest part of the stone house, lightly pressing his fingers against his right eye and feeling the operation of the two authorities within the Mangekyo.
The coordination between [Instant] and [Falsehood] was already more practiced than it had been during the decapitation.
As long as he waited a few more months, let his wounds heal completely, and let the suspicion surrounding the "spy" within the clan ferment for a while longer, he could strike again.
The next blade did not have to be aimed at Sarutobi.
It could be aimed at those elders who were still hesitating, or... the people beside the clan head.
Just as his thoughts began to wander slightly...
The air suddenly froze.
All sounds inside the stone house disappeared.
Uchiha Tetsu's pupils contracted sharply, and his Mangekyo instantly began to rotate.
But before he could even form a hand seal, a blurry figure silently appeared before him.
Standing with his hands behind his back.
Looking down from above.
It was Arisu.
"...Who are you?"
Uchiha Tetsu suddenly stood up, chakra surging madly toward his eyes. His voice was hoarse and wary.
Arisu did not answer immediately.
He merely looked quietly at this young man from the branch family, at the completely awakened Mangekyo in his eyes, and at those hands stained with the blood of relatives, friends, and superiors.
After a moment, Arisu spoke indifferently, his tone as calm as if he were stating something insignificant:
"Uchiha Tetsu."
"Or rather... the soul that transmigrated into this body."
The moment those words came out, they were like a bolt from the blue.
Uchiha Tetsu's entire body instantly stiffened.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
Arisu continued, his voice still indifferent. "Killed your sister, killed your friend, killed your superior, then tried to decapitate Sarutobi... You moved very quickly, and very cleanly."
"You accomplished what the original owner couldn't. You did what the original owner didn't dare to do."
"After all, you're not from this world."
Uchiha Tetsu's heart shook violently. Almost instinctively, he activated his left eye.
[Instant]!
The flow of time within three meters suddenly froze.
Yet at the very moment it froze, Arisu's figure remained clearly standing where he was. Even the corner of his clothes showed not the slightest sign of being affected.
Time seemed to have no effect whatsoever on that figure of light.
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