Minato Namikaze's blind trust in Uchiha Qi touched him deeply, but it also put immense pressure on him.
After all, he knew his own limits. How could he possibly possess the absurdly creative talent of that innately wicked Old Man Senju?
He was just a plagiarist, okay?
Who couldn't copy homework?
By normal logic, being a plagiarist had a bright future. One could become a "master." But to become a "master," didn't one at least need the talent to reproduce the works one copied?
In the modern world, that meant an invincible memory capable of perfectly recalling and transcribing all kinds of classic works from one's previous life. In the ninja world, it meant the basic talent required of a ninja.
Unfortunately, Uchiha Qi lacked that basic ninja talent. So-called "creativity" was merely cheap "ideas," and the kind that would be gone once used.
A person should know their own worth. Since Uchiha Qi knew exactly what he was capable of, he naturally did not take Minato Namikaze's praise seriously.
However, Minato Namikaze's suggestion to further develop the genjutsu game did catch Uchiha Qi's attention.
Although this genjutsu game was not some secret technique unique to the ninja world at all, but rather a bizarre combination of system-granted black technology and the Sharingan, that did not stop Uchiha Qi from using a secret technique as cover first.
The reason secret techniques were called secret was that they were usually exclusive techniques belonging to certain individuals or clans and did not need to be made public.
Although Konoha's officials kept records and backups of some secret techniques, those were voluntarily donated by the people or clans who possessed them.
Even if that voluntary nature might not have truly been voluntary, as long as one had sufficient backing and strength, one could protect one's secret techniques.
And Uchiha Qi happened to be a noble Uchiha. Even if he was unwelcome within the clan and felt no sense of belonging toward the Uchiha Clan, the Uchiha Clan was fiercely protective of its own.
His being unwelcome in the clan was one thing. Outsiders bullying or forcing him was another matter entirely.
Within the clan, there would certainly be people who wanted Uchiha Qi to hand over his "secret technique" to the family. But the Uchiha Clan was a proud clan full of tsunderes, and it did not have the habit of stealing its members' cultivation results.
If you handed it over, you would receive rewards and benefits from the clan. If you did not, some clan members might be displeased with you, but they would not force you to surrender it. They would proudly believe that once you thought things through, you would voluntarily hand it over anyway—quite a few Uchiha who created secret techniques had followed roughly that pattern throughout history.
But if an outsider tried to force you to hand over your secret technique, then sorry, the Uchiha Clan was famous for its unity and hostility toward outsiders. Anyone who dared openly bully one of its own had better prepare to be targeted by a bunch of crazy red-eyed maniacs!
That was the Uchiha Clan.
Before the Nine-Tails Attack, although the Uchiha Clan held no position among Konoha's upper echelon, its authority within Konoha was beyond question. Even Shimura Danzō, that Pot Kage, only dared to scheme in the shadows and would not openly clash with the Uchiha Clan.
Did they not understand the weight carried by one of Konoha's founding clans?
It was only during the Nine-Tails Attack, when the massive Sharingan revealed on the Nine-Tails controlled by that bastard Uchiha Obito gave Konoha's upper echelon an opportunity. Using the excuse that "the Uchiha Nine-Tails was controlled by the Sharingan," they thoroughly suppressed the Uchiha Clan's prestige and directly pushed it out of Konoha's core districts.
And even so, the Uchiha Clan had merely fallen from power. The clan's secret techniques remained well protected.
Konoha only truly acquired the Uchiha Clan's various secret techniques after the Uchiha Clan was exterminated by that filial son Uchiha Itachi.
Once everyone was dead, the Uchiha Clan's secret techniques naturally could no longer be preserved.
Therefore, it was still very easy for Uchiha Qi to protect his own "secret technique" for now.
As for the future...
In a few more years, he would either flee Konoha or gain enough strength from the system to protect himself. By then, would he still need to care about the attitude of Konoha's upper echelon?
If the system's rewards were powerful enough, perhaps he could even say to Konoha's F4, "I only want to protect 'my' Konoha. Do you old men who betrayed the Will of Fire understand?"
Just thinking about it made him a little excited.
Of course, even if he wanted to become an Ajie who did not eat beef, that would be a matter for the future. Right now, he was still just a small fry and first needed to solve the problem of promoting the game.
Improvement was necessary. With the current "operation method," only one person could play at a time, and how long they could play depended on whether Uchiha Qi could last. It was far too inefficient and inconvenient.
However, he still needed to carefully consider exactly how to do it.
Next, the two went together to Konoha's famous landmark, the Ichiraku Ramen Shop, for ramen. After all, after playing for a while, it was already close to noon.
Unlike in the "original work," where he first appeared as a middle-aged man, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen Shop in Konoha's Year 46 was still a young man in his twenties. He had only been in Konoha for a few years, and even his daughter Ayame had not yet been born. At present, it was merely a small roadside noodle shop in Konoha with little fame.
However, thanks to the filter of his memories, Uchiha Qi had become a regular customer after the Ichiraku Ramen Shop opened.
And honestly, it tasted pretty good.
Even Minato Namikaze had grown fond of Ichiraku Ramen after Uchiha Qi brought him there.
After finishing a delicious meal of Ichiraku Ramen, the two began taking an after-dinner walk through the streets. Minato Namikaze returned the conversation to the game. "Qi, when can I keep playing?"
Uchiha Qi raised an eyebrow. "You haven't had enough?"
Minato Namikaze scratched his head awkwardly. "It really is interesting, and I also want to know how the game ends..." After a pause, he added, "I want to know what the final outcome is for the character I played in the game."
Uchiha Qi said, "Oh? I thought you were busy dealing with all kinds of traps and evil spirits during the experience, or just enjoying the fighting. So you actually dug into the game's plot too?"
Minato Namikaze smiled. "I am still a Konoha jōnin, after all. Gathering intelligence is one of a jōnin's most basic skills."
"Although the plot hidden in the game is fragmented, all the key information is there."
Uchiha Qi nodded. "True. With your abilities, it was inevitable that you would uncover the game's plot. Even its fragmented narrative style was not a problem for you. It gave you enough to piece together the complete story."
This genjutsu game called "Homecoming" did not tell its story through conventional straightforward narration. Instead, it buried the story throughout the gameplay, requiring players to piece together the complete tale from scattered text and clues.
All of that information was placed throughout the various scenes. It was simply there to be found and could not be taken away, so one careless moment could cause a player to miss it.
It did not affect clearing the game, but first-time players who lacked the habit of gathering intelligence and studying the plot would most likely clear it in a muddle and remain completely confused about what story the game had even told.
However, Minato Namikaze truly was Konoha's flashiest man. He looked as if he had gathered no intelligence at all, merely charging forward and reveling in combat like an ordinary rookie player, but in truth, he had discovered and remembered all the information hidden in the scenes.
And now that he had already left the game, he had directly pieced together a relatively complete story in his mind.
At the very least, the information Minato Namikaze gathered had successfully allowed him to reconstruct the story.
In Minato Namikaze's analysis, the game character he played was a Konoha ninja active during the Ninja World War. He had witnessed the war's cruelty and accumulated a great deal of negative emotion as a result.
Those negative emotions attracted the attention of evil spirits. In addition, he truly had killed people, so he became cursed by those he had killed.
Thus, after the Ninja World War ended, when the "protagonist" should have gone home to rest, he instead became trapped within a cursed domain created by evil spirits. Only by breaking through every obstacle could he escape the cursed domain and return to his true home.
That was the story Minato Namikaze had interpreted.
In response, Uchiha Qi merely said, "Although there are differences from the actual plot, you are not far from the truth."
Hearing that, Minato Namikaze scratched his head. "Huh? So I wasn't completely right? Is there something else hidden behind it?"
"Hmm... I'm becoming more and more interested in the truth. I wonder when I'll be able to play the later content again."
That last part was a sigh. He did hope to continue playing that afternoon, but he had things to do in the afternoon, so he could only settle for "next time, for sure."
Uchiha Qi only wanted to say—actually, you did not need to wait for next time. After all, you had already produced all the Emotion Value you could produce. I no longer need you.
Yes, although he had not finished the entire game yet, Minato Namikaze had already provided all the Emotion Value he could offer this game. In other words, as far as Uchiha Qi was concerned, his "use value" was gone. Letting him keep playing would be the classic case of occupying the toilet without taking a dump.
Of course, Uchiha Qi would not actually stop Minato Namikaze from playing. He was not some weirdo who treated old players as "old men maliciously spending money and obstructing the game's development." Even if Minato Namikaze were not his close friend, he would still take good care of such a diehard old player who supported him.
Please vote, bookmark, tip, keep reading, and give me everything!
Before you continue