"A mysterious giant scroll?"
Uchiha Reki muttered inwardly. This system was practically a miser; what good could possibly be inside a broken old scroll?
"Lord Hashirama, go to sleep early. I'm heading back."
With that, Uchiha Reki vanished into space, leaving Senju Hashirama standing there in bewilderment.
He was just leaving? Weren't they going to chat a little longer? He was going to be so bored all by himself out here.
Uchiha Reki opened his eyes, and sure enough, a massive scroll stood upright in the room.
Look at this scroll—it was both huge and long...
Uchiha Reki carefully unrolled the scroll to see what kind of big treasure was hidden inside.
Well, you have to hand it to them, the collection was quite abundant.
Sabres, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, and forks.
Tridents, sickles, long lances, clubs, whips, maces, hammers, grappling hooks, crescent-moon spades, and meteor hammers.
Some with ridges, some with blades.
Some with ropes, some with chains.
Some with barbed hooks, some with butterfly stickers...
This was practically an entire armory.
Since his parents had passed away early and left him no inheritance, Uchiha Reki had always survived by casually borrowing Uchiha Shisui's small shuriken for target practice.
Last month, after he swiped Shisui's very last Fuma shuriken, Shisui had chased him across three entire streets.
Now things were different. He had inventory.
The kunai and shuriken he threw wouldn't need to be retrieved anymore.
Uchiha Reki channeled his chakra and released the seal on one of the weapons.
A dark, heavy blade crashed down onto the floor. The sacred rope wrapped around the guard had long since faded to grey-white, leaving only the dark patterns across the blade to shimmer with the faint blue light of chakra.
Unlike the common, slender samurai swords, this thing reminded Uchiha Reki of the heavy Xuan-scale ruler wielded by a guy named Xiao Huohuo from that battle-qi continent next door...
Uchiha Reki weighed it in his hands. It actually had quite a bit of heft to it.
Without the monstrous physical strength of the Senju clan, an ordinary ninja would swing this thing twice and exhaust themselves to death.
"Lord Hashirama, do you recognize this blade?"
Senju Hashirama thought for a moment. "Strange, isn't this the personal sword I used during my youth? Why is it sealed inside here?"
"Probably something Lord Tobirama did..."
Don't ask; whenever something happened, it was Senju Tobirama's doing.
Uchiha Reki went out into the courtyard and swung the battle-blade around, having the time of his life.
The personal sword of the First Hokage—that definitely had to be good stuff.
Senju Hashirama, residing within his body, once again acted as the commentator. "This blade is mixed with a massive amount of chakra metal, giving it exceptional chakra conductivity. Furthermore, it's blended with other metals and forged by the most experienced blacksmiths of my Senju clan. It's flawless in every aspect."
Uchiha Reki fondled the battle-blade in his hands, growing fonder of it the more he looked at it.
In an era where the power scaling hadn't completely collapsed yet, having a handy weapon was tremendously important.
As for not knowing any swordsmanship, that was even easier to solve: he would just have Uchiha Shisui swipe a manual from the clan library.
"Lord Hashirama, does this blade have a name?"
Senju Hashirama remained silent.
Uchiha Reki scratched his head. Whatever, he would just name it himself.
"Since it's Lord Senju Hashirama's personal sword, and your specialty is Wood Release, let's call it Karma Fire."
"Ahem, ahem, ahem," Senju Hashirama started coughing violently.
Putting away Karma Fire, Uchiha Reki unrolled the scroll once again.
Aside from common weapons, it also contained a large quantity of explosive tags and several sets of Warring States period armor.
He had no idea whether they belonged to Uchiha Madara or Senju Hashirama.
Carefully taking out a small amount of explosive tags and ninja tools to store away, Uchiha Reki began pondering other matters.
The scroll was great, but it was simply too large and inconvenient to carry around.
"Lord Hashirama, do you know of any ninjutsu that can seal this giant scroll inside a smaller scroll?"
"Usually, I'd only need to carry the small scroll, and when it's time to fight, I'd unseal the giant scroll."
Senju Hashirama thought about it seriously. "First of all, I've never heard of any matryoshka-style ninjutsu like that. Secondly, there's another problem: by the time you finish unsealing all those layers, won't you have already been hacked to death by the enemy?"
"Back in the day when I fought against Madara..."
Here it came again.
After listening to Senju Hashirama recount his history of love and hate with Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Reki suddenly came up with another idea.
"Lord Hashirama, do you think that once I learn the Flying Thunder God, I could stamp a mark on this scroll, fly back to it during a fight, and then carry it back?"
Senju Hashirama felt a deep wave of frustration. "Would it kill you to just carry it directly? Back when I fought against Madara..."
Uchiha Reki logged out of the group chat.
Time for bed. He still had to go to school tomorrow.
Uchiha Reki slept soundly, but someone named Uchiha Fugaku couldn't sleep at all.
He summoned the elder Uchiha Setsuna, and the two of them sat face-to-face to discuss the events of the day.
Uchiha Setsuna, who fancied himself the inheritor of Lord Uchiha Madara's will, had always been the representative figure of the radical faction within the Uchiha.
He advocated marching with blades drawn to surround the Hokage Building, forcing Sarutobi Hiruzen to abdicate and letting the Uchiha inherit supreme rule.
However, the majority of the Uchiha clan still wished to live in peace with Konoha and did not want to provoke any unnecessary wars.
Thus, on a certain night many years ago, Uchiha Setsuna drank three cups of liquid courage and single-handedly charged into the Hokage Building to assassinate the Hokage of that era, Senju Tobirama.
And then he got beaten up by Senju Tobirama and thrown into prison.
He wasn't released until many years of imprisonment had passed.
Far from being grateful for Senju Tobirama sparing his life, Uchiha Setsuna instead showed utter disdain.
*If you don't kill me today, I'll definitely finish you off tomorrow.*
After his release from prison, Uchiha Setsuna's standing had dropped quite a bit.
Yet this old man liked to pull rank based on his seniority, sticking his nose into every single trivial matter, which made Uchiha Fugaku feel extremely uncomfortable.
His visit to the clan head today was primarily to discuss the matter of Uchiha Reki.
"Elder Setsuna, coming to see me so late must be on account of Reki."
Uchiha Setsuna nodded. "Clan Head Fugaku, I'll speak bluntly: Uchiha Reki is merely the descendant of a traitor and must be dealt with severely."
Poof!
Uchiha Fugaku almost choked to death on his tea. Why was this happening again?
For the longest time, Uchiha Setsuna had held a deep aversion toward Uchiha Reki.
His good-for-nothing father had also been a fool; why on earth did he have to intermarry with the Senju clan, not knowing that the two clans were as incompatible as fire and water?
It was only because Uchiha Reki's performance had been so utterly mediocre afterward that Uchiha Setsuna had gradually forgotten such a person even existed within the clan.
Yet today, Uchiha Reki's three consecutive battles had caused this old man to take notice of him once more.
"Elder Setsuna, how can you say such a thing?"
"An Uchiha using nothing but First Hokage ninjutsu—that is clearly a desecration of the Uchiha!"
Uchiha Fugaku set down his teacup and hesitated for a moment before speaking, "He possesses half Senju blood within him to begin with; that is an unchangeable fact."
"Besides, didn't he awaken the Sharingan today as well?"
Uchiha Setsuna raised his voice. "Does he look anything like an Uchiha at all? That gesture of putting his hands together—he's carved from the exact same mold as that detestable Senju Hashirama!"
Uchiha Fugaku slammed his hand over Uchiha Setsuna's mouth. *Dammit, spout your nonsense all you want, but don't drag me down with you!*
Was the name of Lord Senju Hashirama something an old geezer like him could gossip about behind his back?
Besides, hadn't he been the one who claimed earlier that the kid looked identical to Lord Uchiha Madara and was destined for greatness? He always managed to flip the narrative however he pleased.
Uchiha Fugaku wore a worried expression. He naturally understood what Uchiha Setsuna was getting at.
The clan head was worried that if the Uchiha truly rebelled in the future, Uchiha Reki might hesitate due to his bloodline or even turn into a double agent.
If Uchiha Reki had remained a nobody, it wouldn't have mattered, but today he had suddenly exploded in power, effortlessly defeating three opponents.
One had to remember that although Uchiha Shisui was young, he was truly a genuine genius youth.
If Uchiha Reki really did become a traitor, it would undoubtedly deal a massive blow to the grand rebellion Uchiha Setsuna was so obsessed with.
Yet, should the Uchiha really rebel?
Or rather, could the Uchiha actually pull off a rebellion?
True, the White Fang had committed suicide and Uzumaki Mito had passed away, which had weakened Konoha's high-level strength to a certain extent.
But the Sannin and Lord Sarutobi Hiruzen weren't just sitting around doing nothing either.
Or did Uchiha Setsuna intend to emulate Lord Madara and use Kurama as a living battery?
Uchiha Fugaku shook his head, shaking these messy thoughts out of his mind.
"Elder Setsuna, let's observe him for a while longer."
Uchiha Setsuna let out a cold snort, inwardly cursing the current clan head for being indecisive and wishy-washy.
He had no idea how a soft-backed coward like him had ever been chosen as clan head.
After Uchiha Setsuna departed, Uchiha Fugaku walked out into the courtyard alone.
"To rebel, or not to rebel—that is a serious question."
Underneath that same sky, Sarutobi Hiruzen was also gazing up at the moon.