Chapter 26

This person came and went quickly. Uchiha Gin, having had a false alarm, closed the door and pondered his cousin-uncle's intentions.

"Little cousin Izuna, why do you think the clan leader wants me to work in the dungeon?"

Unable to fathom his thoughts, Uchiha Gin turned to ask Uchiha Izuna, who was staring down Senju Itama.

"Maybe he's afraid of you going out."

Izuna rubbed his chin and thought for a moment before saying,

"Because your strength is really..."

Looking at his little cousin who stopped mid-sentence, his answer coincided with the guess in his own heart.

From the original owner's memories, ever since that tragedy in his childhood, his strength had stagnated. He didn't know if it was because his Dao heart was shattered and he lacked motivation, or if it was due to limited talent.

In any case, because the original owner's strength was insufficient, Uchiha Tajima had always assigned him simple tasks within the clan.

Such as guarding the clan leader's building, patrol teams, etc. —positions that wouldn't take him far from the clan grounds. This recent mission was only arranged because the original owner had threatened to die for it.

"Is it really just protection in disguise? I hope I'm just overthinking it."

Uchiha Gin pondered in his heart.

Having rested enough, Uchiha Izuna saw that it was getting late, made a face at Senju Itama, and the youth stood up slowly to take his leave.

Uchiha Gin went to the door to see him off. Just before leaving, Izuna suddenly turned his face away and said in a somewhat awkward tone,

"Thanks, the food was delicious."

After saying this, he fled in a panic without looking back.

"Are all Uchiha tsundere?"

Uchiha Gin thought as he touched his own curly hair.

Turning back into the room, he saw Senju Itama immediately straighten up, his eyes turning stiffly as he said stubbornly,

"What exactly is your goal?"

"Kid, you're safe for now, but only while you're with me."

Uchiha Gin didn't explain too much to him,

"In any case, before the war starts, you'd better stay here quietly."

Not many people knew Senju Itama's identity, and he figured Uchiha Tajima wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

Since he had been entrusted with watching this kid, it meant the war hadn't reached a white-hot stage yet. Once the decisive battle was imminent, the kid's fate would be hard to say.

Thinking of the trash system's mission, Uchiha Gin had another headache. Making an Uchiha protect a mortal enemy Senju—was he really being asked to play a double agent?

"Starting today, you sleep in the bedroom."

Uchiha Gin looked at the bewildered kid, arranged for him to have the only bedroom in the house, then entered the bedroom, rummaged through the wardrobe for a long time, and came out with a stack of clothes in his arms.

"These are from when I was a kid; you should be able to wear them."

He said, handing the clothes to Senju Itama. His own clothes had long been tattered from the journey.

"I'm going to rest now. You can try them on tomorrow."

He had been on the road all day and had an episode with Uchiha Izuna.

Feeling relaxed, Uchiha Gin was quite exhausted. Ignoring Senju Itama, who was staring blankly at the clothes, he lay down on the living room sofa and fell asleep.

Senju Itama looked at the clothes in his hands, hesitated for a long time, walked into the bedroom, and a moment later, snoring could be heard.

At this moment, Uchiha Gin, who should have been fast asleep, quietly opened his eyes. After listening to Senju Itama fast asleep in the bedroom, he got up and pushed the door open, his footsteps making no sound at all.

The sky was pitch black, with only faint firelight flashing from the construction watchtowers in the distance. He circled his house once, finally chose a spot in the blind corner behind the house, and used a few pieces of firewood to build a simple fence.

Patting the dust off his hands, Uchiha Gin looked at his "masterpiece" with satisfaction. After all, time was tight, and being able to make it look like this was already pretty good.

He immediately sat cross-legged inside the fenced area and closed his eyes to doze.

I don't know how much time passed, but feeling the surrounding air suddenly stagnate, Uchiha Gin, who had already had two experiences, knew this was the precursor to a skill refresh.

He opened his scarlet eyes quickly and scanned his surroundings. With the aid of dynamic vision, everything in the dark night was clear, but he found nothing.

Just as he frowned and wondered what it would be this time, a hand quietly appeared on his shoulder.

In an instant, Uchiha Gin felt a chill run through his body, his hair standing on end. The owner of the palm made no move, and Uchiha Gin stiffly turned his head to look at the hand resting on his shoulder.

The palm was very pale, and the protruding knuckles could be seen on the slender fingers, but this wasn't what made him feel the most terrified.

Catching a glimpse of the black nail polish on the fingertips and the ring embedded with a gemstone on the ring finger made Uchiha Gin's heart go cold.

He didn't even need to look closely at the "Vermilion" character engraved on the ring to guess who had come.

Knowing he was no match, Uchiha Gin didn't want to sit and wait for death. He secretly channeled chakra to gather in his arms,

Strength of a Hundred, activate!

With a resentful, heavy elbow strike from Uchiha Gin, the person behind him turned into a flock of crows and scattered, then gathered in the distance into a figure wearing a black cloak with red clouds.

Although he already knew his fate, Uchiha Gin just wanted to punch Itachi, this great filial son.

With his Sharingan active, he didn't hesitate. Determined to land a punch even if he had to suffer Tsukuyomi, he used the Strength of a Hundred with both hands and smashed toward the dazed Uchiha Itachi.

Strangely, this time Uchiha Itachi only opened his right Mangekyou Sharingan. As a line of blood tears flowed down, Uchiha Gin found that he hadn't been pulled into the illusion space.

Just as he was puzzled, he suddenly felt a heart-wrenching burning sensation in his hands, as if his soul were being burned.

Looking closely, his fists were stained with a layer of black flames. The fire wasn't large, but the burning sensation was extremely intense, making him wish he could chop off his own hands.

【Amaterasu】: The ability hosted by Uchiha Itachi's right Mangekyou, possessing black flames said to be able to burn everything to ash.

Damn it, what happened to the promised Tsukuyomi? Uchiha Gin rolled on the ground in pain; he had no means to deal with Amaterasu.

The Fire Sealing Method in the original work was created by the Uzumaki clan and specifically targeted the Uchiha clan; he definitely didn't know it.

Does he really have to cut off his arm to survive like the Fourth Raikage?

Just as Uchiha Gin was being tortured into a stupor by the flames on his hands, a cool sensation suddenly came from his right hand.

Barely opening his eyes, he saw a faint blue light emerge from the back of his right hand, which was wrapped in black flames.

Then a spiral-shaped mark appeared. As the mark rotated slightly, obscure runes extended from within.

As soon as the black flames touched the runes, they seemed to have met their natural enemy. They were driven by the runes into a ball, and finally completely wrapped by the runes, slowly retracted into the spiral-shaped mark.

His entire right hand felt relieved, and the spiral mark dimmed, flickering a few times before sinking into the back of his hand.

The crisis of the right hand was temporarily resolved, but the black flames on the left hand were intensifying, about to spread to his body.

Uchiha Gin had no choice but to use his right hand to pull out a Flying Thunder God kunai, preparing to cut off his palm to survive. He gritted his teeth and swung down.

Long pain is worse than short pain. Anyway, everything would return to normal when the skill ended, and he could heal his severed palm then.

At the same time, in a narrow, dark space, a black shadow slowly opened its scarlet eyes.

Feeling the fetal movement in his eyes, the shadow appeared somewhat anxious. A moment later, with a tremor of his body, the shadow, breathing heavily, saw a bewitching pattern flash across his eyes.

Just as he was about to "break up" with his "Little Left" that had accompanied him for many years, Uchiha Gin's left hand flashed with a rose-colored crimson, and a mark appeared on his left hand, identical to the one on his right.

But unlike the Uzumaki clan mark he knew, he had never seen this mark on his left hand in the original owner's memories.

Although there were no memories, his body didn't seem to reject this mark, and there was even a faint sense of intimacy.

The mark consisted of a pattern of three swallow-shaped boomerangs surrounding a central red dot.

The violent black flames became docile and gentle with the appearance of the mark, and as time passed, they finally turned into a faint red light and disappeared without a trace.

"Backyard daily refresh random skill 【Amaterasu】, obtained Amaterasu *1"

(End of chapter)