I Have a Bunch of Relatives Who Want to Be Hokage Chapter 22

Hadn't they been out all morning already? And this was supposed to be clearing their heads?

Women were terrifying. Little brothers were better.

Yes, it absolutely had to be a little brother.

Just thinking about what it would be like if it were a little sister, and then someday she wanted to clear her head...

No, he couldn't think like that. He was going to be a good big brother!

"Hey, Itachi, you're so thoughtful. You know to protect your mother." Uzumaki Kushina smiled as she ruffled Uchiha Itachi's hair. "You little guy have been getting cuter and cuter lately."

Uchiha Itachi was helpless. It seemed more and more people liked messing up his hair lately.

After fixing his hair again, he called out, "Hello, Aunt Kushina."

Was it just his imagination, or did Aunt Kushina across from him seem to be giving off killing intent?

"Itachi, you're being naughty. When you meet a girl, you should call her big sister, understand?"

You're hardly a girl anymore. You're about to become a mother.

Uchiha Itachi had just been about to say that when another demonic hand descended upon the head he had only just fixed.

"Well, if it isn't our little student Itachi." A familiar voice sounded beside him. "That won't do. Remember, you're a man destined to take on seven at once."

"Teacher..." Uchiha Itachi looked pitifully at his unscrupulous private tutor. "I just fixed my hair."

"What kind of man cares about his hairstyle?" Uchiha Shingen ignored his grievance. After all, as someone merely passing by, he couldn't ignore a tragedy unfolding before his eyes.

Messing with the kid's head counted as collecting his fee.

His appearance was no coincidence, because he cared a great deal about when Uchiha Sasuke would be born.

Besides, Uchiha Fugaku had also asked him to keep an eye on things.

He hadn't expected to run into both of them today.

"Big Sister Mikoto, this big sister is Lord Hokage's wife, right?" Uchiha Shingen acted as though he didn't know Uzumaki Kushina.

Theoretically, he really didn't know her.

He could just recognize her.

"Ah, you're Shingen, right?" Uzumaki Kushina's demeanor abruptly changed, becoming serious. "I've heard Minato mention you. That ice and snow exhibition was really interesting too. No need to be so formal—you can call me big sister as well."

"Alright, Big Sister Kushina." Uchiha Shingen answered with a cheerful smile.

It was a little cheesy, but she was the Hokage's wife. He had to give her that respect.

"Are you Itachi's teacher now?" Uzumaki Kushina noticed how Uchiha Itachi addressed him. "No wonder this child has changed so much lately."

In her memory, Uchiha Itachi used to be a little dull and lacked the vitality a child his age should have. She had complained about it more than once to Uchiha Mikoto, believing the couple had problems with their parenting.

But since last year, Uchiha Itachi had become much livelier.

At the very least, that heavy feeling about him was gone. Honestly, that sort of temperament appearing in a child had been absurd.

This wasn't an environment like the Warring States era anymore.

Uzumaki Kushina examined Uchiha Shingen. This young Uchiha had made quite a name for himself in the Leaf Village lately.

The ice and snow exhibition had completely changed the Leaf Village residents' fixed impression of the Uchiha.

The ordinary members of the Uchiha Clan had never really been a problem, but those who had awakened the Sharingan were truly difficult to deal with.

The Sharingan, awakened through emotional stimulation, naturally gave people an intensely uncomfortable feeling. Coupled with the Uchiha ninjas' almost tangible sense of superiority, it wasn't a matter of whether they were popular or not—they simply had no friends at all.

Until the ice and snow exhibition exposed the true faces of those tsundere fools.

Bratty children didn't care whether someone had red eyes or not. The exhibition grounds were huge, and if no one paid attention, they would vanish in the blink of an eye.

To prevent that from happening, every Uchiha ninja patrolling the exhibition had a Sharingan.

So when everyone saw those red-eyed people, who had once been arrogant beyond measure, getting run ragged by a group of troublesome children without getting angry—and even carefully returning those little troublemakers to their parents—their impression of them changed completely.

Then, when those parents sincerely expressed their gratitude, they discovered that every last one of them was utterly terrible at dealing with other people's goodwill. They tried to maintain their cool demeanor, but their methods were so childish that it was enough to make people laugh themselves to death.

The Leaf Village's urban economy was exceptionally prosperous, and its villagers were all sharp and worldly. How could the Uchiha possibly fool them?

Thus, the Uchiha's former mask of arrogance was pierced through completely, like a paper tiger.

Uzumaki Kushina didn't know whether that was a good thing. Born into the Uzumaki Clan, she knew the Leaf Village's dark side all too well.

The Uchiha Clan's improving reputation might not necessarily be a good thing.

While Uzumaki Kushina examined Uchiha Shingen, he was also examining her, sensing the chakra within her body.

[That must be Ashura's chakra.]

As he sensed that distinctive chakra within Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Shingen felt that he had taken another step closer to the truth.

In the world of Naruto, the early stages were about hard work, but later it became a contest of bloodlines. In the beginning, everyone was human; by the end, barely any of them were. Though that sort of shift was common in long-running manga, the concepts of the Sage Eyes and Sage Body, once introduced, persisted right through to the ending.

Yet in the story, concepts such as the Sage Eyes and Sage Body, Yin-Yang power, and Yin-Yang Release had always been rather vague.

Uchiha Shingen believed that in anything one did, there was no need to choose between talent and hard work. Hard work was the basic quality required to do anything, while talent was a necessary condition for success. On that foundation, what determined one's ultimate height was the direction chosen at the very beginning.

If you chose the wrong path, then neither talent nor hard work would amount to anything.

During his first run, Uchiha Shingen had never had the chance to confirm it. He lacked chakra sensory abilities, which was also why he had been unable to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique then. The technique was difficult to learn not because of its complexity, but because it required several talents at once.

This time around, he had been waiting for these two for a long time. Today, he could finally get a full feel of both.

Whether Ashura's or Indra's, their chakra was extremely well concealed within their reincarnations. Only by using his status as Uchiha Itachi's tutor and failing again and again had Uchiha Shingen finally found the right method, allowing him to sense Indra's chakra within Uchiha Mikoto.

Now, he could finally get a feel for Ashura's chakra as well.

Better yet, Uchiha Mikoto was here too.

As he sensed these two streams of chakra inherited directly from the Sage of Six Paths, and combined them with everything he had learned, encountered, and verified over his three runs, Uchiha Shingen finally understood—or rather, he felt that he had attained enlightenment.

No wonder the Senju of the Forest, rather than the seemingly overpowered Uchiha, had always been the strongest during the Warring States era.

Having obtained the answer he wanted, Uchiha Shingen contentedly withdrew his senses. The way he looked at Uzumaki Kushina also became far friendlier.

Thanks to this mother of the new generation's Ashura, the path he should choose in the future had become much clearer.

He also understood much better what exactly his current condition was.

Just as he had told Uchiha Itachi, standing high allowed one to see far, but one still had to watch one's footing.

He had thought he was already firmly grounded, but Uchiha Shingen now realized that he still had not truly seen clearly before. He was already impatient to verify it for himself.

With Uzumaki Kushina here, there was no need to worry about Uchiha Mikoto's safety at all.

"I have something to take care of, so I won't spoil you two sisters' fun." Uchiha Shingen handed the role of flower guardian back to Uchiha Itachi. "Itachi, make sure you serve them well."

"Okay..." Uchiha Itachi looked distinctly unenthused.

"Put some spirit into it." After tossing out that casual tease, Uchiha Shingen took his leave.

After returning to the clan grounds, Uchiha Shingen headed straight for the library.

The Uchiha ninja guarding the library spotted Uchiha Shingen from a distance. Before he could even greet him, he watched Shingen rush into the library like the wind.

"Why's he in such a hurry today?" The clansman was puzzled, but he did not dwell on it.

After all, Uchiha Shingen came to the library every few days. Everyone knew he loved reading.

After charging into the library, Uchiha Shingen headed straight for the innermost section of the first floor.

This was where historical documents were kept. The Uchiha Clan took great pride in itself, so it also placed great importance on its clan history.

Though their historical records were hardly professional and they liked to slip in self-serving embellishments, they were certainly comprehensive.

Uchiha Shingen quickly found what he was looking for.

Records concerning Indra.

Because they had once lived amid turmoil and unrest, the Uchiha historical archives had inevitably suffered losses and damage. The records of their early history had long ceased to be original copies.

The accounts of Indra, the clan's founding ancestor, were less history than outright myth.

But myths were fragments of history and still held value; otherwise, they would not have been preserved here.

After carefully reading through the scroll, Uchiha Shingen returned it to the shelf and began looking through the others.

Indra's presence appeared intermittently throughout the Uchiha Clan's early history. The previous scroll merely had a more concentrated account of him.

Soon, Uchiha Shingen took out another scroll. This time, he found a seat, spread it across a table, and began searching through it slowly.

As time passed, the number of scrolls piled beside him gradually increased, though even more were returned to their shelves after being read.

In the end, Uchiha Shingen carefully compared the ones he had kept and confirmed a certain conjecture in his heart.

He put the scrolls away, returned them to the shelves, and left the library.

To outsiders, he had returned to his routine of traveling between the same three places.

At that moment, somewhere far from Leaf Village, an unwelcome guest was paying a visit.

"That's the place, right?" Uchiha Obito asked as he stared at the flat-roofed building in the distance.

"That's right, Lord Madara. That is where the Mizukage resides." As always, half of Zetsu's body was buried in the mud.

The Land of Water's climate was simply too damp. It did not affect Zetsu, but it still did not like it.

"Speaking of which, if we're recruiting members, why not bring those two brats along?"

Uchiha Obito ignored it, merely gazing out at the city before him.

Among all the countries, perhaps none embodied the meaning of "isolation" as thoroughly as the Land of Water.

As an island nation surrounded by the sea on all sides, the Land of Water's territory was not limited to one large island. It also included the islands surrounding the main island. Strictly speaking, it was an archipelagic nation.

Setting aside the surrounding islands, the main island itself had few plains and many mountains. Even on the main island, connections between different regions were not especially close. Instead, there was strong regional isolation, resulting in each area having its own distinct culture despite belonging to the same country.

This was something no mainland nation possessed.

Even in the Land of Lightning, which was covered in towering mountains and steep ridges, regional cultures differed only in details and broadly belonged to the same cultural sphere.

Only in the Land of Water could one travel a little farther, arrive somewhere else, and feel as though one had entered another country.

The Mist Hidden Village, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, lay deep within a mountain range, concealed by peaks and thick mist.

There was no trace of everyday life in this ninja village's architecture. Every structure was built primarily of brick and stone, and nearly all were cylindrical in shape. Fortress after fortress was connected by city walls, making the entire place nothing less than a colossal military stronghold.

The Mizukage was in the largest fortress among them.

"Someone's here," Zetsu suddenly said.

Without a word, Uchiha Obito used Kamui and vanished into thin air, while Zetsu sank into the ground at the same time.

Before long, a Mist Ninja squad appeared.

"Strange..." A female ninja seemed puzzled. "I definitely sensed chakra."

The Mist Ninja searched the area thoroughly, but found nothing.

"Maybe we were mistaken," another Mist Ninja said. "Besides, this is right under the Fourth's nose. Who would be bold enough to come here?"

His companions agreed.

Then they left.

What they did not know was that Yagura Karatachi, the Fourth Mizukage they saw as omnipotent, was cursing furiously in his heart.

It was not that he liked cursing people internally. He simply could not open his mouth.

He was currently in his own mental world. The Three-Tails lay beneath his feet, though unfortunately, it had already collapsed.

He was hardly in any position to mock the Three-Tails for being useless. After all, he had been brought down by the other party's genjutsu even earlier. Otherwise, he would not have ended up here.

Yagura Karatachi's mental world was an endless sea. The Three-Tails floated on its surface, but a pair of Sharingan showed in its pupils, revealing that it was under the control of Sharingan genjutsu.

"Are the people of the Leaf Village trying to start a war?" Yagura Karatachi stared at his enemy's Sharingan. He knew that thing all too well.

"I'm not from the Leaf Village." Uchiha Obito sneered.

The confidence Uchiha Shingen had crushed returned once more. He felt like he could do it again.

Sure enough, that bastard was just too strong. How could he possibly be that strong?

"That's the Sharingan, isn't it?" Though Yagura Karatachi felt utterly stifled, he did not mind gaining a little verbal advantage. "Are you that guy who uses Water Release?"