Naruto: The Thirty-Year-Old Uchiha Can't Get Motivated"

The three returned to camp. Uchiha Ryoichi and Uchiha Tsuru had already finished covering their tracks and were waiting to depart.

When they saw Uchiha Gin and Uchiha Dairo, the two exchanged glances, their expressions a bit odd. While Uchiha Gin went to fetch Senju Banma, they approached Uchiha Dairo.

"That guy Uchiha Gin—did he ask to spar with you?"

Uchiha Ryoichi was the first to speak. Uchiha Dairo, caught off guard by the question, replied in confusion,

"Yeah, he did. How did you know?"

"Did he also mention something about the clan leader teaching him some secret techniques?"

Uchiha Tsuru chimed in.

Seeing the surprised look on Uchiha Dairo's face, the two became even more certain that Uchiha Gin had played the same trick on him.

"That guy's just messing with us. Said he wanted to spar, then gave up after exchanging just a few moves."

"More than that—when he sparred with me, he just threw his sword on the ground right away."

"Basically, he was making fun of us."

Dizzy from their back-and-forth, Uchiha Dairo finally started to catch on.

"You're saying that Uchiha Gin asked to learn from us, but he was actually just bullying us?"

"Exactly!"

Uchiha Ryoichi and Uchiha Tsuru responded in unison.

Upon hearing this, a mix of green and red flushed across Uchiha Dairo's simple, honest face.

"That bastard!"

Then he paused, a bit curious.

"But… what does he get out of doing that?"

At that question, all three of them fell silent.

"Probably just bored,"

Uchiha Fuhō, who had been quietly listening from the side, commented casually after hearing the whole story.

"After all, that kid… might just be an empty shell now."

"???"

Uchiha Ryoichi and the other two were completely confused.

Just as they were about to ask what he meant, Uchiha Gin came walking over, carrying the tightly bound Senju Banma on his shoulder. The three of them immediately went silent.

Uchiha Ryoichi stared up at the sky as if something up there had caught his attention, while Uchiha Tsuru lowered his head and started counting the ants moving across the ground with the tip of his foot.

Only Uchiha Dairo continued to glare at Gin with obvious dissatisfaction.

"Brother Dairo, I still have some doubts about that earlier question—"

"Hmph ╭(╯^╰)╮"

Uchiha Dairo turned and walked away, wearing a look that screamed "I'm ashamed to even associate with you."

"o((?﹏?))o"

Uchiha Gin stood there, thoroughly confused.

"Move out!"

Uchiha Fuhō ignored the drama and gave the order to depart.

The territory long contested by the Uchiha and Senju clans was located within what would later become the Land of Fire.

The Senju clan's domain lay to the east, right by the sea, neighboring their distant relatives in the Land of Whirlpools.

The Uchiha clan's lands were further west, and Uchiha Gin's group was currently situated in the eastern part of the Land of Fire, fleeing southwest along the coastline.

It was June, and the sun blazed overhead.

But since they were near the coast, the air carried a hint of coolness that softened the summer heat as they traveled.

According to the map, Uchiha Fuhō estimated they were nearly out of Senju territory.

Once they successfully escaped, they'd be able to shake off their pursuers and reach the coastal area of the Land of Whirlpools.

From there, they'd be relatively safe.

At the back of the group, Uchiha Gin was casually chatting with the bound and slung-over-the-shoulder Senju Banma.

"Hey, brat—heard you guys have a good relationship with the Uzumaki clan from the Land of Whirlpools?"

"Of course! We're cousins, after all. The Uzumaki clan leader often visits our Senju territory. Last time he even talked about arranging a child marriage between our families."

As she spoke, she wriggled her small body, subtly shifting her more sensitive parts away from Uchiha Gin's warm hand.

Senju Itama knew very well that he couldn't escape, nor could he commit suicide, so he simply gave up and resigned himself to fate. After all, once he arrived at the Uchiha clan's territory, it would surely mean certain death—so he might as well live one more day if he could.

After spending a few days together, he also learned that the only reason he was still alive was because of the Uchiha in front of him—Uchiha Gin.

It was Gin who had protected him when the others wanted to kill him. Although Senju Itama always felt that Uchiha Gin had ulterior motives, the latter had never actually mistreated him.

When they argued, Uchiha Gin would discipline him with an iron fist, but afterward, he'd still give him jerky to eat—probably out of fear that the kid would starve to death.

The introduction to the first mission was extremely brief, and Uchiha Gin couldn't make out much from it. Right now, he felt like he was being roasted over a fire, flipped on both sides.

On one hand, he was afraid that if he returned to the clan without completing the mission, he would be doomed for sure. On the other hand, if he secretly let this little brat go and was questioned by the clan leader later, he probably wouldn't die—but life afterward would be worse than death.

"Ugh, how did I get so unlucky to end up with this damn ancient-era system?"

Other people's systems give powerful ninjutsu, awesome starter packs, or at the very least some attribute points to skyrocket their growth.

But him? He got a treasure chest that takes four days to open. After finally managing one win and one loss and planning to stack up defeats to trigger the system punishment and reset, the system gave him a skill that was nearly useless and almost scared him to death. He was trapped inside a Tsukuyomi illusion and beaten seven-on-one for seventy-two hours straight, only to receive a measly skill shard—and was then told he had to get beaten 39 more times to complete it.

So many days had passed, but his strength hadn't improved much. Instead, he had a Damocles' sword called "the system" hanging over his head. Was there any transmigrator more miserable than him?

"Dear System, when will my mission finally be complete? I've already saved Senju Itama!"

Helpless, Uchiha Gin once again tried to call out to the system in his mind.

"Task completion rate detected: 60%. Mission will be complete once the target, Senju Itama, is safely escorted back to the Senju clan territory."

The system, which never responded before, actually answered his question for once.

"&%￥%@#￥&...&*%&...%"

Uchiha Gin was instantly so enraged that he coughed up blood and cursed wildly in his mind. After calming down, he asked,

"The original mission didn't say anything about escorting Senju Itama all the way back to his clan!"

"At the time, the system was still loading. 80% of the mission content was not yet available. Mission data was incomplete. Task publishing module is now fully loaded.

New mission: Rescue Senju Itama from Uchiha Fuhō and others, 'escort him safely back to the Senju clan,' reward: 10 points, 1 random magic orb. If Senju Itama dies, the mission fails."

"So the part you didn't load just happened to be the most important one."

"Insufficient bandwidth. Please improve the host's strength. System loading speed is tied to the host's power," the system replied coldly.

"!???"

(End of Chapter)