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, hurried over to Feng.

"General, I'm here."

The Grand Minister called softly to Feng, who was deep in thought, his tone fawning and excited.

After Feng took power, he had treated him like a mere ornament, ignoring him completely and stripping away all the authority in his hands.

Now, this was Feng's first formal summons, and he was even being assigned a task.

It made him see hope of returning to the center of power, so naturally, he was ecstatic.

As for loyalty to the daimyo and choosing sides, were there even any other sides left to choose in Tea Country?

Besides, Feng was the daimyo's husband. They were a married couple, one family. Was being loyal to the daimyo any different from siding with Feng!?

Since they were the same thing, what reason did the Grand Minister have to stubbornly refuse Feng's offer?

"Mm, you're here. Don't stand there. Sit."

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

"N-No need. I'll stand... standing is fine.

General, what... instructions do you have regarding Konoha? I'll definitely follow your wishes."

The Grand Minister groveled even more readily and thoroughly than Feng had expected.

"Mm... negotiate according to normal procedure. The only demand is that they must severely punish the people they sent to our Daimyo Palace back then."

Feng thought for a moment before giving his opinion.

Although Konoha was the side seeking help now, Tea Country was small and weak. If Konoha was truly provoked, it could wipe Tea Country out with a casual move. That would be more trouble than it was worth.

Therefore, even though Feng had thought of many good things, he did not make any demands of powerful Konoha.

"Of course, we should still fight for some benefits. You're the Grand Minister, so use your 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 abruptly realized that if he asked for nothing at all, they might instead think he had a guilty conscience.

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

After thinking it over, the White Fang of Konoha's swordsmanship inheritance was the best choice.

Tea Country did not have its own ninja base. Asking for anything related to ninjutsu would require an explanation of its purpose—especially to the Land of Fire, since Tea Country had always been its little brother—and would also draw the attention of rogue ninjas.

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

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

As for people coveting it, the long-established all-samurai nation of Iron Country lay to the north. It had countless complete swordsmanship inheritances, and White Fang's techniques were nothing special by comparison.

Otherwise, whether it was Hiruzen Sarutobi or Shimura Danzō, they would have long since taken White Fang Swordsmanship from Kakashi Hatake, who was practically a walking corpse during this period, and used it to arm themselves.

Instead, it was ultimately lost with Kakashi Hatake.

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

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

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

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

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

The Hyūga Clan members had merely hit a little too hard while rescuing their young lady and killed the kidnapper. It had been entirely natural and justified.

Yet once Kumogakure made a fuss, Hiruzen Sarutobi, for the sake of the so-called greater good and peace, actually did something as idiotic as forcing the Hyūga Clan to hand over the real culprit who had killed the kidnapper to Kumogakure to appease their anger.

In the end, he directly drove the Hyūga Clan head's twin brother, Hizashi Hyuga, to commit suicide and take his brother's place as the killer of the kidnapper, handing him over to Kumogakure to calm their anger.

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

Mitokado Homura, who had come from Konoha, was being handled by the Grand Minister;

Sekito, Feng's identity used outside, was being maintained by Rin Nohara, who had been brought back 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 Tea Country, the daimyo handled matters on the surface, but in reality, most affairs were managed by Left Minister Sada Hidemasa.

Of the two, the daimyo was Feng's wife. She was a delicate little flower who had grown up starved of affection, lacking both strength and intelligence, and Feng had already PUA'd her into seeing him as the only person closest to her in the world.

As for Left Minister Sada Hidemasa, although he was intelligent and capable, 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, who controlled all of them and should have been the busiest, was instead the most idle person at present.

However, Feng was not truly idle. He did not need to handle trivial matters, but ninjutsu and swordsmanship training still demanded a great deal of time and hard work.

These were the foundations of growing stronger. After all, the body he had transmigrated into did not possess much 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 previous life, gathering every opportunity unto himself, and integrating them through relentless training could he avoid falling behind the future protagonists and villains, taking control of his own future and destiny.

He had made that decision 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 himself in study. With his dreadful talent, hard work alone would at best make him comparable to Rock Lee in the future, a mere supporting character.

That was clearly not the future Feng wanted.

As for the direction of his training, for someone who had read thousands of novels and watched countless short videos, it could not have been simpler.

For example, he was currently drilling the most basic Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu.

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

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

Instead, he continued practicing Fireball Jutsu, only no longer in its original form.

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

Feng's thinking was simple. Rather than spending time and effort learning other ninjutsu from scratch, he would be better off thoroughly studying this technique that had been mocked as Fire Release—the Dog Awkward Cry Technique.

As long as the flames were hot enough and fast enough to hit someone, Fireball Jutsu could definitely become an extraordinarily powerful single-target ninjutsu.

Then, he only needed to learn one large-scale AOE Fire Release technique, and he would have little else to learn in Fire Release.

Feng already had a target for 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 was Madara Uchiha, and that Majestic Destroyer Flame would not have such an effect in anyone else's hands.

But the fact that this ninjutsu could produce such an effect, no matter who cast it, proved it had 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. At least he would not need to worry about being unable to learn it.

If talent was lacking, then specialize. Rather than biting off more than he could chew, he would only train two: one single-target technique and one area-of-effect technique. Combined with the fact that Fire Release was already highly destructive, that would be enough for most situations.

As for the fact that both Fire Release techniques were long-range skills, Feng would still need close combat, control, mobility, endurance, and recovery abilities before he could be considered a qualified all-rounder.

Naturally, he had considered that as well. The swordsmanship he had persistently trained all along was for close combat.

There was no need to mention mobility. His final Copy Card had been reserved specifically for the Flying Thunder God Technique. The only uncertainty was whether he would ultimately get Tobirama Senju's laggy version or Minato Namikaze's instant-cast version.

As for endurance and recovery, he only needed to wait for Karin Uzumaki and her mother to arrive. One would be used to release the Yin Nine-Tails and seal it within Feng, while the other would be trained as a medical ninja and paired with her physique. That would solve everything.

For control, Feng's Earth nature, among his Fire and Earth affinities, was highly suitable. However, before finishing his Fire Release training, he would only dabble in Earth Release. The detailed training plan had been placed far down the line.

As he had said, he could not bite off more than he could chew. Even if Feng wanted to become an all-rounder, he would not learn too many things at once or attempt anything beyond his abilities.

Therefore, aside from swordsmanship, for which his future training plan would follow the viable methods summarized by countless netizens in his previous life—first learning the good parts from those before him, learning widely, then drawing on the strengths of many schools once he became proficient to create what suited him best, and finally simplifying complexity into simplicity—an extremely troublesome process,

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

As for the rest, he would rely entirely on cheats. Copy Cards were the cheat he came with, while becoming a Jinchūriki was a cheat he would give himself.