Today marked the fourth day since the Land of Fields had publicly recognized the Flame Hidden Village.
It was also the seventh day since Natsume and the others had settled here.
At that moment, Natsume sat upright in the living room.
He listened to his subordinate's report as he wrote something down.
"What's the public stance of the major hidden villages?"
"According to the intelligence network over at Otogakure, the Five Great Shinobi Villages all have different opinions about the founding of our Flame Hidden Village."
"Of them, the Hidden Leaf Village has taken the most aggressive stance. They've already issued several statements strongly protesting the Land of Fields. They've demanded that the Land of Fields withdraw its decree, revoke its legal recognition of our village, continue to observe the custom of one hidden village per country, and drive us out! But they don't seem to have sent out any ninja forces yet..."
"Next, Kumogakure and Sunagakure have taken somewhat milder stances. They've each sent a letter to the Land of Fields through the Land of Lightning and the Land of Wind, respectively. They hope the Land of Fields will explain why it recognized our village's independence and respect the reputation of the Hidden Leaf Village..."
"Then there are Kirigakure and the Land of Water. Their stances are unclear. They seem to remain closed off, making it difficult to obtain any information from within..."
"Finally, Iwagakure's stance is somewhat ambiguous. They don't seem to mind recognizing our village's independence. They even sent an envoy yesterday, intending to visit our village. He's currently on his way..."
Uchiha Nichiyo reported respectfully and in detail.
Starting yesterday, Natsume had formed his own personal guard.
There were five members for now.
They were responsible for helping him handle affairs and deliver information.
Uchiha Nichiyo, Uchiha Toh, and Uchiha Gin were among them.
Nichiyo was initially in charge of gathering and sorting intelligence, then reporting it to him.
Hearing this,
Natsume nodded slightly.
The situation was almost exactly as he'd expected.
Every hidden village had to consider its own interests. Even the Five Great Shinobi Villages were no exception.
His clan's defection from the Leaf had certainly cost the village face.
But when starting a war meant spending more than they could afford, and the costs outweighed the benefits,
face and such no longer seemed so important...
To be honest, if the Leaf really did bring the full strength of its village to attack his fledgling Flame Hidden Village,
it would be difficult to deal with them at this stage.
After all, whether it was the Third's Reaper Death Seal or Might Guy's Eight Inner Gates, both were ultimate techniques that could threaten him.
But as expected, they'd still chickened out.
Good thing he'd been clever.
He'd looted the Leaf's Vault before leaving.
Otherwise, the Leaf might really have organized a force at once and launched a surprise attack on his village!
As for Iwagakure, that was even easier to understand.
They were probably gnashing their teeth at the Leaf right now!
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Of course they didn't mind a clan of Uchiha defectors founding a village and continuing to oppose the Leaf.
They were probably eager to see the two sides fight!
In any case, from the looks of it,
his village probably wouldn't face any large-scale attacks in the short term.
"Any other important intelligence?"
"Yes!"
"As you instructed earlier, Young Clan Head, we've obtained a general picture of the Konoha Orphanage..."
"Unfortunately, the situation isn't very promising..."
"You even got information about the Konoha Orphanage? Still through Otogakure's intelligence network?"
"Yes."
His village had only just gotten off the ground.
They were short on manpower; there was no way they had the spare capacity to build a vast intelligence network.
But in this regard,
Orochimaru's Otogakure had done quite well.
Orochimaru valued intelligence and had started planting his pawns and spies in the major hidden villages long ago.
By now, the results were already significant.
They couldn't steal top-secret information,
but they could easily obtain basic news.
How could he pass up such a useful intelligence network?
Of course he had to make good use of it, happily applying the principle of taking what he could get.
Surely Snake Auntie, as his partner, wouldn't mind?
"Good. The village is just starting out. We can make good use of anything available."
"But be careful to verify the intelligence. Don't believe everything!"
"Also, leave the information about the Konoha Orphanage here. The Leaf is on extremely high alert right now, so it's not a good time to investigate further."
"Later, I'll go there myself and rescue the remaining orphans."
"Understood!"
Natsume took a stack of documents from Nichiyo and put them away.
There were two reasons he cared so much about the orphanage.
First, since he'd promised Nonō and Kabuto, he had to keep his word.
Second, the orphanage's importance shouldn't be underestimated.
After all, even though 99 percent of the entire Flame Hidden Village was currently made up of Uchiha,
they'd need more than these four hundred or so people to make the village bigger and stronger in the future.
So gradually accepting others was a challenge the village would inevitably face.
Starting with the orphanage, getting the clan members to accept the orphans first, and then slowly getting them to accept others,
might not be a bad approach.
That was why Natsume attached considerable importance to building and improving the orphanage.
"Young Clan Head, lunch is ready!"
Uchiha Gin, who'd been on his way to grab a bite, rushed in excitedly and called out.
"Brother Nichiyo, you're here too?"
"Huh? Young Clan Head, what are you writing?"
"The village's plans for the next few years..."
"Oh! What's that? Can I take a look?"
Uchiha Gin, with his carefree personality, asked curiously.
"Sure."
With permission,
Gin hurriedly leaned over to take a look.
As it happened,
Natsume was busy scribbling the Flame Hidden Village's First Five-Year Plan on a scroll.
Year One: [Lay the groundwork for the hidden village and complete the spread of the Handicraft Industry. Achieve independence and self-sufficiency.]
Year Two: [Recruit talent, expand the village, embark on Light Industrialization, and develop Scientific Ninja Tools.]
Year Three: [Develop industrial construction centered on heavy industry, promote technological upgrades, and make the village prosperous.]
Year Four: [Destroy the Leaf and annex the Land of Fire.]
Year Five: [Destroy the other four great hidden villages and unify the Ninja World.]
After reading the young clan head's plans for the future,
Uchiha Gin was stunned on the spot.
Was this a plan for the future?
This was just a pipe dream, wasn't it?
Was the young clan head's ambition really that huge?
He wanted to unify the Ninja World in five years?
Wasn't he worried about biting off more than he could chew?
After a long while,
Uchiha Gin finally stammered, trembling as he asked:
"Y-Young Clan Head, aren't these plans a little too rushed?"
"Too rushed?"
"Doesn't matter! We'll plan for it first and figure out the rest later."
"The bolder the dream, the greater the harvest! Set our sights high, and we'll have something to strive for!"
Natsume laughed as he patted Gin on the shoulder, cheerfully encouraging him.
Gin could only offer a wry smile in response.
"But these goals are way too shocking."
"If you don't believe me, have Brother Nichiyo take a look too!"
Natsume nodded.
Nichiyo, who was rather curious, leaned over and glanced at the plan as well.
The next moment,
even Nichiyo, whose personality was somewhat more composed, couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth and breaking into a cold sweat when he saw this nearly outrageous Five-Year Plan.
He secretly marveled at his young lord's "great ambition"...
Or was it "wishful thinking"?
"Young Clan Head, these goals... really are a bit too astonishing."
Though he didn't understand what "Handicraft Industry," "Light Industrialization," or "Scientific Ninja Tools" meant,
he recognized the words "destroy the Leaf and unify the Ninja World."
That was terrifying!
It wasn't that they lacked dreams.
After all, even their incomparable ancestor, Uchiha Madara, hadn't managed to fulfill his long-cherished wish of "uniting the Ninja World"!
Never mind their own few hundred people.
Still, with the young clan head's peerless talent,
maybe they'd have a chance if they held out another ten or twenty years!
"You two already left the Leaf. Can't you have a little ambition?"
"When you dream, don't you want revenge on the Leaf? Don't you want to destroy that den of demons?"
"Of course we do!" Uchiha Gin said firmly.
"Exactly."
"Don't worry! As long as I'm around, that day will come sooner or later!"
"All right, let's leave that aside for now."
"Have Toh come in and report on the village's finances."
"Understood!"
Before you continue