Rasa opened his eyes.
The scene around him felt somewhat unfamiliar.
This was the Uchiha clan compound, but compared to last time, it was completely different now.
The towering walls made it feel like a prison.
Compared to before, it was far, far smaller.
Only a short little street remained.
Simple houses lined both sides, and only the luxurious courtyard at the end of the road remained. It had once belonged to Uchiha Yamakaku, but its current owner should now be Uchiha Fugaku.
"So this is all that's left of Konoha's Uchiha?"
The sky gradually brightened.
Uchiha Tekka opened the doors to his senbei shop, looked to both sides, and let out a sigh.
Beside him, Uchiha Uruchi noticed his worry and patted him on the back.
"As long as we're still alive, that's enough."
Tekka withdrew his gaze and forced out a smile.
"Staying alive is enough… but there aren't many customers left to buy our senbei now."
The senbei shop had once depended on the Uchiha clan for its livelihood.
Now, only a few dozen Uchiha remained in Konoha.
And many of them did not even like senbei.
Rasa walked toward the senbei shop.
"Good morning, Uncle Tekka."
"Good morning, Gen."
Rasa accepted a senbei and said, "Uncle Tekka, you could open the shop in the village's commercial street. With your skill, you'd definitely attract a lot of customers."
Tekka shook his head.
"Forget it. Leaving aside whether anyone there would even rent a shop to me, if I opened one there now, there wouldn't be any normal customers willing to come."
"Even before this, the people in the village already had a lot of prejudice against us Uchiha."
"After the civil unrest, their opinions of us Uchiha have only gotten worse."
"I don't even dare go out anymore. The moment I do, I'm guaranteed to get hostile stares. People curse behind my back, and some even throw stones, trash, rotten eggs…"
The more Tekka spoke, the angrier he became.
Clearly, he had experienced all of this personally.
Otherwise, with Tekka's temperament, he would never have said something like this.
Probably because these days had been so stifling, Tekka kept talking and talking.
He ended up telling Rasa nearly everything about the Uchiha's and Konoha's current situation.
As he listened, Rasa thought silently.
After the civil unrest, Uchiha Fugaku had immediately drawn a righteous line between himself and the Uchiha rebels, and at the same time turned over most of the Uchiha clan's wealth to the village.
Officially, it was said to be compensation for the villagers harmed by the Uchiha.
But in reality, what Fugaku handed over was not just the property of the Uchiha rebels.
A great deal of it had actually been clan property shared by the entire Uchiha—
Assets that had previously been controlled by Fugaku's household and the various elders.
Now all of it had been given away.
It could be said that the remaining few dozen Uchiha had become impoverished overnight.
All the benefits they once had were gone.
All that remained were a few worthless scraps.
If they wanted to survive, they could only start struggling again from scratch.
But with Konoha's current attitude toward the Uchiha, even if they worked hard, they might not get any reward.
They might even be targeted more severely.
Only the Fugaku family's situation was probably slightly better.
Suddenly, Tekka's voice dropped.
Rasa turned to look and saw a somewhat familiar figure.
Uchiha Yakumi.
A member of the Konoha Military Police Force.
"Uncle Tekka, two jin of senbei."
"Right away."
Only then did Yakumi look toward Rasa.
"Good morning, Gen."
"Good morning, Senior Yakumi. But why are you buying so much? Two jin—you won't be able to finish that, will you?"
Yakumi walked over and lowered his voice slightly.
"Clan Head Fugaku asked me to come. He wants to support Uncle Tekka's business a little. For quite some time to come, life is going to be difficult for the entire Uchiha clan. Clan Head Fugaku plans to look after everyone as much as he can."
Rasa showed a look of realization and then asked, "In that case, where are you going afterward, Senior Yakumi?"
Yakumi let out a sigh.
"Where else can I go? Right now, we Uchiha have no work and no missions. It's even inconvenient for us to leave the compound. All we can do is wander around inside. I'm planning to head to the training ground."
"For a ninja, training to improve your strength is always useful. Gen, want to come along?"
"Shisui will be there too."
Rasa hesitated for a moment, then agreed.
"All right."
Before long, Tekka came out carrying the two jin of senbei.
Yakumi took them and headed toward the training ground.
Rasa followed closely behind.
No missions.
The Police Force had been taken back by Konoha.
Not a single Uchiha was on the battlefield.
This was the Uchiha's true situation now. If they weren't prisoners, the only difference was the lack of an official name.
Outside the Uchiha compound, large numbers of ninja monitored everything inside.
"Senior Yakumi, who's in the Police Force now?"
"It's been taken over by members of the Sarutobi clan and the Shimura clan. They also recruited some civilian ninja."
Yakumi said, "The Sarutobi and Shimura clans suffered the heaviest losses last time, so most of the compensation from the Uchiha went to those two clans."
"That includes the portion of the Uchiha compound that was carved away."
Before they even entered the training ground, they could already hear the sounds of training from inside.
The two pushed open the door.
A line of sight immediately turned toward the entrance.
"Senior Yakumi, Senior Gen."
Uchiha Shisui was already drenched in sweat. He had probably arrived unusually early.
Rasa sized up Uchiha Shisui, and a trace of hunger rose in his heart.
Though young, his bearing was already remarkably composed. Despite his age, he had already spent years being tempered on the battlefield, had achieved excellent results, and had built a reputation for himself.
"This is what talent looks like."
"Why doesn't Sunagakure have talent like this?"
"Konoha really has too much talent."
"Luckily, they don't know how to cherish it."
"Otherwise, the other villages would have an even harder time—especially Sunagakure."
"The stronger Konoha becomes, the worse Sunagakure's days get."
"I wonder if there's any way to trick Uchiha Shisui into coming to Sunagakure."
After training for a while, Rasa saw Shisui sitting on a bench at the edge of the field resting, and walked over.
He sat down beside him.
"Senior Gen."
Rasa gave a slight nod.
"Shisui, you're one of the Uchiha clan's geniuses. You've seen the clan's situation with your own eyes. I want to hear your thoughts. What do you think the future of the Uchiha will be?"
Uchiha Shisui sank into a long silence.
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