A Village's Shadow Seen, Wagging Its Tail and Begging the Envoy Mission of Another Nation

Shisui Uchiha did not have many injuries on him, and since his own strength had already recovered, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not continue to wait, instead asking directly about his previous experiences.

Before Shisui Uchiha went missing, he had been executing a mission that involved Amegakure, which was why he had been dispatched there.

But in the end, the mission was completed, yet the man himself had not returned.

Hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's inquiry, Shisui Uchiha's eyes looked somewhat dazed, as if he were recalling the experiences of that time, but in reality, it was because he did not know how to put it into words.

This mission had started off quite smoothly, but just after the mission was completed, the client had suddenly transformed into a different appearance.

At the time, Shisui Uchiha had sensed danger and had just been about to make a move when he was ambushed from behind; other than that, he knew nothing until he woke up a short while ago.

Basically, no intelligence had been obtained from Shisui Uchiha.

However, Ensei Uchiha keenly discovered that Shisui Uchiha's other eye had already lost the vast majority of its ocular power.

Secretly noting this key point, Ensei Uchiha began to analyze the ins and outs of the matter.

"It looks like you were likely ambushed by Black Zetsu."

"I mentioned before that Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan..."

Hearing the name Rinnegan, Hiruzen Sarutobi could not help but interject: "Rinnegan? Are you referring to the eyes of the legendary Sage of Six Paths?"

Ensei Uchiha was suddenly interrupted, but he did not mind; instead, he added with a pointed tone: "Did I not tell you all? It seems I must have forgotten..."

"Do not mind it; sometimes when one sees too much of the future, it inevitably gets confused with reality."

"This, too, can be considered one of the costs of my ability."

"I will continue: after Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan, he summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from the moon, and by utilizing the flesh and blood bitten off from the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, along with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, he cultivated some White Zetsu."

"As for Black Zetsu, it was something Madara Uchiha created using Yin-Yang Release right before he died."

"Legend has it that the Sage of Six Paths created the nine Tailed Beasts using Yin-Yang Release, so the two should be roughly the same."

"Black Zetsu's combat ability is not strong, but if it launches a sneak attack, it can seize a person's body in an instant."

"However, it rarely does this; there must be some sort of limitation on its power."

"..."

Ensei Uchiha spoke a mix of truth and lies; aside from the matter regarding Kaguya Otsutsuki, everything else was basically the truth.

He had to act as if he were completely ignorant of Black Zetsu's true origins, otherwise, that fellow Black Zetsu might just pull something major on him.

An even worse development would be for Black Zetsu to go into hiding until he died of old age.

Taking advantage of the opportunity involving Shimura Danzō, Ensei Uchiha requested to view the Scroll of Seals from Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Ensei Uchiha had originally assumed he would be refused, but for reasons unknown to him, Hiruzen Sarutobi actually agreed.

There was likely some sort of calculation behind this.

But Ensei Uchiha did not care; even if the forbidden techniques on the Scroll of Seals had been tampered with, he should be able to discern a thing or two given his talent.

After memorizing the Flying Thunder God technique and the Impure World Reincarnation, Ensei Uchiha returned the Scroll of Seals.

Just as he was returning the scroll, Hiruzen Sarutobi mentioned that in a while, Kumogakure would be sending people to Konoha to sign a peace treaty, and they would need to borrow men from the Uchiha Clan to maintain order.

Hearing the name Kumogakure, and combining it with the current timeline, Ensei Uchiha immediately recalled a rather important node in the plot.

The kidnapping incident of Hinata Hyuga.

In the original plot, during the incident where Hinata Hyuga was kidnapped by the Kumogakure delegation, the only loss was the scapegoat Hizashi Hyuga, while it also heavily depicted the weakness of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"No problem, I will arrange for people to patrol when the time comes."

"Also, give me a forehead protector; I have been idle lately, so I will help you resolve some minor troubles."

Ensei Uchiha agreed very readily, but it made Hiruzen Sarutobi somewhat hesitant.

After hesitating for a long time, Hiruzen Sarutobi began to ask the doubts in his heart.

"Ensei... have you seen some of the future again?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi asked this question with considerable inner conflict; he had actually already guessed some of it, he just did not want to confirm it.

Ensei Uchiha rolled his eyes at him and said:

"Yes, I saw the Hokage of a village fawning over a delegation from another country, and in the end, even offering up the corpse of the younger brother of the second-largest clan's leader as a scapegoat!"

"If I were to commit such a spineless act, I reckon I would have no face left to continue living."

Listening to Ensei Uchiha's undisguised mockery, Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression turned very ugly.

His ugly expression was not due to anger at Ensei Uchiha's words, but rather anger at the fact that he might actually become that kind of person?

Although Ensei Uchiha spoke vaguely, the other country clearly pointed to Kumogakure, and the younger brother of the second-largest clan's leader...

In Konoha, besides the Hyuga Clan, where else was there a clan leader with a younger brother who could serve as a scapegoat?

Clearly, Kumogakure's peace treaty was a sham, and coveting the Kekkei Genkai of the Hyuga Clan was the truth.

What made Hiruzen Sarutobi even angrier was that if there were truly signs that a war with Kumogakure might break out, he really might compromise for the sake of peace.

"Ensei, I leave this matter to you. You must not let that situation come to pass!"

There was a hint of pleading in the words of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Ensei Uchiha ignored him, turned around, and left the Hokage Office.

It was perfect timing; the Byakugan cloning project could now proceed to the next stage.

The cells of Hinata Hyuga should be much purer, which would allow him to distinguish the differences between the two and further optimize the process.

If luck was on his side, he might even be able to concoct a few pairs of Tenseigan.

Although the power of the Tenseigan did not seem to match the Rinnegan in terms of performance, the two should be considered existences of the same level, so it would likely be of some use.

After completing the preparations for another round of Byakugan cloning, Ensei Uchiha began to study the Impure World Reincarnation.

This ninjutsu was not too difficult for Ensei Uchiha; he had no intention of improving it anyway, as being able to use it to the same degree as Tobirama Senju was sufficient.

After confirming he had mastered the basics, Ensei Uchiha expended two death-row prisoners to prove he had grasped this forbidden jutsu, then began to make a different set of attempts.

He utilized the clones within the Impure World Reincarnation laboratory to determine the boundary between the soul and the physical body.

After seven or eight consecutive attempts, Ensei Uchiha reached his final conclusion.

First, White Zetsu possessed no soul, or rather, their souls no longer existed, so they naturally could not be targeted by the Impure World Reincarnation.

Next were the clones; regardless of the level of cloning, as long as they possessed a brain, they possessed a soul.

However, the quality of these souls was very low, basically no different from insects, and the ones he had cloned to serve as spare bodies were much the same.

As for the artificial humans, their souls were relatively complete, existing in a state somewhat akin to that of a beast.

The fact that the clones lacked true souls was, in a way, good news.

After all, in the Shinobi World, the only recorded method for creating life seemed to be the Yin-Yang Release.

Finally, there were those Byakugan he had cloned individually; Ensei Uchiha attempted the Impure World Reincarnation on them, but the result was, naturally, a failure.

It seemed that cloning a Mangekyo required more than just the eyes; it required something else entirely.