Foolishness and Naivety

Uchiha Kei, don't be afraid. The sun will rise as usual.

That night, everyone settled on a plan to deal with Uchiha Kei, determined to eliminate the loose-lipped brat before he could grow up.

But so what? Kei would still open his eyes and see the sun the next day.

Even their every move was well within his grasp.

The next morning, Uchiha Hotaru reported everything that had happened in Konoha to Uchiha Kei. She even described every detail of Fugaku's bedroom exploits.

Clearly, that was far too embarrassing for a woman to discuss. But as an intelligence officer, she was simply doing her job.

Her responsibility was to relay every detail of the intelligence to her leader. The conclusions drawn from it were for the leader to judge for himself; that was also how subordinates showed their faith in their leader's wisdom.

"Lord Kei, after a brief conversation with Itachi last night, Clan Head Fugaku went back to his room. According to the information sent back by the butterfly stationed outside Lord Fugaku's door, the clan head seemed very worked up all night. He kept at it until dawn."

As Hotaru spoke, she lightly licked her red lips, looking as if she hadn't had enough. She was full of a married woman's charm.

She was a woman as beautiful as a butterfly, with the ability to summon genjutsu butterflies and a natural affinity with snakes.

Beauty and danger came together in her, giving her a unique allure.

[Uchiha Hotaru: Ninjutsu A, Taijutsu B, Genjutsu A+]

But Kei didn't find her alluring at all. He was just speechless.

sigh, what a pure girl she'd been back then!

Kei had noticed that she and Uchiha Maru were in love, so he had officiated their wedding. When he'd brought it up with Hotaru, the young girl had blushed so much she looked like a steaming kettle.

It had only been two years since she'd married Uchiha Maru under his watch. How had she become so open? Discussing this kind of thing with her superior right in the doorway.

Was this the difference between a young girl and a married woman?

Could this count as workplace harassment?

If Kei had said, "Madam, you wouldn't want Mr. Maru to find out about this, would you?" the whole scene would have taken a very different turn.

Unfortunately, over the past two years, he'd long since learned what his subordinates were like. They were real people. The Thought Seal made them loyal to Uchiha Kei, but that didn't mean they had no feelings of their own.

He didn't want to create bad blood with Uchiha Maru, a ninja who could cut through rock with a single strand of hair.

[Uchiha Maru: Ninjutsu B, Taijutsu A+, Genjutsu C]

Of course, he'd also long since gotten used to the fact that none of the kunoichi he summoned was interested in him.

He didn't want to get involved with the others he'd summoned, either, even if they weren't in love with each other and had no marriage he'd blessed.

The satisfaction a man gained from power ranked far above all that romance.

Kei closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then calmly accepted reality. The Hokage's faction, Danzo's faction, and even Uchiha Itachi had all joined forces. They all wanted his life for reasons they had no right to.

At least they hadn't yet formed a proper alliance. Each was still making their own plans.

Danzo was the most brainless of the lot. He planned to assassinate Kei when he was alone.

It was the stupidest approach, but also the most direct and effective. If it worked, there would be no undoing what followed.

But what made Kei think it was stupid was that Danzo was giving him ample grounds to make trouble.

If you can assassinate me, then I can assassinate you.

Danzo! You were always so arrogant, convinced no one would dare lay a hand on you. But you'd forgotten that your usual targets had been isolated individuals with little power. Now you were up against the leader of a gang of your own kind!

Everyone was a leader with modest abilities who relied on their underlings. Who didn't have a few loyal fighters at their disposal?

Why did Danzo think he could kill people, but no one could kill him?

Kei didn't even need to kill him. He only needed to spread a flood of false information, lure Danzo into sending enough men out, then raid his hideout and drag him out of the shadows into the light. That alone would strip away his advantage and leave him hamstrung from then on.

It would be perfect if he could also tie Danzo's deeds over the years to the Third Hokage.

You thought I was prey, but I was using you as bait to drag someone else down with you.

This gamble came down to Danzo's luck.

If luck was on his side, Danzo would die and that would be the end of it. If not, he'd spend the rest of his life groveling in the light of day.

Compared to Danzo's stupidity, Itachi's hopes—and even his secret attempt to contact Shisui—seemed hopelessly naive to Kei.

Heh. The beautiful innocence of youth. It always came with its own imagined utopia, and the belief that the world would conform to one's ideals. It knew nothing of the depravity of human nature.

He was even counting on Shisui to stand against Kei.

First, Shisui could try taking responsibility for the setbacks on his own front.

The Third Shinobi World War hadn't started yet, but it was already impossible to conceal the clashes between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water on the eastern front.

The Sunagakure Ninja, who had long believed Konoha was bleeding Sunagakure dry, were already itching to act. They had long prepared to launch a righteous stab in the back of Konoha on the western front.

Large-scale military operations between nations never sprang up overnight. Anyone who cared to look could spot that something was wrong.

But before the fighting broke out, one side found a flimsy excuse to cover its actions, while the other had enough confidence to refuse to believe it.

Or perhaps those who saw the signs had their own motives and were happy to let events unfold.

Uchiha Kei, for instance, could accurately judge the Land of Wind's movements thanks to his knowledge of shinobi history and the intelligence he had at his disposal.

But he'd already set his sights on the Land of Rivers, wedged between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, so he let the Land of Wind make its move.

The Land of Rivers was poor and had little worth coveting, but a group of people with red eyes lived there. They called themselves the Red Eye Clan, and life had not been kind to them.

They had lost the ability to be ninja after their ninjutsu traditions died out. They'd become targets for ordinary villagers to vent their resentment toward those arrogant ninja, and were driven out wherever they went.

Kei intended to recruit them, give them the Uchiha name, and bring them back to Konoha to train.

Their Kekkei Genkai made them natural candidates to become ninja, and they were born to counter the Byakugan Clan. He could simply claim they were Uchiha who had failed to awaken their eyes. Who would dare challenge Uchiha Kei then?

Who knew the Uchiha better than he did?

That was why Kei had worked hard to make life difficult for the Red Eye Clan.

If they weren't driven to the brink, how could he expect them to follow him wholeheartedly?

Gennosuke, Kei's resident charmer, was carrying out this mission. He was driving out bandits and rogue ninja who were oppressing the Red Eye Clan, weeding out the dead weight among them, while protecting those willing to give their lives for their clan's survival.

When the time came, the desperate clan would encounter a ray of hope. Gennosuke would descend like a god and rescue them from their misery.

They would then take on the prestigious Uchiha name and become Uchiha who had failed to awaken their eyes. In the future, they would become a branch family charged with protecting the Uchiha Clan.

As for the rogue ninja and bandits who had oppressed them, Gennosuke would lead them in wiping them out.

That would also let them vent the resentment they'd accumulated over years of hardship.

And the truth behind their miserable lives would be erased for good.

Kei believed that after being trapped in an abyss, they would suddenly be delivered to paradise—and given the chance to leap up the social ladder from refugees to people everyone envied. That would make them willing to give everything for the glory of the Uchiha.

Then, they would worship the Uchiha as gods.

The plan was going smoothly. All that remained was for the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind to clash and utterly ruin the Land of Rivers, caught between them.

To bring that about, Kei had to let the Sunagakure Ninja launch their surprise attack, cross the Land of Rivers, and form a pincer around Konoha with the Water Country ninja landing in the Land of Bears.

Oh, right. The Land of Bears had once been the Land of Whirlpools.

Once that front took shape, it would break the childish stalemate between the ninja villages, and the Third Shinobi World War would erupt in full.

At that point, no one would be playing around anymore. Konoha would have to throw all its strength into a counterattack and make sure the other villages didn't see how weak it was.

But once that front took shape, someone would have to take responsibility for the setbacks.

Uchiha Shisui, the second-in-command on the front line, was the obvious choice.

The first-in-command belonged to the Nara Clan. They were loyal to the Hokage, so the one who'd have to take the blame would inevitably be an Uchiha—even if Shisui was also loyal to the Hokage.

Counting on Shisui to come back and deal with Kei?

Naive!

He'd be better off hoping that when the village called him to account, Shisui didn't end up like Hatake Sakumo.