The Bizarre Balance

The main hall of Naka Shrine, surrounded by all the other buildings, had been torn down and rebuilt. It had become the grandest shrine of them all, for it was where Uchiha Kei would reside.

At this moment, a statue stood within the main hall of Naka Shrine. Uchiha Kei knelt before it, appearing quite devout.

It is said that the palm is Yang and the back of the hand is Yin; when pure Yang strikes, it can ward off ghosts and evil.

Uchiha Kei pressed his palms together, formed the Pure Yang Seal, struck three times with force, and then bowed his head to the ground.

"In this world, I can't find a god more badass than you! You'd better prove that my theory is true."

When he looked up again, he could finally see the face of this ferocious statue clearly. It was none other than Uchiha Kei's own appearance from his previous life.

"In this life, I don't submit to anyone, I only submit to you!"

Uchiha Kei swore an oath to himself.

From the moment Tenshen awakened his eyes, a heavy stone finally lifted from Kei's heart.

Kei, who had felt powerless regarding high-end combat strength, had finally found a new path. Although this high-end strength was still not an Orange Card and could not unlock many things, it provided enough of an advantage for the conflicts to come.

It had been two years. The first batch of summoned individuals seemed to have grown significantly. Since Tenshen could awaken his eyes, could Oboro, Gennosuke, and Danjō—who also occupied two slots each—be far behind?

In particular, the process of Tenshen's awakening seemed different from the methods passed down within the Uchiha clan, which gave Kei great inspiration.

Aside from the standard Sharingan pupil technique, Susanoo, Tenshen's Mangekyo possessed a unique pupil technique called Saha World.

This was a powerful passive ability; once activated, it granted double damage.

The power of this innate pupil technique was such that once activated, a single sword swing became two, a single ninjutsu became two, and even summoning Susanoo resulted in two giants.

Coupled with Tenshen's trait of never worrying about chakra, one Mangekyo could be used as two.

According to Tenshen, when he awakened his eyes, he had entered a state of Zen, firming his resolve as if on a pilgrimage, vowing to carry on the life Sakumo had left unfinished.

For this, Tenshen made a grand vow to the Buddha he believed in.

"If I do not enter hell, who will?" This man, who bore the most vicious reputation, possessed the most benevolent heart. Such thoughts reached straight into hell.

And then, Tenshen's Sharingan awakened.

Perhaps even the gods wanted to see how this man, rejected by friends and family alike, a saint who could carry the burdens of others, would begin his life in a new world.

This process of Tenshen's awakening gave Kei a more profound perspective on the Sharingan.

That is, this world is truly bizarre; perhaps faith really can bring something about.

A dead-last can awaken a Mangekyo in a fit of rage, while a genius only awakens a single tomoe after his entire family dies. It is clear that the theory of needing to endure immense negative emotions to awaken is unreliable.

At least, it is not the whole truth.

"If my guess is correct, perhaps I will never have to be led by the nose by Konoha again."

After learning the details of Tenshen's awakening, Kei had a new idea.

This world is very interesting. There are gods here, but they are real—such as the Death God, the Evil God, and the Sage of Six Paths. Although few have seen them and they are treated as stories, Kei knows they objectively exist.

However, there are no myths or legends here. For example, Izanagi has a name, but there are no stories about him. Susanoo is just Susanoo, a ninjutsu of the Uchiha clan; no one knows it represents the god Susanoo-no-Mikoto.

The Uchiha Secret History, which Sarutobi had tucked into the scrolls of ninjutsu sent by Danzo, detailed the characteristics of the ninjutsu brought forth by past Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyo, as well as the fame these ninjas had earned.

Yet, there was no record of the gods associated with these Mangekyo pupil techniques named after them.

This was not normal, but it was crucial.

As it happened, because of the actual circumstances of the Koga and Iga clans, they were both clans with faith, so Kei began a vigorous movement of creating gods.

This movement would also verify some of Uchiha Kei's conjectures.

This conjecture stemmed from a detail in a book Kei had read in his previous life.

In "The Three-Body Problem," a portion of humanity that had lost hope in human morality treated the higher civilization of the Trisolarans as humanity's savior. They held a mistaken belief they shouldn't have: that the higher the level of civilization, the higher the level of morality.

They devoutly worshipped the Trisolarans as gods, hoping to save a corrupted Earth through a higher civilization.

But upon learning that the environment in which their gods lived was extremely wretched, the humans who treated the Trisolarans as gods subconsciously prayed to the ethereal Bodhisattvas.

They hoped the Bodhisattvas could save their gods.

It is evident that such ethereal faith is the greatest support in the human heart.

Perhaps the Uchiha awakening should occur when one is in the deepest despair and seeks help from the gods; that piety, at that moment, gains the favor of the gods, and thus the Sharingan appears.

It is not a cursed power, but a power blessed by the gods.

Proving this was not difficult. He just needed to tell the stories of the gods to his subordinates and have them believe. To put it bluntly, it was religious brainwashing—training fanatics.

And so, a vigorous movement of creating gods began.

In any case, there was no harm in trying. Iga and Koga already had their own faiths; one believed in the Future Buddha, the other in Vairocana.

Hmm, Tenshen was the exception; he believed in Ksitigarbha.

Indeed, it was no wonder he was disliked; he could never fit in with the others.

If he could also learn the details of Fugaku's awakening, it would be even better to further verify his theory.

Uchiha Kei was certain that Fugaku had awakened his eyes.

However, whether it was confirmed or not did not matter; as long as another case could emerge according to Kei's vision, it would prove Uchiha Kei's theory correct.

While Kei was busy with large-scale development here, the situation in Konoha Village was eerily calm.

The Third Hokage had a clever plan: let the enemy grow the grain while he forged the weapons, turning the enemy into his own granary.

Seeing Uchiha Kei bustling with his grand development, the Third Hokage became even more leisurely, preparing to accumulate enough military strength to seize the fruits of the Uchiha's hard labor in one fell swoop.

"Uchiha Kei is naive after all. A stable life will cause ninjas to lose their killer instinct. Once a ninja loses that, they will lose everything, including the land they live on. This is the lesson taught by a thousand years of the Warring States period."

Every clan that had perished was one that had foolishly attempted to settle down.

Uchiha Kei, keep working hard; this will be your final contribution to Konoha.

Thinking of this, Sarutobi wrote a letter to Jiraiya, who was planning to go out for a field trip, filled with emotional recollections of their many years of master-disciple bonding. He even hinted to Jiraiya, hoping that this disciple of his could help his other disciple emerge from the pain of losing his lover and family.

To gain more support, Sarutobi even loosened the shackles on Orochimaru, tolerating the inhumane human experiments his disciple conducted out of a fear of death.

Of course, eternal life could be researched, but Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation was off-limits; that was playing with the souls of the dead and was absolutely intolerable.

For the sake of Konoha, there was nothing that could not be sacrificed, except for those who were already dead.

Yes, it had to be this way.

This cold-war-like arms race even benefited Orochimaru, leaving the oblivious man somewhat surprised.

Orochimaru felt that his life had been a bit too comfortable lately; had Minato done something to displease their teacher?

After all, aside from suppressing Minato, Orochimaru truly could not think of any reason for his teacher to favor him.

Needless to say, Sarutobi's methods of playing the balance of power had deeply taken root in everyone's hearts.

Caught between the Uchiha and Sarutobi, Danzo acted with a sense of detachment.

Although Danzo had betrayed Kei, he hadn't revealed too much.

Naturally, he dared not let Sarutobi know that the way he had bought his life was by selling out their past dealings to Kei. He had merely exaggerated the threat Kei posed to bring his conflict with Kei to a close.

Although things had not gone exactly as he wished this time, it was close enough; the Third Hokage and Kei were already at daggers drawn. Every move made by either side would be excessively over-interpreted by the other.

This was the best environment for his own long-term survival.

Thus, with the three giants of Konoha—one farming and yearning for the world, one sharpening spears and yearning for the granary, and one troublemaker lying low—a strange balance emerged.

Yet, all three knew that this balance would not last long; eventually, someone would make their move.