Takehito was quiet for a while.
Then he said, "You're not telling me all of this for nothing."
Fugaku looked at him.
"What are you planning to do?"
Fugaku nodded once.
Good.
His father was sharper than he had given him credit for.
He realised the true picture already.
That mattered more than it looked.
In fact, this entire conversation might decide whether Fugaku, and by extension the clan, had any real chance of rising from here, not the Mangekyo.
No matter how capable Fugaku became, he was still sixteen.
For the next several years at least, perhaps the next decade or more, Takehito remained the patriarch.
If the two of them pulled in different directions, Fugaku would spend half his time fighting his own clan before he ever got to Konoha.
That was why he had prepared this conversation so carefully.
"I'll start with myself."
Takehito's eyes narrowed slightly.
"The Mangekyō."
Fugaku nodded.
"I need to understand it properly. Develop it more, so I get better prepared for the future. Quietly."
His father immediately looked more serious.
Fugaku raised a hand before he could speak.
"I know."
"Do you?"
"I know about the strain. The damage. Overuse."
Takehito relaxed only slightly.
"I'm not going to sit in a training ground spamming it until I go blind."
"Good."
"I'll test it in small amounts. Measure the cost always first, of course."
Takehito gave a slow nod.
"That is acceptable."
Fugaku continued.
"There are also a few fields I ignored before because they didn't seem worth the time."
"Such as?"
"I'll decide the order first."
Inwardly, Fugaku already knew.
Medical ninjutsu.
Fūinjutsu.
And much more serious taijutsu.
All three had become far more valuable with what he now understood about the world.
"Beyond that, I want to broaden my ninjutsu."
Takehito raised an eyebrow.
"Broaden?"
"My comprehension is naturally better than before."
That was an understatement.
"I don't need the Mangekyō active to benefit from whatever changed. I should be able to copy and learn much faster now."
Fugaku, as a big clan heir, already had all of the basic ninjutsu that were worth learning.
Shadow Clone too, one of Tobirama's inventions that had spread widely during the First Shinobi World War, and most major clans acquired it.
What he lacked was breadth.
Fire Release was already his strongest element.
His second affinity was Lightning.
He had never pushed it nearly as far.
Didn't have that much time.
That would change.
Time is compressed for him now.
Takehito's expression shifted.
"If you're finally going to develop Lightning properly..."
Fugaku looked at him.
"...then it's time you started learning Plasma Release."
Fugaku paused.
Then mentally slapped himself.
"Right."
How had he forgotten that?
One of the main reasons Takehito had reached quasi Kage level in Fugaku's own estimation was precisely that advanced transformation.
The combination of Fire and Lightning.
Plasma Release.
It also explained something else.
Sasuke's ridiculous natural compatibility with both elements, unlike other Uchiha, had probably not been random at all.
There was some bloodline inheritance behind it.
The knowledge simply disappeared with the clan.
Sasuke never had anyone left to teach him.
All materials were confiscated by Konoha.
Takehito leaned back.
"You also have the affinity for it. I confirmed that years ago."
Fugaku's interest sharpened.
Plasma Release was not simply hotter Fire Release.
It created highly energized chakra that behaved more like ionized flame, faster and more piercing than ordinary fire, with enough electrical instability to burn, shock, and tear through defenses at the same time.
Difficult to control.
Dangerous to mishandle.
Extremely effective once mastered.
Exactly the sort of thing Fugaku wanted.
"I've kept my notes for you," Takehito said.
"How thoughtful."
"I expected you to need them eventually."
"Even more thoughtful."
Takehito gave him a dry look.
"You can joke after you manage the first stable conversion."
Fugaku smiled.
"Planning to test me personally?"
"Obviously."
Takehito's mouth moved faintly.
"It seems there are still a few things you need your father for."
Fugaku smiled back.
"Apparently so."
Fugaku also knew that advanced composite elemental releases were not always something a shinobi had to be born with.
The world was rarely that black and white.
Ōnoki was the obvious example.
His Dust Release was a Kekkei Tōta, yet he and Mū were not biologically related.
Mū, the brilliant creator, had simply found a successor with the right talent and affinities, trained him personally, and passed the method down, allowing him to awaken it later in life.
The situation with Fugaku and Takehito was similar.
Just easier.
Lightning affinity combined with the Uchiha's naturally strong Fire Release had existed in their family line for generations.
That was probably part of what had made their branch exceptional enough to succeed Madara's after he left.
The actual Plasma Release, however, was much newer.
One of Fugaku's recent ancestors, his great-grandfather, had been the first to properly develop it in his lifetime.
Takehito inherited the necessary traits and learned it after him.
Now Fugaku had the same foundation.
That still did not make it a fully established Kekkei Genkai.
Not yet.
For that, the trait would need to stabilize and reproduce naturally across enough consecutive generations that descendants could awaken it as a true inherited bloodline rather than having to reconstruct it through some affinity, talent, and training. Follow the newest chapters on novelping . com.
For now, Plasma Release was somewhere in between.
A family technique with a hereditary foundation.
One that Fugaku happened to be perfectly positioned to inherit for free.
Fugaku then shifted the topic.
"As for my current position in the Police Force, we should not change anything. That's the last thing we should do now, actually."
Takehito looked at him.
"I'll continue as Captain exactly as before. Same workload. Same expectations. Give me whatever assignments you would have given me naturally over time if none of this happened."
That part mattered.
The Mangekyō had to remain secret.
So did the extent of Fugaku's changes.
And although he trusted most of the clan far more than Konoha's leadership, he was not stupid enough to assume the entire Police Force was perfectly clean.
The safest disguise was normality.
No sudden promotion.
No suspicious reduction in workload.
Just Fugaku Uchiha continuing exactly where he left off.
Takehito frowned.
"But your training..."
Strangely enough, for perhaps the first time in Fugaku's life, his father seemed to be suggesting he work less.
Fugaku smiled.
"That's what Shadow Clones are for."
Takehito stared at him.
"...You're planning to work and train at the same time."
"Efficient, isn't it?"
"Exhausting is another word."
"They don't do everything."
Fugaku raised one hand.
"Physical conditioning is obviously out. I'm not going to become stronger because a clone did a few push-ups for me before they popped. So my clone will also have to do some 'work' in the office."
Takehito gave him a dry look.
"Glad you solved that mystery."
"But studying?"
Fugaku continued.
"Fūinjutsu. Medical theory. Anatomy. Chakra theory. Memorization. Technique analysis. Those are perfect."
Even ninjutsu training could benefit to a degree.
The limitation was chakra.
A Shadow Clone received a divided portion of the user's chakra.
If Fugaku split himself too aggressively, each clone would become too fragile to perform meaningful repetitions before exhausting itself and disappearing.
"So I can't create fifty useful clones and pretend I'm Naruto."
Takehito frowned.
"Who?"
Fugaku paused.
"...Nobody."
That had been close.
He continued before his father could ask.
"The point is, the clones need enough chakra to actually work."
Before the awakening, Fugaku could create only around three additional Shadow Clones comfortably while keeping enough chakra in his original body to remain functional.
Which sounded embarrassing when compared to certain future monsters.
For most shinobi, it was perfectly normal.
The Uchiha were not particularly famous for enormous raw reserves either.
And not everyone was a blond future pervert born with Uzumaki vitality, a tailed beast company inside of his mother's belly, and whatever ridiculous, possibly-Senju diluted genetic luck the Namikaze line had contributed.
That boy had been less a shinobi and more a cheat code mutant with prophecy attached.
Fugaku, fortunately, had improved.
The Mangekyō had made his chakra noticeably denser, and his naturally strong physical constitution already gave him a better foundation than most Uchiha.
"Right now, I think I could maintain around ten useful clones for an average type of workload day. But it depends on the agenda."
His father stared at him for a moment.
Three days ago, Fugaku had been capable of a fraction of that.
Takehito sighed.
"You're going to become unbearable, aren't you?"
Fugaku smiled.
"I was thinking efficiently."
"I preferred you unconscious."
"That's hurtful."
"Unfortunately, you seem healthy enough to survive it."
Fugaku ignored him and pondered something.
He had already decided on his immediate priority.
For now, while attention had conveniently shifted away from him, strength came first.
This was too good an opportunity to waste.
Root thought it had already measured him.
The village had little reason to suddenly watch him more closely.
His Mangekyō remained secret.
So Fugaku intended to squeeze as much growth as possible out before making any larger moves around the clan.
"Once I'm stronger," he said, "then we can start looking at what else can actually be changed."
Takehito glanced at him.
"You already have something in mind."
Fugaku smiled faintly.
"A few things."
"Such as?"
"The Uchiha are increasingly isolated inside Konoha."
Takehito's expression hardened.
"So perhaps we should stop looking only inside Konoha."
That earned a longer look.
Fugaku did not elaborate yet.
He had ideas about external allies, foreign opportunities, and ways to increase the clan's position without waiting for the Hokage to graciously grant them more room.
But those plans still needed work.
And Konoha itself was not completely barren either.
A few natural possibilities remained.
The Senju, for one.
Not the clan as it once existed.
That was already mostly gone.
But several hundred hard-line remnants still lived around the old compound, many of them older shinobi and families who had never fully embraced their clan's gradual dissolution into the village.
Their raw strength might not be enough to change much.
What they represented mattered more.
The founding clan slowly erased from politics.
Old grievances.
Lost status.
And, if the current trend continued, probably more reasons to resent the Hokage's centralization later.
Potentially useful.
Then there were the Hyūga.
That clan irritated Fugaku in an entirely different way.
They were losing influence almost as steadily as the Uchiha, yet somehow continued accepting it.
At least the Nara received something in exchange for loyalty.
They behaved like reliable Sarutobi allies and, in return, retained trusted positions close to the Hokage administration, including the traditional top adviser slash chief assistant roles.
The Hyūga?
They had the Byakugan.
One of the greatest reconnaissance bloodlines in the world.
They supplied scouts, sensors, trackers, and reconnaissance specialists across Konoha. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Their eyes gave the village an enormous intelligence advantage.
And what did the clan itself control institutionally?
Barely more than a permanent reconnaissance formation, around the village, they could still call their own at this point.
Fugaku suspected he already understood why.
As long as the Main Branch remained free to dominate the Branch Family through the Caged Bird Seal, they had little incentive to challenge Konoha over anything larger.
The Hokage left their internal hierarchy untouched.
In exchange, the clan remained obedient.
Comfortable arrangement.
For the Main Branch.
Fugaku had always found the Hyūga situation strange, even compared to what the old story had shown.
Something about the clan felt fundamentally off.
But, if there was a way to break the Caged Bird system, free the Branch Family, and replace the people benefiting from it...
Then perhaps Konoha would suddenly discover that the Hyūga were capable of political 'opinions' after all.
If the current leadership would never stand against the Hokage, then find people who would.
Simple enough in principle.
Extremely difficult in practice.
Two of the future Sannin were also becoming personally interesting to Fugaku.
Though for very different reasons.
That could also wait for now, though.
Outside Konoha, there were other possibilities too.
Clans.
Villages.
Countries.
Organizations.
Individuals.
People whose interests might eventually overlap with the Uchiha's.
Fugaku still needed to sort which were realistic and which were merely clever ideas at three in the morning.
Another practical problem immediately followed.
"If I'm going to make moves outside the village eventually, I need a better way to use Shadow Clones."
The current technique divided chakra too crudely.
Half for one clone.
Then further divisions after that.
Useful for combat.
Wasteful for deception.
Fugaku wanted control.
Ten percent into one clone.
Five percent into one clone.
Enough to maintain a convincing presence inside the village, without sacrificing half his reserves, every time, simply because the technique was mechanically inflexible.
"Some kind of chakra absorption technique for redistribution..."
That might be a direction worth studying for this.
And if Fugaku ever intended to leave Konoha secretly, even through a clone arrangement, that created another massive problem.
Sensory Barrier.
ANBU patrols.
Sensors.
Even that Hyuga unit.
Who knew what else.
He could not rely on simply walking through the gate wearing a different coat.
He needed much better sensory knowledge.
To anticipate and potentially evade active individual sensor ranges and search for Hyuga blind spots.
More importantly, counter-sensory techniques to even be able to trick that large barrier, in the first place.
Methods for suppressing, disguising, or altering his chakra signature, and even physical presence if possible.
Fugaku frowned.
"The clan has existed for centuries. There has to be something ..."
Maybe not perfect. But enough to build from. That became another item on the growing list.
From what Fugaku could already gauge, high-level sensing depended heavily on how well a shinobi could spread their chakra over distance.
Not in dense bursts, of course.
In something far thinner.
Lighter.
Almost particle-like.
A diffuse field sustained over time, wide enough to touch distant chakra signatures without wasting too much energy.
Otherwise, why had clans like the Uzumaki and Senju produced some of the best sensors in history?
Karin's Kagura's Mind Eye was one example from the future.
Tobirama was another.
That man had been able to sense chakra signatures across absurd distances, practically on a country-wide scale under the right circumstances.
At higher levels, sensing was not even limited to simply noticing that chakra existed.
A skilled sensor could begin extracting information from it.
Rough strength.
Identity, if familiar.
Emotional state.
Changes in chakra flow.
Even lineage.
Fugaku certainly did not possess Uzumaki or top-tier Senju reserves.
But his chakra was respectable.
Especially now.
And realistically, he did not need to sense half the Land of Fire.
He only needed enough range and precision to detect Hyūga scouts, ANBU sensors, patrols, or anyone else positioned around Konoha's perimeter once he exited.
After all, Konoha obviously could not keep its entire, already limited pool of capable sensors scattered around the village perimeter and actively sensing twenty-four hours a day.
That was exactly why the barrier existed.
Most qualified sensory shinobi would be far more useful operating the barrier's unique technology itself from a secure, classified facility inside Konoha, working in shifts and monitoring anything that crossed the village boundary.
The village did not need to waste them sitting in forests outside the walls hoping to notice someone slipping past.
There would still be some patrols, sensors, and Byakugan outside, obviously.
But those were secondary.
The real problem was the barrier.
If Fugaku wanted to leave Konoha without anyone knowing, figuring out how to cross that invisible line without triggering whatever sensory mechanism watched it was the first obstacle he had to solve.
That was different.
He could avoid an individual sensor.
He could route around a patrol.
He could probably avoid a Byakugan sweep if careful enough.
But the barrier defined the village as a whole.
Getting through that unnoticed required something else entirely.
Suppression.
Not spreading chakra outward, but doing the opposite.
Compressing it.
Stillness.
Preventing leakage.
Making his presence faint enough that whatever mechanism monitored the barrier failed to register him properly.
That sounded less dependent on monstrous reserves and far more dependent on refinement.
Which made Fugaku much more optimistic.
Chakra control had always been an Uchiha strength.
His own had improved further after the awakening.
And if advanced suppression had any relationship to Yin, spiritual presence, or the soul itself...
Then he might have an unusually good foundation for it now.
Perhaps even a natural talent.
"Could be worth testing."
Not recklessly, of course.
Until he had both the sensing and counter-sensing side worked out properly, Fugaku had no intention of trying to sneak outside Konoha.
Future knowledge was useful.
It did not make him invisible.