Using the Hatake Clan as a Model

"Success!" Hatake Jiangyi clenched both fists in excitement.

Auntie Daohe had always treated him very well. Seeing that she could be cured, Jiangyi gazed at Uchiha Fucheng in gratitude, who still had his Mangekyō Sharingan activated.

Hatake Daohe lay on the bed, her illness gone. She drifted into a peaceful sleep.

"She should be all right now."

Uchiha Fucheng carefully examined her with his Mangekyō Sharingan.

Only after seeing that the treatment had gone well did he continue.

"Later, Lord Sakumo can ask an obstetrician from Konoha Hospital to examine Lady Hatake and the baby again.

Especially the critical data, such as blood pressure, heartbeat, and the baby's condition."

Hatake Sakumo nodded and bowed deeply, overwhelmed with gratitude.

"Clan Head Fucheng, I can never thank you enough for saving my wife and child."

With Uchiha Fucheng's ocular technique, Hatake Daohe made a miraculous recovery.

This was nothing like the way Medical Ninjutsu worked with chakra. The healing from the Mangekyo Eye Technique seemed almost miraculous.

And after the treatment, Uchiha Fucheng had also obtained what he wanted.

[Reward: Hatake Sakumo's Fate Dice]

[Reward: Kakashi Hatake's Fate Dice]

Fucheng had originally only wanted to roll for a Fate Dice reward from Kakashi, the "fifty-fifty" ninja.

He hadn't expected to get a Fate Dice reward from the Konoha White Fang as well.

It seemed that Hatake Sakumo's eventual suicide had a lot to do with his wife's passing.

With the love and support of his wife, perhaps no matter how hard things got, Hatake Sakumo wouldn't go down that same path of "ending it all."

Two Fate Dice rewards—truly a double blessing!

Back at the Uchiha Clan Compound, Fucheng headed straight to the secret room to claim his rewards.

Having received quite a few rewards already, Fucheng had begun to understand their basic patterns.

First, rewards from one to five points were highly related to the person in question.

Like Nawaki's small amount of Senju blood, or the summoning beast Sasuke had been rewarded.

Unrelated abilities wouldn't appear.

Second, the reward wasn't necessarily the person's greatest strength or most exceptional skill.

Take Uchiha Sasuke, the celebrated male lead, for example. His dice had landed on a two.

Forget the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan—even ninjutsu wasn't involved. In the end, he'd only received a summoning beast made up of small animals like a snake, a cat, and a hawk.

Third, even if the Fate Dice granted the most essential ability, the reward's strength still depended on the Recognition Points invested.

Its quality and quantity would both be diminished compared with the original. For instance, Fugaku's reward had produced Mangekyo eye power shared by brothers of the same bloodline.

But its quality and quantity weren't enough to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

It had only raised the upper limit of Fucheng's Mangekyō eye power.

Finally, every dice roll came with an additional boost to chakra or physical fitness.

That was undoubtedly good news.

The gains weren't huge, but they added up. Uchiha Fucheng now had considerably more chakra than he'd had when he was first reborn.

When he rolled [Hatake Sakumo's Fate Dice], Uchiha Fucheng [gained improved Taijutsu and mastered Hatake Kenjutsu.]

Already skilled in Taijutsu, Uchiha Fucheng suddenly gained a wealth of combat techniques and training memories.

The boost to his Taijutsu wasn't that great, but it was enough for him to look down on the slightly clumsy version of himself from the past.

"At least five years of Taijutsu training saved!"

Feeling his muscles swell slightly, Fucheng drew a short sword from its sheath and casually flourished it, the blade flashing like water.

Uchiha Fucheng handled the short sword with practiced ease, executing a dazzling four-slash sequence in a single second.

The first slash ran from the right shoulder to the left ribs.

The second swept upward across the left abdomen.

The third cut from the left shoulder to the right ribs.

The fourth swept upward across the right abdomen.

All four slashes had to land in less than a second, striking forward at once.

Together, they formed a huge X-shaped web of crossing blade trails.

A flash of white light!

With the right force and chakra control, he could slice an enemy cleanly into four pieces in a single stroke.

Fucheng sheathed the sword and marveled inwardly.

"Even better than I imagined! The Hatake Clan's swordsmanship is completely different from the Uchiha Clan's Chakra Blade techniques!

Hatake Kenjutsu uses very little chakra. It relies more on the unity of spirit, intent, and body.

It's a lot like the sword intent of a master in a martial arts novel. At the moment the blade is drawn, its momentum and intent can shake an opponent's resolve."

[Hatake Kakashi's Fate Dice] was even more interesting.

He rolled the dice. Five points!

"Great luck."

This time, Fucheng had actually gained a precious Space-Time Ninjutsu reward.

[Acquired a small amount of talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu and a miniature Kamui Dimension with a volume of one cubic meter.]

In Fucheng's view, talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu and the Kamui Dimension should both have been Uchiha Obito's abilities.

He hadn't expected the thick-browed Kakashi Hatake to yield so many good rewards.

"It's a shame the reward only gives me a little Space-Time Ninjutsu talent, but at least it gets me from zero to one.

Without any talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu, even if you got the Flying Thunder God scroll, you wouldn't be able to learn it."

Fucheng reached out and felt around in the air.

The Kamui Dimension he'd been rewarded was miniature, too.

And it couldn't be used for spatial attacks through the Sharingan.

This tiny Kamui Dimension was just a one-cubic-meter storage compartment, like a pocket you could carry around.

It was more like an equipment slot in a game.

Fucheng cheerfully consoled himself.

"Forget it, Kakashi has it rough, too. At least I didn't only get Pakkun as a reward.

Otherwise, I'd have to buy Pakkun dog food, and probably expensive dog shampoo, too. That'd be a real hassle."

As he tested how to use his personal Kamui Dimension, he stored explosive tags, ninja tool scrolls, and ninja medicine inside.

This dimension probably had nothing to do with Uchiha Obito's Kamui Dimension.

From what Fucheng could tell, blue walls of lightning, similar to his own eye power, surrounded the space.

The entire space could change shape.

But its overall volume always remained one cubic meter.

And the entire space was closely linked to Fucheng's own Mangekyō Sharingan.

Hatake residence.

After Hatake Madam's recovery, Hatake Sakumo seemed like a different person.

A smile played on his lips, and he was cheerful all day long.

Everyone had been sworn to secrecy about the treatment. But after Konoha Hospital examined her, word of Hatake Madam's miraculous recovery still reached the Konoha High Command.

The Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had more or less accepted things by now.

Perhaps a healing Mangekyo posed little threat to the village. Perhaps it was because Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade were both close to Uchiha Fucheng.

Whatever the reason, as long as the Uchiha Clan didn't cross the line, Sarutobi Hiruzen had started turning a blind eye to some of their affairs.

As for cooperation between the Hatake Clan and the Uchiha Clan, that was even less of a concern to Konoha's higher-ups.

They had suppressed the Hatake Clan before only because some of Konoha's leaders were wary of the clan's samurai origins.

But that didn't mean they wanted to strictly restrict the Hatake Clan's survival and growth.

If they had, they wouldn't have awarded Hatake Sakumo the top titles of [Hero of Konoha] and [Konoha White Fang].

When Uchiha Fucheng discussed cooperation between their clans with Hatake Sakumo, he hadn't intended to make Sakumo repay him for saving his wife.

Not only did he avoid shortchanging the Hatake Clan in the deal, he used the Uchiha Clan's standing in the village to give the Hatake Clan a real helping hand.

The first part of their agreement was to appoint Hatake Sakumo as the Uchiha Clan's chief advisor on ninja tools, Taijutsu, and swordsmanship.

The Uchiha Clan would pay Hatake Sakumo the equivalent of five S-rank mission rewards each year as his fee.

The second part of the agreement was to help the Hatake Clan develop its businesses.

All Hatake Clan members would get priority when taking on Uchiha Clan business or renting the clan's properties.

After graduating from the Ninja Academy, the younger members of the Hatake Clan could also apply to have an Uchiha Clan jonin assigned as their instructor.

This part of their partnership was nothing more than Uchiha Fucheng using generous resources to win the Hatake Clan over.

The Hatake Clan was already dwindling, with only a few members left.

Including Hatake Sakumo's family, only nine ordinary households remained.

But those mere thirty or forty people could still serve as an important example to "attract others with a thousand pieces of gold."

Unlike the Sarutobi Clan, which had relentlessly expanded its influence by relying on the Hokage's power,

and unlike the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans, which were keen on developing their own industries and banding together for support,

the Uchiha Clan had limited numbers and a Kekkei Genkai that restricted who could join them. As a result, the Konoha noble clan badly needed the "support, backing, and allegiance" of other small groups.

Of course, that was also because Uchiha Fucheng had a huge shortfall in [Recognition Points].

Only by expanding his sphere of influence and the Uchiha Clan's power, and bringing more small clans under its wing, could he earn more [Recognition Points].

The safest path for the Uchiha Clan was to build the broadest possible network of allies and friends.

"Unite with the majority and strike at the tiny minority—that's the top strategy modern people can understand best."

Just as with Fucheng's "private coal mine" scheme, without subordinate allies and friends who would support him, he couldn't even handle the countless little hassles on his own.

Besides the Hatake Clan, other small clans had naturally caught Uchiha Fucheng's eye.

He had already started making contact with Yuhi Shinku of the small genjutsu-focused Yuhi Clan.

Then there was the small bloodline clan, the Gekko Clan—the clan of Gekko Hayate, the protagonist of the Chunin Exams. Its members had Transparent Release.

With bloodline diseases occurring at a high rate, Uchiha Fucheng's offer of support would carry even more weight.

After all, with Tsunade and the Konoha White Fang vouching for him, Uchiha Fucheng's medical skills were unquestionably the best in the Shinobi World.

The Kurama Clan, Inuzuka Clan, and Aburame Clan faced similar circumstances.

But these clans were more aligned with the Hokage's faction, so for now, he could only draw closer through ordinary business partnerships.

Besides that, Uchiha Fucheng also turned his attention beyond the village.

After the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed, the Uzumaki Clan scattered across the world.

These descendants of the Uzumaki Clan, with their exceptional talent for being shinobi, were another important group he could gather through bounties.

Would expanding his network of subordinate clans cost him money and slow down his efforts to save up food and funds?

Fucheng's answer was: "Don't worry about it!"

When you had strength, while others stored grain, you stored guns.

In the Shinobi World, where wars were frequent, once you had ninja power, what couldn't you get?