The Despicable and Shameless Usurper is About to Enter the Land of Water

"Is this the place Uchiha Chen promised?"

Uchiha Shisui kept one hand on his blade, moving silently through the forest. The night wind whistled through the trees, masking the faint noise of his feet brushing against the branches.

"Hmm?"

Shisui stopped in his tracks, his gaze fixed on a bush in the dark forest ahead.

Was someone crouching there?

Shisui drew the Kodachi from his waist while activating his Sharingan, assuming a posture of total vigilance.

Under the insight of the Sharingan, he realized the person hiding in the bushes wasn't crouching; they were simply naturally short.

The figure stepped out from the shadows, purple pupils gleaming in the lightless night, and smiled at Shisui:

"Shisui, you've arrived!"

Shisui's expression turned grim instantly. He remained silent, his face dark as he stared at the newcomer, seemingly searching for a flaw.

Coral Palm Karatachi Yagura, the current face of Kirigakure.

Could Uchiha Chen have been killed or captured?

"Shisui!" Uchiha Chen's voice appeared out of thin air behind Shisui.

Shisui crouched slightly, his figure flickering as an afterimage of himself appeared behind him, guarding his vital points.

This was a new technique he had created by combining the Body Flicker Technique and the Clone Technique; this was its first use in actual combat.

Through the perspective of his clone, Shisui witnessed a truly horrifying sight.

A blood-red head slowly grew out of the ground, followed by a red and white body. Finally, after the red monster completely detached from the earth, it shifted and transformed into the likeness of Uchiha Chen.

"Shisui, no need to be nervous," 'Uchiha Chen' explained.

"Yagura sealed the Three-Tails within his body. I used genjutsu to control him and the Three-Tails. I remember you saying your eye technique belongs to the genjutsu category, so I wanted you to see if there's any way to control him long-term."

"What?"

Shisui looked at Yagura's eyes in astonishment. He channeled his eye power to release a genjutsu, and sure enough, he felt the presence of Sharingan eye power.

"Chen-senpai, you?"

Shisui was momentarily speechless, never expecting Uchiha Chen to pull off such a monumental feat.

Yagura was a candidate for Mizukage!

"Also, I encountered the mastermind behind the Night of the Nine-Tails. He claims to be Uchiha Madara and possesses both Mangekyō and Wood Release. He also wanted to control the Three-Tails and Yagura, which forced me to engage him in battle."

Uchiha Chen simplified his encounter with Obito, relaying the essential intelligence to Shisui before adding:

"His subordinates are a group of plant-like monsters grown using Wood Release, possessing the strongest Transformation Technique and stealth techniques in the Shinobi World. The body I am controlling now is one of them."

"You've seen its transformation and stealth capabilities. From now on, no matter how close someone is to you, you must always keep your guard up."

Uchiha Chen didn't want Shisui to lose his Mangekyō to a casual sneak attack again, so he offered this deliberate warning.

Shisui frowned, struggling to digest the earth-shattering secrets Uchiha Chen had just revealed.

After a long while, having cleared his thoughts, he turned his gaze back to Yagura.

A Fourth Mizukage candidate—if he could alter the consciousness of such a high-ranking figure in Kirigakure, he could easily quell the war between Kirigakure and Konoha, perhaps even ensuring that Kirigakure would never invade the Land of Fire again for the rest of his life.

Such a harvest was something the peace-loving Shisui could not refuse.

He covered his left eye with one hand and revealed his greatest secret:

"The eye technique residing in my left eye is called Kotoamatsukami. It can permanently rewrite a person's thoughts. It can be used on Yagura."

"Rewriting thoughts? What a terrifying ability," Uchiha Chen remarked with a sigh, then looked at Shisui and said softly:

"Let's make him trust you and me unconditionally forever!"

"Agreed!" After a moment of thought, Shisui consented to Uchiha Chen's idea.

Thoughts like 'pacifist' or 'loyal to Konoha' were too inconsistent with Yagura's original stance and would be easily detected by the people of Kirigakure. A mindset of unconditional trust toward himself and Chen-senpai would allow them to influence Kirigakure's policy direction through Yagura.

Having made up his mind, the tomoe in Shisui's eyes connected into the shape of a shuriken, and a surge of hot blood rushed into his eye sockets:

"Kotoamatsukami!"

Shisui locked eyes with Yagura. In an instant, the eye power in his eyes was almost entirely drained.

Closing his Mangekyō Sharingan, Shisui stumbled back a few steps, covering his eyes and gasping for air.

"My vision..." Shisui managed to lift his head, his left pupil slightly unfocused. "The consumption of Kotoamatsukami is actually this massive. I'm afraid I won't be able to use my left eye's technique again for at least ten years!"

Uchiha Chen stepped forward to support Shisui, helping him to the base of a tree to rest, and pulled a scroll from his sleeve:

"This is the report on the Suna-Kiri investigation I'm handing over to the village. I will continue to stay out in the field under the pretext of investigating Yagura's sealing of the Three-Tails. You help me cover for it."

Shisui coughed weakly, took the scroll, and hesitated before speaking:

"Chen-dage, you won't do anything to harm the village, will you?"

"What are you thinking!"

Uchiha Chen reached out and flicked Shisui on the forehead, making his head tilt back, then placed a hand on Shisui's shoulder:

"It's not that I don't want to return to the village, but I want to thoroughly investigate the clues left behind by that mysterious man who calls himself 'Madara' while I'm out here. He has targeted the Tailed Beasts time and time again; he must be plotting a terrifying conspiracy in the shadows!"

Uchiha Chen gently tapped the reddened spot on Shisui's forehead and looked earnestly into his eyes.

"Trust me, Shisui, this is the last time!"

"Mm!"

Shisui nodded heavily, suddenly feeling a pang of guilt for having doubted Senior Chen even for a fleeting moment.

What kind of ill intentions could an Uchiha who would affectionately tap his forehead possibly have?

"A complete success!"

Uchiha Chen looked at the Red Head before him and nodded with satisfaction.

The meeting place he had agreed upon with Shisui was nearly a hundred miles away, yet the resonance of his Eye Power with this 'clone'—a fusion of White Zetsu and Blood Shadow—had not weakened in the slightest.

Furthermore, this clone, which possessed a weakened Wood Release as well as the Eye Power of Uchiha Chen and Obito, had combat strength far exceeding that of an average jonin; it was definitely enough to traverse the Shinobi World.

From now on, he only needed to replenish its Eye Power once every half month to keep it walking the Shinobi World on his behalf.

"Yagura, I'll leave it to you to take my clone to Kirigakure!"

Afterward, Uchiha Chen gazed into the distance toward the Land of Water.

In Kirigakure, there were secret techniques and bloodline families second only to Konoha in both quantity and quality, including the Kaguya clan, which shared blood ties with the Otsutsuki—all of these were treasures waiting to be exploited!

And besides—

Uchiha Chen handed Yagura a list of experimental equipment procurement orders worth hundreds of millions of ryo; this was merely the first batch of equipment for his upcoming experiments.

When it came to conducting research, he couldn't compare to Orochimaru.

But when it came to burning through research funding, Orochimaru definitely couldn't compare to Uchiha Chen!

By exhausting the national strength of Kirigakure, he would surely be able to bring a smile to Uchiha Chen's face.