While Uchiha Setsuna’s internal brainstorm reached its peak, a system notification sounded in Naoki’s mind.
[Ding!]
[Emergency Mission: Display of Majesty, Completed.]
[Mission Evaluation: Perfect (The host’s performance exceeded expectations, successfully dealing a devastating psychological blow and spiritual reshaping to the target group).]
[“Intimidation Experience Card (Uchiha Madara – Peak Version)” effect has ended.
Body control has been returned.]
[Friendly Reminder: For the host’s personal safety, please continue to maintain the aloof persona and do not expose your inner salted fish nature.
The system’s “Micro-expression Management” effect will linger for five minutes; please make good use of it.]
A tidal wave of weakness instantly surged forth as if his body had been hollowed out, but it was quickly suppressed by another cool power flowing from deep within his eyes.
That was the constitution optimization effect that came with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan rewarded by the system during a previous check-in.
Although he was still as exhausted as if he hadn’t slept for three days and nights, he didn’t collapse on the spot.
“I’m back!
I can finally control my own body!” Naoki was overjoyed internally.
It felt like being pulled back to the surface from ten thousand meters under the sea; he almost wanted to dance on the spot to celebrate his survival.
But he immediately remembered the system’s “friendly reminder.”
Maintain the persona!
Yes, he had to maintain that damn persona!
He could clearly feel that the dozens of gazes behind him were no longer simple blades, but had turned into searchlights and microscopes, pinned to his back with fear, confusion, and a certain kind of fanaticism that made his skin crawl.
If he suddenly reverted to his cowardly self now, he would definitely be exposed on the spot.
At that time, this group of Uchiha, whom he had just trampled over spiritually, would definitely tear him to pieces because of the huge contrast and the sense of humiliation from being deceived!
“Calm down, Senju Naoki, calm down!
Imitate the system’s manner just now—yes, that look that treats everyone like trash, that posture where you can’t even be bothered to raise an eyebrow for them!
I can do this!
I’ve lived two lives and acted for so many years in the workplace; one more time won’t hurt!”
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to run away, and locked that weakness deep within his bones.
Then, slowly, with a rhythmic cadence like the turning of gears, he turned around to face the group of Uchiha Clan members who were acting as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
His face still bore the lingering effects of the “Micro-expression Management” bestowed by the system—a cold indifference, with not even the slightest change in the curve of his lips.
He slowly lifted his eyelids, his gaze sweeping across the secret room.
Although he had not actively activated the newly acquired Three-Tomoe Sharingan, its passive effect, “Permanent Dynamic Vision Enhancement,” was still functioning extraordinarily.
In his eyes, the whole world slowed down and became incredibly clear.
He saw it.
He saw Uchiha Setsuna’s face, distorted by extreme shock and fanaticism, the muscles on the man’s face trembling minutely at a frequency of thirty times per second.
He saw the few Uchiha closest to him; their pupils had shrunk to pinpoints, and their Adam’s apples were bobbing frantically, yet they couldn’t even swallow a mouthful of saliva because fear had caused their salivary glands to stop secreting.
He could even see, further away, a young Uchiha whose prideful Three-Tomoe Sharingan was flickering irregularly due to excessive mental shock; his Chakra flow was in complete disarray, almost causing him to fall out of the activated state.
Naoki’s heart skipped a beat, and his stomach churned.
“No way?
I humiliated them like this, and they’re actually looking at me with those…
eyes mixed with adoration?
Do these people have some kind of special fetish?
Is the legendary warrior race made up of masochists?”
He completely failed to understand the thought process of the Uchiha Clan.
But now was not the time to think about that.
He had to say something to end this damn, suffocating standoff.
What should he say?
“Um…
big brothers, sorry, I took a wrong turn to the bathroom.
Sorry for the intrusion, I’ll be going now?”
No, too cowardly.
“Your stone tablet is nice, the patterns are quite unique.
Where’d you buy it?
Is shipping included?”
No, too stupid.
He’d still die.
Just as he was racking his brains, thinking about what lines he could use to safely escape while maintaining his persona, the pit-digging system, as if sensing his predicament, once again proactively provided help.
A line of dialogue was forcibly crammed into his mind like a brand.
Naoki felt his mouth go out of control again.
He opened his mouth and spoke slowly, in an extremely flat tone that seemed to state a fact yet contained endless dominance:
“Having seen the stone tablet, is this the only level of caliber you’ve managed to comprehend?”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it was like a precise scalpel, cutting through the noisy heartbeats and heavy breathing, echoing clearly in everyone’s ears.
Every word was like a heavy hammer wrapped in ice, ruthlessly striking their prideful souls.
What arrogance!
What contempt!
He was actually…
guiding them?
A Senju was guiding the Uchiha Clan on how to understand their own sacred relic?!
Uchiha Setsuna’s breathing hitched.
He stared at Naoki with bloodshot eyes, not blinking once, for fear of missing any detail or expression.
Naoki (his mouth) paused.
That brief pause felt like a century to the crowd, as if he were giving this group of “foolish juniors” a bit of time to think and react.
Then, in a tone carrying a hint of obvious disappointment and boredom, he spat out the second half of the sentence.
“Truly…
a bunch of boring fellows.”
After saying this, Naoki’s control over his body was finally completely returned by the system.
He felt his legs go weak, and the clothes on his back were completely soaked with cold sweat, sticking icily to his skin.
“System, you bastard!
Saying something like that at a time like this, isn’t that just adding fuel to the fire?!
They’re going to kill me!
They’re definitely going to kill me!” he wailed frantically in his mind.
However, to his surprise, after he spoke this line, which could be called the ultimate mockery, not a single person in the secret room showed any anger.
They were just…
even more terrified.
There was even a sense of near-distorted…
realization mixed within that fear.
If the previous sneer was contempt for what they held dear, then this sentence was a complete denial of their entire existence and their entire clan.
We are…
boring?
We, the Uchiha Clan, one of the strongest clans in the Ninja World, we who possess the Eyes of the Sage…
in your eyes, are we just a bunch of boring fellows who aren’t even qualified to pique your interest?
This evaluation, like a dimensional strike, crushed their self-esteem and sense of glory into dust, so much so that not even a decent fragment could be pieced back together.
Naoki didn’t give them any more time to react.
He knew that now was the only, and final, chance to escape!
He forced himself to remain calm, turned around, and stepped toward the dark passage he had come from, walking away with a swagger.
His pace was neither fast nor slow, steady and powerful, each step landing with absolute precision.
But every step felt like treading on the edge of death.
His back was once again exposed defenselessly before this group of Uchiha elites.
Dozens of pairs of Sharingan that could see through all falsehoods were now like dozens of unsheathed blades hanging behind him.
“Don’t attack, don’t attack, I beg you, please don’t attack…” he prayed frantically in his heart, while on the surface, not even a single muscle showed stiffness.
One step, two steps, three steps… This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
He entered the passage.
His figure was half-swallowed by the darkness.
Five meters, ten meters…
In the secret room behind him, there was still a dead silence.
Only the sound of breathing suppressed to the limit.
It wasn’t until his figure was about to disappear into the darkness of the passage’s corner that he finally couldn’t help it.
His physical instinct overrode his reason, and he quickened his pace, almost scrambling away on all fours.
When Naoki’s figure had completely vanished, the oppressive, soul-freezing atmosphere in the secret room finally shattered with a crack, like ice struck by a heavy hammer.
“Whew…
whew…
ha…”
Several young Uchiha Ninjas could no longer hold on; their legs gave way, and they slumped onto the cold stone floor, gasping for breath like drowning victims who had found new life.
In the entire underground secret room, among dozens of Uchiha elites, not a single person actually dared to step forward and stop him.
They just watched helplessly as that eight-year-old Senju brat humiliated their faith and denied their existence in their forbidden ground, right in front of everyone, and then…
walked away.
This day would become a nightmare they could never erase in their lives, as well as…
an unspeakable miracle.
Everyone was still immersed in the trance of surviving a disaster, except for Uchiha Setsuna, who slowly, slowly lowered his head.
His body was trembling violently, but it wasn’t from fear; it was from an uncontrollable, near-manic excitement!
He slowly raised his hand and looked at his trembling fingertips, as if he could still feel that aura of ruling over the world from just now.
“Caliber…
boring…” he murmured to himself, his voice hoarse and distorted.
Suddenly, he laughed.
First a low, muffled chuckle, then it turned into uncontrollable wild laughter.
“Haha…
Hahahaha!
So that’s how it is!
So that’s how it is!”
He snapped his head up, those Three-Tomoe Sharingan burning with an unprecedented, manic light sufficient to incinerate all reason in the dim lamplight.
“I understand…
I understand everything now!”
“He wasn’t humiliating us…
he was disappointed!
He was warning us!”
“He thinks our caliber is too small, our vision too narrow!
He thinks we’re…
too boring!”
“That’s right!
This is him!
This is the domineering aura that a successor of Lord Madara should have!”
An incredibly clear and incredibly crazy thought formed with a bang in his mind.
Welcome back the Holy Son?
No!
That’s far from enough!
This group of “boring fellows” must offer a sufficiently interesting Certificate of Loyalty to be worthy of following in his footsteps!
A grand gift…
sufficient to make the entire Ninja World dance!