Chapter 157: The Triple-Queue Ends, A World Where Only Black Zetsu Suffers
Deep within the Land of Fire, the moment Kou finalized his ultimate deployment and voluntarily released his jutsu, a torrential flood of data surged across the distance and slammed directly into Stelle's brain. Years upon years of accumulated memories—mundane details, critical intelligence, fleeting emotions—crammed themselves into her mind in a single, violent instant. Her fingers spasmed. The porcelain water cup slipped from her grasp, shattering against the wooden floorboards with a sharp crash.
"Hokage-sama, are you alright?" Kajisuke jerked his head up from a towering stack of mission reports, his brow furrowed in concern.
"It's nothing. Just a slip of the hand." Stelle forced her voice to remain steady, though her temples throbbed with a vicious, rhythmic ache.
In all her past grinding sessions, she had never allowed a shadow clone to operate independently for such an extended period. Usually, she recalled them after a few months, or perhaps a year or two at most, just to cycle through her various identities. It wasn't until Kou dispelled himself this time that she truly grasped the sheer, crushing weight of a long-term clone's return. Her skull felt as though it were being split open from the inside out. Had this current body possessed a normal threshold for pain, she would have blacked out the moment the memories hit.
Flashes of Kou's life continued to bombard her consciousness. Stelle pinched the bridge of her nose, waving a hand to signal the hidden Anbu guards to sweep up the porcelain shards. She pushed her chair back, stepping out of the stifling office and into the cool, airy hallway to let the dull throbbing subside. A quick vault over the railing and a few precise leaps later, she landed softly atop the Hokage Rock, the sprawling expanse of Konoha stretching out below her.
With a mere thought, she accessed her system space. A pristine, perfectly preserved Rinnegan resting inside a secure box materialized in her palm. She admired the rippling purple pattern for a brief second before storing it away.
Today's grand finale had completely maxed out Black Zetsu's mood values. The notifications rolled in like tidal waves, fresh bursts of emotional distress pinging her interface in rapid succession. The aftereffects of her psychological warfare were gloriously potent. Her three separate aliases coordinating a massive, years-long 'Triple-Queue'operation had required careful effort, but the payoff was phenomenal.'Congratulations to Black Zetsu for reclaiming his throne as my Top Donor. Let's get a round of applause for the guy.'[Host, you are truly too despicable and insidious. You've farmed Black Zetsu for years using a single pair of eyes. Is this Rinnegan reserved for your next alias's identity? Are you going to keep dangling it in front of him like a carrot?] The system's mechanical voice chimed in her head, dripping with artificial awe.'Probably. Who knows what the future holds?'Stelle replied, the corners of her lips twitching upward.'Black Zetsu absolutely loathes me to the core right now. Once he pieces together what actually happened, he'll be desperate for revenge. Unfortunately for him, I set the power ceiling for this current alias way too high. I'm genuinely curious to see what kind of elaborate retirement plan he's going to try and arrange for me.'
[It is indeed a difficult task. Host, you can take on four Kage simultaneously without breaking a sweat. Ordinary traps won't even scratch you. Poor Black Zetsu... he actually has to rack his brains just to help your alias die a convincing death. Let us observe a minute of silence for his suffering.]
With the immediate crisis resolved, she needed to review the follow-up logistics. She had to calculate if her grand performance left behind any plot holes, or if she needed to step in as a GM to patch up some bugs. Perhaps she ought to prepare a scenic cemetery plot for herself and commission a nice monument. Since the name 'Uchiha Kou' couldn't be officially recorded, a wordless tombstone would have to suffice.
Doing the math, she realized there were already two of her own tombstones sitting in the village cemetery: Senju Stelle and the Anbu operative Tsukiki. Now, Kou would join the ranks. And eventually, once she 'retired' from her current position, the Fourth Hokage would get one too. If she accidentally went overboard with her personas a few more times, wouldn't the entire Konoha graveyard just be a collection of her own alternate accounts?
It was a rather morbid thought.
By the time Kato Dan traveled through the night and finally returned to Konoha from the Land of Frost, Tsunade and Orochimaru had already firmly planted themselves inside the Hokage's office, shamelessly coveting Stelle's private savings. As everyone knew, medical and scientific research were the two most financially ruinous endeavors in existence.
Recently, the two Sannin had developed expensive new obsessions. Tsunade wanted to establish a dedicated research group to study the specialized medical scrolls that only Senju Tobirama could produce. Her ultimate goal was to mass-produce them and equip high-ranking ninjas with the life-saving items, drastically reducing the casualty rates caused by delayed field treatments.
Orochimaru, on the other hand, had completely lost his mind over his mechanical arm research. He now wanted to develop fully autonomous Mechanical Ninjas—automatons that ran purely on electricity instead of chakra, which he firmly believed would render the Hidden Sand Village's puppet brigade obsolete. He even spent hours fantasizing about legions of mechanical soldiers storming the battlefield on their own.
This particular grand ambition had actually startled Stelle. Orochimaru was truly a terrifying genius; a single prosthetic arm had given him the inspiration to invent robots. If he actually succeeded in building them, what was next? Was he going to start researching mobile suits and Gundams?
Neither of these projects were deemed strictly urgent. Danzo, ever the penny-pincher, had tossed them a measly five million ryo each as a token gesture—a sum that wouldn't even make a splash in the bottomless pit of R&D. But no matter how much Tsunade and Orochimaru badgered him, Danzo refused to yield a single coin more. He was no longer just managing Konoha's books; he controlled the finances for the entire Land of Fire. Every morning he opened his eyes, the sheer volume of financial allocations required to keep the country running was enough to make his scalp tingle. There was zero chance he would dump a fortune into experimental black holes.
Remembering that Stelle had once casually dropped two hundred million ryo into their Electrical Appliance Research, Orochimaru immediately pivoted to asking her for sponsorship. His logic was sound: that initial two hundred million investment had gone into appliances and specialized seeds, both of which had become massive commercial successes. Hiruko, unwilling to see the Hokage pinching pennies, had even sold off some of his own valuable experimental materials to scrape together a two hundred million repayment for her. Therefore, Orochimaru argued, this new funding would just be another profitable turnover.
Tsunade, catching wind of this scheme, immediately locked her sights on Stelle's private treasury as well. She repeatedly swore that the moment her medical scroll research succeeded, she would find a way to pay back every single ryo.
Now, the two legendary Sannin were doing absolutely nothing but hovering by her desk like a pair of overzealous attendant spirits. One stood on the left, the other on the right. They poured her tea, handed her documents, and had even 'friendly' ushered the highly obstructive Kajisuke right out of the office.
After being relentlessly pestered for an entire day, Stelle's head was spinning all over again.
Back in the early days, when resources were scarce and she only had a handful of targets to farm mood values from, she had no choice but to spend exorbitant amounts of money to reap rewards. But times had changed. Now that the parents of the Konoha 11 were all enrolled in the academy, she only needed to occasionally drop in, teach them a minor trick, and make her presence known. Just like that, everyone would easily cough up three to five thousand mood value points. With a minor quiz every three days and a major exam every five, she could squeeze them until they dropped gold coins. She certainly didn't need to rely on her old, expensive methods anymore.
"Hokage-sama, I beg of you. For the sake of my First and Second Grandfathers, please support me just this once." Tsunade leaned over the desk, actually attempting to use a sickeningly sweet, cutesy voice to sway her.
"That Senju Clan senior who originally developed those scrolls was an absolute genius. She actually installed a self-destruct mode into the scroll seals! If anyone tries to forcibly break the seal, the scroll automatically incinerates itself. I just need a little more time and funding to crack that Self-destruct Seal."
'That's right,'Stelle thought, her inner voice dripping with smug amusement.'The genius senior you're talking about is sitting right in front of you.' As a Hokage who relied on her system-improved brain, she made sure to slap anti-theft devices on absolutely everything she crafted.
Stelle slowly turned her head to look at Orochimaru on her other side. This man was hopelessly, terminally addicted to scientific research. In a desperate bid to get his hands on her treasury, he had specially changed into a brand-new outfit tailored in the most popular Konoha fashion. He was currently wearing what he clearly believed to be his most handsome, charming smile.
He genuinely thought he could use his physical appeal to manipulate her, heavily relying on her established 'fangirl' persona.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru rarely saw the light of day. His skin was as pale as a sheet of paper. Combined with his heavy, bruised dark circles and the naturally gloomy aura that buffed his every expression, the smile had absolutely nothing to do with being handsome. It was terrifyingly eerie.
It sent a genuine chill down Stelle's spine. For a split second, she thought she was staring at the deranged, snake-like Orochimaru from the original canon timeline.
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