Everything is still salvageable at this point in time. It all depends on whether Uchiha Fugaku remains impulsive.
Well... I suppose that's just the price of being hot-headed, Qingyu thought.
He quickly dismissed the Uchiha's fate. He had no intention of interfering; their clan's internal struggles had absolutely nothing to do with him. He only noted Fugaku's appearance in the memories because Fugaku had immediately identified the victim.
The deceased was a man named Daisuke. He was one of the individuals listed on the missing persons report. Fugaku's presence served as the ultimate confirmation: the people on the missing persons list were turning up dead.
This news detonated like a bomb in Konoha. Even without hard evidence, the court of public opinion pointed its finger directly at Shimura Danzo.
This time, the Third Hokage couldn't just sit idly by. He couldn't shield Danzo as he usually did. During a public assembly the following day, Hiruzen announced that the missing persons case and the floating corpse case would be merged and handed over entirely to the Military Police Force. Simultaneously, he revoked all of Danzo's law enforcement authority regarding these incidents.
With their investigative rights restored, the Military Police Force—led by the Uchiha—began a frantic probe. Their prime suspect? Shimura Danzo.
Watching this play out in his mind, Qingyu sighed. It seems Danzo's hatred for the Uchiha isn't a simple thing.
Initially, it might have been an inheritance from the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama—a natural distrust. Once in power, Danzo had used a "boiling frog" strategy, slowly isolating the Uchiha to make them feel unwelcome in their own village.
But Qingyu realized it went deeper than just prejudice. Hatred in this world rarely existed without a cause. Perhaps it was this very incident—where the Uchiha-led police, guided by the "Old Era Remnants," dug up dirt on Danzo—that lit the fuse for the tragedies to come.
Qingyu sat in a position of "God's Perspective." He knew the future: the friction between the Third, Danzo, and Orochimaru regarding the Hashirama Cell experiments, the eventual desertion of Orochimaru, and the birth of Yamato. This current investigation was likely the spark for that entire chain of events.
Every cause has its effect, he mused.
Being transmigrated at this specific timeline, combined with his memory-reading system and his knowledge of the "canon" future, allowed him to see the gears of Konoha's history turning. The only blank space for him was the period between now and the Nine-Tails' Attack. Everything before, he could read; everything after, he had watched in the anime.
The events happening now—the Cloud spies, the Sand spies, the missing persons, the Old Era Remnants, and the Military Police—were the roots of the future. They were the setup for the Battle of Kannabi Bridge in the Third Shinobi World War.
Qingyu chewed his ramen mechanically, his brain rapidly weaving together the causal threads of history. He tried to be meticulous, summarizing every omen and potential disaster. It was like editing a history book of Konoha.
However, his goal wasn't to participate in this history, change the timeline, or become a legendary hero. That wasn't his style. That was for the protagonists in the novels he used to read—the ones who got a "Golden Finger" and immediately started a brainless rampage of face-slapping and "cool" moments until the finale.
Qingyu knew those protagonists only survived because the author protected them. He was different. He had a system, yes, but while reading memories gave rewards, they didn't fundamentally change his status as a "fragile" ninja. The true treasure was the information.
If he went out and tried to be a hero, he'd probably end up dead without knowing how he died. His "Sage Body" alone wasn't enough to make him invincible.
His goal was simple: Avoid all causality.
Let the wars happen; he'd stay in the basement reading memories. Let the clans be massacred; if he had the chance, he'd pat a few heads while they were cleaning up the bodies, otherwise, he wouldn't lift a finger. Let Obito get crushed; if a man wants to destroy the world because he's upset, saving him once won't fix his heart—and Qingyu certainly wasn't going to raise Rin for him!
He wanted to be a man without emotion, a ghost in the Torture Force.
However... that resolve shifted slightly at this moment.
Qingyu stopped eating. He turned to his left and looked at Minato, a flicker of firm determination appearing in his dark eyes.
"What is it?" Minato sensed the gaze and stopped slurping his noodles. His blue eyes were filled with confusion.
"I just thought of something," Qingyu said calmly.
"What?" Minato felt a small question mark pop up in his mind. He sensed Qingyu was being even weirder than usual.
"Have you thought of a name for your son yet?" Qingyu asked slowly.
"Pffft—!!"
Minato sprayed a mouthful of ramen across the counter. Because the question was so sudden and the force so uncontrolled, the noodles landed directly on Teuchi's face.
Teuchi turned around slowly, looking completely bewildered, with a single, innocent noodle hanging from his nose.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Minato bowed frantically to Teuchi before turning to Qingyu with an embarrassed, reddened face. "What are you talking about?! I'm still a kid! Where would I get a son from?!"
"Minato, you helped me get this vacation, and I have no other way to thank you. In the future, when your wife Kushina is in labor... I'll personally help with the delivery. I'll ensure that both mother and child are safe!"
Qingyu said this with such a straight face that Minato's lip began to twitch uncontrollably.
"You... you bastard..." Minato's eyes widened, his blue pupils trembling with shock. He remembered their last meeting at Ichiraku when Qingyu had made similar comments. "You... you don't actually have a crush on Kushina, do you?!"