Because I'm Smart and Talented, I'm Hard to Fool

"Achoo!"

Lying lazily on the sofa with a soda in his left hand and fries and chips in his right, Uchiha Hanazuki glanced around.

"Did I catch a cold? No, it feels like I'm being watched by a snake—and a snake obsessed with science, at that."

In the vibrant, lush inner world, Kurama stretched comfortably before glancing at the nearly empty pile of snacks, unable to stop himself from shouting.

"Hey, brat, the snacks are running out. Hurry up and conjure some more for this lord."

"Nag, nag, nag. All you do is eat. You shouldn't even be called Kurama; you should change your name to 'Orange-ama.' Since you do nothing but eat and sleep, you might as well change your species from a fox to a pig..."

Before he could finish, Kurama's tails stood on end, his blood-red fox eyes locking in a fierce glare with Hanazuki's own crimson eyes.

"Did I not lend you my chakra? If I hadn't been working hard to convert chakra for you, would you even be able to use Fire Style: Great Spiral Wheel?"

"Didn't I pay for half a year's worth of snacks in advance? You ate them all in ten days! You have no right to be offended when I call you a pig!"

Throughout the Forest Courtyard, half the grounds were littered with wrappers and empty bottles, which were slowly dissolving into chakra within the pale blue Heart Lake.

The once-gentle breeze was now thick with the scent of various potato chips, and a light sniff made Hanazuki's expression shift slightly.

"Tomato flavor? I didn't realize you had such refined taste."

"Tch, anyone who eats tomato-flavored chips is a heretic."

"Are you looking for a fight, you orange pig?"

After a brief silence, the countless wrappers and bottles suddenly vanished, replaced by floating orbs of pale blue chakra. Those crimson eyes, previously restrained, now turned inexplicably chilling.

At this, Kurama set aside his playful demeanor. Seeming to sense Hanazuki's mood, he leaned against a tree taller than himself, a smirk playing on his lips.

"What's wrong? In a bad mood?"

"I just met a ninja on the battlefield worth respecting, and it left me feeling a bit sentimental."

"Compared to her, those old geezers who only know how to sit and eat away at our resources, who watch as children who should be playing are sent to the battlefield, and who constantly spout the 'Will of Fire' while clutching power tightly in their hands—the more I look at them, the more I despise them."

The corners of his mouth curled up, his gleaming fangs becoming more pronounced until he finally broke into a wild, skyward laugh.

"Hahahaha! Is that why you let that old hag go? I was wondering why you spared an enemy; turns out you were just feeling emotional."

"Hey, Uchiha brat, why endure it? With your Mangekyo Sharingan and my chakra, what can't we accomplish if we join forces?"

The blood-red fox pupils held a strange allure. He found it impossible to understand why Hanazuki, who possessed the power to overturn the entire Ninja World in a short time, still chose to hide in the shadows.

"Fool. What is the point of a fleeting reign? Only by resisting the erosion of time, carving one's own mark into the wheels of history, and manipulating the direction of history is true power."

"You, the most powerful of the Tailed Beasts, and I, who have surpassed the Sharingan—our combined strength is indeed formidable, but it is not absolute. There are still natural enemies."

"Don't tell me you haven't sensed that thick malice hidden in the forest. That is what a natural enemy is."

In his exquisite, intricate crimson eyes, a cold light flickered. The direction of that malice was none other than the home of Uchiha Obito.

Already impatient to observe your successor, Uchiha Madara...

Meanwhile, on the border of the Land of Wind, pale moonlight spilled over the dazzling gold dust as the relentless fog was blocked by gale-force winds and toxic smoke.

"Rasa and Chiyo... with the Third Kazekage missing, the consecutive failures of Sunagakure have left the village severely crippled, forcing even their only remaining combat strength to guard the border of the Land of Wind."

"Can the 'Blood Mist' that engulfed the entire Ninja World in war and indirectly incited the Third Great Ninja War ever have a moment of reflection?"

In the thick fog, seeing that they could gain no advantage, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist Village—handpicked for this war—retreated, leaving behind only a few corpses from Sunagakure and the Mist.

"A pack of bloodthirsty sharks. Wherever there is an opening, they bite off a piece of flesh without hesitation."

The old woman's face was etched with worry. The Third Kazekage could likely be declared dead by now, and the leaderless Sunagakure needed to elect a new Kazekage who could stabilize the situation.

"Compared to the other great nations, Sunagakure's manpower is far too thin. Even with puppets to make up for the lack of numbers, there are very few top-tier combatants capable of forcing other nations to retreat."

Standing on the fortress, Rasa looked back with a heavy heart. The village that had raised him seemed to be teetering in the breeze, on the verge of collapse.

"Top-tier combatants, you say? If we want to protect the village, we have no choice but to activate that monster: the One-Tail, Shukaku of the Sand."

Pakura remained silent. Since the death of the previous Jinchuriki, the demon containing vast amounts of chakra had been sealed away in the Temple of Wind.

"A Jinchuriki? If we want impoverished Sunagakure to have the ability to fend off foreign enemies, I suppose this is the only way. But finding someone compatible with Shukaku won't be easy."

Rasa muttered to himself, while Chiyo looked up at the sky, where only a few stars twinkled in the dim light.

"The deeper the night, the more I feel my own aging. The future belongs to your generation now. My only wish as an old bag of bones is to see my grandson."

"Where are you, Sasori?"

At the same time, far beyond the Five Great Nations, on a remote overseas peninsula: the Graveyard Mountains.

Deep within a massive cavern buried beneath the earth, an old man with white hair and blood-red eyes watched with a scrutinizing gaze before finally making his decision.

"This child, Uchiha Obito? A good look in his eyes. They are filled with love. When that love is lost, the power he gains will surely make him the perfect proxy for my will."

"Eh? I thought you would be more interested in that other brat. He's an Uchiha genius who could skillfully use the Flying Thunder God at ten years old."

White Zetsu was puzzled, pointing to the name at the top of the list of Uchiha members: Uchiha Hanazuki.

"He lacks the eyes of an Uchiha, and even more so, he lacks the love that the Uchiha cling to. The Uchiha who inherits my will does not need talent; he needs the hatred born from that obsessive love."

White Zetsu nodded slightly. I see. Because he looks smart and talented, he's too hard to fool, right?