Danzo: I Scammed Myself?!

Shadow Clone Little Right also chimed in.

He hadn't thought much of it before, but now that Little Left had pointed it out, he suddenly realized he was being taken for a ride.

"There is no way I'm carrying the heavy load while you're out here living your best life every single day!"

"I came here to help you enjoy life, not to shoulder the burdens of your existence. If you make me work myself to death training every day, you might as well just kill me!"

The two clones exchanged a look. They knew their own nature better than anyone; as for their original's integrity, they didn't believe a single punctuation mark of it.

Without hesitation, they pulled out their kunai and stabbed each other, ending their brief and rather unpleasant lives.

Leaving Uchiha Shingen standing alone in the wind, utterly bewildered.

"I..."

"Aren't you two a bit too sentient?!"

Uchiha Shingen was left between laughter and tears.

The good news was that the clones were just like him; the bad news was that the clones were too much like him, inheriting even his habit of slacking off.

However.

This temporary setback did not deter Uchiha Shingen from his plan to enslave his clones to do the work.

After several attempts, he quickly found the loophole.

Every time these two blockheads were summoned, they didn't retain the memories of their previous incarnations, and their memories of the original were quite hazy.

Uchiha Shingen had a change of heart and immediately pulled the two clones aside to discuss a division of labor:

"The three of us will work in shifts."

"Little Left, you take Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Little Right, you take Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I'll take the harder route and work every day without a break—after all, you both know that only I can handle the actual clocking in."

The two clones pondered this for a moment, staring at each other with wide eyes, before nodding.

"In that case... I accept!"

"I accept as well!"

"Good, then let's start training according to the plan."

As he spoke, Uchiha Shingen shook his head with a feigned bitter smile.

"I'm the one taking the real loss here."

"Suffering is a blessing!"

Little Left, seemingly afraid he might change his mind, replied perfunctorily before immediately rushing to a corner to begin practicing taijutsu.

Little Right followed suit, heading to a nearby clearing to familiarize himself with the Sword Leap Flame he had just mastered.

The training of the two Shadow Clones soon caused rumblings all around, with flaming blade auras and shattered rocks flying everywhere!

Uchiha Shingen sat to the side, comfortably enjoying the night view and feeling the beauty of life, but his smile soon faded.

Four hours later.

The clones reached their time limit and vanished into puffs of smoke.

Four hours of training memories and experience flooded back into his original body, accompanied by the accumulated fatigue from the clones' bodies.

Uchiha Shingen's brain and body simply crashed. He only had time to let out a curse before losing consciousness and collapsing flat on the ground.

When Jiraiya arrived, he only saw Uchiha Shingen lying on his back.

He hurried over to check on him, confirming that Uchiha Shingen was in no serious danger and was merely suffering from extreme physical exhaustion, before noticing the surrounding rubble and scorch marks.

A scene immediately surfaced in his mind: Uchiha Shingen training so diligently that he fainted from exhaustion, refusing to slack off even for a moment.

"Is the pressure from Konoha and the Uchiha clan really that heavy on this kid?!"

"Sigh..."

"As his teacher, I can't help with that. But that kid Minato, if he really can become Hokage..."

The news of Jiraiya taking on a student was not intentionally hidden and soon spread throughout Konoha.

Both the Third Hokage and the Uchiha clan tacitly ignored the matter, choosing not to bring it up.

Danzo, however, who was holed up underground, was seething with rage with nowhere to vent.

Deep underground, in the Root base.

Torches stuck into the walls illuminated the surroundings, their flickering light making Danzo's already gloomy face look even more wretched.

"So, you're saying Jiraiya and Uchiha Shingen were really just discussing... that kind of filthy, obscene book?"

"And this wasn't authorized by Hiruzen?!"

The Root ninja kneeling before him nodded heavily.

"It appears so."

"We have tried almost every encryption method in the ninja world to decipher their chat logs, yet we have obtained no information whatsoever."

"Furthermore, neither the Uchiha nor the Third Hokage have taken any action during this period."

"Once you eliminate all impossibilities, whatever remains, no matter how absurd, must be the truth."

Having said this, the Root ninja could not help but look up and steal a glance at Danzo.

He still remembered how confidently Danzo had insisted that this must be a conspiracy between the Uchiha and the Third Hokage.

Now, that image seemed laughable no matter how he thought about it.

Under the pressure of Danzo's intimidation, everyone present kept their heads buried low.

But while they could suppress the expressions on their faces, their twitching bodies betrayed their inner amusement.

"..."

The Root headquarters fell into an instant silence.

Danzo felt a surge of irritation, but he did not bring up the subject again, choosing instead to focus his attention on the file of Uchiha Shingen.

For some time now, it had been public knowledge that Uchiha Shingen had become an apprentice under Jiraiya.

If the initial suspicion that the Uchiha and the Third Hokage were secretly colluding was merely a misjudgment.

Then, after the scene Danzo had caused, both the Uchiha and the Third Hokage must have certainly taken note of that possibility.

Even if they had not made a public statement, they were surely tacitly approving, or even actively promoting, such a connection in the shadows.

Thinking of this, Danzo felt a dull ache in his gut; his old face wrinkled like a bitter melon, and a sense of urgency took hold of his heart.

With Jiraiya's protection, the only way to forcibly eliminate Uchiha Shingen would be to mobilize the entire Root organization, and even then, success would be slim.

But such a move would undoubtedly be self-destructive; not only would it yield no results, but it would also drive the Uchiha and Hiruzen even closer together!

The more he pondered, the more Danzo realized that the current situation was likely the most dangerous one he had faced since taking control of Root!

If he truly allowed Hiruzen to win over the Uchiha...

He would likely never reach the heights Hiruzen had attained in his lifetime, let alone have any hope of becoming Hokage!

"No matter what, I cannot let Hiruzen succeed. If hard tactics won't work, then I shall try soft ones..."

Danzo reached up and rubbed his temples.

All the intelligence regarding Uchiha Shingen flashed through his mind one by one.

Soon.

An image of an Uchiha, distinct from Kagami Uchiha, Uchiha Madara, and Fugaku Uchiha, began to take shape in Danzo's mind.

"Talented, yet lacking ambition—or perhaps, he is simply hiding it very well."

"A normal Uchiha would never take the initiative to contact Jiraiya."

"This brat is most likely biding his time, waiting for the moment to transform, and looking at it now, I am the one who handed him that opportunity on a silver platter."

"Naturally evil Uchiha brat!"

"No, wait. If Hiruzen can abandon his prejudice against the Uchiha and even take the initiative to extend an olive branch, why can't I?!"

"How could I possibly be inferior to him?!"

Danzo gradually calmed down, and his train of thought became increasingly clear:

"Objectively speaking, this kid lacks neither intelligence nor cunning; he would be the perfect candidate to cultivate as a deputy or a successor."

"The only obstacles are Hiruzen and the Uchiha clan."

"I need to give them something to do."

With that thought in mind.

A figure immediately surfaced in Danzo's mind. He turned to look at Aburame Ryoma beside him and said:

"If I recall correctly, Setsuna Uchiha's prison sentence should be nearing its end, right?!"

"You intend to release him early to disrupt the Hokage's plans?!"