It was another sunny day in Konoha, Uchiha Keshiro was fighting against Uchiha Fugaku. And for what seemed to be the 10th time of the day, Fugaku fell on the ground… He had been defeated by Uchiha Keshiro… again.
This was the 10th time of the day. Uchiha Fugaku… He couldn't believe it. He was losing to a 12-year-old boy while he was a 22-year-old guy. He remembered it happened ever since those tournaments against the Senju brat started, Uchiha Keshiro had started growing stronger at a demonic rate.
From the day Uchiha Keshiro had that battle against Senju Araki, he had called out for Uchiha Fugaku and started training with him. Uchiha Keshiro knew that Fugaku was a Jounin ranked shinobi, so he used his Sharingan from the start.
Fugaku was well aware that Keshiro had a 3-tomoe Sharingan. He had unlocked it while he was on the run against some assassins. He was only 5-year-old when that occurred.
It was only with his Sharingan that he could keep his life against those assassins at that young age. Fortunately, another Uchiha had forgotten something at his home and returned to grab it. He saw Keshiro being attacked by an assassin and immediately went on to assist the clan head's son.
The Uchiha was winning the battle against that assassin when Keshiro snuck in and killed that Assassin once he got the opportunity. This was his first kill. And since that attack, the Uchiha Clan had increased their patrols around the Uchiha Clan District. The investigation revealed that it was an assassin from a small village named Takigakure.
This became a piece of huge news in the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Fugaku naturally heard of this matter as well. Since then, he had started keeping an eye out for Uchiha Keshiro.
Since the battle against Senju Araki, he had started his own sparring sessions against Uchiha Fugaku. Initially, he needed Sharingan to keep up with Fugaku, and in rounds of 10, he would only win a single time. That too by a fluke and also because Fugaku didn't use his own Sharingan.
However, as time passed by, Uchiha Keshiro's talent seemed to have started shining. Even amongst the Uchiha Clan, he was proving to be a dazzling gem, seen rarely in the generation.
Now…It was Fugaku who needed to use his Sharingan to keep up with Keshiro's speed. Whether it was his speed of hand seals or his elemental control… It had so massively improved that Fugaku could barely believe it.
Moreover, Uchiha Mikoto had turned 17-years-old this year. According to the wishes of the elders of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Mikoto was to be betrothered to him.
However, even though he might marry Mikoto, it didn't please him one bit. Although she was a beautiful woman, what Fugaku really wanted to be was the Clan Head of Uchiha Clan. If the things had remained as they were before, he would have married Uchiha Mikoto and become the Clan head as her husband.
But, with the talent displayed by Uchiha Keshiro right now. He had little doubt about who would inherit the position of Clan Head of Uchiha Clan.
His talent was already incredibly brilliant. His decision making skill was good as well. He was ambitious, and if Uchiha Keshiro did show his full power, perhaps only his father could defeat him. Or maybe that might not be possible as well… After all, he had no idea about the peak of his strength.
And currently, Keshiro was staring at Fugaku with a thoughtful look on his face.
Four years ago, he hadn't chosen Fugaku as his training partner just because he had drawn against Senju Araki. That did bother him, but he wouldn't choose Fugaku as his training partner for that reason.
He chose Fugaku because he had heard several elders and his father discussing the matter of his elder sister's marriage with Fugaku.
Keshiro wanted to keep an eye on Fugaku and see if he was worthy of his elder sister. In these 4 years, he had rarely seen Fugaku contact Mikoto. Moreover, Mikoto also didn't like to be in his presence. She didn't repel him only because of the wishes of the Clan Elders.
Perhaps it was at that moment he had decided to break the marriage before it reaches fruition. He didn't know who would be perfect for his sister.
No… That was the wrong question. There was no need to find someone perfect for his sister. As long as his elder sister remained happy, he wouldn't let out a complain even if that person wasn't an Uchiha.
However, this wasn't the only reason he had to become the Uchiha Clan head. The second reason was because of Senju Araki.
He felt a massive pressure from Senju Araki. Every time he faced him, he felt that he didn't stand a chance against him. There was also a secret concerning Senju Araki that have never been mentioned in the entire clan. It was that each time Senju Araki had lost, he would turn into Wood.
For the first few times, it confused Uchiha Keshiro and Uchiha Kazuma. However, soon enough, they understood, Senju Araki had stopped coming to the Uchiha Clan personally. He would merely send a Wood Clone with a large quantity of chakra.
After the fight against Uchiha Keshiro, Senju Araki would disappear from the arena, so many people figured he had left quickly during the smoke. Although both Uchiha Kazuma and Uchiha Keshiro came to know of this fact, they hid it from their fellow clan members. It would be quite a blow to them.
Uchiha Kazuma was quite worried about the mental state of his son after knowing about this. After all, Senju Araki hadn't even come personally to fight him. But, it seemed that his worries were baseless. Uchiha Keshiro cared little about whether he defeated Senju Araki or not. This whole competition felt more like a farce, but he was going along with it anyway.
Besides, he was sure that the Senju Clan was sure to prosper under the leadership of Senju Araki,
That is why he felt like he must grab the reigns of the Uchiha Clan to make sure the Uchiha Clan would rise as well. He didn't know how Fugaku would rule, but he held absolute confidence and arrogance in himself.
He was sure that the Uchiha Clan would rise to even greater heights under his own leadership.
After having defeated Uchiha Fugaku, he returned to the clan. He buried himself in the library and started ready books related to politics while keeping his Sharingan on.
He was well aware that if this knowledge was required to let the Uchiha Clan rise to great heights.
Araki had started training his Wind Chakra training. His hundreds of clones were training his Wind Chakra and managed to cut apart a waterfall after training for one month.
Sakumo was satisfied with his progress. It was tens of faster than he expected. It wasn't every day that someone could master an element for which they didn't have any affinity.
Currently, Araki was seated within a vast forest created by himself.
He was keeping his eyes closed while seated there. Suddenly, the blades of wind started to shoot out of his body.
Many of the trees around his body were slashed by these Wind Blades. These wind blades didn't pierce the trees, but they did manage to cut apart quite some bark of the tree.
The blades slowly grew fiercer and managed to cut apart the first trees which came in contact with them before their power considerably lowered.
The Wind Blades suddenly lost much of their sharpness. Instead of their sharpness, there was a hint of softness around the Wind Gusts.
As these Wind Gusts touched the leaves, some of the leaves were slashed to pieces. Araki increased his control over the wind, and soon enough, the leaves stopped getting slashed into pieces. Instead, they were gently gliding with the wind.
"Sharpness and Softness… I guess I need to practice the Softness part, even more, to make it useful in my Taijutsu Style." Araki said while staring at the forest around him.
"I wonder how long the Raikage is going to hold himself back. It has already been 1 month since those Kumo Envoys returned… When is the declaration of the war gonna come?" Araki shrugged his shoulders before getting ready to leave.