Threats in the Shadows and Preparations

The sense of achievement and duty he felt while overlooking the village from Kazekage Rock did not last long. When Shaye returned to the quiet room atop the R&D Department, and the surroundings fell silent, fragments of the "future" buried deep within his memories began to stir like hidden undercurrents, bringing a cold warning.

Akatsuki.

Obito Uchiha.

The Fourth Shinobi World War.

Those words were like death knells from a distant future—vague, yet laden with a chilling weight. The fragmented video explanations and bits of information from his previous life were repeatedly searched, pieced together, and analyzed by his superbrain.

A mysterious organization composed of S-rank rogue ninja, dedicated to capturing all the tailed beasts;

An Uchiha hidden behind a mask, capable of manipulating space and responsible for the Nine-Tails Rebellion;

A colossal war that swept across the entire Ninja World and even summoned the dead back from the Pure Land...

None of this was baseless. Shukaku's reaction to the "Ten-Tails" confirmed the possibility that the former existed; news of Konoha's Nine-Tails Rebellion had long spread throughout the Ninja World, and its strangeness far surpassed any ordinary natural or man-made disaster; as for ninja wars, they were a cycle that erupted every decade or so. Only this time, the next one might be even more brutal and bizarre.

Shaye's fingers tapped unconsciously against the tabletop, his gaze sharp as a blade.

The prosperity and peace before him were like a crystal garden beneath the sunlight—beautiful, yet fragile. The forces hidden in the shadows of the Ninja World would never simply watch the Land of Wind rise so smoothly. Sunagakure's wealth, technology, and even Shukaku, that "free" tailed beast, could all become targets of their greed.

"I absolutely cannot entrust the village's future to the enemy's mercy or slowness," Shaye muttered,