Chapter 507: Fugaku Running for Fourth Hokage? (8k Combined)

It was actually not easy to meet Kushina.

Previously, Muzuki basically had to ask the Anbu to pass a message to set a time when they delivered her meals.

But now that Muzuki had a rather special status in the Anbu, the process was simpler, and he didn’t need to book a fixed time.

Upon arriving near the agreed-upon location, Muzuki saw Kushina standing under a large tree.

It seemed that just to compete with Muzuki, except for the first meeting where Muzuki arrived earlier, Kushina had arrived earlier almost every time since.

Although she didn’t know what Kushina looked like, the moment Hana-rei Uzumaki caught sight of that flash of vibrant red, she had a feeling that this person was the Uzumaki Kushina that Muzuki had mentioned.

“Kushina, good afternoon.” Muzuki walked forward and greeted Kushina with a smile.

Kushina was about to respond, but her attention was drawn to Hana-rei Uzumaki beside Muzuki.

Kushina rubbed her chin, scrutinized Hana-rei Uzumaki, and some conjectures formed in her mind.

Since Muzuki brought someone to meet her, there were only two possibilities: the first was that the person had a close relationship with Muzuki, and the second was that the person had a connection to her.

Hana-rei Uzumaki watched Kushina in silence; even before they started talking, she could clearly feel the difference in their personalities.

After looking at Hana-rei Uzumaki, Kushina looked at Muzuki again.

“Hana-rei Uzumaki, a survivor of the Uchiha Clan.”

“Muzuki, so you really do like red hair. I actually thought…”

The two spoke at the same time; Muzuki introduced Hana-rei Uzumaki, while Kushina voiced her inner speculation.

“Thought what?” Muzuki looked at Kushina, feigning confusion.

When he first met Minato Namikaze and Kushina, he had praised Kushina’s hair to build favor, and now Kushina had clearly misunderstood his relationship with Hana-rei Uzumaki.

“Ahahaha, nothing.” Having guessed wrong, Kushina laughed it off to gloss over the situation.

“Hello, I am Kushina Uzumaki.” Kushina then introduced herself with a serious expression and looked at Hana-rei Uzumaki.

Since the destruction of the Uzumaki Clan, Hana-rei Uzumaki was only the second member of the Uzumaki Clan she had come into contact with.

The other was Mito Uzumaki, who was also in Konoha, but Mito Uzumaki had already passed away from old age. Being able to see another member of the Uzumaki Clan again, especially someone of the same age, made Kushina very happy inside.

“Hello Kushina, I am Hana-rei Uzumaki.” Although Muzuki had helped introduce her, Hana-rei Uzumaki still introduced herself quite formally.

Seeing a clansman after such a long time, Hana-rei Uzumaki was also somewhat excited.

Since they were both members of the Uzumaki Clan, the two discussed past memories of the Uzumaki Clan from their childhoods.

Upon chatting, they discovered that their homes in the Land of Whirlpools were actually only a few streets apart.

If not for the series of events like Kushina being sent to Konoha and the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools, they might have become classmates at a school in the Land of Whirlpools, going to school and returning home together.

At this point in the conversation, both sides fell somewhat silent.

Even the lively Kushina found it hard to be in a good mood when recalling the downfall of her clan and country.

Because her parents, all the relatives she was familiar with, neighbors, and playmates had all died in that war of national annihilation; how could she possibly be happy?

“While I can understand your excitement at meeting a fellow clansman, please don’t ignore me completely.” Seeing this, Muzuki steered the conversation back to himself.

“Hehe, I just got a bit excited.” Kushina scratched her head and explained.

Immediately after, Kushina thought of something and asked with a curious expression: “By the way, how did you two meet? Weren’t you out on a mission, Muzuki?”

Kushina could tell whether Muzuki was in Konoha by looking at the food; whenever Muzuki was in Konoha, he would basically help prepare a portion for her as well.

If there was a day she didn’t get any, it was most likely because he had left the village for a mission.

“I was executing a mission in the Land of Grass and just happened to run into her.” Muzuki answered concisely.

“Just like that?” Kushina widened her eyes. This was too simple; how come it sounded like he had just gone out for a meal?

“Actually, I encountered danger in the Grass Ninja Village. Lord Mu Yue saved me, and then seeing that I was having a hard time living, he brought me back to Konoha.” Hana-rei Uzumaki added.

She was very grateful to Muzuki; whether in the Grass Ninja Village or in Konoha, Muzuki had helped her a lot.

In Hana-rei Uzumaki’s heart, Muzuki was definitely the number one good person in the world.

“That’s more like it.” Kushina nodded. Although Hana-rei Uzumaki’s explanation was also simple, it was enough for one to imagine a perfect hero-saves-the-damsel plot.

Being kidnapped because of the Uzumaki physique, then Muzuki charging in to save Hana-rei Uzumaki…

“Wait, no.” The more Kushina thought about it, the stronger the sense of déjà vu became. Wasn’t this exactly her and Minato Namikaze’s experience?

Her relationship with Minato Namikaze was actually not good at the beginning because Kushina thought Minato Namikaze was dull and weird, and he also wanted to compete with her for the position of Hokage.

It was only after Kushina was kidnapped by Kumogakure and Minato Namikaze saved her, and she came to realize the true nature of Minato Namikaze, that their relationship began to change.

“Could the world just be a giant loop of Minato and me?” Connecting this with Muzuki’s appearance and Hana-rei Uzumaki’s identity as an Uzumaki, Kushina felt a sense of déjà vu.

Kushina scrutinized the two again, but realized that wasn’t the case, because Muzuki and Hana-rei Uzumaki didn’t even look like friends.

“Let’s talk a bit first to see what kind of personality Hana-rei has.” Kushina made up her mind.

Muzuki had never even had a girlfriend. If it weren’t for the lack of suitable candidates, Kushina would have long wanted to introduce someone to him.

If Hana-rei Uzumaki’s personality was good enough, Kushina felt she could try to play matchmaker.

…

It was almost dinnertime when Obito finally finished his training and left the South Border Forest with Shisui to return home.

“I’m home.” Before he even reached the door, Obito shouted impatiently.

“Oh, it’s Obito.” Hearing the voice of her familiar grandson, Grandmother smiled kindly and walked slowly toward the door.

“Grandma, how has your health been lately?” After entering the house, Obito accompanied Grandmother back to the living room and asked with concern.

“I’m not senile yet. You weren’t on this mission for very long, so what kind of changes could there be?” Grandmother smiled, reassuring Obito.

Obito had been away for a long time during the East Bank Battlefield mission; she remembered it was more than half a year, and he had only returned once in the middle, spending most of the time away from Konoha.

Obito chuckled and scratched his head. As long as Grandmother stayed healthy, he didn’t mind being nagged a little.

“Grandma, where is Fire Dragon? Did it go out to play?” Obito thought of the summon he kept at home.

He had high expectations for Fire Dragon, hoping that Fire Dragon would be stronger than Jiraiya’s toads in the future.

“Isn’t Fire Dragon right over there?” Grandmother pointed to the sofa.

Obito looked in the direction Grandmother pointed and saw a tail burning with flames from behind the sofa.

“Fire Dragon, why are you sleeping at this time? Get up quickly.” Obito shouted.

Taking a nap at noon was understandable, but it was already dinnertime and it was still sleeping; Obito had reason to suspect that Fire Dragon had been slacking off while he was away.

Hearing Obito’s voice, Fire Dragon wobbled its body as it walked toward Obito. It had been eating a bit too much lately, which made it sleepy.

“This is Fire Dragon?” Obito looked at Fire Dragon’s round belly with an expression of existential doubt.

He remembered it was a small Fire Dragon before he left; how did it turn into a little fat dragon in the time it took to complete one mission?

“Awoo!” Fire Dragon let out a cry of dissatisfaction.

How could he insult a dragon like that? If it wasn’t Fire Dragon, then who was?

Obito’s mouth twitched. He grabbed Fire Dragon by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up to look it in the eye.

“Fire Dragon, did you not exercise at all while I was away? How did you get so fat all of a sudden?” Obito couldn’t help but ask.

Fire Dragon shook its head. It would be a bit lazy when it rained, but it hadn’t completely stopped exercising.

The reason it had become like this was entirely because the food at Grandmother’s place was too good.

Obito couldn’t tell if Fire Dragon was telling the truth. He thought for a moment and said, “Let’s forget about the past. From now on, you need to increase your training intensity to lose weight.”

Fire Dragon wasn’t fierce enough to begin with, and with a round belly, it would have even less deterrent power.

“Fire Dragon.” Fire Dragon shook its head in dissatisfaction. It felt that it was fine as it was and there was no need to lose weight.

“Are you saying that increasing it a little bit isn’t enough, and I need to increase the training intensity more?” Obito speculated.

Fire Dragon:…

If it weren’t for the fact that it couldn’t out-breathe fire against Obito, it would really want to take a bite out of him. Bullying it because it couldn’t speak human language, huh?

“How does this training plan look?” Obito formulated a training schedule for Fire Dragon based on Muzuki’s past training plans.

Fire Dragon turned its head away and remained silent. Until it saw a translator, it wouldn’t give Obito another chance to frame it.

On the other side, Zorua, whom Fire Dragon was constantly thinking about, was enjoying the dinner Shisui had prepared for it.

Because Zorua displayed the most unique intelligence among all the Nin-Beasts, coupled with Zorua’s incredibly special illusion techniques, Shisui didn’t foster Zorua out to anyone, but instead prepared a large amount of food and money for Zorua to manage on its own.

If it was too lazy to move at home, it could eat the Inuzuka-style secret dog food at home; if it wanted to eat something hot, it could use an illusion to turn into a human and go buy some.

“How does living alone feel?” Shisui asked as he took off his apron.

“It was a bit fresh at first, but later on, I started missing you, Shisui.” Zorua thought for a moment, lifted its head, and said.

For Zorua, it still preferred the atmosphere of the South Border Forest.

Although training was a bit hard, chatting and playing around during breaks was very interesting. Without the entertainment activity of tricking Obito, its life was much more boring.

“When you get stronger, I’ll take you with me when I go on missions in the future.” Shisui comforted it by stroking the fiery red fur on Zorua’s head.

Because the Nin-Beasts had just been born not long ago and their strength was weak, the disciples hadn’t brought their Nin-Beasts along, even Kakashi, who had hatched his the earliest.

After all, they were executing the highest-level war missions, and in such missions, the probability of encountering powerful enemies was extremely high.

After dinner, Shisui took Zorua for a walk in the Uchiha Clan Compound for half an hour.

After sending Zorua home, Shisui went to attend the Uchiha Clan Meeting alone; today happened to be the day for the regular Uchiha Clan Meeting.

Because Obito didn’t like Clan Meetings, and because Shisui’s previous actions had helped him establish a certain degree of prestige within the Uchiha Clan, Shisui didn’t call Obito.

“Shisui, haven’t seen you for a while. Did you go on a mission again?” Shisui encountered Uchiha Inaho as he neared Nanga Shrine.

Shisui nodded.

“Recently, I encountered some doubts regarding Fire Release. Do you have some time later, Shisui?” Uchiha Inaho asked.

Although Shisui was quite a bit younger than him, Uchiha Inaho was a pure Uchiha who respected strength and didn’t feel it was wrong to ask Shisui for advice. After all, Shisui was a powerhouse who had defeated him in a single glance during battle.

“Let’s chat after the Clan Meeting ends.” Shisui agreed.

Besides his own personality, Shisui had another consideration.

He felt that he needed to cultivate some like-minded companions within the Uchiha Clan to change the Uchiha together.

Uchiha Inaho was considered quite prominent among the younger generation of the Uchiha, and had quite a bit of prestige among young Uchiha, making him a good choice.

However, the core reason Shisui chose Uchiha Inaho was that Uchiha Inaho was currently neither a dove nor a hawk, but just an Uchiha with a strong sense of clan honor.

Uchiha Inaho had agreed with the hawk faction elders’ proposal simply because he thought it would be conducive to enhancing the Uchiha’s strength; later, after Shisui explained the pros and cons, he decisively supported Shisui.

“Then that will be troublesome for you, Shisui.” Uchiha Inaho smiled.

Then, with Shisui in front and Uchiha Inaho behind, the two walked into Nanga Shrine together.

As soon as Shisui walked into Nanga Shrine, many Uchiha greeted him.

For the Uchiha, defeating a clan elder was far more intuitive than battlefield rumors, so after the grand competition, Shisui’s reputation within the Uchiha rose another level.

Shisui responded to each one; this was what Muzuki had taught him.

In order to gain more favor with his clansmen, Shisui had specially requested the list of all Uchiha Ninjas from Fugaku, memorizing the names and appearances of all Uchiha Ninjas to ensure no omissions.

Uchiha Sheng Qing noticed this scene and glanced sideways, his regard for Shisui deepening in his heart.

A powerful genius was not scary; without brains, one would ultimately only become a thug. But a genius who was both strong and knew how to win people over could not be underestimated.

“As expected of the descendant of Uchiha Kagami, is it possible for him to complete the cause that Uchiha Kagami left unfinished?” Uchiha Sheng Qing thought, then shook his head.

He felt it was unrealistic, even if Shisui was even more outstanding than Uchiha Kagami had been back then.

Uchiha Sheng Qing believed that if Konoha did not undergo a major reshuffling, let alone becoming Hokage, even becoming part of Konoha’s high-level leadership would be an extravagant hope for the Uchiha.

When the meeting began, Uchiha Sheng Qing stopped thinking about other things; after a moment of gathering his thoughts, he began to speak.

“To restore the glory of the Uchiha, we must obtain greater say in Konoha. The most important thing is for there to be an Uchiha Hokage in Konoha!”

“During the Warring States Period, the Uchiha was a Ninja clan on the same level as the Senju. Nowadays, the Senju have already had two Hokage, while we Uchiha haven’t had even a single Hokage. I believe this is unacceptable.”

“Regardless of how difficult it is to start from scratch, we Uchiha must strive our best to fight for this position of Hokage!”

Uchiha Sheng Qing’s words instantly heated up the atmosphere in Nanga Shrine. The Uchiha Ninjas were all infected by Uchiha Sheng Qing’s words, believing that if the Senju could do it, they Uchiha must be able to as well.

Shisui had to admit that Uchiha Sheng Qing was truly skilled at inciting emotions; within just a few words, Uchiha Inaho beside him was already looking fired up.

Shisui did not speak out against it this time, because Uchiha Sheng Qing’s words were indeed sound, and Shisui even agreed that the Uchiha Clan should produce a Hokage.

If there were a Uchiha Hokage, resolving the Uchiha Clan’s issues would be much easier.

“Then how should we compete for the position of Hokage?” one Uchiha asked.

Everyone knew that having a clan member as Hokage would make things easier, but actually becoming Hokage was a monumental task.

Currently, the Sannin were at the height of their influence in Konoha, and no Ninja within the Uchiha Clan could compete with them.

“To become Hokage, the most important things are one’s contributions to Konoha and one’s strength. I believe Clan Leader Fugaku has the ability to compete for the position of Hokage.” Uchiha Sheng Qing pushed Uchiha Fugaku into the spotlight.

Uchiha Sheng Qing was just spouting slogans as usual to boost his family reputation; he had no actual plan to make Uchiha Fugaku the Hokage.

In any case, if they failed, the one who would lose face wouldn’t be him, but Uchiha Fugaku, who was competing for the position.

Uchiha Sheng Qing was just waiting for Fugaku to fail so he could step out, incite the emotions of the Uchiha, and increase the influence of the hawkish faction.

Uchiha Sheng Qing already had a rough draft in mind: he would claim that Uchiha Fugaku’s failure in the election was definitely not a matter of ability, but rather because Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other high-ranking officials held prejudices against the Uchiha.

“Clan Leader Fugaku is indeed the strongest Ninja among us Uchiha; he should be the one with the best chance,” an Uchiha responded.

Uchiha Fugaku was stunned; he hadn’t expected Uchiha Sheng Qing to pull something like this.

Looking at the expectant faces of the Uchiha clansmen, Uchiha Fugaku’s expression became hesitant.

He knew his own strength well enough; without having awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, he might not even be a match for Shisui or Obito in a few years, let alone compete with the Sannin.

However, as the Uchiha Clan Leader, admitting outright that he was unqualified to compete for the Hokage position would dampen the clansmen’s morale, and Fugaku didn’t know what to do for a moment.

“The Third Hokage is in his prime, and the next Hokage election is still a long way off. Perhaps Elder Sheng Qing could first explain how we Uchiha should assist Clan Leader Fugaku in becoming Hokage, so we can prepare in advance,” Shisui said, coming to his rescue.

Shisui had once fought Uchiha Fugaku; Uchiha Fugaku’s strength was not weak, but it did not reach the level of the Sannin.

Shisui felt that Uchiha Fugaku might not even be a match for Might Guy, who used the Sixth Gate of the Eight Gates combined with the Rock Breathing Chakra Mode.

This was because Fugaku’s Sharingan genjutsu would have no effect on Might Guy.

Uchiha Sheng Qing didn’t think Uchiha Fugaku could become Hokage, so naturally, he hadn’t thought too deeply about it and just casually mentioned some things Uchiha Kagami had done back in the day.

After the meeting ended, Shisui coached Uchiha Inaho as promised, and then went to Muzuki’s home to tell him what had happened at the Clan Meeting.

“If you could make the Uchiha Clan the Hokage or high-ranking officials, that would naturally be of great benefit to your plan, but it is not realistic in the short term,” Muzuki said, shaking his head.

Unless it was during the Fourth Hokage era under Minato Namikaze’s administration, the Uchiha would encounter immense resistance.

“However, this is actually an opportunity. You can use the excuse that the Uchiha holding too much power would cause other clans to become wary and negatively affect the Hokage election to persuade the Uchiha high-ranking officials to reform the Police Force.”

In Muzuki’s vision, if the issue with the Police Force were completely resolved, Shisui’s life mission might advance by about forty percent.

The Police Force was one of the major cores of why the Uchiha had become what they were today.

Senju Tobirama understood the Uchiha all too well; who could have imagined that this seemingly large cake allotted to the Uchiha was actually laced with deadly poison.

Shisui looked thoughtful.

He deduced the idea Muzuki had given him and found it to be much better than his original plan.

The best part of Muzuki’s idea was using benefits to entice the Uchiha to give up that poisoned Police Force.

Trying to persuade the Uchiha to give up the Police Force by arguing that it was harmful to them would make one seem insane, but if it were framed as sacrificing some interests of the Police Force for the sake of the Hokage position, the perception would be completely different.

“It is truly wonderful to have a teacher like you,” Shisui exclaimed sincerely.

Every time he felt he had learned a lot and understood much from Muzuki, he was always able to learn even more from him the next time.

…

Land of Rain, Shinobi Sect base.

The intensive training for the transfer to the eastern part of the Land of Rain had entered its final stage, and Muzuki’s Shadow Clone issued tasks down the line again, having the Shinobi Sect Ninjas promote the grand lecture.

In order to successfully aim for higher-level lecture rewards, Muzuki maximized the publicity, striving for the best possible results.

Amegakure was a key area for Muzuki’s promotion; from the Amegakure leader Hanzo down to the Genin, everyone knew that Muzuki would be conducting a week-long unrestricted lecture in the near future.

Not only the Amegakure Ninjas cooperating with the Shinobi Sect, but also wandering Ninjas or Ninjas from other countries could come to attend the lectures; there were no barriers to entry.

“That Ninja Master’s lecture—I kind of want to go. I heard he is very good at teaching.”

“I want to go, but I don’t. Although they are partners, Lord Hanzo probably doesn’t like them very much. If I go, I might get punished.”

“This is so conflicting. If all else fails, let’s just use the Transformation Technique to disguise ourselves.”

“Good idea. Let’s disguise ourselves and go on the first day to see what it’s like. If he isn’t as amazing as the rumors say, or if he doesn’t teach anything useful, we can just come back.”

Hanzo, who was patrolling Amegakure, sighed slightly upon hearing the words of the patrolling Amegakure Ninjas.

What kind of image did he have in the eyes of others now? A leader who was furious after being defeated by Sōsuke? They were even worried about being punished just for attending a lecture.

What made Hanzo even more unsettled was that he had actually had a fleeting, similar thought himself.

Thinking that his subordinates were eager to receive Sōsuke’s guidance made Hanzo feel very uncomfortable; those were his subordinates, after all.

But thinking rationally, Hanzo could slightly understand them; before Sōsuke defeated Kakuzu and himself, he had already been famous for his teaching ability.

If he didn’t truly have ability, why would so many Ninjas be willing to follow him?

“Should I… go and take a look as well?” A thought emerged in Hanzo’s heart.

After thinking carefully, he realized that he didn’t seem to know much about Sōsuke, whom he regarded as a major enemy.

What was Sōsuke’s true purpose? Why did Sōsuke create the Shinobi Sect? What kind of person was Sōsuke? He only had a vague sense of these things.

In fact, they had only interacted three times: once when Hanzo, having heard of Sōsuke’s reputation, summoned him to Amegakure to warn him; the second time was before the canyon battle; and the third time was the peace talks.

His impression of Sōsuke was actually based more on intelligence—intelligence from Amegakure and intelligence provided by Danzo Shimura.

Hanzo felt that he might really need to go once, to see why Sōsuke was promoting this lecture with such fanfare, and to see what that so-called Ninja Master was like when he was teaching.

That day, Hanzo dispatched his Anbu subordinates to investigate the attitude of all the Amegakure Ninjas regarding Sōsuke’s lecture.

He was surprised to find that two-fifths of the Ninjas had a significant interest in attending the lecture.

Moreover, the remaining Ninjas didn’t think Sōsuke lacked ability, but rather that Sōsuke wouldn’t reveal anything real in such a public lecture, which was why they weren’t interested.

This was something Hanzo hadn’t expected; their Amegakure had previously been in opposition to the Shinobi Sect, yet nearly half of the Ninjas wanted to go and listen to Sōsuke’s lecture.

This made the slightly hesitant Hanzo make up his mind: on the first day of the unrestricted lecture, he would disguise himself as a wandering Ninja to attend the course Sōsuke was hosting and see what was going on.

Muzuki’s promotional work was very thorough; not only in Amegakure, but this major news was spreading rapidly through the various countries surrounding the Land of Rain.

“A lecture with no restrictions.” Kitsuchi, who received the intelligence in Iwagakure, was very tempted.

He greatly admired Sōsuke and was very curious about Sōsuke’s teaching ability, which only existed in intelligence reports.

With his strength, he naturally didn’t need Sōsuke to teach him anything; at his level, wanting to improve further basically relied on his own efforts.

Tempted, Kitsuchi eventually went to the Tsuchikage’s office and asked Ōnoki for permission.

“During wartime, you want to go to another country just to listen to a lecture with a bunch of wandering Ninjas and Ninjas from small countries?” Ōnoki looked speechless.

The essence of Ōnoki’s speechlessness wasn’t about why Kitsuchi was leaving, but rather that Kitsuchi’s reason was too blunt—so blunt it was a bit stupid.

If he had said it was to scout the situation in the Land of Rain, it would have sounded much more serious; if he had added that it was to win over a rising Ninja force, Ōnoki might even have approved a budget for him.

“Then I apologize for bothering you.” Kitsuchi thought it was a no-go and prepared to give up.

Ōnoki pondered for a moment and said, “You can go to the Land of Rain, and you can attend the lecture, but you must complete a mission while you’re at it.”

“Now that the deployment in the Land of Grass has failed, we must speed up the deployment in the Land of Rain to let the Land of Rain exhaust Konoha’s strength.”

Although he was too blunt, he was his son after all, and Ōnoki couldn’t refuse such a small request.

Given the situation on the Land of Grass battlefield, it wouldn’t make much of a difference whether Kitsuchi was there or not.

Kitsuchi revealed a simple, honest smile and nodded in agreement.

Because he was executing a mission, in addition to Kitsuchi himself, he also brought three Iwagakure Jōnin and five Iwagakure Chunin.

The Land of Wind was also one of the major countries bordering the Land of Rain, and a lot of intelligence about the Ninja Master’s lecture had flowed into the country.

“I heard this Ninja Master is unparalleled in Fire Release and can use Fire Release to suppress Hanzo’s Water Release in rainy conditions.” Pakura revealed an interested expression.

She was an expert in Scorch Release, but she was also proficient in Fire Release; due to the efficiency of Scorch Release in killing, Pakura basically didn’t use Fire Release normally.

However, this legendary Ninja Master Sōsuke’s Fire Release was clearly not ordinary Fire Release; after all, being able to defeat the demigod Hanzo while at an elemental disadvantage already defied common sense.

Pakura checked her schedule and found that she happened to have nothing important to do during the days of Muzuki’s lecture.

After thinking for a long time, Pakura decided to head to the Land of Rain to join in the excitement.

However, she was a hero of Sunagakure after all; if Muzuki didn’t present content that interested her on the first day, Pakura would leave quickly.

As time fermented, even Muzuki’s real body, far away in Konoha, heard the news that the Ninja Master Sōsuke was about to conduct an unrestricted lecture.

“Ninja Master? It’s just that Teacher Muzuki is low-key; otherwise, this title would definitely be Teacher Muzuki’s!” Obito said bluntly that he was just not as good as Muzuki.

Obito might not care about other titles, but he felt that the title of Ninja Master was one that was very suitable for Muzuki.

As for that Sōsuke, he was just a title thief.

The class Muzuki taught was the strongest class in the history of the Ninja Academy, and he had even taught several famous geniuses like them; what kind of teaching achievements did that Ninja Master have?

“Don’t underestimate Sōsuke. Although he probably isn’t as good as Teacher Muzuki, he should also be a very capable Ninja; otherwise, it would be impossible for him to have so many followers in such a short time.” Kakashi told Obito not to underestimate people in the world.

In Kakashi’s heart, Sōsuke was an enhanced version of Hanzo, the type of existence you shouldn’t provoke if you could avoid it.

Yamato scratched his head; he didn’t know who the Ninja Master was, nor did he know who Hanzo was, and he couldn’t understand what they were talking about at all.

His special experience had resulted in him being a novice who knew nothing about the various affairs of the Ninja World, and Obito could even indulge in being a top student in front of him.

Shisui didn’t care about the topic of Obito and the others; during break time, he was usually thinking about the affairs of the Uchiha Clan.

“Teacher Muzuki, are you going to go and participate? I feel like you could show your teaching ability on the spot and let them know what a real Ninja Master is.” Obito hoped that Muzuki could reclaim the title that belonged to him.

Muzuki smiled and shook his head; ruining his own show was a bit too much like having nothing better to do.

“There is always someone better, and there is always someone higher; don’t think that I am unrivaled.” Muzuki reminded him.

Although it was a good thing that his disciple trusted him, excessive reliance would cause some problems.

“Isn’t Sage Muzuki omnipotent and unrivaled?” Obito muttered.

Even Sage Muzuki himself could never shake his faith.

Root.

“Unrestricted lecture? Sōsuke, you really are a threat.” After seeing the Root intelligence, Danzo Shimura immediately felt that this person would definitely become a major problem in the future.

Initially, it was by Sōsuke giving lectures everywhere that some Ninjas were gathered, which eventually became the Shinobi Sect.

Now that Sōsuke had stirred up such a grand lecture event, Danzo Shimura immediately felt that Sōsuke wanted to expand and strengthen the power of the Shinobi Sect.

Amegakure bordered the Land of Fire, and Danzo Shimura would not allow a small country bordering the Land of Fire to become too strong; this was not in Konoha’s interest.

Danzo Shimura immediately mobilized Root squads to head to the Land of Rain to strengthen the Root’s power in the Land of Rain.

He felt that the Shinobi Sect was going to do something big in the Land of Rain, and this might become his opportunity to obtain the Shinobi Sect’s inheritance and the Rinnegan.

PS: Fugaku having the Mangekyo is an original plot from the anime, but even in the anime original, the Mangekyo was awakened only after his good friend died on the battlefield. Fugaku has not yet participated in the Third Shinobi World War, so he does not have the Mangekyo Sharingan yet.