After dinner, Yamanaka Rino held Yamanaka Ino and leisurely warmed herself by the fire in the living room.
The Yamanaka brothers signed a land lease in the presence of the elder. Even brothers had to keep their accounts clear.
The elder asked in confusion, "Chujiu, do you know how to farm? Do you know it takes three years to clear new land?"
Yamanaka Chujiu smiled and replied, "Elder, I know."
"But I believe chakra and ninjutsu can work miracles."
With the contract in hand, Yamanaka Chujiu gathered the families of the forty-three deceased once more and announced his farming plan.
The adults exchanged glances and voiced the same concerns as the Yamanaka elder.
Yamanaka Chujiu said, "There's no need to worry. You can all carry on with your usual work. I'll take the children to clear the land."
"If we succeed, I, the Yamanaka Clan, and all of you will benefit."
"If we fail, only the children and I will have wasted a few days."
After a year of looking after them, Yamanaka Chujiu had earned the trust of all forty-three families. Even though the plan seemed so far-fetched, they all thought it was worth a try.
After all, Yamanaka Chujiu had thought of everything for them, without adding any extra burdens or risks.
Yamanaka Chujiu got started at once, because time was short.
War was about to break out.
Over the past two years, Konoha had launched attacks on all sides, forcing Kumogakure and Kirigakure to back down in turn. It had all been thanks to the power of the Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato.
In the battle in the Land of Waves alone, Namikaze Minato had overwhelmed the Fourth Mizukage and the Jinchūriki of the supposedly strongest of the Three-Tails with his unmatched prowess.
Namikaze Minato had also foiled Kirigakure's plot, stopping them from sealing the rampaging Three-Tails inside Nohara Rin and sending her to Konoha to detonate it.
As a result, Isobu had been completely destroyed, and Nohara Rin had been rescued.
That's right. Yamanaka Chujiu had set things in motion, warning Namikaze Minato through Orochimaru and averting the tragedy of the Fourth Hokage's students being wiped out.
Since Nohara Rin hadn't died, Yamanaka Chujiu had assumed Obito wouldn't turn evil and that the Night of the Nine-Tails wouldn't happen. He'd let his guard down.
But the disaster had happened right on schedule.
Who knew whether history was correcting itself or Uchiha Madara had made Obito see an illusion?
In any case, the Fourth Hokage had died at the hands of the Nine-Tails, and Konoha's deterrent against Kirigakure and Kumogakure had vanished in an instant.
The Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure was ambitious, and Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen were itching for a fight.
It was easy to predict that the Fourth Raikage would turn against Konoha before long, and the Fourth Mizukage would take the opportunity to reignite the war.
The most deadly crisis, however, was within the village.
Orochimaru hadn't become the Fifth Hokage, and Jiraiya and Tsunade hadn't returned.
So who would be the next Hokage?
Only children who weren't old enough to understand could have failed to see that a power struggle was about to erupt in Konoha.
How absurd!
And something even more absurd was happening.
Yamanaka Chujiu took the children to the commercial district to buy farm tools, but a large crowd of villagers blocked their way.
The villagers crowded around the gates of the newly rebuilt mansion, crying out in anguish:
"My house was right here! How could it be gone?"
"It was you! You built a house on my land and took it from me!"
"Pay me for my house! Give me back my land!"
"..."
The gates of the row of courtyards stood firmly shut. Yamanaka Chujiu could sense people inside, their emotions tinged with glee and schadenfreude.
Their brazen, unafraid attitude made it clear they were sure that even if Uchiha ninja showed up, there was nothing they could do.
The villagers wailing outside the gates had clearly been cheated.
Their homes had been deliberately erased from the maps during the post-disaster reconstruction.
Yamanaka Chujiu's memories of history stirred. Words like land grabs, fraudulent claims, land donations, and falsified registries flashed through his mind.
He quickly realized that someone was secretly falsifying land records.
Taking advantage of the chaos after the disaster, they'd secretly altered the property deeds stored in the Hokage Building and seized other people's legitimate land, houses, and other valuable assets.
The Night of the Nine-Tails had struck so suddenly that ordinary people had struggled just to escape their homes with their lives. Who could have thought to bring their property deeds along?
When a sturdy house collapsed, the ownership documents hidden inside it naturally disappeared. The only proof of ownership left was the record stored by the village.
These people were so confident that they must have already switched out the records.
Back in feudal China, landlords and gentry had thought it too slow to seize fertile land during famines, so they'd come up with more forceful ways to grab it. Now the same thing was happening in Konoha, a group that ruled through violence.
And now, an interesting question arose.
Who in Konoha had the power to swap out property deeds so flawlessly that even Uchiha ninja couldn't uncover the deception?
What a difficult riddle!
Yamanaka Chujiu turned his gaze toward the Hokage Building. The entire second floor of this building, fully controlled by Hiruzen Sarutobi, served as Konoha's land-deed archive.
At that moment, a high-level meeting was taking place inside the Hokage Building. The Konoha F4 had joined forces to pressure Uchiha Fugaku.
Using the Nine-Tails' Sharingan as an excuse, they demanded that the Uchiha Clan leave their land in the center of the village and move to their ancestral home on the outskirts.
Of course, the village was in dire straits, so they wouldn't get a single ryo in compensation!
Uchiha Fugaku was naturally furious, but with four old men of higher rank threatening him, saying nothing with his lips pressed tight was the limit of his resistance.
While reconstruction was in full swing, the village leaders were pressuring the Uchiha Clan, and those at the bottom were preying on ordinary villagers.
Konoha was putting on its most absurd spectacle yet in the wake of the disaster.
Before long, a group of Uchiha ninja appeared.
Strangely, Yamanaka Chujiu sensed that one of them was different. He had no arrogant emotional façade; his gentleness and warmth were right there on the surface.
The last time Chujiu had sensed emotions like that was with Obito Uchiha, but Obito's "goodness" had been shallow and turbulent, while this man's was calm as still water.
Chujiu's curiosity was piqued. Another kindhearted Uchiha ninja—who was he?
It was Uchiha Shisui.
That settled it.
When someone was ambushed from behind by Shimura Danzō, had one eye gouged out, and was beaten so badly he was near death, then fought until he was utterly spent just to barely escape—and what he thought about wasn't his own survival but how to protect Konoha and the Uchiha Clan, even being willing to die by suicide for their sake—
Whatever one thought of Uchiha Shisui's methods, there was no doubting his goodness.
Now that he knew it was Uchiha Shisui, Yamanaka Chujiu planned to take the children on a detour to the commercial district to buy farm tools and seeds, then get started clearing the land as soon as possible.
But then, to his astonishment, his Heart Severing Realm went out of control. The fine threads formed from his thoughts drifted automatically toward Uchiha Shisui and wrapped around him, one after another.
Yamanaka Chujiu was stunned.
"How is that possible?"
Before you continue