His Motives Were Not Pure

Yuehua Ai took his time walking back to his lodgings. Once he unlocked the door and got to his room, he collapsed onto the bed, unwilling to move.

He stared blankly at the ceiling, but his thoughts churned without pause. He realized that Konoha's shortcomings were far worse than he had imagined. Takeda Shin's situation was a microcosm of many of the village's clans.

The barriers between clans were far too strong. It wasn't just powerful clans like the Hyuga and Uchiha, which held considerable influence—even ordinary, minor clans devoted all their attention to themselves. Their sense of belonging to the village was still too weak.

In their eyes, the village wasn't an organization that brought them together and protected them. It was merely a cake representing a share of the spoils. They put their clan above everything else, and the strength of each clan determined how much of that cake it received.

A clan-centered system like Konoha's couldn't be changed easily. If everyone hadn't placed their own interests first, the Uchiha Clan's future tragedy might never have happened.

Back then, the Senju Clan recognized the village's problems and was the first to open its doors. The entire clan dispersed and assimilated into the village. After losing so many people in the war, the Senju gradually loosened their clan boundaries over the following decades through intermarriage and other means, until they became ordinary villagers. They were no longer Senju who put their clan first. They gave up their clan name and became ordinary villagers who saw the village as everything.

Now, Tsunade was the only pure-blooded descendant who still bore the Senju name. That was a major reason why people in the village always called her Princess Tsunade.

The Senju had hoped to set an example and persuade other clans to cast aside their barriers, abandon the ties of blood, and fully integrate into Konoha as a collective. They had dreamed of a harmonious future where everyone was equal and no one was a stranger. Unfortunately, though Senju Hashirama had a capacity for understanding beyond anyone else's, he was still a little naïve. He had underestimated just how deeply the idea of clan identity was rooted in other people's hearts. The Senju Clan's dissolution had failed to inspire others. Instead, it left a huge slice of the pie up for grabs, and the other clans fought over it like mad. Konoha had even been plunged into infighting for a time. If the First Shinobi World War hadn't just ended, with all the ninja villages signing a truce, Konoha's situation would have been even more dire.

In the end, the chaos had been quelled by Senju Hashirama's overwhelming power. But by then, the Senju Clan had already fallen apart, while the rifts between the other clans remained as deep as ever.

The God of Shinobi, in the end, wasn't all-powerful. His greatest failure hadn't come from his enemies, but from the people he had wanted to protect.

Of course, Konoha's flaws weren't something Yuehua Ai could do anything about. It wasn't just a matter of whether he had the ability; he simply didn't care enough. To him, Konoha was just a major resupply stop on his journey. He had no reason to invest too much in it. All he needed to care about were the few people who cared for him.

Three years had passed since the Second Shinobi World War. According to Yuehua Ai's memories of his previous life, signs of the Third Shinobi World War would emerge before long. The two brutal wars were separated by only a short interval, and the coming Third Shinobi World War would be even more devastating than the Second.

During the Second Shinobi World War, Yuehua Ai had been near the battlefield, but he hadn't been drawn into the fighting. At most, he had been caught up in it a little. But now he was a ninja, and he would be staying in Konoha for quite some time. He probably wouldn't be able to avoid the Third Shinobi World War.

Though he had Chunin-level strength, Yuehua Ai didn't think he had much ability to protect himself in a war. He had an outstanding talent for the mind, so why had he chosen to study Medical Ninjutsu first instead of genjutsu? It wasn't only because he had studied biology and medicine in depth in his previous life. More importantly, medical ninja were more likely to survive a war. After all, they were heavily protected under any circumstances.

For now, Yuehua Ai still needed to quietly build up his strength in Konoha. At the very least, he had to learn some jutsu.

What was the most precious thing in the Naruto World? Not land, not money, but jutsu. Jutsu were the foundation on which ninja villages stood. Every technique in a village's possession was one of its most treasured assets.

And it wasn't just the villages. Think about the clans in them. Didn't every one of them regard its techniques as more precious than life itself?

Jutsu were the most direct expression of a ninja's strength. One powerful technique could change a ninja's fate. Just think of Minato's Flying Raijin Jutsu, Naruto's Rasengan, or Sasuke's Chidori Current.

A true path wasn't passed on lightly, and neither were jutsu. The idea that you could cross into the Naruto World and immediately have a crowd eagerly teach you jutsu, hoping to turn you into an unparalleled ninja, was pure nonsense.

Jutsu were the foundation of a ninja's standing. No one would casually teach their unique techniques to someone else.

Konoha's resources far surpassed those of the other ninja villages, and the techniques it had collected were beyond comparison. Even so, aside from basic techniques, did it make its unique and powerful jutsu available to everyone?

Of course, powerful jutsu couldn't be widely taught partly because they were difficult to master. But the most important reason was the risk of them being leaked. A ninja's corpse was a treasure trove. For the larger ninja villages, obtaining a ninja's body meant they could learn the techniques that person had mastered. A powerful technique wasn't valuable to a village merely for its destructive force. What the village needed most was its deterrent effect.

As the anime showed, the Third Shinobi World War made Namikaze Minato famous as the Yellow Flash, and the Flying Raijin Jutsu became renowned across the world. Other villages even issued orders that their ninja should abandon their missions and flee if they encountered Namikaze Minato.

That showed just how much impact a powerful technique could have in war. So every ninja village was extremely careful when choosing who could learn its powerful jutsu. They considered not only a candidate's aptitude but also their service record. This kept the number of practitioners low, greatly reduced the chance of a technique leaking, and ensured that those who learned it were capable and loyal to the village.

Why had no one learned the Flying Raijin Jutsu, even though it had been in the Scroll of Seals for so many years? Was it because everyone else lacked the talent?

No. Just think of Orochimaru's talent for learning jutsu. He had even developed a spiritual space through his own research, and few in Konoha could match his understanding of space. So why hadn't he learned the Flying Raijin Jutsu, while a blond kid had mastered it and become famous across the world?

So it wasn't that Orochimaru hadn't wanted to learn the Flying Raijin Jutsu. He simply hadn't been able to get access to it! The village was far too strict about passing down jutsu. Everyone knew that the forbidden techniques listed in the scroll were powerful, but how many people actually managed to learn one?

Even after defecting from the village, Orochimaru had remained obsessed with the Scroll of Seals and had even arranged several plans to steal it. Just think: when he was in the village, even as one of the Sannin, the scroll had been beyond his reach. That showed just how hard it was to obtain a powerful jutsu.

It hadn't been easy for Namikaze Minato to get his hands on the Flying Raijin Jutsu, either. Luck had played a large part, but even more important was the Third's desire to cultivate a pillar of strength for the village.

To be allowed to study a powerful jutsu, Minato had to meet the requirements for talent, and he undoubtedly did. He was Jiraiya's student and the Third's grandstudent, so he also met the requirements for background and loyalty to the village. All he lacked was service to Konoha. With fate and luck on his side, he managed to earn that, too.

At the time, Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning urgently needed a Jinchūriki to contain the Eight-Tails' rampage. As it happened, their spy in Konoha discovered Uzumaki Kushina. After plotting in secret, several Cloud ninja who had been hiding in Konoha carried out a kidnapping plan and abducted Kushina, who had been brought to the village as the Nine-Tails' vessel.

Then Namikaze Minato, who knew Kushina well, set out alone. Following the trail of severed hair the kidnappers had left behind, he found and rescued Uzumaki Kushina.

The fact that Uzumaki Kushina would become the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was a secret in the village. Minato didn't know about it, but that didn't stop him from earning credit for rescuing the future Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

By a stroke of luck, Minato had met all the requirements for learning advanced jutsu. That was how he gained access to the Flying Raijin Jutsu.

And why had Yuehua Ai insisted on coming to Konoha with Jiraiya? Wouldn't it have been just as good to stay with Nagato—the third Six Paths—and join the Akatsuki?

No, of course not!

Yuehua Ai wasn't the kind of person who was content to live under someone else. He longed for life and freedom, and he was just as driven to gain strength. Only with strength could he do everything he wanted and make his second life count.

Yuehua Ai hadn't come to Konoha to latch onto some powerful patron. After all, could Konoha offer him a patron more powerful than Nagato? So, aside from experiencing Konoha's local customs, his biggest goal in coming here was to learn jutsu. And his ultimate aim was to get his hands on the Scroll of Seals!