The Empire Is Born! The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path in Hiding!

One month later. Hidden Leaf Village, the former Hokage Building.

This building, once the symbol of the Will of Fire's highest authority, had now been completely remodeled.

On the massive Hokage Rock, the faces of the past Hokage statues had been ordered chiseled away, leaving only smooth stone walls behind.

In their place, a pure black flag hung high from the top of the building, embroidered with a scarlet blood moon. That was the totem of the Uchiha Empire.

In this short month, the shinobi world's power structure had been turned upside down. The once-lofty Five Great Ninja Villages, after losing their Kage-level leaders, were like wild dogs with their spines ripped out.

Under Yuan's utterly unreasonable, absolute suppression by force—where anyone who dared resist was directly threatened with lockdown—no one dared organize any decent counterattack.

The daimyo of the Five Great Nations had originally wanted to protest by cutting off funding. In the end, Yuan directly sent fifty Uchiha Shadow Guards, and in a single night, they chopped off the heads of the two daimyo making the most noise and hung them on the walls of their respective capitals. From then on, the daimyo behaved as obediently as grandsons and offered up all taxes and resources of their own accord.

The Uchiha Empire officially began operating, and the original five ninja villages were restructured into five provinces.

In the administrative building's conference room, Shikaku rubbed the dark circles under his eyes and looked at the mountain of documents piled on the table, letting out a long sigh. He had now been forcibly pressed by Yuan into the position of acting prime minister, responsible for coordinating the logistics of the entire empire and the daily affairs of the Hidden Leaf Province.

Across the table, Temari, the governor of the Hidden Sand Province, was flipping through a map of trade routes. After the deaths of her father and Maki, she had matured rapidly and stabilized the situation in the desert with an iron-blooded hand. Beside her, Chojuro, who had been forced to take over the Hidden Mist Province, sat trembling with fear, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

"Is Lord Yuan coming to the meeting today?" Temari closed the file and glanced at the empty black leather chair at the head of the table.

Shikaku shook his head with a wry smile. "He doesn't even have the slightest interest in glancing at the financial report. His exact words yesterday were: 'Politics? Diplomacy? None of it works as well as my fist. If there's a rebellion, just report the coordinates to me. I'll go kill them all.'"

Temari fell silent. Indeed, before a monster whose individual power was enough to tear the earth apart, any scheme or political maneuver seemed utterly laughable. As long as Yuan was still alive, this empire stitched together by violence would not collapse.

While the official center of power was overwhelmed with work, the true invisible core of power was in the Uchiha Clan Compound on the edge of Hidden Leaf.

This place had already been thoroughly expanded into an impregnable city within a city. The streets were spacious, shops lined both sides, and all Uchiha clansmen and affiliated vassals lived and worked here in peace.

Aunt Mihui was sitting in the side room of the newly built ancestral hall, holding a vermilion brush and rapidly annotating the account book. She was now not only the internal affairs manager of the Uchiha clan, but also the actual controller of the empire's logistical supplies. That was because all top-grade medicinal herbs, ninjutsu scrolls, and rare ores submitted by the provinces had to be sent first to the warehouses in the clan compound.

"Lady Mihui, the three batches of poison sent from the Hidden Sand side have been placed in storage. The graduation assessment list for the medical team has also been compiled." A Shadow Guard respectfully handed over a scroll.

Mihui did not even raise her head as she deftly stamped the document. "Send the poison to the dungeon and have those Anbu death-row prisoners test it. As for the children who graduate, send them to the First Hospital for internships."

She set down her brush, rubbed her aching neck, and looked at the children practicing Fire Release on the training ground outside the window, a gratified smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. "Yuan is responsible for fighting wars and deterring those demons and monsters. What I can do is let the clansmen live well and let the Uchiha bloodline continue to flourish."

Meanwhile, in a remote place far from the center of power.

Deep underground in the abandoned Sound Ninja Village, Sasuke sat amid a floor of venomous snake corpses. His entire body was covered in scars, and the curse mark on his neck had already been forcefully suppressed by the chakra sealing technique he had comprehended into a single black dot. He slowly opened his eyes, and the hexagram pattern in his pupils was even more complex and profound than it had been in the Valley of the End.

He looked at the black lightning-fire pulsing in his palm, an extreme chill flashing through his eyes. "Yuan... once I squeeze dry every forbidden technique Orochimaru left behind, that will be the day I go back and slaughter you."

And inside a hidden cave on an unknown mountain, Naruto was wrapped in a crimson chakra cloak, three chakra tails behind him whipping about wildly. He clenched his teeth hard and smashed the boulder in front of him with one punch. Jiraiya's death and Hidden Leaf's drastic changes lashed him like whips, driving him to crave the Nine-Tails' power like a madman.

On the surface, the empire seemed as solid as iron, but in deeper shadows, a crisis was quietly brewing.

Land of Rain, beneath a dark, damp tower.

The enormous Demonic Statue of the Outer Path lay coiled in the darkness like a corpse. On the fingers below the statue stood several illusory projections.

"That brat from Hidden Leaf has made far too much noise." Kakuzu's hoarse voice echoed through the empty underground chamber. "He destroyed the major ninja villages. Now the bounty lists on the black market are a complete mess, and our funding chain has been badly severed."

"And he took the Eight-Tails." Kisame Hoshigaki's projection had already vanished (dead at Yuan's hands), and standing in his place was Zetsu. Zetsu let out a sinister laugh. "Onoki and the Raikage were both killed. If we want to collect the tailed beasts now, there's no avoiding the mountain called Uchiha Yuan."

Pain's Deva Path looked down at everyone with those cold Rinnegan eyes. "The plan must be moved up. Our goal is true peace. The tyranny Uchiha Yuan has built through pure slaughter is the greatest cancer."

Obito wore an orange spiral mask and stood to the side, the single eye beneath the mask flickering with an extremely dangerous light.

"Everyone. Uchiha Yuan has already obtained the Eight-Tails' chakra, and with that pair of unreasonable Mangekyo Sharingan of his, he could pose a fatal threat to us at any time." Obito's voice was bone-chilling. "Suspend the mission to hunt the tailed beasts. Our top priority now—at any cost, eliminate Uchiha Yuan."

"Great, perfect chance to let that guy taste Lord Jashin's curse." Hidan's projection wildly waved his scythe.

Obito sneered and cut off the communication. In the darkness, he looked at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's nine tightly closed eyes, his fists clenching until they cracked. "Yuan, since you've become the most restless piece on the chessboard, I'll just have to remove you ahead of schedule."