Su Zheng's home.
"Brother, Teacher taught us how to refine Chakra today!"
"Look, I folded this."
A Paper Crane took flight from Konan's hand, fluttering gracefully like a real butterfly.
"Good, very nice." Su Zheng ruffled her hair in encouragement.
"And me, and me..."
Yahiko formed hand seals with both hands, gathering Chakra. Poof! An identical Yahiko appeared. It was the Clone Technique!
"Good, good, you're all wonderful. I'll take you out for barbecue, all right?"
"Yeah! ×4"
Inside the training ground.
"Take a look." Su Zheng placed three contract documents before them.
Uchiha En opened the document with some confusion and examined it carefully.
Contract:
I, ???, voluntarily accept the control of my lord, ???, and obey my lord's, ???, commands.
The future promised by my lord: In more than twenty years, the Uchiha Clan will be destroyed!
If the promised future comes to pass, I will forever become my lord's most loyal subordinate!
If the promised future does not come to pass, I will regain my freedom!
Note: During this period, I will obey my lord's commands unconditionally!
Signature: ???
Uchiha En set down the contract expressionlessly and asked, "What does this mean?"
"I want you to become my subordinates. Is that hard to understand?"
Uchiha En exchanged glances with the other two and said, "Haven't you already controlled us? Why use a contract? And can this contract really bind us?"
"You can try it. After all, the binding talismans inside your bodies have already been removed, haven't they?" Su Zheng said with an amused smile.
The three of them were shaken to their core. Their little scheme had been discovered!
Whenever Su Zheng was absent from the training ground, they gathered to study how to carefully remove the binding talismans without harming their hearts.
They had started by experimenting on small animals, then practiced on their own bodies. Finally, they had succeeded. They had successfully removed the binding talismans from each other's bodies!
But now they had been found out! What were they supposed to do? Fight him?
They saw miserable memories in each other's eyes. The three of them had supposedly trained with Su Zheng, but in truth, they had been brutally beaten by him. Su Zheng's strength had grown far too quickly, and none of them wanted to suffer another crushing defeat at the hands of that azure Chakra Armor!
Having made their decision, the three quickly completed the contract!
Su Zheng stretched his arms and smiled. "A very good choice. I don't want to kill you just yet!"
"All right, you may leave now. But don't reveal your identities, and don't do anything unnecessary..."
"Once you're out, I've already arranged identities for you. I'll notify you if anything comes up."
On the streets of Amegakure.
Uchiha Kaze could hardly believe it. They had simply been released!
Uchiha En rubbed his eyes and said, "That contract must be special. I really can't activate my Sharingan!"
"And where exactly did he release us from? Could his Sharingan connect to another space?" Uchiha Yoru asked as well.
"It should be his ocular technique!" En analyzed.
Uchiha Kaze looked at the two of them and felt completely out of place. They were too smart. They had only just been released, yet they were already analyzing their opponent's abilities!
To make his presence known, Uchiha Kaze suggested, "How about we go relax at the pleasure house first? It's been a long time since I last went!"
Uchiha En and Yoru glanced at him. They knew what he was like, so they did not object.
At that moment, a familiar voice sounded in their minds. "I don't care if you want to go, but don't you dare cause any deaths!"
Boom! It was like a thunderclap exploding in their minds. How did he know?
Uchiha Kaze carefully scanned the surroundings, but Su Zheng was nowhere to be seen.
En's voice came over. "Stop looking. He's not here. He must be using some kind of spiritual secret technique to monitor and control us!"
"Just like the Yamanaka Clan's spiritual secret techniques!" Uchiha En said gravely.
"The Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques can't invisibly peer into someone's thoughts!" Uchiha Yoru's face was also filled with shock.
The three no longer dared to harbor any wishful thinking and began taking Su Zheng's orders seriously.
If they had not originally believed that the Uchiha Clan's destruction would happen in the future, they now felt that it was entirely possible!
Su Zheng altered the appearances of the three Uchiha and turned them into Amegakure shinobi. He changed Sasori's parents' identities into those of ordinary people and had them help him keep watch over the house.
Ever since awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, he had been devoted to modifying its ultimate power, Susanoo!
It was not merely because Susanoo was too conspicuous and could not be used in future battles, or there would be no way to explain that power.
Su Zheng felt that Susanoo's most fatal flaw was its power. It was simply too weak!
To ordinary shinobi, it was indeed an awe-inspiring power, but he knew that in the later stages, there would be far too many people capable of shattering Susanoo...
It would be better to change the way ocular power was used from the very beginning!
Put bluntly, Susanoo was a product formed by materializing Chakra. It was no different from the Mysterious Peacock Method, except that it contained spiritual power as well!
Aside from its visual impact, that enormous armor form had destructive power completely disproportionate to its consumption. Maintaining it required far too much Chakra and spiritual power. It was simply not worth it!
After all, big did not mean strong, big did not mean fierce, and big could not be sustained!
In summary, bigger was not necessarily better!
There was a saying: the essence lies in concentration! It described it perfectly!
After Wind Style and Lightning Style were compressed and transformed, powerful techniques emerged: Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, Lightning Style: Chidori...
Other ninjutsu simply could not compare to these. Su Zheng had no use for flashy but impractical things!
He had already transformed the massive Susanoo into a "Chakra Armor" that covered his entire body. It was far stronger than that sort of thing.
And he could enter the "armor" state without even activating the Mangekyō Sharingan. It was incredibly convenient!
When he had the time, he needed to have some fun with the Third Raikage. That man's strongest spear and strongest shield would be perfect for tempering his armor.
Land of Waves, Kobayashi Company.
"You are..." Kobayashi Taro looked at the youth who had suddenly appeared before him, somewhat confused.
The youth saw the company sign and muttered, "Kobayashi Company? Then he should be Gato's father!"
Kobayashi Taro did not understand why the youth had suddenly appeared in his office. Somewhat displeased, he said, "Whoever you are, get out right—"
Before he could finish, the youth's black pupils suddenly turned red, and three tomoe spun within them!
The youth was naturally Su Zheng. He had learned White Zetsu's Mayfly Technique and used it to steal many of Konoha's ninjutsu.
The Flying Thunder God Technique had naturally been his top priority. After learning it, he used Shadow Clones to leave marks all over the world.
He had come to the Land of Waves today to get some startup capital. Reforming the Land of Rain required far too much money, and he had no patience to slowly earn it by doing missions. Wasn't it better to just rob someone else?
Besides, he felt no guilt whatsoever about robbing an evil man like Gato!
"Master, these are our company's accounts for this month. Please take a look!"
Under the genjutsu, Kobayashi was completely unaware and had plainly mistaken Su Zheng for his true master.
Su Zheng took the ledger and flipped through it. "Damn, this really is profitable!"
On the surface, Kobayashi ran a shipping business. In reality, he used the Mafia and shinobi to smuggle contraband, and he had already seized control of many small countries!
The shipping business alone earned a net profit of 500 million ryo a year, while the underground operations were even more profitable, earning 8 billion ryo a year. He was unquestionably one of the world's richest men!
"Something's wrong. He's just an ordinary person. How could he make so much money without anyone cracking down on him? That makes no sense!"
Su Zheng looked at Kobayashi and asked, "How have you kept these illegal operations going?"
"Most of these are actually goods entrusted here by others. They're nominally our business, but most of them have nothing to do with us. How would we dare compete with the Five Great Nations for business?"
"Just as I thought!"
Su Zheng had known that the Five Great Nations had to have a hand in this. Otherwise, how could it have expanded across the entire world?
He had initially wanted to swallow up the Five Great Nations' business in one go, but after careful thought, Su Zheng gave up on the idea!
It was not the time to draw too much attention. Revealing his strength ahead of time would not be good. He would wait until he had turned the Land of Rain into a regional overlord!
Su Zheng set the ledger aside, afraid that he would not be able to resist swallowing that enormous wealth outright.
After taking some supplies from their warehouse and planting a mark on Kobayashi, Su Zheng left.
Before you continue