Uchiha Yoru spread his hands and said regretfully, "Unfortunately, there was only ever one First Hokage. The best strategy simply doesn't suit the current Konoha."
"Haha, that really is true."
That was, of course, the most beautiful kind of wishful thinking. Did a shinobi as powerful as Senju Hashirama just come into being that easily?
To produce a singular existence like him, one had to gather the soul of Asura, the Senju bloodline, the Uchiha bloodline, and the soul of Indra. Only under the mutual support of all those conditions could such a one-of-a-kind powerhouse be born by chance.
At the mention of Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Shisui's face filled with yearning and envy. He said with both admiration and regret, "The First Hokage was the God of Shinobi who created more than ten years of peace. What he could accomplish is something we descendants simply can't do. We've truly failed the efforts of our predecessors."
Uchiha Yoru raised two fingers on his right hand. "The middle strategy is the Second Hokage's strategy. It was also the anti-encirclement strategy he personally proved highly effective during the First Shinobi World War."
"No matter how the enemy launches a siege, Konoha simply concentrates its shinobi and forms an absolutely dominant force, first eliminating the weakest enemy and thereby intimidating all the others. Then, at leisure, it defeats each enemy one by one and wins the war in less than two years."
Uchiha Shisui's eyes lit up. He said excitedly, "The Second Hokage's strategy is excellent. I think today's Konoha also has enough strength to carry it out."
"No. It can't."
Uchiha Yoru shook his head and rejected the idea. "The Second Hokage's middle strategy doesn't place high demands on the village's raw strength, but it absolutely requires an outstanding leader—a leader capable of commanding Konoha's shinobi and charging at the front lines himself."
"He must be able to unite hearts and minds, to make every shinobi firmly believe victory belongs to Konoha, so that they can endure prolonged fighting until they utterly crush the enemy's encirclement."
"He must be able to keenly judge changes in the course of war and make tactical adjustments at the very first moment, crushing the enemy at the fastest possible speed."
"After Senior Sakumo Hatake committed suicide, Konoha no longer had such a leader."
Uchiha Shisui immediately objected, "Why not? Lord Orochimaru and Lord Jiraiya of the Konoha Sannin are both leaders like that!"
Uchiha Yoru laughed. "Silly child, was I talking about ability?"
"Ah?"
"How did Senior Sakumo Hatake die? You forgot that quickly?"
Uchiha Yoru's tone turned chilling. "White Fang of Konoha used his own life to prove that aside from the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzō, anyone who dares achieve morale-boosting victories on the front lines becomes their enemy. Under those circumstances, who wouldn't fear becoming the second White Fang of Konoha?"
"As long as the Third Hokage doesn't go to the front lines personally, and as long as Shimura Danzō remains a useless piece of trash, the war strategy most suitable for Konoha cannot be carried out."
"The political reality under the Third Hokage's rule determines that Konoha can only adopt the inferior strategy."
"The inferior strategy is to defend on all four sides, distribute forces evenly across every front, fight a protracted defensive war against every enemy, and wait for an opportunity to counterattack from a defensive posture."
Looking at the dejected yet somewhat unconvinced Shisui, Uchiha Yoru smiled and rubbed his head. "You still have two to three years. While you're studying at the ninja academy, you can watch and see whether my prediction about the war is right."
"I'll be conscripted to the front soon enough, becoming an ordinary shinobi used to fill out the defensive lines. And four-sided defense means I'll be stuck at the front for years on end, bitterly defending under the enemy's constant initiative."
"So I sincerely hope the village won't choose the strategy of defending on all sides."
After burying another mine for the Third Hokage in Shisui's mind, Uchiha Yoru sent him home, then quietly faded into transparent nothingness.
The Uchiha Yoru who had just escorted that group of children and Shisui back was merely an illusion shaped by genjutsu.
…
Planting mental mines in Shisui's heart was one of Uchiha Yoru's main tasks in Konoha.
Besides that, there was cultivating his own prestige within the study group—and honing his genjutsu.
To Uchiha Yoru, genjutsu was a trump card. In importance, it even ranked above ninjutsu and taijutsu, standing shoulder to shoulder with divine abilities. He even dreamed that one day, genjutsu alone might achieve the level of a divine art.
He had already prepared a name for that divine art.
Its name would be [Kyōka Suigetsu].
"How I wish that one day, I could stand in the heavens…"
To achieve that goal, Uchiha Yoru seized every chance to train. But practicing genjutsu in front of people with dōjutsu too far beyond ordinary standards would be too outrageous. The study group was the perfect environment.
There were one-tomoe Sharingan users here, eighteen-year-old genin, and four-year-old children. There were genuine prodigies, and there were perfectly average mediocrities.
Only by using genjutsu before such a wide range of people could he truly train it from every angle. Only when the casting, activation, and conclusion of his genjutsu could all pass without leaving the slightest trace would it count as true mastery.
The most wonderful part was that within the study group, Uchiha Yoru could occasionally replenish suggestion seeds. If his genjutsu revealed a flaw, he could receive feedback through those seeds at the very first moment. He could also swiftly erase the short-term memory of anyone who noticed a flaw, thus preserving the secrecy of his genjutsu abilities to the greatest possible degree.
The false body he had created with genjutsu earlier, the one that chatted with Shisui from beginning to end without showing a single flaw, had not actually been under his active control. It had originated from guiding Uchiha Shisui's own thinking. Everything Shisui saw and heard was the product of his own brain's activity, just like a dream.
Especially when speaking with Uchiha Shinji, who possessed a three-tomoe Sharingan, the false figure could still use Shisui's thinking to respond freely. No abnormality had been detected from beginning to end. Only after Shisui had moved far away and the illusion lost its core of thought did it silently dissipate.
Tonight's performance left Uchiha Yoru extremely satisfied with his genjutsu.
He had finally reached the level of genjutsu he needed.
He could now plant genjutsu into the heart of every child in the study group.
Genjutsu: Heart of Baize.
This genjutsu did not need to present lifelike illusions. Instead, it lurked within the target's mind. When the target encountered a corresponding situation or environment, it would select the best response from within that person's own mind, play it back for them, and urge them to carry it out immediately.
Like a weakened version of an old grandpa system, the genjutsu would protect the children of the study group, helping them through one danger after another, while continuously deepening Uchiha Yoru's place in their hearts.
Because it did not need to create illusory scenes, the duration of the genjutsu was sufficient to last for months, or even years. In the end, Uchiha Yoru would hold an unshakable position in every child's heart.
At that moment, inside his home, Uchiha Yoru sat in a reclining chair. A cup of hot tea rested in his left hand, and in his right was an order he had just received. His heart was utterly calm.
It was a transfer order.
He had been conscripted and assigned to the front line in the Land of Hot Water. That had originally been a battlefield between Kumogakure and Konoha, but now Kirigakure had joined in as well, forming a chaotic three-way melee.
Even though Kumogakure had not formally declared war on Konoha, they had already gone to war with Kirigakure. Kirigakure, meanwhile, had officially declared war on Konoha. And so the three sides had become hopelessly tangled in the Land of Hot Water. More often than not, when Kirigakure shinobi and Konoha shinobi encountered one another, they first had to kill the other side before worrying about who that person actually was.
After nearly a month of chaotic fighting, the strongest village, Konoha, had gradually gained the upper hand. But it had also become the joint target of Kumogakure and Kirigakure, causing shinobi casualties to surge sharply.
Faced with the desperate requests for reinforcements from the front—three times a day—the Third Hokage had finally made the decision to carry out his first mobilization of village shinobi. And most of the conscripted Uchiha shinobi had been sent eastward.
This was an order drenched in malice.
The Uchiha excelled in Fire Release and Sharingan ocular genjutsu, while Kirigakure shinobi were generally proficient in Water Release, which countered Fire Release, as well as the Hidden Mist Technique, which obscured vision.
Without question, the eastern battlefield was the least suitable battlefield for the Uchiha clan.
Yet Konoha had deployed three-quarters of the Uchiha shinobi there. Even later, Shisui himself would make his name as "Shisui of the Body Flicker" while fighting Kirigakure.
By contrast, Uchiha Obito, who had been accepted into the Hokage faction, remained active on the Sunagakure front—the battlefield most suited for Fire Release and the Sharingan.
If this was not deliberate on the part of the Third Hokage, then it would be an insult to everyone's intelligence.
Once Uchiha Yoru left Konoha, without his suggestion seeds to maintain the seal, the intelligence within the study group would naturally spread.
And that intelligence was astonishing.
In just one month after the study group's establishment, a full thirty-one pairs of Sharingan had awakened. Aside from the first few days, nearly every day thereafter someone awakened the Sharingan under Uchiha Yoru's guidance.
Once that intelligence spread, no matter how busy Uchiha Fugaku was, he would still be stunned senseless and forcibly turn his attention toward it.
Everything Uchiha Yoru had taught would be treated as treasure: high-load physical training, heavy consumption of medicinal cuisine and meat, standing meditation to strengthen ocular power, even details like eating more liver to supplement nutrients for the eyes would all be taken seriously.
But the most important thing was the structure of the study group.
Uchiha Yoru had divided the study group into eight teams. Within each team, he used the principle of threes to experiment with and improve the "four-four tactical formation," eventually forming a complete tactical system of sixteen-man units, along with the rigorous organization that naturally came from it.
The study group's structure had created the strongest collective within the Uchiha clan. Perhaps the children's combat strength was still insufficient for now, but their execution ability was absolutely impeccable.
Uchiha Fugaku was an old veteran who had gone through war. He had previously ignored the existence of the study group and never seriously looked into it. But the moment he truly examined it, he would understand how important it was, and he would inevitably do everything in his power to bring it under his control, turning it into the core power structure through which he controlled the Uchiha clan.
That was exactly what Uchiha Yoru wanted.
A chance for the turtledove to occupy the magpie's nest.
Once Uchiha Fugaku took control of the study group, he would discover just how useful the organization was. The more he used it, the more natural it would feel in his hands. Naturally, he would use the study group to extend the power of the clan head and expand his own authority.
In just one or two years, the study group, with its extraordinary execution ability, would become the Uchiha clan's power framework. In turn, it would absorb the clan head and the elders into itself, just like how a bureaucracy could always turn the tables and hollow out the emperor from within.
Thus, the situation would emerge where whoever controlled the study group controlled the Uchiha clan.
And as the founder of the study group, Uchiha Yoru would thereby gain the ability to directly take over the Uchiha clan.
Of course, the premise for all this was that Uchiha Yoru possessed unshakable authority within the study group—even irreplaceable personal worship.
Those were things Uchiha Fugaku would definitely oppose with all his might, and would attempt to eradicate completely. Therefore, they had to remain hidden enough to escape the clan head's notice.
That required extraordinary means.
But Uchiha Yoru did not possess extraordinary personal charisma.
He only possessed extraordinary genjutsu.
Uchiha Yoru was no moral paragon, nor did he have any so-called spiritual cleanliness. He even planted suggestions on his own dao companion. For subordinates he had acknowledged, he naturally made habitual use of genjutsu to build stable ties.
Now he had finally completed the genjutsu he wanted in time. He had planted it into the minds of all one hundred and forty-two members of the expanded study group, then erased the surface traces one by one. Even if he left Konoha immediately, over a month of hard work would not have been wasted.
And it wasn't only because of the personal worship brought by the genjutsu.
More importantly, there was also Uchiha Shisui.
The genjutsu Uchiha Yoru used on Shisui was of a higher order. Its name was Idealism Reshapes Worldview. It was the same kind of thing as the spirit of fire preached by the Third Hokage, yet in terms of theoretical completeness and spiritual height, it was qualitatively different.
Uchiha Shisui himself had not been influenced by the genjutsu. But within the study group, he would receive powerful feedback. And because of the genjutsu, that feedback would bear the unmistakable imprint of Uchiha Yoru.
By influencing Uchiha Shisui indirectly, that alone would be enough to defeat all competitors.
Next, he would hand the study group over to Shisui.
Even if he could never serve as president again in the future, no one would be able to steal the fruits of his labor.
Not the clan head.
Not the elders.
Not even the Third Hokage.
…
A month later, Uchiha Yoru had finally trained up the eight squad leaders and the newly appointed eight vice-captains, until they were capable of leading their own teams in cultivation.
At last, he freed himself from that crushing workload and, for the first time, returned home before nightfall. He unfolded the long-neglected reclining chair and lazily lay down on it.
Cradling a cup of hot tea, breathing in the leisurely fragrance of green tea, he gently rocked the chair back and forth as it creaked and groaned, savoring that long-lost ease.
Suddenly, Miwa Masayo leapt out and landed on one end of the recliner, shifting its balance and making Uchiha Yoru tip backward. He almost spilled the hot tea in the process.
She looked at the document in his hand and asked, "This is the transfer order you mentioned before, nya?"
"Yes." Uchiha Yoru, upside down, calmly took a sip of hot tea.
With his skill, even drinking water while standing on his head was no problem. This posture, naturally, didn't affect him in the slightest.
Curious, Miwa Masayo stretched out a paw and scratched at the steam rising from the cup, then continued, "Just like you guessed, you're going to the Land of Hot Water, nya?"
"That's right."
"Good, nya. You really are amazing, nya."
"That's nothing. The village situation is that obvious, and the battlefield situation is that clear. Isn't it normal that I guessed right?"
"…Feels like you're calling me stupid, nya?"
"How could I? You're Miwa Masayo, my most beloved dao companion. How could I possibly think you're stupid?"
"Nya nya, that only makes you sound more suspicious, nya."
Uchiha Yoru had nothing to say to that, so he quickly stuffed a dried fish into the calico cat's mouth, then braced himself, flipped upright in one motion, and caught the cat—who had been sent flying by the rebound of the recliner—onto his shoulder.
He opened the door and walked outside. Looking up at the sparse starry sky overhead, he smiled and said, "Anyway, the busy days can finally come to an end for a while. Let's go have some fun in the Land of Hot Water. I've heard the hot springs there are excellent."
For most shinobi, the battlefield was a meat grinder.
But for Uchiha Yoru, who knew exactly how much he was worth, entering the battlefield as a chūnin truly carried no real danger.
Even if by sheer bad luck he ran into the Third Raikage, the Third Kazekage, or even their jinchūriki, it still wouldn't count as much risk to him.
Maybe he couldn't beat them.
But there was absolutely no danger to his life.
If he couldn't win, could he not still run?
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