Chapter 354 – The Way to Survive
With the negotiations concluded, and Konoha having wrung a massive share of benefits from the daimyo, the village naturally entered a period of consolidation and recuperation.
However, matters concerning Konoha and the Fire Country's daimyo ultimately spread—through one channel or another—to every surrounding nation.
As a result, all countries and shinobi villages—large and small alike, including the great nations—were forced to confront a sobering reality:
the gap between shinobi and daimyo was far more terrifying than they had imagined.
Once again, the name Uchiha Kei appeared on the desks of village leaders, Kage, and even daimyo across the continent.
It was this man who had mercilessly torn apart the fragile illusion of balance between daimyo and shinobi villages.
Through Konoha's actions—and Kei's methods in particular—the daimyo finally realized just how weak and vulnerable their position truly was.
The shinobi villages themselves remained outwardly calm.
But the daimyo reacted almost in unison.
One after another, they proactively sought out their respective Kage and village leaders, reopening negotiations—this time regarding increased financial support.
It was an attempt to seal shut the swelling ambitions taking root in the hearts of those shinobi leaders.
Naturally, one could imagine how deeply those daimyo must now loathe Konoha—
and how much they must hate the man named Uchiha Kei.
If not for his actions, how could so much trouble have been stirred up?
How could those Kage and leaders have begun displaying such naked ambition?
Yet Kei did not care in the slightest.
Because at this moment, he had far more important matters to attend to.
---
Becoming fully accustomed to one's own power was of paramount importance—and Kei took this task seriously.
Beyond adapting to changes in his chakra and ocular power, mastering the fourth stage of Susanoo was an equally critical objective.
Moreover, Kei still possessed the materials Obito had handed over—knowledge gleaned from Black Zetsu.
These documents required careful study and discrimination.
From the time the Fourth Hokage had taken office until now, nearly two years had passed.
In those two years, Kei had participated in countless large-scale battles.
It was time for him to lie low—to stabilize his growth.
Alongside his own training, Kei also devoted some attention to Ayaka and Kenta.
Kenta's fusion experiments had largely been handled by Ayaka, but with her now deeply occupied by her own research, certain tasks inevitably fell to Kei himself.
Kenta's performance, however, remained largely unchanged.
At times, he wondered whether he too lacked a stabilizing lineage—one capable of suppressing the side effects of fusion.
He had even briefly suspected that such a lineage might be the Uchiha.
Yet Kenta was the type to think about such things—
and then absolutely refuse to act on them.
What Kei did notice, however, was that as Kenta's fusion level increased, he had begun seriously studying fūinjutsu—arts that had once been utterly alien to him.
One day, when Kei happened to catch him practicing sealing techniques, he couldn't help but ask:
"Are you planning to learn the Flying Thunder God?"
"By normal standards, your clan should already possess a fair number of sealing techniques," Kei continued casually.
"But I can't imagine you being the type to study voluntarily."
"You're not wrong," Kenta replied bluntly.
"I am planning to learn the Flying Thunder God."
Kenta nodded without the slightest intention of denying it.
"After all, my current fusion level can only improve with time," he said calmly. "I don't have a compatible lineage to work in tandem with me and help accelerate the process."
"Heh. Since when did you start sounding like Ayaka?" Kei shrugged indifferently. "All this roundabout sarcasm—pretty boring. I get what you're thinking. How's your progress?"
"Not great, but not terrible either," Kenta replied. "I can already start attempting to inscribe formulas."
As he spoke, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Honestly, I did consider asking you for some materials—something to suppress my current condition. But after thinking it through, I decided against it."
Kei had originally intended to steer the conversation away from this topic.
After all, both he and Ayaka had done far too many similar things. If Kenta couldn't see through it, that would have been the real problem.
Still, hearing Kenta address it so directly caught him off guard.
What had made this guy temporarily abandon the idea?
Of course, in Kei's mind, this was only temporary. Who knew when Kenta might pick it up again?
"Oh?" Kei asked with mild curiosity. "Why's that? Did you come up with a new approach?"
"Not exactly," Kenta said, lifting his head.
"I realized there's a fundamental difference between me and you two. You need those measures because you possess special eyes—something I don't have."
He paused, then smirked.
"Am I supposed to gouge out a pair of Sharingan and use them myself? Even if I wanted to, without reaching your level, they'd probably be useless."
"That… makes sense," Kei admitted after a moment's thought, nodding.
"Ayaka once said those white cells are higher-grade cells. And the only other thing with comparable quality came from the fusion of those two eyes—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
"Wait. You could try using those cells."
"Cells?" Kenta froze for a moment.
"You mean the ones you forcibly extracted during the fusion of those eyes?"
Kei nodded silently.
Although Kenta had followed him for quite some time, he had joined this inner circle later than Ayaka. As a result, Kei had always placed limits on how far resources were allocated to him.
But that limit was steadily loosening.
Kenta's value—his strength, his standing within Konoha, and his integration into the team—had all grown enough that Kei was prepared to open the door further.
Those cells derived from an Eternal Mangekyō weren't plentiful—but they weren't scarce either.
Using them for experiments wouldn't be a loss for Kei.
If it worked, he could observe how far a Senju-descended body might go through such a method.
If it failed…
That would be dangerous. Side effects of that magnitude could very well be fatal.
Kenta clearly found the proposal tempting.
Yet after long consideration, he shook his head.
He had to admit—it was alluring.
But temptation was one thing; paying the price was another.
At his current pace, a few more years should be enough for the transformation he needed.
There was no reason to gamble on something with unclear benefits, unknown risks, and uncertain outcomes.
"If it were a direct suppression using Uchiha eyes, I might consider it," Kenta said.
"But using cells alone? I'll pass. They might neutralize something—but my current state is acceptable."
He smiled faintly.
"Besides, don't you think a pure Senju is better?"
"Suit yourself," Kei replied, unconcerned. "Though the way you put that makes it sound like you're insulting me."
"You're overthinking it," Kenta said lightly. "That has nothing to do with me."
"You bastard. I hope you get stuck halfway inside a wall the first time you use Flying Thunder God."
---
Objectively speaking, Kenta's fusion level was probably around forty to fifty percent—not bad, but not outstanding either.
Early-stage fusion progressed quickly, but later stages slowed to a maddening crawl.
Kei knew that feeling all too well.
At this point, all he could do was hope for some external stimulus—
something like Nine-Tails chakra.
Kenta's situation couldn't be compared to Kei's, but when measured against Ayaka's, it was far better.
After a long period of preparation, Ayaka had fully absorbed the gains from her first experiment.
Her second experiment was already underway—and she was even preparing for a third.
Compared to the first, the second experiment showed clear improvement.
Still, the changes weren't obvious externally.
Her eyes showed no visible difference, making it hard to judge progress at a glance.
According to Ayaka herself, her visual range had reached a plateau—this time, there was little improvement in distance.
Instead, her chakra had once again strengthened.
Both its quality and quantity now far surpassed what she possessed on the battlefield before.
More importantly, her body's durability and resilience had improved dramatically.
Overall, her growth was substantial.
Her fusion level hovered around twenty to thirty percent—an impressive result.
If compared directly, Kenta might actually feel embarrassed.
That said, Kenta did have one clear advantage.
He was doing quite well within Konoha's system.
Nara Shikaku had begun gradually relinquishing his authority, allowing Kenta to take on more responsibility.
That signal was undeniably positive.
What puzzled Kei, however, was something else.
Shikaku himself—and the Akimichi and Yamanaka clan heads, the Nara clan's closest allies—had recently begun keeping their distance from him.
At first, Kei didn't understand it.
He had shown goodwill. There had been close cooperation.
But looking back, he realized that publicly visible closeness had only happened once.
Now, the deliberate distance—and even opposition on certain policies—felt intentional.
A signal.
"They're cautious… too cautious," Kei thought after reflecting.
"Is it because the Third hasn't fully exited the stage yet? Or are they worried about being seen as too close to someone who already holds this much influence?"
Kei understood their reasoning—even if he didn't entirely agree.
But every clan had its own way of surviving.
After all—
this was their way of life.