Uchiha Clan Compound, backyard.
"Aunt Mikoto has brought Naruto home." Shisui said, placing a comatose death row prisoner on the ground.
"Hmm, isn't work busy?" Hiromi squatted down and carefully examined the quality of the death row prisoner.
"I let Shikaku handle it. If there's anything he can't handle, he'll contact me." Shisui said.
"You actually know how to delegate power, not bad."
Shisui smiled. "Learning from you. A village leader only needs to control the general direction, handling everything personally is not a good thing."
The contrast between Hiromi and Hiruzen was extremely obvious.
Why did Hiruzen have to handle everything himself?
It was nothing more than greed for power. He needed to repeatedly brainwash the villagers and play the victim to increase their favorability so that they would forget the fact that he kept occupying the position of Hokage without retiring.
In fact, these things didn't require him specifically. The Hokage was just a symbol in the village.
"Hmm, maintain a good sense of proportion, but it doesn't matter if it falls apart." Hiromi said.
It doesn't matter if it falls apart? Is Konoha really that expendable in your eyes?
Shisui: "..."
"Are there any moves from the Daimyo's side?" Hiromi asked casually.
Shisui shook his head.
Logically speaking, since Jiraiya didn't become the Fifth Hokage, the Daimyo should be furious, but days had passed without any news.
"They might use their usual tactics: withholding funding." Shisui speculated.
"If that happens, it will be troublesome. The Daimyos of various countries check and balance each other while also uniting, viewing the Ninja World as a chessboard to play their power games. If the Daimyo is dissatisfied, it won't be easy for us Uchiha to do anything."
"Just control them." Hiromi said.
"Huh?" Shisui was stunned.
"Orochimaru only had money for experiments because he controlled the Daimyo of the Land of Grass." Hiromi said.
"But once discovered, we will become enemies of the entire world, and then we won't even get any mission requests..."
"We have sufficient combat power, why do we need to do missions to get money? Whoever won't let us live, we can just rob them, can't we?"
Shisui opened his mouth, staring blankly at Hiromi, having guessed what Hiromi wanted to do. But he wasn't very surprised, because Hiromi had always been like this.
Shisui pondered.
A few seconds later, he said, "The Uchiha alone won't suffice, we need your combat power."
Shisui's meaning was very clear: if they really wanted to do this, Hiromi couldn't stay on the sidelines. He needed to participate, cooperate to provide deterrence, and even participate in wars or become a Daimyo.
Hiromi grunted an "Hmm," agreeing to this.
"Then what about Konoha?" Shisui asked.
"Anyone standing in the way is an enemy."
"This..."
Hiromi smiled. "What? Do you really treat Konoha as your home?"
Shisui said with a bitter smile, "It is, after all, the place where I grew up,"
Ever since he became the Uchiha clan head, he understood the meaning of the village to Hiruzen—a puppet of power, manipulating Konoha to develop in the direction he wanted.
Now, Shisui's mindset had changed. Although he was gradually treating Konoha as a chessboard, he still couldn't quite forget the deep-rooted idea that "Konoha is one big family."
"What do you want to do?" Hiromi asked.
"..."
Shisui paused for a few seconds before saying, "Let me think about it carefully."
"No rush. As long as that Daimyo doesn't walk to his own death, I don't intend to move against him just yet."
Hiromi was too young, and he increasingly felt that the amount of Chakra in his body was not enough. Even if the mission rewards were good, there would always be a moment when Chakra ran out.
If he could develop a Lava Release technique that affects space, then he could easily phase out the Fire Release Chakra Mode.
Shisui nodded, then turned to look at the comatose death row prisoner on the ground.
"What do you want to do with him?"
"Conduct an experiment." Hiromi said, beginning to form hand seals.
Pressing one hand to the ground, patterns appeared on the surface, emitting an eerie aura that enveloped the prisoner. Hiromi infused Chakra, forming a complete seal at a certain moment.
"Edo Tensei!"
Suddenly, the comatose prisoner woke up, screaming and wailing as if experiencing the most painful torture of the soul.
Paper emerged from the ground, covering him in a pile. Eventually, it stood up, taking the form of a 15-year-old orange-haired boy with a resolute expression, eyes with pitch-black sclera, and a body covered in cracks.
The orange-haired boy froze for a moment, as if he had just woken up, looking somewhat dazed and confused.
"I... didn't die?"
Just as he thought this, he perceived a sense of disgust toward this world, as if this wasn't a place where he should be, making him feel somewhat nauseous and uncomfortable.
He looked around. It was a lush green forest, not the Land of Rain.
And the young boy and the young man in front of him—that young man was... Shisui of the Body Flicker?!
The clan crest worn by that young boy... was the Uchiha clan?!
This is Konoha?!
In an instant, he assumed a combat stance, feeling very nervous.
He looked at Shisui, and Shisui looked back at him, curious about what Hiromi wanted to do.
The next moment, he noticed the shock in the orange-haired boy's eyes. At the same time, he also felt a completely different type of ocular power.
Shisui followed the orange-haired boy's gaze and saw Hiromi's eyes. He discovered that those eyes were no longer a mottled blood-red, but were instead purple ripples.
In an instant, they perfectly aligned with the eyes he had seen in pictures from mythological stories in the past.
The legendary Sage of Six Paths' eyes?!
He widened his eyes, his heart filled with shock.
***
40 Advanced Chapters on
patreon.com/alex_1000