Chapter 40

From being completely unable to move just now, to being able to brace himself up and stand half an hour later. After more than two hours had passed, he had basically recovered. Even more ridiculous, even his chakra had refilled along with the recovery process.

A rare smile appeared on Sasuke's face. "Mr. Susanoo, this training method really is effective."

"Same time tomorrow, then."

"I have to train with Naruto and the others in the morning."

"Let's go back first. I'm hungry."

If he kept training at this pace, by the time summer vacation ended, Sasuke's strength would probably soar to a terrifying level. "Mm."

"Let's go."

Susanoo answered.

"Ugh—"

Sasuke leaned against the corridor pillar, bent at the waist, retching again and again.

Even though he had already experienced it once, even though his constitution was much stronger than before, the body's limit was still right there. Getting used to it was useless.

Just then, Susanoo walked over wearing an apron and holding a spatula, asking with a calm face, "Sasuke, the food's ready. You really don't want to eat first?"

"You—"

"Ugh..."

The moment Sasuke opened his mouth, he wanted to vomit again.

This guy was doing it on purpose. Absolutely on purpose.

Only after a full half hour did he slowly feel better. "Gurgle—"

As soon as that awful feeling faded, his stomach immediately felt as if it had been emptied, letting out a loud rumble. In that instant, a wild craving for food surged up.

Next, eating was the top priority.

Elsewhere in Konoha.

Danzo Shimura picked up his brush and slowly wrote a single character on the blank paper—

[Root]

"My lord, the Uchiha's influence in the village is growing larger and larger."

"Shisui Uchiha's way of doing things is being widely promoted within the clan."

"Uchiha Fugaku has also begun giving Shisui authority, letting him make decisions on his own."

"The original conflicts within the clan are no longer as sharp as before."

Three masked ninja appeared behind Danzo and rapidly reported the situation. "Should we begin that plan now?"

Danzo Shimura set down the brush, his gaze lingering on the paper for a moment. "Proceed according to the plan."

"Hiruzen Sarutobi should wake up, too."

"The Uchiha... heh, nothing but a joke."

As his words fell, Danzo drew the Uchiha clan crest on the paper.

Then he slashed through it with one heavy stroke. "Understood."

The three nodded, then vanished.

Danzo placed the brush to the side and slowly walked out of the room.

It had already been a week.

A cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "Hiruzen Sarutobi, I'd like to see how much longer you can sit in that position."

"The Uchiha are arrogant to the bone. How could they possibly bow their heads to you so easily?"

Moonlight fell over Konoha's rooftops, seeming to wrap them in a layer of brightness.

But that warmth... had never been warm.

Three days later. "Deputy Minister Shisui, this is a thank-you banner sent over by Gangze."

"He said you previously led the Police Force to save his father, so he came specially to express his gratitude."

Uchiha Mulin held up that banner, a hint of awkwardness on his face.

It was not that he was jealous that Shisui had received so many banners his hands had gone soft.

The key was... there had really been too many banners delivered recently.

So many that now, when he saw the things, not a single ripple rose in his heart.

Even someone like him, who usually looked down on everyone, felt that this was ridiculous to the point of going overboard. "All right, put it there for now."

Shisui Uchiha's face was dark, his brows twisted into a knot.

Something was off.

Logically speaking, if the Uchiha showed goodwill to the village, the village should not have such an intense response.

This momentum, no matter how he looked at it, seemed like...

"Big Brother Shisui."

Uchiha Itachi pushed the door open and came in.

When Shisui looked up and saw that he was also clutching two banners, his head hurt even more. "Itachi? What is this..."

Was this not blatantly praising them to death?

And it was so blatant that they would be embarrassed to even pretend to be stupid.

It was practically like pressing a knife to their necks, then grinning and saying, "I'm just joking." "Big Brother Shisui, we need to come up with a solution quickly."

"If this continues, once public opinion is completely fired up, something will definitely happen."

"Also, the clan members patrolling outside had better be called back immediately."

"Right now, they are the easiest to be used as someone else's weapon."

Uchiha Itachi spoke much faster than usual. He was clearly anxious.

All along the way here, everything he had heard had been praise for the Uchiha.

Even people chatting by the roadside were praising them.

One had to know, the Uchiha had also been a popular topic among villagers in the past.

It was just that back then, everything they talked about was negative. "I've already given the order."

"Next, I'll personally lead people on patrol."

"Itachi, come help me too."

Shisui sighed.

With the Uchiha's past reputation, plus this current wave of enthusiasm, the contrast was absurdly huge.

No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem real.

At the same time, in the training ground of the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The clansmen whom Shisui had urgently recalled gathered together, their faces full of displeasure. "Why?"

"Why did Deputy Minister Shisui call us back? We fought for all those achievements ourselves!"

"Exactly. Didn't you see him leading people around the village? The villagers were so enthusiastic."

"Right. Why do only they get to bask in the glory, while we can't enjoy it too?"

Their voices were not quiet, and they did not avoid anyone at all.

Uchiha Sasuke, who was training nearby, heard every word clearly. "Praise us to death?"

"Such an obvious trick..."

"Tsk, did zombies chew up these people's brains?"

Sasuke shook his head helplessly.

When there were too many idiots in a clan, it really was lethal.

The clan already had radicals and conservatives to begin with.

Now another bunch of vanity seekers had popped up.

It seemed his cheap old man was going to lose a few more strands of hair again.

Hiashi Hyuga had sent word, saying that right now was the golden period for practicing Gentle Fist. Every day, Sasuke only needed to help temper their bodies with lightning. Other training could be done at home.

As for the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans, that went without saying. They had all shut themselves away to practice secret techniques.

On Shino's side, he seemed to have discovered a new species of insect and was studying how to tame it.

As for Kiba, his family's ninja hound training required the contracted ninja to accompany them, so he also had no time to come.

Rock Lee was not idle either. He had gone off with Might Guy to do some sort of youth special training.

Tenten was kept at home by her father, helping forge ninja tools, saying it was to let her get more practice.

Only Sakura Haruno was left. With everyone else not coming, she herself could not bring herself to run over alone to find Sasuke.

[Ding—Uchiha Defense Mission [Reward: Purification Technique]

[Purification Technique: Can remove curse marks, seals, curses... and all kinds of negative statuses]

Sasuke was thinking about how to arrange his next training when the system mission suddenly popped up.

The key was this reward...

This Strongest Talent System really was considerate. Everything it gave could be used somewhere.

He originally had not planned to get involved in this matter, wanting to see whether the Uchiha could endure it on their own.

But the system mission had already been thrown right in his face.

Was this not clearly saying—relying on the Uchiha alone, they could not handle it?

Thinking carefully, that was true.

With the Uchiha's temper, handling this kind of twisty, scheming matter really was not their strong suit.

At this thought, Sasuke stood up directly and strode out of the training ground.

In Uchiha Fugaku's study. "Sasuke?"

"You're saying... we're being plotted against?"

Uchiha Fugaku put down the pen in his hand and looked at his youngest son with interest.

He understood very well what situation the Uchiha were in right now.

But he wanted to hear what reasoning Sasuke could come up with. "That's right."

"Right now, the Police Force has received a pile of banners, and quite a few people in the village are stirring things up, constantly praising us Uchiha."

"Father, think about it. If at this time we Uchiha cause some kind of trouble—those praises will immediately turn into resentment, exploding outward doubled."

"On top of that, everyone is already no longer afraid of the Uchiha. Once these voices spread, they'll definitely become overwhelming."

"When the time comes, if the clan members go out and argue a few words, adding fuel to the fire... the Uchiha may be dragged straight down."

Sasuke laid out all the worst possibilities in one breath.

At first, Uchiha Fugaku listened quite casually, feeling that this kid's analysis was rather interesting.

But the more he listened, the more the smile on his face failed to hold.

He had not expected that behind something as simple as sending banners, such a huge pit was actually hidden. "Then who do you think is behind this?"

"What should we do?"

Uchiha Fugaku took a deep breath, then asked.

He figured that since Sasuke had sorted out the whole matter so clearly, then as for how to respond and who had done it, he likely had an answer in mind too. "This matter can't get away from Danzo Shimura."

"In his current situation, only by trampling the Uchiha down completely can he make a comeback."

"As for how to deal with it, to put it plainly, it isn't hard."

"First unify what everyone in the clan says, then release some special news outside."

After Sasuke finished speaking, he took out a sheet of paper and handed it over.

Uchiha Fugaku took it and looked, and the corner of his mouth could not help twitching.

This move... really was something else. "Sasuke, sometimes I really wonder what on earth is stuffed inside that little head of yours."

"I'll handle this personally."

"You focus on your training."

After Uchiha Fugaku left those words, he turned and walked out of the study.

Before long, all the ninja summoned by the Police Force had squeezed into the meeting room.

After he repeated Sasuke's analysis from beginning to end, everyone present suddenly understood.

A whole group of them had gathered together and almost wracked their brains to pieces, yet they had still failed to figure out this layer of meaning.

Those few who had been privately complaining about Shisui Uchiha earlier now had faces flushed red, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

This group of people was straightforward by nature. Once they realized they had been tricked, they slapped the table on the spot and declared—Danzo Shimura, that old thing, had to pay the price.

Before long, under Uchiha Fugaku's lead, the people of the Police Force surged out of the clan compound all at once.

—

"Grandma, I'll help you over."

"Big brother, this pile of things is too heavy. Our Police Force will help you carry it."

"Little friend, you can't play with fire. Uncle will show you a Fire Release trick."

—

One Uchiha clansman after another forcibly turned themselves into the warmest-hearted people in the village.

When the villagers thanked them, they repeated the same line over and over:

"It's only right, only right."

"It's all thanks to the wise leadership of the Third Hokage. We're merely acting according to the rules."

"This was all taught by the Third Hokage. If you want to thank someone, thank him."

"The Third Hokage said that protecting the village and serving everyone is our duty."

—

After doing this for three days.

The banners in the Hokage's office were piled up until there was almost no room left.

Of course, some of them were sent by the Uchiha.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that out of a hundred banners, ninety-eight were bought with the Uchiha's own money. "Lord Hokage, why don't we persuade the villagers to stop sending them?"

"Your office is about to be buried in banners. You can't even handle official business anymore."

An Anbu ninja spoke carefully. "Buried?"

"Doesn't that just prove that the people in our village are living well?"

"All right, leave."

Hiruzen Sarutobi waved a hand, not the slightest bit flustered.

In his heart, his favorable impression of the Uchiha rose a few more notches.

The situation made it perfectly clear—his original choice had not been wrong at all!

That fellow Danzo Shimura was narrow-minded after all...

And Danzo Shimura, who had just been cursed as "narrow-minded" in Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart, now had a face almost as black as the bottom of a pot.

Every setup he had prepared before had been ruined.

He had originally planned to use this wave of excessive praise to thoroughly stir up the Uchiha's ambition to become Hokage.

Then he would seize the chance to sever the web of interests between the Uchiha and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

But in the end, it had instead lifted Hiruzen Sarutobi straight into the heavens.

The entire plan had gone up in smoke.

Danzo Shimura, whose plan had gone completely cold, stood in the clan training ground with a gloomy expression.

Behind him, Root Organization members knelt all over the ground, not daring to breathe.

What they did next depended entirely on his decision. "Keep stirring things up."

"Since Hiruzen Sarutobi wants to stand so high, let him stand even higher."

"If we can drag him down from the stage while we're at it and make him fall flat on his face, that outcome will be about the same."

After brooding darkly for several hours, a ruthless look appeared on Danzo's face. "Understood."

The Root Organization members nodded, then vanished in a flash.