You Must Sleep at Night

Time flowed quietly.

The members of the Military Police Force grew more and more numerous, until finally...

"Lord Hokage, through my observations over this period, I've found that many ninjas don't have a deep understanding of the Will of Fire. They simply don't know how great you, Lord Hokage, truly are! Therefore, I hope to establish a Study Corps, where ninjas from the village can periodically enter and learn your ideology, understand your greatness. When the time comes, you can even come in person to give speeches, telling them what the Will of Fire really means!"

Uchiha Kazuto stood in the Hokage's office, his face full of admiration and reverence as he respectfully looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi and laid out his plan.

"Hmm..."

Hearing Uchiha Kazuto's words, Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into thought. This idea was indeed good. On closer reflection, it was very good. On one hand, it could boost the village's cohesion; on the other, it could make the village's ninjas understand more deeply what the Will of Fire meant and recognize the greatness of him, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Alright, Kazuto, I'll leave this to you to handle. But the training period can't be too long, or it'll affect the village's mission completion rate."

Hiruzen Sarutobi slapped the table and nodded. Then, feeling that wasn't quite enough, he approved a budget—any ninja participating in the training would receive a stipend for those days.

"Yes, Lord Hokage! I guarantee the mission will be completed! Loyalty!"

A smile spread across Uchiha Kazuto's face. Sure enough, people always liked things that benefited them.

This so-called Study Corps, on the surface, was meant to help ninjas grasp the Will of Fire more deeply and become more united. But that was only on the surface.

Now, as time passed, Uchiha Kazuto had enough ocular power to create a new unit.

And the purpose of this unit was to influence the ninjas of Konoha.

Uchiha Kazuto had already discovered that once someone joined his ranks and underwent modification, even if they were later kicked out of the unit, they still held loyalty to him in their hearts. This wasn't a temporary change—it was permanent.

The only pity was that people weren't robots. After being kicked out of the unit and losing the constant correction it provided, that loyalty was no longer absolute. If Uchiha Kazuto did something they disliked, their loyalty would drop.

They became ordinary people.

But that was enough. Many ninjas in Konoha didn't acknowledge Uchiha Kazuto, or even know him. Through this method, Uchiha Kazuto could make these ninjas slightly recognize him in their hearts, get to know him—that was sufficient.

When the time came for him to launch his coup, as long as his reasoning was decent enough, he could easily suppress these ninjas instead of having a bunch of troublemakers pop up claiming he was overthrowing Konoha's government or something.

He was digging at Konoha's roots.

In fact, if he could make the training sessions long enough to max out the loyalty of every ninja who attended, he wouldn't need any plans at all—he could just stage the coup directly.

After all, if every ninja in Konoha stood on his, Uchiha Kazuto's, side, then he was the Hokage. What was Hiruzen Sarutobi supposed to be?

Unfortunately, that was impossible. That old man Hiruzen Sarutobi would never agree.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Uchiha Kazuto's demeanor and nodded.

Suddenly, he recalled the atmosphere in the village. According to Anbu reports, the Military Police Force had started arresting villagers who spread harmful rhetoric in the village and using violence against them. Some villagers were beginning to hold grudges against the Military Police Force. Though there had been resentment before, it had never been this severe.

In reality, it wasn't just resentment toward the Military Police Force—there was deep resentment toward him, the Hokage, as well. After all, the Military Police Force acted under the banner of "for the Hokage." Once those people were released, they didn't dare complain about him, the Hokage, anymore. They could only vent their anger on the Military Police Force.

If those villagers had any power, they would have stormed in long ago and beaten this vain Hokage to death.

Of course, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know any of this. In his eyes, the villagers only hated the Military Police Force.

"Kazuto, I know your loyalty to me and your love for the village. But even if those people spread harmful rhetoric, they're still members of the village. Be a bit more lenient in your methods!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi reminded him.

"Lord Hokage, how can that be!"

Hearing this, Uchiha Kazuto's expression instantly changed, becoming one of extreme grievance and anger. He clenched his fists.

"Lord Hokage, those people are undermining the village's unity! They harbor malicious intent! Deep down, they don't even consider themselves members of Konoha! They're no longer ordinary villagers! Against people like this, we must strike hard—make them hurt, make them afraid to oppose the village! If they were truly loyal to the village and acknowledged themselves as its members, why would they spread such harmful rhetoric? Why undermine the village's unity? Lord Hokage, say no more! I will never let people like that, who destroy the village's unity, off the hook!"

"The only reason I haven't killed them is that they're still villagers of this village!"

Uchiha Kazuto said through gritted teeth. With his help, there were now few people in Konoha who dared to voice dissatisfaction with the village, dissatisfaction with the Hokage, or insults toward the Hokage—for fear of being caught by the Military Police Force and beaten black and blue.

But this level of oppression wasn't enough. He needed to tighten the screws further.

"I see..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi listened to Uchiha Kazuto's words. Though he still felt Kazuto was a bit too harsh, there was some logic to it. Besides, this was exactly the kind of thing Uchiha Kazuto would do.

Not long after, Uchiha Kazuto left.

From then on, Konoha gained another team that ran laps around the village shouting slogans.

Through extreme training methods, Uchiha Kazuto relentlessly suppressed and tormented these ninjas' spirits, while offering free ninjutsu and all-you-can-eat meals, steadily corroding their minds. Though their mouths shouted slogans like "For the Hokage,"

their hearts were beginning to acknowledge Uchiha Kazuto.

At the same time, as his ocular power continued to grow, Uchiha Kazuto added some new rules.

For example, within the Uchiha Clan.

He added rules like these:

Everyone must eat every day.

Wash hands after using the toilet.

Sleep at night.

Rules like that.

Unfortunately, the Uchiha Clan had too few people, and these rules were too ordinary. The power they provided wasn't much.