The Path to Becoming a God by Gathering the Masses

The dreamscape collapsed.

No, it was a reboot triggered by an update.

Yamanaka Chujiu did not risk lingering; he borrowed the force of the shattering dream to break away, and the next moment, he opened his eyes in his bed.

He let out a long sigh of relief. "To be able to escape the dream without paying any price—today's luck is quite good."

"The question is, why did I enter Uchiha Itachi's dream? Just because I mentioned the Execution Line to him yesterday?"

"Hmm?"

It was then that Yamanaka Chujiu discovered there was one more mind connected to the Heart Severing Realm.

He clearly remembered that before he went to sleep, there were only twenty-eight mental connections, but now there was a twenty-ninth.

It wasn't that Yamanaka Chujiu was sensitive to mathematics, but rather that this twenty-ninth connection was different.

The connections established by the Heart Severing Realm previously were all living puppets converted from Root ninjas—those hollow minds devoid of self. The connection lines themselves were pale, dull, and even thin and fragile, relying entirely on Yamanaka Chujiu consuming his own chakra to maintain them.

This was also the reason Yamanaka Chujiu did not take large-scale action against Root ninjas; he simply couldn't bear the consumption of so many puppets.

But this extra mental connection was different. The connection line was lush and resilient, its color vibrant and eye-catching. Not only did it not require Yamanaka Chujiu to expend chakra, but it actually fed a trace of spiritual energy into him.

And it was that extremely pure kind of spiritual energy, one that could directly merge into his soul, causing his strength to grow slightly but tangibly, and making him feel a joy that welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Yamanaka Chujiu sat dazed on his bed for a long while before suddenly jumping up. "Holy crap!!"

"This, isn't this freaking faith?"

"No, no!"

"Faith is such a terrifying thing; how could a mortal like me be worthy of it? Once the number of believers grows, I won't be myself anymore!"

"Cut it off, must cut..."

Yamanaka Chujiu froze again. He silently looked down at his own hands, the corners of his mouth curling up fully.

He smiled bitterly and muttered to himself, "Damn it, I'm no peerless ninja genius. I have no cheat codes or systems, I didn't transmigrate into the true protagonist, and at fourteen, I'm only a Special Jonin—and a Special Jonin in intelligence specifically approved only because I bribed Orochimaru."

"If it were a true heaven-sent prodigy, or a real transmigrator, even a dull one would be a Jonin by fourteen; a qualified one should have already charged into the ranks of Kage-level ninjas."

"I'm just a Special Jonin, effectively a veteran Chunin, a weakling who only has the Heart Severing Realm as a tiny survival cheat and can barely make it home from the battlefield alive. What right do I have to look down on the power of faith?"

"That's the happy trouble of the big shots who have truly reached the peak and have no path left to advance!"

"To me, faith is an upgraded version of my cheat; it is the path to truly becoming strong!"

Yamanaka Chujiu was, after all, living his second life. In just a few minutes, he completed a risk-benefit assessment and began to study the power of faith brought by the Heart Severing Realm without hesitation.

Why did he go to the battlefield to fight, and why did he turn a blind eye to Hiruzen Sarutobi's restoration?

Because he wasn't strong enough.

He was determined to oppose Hiruzen Sarutobi's restoration, so why did he still plan to guide the people to strike back only after the restoration succeeded?

Still because his own strength wasn't enough.

If Yamanaka Chujiu were strong enough—he wouldn't even need the strength of Senju Hashirama, just the level of Tobirama Senju—where would he need such a complex plan?

He could follow Namikaze Minato's playbook, directly beat the Uchiha into submission, turn around and coerce the Uchiha to counterattack Hiruzen Sarutobi, and use Konoha as a hostage to force him to completely relinquish power.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could use Konoha to threaten the Uchiha and Namikaze Minato, but in front of Yamanaka Chujiu, the roles would be reversed.

Because Yamanaka Chujiu felt indifferent toward Konoha, while Hiruzen Sarutobi loved it deeply—after all, the Sarutobi Clan was also in Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could use administrative means to quietly hide the massive scale of the Sarutobi Clan, but he couldn't hide it from a transmigrator like Yamanaka Chujiu.

As long as he displayed the actual situation of the Sarutobi Clan to the Uchiha and Hyuga, and then asked one question: "Half of the Konoha ninjas are from the Sarutobi family, but how many are on the battlefield? If this continues, is this Konoha, or the Sarutobi family's village?"

Never mind the Uchiha and Hyuga; even the Inuzuka clan, the Aburame clan, and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio—the Third Hokage's die-hard supporters—would have to tear their faces off with him on the spot.

Why didn't Yamanaka Chujiu dare to do it now? Because his strength was insufficient. Forget about securing evidence to prove the Sarutobi Clan's issues; he couldn't even protect his own life.

Once he was "suicided," he could easily be slandered as a madman, a spy for Kumogakure, or a traitor to Konoha. Whatever he said would be dismissed as rumors and slander against Konoha!

And then, there would be no "then."

But with strength, Yamanaka Chujiu could shout it out loud. As long as no one could make him "be" suicided, there was so much he could say.

Yamanaka Chujiu could throw out a few explosive secrets, and Hiruzen Sarutobi wouldn't be able to kill this ninja for spouting nonsense. The result would only be Hiruzen Sarutobi's ruin and the end of the Sarutobi family.

Strength is just that important!

Therefore, since a path to gather the masses, condense faith, and eventually become a god had appeared, Yamanaka Chujiu was naturally going to walk it.

It didn't take long for Yamanaka Chujiu to figure out why faith existed.

The Heart Severing Realm could not only connect to minds that Yamanaka Chujiu understood, but also to minds that recognized his ideology.

Minds understood by Yamanaka Chujiu could be controlled more deeply as his understanding deepened, eventually becoming living puppets like external avatars.

Minds that recognized Yamanaka Chujiu's ideology, however, would contribute their excess spiritual energy—the part they didn't use—to him. As the degree of recognition deepened, the contributed spiritual energy would become increasingly pure and powerful.

Having used the Heart Severing Realm, which mutated from the Mind Transfer Jutsu, for so many years, it was only today that he saw the true power of this cheat.

As long as he had enough time to develop and build a large-scale system of faith, he might be able to leap up and become a god.

Not like Nagato, that fool who was deluded by someone else's power, ignored the reality of his own short life, and fancied himself a god.

He was not some transcendent powerhouse like Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was immortal and could destroy the world with a wave of her hand.

Nor was he a god of rules like the Shinigami, who was summoned by ninjas and served as the embodiment of the ninja world's laws.

Chujiu would be a god of faith, one who gathered the power of belief and condensed a golden body of incense, becoming a deity through the collective will of the masses.

Yamanaka Chujiu's eyes sparkled as he smiled to himself, "Fourteen years since I transmigrated, and finally, there is something to look forward to in the future."

"Lord Third Hokage, feel free to stage your restoration."

"But I guarantee that life after your restoration will be incredibly colorful; you won't have a single comfortable day until you can no longer endure a second abdication."

"Hehe, the most important thing to do next is to cure Uchiha Itachi's mental illness."

"My first believer should not be a lunatic!"