The Balance of Fate

A massive influx of information flooded Uchiha Sen's mind, causing his brain to stall for a long moment; it took quite a while for him to sort through it all.

Although the information was vast, once the boastful fluff was stripped away, it boiled down to just a few points.

Life, luck, soul, divine powers, skills, and the like could all be weighed, and there would always be an echo.

The Balance of Fate followed the principle of equivalent exchange, honest and fair to all.

Each item could only be traded once.

Each transaction consumed 1,000 Reputation Points.

"Hmph! It's actually quite grounded."

The moment the Balance of Fate appeared, Uchiha Sen had already been marked by it.

He studied his golden finger for a while and incidentally opened his personal status.

[Host: Uchiha Sen]
[Life: 10]
[Spirit: 14]
[Skills: Sharingan, Uchiha Swordsmanship, Water Binding Technique, Water Prison Technique.]
[Tradable: Vitality, Luck, Sharingan, Water Binding Technique, Water Prison Technique.]
[Reputation Points: 1027]

"Life" represented everything related to physical energy.

"Spirit" represented spiritual energy.

(The average Life and Spirit values for a Genin are 10.)

Yes, Sen was an outlier in the Uchiha clan; the chakra natures he awakened were Water, Earth, and Wind.

He did not possess the Lightning and Fire natures common to most clan members.

Over the past few years, he had only managed to learn two Water Release ninjutsu by leeching off Great Elder Yashiro.

Thinking about it carefully, the Great Elder giving up on him didn't seem so...

My foot!

Those shortsighted guys were completely blind to my excellence.

After grumbling to himself, he turned his attention back to the Balance of Fate.

First, he tried using his thoughts to place the Water Binding Technique on one side of the scale, and the tray sank by an imperceptible distance.

A ball of light appeared on the other side, and the information within it was precisely captured by Sen.

"Exchange for 1 'Life/Spirit Point'?"

He chose no, and with the same operation, he placed the Water Prison Technique on the scale.

The Balance of Fate offered 1 attribute point as well.

He refused again.

After tinkering for a while, he basically understood the purpose of his golden finger.

Exiting the interface, he frowned and pondered how to use the Balance of Fate to maximize his benefits.

He immediately ruled out vitality, soul, and luck; there was nothing to discuss there... they were bottomless pits.

The remaining two Water Release ninjutsu, one D-rank and one C-rank, were considered equivalent on the Balance of Fate.

It seemed there was no essential difference between the two ninjutsu.

As for ninjutsu like the Three Body Technique, they didn't even qualify to be weighed.

Given his current situation, he was being dragged into the struggle between the Uchiha clan and the Konoha high command, and one wrong step would lead to an irredeemable situation.

This was the price of leeching off others; there was no room for turning back.

In his upcoming actions, he had to demonstrate his value and attract enough attention to have any possibility of breaking the deadlock.

Therefore, these 1 or 2 attribute points were a drop in the bucket, and their help to his current state would fall far short of his expectations.

They had to be discarded.

Besides, it was currently the 47th year of Konoha, and if he remembered correctly, the Third Ninja World War was about to begin.

How could he survive without strength?

To be honest, he wasn't a true genius, and he had no clue how to upgrade his Sharingan.

The crisis was right before his eyes; distant water could not quench immediate thirst, so he had to be decisive.

With this thought in mind, Uchiha Sen made his final choice.

He opened the system once more.

Without the slightest hesitation, he placed the Sharingan onto the Balance of Fate.

The distance the scale sank this time was significantly greater than the last, before it slowly returned to equilibrium.

"Talent: Water Element Mastery (Basic), can be upgraded to Ultimate to refine all waters under heaven. Passive: Increases Life attribute by 10 points."

Uchiha Sen's eyes gleamed; he strongly suspected this was a divine skill tailor-made for him.

Whether active or passive, it was exactly what he needed most right now.

He took a deep breath.

After a moment of silence, Sen silently recited "Yes!" in his heart.

An indescribable rule descended, and a chill washed over his eyes. Before he could react, wisps of energy seemed to descend upon him from the depths of the void.

Sen felt as if he had returned to the primordial state of life.

He felt as though his entire body were submerged in an unknown spiritual liquid.

A sudden realization crept into his heart; he seemed to transform into a water droplet, rising as a cloud under the sunlight, crossing mountains and rivers to condense into raindrops, and falling onto the earth to become a small stream.

The streams converged, the brooks became rivers, and finally, they surged with the roaring waves toward that vast blue ocean.

While Uchiha Sen closed his eyes to comprehend, as his understanding of the water element deepened, his skill bar quietly underwent a transformation.

Two Water Release ninjutsu gradually merged, finally coalescing into a single technique.

"Water Python Technique."

It was unknown how much time had passed, but when Sen opened his eyes, a clear spring seemed to hide within them.

The world presented a more brilliant side before his eyes.

At this moment, he sat cross-legged, his hands forming an unknown seal.

Wisps of mist gradually surrounded him; from afar, he appeared as if he were standing in a pale blue haze.

Sen swept away his previous lethargy; chakra was generated continuously, and his body, like long-parched earth, finally welcomed a hearty irrigation.

That was not all.

The newly born chakra was more agile, as if it had gained a trace of life, making it even more effortless for him to control.

How to put it? He had never felt better. It was as if he had endless strength in his body; with a light clench of his fist, he felt as though he could crush the very air.

He knew, of course, that this was an illusion caused by his power growing too rapidly.

With a thought, the panel appeared, having changed again compared to just moments ago.

The "Life" attribute point had become 20, 1000 reputation points had been consumed, and 27 reputation points remained.

Sen moved to the courtyard while contemplating his next move.

"Misfortune, good fortune depends upon it; the same event, when analyzed from different angles, often yields different results. Assassinating Minato! Perhaps I can do it this way..."

Uchiha Sen stood still.

"Next step, test the results."

A bright moon hung high in the night sky; under the moonlight, the youth stood holding his blade.

The wind rose.

In that same position, an afterimage slowly faded, yet the person had already appeared ten meters away.

A brilliance more dazzling than the moonlight flashed and vanished; Sen had already appeared on the other side of the courtyard, sheathing his blade.

"Hahahahaha..."

The youth clutched his forehead and laughed.

Such behavior was very common within the Uchiha clan compound and did not attract any particular attention from others.

The next morning at nine o'clock, the bright sunlight poured down.

The busiest commercial street in Konoha.

Shopkeepers opened their stalls early, and pedestrians wove through the streets like a loom.

Ninjas were people too; many took advantage of their rare time off to stroll through the streets with family and friends.

In all fairness, there were not many places in the entire Ninja World that could boast such a grand spectacle, and Konoha happened to be one of them.

At the bridge by the street, a youth set up a wood-carving stall.

The location of the stall was excellent; at a glance, the long street was in full view, and all passing tourists had to walk by the front of the stall.

Before long, the stall was surrounded by children.

"Big brother, what is this you carved?"

A little girl pointed at Optimus Prime and asked Uchiha Sen with an innocent face.

"This is a puppet."

Sen's answer was very "ninja."

"Then what about this one?"

The little girl pointed at the doll of Shinnosuke Nohara and asked.

"About that..."

Sen thought for a moment.

"This person is incredibly powerful; with a single Concept Ninjutsu, they are invincible under the heavens."

"No, no, the strongest is clearly the Hokage."

The little girl widened her eyes, wearing an expression that said he was wrong.

Her viewpoint received unanimous approval from the surrounding children.

"Exactly, the Hokage is the strongest."

"Right, my dream is to become the Hokage."

"That is a remarkable dream."

In truth, Sen was only nine years old, yet he carried himself with great maturity at this moment.

As for why he was here, it was naturally because of the difficult task assigned by the Great Elder.

Assassinating Minato—one would have to be truly brain-dead to come up with such an idea.

Complaints aside, he had come nonetheless.

But whether the final result would satisfy Elder Yashiro? Who knew.

Come to think of it, where was the greatest difficulty in assassinating Minato?

First, one had to actually see Minato.

Given Sen's current status, he didn't even have the opportunity to appear before Minato; this was no joke, but the naked reality.

However, since the Great Elder had issued the mission, it meant Minato had already returned to the village.

According to the timeline, he and Kushina were currently in the midst of a passionate romance.

Thinking of this, Uchiha Sen took out the wood carving he had just finished yesterday... a chibi Kurama, and silently placed it on his stall.

As for running a stall, he was indifferent to it; it was a way to temper his heart in the mortal world, killing two birds with one stone.

But not everyone thought the same way.

Two clansmen from the Uchiha Military Police Force were staring at Sen as he set up his stall, their eyes clearly blazing with fire.

"Are we just going to let him continue to lose face for the Uchiha here?"

Security within Konoha was the responsibility of the Military Police Force, and in bustling areas especially, two Uchiha clansmen were always assigned to patrol.

"What other choice is there? He is the Great Elder's man."

Uchiha Keitai also found Sen an eyesore, but he was helpless to do anything about it.

Uchiha Tekka had long wanted to find trouble with Sen.

Why?

Why should this piece of trash receive the favor of the Great Elder?

"No, I cannot let him continue to damage the reputation of the Uchiha. Even if I risk offending the Great Elder today, I must teach him a lesson and make him understand... the name Uchiha cannot be insulted."

Tekka stormed angrily toward the stall.

Uchiha Keitai shrugged and followed Tekka.

No one was a fool; he certainly knew why Tekka was doing this, but blood was thicker than water, and he was happy to see it happen.

The two crossed the street, and when they were a dozen meters from the stall, Tekka suddenly stopped and asked in confusion:

"Why is that lord here?"

Keitai followed his gaze, and it really was that lord.

The sun climbed over their heads and gradually shifted toward the west.

Uchiha Sen's wood carving business had become less frequented.

He had been preparing to take a nap, but unexpectedly, two figures stopped in front of his stall, blocking the slanting western sun.

He looked up.

Uchiha Sen smiled.

His efforts had not been in vain; he had finally waited for the person he needed.

Minato Namikaze and Kushina.

Although Minato had not yet earned the title of Yellow Flash, Sen knew that anyone who became his opponent had best sleep with one eye open from now on.

His skill set was simply too overpowered; it was unsolvable.

"Hey, boss! Did you carve this fox?"

Kushina pretended to be casual, squatted down, picked up the chibi Kurama from the stall, and asked boldly.

"Oh, you mean this Nine-Tails? I carved it."

Uchiha Sen's honesty caused Kushina to freeze in her tracks.

Minato's expression remained unchanged, but he studied Sen for a moment before asking skeptically, "Which clan are you from? How did you come to know about the Tailed Beasts?"

Uchiha Sen was dressed in plain clothes today, so it was no wonder Minato had such questions.

"You two might not believe it, but I've been waiting here specifically for you today. Could we step aside to talk?"

The two exchanged a glance, and Minato found himself growing more interested in the articulate youth before him.

"Very well. There's a barbecue restaurant not far ahead; let's go there and talk while we eat."

"Generous, as expected of Lord Minato."

Sen offered a flattering remark.

"Of course, I won't be eating for free. Please accept this wood carving as a gift."

He pulled a wood carving depicting Minato and Kushina's wedding from his bag and handed it to the red-haired woman.

After taking it, Kushina grew fonder of it the more she looked, patting Sen on the shoulder:

"You're quite sensible, little brother."

Not bad, the initial contact went smoothly.

A few minutes later, inside a private room at the Barbie-Q BBQ, Sen laid his cards on the table.

"Lord Minato, someone has ordered me to assassinate you..."