Final Encouragement Before Parting

Yamanaka Chujiu said to Uchiha Shisui, "Kid, haven't you noticed that the Uchiha are in a state of ideological chaos, where no one can convince anyone else?"

Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi nodded in unison, "That is correct. The Uchiha clan has always been this way."

Yamanaka Chujiu sneered, "That is because you Uchiha have forgotten the easiest way to convince your own kin."

"A perfectly good Uchiha clan, foolishly following Hiruzen Sarutobi to learn how to hold meetings and use verbal persuasion—it is truly putting the cart before the horse!"

"As long as your strength is sufficient, you just charge in and fight. You don't start talking until you have beaten them into submission."

"Only then will your clansmen listen carefully and strive to understand the logic you are presenting, rather than spending all their energy on refuting and nitpicking."

"This applies not just to the Uchiha, but to the vast majority of people in the ninja world: the weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons!"

Yamanaka Chujiu's radical theory left Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui completely stunned.

But soon, Shisui frowned and said, "That's not right, Senior Chujiu. What you said is incorrect!"

"Uchiha Madara's strength was also beyond question, yet when he chose to leave the ninja village, not a single person from the entire Uchiha clan followed him."

Yamanaka Chujiu sneered, "That is because at that time, Konoha had an indisputably stronger man!"

"The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, was invincible. He could not only beat Uchiha Madara into submission, but he also sincerely accepted the Uchiha and granted them the greatest fairness."

"The Second Hokage's strength was also well-known. Although he was quite wary of you Uchiha, he was willing to take Kagami Uchiha as a student and treated you fairly in all matters."

"The Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato's strength was dazzling. He not only had Obito Uchiha as a student, but his wife and your clan leader's wife were best friends; he even had the intention of making the Uchiha clan a core pillar."

"When the Hokage of Konoha is stronger and willing to accept the Uchiha, you will naturally take the current Hokage as your core, and your clan leader becomes an executor rather than an authoritative decision-maker."

"But is the Third Hokage the same as the other three?"

"When the Uchiha were risking their lives on the battlefield, the Third Hokage never appeared. When the Uchiha were being framed and sabotaged by Shimura Danzō, the Third Hokage only knew how to smooth things over."

"The Uchiha have not felt fairness for many years; they have suffered too many grievances, and there is resentment in their hearts."

"Since Hiruzen Sarutobi has never been on the battlefield to personally demonstrate peerless strength, he naturally cannot make the Uchiha accept him or form a unified ideology centered on the Hokage, which naturally led to resistance."

Uchiha Itachi said with pleasant surprise, "Senior Chujiu is right. When the Fourth Hokage was in power, the atmosphere within the clan was excellent, and there was always a smile on Father's face."

"After the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself, Father returned to his worried look, became depressed, and often quarreled with the elders."

Uchiha Shisui was stunned, "Ah, is that so?"

"I thought the Uchiha clan's predicament had always existed..."

The two brothers looked at each other and said simultaneously, "In that case, as long as Lord Orochimaru becomes the Fifth Hokage, the problem will be solved?"

Yamanaka Chujiu smiled and raised his fist, rewarding the two hot-blooded Uchiha brothers with a heavy punch each.

As proud Uchiha, both felt a violent spirit of resistance stirred within them, but as believers, they felt a strange kind of "love."

The contradictory feeling caused their thoughts to fall into brief chaos, but after quickly regaining their clarity, they understood what Yamanaka Chujiu meant.

"I'm sorry, Senior Chujiu." Uchiha Shisui apologized in shame, "I forgot your teachings again."

Yamanaka Chujiu shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Making mistakes is not terrible, as long as you can wake up in time."

"However, the personality of the Uchiha clan is indeed interesting. While you are extremely proud of your own bloodline and power, you have a mysterious faith in the strong, and you unconsciously pin your hopes on others."

"Do you remember what I said before about the first step in doing things being to distinguish between enemies and friends?"

Both nodded together, "We remember. We are already conducting investigations and have determined who the Uchiha's base is, but we are still investigating who the enemies are."

Yamanaka Chujiu approved, "Good, having results is great; now you have a starting point for further thinking."

But he did not say that while continuing the investigation was not difficult, determining who the enemy was would be the hard part.

If one considers the Uchiha clan as a whole, the enemy is the Third Hokage's group led by Hiruzen Sarutobi, with Shimura Danzō being merely the most vicious and ruthless thug in that group.

This alone would be enough to make Uchiha Shisui miserable; Uchiha Itachi, on the other hand, would accept it easily.

Having been branded with an ideological seal by Yamanaka Chujiu, he was the most steadfast protector of the Uchiha and was already hostile toward Hiruzen Sarutobi.

But the matter did not end there. As long as Itachi and Shisui continued their investigation and continued to categorize friend and foe, they would discover:

The enemy is within the Uchiha!

At that point, they would have to confirm their own stance: whether to stand with the clan leader and the elders, or with the clansmen of the Uchiha.

This would not be an easy choice to make, and they would feel immense pain.

Yamanaka Chujiu deliberately ignored this point and continued, "After distinguishing between enemies, ourselves, and the middle-of-the-roaders, what we must do is win over the middle-of-the-roaders."

"Make many friends and few enemies, and you will be able to achieve victory."

"This sounds simple, but it is very difficult to do, and it inevitably requires a different method for every person and every situation; one must analyze specific problems specifically."

This was the essence of thousands of years of political struggle in Chinese civilization, summarized by the mentor into easy-to-understand words with supreme genius.

But this "easy-to-understand" was only for the descendants of Chinese civilization; for the illiterate of the ninja world, it was still more obscure and difficult to understand than a heavenly book.

Fortunately, the two youths were different. They had been educated by Yamanaka Chujiu for some time, and especially as Chujiu's believers, they could share each other's feelings slightly through the faith connection of the Heart Severing Realm.

So, they understood.

It turned out that all the various contents Chujiu had spoken of were unified into a single system by this one sentence.

Yamanaka Chujiu was very satisfied with the shock displayed by the Uchiha brothers.

He smiled and asked, "Do you feel as though your minds have never been clearer?"

"Do you feel as though you have found the solution to the Uchiha problem, and that as long as you set your hands to it, you will succeed?"

The two youths nodded repeatedly, looking like a pair of young roosters pecking at grain.

Yamanaka Chujiu's smile grew even brighter: "Very good, you have seen the correct path that leads to success."