Feng's Plans for the Future

Before long, the Grand Minister, whose mediocre abilities had gotten him where he was entirely through lying low, professing loyalty, and never taking responsibility, came jogging up to Feng.

"Grand General, I'm here."

With a fawning, excited expression, the Grand Minister softly called out to Feng, who was lost in thought.

After Feng took power, he had treated the man like a decoration, ignoring him completely and dividing up all the authority in his hands.

Now, this was Feng's first formal summons and assignment for him.

It let him see hope of returning to the center of power, so naturally, he was immensely excited.

As for loyalty to the daimyo and choosing sides—was there even another side left to choose in the Tea Country?

Besides, Feng was the daimyo's husband. The two of them were family. Wasn't being loyal to the daimyo the same as siding with Feng!?

Since they were the same thing, what reason did the Grand Minister have not to pledge allegiance to Feng?

"Mm, you're here. Don't stand around. Have a seat."

At his words, Feng's unfocused eyes suddenly sharpened. Coming back to himself, he spoke calmly.

"N-No need, sir. I'll stand... I'll stand.

Grand General, regarding Konoha... what are your instructions? I'll definitely handle things according to your wishes."

The Grand Minister submitted even more quickly and thoroughly than Feng had expected.

"Mm... negotiate normally. The only requirement is that they must severely punish the people they sent to our Daimyo Palace back then."

After thinking it over, Feng gave his opinion.

Although Konoha was the side seeking their help now, the Tea Country was small and weak. If they angered Konoha too much, Konoha could wipe out the Tea Country with a casual gesture. That would not be worth it.

Therefore, despite thinking of many things he wanted, Feng made no demands when facing the powerful Konoha.

"Of course, we should still fight for benefits. You're the Grand Minister, so use your own judgment on the specifics.

If you can get it... have them provide a copy of the White Fang of Konoha's swordsmanship inheritance."

Feng suddenly added.

He had suddenly realized that if he made no demands at all, the other side might instead think he had a guilty conscience.

And Konoha would never give him the truly valuable things he wanted, while he was not particularly interested in the things they were willing to give.

After some thought, the White Fang of Konoha's swordsmanship inheritance was the best choice.

The Tea Country had no ninja base of its own. If they asked for things related to ninjutsu, they would have to explain their purpose to the Land of Fire—after all, they had always been the Land of Fire's little brother—and they would also have to guard against wandering ninjas coveting them.

But White Fang's swordsmanship did not come with those troubles.

The Tea Country had a Samurai Corps, so asking for swordsmanship was perfectly reasonable.

As for people coveting it, the ancient, entirely samurai Iron Country lay to the north. It had countless complete swordsmanship traditions, and White Fang's swordsmanship was no match for them.

Otherwise, either Hiruzen Sarutobi or Shimura Danzō would have long since taken White Fang Swordsmanship from Kakashi Hatake, who was little more than a walking corpse during this period, and armed themselves with it.

Instead, it had ultimately been lost with Kakashi Hatake.

The White Fang of Konoha's swordsmanship was famous not because the swordsmanship itself was particularly extraordinary, but because of the White Fang of Konoha himself.

As for Feng, he wanted White Fang's swordsmanship only as a reference. He would not blindly copy it.

It just so happened that Hiruzen Sarutobi was at his most timid during this period. It would not be difficult to squeeze a few unimportant things out of him.

Otherwise, he would not soon cause the "Hizashi Hyuga Incident."

Konoha had clearly won its war against Kumogakure, and Kumogakure's ninjas had been the ones to break faith first by kidnapping the Hyūga Clan's eldest daughter, Hinata Hyūga.

The Hyūga had merely hit a little too hard while rescuing their eldest daughter and killed the kidnapper. It had been entirely natural and justified.

Yet when Kumogakure raised a fuss, Hiruzen Sarutobi, for the so-called greater good and peace, actually did something as foolish as forcing the Hyūga Clan to hand over the real culprit who killed the kidnapper, so he could be given to Kumogakure to soothe their anger.

In the end, he directly forced Hizashi Hyuga, the twin brother of the Hyūga Clan head, to commit suicide and take his brother's place as the culprit who killed the kidnapper, handing him over to Kumogakure to pacify them.

Given that state of affairs, Feng believed Hiruzen Sarutobi would also obediently offer up White Fang's swordsmanship inheritance for the greater good.

Mitokado Homura, who had come from Konoha, was left for the Grand Minister to receive and deal with;

Sekito, the identity he used outside, was maintained by Rin Nohara, who had been revived through Impure World Reincarnation;

Karin Uzumaki and her mother, important pieces in his plans for the future, were being brought back with Uchiha Mikio's help;

In the Tea Country, the daimyo handled affairs on the surface, while in reality, most matters were handled by Left Minister Sada Hidemasa.

Of the two, the daimyo was Feng's wife, a delicate flower who had grown up starved of affection. Neither her strength nor her intelligence amounted to much, and Feng had already manipulated her into seeing him as the only closest person in the world.

Although Left Minister Sada Hidemasa was clever and shrewd, he lacked strength. After witnessing the power of Uchiha Mikio, who had been revived through Impure World Reincarnation, he would not do anything foolish before finding a way to deal with him.

Yet Feng, the one controlling all these people, should have been the busiest of all. Instead, he was currently the most leisurely.

However, Feng was not truly idle. He did not need to deal with trivial matters, but training in ninjutsu and swordsmanship still required him to spend vast amounts of time cultivating himself bitterly.

These were the foundation of increasing his strength. After all, the body he had transmigrated into had little ninja talent, and the cheat he had brought with him was not particularly powerful either.

Only by relying on his knowledge of the Naruto world from his past life, gathering every opportunity unto himself, and mastering them through relentless training could he avoid falling behind the future protagonists and villains, taking control of his own future and fate.

This was a decision he had made the moment he arrived in the Naruto world. So no matter how difficult or painful it was, he embraced it willingly.

Of course, Feng was not simply burying his head in hard study. With his poor talent, training blindly would at best make him comparable to Rock Lee in the future—a mere supporting character.

That was clearly not the future Feng wanted.

And for someone who had read thousands of novels and watched countless short videos, choosing a direction for training could not have been easier.

Take the most basic Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique, which he was currently training hard.

He had practiced it for more than half a year and was immensely proficient with it. During the recent chaos in the Tea Country, he had even used bandits for actual combat practice under Uchiha Mikio's accompaniment. With this technique alone, his level was already quite good.

Then, when Uchiha Mikio prepared to teach him more advanced Fire Release, Feng refused.

Instead, he continued practicing the Fireball Jutsu, except he no longer practiced it in its original form.

Through constant fine-tuning, he gradually enhanced the Fireball Jutsu's temperature, casting speed, and travel speed.

Feng's thinking was simple: rather than waste time and effort learning other ninjutsu from scratch, he might as well thoroughly study this ninjutsu mockingly known as Card Release—Dog Awkward Cry Technique.

As long as the flames were hot enough and fast enough to hit someone, the Fireball Jutsu would inevitably become a formidable single-target ninjutsu.

Then, he only needed to learn one large-area AoE Fire Release, and he would have little else to learn in Fire Release.

Feng had already chosen that area-of-effect Fire Release: Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame, the B-rank ninjutsu Madara Uchiha had used in the anime, whose effects were even more exaggerated than an S-rank ninjutsu.

One could certainly say that was because it had been Madara Uchiha, and that Majestic Destroyer Flame would not have such effects in another person's hands.

But the fact that this ninjutsu could achieve such effects, regardless of who performed it, proved that it possessed that potential.

And that potential was precisely what Feng valued.

Furthermore, Majestic Destroyer Flame was only a B-rank ninjutsu, so it was not difficult to learn. Given his unfriendly ninja talent, it suited him better than those S-rank forbidden techniques, since he would not have to worry about being unable to learn it.

If talent was insufficient, then specialize. Rather than biting off more than he could chew, he would train only two techniques: one single-target technique and one area-of-effect technique. Combined with the naturally immense destructive power of Fire Release, that would be enough to handle most situations.

As for the fact that both Fire Release techniques were long-range skills, Feng also needed close combat, control, mobility, endurance, and recovery abilities before he could count as a qualified all-rounder.

Naturally, he had considered that as well. The swordsmanship he had consistently practiced all this time was for close combat.

There was no need to mention mobility. He had saved his final Copy Card specifically for the Flying Thunder God Technique. The only uncertainty was whether he would end up with Tobirama Senju's laggy version or Minato Namikaze's zero-frame activation version.

For endurance and recovery, he only had to wait for Karin Uzumaki and her mother to arrive. One would be used to release the Yin Nine-Tails and seal it into Feng's body, while the other would be trained as a medical ninja and paired with her constitution. That would solve everything.

As for control, Feng's Earth attribute among his Fire and Earth attributes was highly suitable. However, before completing his Fire Release training, Feng would only dabble in Earth Release. The detailed training plan for it was scheduled much later.

The same principle applied: biting off more than he could chew. Even if Feng wanted to become an all-rounder, he would not learn many things simultaneously or attempt things beyond his ability.

Therefore, aside from swordsmanship, where he would follow the workable methods summarized by countless netizens in his past life—first learning the good points of his predecessors, learning broadly, then combining the strengths of many schools once he was proficient to form the style best suited to himself, and finally simplifying complexity into simplicity, which would be troublesome—

For everything else, he would only study one or two ninjutsu at a time. Only after thoroughly mastering those one or two would he learn anything else.

As for the rest, he would rely entirely on cheats. The Copy Card was a cheat he had come with, while becoming a Jinchūriki was a cheat he would give himself.