Hidden Chunin Strength

Creak~

Uchiha Tenshu lifted his little face, red from the cold, and wiped away the snot frozen into crystals with his gloved hand. Then he stamped his feet to shake the snow off himself. Only after he had done all that did he push open the solid wooden door, which was far too shabby for someone of his standing.

"Whew..."

As soon as Uchiha Tenshu stepped inside, he shut the door at once. The moment it closed, the biting wind and freezing air vanished, and warmth began to seep back into his body.

The room's main structure was made of wood, its brown interior marked by straight, smooth lines and a sense of order.

Yet beneath all those neat, square lines, there were also conspicuous gray walls built from clay bricks. They carried the warmth left behind by the burning fireplace.

Together with the heated sleeping platforms connected throughout the house, they made the entire interior feel like spring.

This massive project had taken a great deal of effort from Uchiha Tenshu and a few "friends" to complete.

And it was one of the few inventions from this life that Uchiha Tenshu could openly claim credit for within the clan.

By now, these heated platforms and underfloor heating had spread throughout the clan. Even the other clans in Konoha had borrowed the idea and started using them.

These minor inventions, which he could display openly, proved Uchiha Tenshu's "precocious intelligence." He had not only received a generous financial reward but also become a focus of the clan's attention, earning the same level of support as a direct descendant. He was taught a wealth of ninjutsu theory and given all kinds of precious medicinal drugs.

As a result, at only seven years old, Uchiha Tenshu secretly possessed Chunin-level strength.

Never underestimate a Chunin.

In the original story, even an ordinary Chunin already held the position of a minor leader and served as a backbone of the village.

Most people would never reach even Elite Genin level, no matter how much potential they had. That was the limit imposed by talent.

In the real world, however, a Chunin certified by Konoha already counted as an elite, comparable to an Jonin in one of the smaller ninja villages.

As for Konoha's Jonin, they were all high-ranking figures in the village. In the smaller villages beyond its borders, each would be the head of the village. Even just a few years ago, at the end of the Warring States Period, Jonin had stood at the absolute peak and served as the pillars of their clans.

If not for the emergence of two monsters, who gave the people of the Ninja World a new sense of what power could be, Kage Level would probably have been the highest level of combat strength in the world.

Fortunately, Uchiha Tenshu's talent was among the very best. He was born with all five elemental chakra natures, grasped the principles of ninjutsu as soon as they were explained, and was full of ideas for developing new techniques.

Under normal circumstances, once he reached adulthood, he would be guaranteed to attain at least Jonin level, if not Elite Jonin. And after the special training he had devised for himself, Kage Level would be no more than a minor hurdle—not the end of his journey!

"But right now, what I lack is time!"

Uchiha Tenshu thought to himself as he surveyed the warm, comfortable mansion.

"A two-story house, a front garden of more than fifty square meters, eight rooms across both floors, well-insulated and brand-new. In my previous life, with the kind of job I had, I could have worked my whole life and still never afforded a place like this. Here, you get one just for joining Konoha. Even a clan affiliate like me gets to live in a mansion like this, let alone the real clan leaders..."

"After several years of peace and prosperity, with no worries about food or clothing, it's no wonder even Madara Uchiha couldn't convince them to leave. With no long-term view of the disasters ahead, the Uchiha Clan had been blinded by wealth and power! They'd forgotten that even the enemy's honey, no matter how sweet and delicious, could still kill you when you swallowed it."

Uchiha Tenshu warned himself.

But he wasn't satisfied with this comfortable, easy life.

"After all, I'm a transmigrator!"

Uchiha Tenshu couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.

He knew all too well what the name "Uchiha" meant to Konoha.

It meant being born evil.

It meant being guilty from birth.

It meant being someone people could suspect of anything malicious.

His own experiences over the past few years had made it even clearer just how unwelcome his identity was in Konoha.

Even going out to buy books made people speculate about his intentions.

Even making a few tools invited malicious suspicion.

It was only because those people hadn't bothered to hide themselves in front of a two- or three-year-old child that Uchiha Tenshu, a man who had lived two lives, had been able to read their thoughts from their expressions and gestures. Otherwise, he might have ended up like most of his clansmen, content with those fake displays of goodwill and gradually sinking deeper into their deception.

From then on, Uchiha Tenshu had abandoned the idea of staying in Konoha to fight for the Hokage's seat and become the village chief.

After all.

In a place where everyone discriminated against you, slandered you, and did everything they could to smear you, trying to seize the leadership and get those same people to support you was far less sensible than building your own power from the start, where you could do as you pleased.

Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.

And he had already been a wage slave in his previous life.

If he had to spend this life as a wage-slave ninja too, working 24/7 for the powerful, then what the hell had been the point of transmigrating?

Besides, the social order in this world of ninjas was practically nonexistent. Anyone with even a little ability could claim territory and make themselves king. Why waste time taking paid missions for others instead of building a dynasty of your own? How pathetic could you get?

Anyway, Uchiha Tenshu couldn't understand why the transmigrators in those Naruto World novels from his previous life were so desperately devoted to Konoha, all of them eager to become its wage slaves without question. They protected Konoha at every turn, upheld the Will of Fire, and fought on the front lines for the village in every kind of brain-dead way.

What were they hoping to get out of it?

Was it just that Konoha was good enough at brainwashing people?

Anyway, Uchiha Tenshu had no faith in the Will of Fire. He was firmly in the "grab my bucket and start a business elsewhere" camp.

"But even if I'm going to leave, I need to get enough benefits out of this place first. Otherwise, I could wander around the Ninja World alone and get killed one day by some powerful faction's ninja declaring that I deserve to die. It wouldn't be impossible!"

"At the very least, given how crazy ninjas are, it's pretty likely. They might target me because they need a test subject, because they think I look suspicious, because they're itching for a fight, and so on."

"So if I'm going to leave, I need enough strength!" Uchiha Tenshu thought seriously.

"Second, I need a safe enough territory where my people can develop in peace, and it needs to have plenty of potential. Otherwise, I could finally escape and establish my own power, only for someone to crush it a few years later. That would be beyond frustrating! My plans include developing all kinds of ninjutsu and technology, and both will need the support of a powerful faction with plenty of people. So I need to think this through carefully. I mustn't let my guard down or make a rash decision!"

Uchiha Tenshu continued mulling things over as he headed toward the kitchen.

When it came to strength, he was quite confident.

First, his talent in this life was good. Under the guidance of the Uchiha Clan, he had stood out at an early age and received solid training. Second, the Uchiha Clan placed few restrictions on improving its members' strength, so long as they weren't high-level ninjutsu or forbidden techniques.

Anyone who met the requirements could study in the clan library. Even though he still hadn't gotten his hands on many techniques because he had to keep his age in mind, he had already figured out several key ways to increase his strength thanks to his foresight. Once the right opportunity came, he would be able to turn them into real power quickly and reach Jonin level in no time. At the very least, that would be enough to leave safely!

"So I don't need to worry about my strength over the next year or two. At the rate I'm progressing, I'll be able to protect myself before the Ninja World's wars begin!

"What I need to focus on instead is finding a safe place with enough potential. That's the real problem..."

Uchiha Tenshu munched on a fried dough stick and gulped down soy milk, while his mind turned over a topic that, if Konoha Ninja heard him discussing it, would get him arrested on the spot.