The air seemed to solidify for an instant.
The Yondaime Raikage's thick knuckles unconsciously tapped once on the desk, producing a dull thud. His gaze, like two tangible bolts of lightning, firmly locked onto Makoto.
He felt Makoto's demeanor was worlds apart from any other abductee he had seen before. There wasn't the slightest trace of awkwardness or fear when facing him.
He just sat there casually, as if not in the heart of Kumogakure's power, the Raikage's office, but in his own backyard.
What made a flicker of surprise appear deep in the Yondaime Raikage's pupils was that this kid was smiling.
It wasn't the usual cold, aloof, and arrogant sneer he remembered from the Uchiha Clan. That smile held a... almost leisurely curiosity, even mixed with a sense of curiosity about sizing up a new environment.
A half-grown boy forcibly taken from his hometown, placed in the heart of an enemy village… how could he show such a smile in this situation?
This in itself was a silent yet powerful declaration, this kid absolutely came voluntarily!
"Interesting..."
Yondaime Raikage instantly labeled Makoto as 'audacious to the extreme' in his heart. He remained impassive, his gaze shifting imperceptibly towards his side.
Dodai, standing half a step behind and to the side of the Raikage, had long since fixed his single eye on Makoto like a hawk.
His tacit understanding with Yondaime Raikage was bone-deep. The moment he received the look, Dodai stepped forward half a step.
A deliberately created oppressive aura, carrying the smell of iron and blood, surged towards Makoto like a tangible tide.
Dodai's voice was low and direct, like an unsheathed kunai, gleaming coldly, striking straight at the core.
"Uchiha Makoto," He began, each word carrying heavy weight, "Why did you want to come to Kumogakure? Aren't you afraid..."
Dodai deliberately paused, his single eye fixed intently on Makoto's face, trying to catch even the slightest hint of panic.
However, the somewhat childish face opposite still wore that inscrutable, relaxed smile. The earlier intelligence said he was extremely precocious, and upon contact, he found it was indeed so.
Dodai's vigilance increased even more. His single eye narrowed into a dangerous slit, using colder, more blunt language to tear off any disguise.
"Aren't you afraid of being treated as a pure stud and kept confined? Pampered with fine clothes and food, your only job being to have 'deep exchanges' with women from the village possessing excellent bloodlines, until you can't perform anymore?"
Hearing this, a slight change flickered in Makoto's eyes, but it was quickly reined in. He couldn't be bothered to play psychological games or engage in drawn-out mental tug-of-war with them.
In the Shinobi World, especially in front of these village's higher-ups, playing clever tricks was actually a very foolish thing, because they had too many methods to make people tell the truth.
Moreover, Uchiha Makoto never played false… he always played it real, sincere. He simply spread his hands and got straight to the point.
"Save it."
Makoto's clear voice broke the stagnant air as he casually waved his hand. "Skip these meaningless probing phases."
Under the Raikage's suddenly sharp, knife-like gaze and Dodai's single eye shooting out intense light, Makoto lifted his chin slightly.
"Why did I want to come to Kumogakure? The reason is simple: Konoha has already rotted."
"The current Uchiha Clan's Clan Head won't support me as the new Clan Head, so I plan to come to Kumogakure to establish a new Uchiha Clan!"
"And I, Uchiha Makoto, will become the founder of the new Uchiha Clan in Kumogakure, its first Clan Head!"
Reaching this point, Makoto leaned forward slightly, his eyes burning, as if announcing a grand blueprint for a great enterprise. A word popped out of his mouth that made both the Raikage and Dodai pause.
"I, I'm just too eager to advance!"
Hearing this, Yondaime Raikage said: "The current Uchiha Clan's Clan Head, Uchiha Fugaku, isn't he your..."
Makoto directly cut him off: "It's him! Even the Great Elder agreed for me to become Clan Head. Given my relationship with him, he is the one who disagrees? It's simply turning the world upside down!"
"...?"
Samui and Mabui nearby looked at Makoto, thinking inwardly.
'Just who is turning the world upside down between you and Uchiha Fugaku?'
Yondaime Raikage's brows knitted into a tight knot. He had seen countless abductees… those who resisted hysterically, those who despaired and committed suicide, those who wept and pledged loyalty, those with ulterior motives hiding treachery.
The most common were those who tried to be clever, and their outcomes were often extremely miserable.
But someone like this kid before him, righteously declaring 'I want to build my own clan in your village and be the boss', this was absolutely the first instance since the village's founding.
Makoto, watching the two men pondering, suddenly changed his tone. His aura suddenly rose, starting to stack buffs on himself.
"Listen, I am the Uchiha Clan's second young master, the clan's publicly acknowledged 'Future of the Uchiha Clan', the current Uchiha with the greatest talent and potential (money) power!"
Before the words faded…
Hum…
Uchiha Makoto instantly erupted with Chakra far surpassing his peers. In his black eyes, two peculiar tomoe slowly rotated within his pupils, eerie, powerful, emitting a pressure of Pupil Power.
When away from home, status and position are what you give yourself.
"My talent," Makoto's voice carried an unquestionable confidence, "Far surpasses that of the former Asura of the Shinobi World, Uchiha Madara!"
This earth-shattering declaration made even Yondaime Raikage's pupils tremble violently.
But that wasn't all. Makoto immediately followed up with more chips.
"Moreover, in the future, I can also bring quite a few Uchiha Clan's members to Kumogakure."
"My big brother, Uchiha Itachi," He spoke extremely fast, like rapid-fire, "Not even ten years old, Three Tomoe Sharingan, Jonin-level strength, a genius among geniuses."
"Uchiha Shisui is my sister-in-law... cough, slip of the tongue!" Makoto almost blurted out his inner thoughts, coughed, then continued.
"Uchiha Shisui is my big brother's close friend. The name 'Shunshin no Shisui' was earned by slaughtering through the mountains of corpses in the Third Shinobi World War, resounding throughout the Shinobi World!"
"Teenage years, Three Tomoe, Elite Jonin-level strength! Only a hair's breadth away from Kage-level strength."
"Even..." Makoto loved to shock with his words, his eyes shining brightly as he looked at the Raikage.
"The current Uchiha Clan's Clan Head, Uchiha Fugaku… in the future, it's not impossible for me to 'persuade' him to come to Kumogakure too!"
"!!!"
Dodai's single eye contracted sharply to the size of a pinprick, intense light bursting forth. Not joy, but vigilance and cold intent that instantly escalated to their peak!
The more enticing, the more grand the future Makoto painted, the more piercingly the alarm bells rang in his heart.
'A large number of Uchiha Clan's members defecting to Kumogakure? It sounded like a heaven-sent fortune, an opportunity for Kumogakure's strength to explode?'
'But in the future?'