After finding the three children, Mu patted Mon on the shoulder.
“The Uzumaki clan head wants you to spar with the village kids.
Win cleanly, but try not to crush their confidence too badly, all right?”
“Huh?
Teacher?
You already agreed for me?”
Mon stared at him with blank little eyes.
He had expected this trip to be nothing more than a chance to visit his old clan.
He hadn’t imagined there would suddenly be a combat demonstration involved.
“Of course I agreed.” Mu adopted a solemn expression.
“The Uzumaki clan will be sending children to study in our country in the future.
How many they send—and how talented those children are—depends on you.”
“I understand.”
Mon nodded seriously.
He also wanted his former clansmen to see the world beyond their clan.
And, preferably, go eat some good food in the Nation of a Hundred Clans.
The sparring matches were scheduled for that very afternoon.
It was sudden, but for the Uzumaki clan, throwing up a barrier and preparing a training ground took virtually no effort.
There weren’t that many ninja in the village, yet most of them still came to watch.
The children here learned chakra-refining methods from a young age and had decent chakra control.
But Mon felt almost no pressure facing opponents around his own age.
What could he do?
Back in the Nation of a Hundred Clans, his training partners included Uchiha Mu’s killing intent, Chomei’s killing intent, various forms of chakra suppression, and Mu’s Sharingan staring holes through every mistake he made.
Compared with that, this really did feel like bullying children.
“Isn’t he being a little too arrogant?” one Uzumaki spectator muttered after seeing how relaxed Mon looked.
“I don’t think so,” another replied, shaking his head.
Not everyone failed to see the difference.
The two children formed the Seal of Confrontation.
As usual, the match began with taijutsu.
It was a probing exchange.
At their age, even if they knew ninjutsu, forming the necessary hand seals still took time.
Opening a fight by standing still and casting a technique wasn’t exactly wise.
‘His movements are too wide.
There’s the opening.’
Mon remembered his sparring sessions with Mu.
Mu had a habit of beating them while simultaneously explaining everything they were doing wrong.
With the Sharingan, Mu could not only read their movements but also observe the flow of chakra inside their bodies and predict what they intended to do next.
Sure enough, seeing Mon apparently look down on him, the Uzumaki boy threw a straight punch.
It never landed.
Mon shifted backward just enough to make it miss and snapped a kick upward into the boy’s chin.
The Uzumaki child was launched off his feet.
“I pulled that last kick,” Mon explained first.
Then he remained where he stood and activated the Mind’s Eye of the Kagura.
His opponent’s chakra was gathering toward his mouth.
Wind Release.
“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!”
Still on the ground amid the dust kicked up by his fall, the Uzumaki boy quickly formed his seals.
His hand speed wasn’t particularly fast, but he had enough time.
A violent blast of wind swept the dust forward and slammed into Mon.
A moment later, Mon’s body turned into a log.
“Substitution Jutsu,” Mon said from behind his opponent.
“If you use it at the right moment, it can completely reverse a fight.”
He held a kunai against the boy’s back.
“Winner: Uzumaki Mon.
Form the Seal of Reconciliation,” the Uzumaki ninja acting as referee announced.
Mon fought three more matches afterward.
He ended nearly all of them using nothing more than taijutsu and the basic Substitution Jutsu.
By then, the Uzumaki spectators had fully realized just how strong he was.
They might only be watching children spar, but Ashina understood the implications better than anyone.
On a real battlefield, his clan’s children would have died before surviving even a single exchange with Mon.
The gap in combat intelligence was simply too large.
“I’ll fight him.”
A red-haired girl jumped onto the training ground.
She was Uzumaki Sana, one of the clan’s young geniuses.
Despite being the same age as Mon, she had already learned a large number of the clan’s sealing techniques.
She could also use the Adamantine Sealing Chains and was skilled in Fire Release.
Mon had no objection, so the referee instructed them to form the Seal of Confrontation.
The instant the match began, Sana unleashed the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
The bloodline ability required no hand seals, and several chains shot toward Mon with frightening speed.
Mon hadn’t learned that technique yet.
He drew his blade and blocked one of the chains.
The impact was heavy.
There was no point testing her further.
The instant a gap appeared, he formed a seal.
“Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!”
As an Uzumaki himself, Mon possessed equally impressive chakra reserves.
More than a dozen shadow clones appeared across the field and rushed Sana from every direction.
“They’re not normal clones?”
Sana couldn’t identify the original.
She swept her Adamantine Sealing Chains around herself, widening her attack range and refusing to let any of the clones approach easily.
Three clones vanished in bursts of smoke.
Several others gathered together and hurled a few of their companions toward Sana.
“So fast!”
Sana leaped backward while controlling her chains, then quickly formed seals.
“Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!”
A fireball blasted through the incoming figures.
Every one of them turned out to be a shadow clone.
Meanwhile, the real Mon was already closing the distance.
“Water Release: Water Formation Wall!”
Water collided with flame.
A massive cloud of steam immediately flooded the training ground and blocked everyone’s vision.
Sana couldn’t see a thing.
Then a figure suddenly appeared behind her.
‘Oh no!’
Sana’s mind raced, but she couldn’t immediately think of a technique that would solve the situation.
That was the problem with knowing too many advanced techniques too early.
Something as simple as the Three Basic Techniques barely even entered her mind.
Mon wasn’t going to stand there while she worked out an answer.
He kicked her away.
“That’s enough!
Uzumaki Mon wins.
Form the Seal of Reconciliation!”
The referee immediately stepped in.
“How did you know where I was?” Sana asked, genuinely confused.
“Neither of us should have been able to see through that mist.”
“Mind’s Eye of the Kagura.”
“But…”
Sana turned and noticed one remaining shadow clone in the distance.
It was maintaining the sensory technique.
A moment later, the clone dispersed.
Shadow clones were special.
When they vanished, their memories and experiences returned to the original.
Mon had used that property to locate her without exposing his main body.
“Substitution Jutsu is still extremely useful,” Mon said as he formed the Seal of Reconciliation with her.
“Don’t underestimate basic techniques.”
“I didn’t think…”
Sana took Mon’s offered hand and stood back up.
Her eyes drifted toward the surrounding clan members.
She had lost.
The girl everyone in the Uzumaki clan called a genius had lost to someone her own age.
Mon cheerfully returned to Mu’s side.
“Teacher, how was that?
I won beautifully, right?”
“Ahem…”
Mu looked at the sea of red-haired Uzumaki surrounding them and gave an awkward laugh before taking the three children back to their temporary residence.
Ashina watched them leave and sighed quietly.
Was he really falling behind the times?
Perhaps letting the younger Uzumaki see the country Uchiha Mu had built was the right decision after all.
Konoha had never been an option in his mind.
He had already noticed that Konoha, beneath the surface, was simply an enormous collection of ninja clans with internal conflicts of its own.
Hashirama’s overwhelming strength was the main reason those conflicts remained suppressed.
Ashina had no desire to send his people into that kind of complicated environment.
Then Madara left Konoha.
Uchiha Mu founded a country of his own.
The entire direction of the shinobi world began changing.
Mu had even come to the Uzumaki clan almost immediately with Hyuga Ryono and asked permission to adopt their orphans.
Ashina turned toward Sana.
“Sana, are you willing to go to the country that fellow Uchiha Mu established?”
“Clan Head, I am.”
Sana lowered her head respectfully.
The Uzumaki had not joined Konoha, but Ashina’s strength had still allowed the clan to live relatively peaceful lives.
“Keiko will lead the group.
This time, twenty clan members will go.” Ashina looked around.
“Ask who wants to surpass Uzumaki Mon.”
He had made his decision.
Perhaps Uchiha Mu had been right.
Once Hashirama and Ashina himself were dead, the Uzumaki clan would become an isolated island whose survival depended almost entirely on Konoha.
Mu’s earlier words came back to him.
‘You’re going to entrust the future of your clan to Konoha?
You really believe every future Hokage will honor the same promises?
If that’s what you truly think, then I misjudged you.’
Ashina’s expression hardened.
Exactly.
How could he place the future of the Uzumaki clan entirely in someone else’s hands?
He was Uzumaki Ashina.