Overt Scheme

Heh, Uchiha Kei couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

If it were Shisui in Shisui's position, he would have handled it differently, but if Kei were in Shisui's shoes, he would have immediately thrown Itachi under the bus to take the fall.

The young clan head had me return to the village from the front lines to resolve internal matters, which in turn caused chaos and shook the morale of the troops. Given that I have bled for the village and rendered meritorious service to the Hokage, the Hokage should be willing to pull me out of the fire.

After all, he had dragged the young head of the Uchiha clan into the mess.

Given the Hokage's typical modus operandi, it was self-evident how the script would play out from here.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell whether the times make the hero, or the hero makes the times.

But regardless of the choices others make, nothing can hinder Uchiha Kei's plan to recruit more clansmen. Whoever stands in the way of his plan to expand the clan, Kei will begin planning to eliminate them.

There was no helping it; Kei had his own predicament.

The strength he currently had on hand was enough for self-preservation, but to gain an advantage in high-end combat power, Kei had decided to pull a card once a year from now on.

Only by doing a hundred-pull could he verify if an Orange Card truly required a hundred-pull to be obtained.

The Orange Card was too important for Kei, who was currently at a bottleneck.

Possessing an Orange Card would not only bring Kei higher-end combat power, but it would also allow him to unlock those missions that offered rich rewards but could only be completed with an Orange Card.

Watching those rich rewards slip by, unable to claim them, made Kei feel physically uncomfortable.

Compared to the rewards of ordinary missions with no requirements, the rewards for Orange Card missions were things like Bloodline Limits, Noble Phantasms, Devil Fruits, and Zanpakuto.

With the combined power of the three great shonen manga, surely he could beat a Hokage to a pulp.

Therefore, no matter how difficult it was, Kei had to obtain at least one Orange Card, even if it was just one.

This meant that for the next year, Kei would be unable to obtain manpower through card pulls.

Thus, unable to acquire more ninjas, uniting the forces scattered outside Konoha that could be recruited became Kei's only option.

After all, with the system, he didn't have to worry about the resources needed for survival. As long as he recruited the Red Eye Clan, in less than half a year, he could use sufficient resources along with the training methods of the Uchiha, Koga, and Iga clans to train the Red Eye Clan, resulting in three to five hundred Chunin-level or higher ninjas naturally capable of countering the Hyuga.

That was equivalent to what one could only achieve by pulling three to five hundred cards.

On the other hand, it was also because of the plan of Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen that Kei had to accelerate the process of recruiting the Red Eye Clan.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's plan was somewhat clever, but in the eyes of Kei, who had witnessed five thousand years of Chinese schemes and intrigues, it was nothing special.

It was a classic "two peaches to kill three warriors" scheme; nothing fresh about it.

The Hokage intended to create a position called "Hokage Assistant" and wanted the noble clans to put forward a representative to serve.

The main responsibility of the position was to act as a liaison between the ninja clans and the Hokage, and the candidates were to come from the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Kurama clans.

The Kurama clan, with its dwindling population, was barely holding on through adopted sons. If a candidate were chosen from them, and it were a direct bloodline, they would surely be a sickly existence, and one careless move would cause the Kurama clan's population to dwindle even further.

And if a healthy candidate were chosen, they would either be a son-in-law or an adopted son, possessing no qualifications to hold a dialogue with the Hyuga or Uchiha.

The status and standing were simply not equal.

From the very beginning, the Kurama clan had lost the qualifications to compete; their only role was that of a balancing weight.

As for the Hyuga, who currently held the title of Konoha's number one noble clan, although they were prosperous and wealthy, they had a natural disadvantage when facing the Uchiha: the Hyuga only excelled in taijutsu, while the Uchiha were all-rounders.

However, the Hokage Assistant position only required communication skills. The well-liked Hyuga clan, with the following of the Aburame and Inuzuka clans and the friendship of other clans, made them the only choice.

The next step was to see if they could withstand the pressure from the Uchiha clan.

At this point, the Kurama clan, as a fellow noble clan, became particularly important.

The proud Uchiha were never a clan that knew how to make friends. Sarutobi Hiruzen had already foreseen that the Kurama would inevitably lean toward the Hyuga, but even with the simultaneous pressure from two noble clans, the Uchiha would absolutely not give up.

At that moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen only needed to drop a slight hint to the Uchiha: as long as they were willing to abandon Uchiha Kei, he would be willing to fully support the Uchiha in obtaining the Hokage Assistant position.

He could even hint to them that he was getting old, and that the Hokage Assistant position was actually created to cultivate the next Hokage.

Whether the Uchiha believed it or not was unimportant.

If they happened to believe it and could kill Kei, that would be for the best.

If they were unwilling to abandon Kei, then the Uchiha would be completely pushed to the opposite side of the other ninja clans, and they would once again become an isolated and helpless clan.

At the same time, Sarutobi also felt that he could use the Uchiha clan to check and balance other ninja clans; of course, having them check and balance each other would be best.

No matter who won, the Hokage would not lose.

To this, Uchiha Kei remarked that those in high positions truly loved these kinds of overt schemes.

Compared to overt schemes, covert plots were merely constant releases of smoke bombs to cover one's true purpose; as long as one could see through the goal, one could find a corresponding solution.

But overt schemes were troublesome. They didn't hide their true purpose at all; they simply used interests to push human nature in the direction they wanted.

Even if you saw through it, there was no way to solve it, because the interest they dangled was something you couldn't refuse.

The Uchiha could not refuse the position of Hokage Assistant.

Fortunately, the long history left behind by his ancestors provided Kei with enough reference points to draw comparisons; things that happened in history would continue to happen in the future.

As long as one read history thoroughly, one could find alternative ways to solve problems regarding certain events.

This seemingly unsolvable overt scheme was, in fact, not as perfect as Sarutobi thought.

First, Sarutobi Hiruzen miscalculated one thing: the decision to force the Uchiha to take action against their own kin was never in the hands of the Uchiha clan.

Sarutobi took it for granted that the current Uchiha were no different from other ninja clans, merely possessing a larger population, and that their habit of sacrificing everything for the sake of clan interests remained unchanged.

But Uchiha Kei understood that while the native-born members of the current Uchiha clan might indeed abandon Uchiha Kei for the sake of a so-called future Hokage or the position of Hokage's assistant, the prerequisite was that they possessed enough strength to kill Uchiha Kei.

What, they wanted to use the clan's greater good to force Uchiha Kei to commit suicide?

Moral kidnapping only works on those who have morals.

Attempting to use the greater good to kidnap Uchiha Kei and force him to take his own life was to underestimate the selfishness of Uchiha Kei as a modern person and a transmigrator.

In order to survive, he would rather force the Uchiha clan to die.

When the time came, it would be uncertain who was forcing whom.

At the same time, Kei had already devised a way to deal with the Hokage: using an open conspiracy to counter an open conspiracy.

If the Hokage dared to hint that the Hokage's assistant was the future Hokage, then he would dare to make this matter known to everyone, thereby dragging Minato Namikaze into the water.

Those numerous ninjas who also came from civilian backgrounds, having already accepted the fact that the civilian ninja Minato Namikaze would be the next Fourth Hokage, would not want any twists in this matter.

The emergence of another clan ninja as a competitor to Lord Minato was something they could not accept.

If Sarutobi wanted the ninja clans to stand against each other over a position, then Kei would muddy the waters further, forcing all ninjas to take sides, ensuring everyone had their own opposition.

At that point, it would be a struggle for political favor, with the merit of supporting the new ruler right before their eyes.

No one could refuse that.

Then it would be up to Sarutobi Hiruzen to see how he would explain himself.

Taking a step back, even if Sarutobi could appease the villagers, take care of the ninja clans, and fool the Uchiha, there was nothing to fear.

The status of Uchiha Kei was never bestowed by the Uchiha; at worst, he would stage a bloody sacrifice to purge the traitors of the nation, and it would be a good thing to let everyone witness the fangs of Uchiha Kei.

After all, Konoha itself was full of its own filth.

Given that Konoha had committed countless evils over the years, back when the village was first established, a person whose village had been destroyed buried one hundred thousand explosive tags beneath the Hokage Rock.

Knowing this information, Uchiha Kei had long planned that if he encountered the worst-case scenario, he would detonate the explosive tags and then demonize Konoha's actions, exposing the darkness of the Third Hokage's rule and dealing a heavy blow to the Hokage's reputation.

By then, the Hokage would be too busy to look after himself, and the position of Hokage's assistant would become worthless.

Turning black into white was something Uchiha Kei excelled at.

Moreover, what Kei said was the truth; it was indeed a revenge for a destroyed village.

And the avenger naturally carried the mantle of justice.

Especially when the revenge was from the bottom against the top!

As for the pressure from the Hyuga clan, that was not an issue; once he had the Red Eye Clan, which naturally countered the Byakugan, it would be even less of an issue!