After watching Uchiha Cai and Uchiha Yin leave, Uchiha Yuan fell into deep thought. He had long known that the Third Great Ninja War would lead to huge losses for the Uchiha clan.
After all, in the original story, Uchiha Itachi had mentioned that after the war, only the First Unit of the Konoha Police Force was entirely composed of Uchiha.
But Yuan hadn't expected the losses to be this severe.
Just look at the Third Unit—they had already lost more than half their numbers, and there were still about four years left in the war.
At this rate, no wonder the Uchiha were so depleted after the war ended.
With so few members left, even if all three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan holders sided with the hawks and launched a coup, the outcome likely wouldn't change much.
"What a mess," Uchiha Yuan couldn't help but sigh.
At the same time, beneath the Bear Country camp, White Zetsu had heard the entire conversation between Yuan and Uchiha Cai.
He felt this clansman was also a suitable candidate for Uchiha Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan. So, White Zetsu left behind a spore clone and used his Mayfly Technique to rush back to Madara's side.
At this point, Uchiha Madara's hair was white, his skin sagging—if not for the Gedo Statue's life support, he would have been long dead. Saying he was on his last breath was no exaggeration.
Even so, this Shura of the ninja world exuded immense pressure just by sitting there. His scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan seemed to see through everything.
He was examining a dossier, filled with records of Uchiha children between the ages of 10 and 15.
"Lord Madara, I've found another promising seedling," said White Zetsu as he emerged from underground, interrupting Madara's thoughts.
Madara glanced at him, and White Zetsu, who was usually carefree, immediately froze in fear.
He obediently stood to the side, waiting until Madara finished reviewing the document.
"Another bunch of trash. How could these ones be qualified for the Eye of the Moon Plan?" Madara said, flinging the documents aside.
"Please don't be angry, Lord Madara. I really found a good one this time—someone who absolutely fits your standards," White Zetsu hurriedly said.
"A promising one? Let's hear it."
"He's currently on the Bear Country battlefield, a recently graduated genin, turning eleven in half a month. He—"
"Cut the nonsense. Has he awakened his eyes yet?" Madara interrupted.
"Yes. Not only that, he's already evolved to two tomoe."
Hearing that, Madara became interested. Two-tomoe at age 11—indeed impressive.
But early awakening didn't necessarily mean high potential. He had seen many Uchiha who awakened before age ten and still faded into mediocrity.
Even he himself didn't awaken his Sharingan until age twelve, and yet he later dominated the ninja world—with only Hashirama Senju as a rival.
"Tell me about him in detail."
"Lord Madara, this kid is definitely a genius. He—"
White Zetsu then reported all of Uchiha Yuan's recent behavior and details.
After listening, Madara showed a curious expression.
"He believes that the Konoha founded by Hashirama and the Uchiha clan were once of shared glory and misfortune, and now wants to lead the Uchiha out of their predicament?
Interesting... Some of this kid's thinking is very similar to my younger self.
But people like him are hard to control. And right now, it's hard to judge whether he has the potential to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. After all, awakening the Mangekyo depends on the depth of love in the heart."
"Lord Madara, that kid seems to have a special relationship with a Hyuga girl on his team."
"Hyuga? Must be from the branch family?"
White Zetsu nodded.
"Then there's some room to maneuver. Add him to the list of key observation targets."
"Yes, Lord Madara."
"How many key targets do we have now?" Madara asked.
"With this kid, four in total."
"Only four? Still too few."
"Could it be your standards are too high?"
Madara snorted coldly and said nothing. White Zetsu didn't understand anything. Madara was confident that no one in the ninja world understood the Mangekyo Sharingan better than him. Everyone he selected had a high probability of awakening it.
After the final battle at the Valley of the End, Madara had predicted that even if he fell to Hashirama, Tobirama wouldn't dispose of his body immediately, but would instead study the Sharingan.
So before his death, Madara cast the forbidden jutsu Izanagi on his right eye, using it to rewrite reality and fake his death with a shadow clone. Then, he quietly escaped into the mountains of Konoha.
Before leaving, of course, he didn't forget to take the results of Tobirama's research on the Sharingan. Combined with his own Eternal Mangekyo, Madara's understanding of the eye was unrivaled.
Because of this deep understanding, Madara's standards for selection were strict. After all, not everyone could awaken the Mangekyo.
...
Back in Bear Country, Uchiha Yuan's team received a new mission after two days of downtime.
This time, their task was to guard members of the Hyuga main house for a week.
Apparently, every reconnaissance team had taken turns on this duty, and now it was their turn.
Hyuga Asana had no objections to the mission; on the contrary, it was Yamanaka Kagetsu who grumbled.
In his eyes, the Hyuga main family contributed nothing to the war, yet still wasted resources needing protection—frustrating.
In fact, many ninja shared Kagetsu's sentiment. They had long been fed up with the Hyuga main house.
While Konoha fought Mist on the battlefield, it was the ordinary ninja who bled at the front lines, while those two useless Hyuga lounged in the camp center, protected by everyone. They didn't lift a finger, ate better than most—who wouldn't be resentful?
If not for the Hyuga clan's thousand-year legacy and prestigious kekkei genkai, those two would've been dragged off and beaten by now.
Of course, the Hyuga main house wasn't completely useless. They had access to superior training resources. Any member with even slight talent would grow strong under such advantage.
But those kinds of clan elites were the clan's foundation and rarely deployed to the battlefield. In this generation, only Hyuga Hiashi had come to the front.
The rest of the main family here? Useless. They were sent only to give the appearance of fairness to the branch family—pretending the main house also faced danger.
(To Be Continued...)