Someone This Foolish Couldn't Be Too Bad!

Nagato was somewhat glad that he had stayed behind to test the waters; otherwise, if a real fight were to break out in the future, the people in the organization who came over would have been easy targets.

However, he couldn't reveal too many of his methods anymore.

We can't really summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and fight it out with the enemy; it's really unnecessary.

Even if he's not serious, he's still an Uchiha Clan.

He decided to leave.

Deva Path Yahiko stepped forward and unleashed Shinra Tensei, forcefully holding back the ten-meter-high wave of ice and sand.

Behind him, the Naraka Path swallowed the damaged Preta Path and Asura Path in one gulp, while the Animal Path clapped its hands and used Summoning Technique.

A giant bird appeared, Nagato jumped onto it. He took a deep look at the dark, towering waves of sand behind him, and commanded the strange bird to take flight.

After flying a distance, he dispelled the psychic connection.

A blinding light shone from the horizon behind us, and the tremors traveled far across the land. As the light gradually faded, a mushroom cloud rose with a roar.

Nagato was no longer concerned with any of that; he sensed Konan's location and vanished in the blink of an eye.

The light illuminating the sky gradually dimmed and eventually disappeared.

The small mushroom cloud created by the explosion gradually dissipated, and the debris that had been swept into the sky by the airflow fell back to the ground.

The only thing that will never disappear is the huge crater in the ground.

The vast expanse of ice sand moved across the land in waves, carrying the Two-Tails Matatabi.

This big cat looks incredibly majestic right now, and it's feeling really good.

The bad guy disappeared after it casually sprayed him with a Tailed Beast Ball.

It must have killed it.

The ice sand suddenly dissipated, and it stepped onto the ground again.

The Majestic Attire on his body was also dissipating.

It was a little reluctant to give it up. Having gotten used to this burden, it felt insecure when it suddenly stopped.

So it darted out like a cat and came to the edge of the deep pit.

The large head swayed from side to side, surveying the bottom of the pit, but no one was there.

Haha, Matatabi is indeed too strong; not even a trace of the bad guys is left.

Uchiha Shingen stood on Matatabi's head.

Because he was still spiritually connected with Matatabi, he immediately sensed Matatabi's emotions, which left him speechless.

As one of the Nine Tailed Beasts, it's one thing to act like a cat, but isn't it a bit too much to have such a rich emotional life?

They left a long time ago, okay?

Nagato's retreat was so decisive that it took Uchiha Shingen a bit by surprise. Those few moves were just the two sides testing each other.

Unexpectedly, Nagato only tried it a couple of times and then gave up.

Did I reveal too much knowledge from the beginning, causing Nagato to decide not to expose any more of my methods?

On the bright side, since Nagato has given up on further probing, Akatsuki has completely withdrawn from this situation, which is a good thing for Leaf Village.

Otherwise, having four... no, three Five Kage level mercenaries involved would needlessly increase the difficulty of the mission.

Uchiha Shingen severed his spiritual link with Matatabi. This technique of the Uchiha Clan is really useful; I wonder who invented it.

The sudden loss of its mental link Matatabi somewhat confused, but it had now tentatively accepted Uchiha Shingen's invitation to become his companion.

After all, this Uchiha Clan didn't lie to it; he really did help it fight bad guys.

If this were the old Uchiha Clan...

Helping the Tailed Beasts fight? Think again. First, use Genjutsu to control them, then drag them to their fate as slaves, turning them into mere puppets and tools.

So Matatabi was also a little excited, wanting to see what his new home would look like.

Putting aside the fact that it was already tired of seeing the scenery of Cloud Village, seeing it through the Jinchūriki was a completely different experience from rolling around in it itself.

"Shingen, where is the Leaf Forest you mentioned?" With a little anticipation for her new home, Matatabi called out Uchiha Shingen's name again.

However, it remained cautious, observing Uchiha Shingen's reaction.

If the reaction is wrong, it still has to run away, after all, the Uchiha Clan... no, it's humans who left it with too many bad memories.

That's how intelligent the Tailed Beasts is.

It lulls the bad guys into a false sense of security, then embarks on a new, unpredictable journey when they lower their guard—this is something it knows well.

"It's not too far from here. If I travel by myself, it should only take about three days."

Oh? Even a two-legged pygmy beast only needs three days, so isn't this even faster?

"Let's go then."

"Sorry, I'll have to wait a bit. I have to go back and fight another one," Uchiha Shingen said. "I haven't finished my fight yet."

"Are you fighting the Raikage?" The era of the Five Kage is insignificant in the grand scheme of human history, but it is a vivid memory for the Tailed Beasts.

Because it was this era that caused them to completely lose their freedom.

Those powerful humans capable of taking them on one-on-one simply gathered in groups.

Tailed Beasts may not remember people's names, but they will clearly remember the titles of the Five Kage, especially the Hokage who is not human.

"Raikage? He's gone to ashes. I'm going to fight the Cloud Ninja Army." Uchiha Shingen thought for a moment and suggested, "Let's establish a summoning connection first, then I'll go fight, and I'll call you when I'm done."

"Then I'll go with you," Matatabi said.

You mean the other little guys from Kumogakure?

Whether it's good or not is another matter, but it also wants to participate.

The Kumogakure had imprisoned it for quite some time, and those Raikage would attack it at the drop of a hat; it wanted to get its revenge.

Cats hold grudges, Matatabi, though not a cat, is also very vengeful.

"I see..." Uchiha Shingen hadn't really expected Matatabi to go with him to fight the Cloud Ninja. After all, driving Nagato was only a preliminary way to gain Matatabi's trust and make it more willing to listen to him.

As expected of the Cloud Ninja!

Not only do humans want to beat them up, but the Tailed Beasts do too!

It's a pity that the Eight-Tails died again, otherwise we could have asked it for its opinion on Kumogakure.

Although Uchiha Shingen thought that the Eight-Tails would probably spit out Tailed Beast Ball the next time it saw him, since it had just been resurrected and then sent him back to his corpse.

It's like guarding a corpse.

"Thanks, Matatabi." Uchiha Shingen simply sat down on Matatabi's head and placed his hand on Matatabi's head. "Now I'll use Ninjutsu to teleport us back. Let's go back to the town we just left in; my companions are all there."

Before he could finish speaking, a wisp of blond hair flashed before Uchiha Shingen's eyes.

Namikaze Minato appeared beside Uchiha Shingen.

Suddenly, another person appeared above them, Matatabi, their flame-like Chakra surging wildly like flames.

It's only because Uchiha Shingen is still on its head that it's slamming its head into the ground.

"Hey, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Matatabi, this is the Hokage, he's on our side." Uchiha Shingen quickly reassured Matatabi, then turned to Namikaze Minato and complained, "Lord Hokage, please say hello, you scared Matatabi."

Namikaze Minato was also stunned, because he had just used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport over and found himself standing on the head of Tailed Beasts.

I almost instinctively rang the bell for my Tailed Beasts from Mount Myoboku, hoping he'd give me a custom-made version of a giant Toad's butt.

"... Shingen, what's the situation between you and the Two-Tails now?"

"Lord Hokage, I've reached an agreement with Matatabi. We'll invite him to Leaf Village. From now on, we'll be comrades-in-arms," Uchiha Shingen said cheerfully.

This trip was truly fantastic, a huge success!

Namikaze Minato: "???"

The Fourth Hokage of Hidden Leaf Village suddenly realized he was still young.

Can the relationship between ninjas and Tailed Beasts really be this harmonious?

Nine-Tails and his wife are not like that!

He's always trying to cause trouble, but Kushina keeps a tight watch on him, so he can't even think about causing any trouble.

But after thinking about it, he felt relieved.

After all, among the Uchiha Clan, apart from the First Hokage's Wood Release technique, the Sharingan is the most effective counter to Tailed Beasts.

Long before the First Hokage, the Uchiha Clan probably had already thoroughly researched the Tailed Beasts.

Chapter 47 Someone this foolish can't be too bad!

Namikaze Minato is a very quick-thinking person.

As the Hokage with the simplest fighting style in Leaf Village's history, his greatest strength lies in his ability to react extremely quickly to unexpected situations.

He didn't care how Uchiha Shingen gained the Two-Tails' approval; his first thought was about the impact of this event.

The Hokage of Hidden Leaf Village, from the First to the Third, were all oddballs at maintaining balance.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Five Great Villages, the Ninja World was characterized by one superpower and many strong forces.

After Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama parted ways and even died, Senju Hashirama began his balancing act.

This presents a problem: balance requires certain conditions. Senju Hashirama were alive, balance would be impossible from a human perspective, so Senju Hashirama the Tailed Beasts.

He felt that although this thing couldn't kill anyone, it could still balance everyone's superficial power.

Of the Nine Tailed Beasts at the time, the Nine-Tails was sealed by Mito Uzumaki, the One-Tail was captured by Sand Village, and the remaining seven were inexplicably beaten up.

At the first Five Kage Summit that followed, due to Senju Tobirama Senju's usual taunts, Leaf Village changed its strategy from giving away to selling the Tailed Beasts to other ninja villages.

Since Sand Village already had One-Tail and preferred money and land to Tailed Beasts, one of the Tailed Beasts originally intended for Sand Village was sold to Takigakure instead. Thus, the external balance that the First Balance Monster envisioned was achieved.

The second-generation Balance Monster mainly focuses its energy on internal operations.

By the time of Namikaze Minato, the balance of the Ninja World had already been broken, and the strength of the five great villages had clearly been divided into different tiers. To be honest, Namikaze Minato wasn't that concerned about Kumogakure losing its Tailed Beasts again.

Unlike his predecessors, Namikaze Minato's wish was to return to the original unipolar world order, thereby eliminating the threat of war for Leaf Village.

It was for Leaf Village, not for the Ninja World; Namikaze Minato was Leaf Village -centric.

In his view, balance can be achieved internally.

However, the Uchiha Clan obtaining the power of the Two-Tails will, in a sense, disrupt this balance.

The Hokage lineage remains powerful enough, but undeniably, it lacks staying power.

For the time being, the term "Hokage lineage" still refers to the Sarutobi Clan lineage.

Namikaze Minato Sarutobi Clan belongs to the Sarutobi school.

However, after thinking about it for a moment, Namikaze Minato realized it was a good thing.

Every family experiences ups and downs; this is normal.

In Leaf Village, many people now consider Uchiha Shingen to be a candidate for the next Hokage, and even within the Hokage Building, the number of people with this idea is gradually increasing.

After Uchiha Fugaku revealed his true strength by voluntarily running for the position of Kage's assistant, more and more people believe that this old coward only ran for Uchiha Shingen.

If the power of the Two-Tails were to belong to Leaf Village, it would be more accurate to say that the Two-Tails belongs to the Uchiha Clan, or that it is only related to Uchiha Shingen. This would also align with the unspoken rule of Hidden Leaf Village — the Hokage must be able to control the power of the Tailed Beasts, even if only indirectly.

In the past, many of the power struggles between the Hokage Building and the Uchiha Clan revolved around the ownership of the Nine-Tails, which was also a major driving force behind the continued Wood Release experiments.

The fact that members of the Uzumaki Clan serve as Jinchūriki is considered a safety net.

With the future clan leader possessing the Two-Tails, the Uchiha Clan's focus on the Nine-Tails will inevitably decrease, shifting to how to protect the Two-Tails. In this way, a new balance will be achieved.

After quickly going through all of this in his mind, Namikaze Minato felt that Uchiha Shingen's subjugation of the Two-Tails was more beneficial than harmful to Leaf Village.

Only...

Namikaze Minato glanced at Matatabi at his feet.

It looks more like a cat than Tailed Beasts...

There have long been rumors that the Uchiha Clan is the largest concentration of cat lovers in the Ninja World, and this has now been confirmed.

Then he sighed sincerely, "Shingen, it seems your family all love cats."