The night was like ink, and the moonlight was obscured by thick clouds. Behind the Uchiha Clan Compound, Uchiha Kei's training camp remained brightly lit.

The thirty members did not relax just because the competition was tomorrow; they were divided into two groups, conducting intense squad tactical combat drills. Shouts and the sounds of fists and feet colliding echoed through the forest. Everyone had adjusted their state to the peak, their clothes soaked with sweat, but their movements showed no hesitation, becoming even more swift and fierce instead.

On a distant mountain peak, atop the branches of a giant ancient pine tree, a figure appeared silently, like a ghost blending into the darkness. He wore the standard Anbu attire, and on his face was a white mask painted with a weasel pattern. Uchiha Shisui.

He had just finished a deep-cover mission in Root and returned to the village when he heard about the massive changes that had occurred within the clan over the past month. A youth named Uchiha Kei had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, created a new taijutsu called "Assault Style," and made a wager with the Council of Elders to challenge the elites of the Military Police Force using a group of civilian Ninjas.

Out of wariness for the word "Mangekyō Sharingan," and concern for any variables that might affect the relationship between the clan and the village, he decided to come and see for himself.

Scarlet Sharingan lit up in the darkness, with three tomoe slowly rotating. Shisui suppressed his presence to the extreme, silently observing everything below.

At first, it was just curiosity. However, the more he watched, the more his astonishment grew beyond measure.

As the recognized taijutsu genius of the Uchiha clan, he saw the extraordinary nature of "Assault Style" at a single glance. That taijutsu discarded all the superfluous movements in other Uchiha styles that existed merely for the sake of aesthetics. Every move was minimalist to the extreme, striking directly at vital points, filled with a pure efficiency born for slaughter. Punches, whip kicks, elbow strikes, knee strikes—the force generation method of every movement had been precisely calculated to maximize the transmission of the body's strength to the point of attack.

This was no longer taijutsu in the traditional sense, but a complete, scientific art of killing.

If this taijutsu itself only made him feel surprised, then the tactical proficiency displayed by the thirty members below left him deeply shocked.

A member of the Blue team failed a feint and exposed a weakness. Two members of the Red team immediately seized the opportunity, attacking simultaneously from two tricky angles, seemingly about to "kill" the Blue team member. In that flash of lightning, two other Blue team members, without a shred of hesitation or even any verbal communication, filled the gap from the left and right, instantly forming a triangular defensive formation to protect their comrade behind them. And the member who had failed the feint, the moment they were protected, crouched down and launched a counterattack at the Red team members' lower bodies from an incredible angle.

The transition between offense and defense was as smooth as flowing water and fast to the extreme.

Shisui's Three-Tomoe Sharingan even required him to focus all his energy to keep up with the rhythm of their coordination. This was no longer simple teamwork; it was as if one person was simultaneously controlling several bodies in battle. He saw that during the confrontation, some would proactively sacrifice themselves to create attacking opportunities for their comrades; others would use their own bodies as bait to lure enemies into traps. Their actions were entirely based on the principle of maximizing team interests, with personal life, death, glory, and shame long since cast aside.

A thought stirred up turbulent waves in Shisui's heart.

He finally understood what Uchiha Kei had actually been doing for the past month. He was not training a group of Ninjas; he was forging an army! An army possessing absolute discipline, absolute tacit understanding, and an army that would spare no cost for victory!

Shisui recalled those so-called elite squads he had seen on the battlefield. They might have been powerful individually, but they were filled with suspicion and wariness toward each other, and their so-called coordination was merely superficial. If such an elite squad were to face this "ragtag army" before him, with equal numbers, Shisui did not doubt for a second that the ones eventually torn to shreds would be the former.

This was no longer child's play; this was a brand new, terrifying mode of warfare, a mode capable of overturning the existing combat system of the entire Shinobi World.

In Shisui's mind, Uchiha Kei's calm face emerged. He had originally thought that the other party was just a lucky person who had chanced upon awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan between life and death. But now, his evaluation of Kei was instantly raised to an unprecedented level.

That was not a lucky person; that was a strategist, a terrifying strategist with vision that transcended this era.

He was not like Uchiha Fugaku, indecisive between resistance and compromise. Nor was he like Elder Setsuna and the others, stubbornly clinging to decaying traditions. He was like a scalpel—calm, precise, and clear in his objective—cutting away the malady of the clan.

But, was this blade too sharp?

For the first time, Shisui felt intense internal conflict. He had always firmly believed that he could use "Kotoamatsukami," the gentlest of methods, to bridge the rift between the clan and the village and avoid bloodshed. But the appearance of Uchiha Kei had shown him another, completely different path—a path filled with iron and blood, a path filled with resistance and change.

Which path was the correct one?

Shisui silently watched the training ground below, where sweat and hot blood were being shed, his heart filled with confusion. Should he report Kei's situation truthfully to the Third Hokage? If he reported it, given Danzo's personality, he would inevitably view Kei as a greater threat than himself and use every means to eliminate him, which would undoubtedly ignite the conflict between the Uchiha and the village. If he did not report it, and let this force of Kei's continue to develop, where would the future lead?

His heart wavered. Those Mangekyō Sharingan, once hailed as the "strongest genjutsu," could not see the direction of the future at this moment.