After reporting the selected candidates for the mission to the chief elder, all that was left to do was wait for the team to assemble. But thinking about it, just waiting around wasn't an option. So Uchiha Ryo couldn't help but ask how long it would be before they could set off.
Then, upon getting the answer, he straightforwardly took his younger brother and took on a few short - term missions outside the clan, leaving the clan territory. He thought that if he could help his younger brother awaken his Sharingan during this time, he wouldn't take his brother to the Land of Lightning.
Unfortunately, although Madara's spiritual power had improved significantly, there was no sign that he would awaken his Sharingan during these short - term missions. Moreover, when Uchiha Ryo came back to hand in the mission after completing it with his brother, he was blocked at the mission - handling place by Uchiha Akihiko and Uchiha Hiro, their faces solemn.
The two didn't even care about Madara, who started to get riled up the moment he saw them. They grabbed Uchiha Ryo from left and right and started dragging him away. It was only after Uchiha Ryo had been dragged for a while in a daze and then realized what was going on and spoke up to stop them that they stopped in a hurry.
"If I hadn't sensed it was you guys, I'd have thought I was being kidnapped in the clan territory..." Uchiha Ryo straightened his clothes and sighed. "Even if you've discovered something, there's no need to be so hasty, right?"
"It's about the stele..." Uchiha Akihiko lowered his voice. "Someone has tampered with the stele."
Uchiha Ryo stopped straightening his clothes, and his expression instantly turned cold. "No wonder... Wait for me a moment. I'll go tell Madara and then come."
"Hurry up," Uchiha Hiro clicked his tongue. "To think someone managed to sneak into the clan's ancestral hall. A bunch of..."
Listening to the indistinct swear words from Uchiha Hiro, Uchiha Ryo didn't waste any more time. After a brief sense to identify the direction, he walked towards Madara.
"Brother."
Hearing Madara's slightly displeased voice, Uchiha Ryo reached out and ruffled his younger brother's hair. The cold solemnity on his face faded a bit. "Come on, stop being angry. I have some urgent business with Akihiko and the others. Can you handle handing in the mission?"
After hearing this, Madara frowned even more. "Yes, I can do it alone... But brother, if your peers always come to you for everything, then what's the use of them? In that case, wouldn't it be more comfortable to do everything alone?"
Hearing this, a hint of worry appeared between Uchiha Ryo's brows. "Madara, the saying 'human strength has its limits' exists for a reason. Even if your talent allows you to handle all unexpected situations, there will surely come a time when you need companions...
Madara, those who walk alone are doomed not to go far. Companions are essential. If possible, brother hopes you can make a friend who is as strong as you and can understand you, even if he is from a different clan..."
Madara glanced at the two anxious - looking people at the street corner and subtly curled his lips. "Brother, you're overthinking. At least at the same age, I haven't achieved as much as brother did back then. And it's simply impossible to make friends with those from other clans."
Uchiha Ryo (Ling) was even more helpless. But just as he was about to say something, Madara gently nudged him. "Big brother, go and attend to your business. Although those two are not as capable as you, they usually act with propriety. Their abruptness today must mean there's something urgent. If you want to talk to me, you can do so when we get home tonight. For now, focus on them."
"…Alright, then I'll trouble you with the mission submission, Madara."
"Sure," Madara nodded. "Big brother, have a Favourable Wind!"
Madara watched as Uchiha Ryo (Ling) picked up the pace and headed straight for the two people standing at the street corner. After a brief exchange, Ryo followed them with a cold look on his face, using chakra to leap onto the rooftops and disappear from sight. Only then did Madara lower his head to look at the mission Scroll clutched in his hand. After a brief moment of silence, he sneered disdainfully and strode into the mission - handling place.
Naturally, Ryo had no idea about Madara's subsequent reaction. He just followed the two people, taking shortcuts all the way to the clan's ancestral hall. After informing the guarding clan members, he went straight to the underground area where the stele was placed.
Once out of the sight of the clan members, Hiro spoke first, his voice low. "The day after you took your younger brother on a mission, Uchiha Akihiko showed me the Bamboo Carving Book he had carved for you previously.
To be honest, I didn't think there was anything wrong at that time. I just thought that some radical - thinking ancestors had changed the information to be left on the stele when recording it. As we all know, once our Uchiha clan members awaken their Sharingan, they tend to act a bit erratically.
But when I saw what was recorded on the stele with pupil power, I knew something was off. Uchiha Akihiko isn't a sensory ninja, so he might not have noticed. But I'm different. The moment I used my Mangekyo Sharingan to read the stele's contents, the Malice on the stele almost made me vomit.
Under the influence of that overwhelming Malice, I couldn't continue reading by myself. I had to drag Akihiko over to watch with me in case of any accidents. After I finished reading the entire content and started engraving, Akihiko then told me that some of the later - recorded Mangekyo jutsu were abnormally blurred.
When we asked the clan members guarding outside, they claimed that no other clan members had come since Akihiko's last visit. However, the modified stele couldn't be a fake. Someone must have sneaked in."
"Hiro is right," Uchiha Akihiko nodded. "Moreover, the technique used to blur the pupil - power records is very sophisticated. It looks as if it's been worn away by time. If I hadn't seen it relatively clearly last time and you'd asked me to engrave it twice, I definitely wouldn't have paid attention even if I noticed the difference this time."
Ryo frowned and placed his left hand on the stele. But in his sensory perception, the stele seemed to be just an ordinary one. Realizing this, Ryo knew that he needed the Sharingan to more effectively detect the stele's Mondai. But he…
His hand holding the sword hilt tightened involuntarily. After taking a deep breath, Ryo spoke in a low voice. "…Which specific eye jutsu were blurred?"
"It's those eye jutsu that were awakened in a relatively peaceful manner, along with a small number of offensive eye jutsu." Hiro Uchiha glanced at the bulging veins on Uchiha Ryo's right hand back. "If you hadn't come back, we would have reported it directly to the clan."
"Yeah, it should be reported to the clan. But simply reporting like that won't work at all," Uchiha Ryo withdrew his hand. His expression had returned to his usual calm, but the corners of his lips that were always filled with a warm smile were now curved down into a cold and hard angle. "The clan's ancestral hall has always been a place to pay homage to the ancestors. Even if no important materials are stored there, it is filled with spells, and clan members are dispatched to guard it in the long term.
It's no big deal to avoid the guards' vigilance, but avoiding these spells is another story. We can thus infer two possibilities.
The first possibility is that an Earth - attribute clan member, who harbors hatred towards the clan, has concealed the awakening of his Mangekyo, and is extremely familiar with the spells in the ancestral hall, took advantage of the situation to secretly modify the content on the stele."
"It's unlikely," Uchiha Akihiko shook his head. "There aren't many Earth - attribute clan members in our clan. Among our peers, there's only Hiro. Moreover, even if someone knows the spells like the back of their hand, it's impossible to enter here without damaging any of the spells. At most, they could break them silently and then repair them upon leaving.
But that would definitely leave traces. After Hiro and I noticed something was wrong, we immediately checked the spells here. All the spells are intact, and there are no traces of the surrounding rock layers having their properties changed by chakra."
"Then it can only be the second possibility," Uchiha Ryo let out a long breath. "There is one, or even a group of outsiders who can use strange jutsus, have extremely high attainments in spells, and may have obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan. They are targeting our Uchiha clan and harbor great Malice towards us.
Although it may not be appropriate to say so, I'd rather it be a clan member who has become resentful of the clan and tampered with the stele. After all, the most disturbing situation is the unknown."