The three bright red "eliminated" marks on the target list stood out sharply. Even Senju Wajima, the son of Senju Butsuma, had already been assassinated — proof that the war had reached a fever pitch.
But for Gin, who still hadn't fully adjusted to his new identity, the idea of killing children under ten was deeply unsettling. Still, given the current situation, all he could do was take things one step at a time.
"The Hagoromo clan already took out Senju's third son. We need to catch up!" Fenghuo encouraged, seeing the team poring over the intel.
Unable to hold back any longer, Gin quietly asked Ryouichi beside him, "Is this really okay? Going after kids that young?"
Ryouichi gave him a puzzled look. "Weren't you the one most eager? You kept charging ahead, even got us spotted and forced into that fight with the Senju."
Gin cursed inwardly. He had inherited the original's memories, but in his shock and haste, he hadn't fully processed the man's actions.
Of course, just because he saw what the original did didn't mean he personally felt responsible. Watching a movie and living it were not the same thing.
He put on an embarrassed smile and pointed to his bandaged head. "Got hit by one of the Senju and smashed my skull on a rock. My memory's been a little fuzzy. Sorry about that."
Seeing the wound, Ryouichi let it go — given Gin's abilities, it was a miracle he'd survived that punch at all.
With the matter smoothed over, Gin used the lull to dig deeper into the original's memories.
What he found was fragmented, like an old, skipping VCD. But after piecing it together, he finally understood the source of the original's recklessness.
Gin had lost his parents in the war at age eight. Uchiha Tajima, not yet clan head at the time, took him in. Two years later, when Tajima became clan head and started his own family, Gin was treated more like a son than a nephew and served as bodyguard to Tajima's young sons.
But war didn't care about age or innocence. In one battle, when the Uchiha strongmen were all at the front lines, the clan lands were raided. Left to guard the women and children, Gin was quickly overpowered. The enemy forced his eyes open and made him watch as Tajima's wife and three youngest sons were slaughtered.
"Pathetic. Can't even awaken your eyes? Trash like you is better off dead," the attacker sneered.
The raiders left him alive, confident he'd never be a threat. Gin knelt among the corpses for three days, oblivious to the stench of decay.
When Tajima returned and saw the carnage, his Sharingan bled tears of blood. Fortunately, his two eldest sons, Madara and Izuna, had accompanied him to the front and survived. Tajima never blamed Gin, assuming he was already broken and as good as dead.
"Makes sense, but… these memories feel almost too perfectly tragic, like they were scripted," Gin muttered to himself. The clan had investigated the massacre, but the trail had gone cold. There were no signs of ninjutsu, only external injuries. The culprit was never found.
The original, despite witnessing it, couldn't describe the method clearly — only that one enemy seemed to use weapons pulled from his own body. In the dim light, he hadn't seen much.
But Gin, with his knowledge of the series, immediately recognized the technique — using one's bones as weapons. Aside from Kaguya Ōtsutsuki sealed on the moon, only her Kaguya clan descendants, exiled by the Uchiha and Senju, could do that.
"If the Kaguya were behind it, how'd they even get into Uchiha territory? We must've had a traitor… a guide like Obito?"
Still, Gin felt no personal anger — after all, he wasn't really that Uchiha Gin.
His more pressing concern was his own strength — his only means of survival. After all, the original couldn't even beat a ten-year-old Madara.
So where did that place him?
He thought through the hierarchy: there weren't yet official ranks like Jonin and Chunin. Instead, power was roughly divided into leader, elder, captain general, captain, and regular soldier.
Roughly translated: leader = Kage-level, elder = pseudo-Kage-level (capable of fighting a Kage by burning their life force), captain general = elite Jonin, captain = Jonin, regulars = Tokubetsu Jonin or Chunin, and cannon fodder = Genin.
Tajima, Butsuma, and other clan heads like Uzumaki Ashina and Sarutobi Yukimura were Kage-level. Their deputies and elders were pseudo-Kage. Fenghuo, with his three-tomoe Sharingan, was likely elite-Jonin to Jonin level. Ryouichi and the others, with two tomoe, were Tokubetsu Jonin or Chunin.
And the original Gin? Unawakened Sharingan, mediocre taijutsu, barely passable kenjutsu, and only the weakest, least-lethal Katon (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique). His only decent skill was shuriken accuracy.
Overall rating: cannon fodder.
(End of Chapter)
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