Ye's Thousand-Layer Stratagems

Therefore, the Hokage Building could only remain silent.

It could only pretend it had seen nothing.

It could only classify this as "young people's energetic street sparring."

This bitter pill, Hiruzen Sarutobi had to swallow hard whether he liked it or not.

As for the Uchiha Police Force, they were all seasoned veterans.

Naturally, they also caught the strange silence coming from the Hokage Building.

If the Hokage wasn't in a rush to order arrests, why on earth should the Uchiha be in a rush to arrest their own clan's genius?

Thus came the scene Ye had just witnessed.

The Security Force simply went through the motions at a leisurely pace.

Making a preclusive show of wandering around the street to deal with the reports from local merchants, they considered the matter brushed off.

Having figured out this angle, Ye felt quite pleased inside.

The grand Third Hokage was being firmly manipulated by a seven-year-old brat.

This was the beauty of political maneuvering.

As long as he courted death crazily within this safe bottom line, the Konoha leadership could do not a single thing to him.

The Uchiha clan's annihilation night a few years from now?

As long as he harvested Guard-Break Points fast enough, by the time that arrived, it wasn't certain who would annihilate whom.

Oblivious to the truth, Obito was still passionately denouncing that pervert.

He patted his chest with lingering fear, looking at Ye with eyes full of relief.

"Good thing you left fast and came straight back to the compound."

"If you'd been wandering on the street just now and ran into that lunatic with a brick, who knows, both of us might have ended up in trouble too!"

Obito gritted his teeth and swung his fist, his expression burning with righteous indignation.

"Don't let me run into that bastard! If I run into him, I'll definitely hit him with a Fire Release!"

"Such scum and dregs are a disgrace to Konoha! The ANBU should be dispatched to arrest him and throw him into the Torture and Interrogation Force!"

The more Obito talked, the more worked up he got, his fists clenching with a cracking sound.

"Who does he think he is, chasing people with a brick on the streets of Konoha!"

"This is completely psychological distortion, throwing away even a ninja's decency! Don't you think so, Ye?"

Ye looked at Obito's righteous indignation and nodded in agreement.

"You're right, it really is quite perverted."

While speaking, Ye felt that keeping his hands in his pockets for so long was getting a bit tiring.

He casually shrugged his shoulders to adjust his stance.

At the exact moment his shoulder dropped.

Because that red brick was digging uncomfortably into his ninja tool pouch.

Ye had simply pulled it out when he entered the front gate earlier and casually wedged it under his left armpit.

Now, with the movement of his shoulder, the clamping force suddenly loosened.

The support of friction vanished entirely.

That angular, rough-surfaced special-grade construction red brick.

Lost its restraint entirely and slid down the inside of Ye's trench coat.

Clack!

A dull yet crisp collision sound echoed between the two of them.

The red brick happened to land half an inch directly in front of Obito's toes.

The hard bluestone pavement was instantly smashed by this hefty brick, creating a glaring chipped spot.

A few tiny rock fragments flew up, bouncing onto Obito's shoes.

Yet the red brick didn't even chip a corner, lying intact and exceptionally quiet on the ground.

Sharp-angled.

Rough-surfaced.

Stained with dust and mud.

A gentle breeze blew past.

Before the main gates of the Uchiha compound, dead silence fell.

Obito's mouth, which had just opened to continue cursing the "brick-wielding thug," completely froze.

The words he wanted to say stuck in his throat, producing a strange "cluck" sound.

His mouth maintained an open posture large enough to stuff an entire rice ball.

Obito maintained that righteously indignant pose, extremely laboriously, inch by inch, lowering his head.

His gaze locked tightly onto the special-grade construction red brick right before his toes.

Red brick.

Special-grade construction use.

Rough surface.

Carrying the dust from running.

How many people in the history of Konoha could possibly carry such an outrageously absurd building material on them and even wedge it under their armpit?

Obito's Adam's apple rolled violently, swallowing a huge gulp of saliva.

His gaze inched upward from that brick.

Past Ye's trouser legs.

Past the open hem of Ye's trench coat.

Finally, it locked dead onto Ye's face, which wore a benign, harmless smile.

Ye showed not a shred of panic.

He still maintained his pose with both hands in his pockets, tilting his head slightly as he looked at Obito and flashed a sunny smile.

As the wind blew past, Obito achieved sudden enlightenment!

Inside Obito's not-so-spacious brain, he actually deduced everything in an instant!

Obito's pupils contracted violently, his entire body frozen as if hit by a binding jutsu, his breathing even stopping.

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from Obito Uchiha,+999!!!]

Obito's brain completely crashed.

What had he just cursed?

A deranged psychopath?

A psychologically warped pervert?

A bastard who threw away his ninja decency?

Scum, dregs, and a disgrace to Konoha?

The color drained entirely from Obito's face in an instant.

His legs began to tremble uncontrollably, and his body instinctively took half a step back.

Seeing the terrified expression on Obito's face, as if he were about to wet himself, Ye felt even more pleased.

He leisurely bent down and reached out to pick up the undamaged red brick.

Amidst Obito's petrified gaze, he weighed it in his hand twice.

Then very naturally blew the dust off the top.

"Obito."

Ye raised his head, blinking at Obito, his voice as gentle as a spring breeze.

"What was it you said earlier... about using Fire Release to burn who again?"

Obito's knees went weak, and with a dull thud, he dropped straight to his knees on the cracked bluestone pavement.

The dull sound of kneecaps striking the stone echoed down the quiet main path of the compound.

Ye didn't continue pressing him.

He firmly wedged that flawless red brick back under his left armpit and flashed the kneeling Obito the last sincere smile of the day.

"Go home early, see you tomorrow."

Ye turned around, hands in his pockets, and strolled away into the dusk.

His back was crisp and decisive, leaving his achievements hidden in anonymity.

Behind him, Obito maintained his kneeling posture, frozen stiff for a full thirty seconds.

As the evening breeze blew past, the goggles dangling crookedly on his forehead finally lost their last support and slid down to the ground with a click.

Obito didn't bother to pick them up.

He slowly shifted from a kneeling posture to a squat, wrapping his arms tightly around his head and curling himself into a ball.

He was silent for five seconds.

Then, from the deepest depths of his soul, a catastrophic, earth-shattering wail erupted.

"Damn it, that psychopath was actually Ye all along!!!"

The sound echoed through the dusk of the Uchiha compound, startling three crows perched on the roof into flight.

[Ding! Guard-Break Points from Obito Uchiha,+666!]

Walking more than twenty meters away, Ye listened to the crisp transaction chime in his mind, the corners of his mouth curling upward a few more fractions.

He happily opened the system balance interface.

The number jumped up by nearly two thousand points again.

Whatever.

With passive income, who cared about the process.

With this huge sum of money, he was definitely going to have a whale of a time drawing from the System Shop tonight.

As for that deskmate doubting his life at the clan compound's front gate, there was still plenty of time tomorrow to slowly fleece him.

Konoha's night breeze blew past, and everything was so peaceful.

The first day of school, a success.