A Village's Shadow Wagging Its Tail Before Foreign Envoys

Shisui Uchiha was not seriously injured, and his strength had already recovered. Hiruzen Sarutobi did not wait any longer and directly asked about what had happened to him before.

Before Shisui Uchiha disappeared, he had been carrying out a mission. Because it involved the Rain Village, he had been sent there.

In the end, the mission was completed, but he never returned.

When he heard Hiruzen Sarutobi's question, Shisui Uchiha's eyes became somewhat vacant, as though he were recalling that experience again. In truth, he simply did not know how to explain it.

The mission had gone smoothly at first, but after it was completed, the client suddenly revealed a different face.

Shisui Uchiha had sensed the danger and was about to act when someone ambushed him from behind. Until he regained consciousness not long ago, he knew nothing else.

Essentially, Shisui Uchiha had provided no useful information.

However, Uchiha Yansheng sharply noticed that Shisui Uchiha's other eye had lost most of its ocular power.

Quietly committing that key detail to memory, Uchiha Yansheng began to analyze what had happened.

"Looks like Black Zetsu ambushed you."

"I mentioned before that Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan..."

Hearing the name Rinnegan, Hiruzen Sarutobi could not help but ask, "The Rinnegan? Are those the eyes of the legendary Sage of Six Paths?"

Uchiha Yansheng was interrupted, but he did not mind. Instead, he added meaningfully, "Didn't I tell you? Looks like I didn't..."

"Don't mind it. When you see too much of the future, you inevitably confuse it with reality."

"This can be considered one of the costs of my ability."

"Let me continue. After Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan, he summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from the moon. Using the flesh he bit off the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, along with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, he cultivated some White Zetsu."

"As for Black Zetsu, Madara Uchiha created him with Yin–Yang Release before his death."

"The legendary Sage of Six Paths created the nine tailed beasts with Yin–Yang Release. The two should be roughly similar."

"Black Zetsu is not strong in battle, but if he launches a sneak attack, he can seize someone's body in an instant."

"But he rarely does that normally. There should be some limitation on his strength."

"..."

Uchiha Yansheng mixed truth with falsehood. Other than the matter of Kaguya Otsutsuki, almost everything he said was true.

For now, he had to appear completely unaware of Black Zetsu's true origins. Otherwise, that fellow might decide to do something drastic to him.

An even worse possibility was that Black Zetsu would hide until Uchiha Yansheng died of old age.

Using Danzo Shimura as an excuse, Uchiha Yansheng asked Hiruzen Sarutobi for permission to read the Book of Seals.

Uchiha Yansheng had originally thought he would be refused, but for some unknown reason, Hiruzen Sarutobi actually agreed.

There was probably some scheme behind it.

But Uchiha Yansheng did not care. Even if the forbidden techniques in the Book of Seals had been tampered with, he should be able to spot something with his talent.

After memorizing the Flying Thunder God Technique and the Impure World Reincarnation, Uchiha Yansheng returned the Book of Seals.

However, when he returned it, Hiruzen Sarutobi mentioned that the Cloud Village would soon send people to Konoha to sign an alliance treaty, and that he needed to borrow people from the Uchiha Clan to maintain order.

Upon hearing the name Cloud Village and considering the current timing, Uchiha Yansheng immediately recalled a relatively important event from the plot.

The kidnapping of Hinata Hyuga.

In the original plot, when Hinata Hyuga was kidnapped by the Cloud Envoy Delegation, the only loss was Hizashi Hyuga, the scapegoat. It also highlighted Hiruzen Sarutobi's weakness.

"No problem. I'll arrange for people to patrol when the time comes."

"Also, give me a forehead protector. I've had nothing to do lately, so I'll help you deal with a little trouble."

Uchiha Yansheng agreed readily, but this made Hiruzen Sarutobi hesitate.

After hesitating for a long while, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally voiced the doubts in his heart.

"Yansheng... have you seen some future events again?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi asked that question with considerable conflict. He had already roughly guessed something, but he was unwilling to confirm it.

Uchiha Yansheng rolled his eyes at him and said:

"Yeah. I saw a village's Shadow wagging his tail and begging before a foreign envoy delegation. In the end, he even handed over the corpse of the younger brother of the head of the village's second-largest clan as a scapegoat!"

"If I ever did something that spineless, I'd be too ashamed to keep living."

Hearing Uchiha Yansheng's completely undisguised mockery, Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression turned ugly.

His expression was not ugly because he was angry at Uchiha Yansheng's words, but because he was angry that he had truly become that sort of person.

Although Uchiha Yansheng had spoken vaguely, the foreign country he meant was clearly the Cloud Village, and the younger brother of the head of the second-largest clan...

In Konoha Village, aside from the Hyuga Clan, what other clan head had a younger brother who could be used as a scapegoat?

Clearly, the Cloud Village's alliance treaty this time was fake. Their true goal was to seize the Hyuga Clan's Kekkei Genkai.

What angered Hiruzen Sarutobi even more was that if signs truly emerged that a war with the Cloud Village might break out, he really might compromise for the sake of peace.

"Yansheng, I'm entrusting this matter to you. You must not let that situation happen!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's words carried a trace of pleading.

Uchiha Yansheng ignored him and turned to leave the Hokage's office.

Perfect. The project to clone Byakugan could move on to its next stage.

Hinata Hyuga's cells should be purer. He could compare the differences between the two and optimize the process further.

If he was lucky, he might even be able to produce a few pairs of Tenseigan.

Although the Tenseigan seemed weaker than the Rinnegan based on its displayed power, they should still be existences of the same level. It might prove somewhat useful.

After making preparations to clone Byakugan again, Uchiha Yansheng began studying the Impure World Reincarnation.

This ninjutsu was not particularly difficult for Uchiha Yansheng. He was not planning to improve it anyway; it would be enough if he could use it to the extent Tobirama Senju had.

After confirming that he had basically mastered it, Uchiha Yansheng used two death-row prisoners to prove that he had mastered this forbidden technique, then began another experiment.

He used the clones in the Impure World Reincarnation laboratory to determine the boundary between soul and body.

After seven or eight consecutive attempts, Uchiha Yansheng reached his final conclusion.

First, White Zetsu had no souls, or rather, their souls no longer existed. Naturally, they could not be summoned through the Impure World Reincarnation.

Then there were the clones. No matter the degree of cloning, as long as a clone created by him possessed a brain, it possessed a soul.

But the quality of such souls was very low, basically no different from insects. The bodies he had cloned as backups were much the same.

As for those artificial humans, their souls were relatively complete, somewhat similar to those of beasts.

The fact that clones did not possess true souls was good news.

After all, in the Ninja World, the only recorded method capable of creating life seemed to be Yin–Yang Release.

Finally, there were the Byakugan he had cloned separately. Uchiha Yansheng tried using the Impure World Reincarnation on them, and the result was naturally a failure.

It seemed that cloning a Mangekyo Sharingan could not be done by cloning the eyes alone. Some other things were needed as well.