Uchiha Yorin watched the people in front of him with cheerful, ambitious eyes.
In the mouths of cliché shōnen protagonists, the ones standing before him would be "villain bosses." But in Yorin's eyes, they were just a bunch of talented people put in the wrong places.
Assets, really. Heh heh heh.
With that pleased, expectant gaze fixed on them, Yorin managed to give the Priestess of the Land of Demons, Kazahana Dotō, and Shinnō each a mild psychological trauma. One after another, they started worrying:
This Uchiha Yorin guy… he's not going to jump me on my way home, is he?
Of course not. At least, not the Priestess.
That whole "sealing Mōryō" thing she had going actually was useful. Later on, he could swing by and deal with that properly. Until then, as the linchpin keeping the demon sealed, she was better off just living her life and staying stable.
As for Kazahana Dotō, Yorin already had a plan for the Land of Snow.
Besides Uzushiogakure, Yorin wanted a second branch base.
Uzushiogakure, as a port city, was simply too visible. Too many eyes. A lot of secret operations, facilities, and research projects really shouldn't be placed there.
Kirigakure had once been a perfect candidate with its isolationist policy. But with the recent reforms and the end of that "Bloody Mist" lockdown, its security value had dropped sharply.
Orochimaru, for one, felt it was time to move his secret base.
He'd originally picked the Land of Rice Fields, but Yorin had different ideas. Rice Country was one of the most fertile lands in the shinobi world—not exactly ideal for hiding shady laboratories.
Better to let Rice Country just… grow rice. Orochimaru's R&D bunker needed to be somewhere else.
And the Land of Snow—remote, at the far edge of world affairs, tucked way out beyond the Five Great Nations—was just right.
Orochimaru: "The Land of Snow… sounds a bit inconvenient…"
Yorin: "Snakes tend to go into hibernation in cold climates, don't they?"
Orochimaru: "Mm…"
Yorin: "But chakra armor… and weather-control systems… you don't want those research topics?"
Orochimaru: "Mm…"
More or less like that. Yorin's part of the script ended there; now it was time for the "Akatsuki representative," Orochimaru, to head for the Land of Snow and try to recruit Kazahana Dotō.
Orochimaru: "Oh? Recruit him?"
When Yorin said that, Orochimaru looked genuinely surprised. "I thought you meant kill him and Edo Tensei him."
Yorin: "Don't make me sound so awful. I'm not a demon or anything."
He said that, but the look Orochimaru gave him clearly said: Yes you are. You're absolutely a demon.
Yorin: "Fine, okay, I do have another plan. For now I need him alive for a bit longer… And that 'I knew it' look on your face—what's that supposed to mean?"
He really wanted to threaten him a bit, but since he still needed Orochimaru to help realize his ambition, he settled for a sharp side-eye and let it go.
…
And so the fourth day of the New Year came to an end, then the fifth, sixth, seventh… While everyone else stayed wrapped up in holiday cheer, year 53 of Konoha passed quietly over the threshold.
There were still loose ends. Still frustrations. But holidays end, and people have to move forward, right?
"Just you wait," someone thought—for example, Kazahana Dotō, as he departed Konoha. His heart was full of dreams and schemes, mind racing over his great ambitions.
The Ninshū doctrine and shinobi empire theory Yorin had created would eventually serve him. He'd take that ideology, twist it, and establish a shinobi empire more powerful than anything before.
Why did he think that?
Simple: bloodline. He was royalty. Born noble. Therefore, born superior to Uchiha Yorin.
…Yet when it came to his own elder brother, Kazahana Kōyuki's father, Dotō was suddenly anti–bloodline.
He felt that in both martial strength and political skill he far surpassed his brother. That sickly, soft-hearted "benevolent ruler" had no business on the throne in an age defined by struggle.
The only reason that "weakling" had become the daimyo while Dotō remained just a jōnin and a minor noble was because his brother had been born a little earlier. Utterly unfair.
If you listened to both speeches, you'd probably conclude Dotō was a walking, talking double standard.
You'd be right. That's exactly what he was. He didn't even see it.
Then again, it wasn't so strange. One rule for those below, another for those above—this kind of "everyone beneath me needs hierarchy, everyone above me should be equal" thinking was pretty common.
There's no shortage of transmigrators who talk about equality while flirting with a pretty maid, then casually order a male servant be dragged out and killed for a minor mistake.
The essence of humanity is double standards.
Uchiha Yorin mused on this while trailing some distance behind Dotō, happily winding toward the Land of Snow.
At his side were Orochimaru and his intensely suspicious three-woman escort of jealous fiancées.
The reason Pakura, Tsunade, and Yugito were eyeing Orochimaru like he was a biohazard was simple: Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation had finally succeeded.
Recently, Orochimaru had pushed a little too far with his experiments and had been forced to relocate his soul—into a stunningly beautiful kunoichi.
Yorin had confirmed: this was the same "perfect host" from the original timeline, the one who showed no rejection reaction whatsoever.
She'd been pretty to begin with, and after Orochimaru's… "styling"—light makeup, a gorgeous kimono, an oiran-style hairdo, nails painted an alluring shade of purple—and with that eerie mix of Kage-level power and mad scientist aura, she now outshone almost every woman in Yorin's harem.
To a random shinobi who didn't know better, this "woman" was absurdly seductive—more than enough to make flags fly at full mast. So it was perfectly natural that Yorin's three harem veterans looked at Orochimaru with high alert—
…not.
I mean, come on. Sure, the packaging was premium-level hot, but inside it was still that Orochimaru. Why would they think Yorin would fall for him?
What, was he that desperate?
Of course, there was another possibility: the three women were deliberately using Orochimaru as a convenient excuse to hog Yorin's time and energy—so he'd be too busy being "guarded" and "comforted" to think about any other "projects."
Helpless. Absolutely helpless.
…
Orochimaru, for his part, was greatly amused by all of it. Romance held no interest for him; as he'd always said, the only things he wanted were an eternal life and the freedom to research whatever he pleased.
With his Living Corpse Reincarnation now successfully completed, that first goal was essentially achieved. As long as Yorin didn't suddenly decide to kill him and Edo Tensei him as a permanent lab slave, they could cooperate very happily.
Uchiha Yorin: "Anyway, here's the plan. Orochimaru, you go lure Kazahana Dotō into Akatsuki. Can you handle that?"
"Of course," Orochimaru replied, flicking out his tongue to lick the corner of his lips. "And then comes the part where the 'just and righteous Konoha shinobi' show up to punish the 'evil Akatsuki,' right?"
"Exactly. But before that, we stage a nice clean coup in the Land of Snow. Clear out the country a bit, make our future operations more convenient—completely reasonable, no?"
"And we'll pin the blame on Dotō. Then, after he takes the fall, we Edo Tensei him into an eternal 007 R&D grunt… Yorin, you really are terrible."
At that, Orochimaru's laughter turned rich and throaty; his new body almost shimmered with amusement, which only made the three women yank Yorin behind them and glare even harder.
"Alright, alright. I know what to do. I'll head out first; you all do as you please."
With a flicker, Orochimaru disappeared with a Shunshin, leaving Yorin to immediately be mobbed and "squeezed dry" by his trio of fiancées.
And, as usual, Tsunade drew the short straw and, as "supervisor," ended up following Orochimaru to Snow Country instead of getting her turn with Yorin.
…
Cut back to Kazahana Dotō.
Ever since he'd left Konoha, his mood had been outright buoyant.
Just thinking about his foolish brother still ruling the Land of Snow with a gentle hand, utterly unaware that the world had changed beyond recognition, filled Dotō with an impatient glee.
In many ways, all the preconditions for his coup were in place.
As a small nation, the Land of Snow had no huge standing army of samurai. Its main fighting force, like other minor countries with ninja villages, was its shinobi—Yukigakure.
The warriors clung to the glory days, and yes, there were swordmasters like Mifune whose strength rivaled Kage-level. But the overall pattern of "shinobi rising, samurai declining" was irreversible.
In Snow's specific case, the man who controlled Yukigakure—Kazahana Dotō—effectively held ninety percent, if not more, of the country's military power in his hand.
It was another reason he looked down on Yorin.
For all his strength and the legions of shinobi at his command, Yorin was still hesitating to march on Fire's capital. In Dotō's eyes, that made him a cautious, coward type.
Dotō, on the other hand, dared to think and dare to act. First move after leaving Konoha? Conquer Snow Country outright.
"Once I get back, I'll launch the coup."
He pondered, half excited, half clinical.
"Should I kill my weakling brother outright, or be gentler—force him to abdicate and then take the throne?"
Either way, the thought of it warmed him, and he quickened his pace—
Until, in his very next step, Shunshin brought him face to face with one of the most breathtakingly beautiful women he'd ever seen in his life.
~~~
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