Waking Up in an Interrogation Room

"For example... Madara Uchiha!"

At the thought of that name, a wild, arrogant figure flashed through the Third Hokage's mind, and his body trembled involuntarily.

"The Uchiha Clan must never be allowed onto the battlefield!"

The battlefield was a catalyst that rapidly produced powerful Uchiha.

The Third Hokage would never allow another member of the Uchiha Clan to emerge who might rival that man.

That would undoubtedly be a catastrophic disaster for Konoha.

After all, it was impossible for the Senju Clan to produce another Hashirama.

The first key point of the Second Hokage's Uchiha policy could not be changed: the Uchiha Clan must never be allowed onto the battlefield.

As for the second point... the Third Hokage felt that perhaps it could be altered.

According to the Second Hokage's plan, once the Uchiha Clan was firmly confined within the Konoha Guard Division, the lack of intense, pure emotional stimulation would make their Sharingan increasingly difficult to awaken, gradually weakening the clan.

At that point, the Hokage would exert pressure on their livelihood, forcing the weakened Uchiha Clan to choose between forming alliances with other ninja clans or talented ninjas for the sake of survival.

Such alliances had to take the form of political marriages.

Once the Uchiha Clan began intermarrying, their bloodline would inevitably spread out and cease to be pure.

As a result, the emotional stimulation needed to awaken the Sharingan would have to become even more intense, making its awakening relatively more difficult.

In the end, the Uchiha Clan would completely integrate into Konoha through intermarriage.

There would no longer be an Uchiha Clan in the future, only Konoha Ninja.

If everything proceeded according to the Second Hokage's plan,

the Third Hokage believed the Uchiha Clan's extinction was inevitable.

That was why he had resolutely carried out the Second Hokage's policies toward the Uchiha Clan.

But now, he had discovered a flaw in the Second Hokage's plan.

It would take far too long to eliminate the Uchiha Clan as a threat, and there were too many variables in the process.

After the First Shinobi World War, Konoha's other participating ninja clans had all suffered losses to varying degrees.

The Sarutobi Clan he led in particular had practically mobilized its entire strength in the First Shinobi World War to consolidate his position as Hokage.

Though they had ultimately helped him earn the titles Professor of Ninjutsu and Hero of the Ninja World, allowing him to firmly secure his position as Hokage with no one left to oppose him,

they had also weakened his foundation.

He had no choice but to revise... no, elevate the Book of the Will of Fire, using it to win over more civilian ninjas as his supporters and consolidate his power.

But... it was still not enough.

The Uchiha Clan, which had mainly remained in Konoha during the First Shinobi World War and sent only a small number of its members to fight, had not produced more jōnin-level experts through war, but neither had it suffered any loss in strength.

Especially since many old relics from the Warring States Era were still alive within the Uchiha Clan.

Even if those old relics had only one battle left in them, no one knew just how terrifyingly powerful they might become when they erupted.

At the very least, the Third Hokage himself was not confident he could defeat some of those old relics.

Because he did not know whether any of them had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.

In short, at this point in time, the Uchiha's strength unquestionably stood at the absolute pinnacle within Konoha.

The number of jōnin in the clan was almost as large as the total number of registered jōnin in Konoha.

If the various ninja clans in Konoha had not each possessed differing numbers of jōnin to balance the situation, the Uchiha Clan might already have launched an impeachment against his position as Hokage and forcibly removed him from office.

In short, the Uchiha were now at the height of their power.

As long as they could wait for the old relics within the Uchiha Clan to die off, the Uchiha Clan would never again have any possibility of rising.

The Third Hokage knew this, and some of Konoha's clever people knew it too.

There was no shortage of clever people within the Uchiha Clan either. They knew it as well, so they had grown desperate. Now they even dared to provoke the Third Hokage.

Their goal was nothing more than to force the Third Hokage to make the first move, so they could use that as an excuse to ensure the other ninja clans had no grounds to stop them from removing him as Hokage.

The Third Hokage knew that too.

He was also seeking every reasonable excuse he could to weaken the Uchiha Clan's power.

He understood clearly enough himself.

Time was on his side.

As long as he endured this period, the Uchiha Clan would no longer have any chance of dragging him down.

But when he thought of those two Uchiha brats who had refused to bow even beneath the pressure of his aura, the Third Hokage no longer wanted to endure.

"Perhaps... Danzo's Uchiha Eradication Plan is the best plan for dealing with the Uchiha..."

The Third Hokage muttered to himself, but he had yet to make up his mind.

At that moment, his gaze shifted toward Kimura Yao on Mushi's body, and he suddenly came to a decision.

If everything went smoothly, he would abandon Danzo's Uchiha Eradication Plan. He had plenty of time to slowly play with the Uchiha.

If things did not go smoothly, then he would agree to that fellow Danzo's eradication plan and accelerate the Uchiha Clan's weakening.

Beep beep!

Ding ding!

Listening to the horns of passing vehicles and looking at the skyscrapers around him, Li Yao stood at a traffic light intersection. His gaze lingered for a long while on the back of a voluptuous older woman in a tight, sexy dress before he finally muttered to himself.

"Did I transmigrate back again?"

"Or was everything a dream, and I'm actually still dreaming?"

"No, no, no. Dreams don't hurt. I already tried it before. Pinching someone really hurts, even if that someone is yourself."

"So this is a dream?"

His thoughts surged like spring water, bubbling endlessly. It took a while before Li Yao finally stopped and slapped his thigh.

"If it's a dream or not, wouldn't pinching my thigh tell me?"

Li Yao hurriedly pinched his thigh.

"Mm... doesn't hurt!"

He pinched it again, then pinched it twice hard. Still no pain, no sensation at all.

That was when Li Yao became certain.

He was dreaming. He had not returned to Earth.

Then... when had he fallen asleep?

Li Yao began to recall.

It seemed... he had not gone to sleep, had he?

It seemed... something had bitten him.

Then... then... what was that?

Just as Li Yao's memories in the dream became more and more vivid, the distant sky seemed like an elastic membrane being poked from the outside inward by an invisible stick.

"Hiss, who's poking my stomach?"

At the same time, Li Yao, who had originally been unable to feel pain in the dream, suddenly felt an invisible stick forcefully jabbing at his stomach. It hurt badly.

Li Yao instinctively grabbed that invisible stick.

To his surprise, he really caught it. He flung the invisible stick away in one motion.

At that moment, Li Yao in reality abruptly opened his eyes.

The instant he opened them, he caught sight of a pair of feet taking a step back in front of him from the corner of his eye.

"Where is this?"

"Why can't I move?"

Li Yao tried to raise his head, but his body felt as though it had been poured into a cement pillar. He could not even move his eyeballs. It was as if opening his eyes just now had exhausted all his strength, leaving him able to stare only downward.

His hands were pulled diagonally upward to either side and suspended straight out. His legs were pressed together as he knelt on the ground, his head hanging low toward the floor. He could not see what lay ahead, nor did he know where this was.

But from the dim lighting, the stagnant air carrying a faint scent of candles, and the unmoving shadow beneath his feet, Li Yao guessed this was probably a secret room without the slightest airflow.

"So... I've been captured and brought into a secret room?"

"Who captured me?"

"And why?"

The moment he realized he had been captured, Li Yao's thoughts scattered wildly like frightened little fish. It was as if only those ceaselessly darting thoughts could suppress the fear in his heart and keep him from collapsing.

Because deep down, he already knew exactly what he would have to face after being captured.

Those rapidly racing thoughts were merely his subconscious attempt to numb himself.