Orochimaru’s situation was absurd no matter how Hikaru looked at it.

In Hikaru’s eyes, what the man was doing was no different from courting death in broad daylight.

But when someone was determined to throw his life away, no one could stop him.

And more importantly—

this matter brought Hikaru enormous benefits.

So whether Orochimaru was truly behind it or not, Hikaru had already made up his mind.

In the end, the blame had to be nailed to Orochimaru completely.

There could be no room left for him to turn things around.

An Orochimaru who remained in Konoha was not a good Orochimaru.

Only an Orochimaru who had been driven out of Konoha was a good Orochimaru—

the kind that perfectly served Hikaru’s interests.

"Looks like I’ll have to put in some work myself too."

After some thought, Hikaru decided he needed to push things harder.

And when the time came, if he had to personally forge a few pieces of evidence, he would not hesitate.

Strictly speaking, this kind of filthy work didn’t require Hikaru to get his own hands dirty.

With his current status, he could easily order a dozen ambitious subordinates to handle it for him.

But Hikaru had always believed that some kinds of dirty work were best done personally.

It had nothing to do with trust.

It was simply that the fewer people who knew, the lower the chance of exposure.

Every extra person meant another layer of risk.

Hikaru remembered that President Frank had understood that principle perfectly.

At that man’s level, dealing with an enemy only required a few words, and others would gladly do the rest.

But he had never liked using other people’s hands to handle sensitive matters.

Because he understood too well how dangerous some truths could be.

Hikaru felt the same way.

The Hokage could not afford scandal.

And since Hikaru’s goal was the Hokage’s seat, he could not allow any stain to cling to him.

The price of exposure was far too great.

And since he himself was already strong enough, there was even less reason to have someone else do the work.

To put it bluntly, the people he might assign to the task probably weren’t even as capable as he was.

In that case, why bother?

Especially since Hikaru had come up through ANBU.

Trying to find someone more professional than him in this kind of work was no easy matter.

Once Orochimaru’s matter had been arranged, the rest was just execution and manipulation.

That part no longer required Hikaru’s direct attention.

After receiving his orders, Saya would naturally turn around and discuss them with Ayame.

As Hikaru’s private secretary, Saya had set one rule for herself from the start—

a private secretary would never directly interact with field operatives.

That rule had been her own decision.

And Hikaru’s shadow clone had already briefed him on it in detail.

While he had been away from Konoha, quite a few interesting things had also happened inside the village.

For example, within ANBU, as the two-secretariat system continued to expand, both secretariats had begun to grow in staff as well.

And in order to prevent either secretariat from becoming too powerful, Hikaru had already started considering stronger countermeasures.

What he had not expected was that before he could take action himself, Saya and Ayame had already quietly come up with a set of proposals of their own.

That proposal mapped out the responsibilities of the two secretariats in much greater detail and marked every overlapping or ambiguous area.

When it came to careful, meticulous work, men really did lose to women sometimes.

And Hikaru also felt that, at least on his level, he was more suited to strategic decisions than tactical ones.

After all, the things he knew were decades ahead of this era.

What he needed to do was guide others on what direction to go.

Not personally decide every tiny step on the road itself.

Of course, he still had not truly reached the point where he could let go completely, so there were still many things he had to keep under his own control.

But thankfully, as his position rose, more talented people were appearing beneath him.

That meant he could begin shifting more of his energy elsewhere.

Other than the continued expansion of the two secretariats, the other administrative departments had also progressed well.

The Political Affairs Division was steadily growing in manpower too.

Even if they did not strictly need that many people yet, it still counted as preparation for the future.

And beyond that, the rotation and leave system for the ANBU had finally been worked out as well.

Originally, Hikaru had assigned that task to the secretariats.

But later, the secretariats noticed that Political Affairs still had a fair number of people who were relatively underworked.

So after discussing it together, Saya and Ayame approved Hikaru’s proposal and handed the task over to them.

And those people, during what amounted to a trial run, had actually done a very respectable job.

It could be said that every department within ANBU was thriving—

except the operational divisions.

Because of manpower shortages, expanding the action units was far from easy.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news.

The Third Brigade—Hikaru’s old brigade, the one he himself had led for several months—had finally completed its basic expansion.

True, a number of its squads still weren’t fully staffed.

But ever since Hikaru had once carried out missions with only Kakashi at his side, several highly capable squad leaders no longer felt compelled to fill every team slot.

Still, under Kakashi’s leadership, the Third Brigade as a whole had been performing excellently.

As for the other two brigades, though they too were moving steadily toward their assigned targets, their progress was much slower.

Outside of ANBU, the only other thing Hikaru still paid some attention to was the Police Force.

After Hikaru left Konoha, more Senju members had gradually entered the department under arrangements made through Ayame and Senju Shoma.

Their addition had also served as good publicity for that one squad.

Combined with the disciplinary code Saya had drafted, that squad had genuinely begun to improve the Police Force’s image among Konoha’s civilians.

Of course, that was only one squad.

The others were still a disaster.

And as conflict within the Police Force deepened, the divisions inside the Uchiha clan itself had become even sharper.

Uchiha Shin’s days were not exactly easy right now.

Still, it looked like he too was quietly preparing something.

"If necessary, I’ll have ANBU shadow them."

Hikaru thought about it silently.

He had already made one thing very clear to Uchiha Shin:

sometimes, once you chose a road, you had to be willing to kill.

No matter how reluctant you were.

At that point, you had already lost the luxury of hesitation.

Better their death than your destruction.

Shin understood that perfectly.

That was why Hikaru was certain the old man would eventually act.

He simply hadn’t moved yet.

"Still, right now really is the perfect moment," Hikaru mused. "After all, Orochimaru stirred up exactly this kind of situation."

If Uchiha Shin truly intended to move, then now was absolutely the best chance he would ever get.

At a time like this, if someone inside the clan suddenly vanished, the blame could easily be dumped onto Orochimaru’s head.

It would be almost too convenient.

If he failed to seize a chance like that, it would be hard to justify calling himself capable.

Still, Uchiha Shin was Uchiha.

At most, Hikaru would only give hints.

How Shin acted on them was his own problem.

Hikaru only cared about the result.

If the man couldn’t even handle something this simple, then he had no right to keep walking beside Hikaru.

Not even if he happened to have a very capable granddaughter.

That much, at least, would not change.

...

The Police Force itself did not matter all that much to Hikaru.

At least, not until it had regained the authority it was supposed to possess.

As things stood, this department—one passed down through the clan yet stripped of much of its actual power—was not enough to interest him deeply.

True, giving aid in their lowest hour would win more loyalty.

But at Hikaru’s current position, he was no longer limited to the idea of rebuilding ruins from scratch.

If necessary, he could always tear the whole thing down and rebuild it himself.

That way the entire department would answer to him first, and then he could distribute the spoils according to his own plans.

Would that be more time-consuming and exhausting?

Naturally.

But that was precisely why Hikaru had chosen to work with Uchiha Shin for now instead of simply cultivating another department and waiting to absorb the Police Force after the Uchiha collapsed.

There were still talents within the Uchiha.

And Hikaru had already recruited a small number of them.

That alone was enough reason to keep cooperating.

Once Orochimaru’s matter had been arranged, Hikaru more or less had nothing urgent left on his plate.

There was certainly no shortage of work in ANBU.

But most of it was petty trivia.

With the two secretariats in place, those matters no longer posed any real burden to him.

And after such matters were handled, summaries would still be submitted for Hikaru to review whenever he liked.

As for the truly important issues, the secretariats had no authority to decide them directly.

That meant Hikaru only needed to focus on those.

He rose from his chair, stretched lazily, and then left the office, heading straight toward the prison.

Quite a lot of time had passed.

Just because he had not dealt with it yet did not mean he had forgotten.

There was still one very interesting little brat waiting in that prison.

"Come to think of it, the people in the lab have taken plenty of his blood already."

Hikaru vaguely remembered it.

"They just never got any useful results."

ANBU had its own laboratory.

But the standard of the people in that lab had honestly disappointed Hikaru.

So far, he had not seen a single research breakthrough from them worth mentioning.

Perhaps they had achieved something.

But if so, then it had likely been delivered straight into the Third Hokage’s hands.

If it was the first possibility, then it meant those people were useless, and Hikaru would throw them out the moment he found suitable replacements.

If it was the second, then at least they possessed some ability.

In that case, Hikaru was willing to give them a little more time to understand reality.

If they still failed to recognize who truly controlled ANBU now, then Hikaru would throw them out anyway.

And if necessary, he wouldn’t mind making an example of one of them.

His hands were already drenched in blood.

A little more would make no difference.

He moved quickly.

Along the way, he exchanged nods and small smiles with several passing ANBU before reaching the prison.

What surprised him a little was that the guards posted there were two familiar faces.

"Shisui? Tenzo?"

Hikaru looked at the two boys, both around the same age, and his expression turned slightly strange.

Shisui had already been promoted out of the reserve unit by Kakashi.

Though the boy was only around ten years old, his potential had earned Kakashi’s full praise.

According to Kakashi, the kid’s speed was absurd, and his understanding and control of the Body Flicker Technique was no worse than Hikaru’s own.

For the first time in his life, Hikaru had somehow become the benchmark adults used when talking about a genius child.

The whole thing felt a little ridiculous.

But then again, Hikaru was well aware that Shisui excelled at Body Flicker.

In the future, the boy would use it to a degree so outrageous it almost looked like space-time ninjutsu.

His Body Flicker could leave behind multiple afterimages, yet opponents would have no way of telling which one was real.

Because every single afterimage could inflict real damage.

Against that kind of timing gap—mere hundredths of a second—even the Sharingan might not keep up.

So when comparing himself to Shisui in that field, Hikaru didn’t think highly of himself at all.

If someone was good, they were good.

If they weren’t, they weren’t.

Hikaru had no intention of forcing the comparison.

Still, Shisui had only shown talent so far.

In Hikaru’s view, his true power still lay ahead.

The Mangekyō Sharingan—

without Eternal Mangekyō, that was the peak of Uchiha power.

Shisui had no brother.

That likely meant Mangekyō would be his limit.

Of course, that didn’t mean there was no way past the problem.

After all, Hikaru was a Senju.

But if Shisui wanted Hikaru to do anything for him one day, then first he would have to prove he was worth it.

As for Tenzo, that was another interesting case.

Ever since Hikaru had forcibly shoved him into ANBU, the boy had more or less been under Kakashi’s supervision the entire time.

Hikaru had never actively monitored Tenzo’s condition, but he knew enough to understand the boy had changed quite a bit.

Especially after Hikaru had told Kakashi some of Tenzo’s secrets—

like the fact that he was the only surviving human test subject, and that Danzo had once brainwashed him—

Kakashi had immediately understood how he ought to handle him.

And he had done it very well.

After more than half a year of guidance, Tenzo had already improved considerably.

Even so, just to be safe, Kakashi had still deliberately placed him in the same squad as Shisui.

What that arrangement meant was obvious enough.

"Minister."

The two boys dropped to one knee the moment they saw Hikaru, their heads lowered deeply.

"Up," Hikaru said casually, motioning for them to stand. "Why are the two of you here? Shouldn’t you be with Kakashi?"

"Minister, it’s like this."

Shisui looked up first and explained, "minister White Fang caught a rat. That rat seems to know quite a few things, so before the Torture and Interrogation Unit arrives, minister Kakashi intended to..."

"I see."

Hikaru nodded at once.

Kakashi’s dedication and enthusiasm for mission work were already famous throughout ANBU.

And ever since Hikaru had given him a few pointers, Kakashi had become the model ANBU officer.

While working, he was serious, reliable, and ambitious.

When off duty, he would actively contact his old classmates and friends, spend time with them, and genuinely enjoy his rest.

It could be said he was becoming a model for every ANBU shinobi:

work and life should remain separate,

and the emotions brought by the job should not spill into your normal life.

A lot of ANBU members had started trying to imitate him.

Unfortunately, most of them didn’t actually have as many old friends as Kakashi did.

"I’ll go take a look. You two stay here."

Hikaru turned the matter over once in his head, then waved a hand and walked straight into the prison.

Originally, he had only intended to take a look at Hidan and then release him.

Yes—

release him.

There was no point keeping the brat locked up anymore.

After all, the secret behind Hidan’s future ability had already been fully explained by Tsugaya Hiroshi before the man had died—courtesy of Hikaru’s manipulation.

But releasing him didn’t mean letting him go.

At least not for now.

Hikaru had no intention of setting him free outright.

He still possessed the Rebirth Transfer Technique he had extorted from Chiyo.

And no matter how he thought about it, Hidan was the most suitable person imaginable to serve as the jutsu’s user.

After all, the boy practically possessed inexhaustible life force.

With him around, a great many small future problems could be solved with ease.

Hikaru certainly could resurrect others through Yang Release.

But every time, he first had to extract a sufficient amount of life force in advance.

And on top of that, he had to ensure the person he wanted to revive still retained a flicker of life.

Otherwise, it would all be pointless.

So what possible reason would Hikaru have not to keep under control someone who could provide limitless vitality and remain under his command?

As for the fact that Hidan was originally supposed to become a member of Akatsuki in the future?

So what?

Minato Namikaze was alive now.

Naruto no longer even had the Nine-Tails.

Ao had died, and even his Byakugan had been taken.

The whole world had already been turned upside down by Hikaru’s interference.

Why would he still care about the original fate of one future Akatsuki member?

"Still, the Rebirth Transfer Technique has to be put on the schedule soon.

"What a waste...

"If only Orochimaru were on my side..."

Hikaru shook his head lightly.

By the time he stepped into the cell block, he found Kakashi with one hand wrapped tightly around a Root shinobi’s throat.

...

Inside the Uchiha clan compound, Uchiha Shin sat together with several older members of the clan.

Among the group, only Shin himself remained calm, slowly drinking tea.

The others all wore dark, troubled expressions.

And this sort of gathering—

or rather, this sort of mood—

had not appeared for the first time.

These people had always wanted to change the Uchiha’s current position.

They wanted to reclaim what should belong to them through peaceful means.

But none of them had ever imagined things would escalate this far.

Not to the point of openly turning their blades inward against their own clan.

Now, after long months of buildup and after all the changes he had made within the second police squad, Uchiha Shin’s confrontation with Uchiha Fugaku had reached a peak.

The winds within the clan had already begun to shift slightly.

Even some important clan meetings had started quietly excluding them.

That was not a result they could accept.

Nor one they could bear.

"Third Elder, I still don’t know what exactly you hoped to achieve by making this decision."

After a long silence, one of the older Uchiha finally spoke in a low voice.

"But if things continue like this, we’ll fall into an unimaginably bad position.

"And if that happens, we’ll have no way to continue changing the clan."

"Yes, Third Elder."

Another old Uchiha sighed and shook his head.

"Speaking only for myself, I support what you’ve done.

"After all, everyone can see how encouraging the changes in the second squad have been.

"But the Clan Head has already abandoned his neutrality.

"If this goes on..."

"Clan Head has abandoned neutrality and is now siding with the First Elder’s faction?"

Before the man could finish, Uchiha Shin cut him off sharply.

"Then should we understand that from the very beginning, the Clan Head never accepted our views at all?

"That he was always standing with the First Elder’s side?

"That in truth, he also desires to take back everything through extreme means?"

Shin’s words were forceful and precise.

The moment they landed, the room fell silent again.

Because no one present could answer him.

Was it possible—

that Uchiha Shin’s actions had only made Fugaku feel his authority was being challenged?

And that Fugaku had therefore shifted his hostility fully onto Shin?

If so, then the interpretation made sense.

But it would also do tremendous damage to Fugaku’s standing.

A clan head who sacrificed the clan’s interests for his own authority was no good clan head at all.

These elders all wanted the clan to coexist peacefully with the village.

None of them had ever wanted to oppose their own leader.

Looking at these "comrades" of his, all of whom had fallen silent, Shin let out a disappointed sigh.

At that moment, he felt more strongly than ever that Senju Hikaru might really understand the Uchiha better than anyone.

Perhaps the one who understood you best truly was your greatest enemy.

Of course, Senju and Uchiha were not enemies now.

But they had opposed one another for a thousand years.

The suggestions Hikaru had given him—

the seeds Hikaru had quietly planted in his heart—

all of it had already pushed Shin toward a decision.

"All right. If no one has anything left to say, then let’s leave it at that."

Shin sighed softly, and his gaze gradually turned cold.

"The peace of the clan and the stability of the village have been our lifelong goals.

"But after everything that has happened, I have reached a very clear conclusion.

"For most of the time, those two things can be unified.

"But in certain moments, they stand in direct opposition.

"Our clan has already reached a critical point.

"One wrong step, and it may be destroyed entirely.

"So, everyone—

"I hope you can understand me.

"And even if you cannot, then at least I hope you will not become dead weight."

At that point, Shin closed his eyes.

Truthfully, he never should have said these things aloud.

But facing these old comrades of his, he truly could not bring himself to remain silent.

The moment those words left his mouth, every elder who had been about to leave froze in place.

A second later, it seemed all of them had understood the same implication.

Their faces turned ugly at once.

They got up in haste and left the room, deeply unsettled.

At that moment, they likely even suspected the Third Elder had gone mad.

"You shouldn’t have said that, Father."

Uchiha Kuu looked at his father and sighed softly.

Kuu was Shin’s son, Saya’s father, and the minister of the Police Force’s second squad.

He was usually too busy to spend much time at home, so he had never personally met Hikaru.

But Shin had rarely hidden anything from him in this matter.

He could be said to know nearly everything about the plans between Uchiha Shin and Senju Hikaru.

"Though I’ve never met him, and it still amazes me that someone so young could be that deep," Kuu said respectfully, "he did come out of ANBU.

"So I suppose he’s already seen more darkness than most.

"And as a Senju, I imagine his clan spared no effort in raising him.

"But right now, I think we shouldn’t be discussing him.

"What matters is how we deal with this."

The last thing Uchiha Shin had just said was, by any reasonable standard, something that should never have been spoken aloud.

Because in a real sense, it was practically the most serious kind of leak imaginable.

He had not openly stated his plans. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He had not openly named his objective.

But no one present was a fool.

Considering everything Shin had done over the past half year, it was hard not to suspect he was preparing something dangerous.

That was why the others’ faces had turned so ugly—

because they had already imagined the worst.

And if this wasn’t dealt with immediately, if the information leaked or gave Uchiha Fugaku time to prepare, then for Uchiha Shin, it would become a disaster.

At first, even Kuu had been unable to understand why his father had chosen this path.

Especially a path involving such a dangerous agreement with a child from the Senju clan.

But Kuu was not stupid.

After hearing his father’s full explanation and analyzing Konoha’s current state for himself, he had been forced to admit one thing:

the Uchiha were already in danger.

"Handle this matter yourself."

Shin let out a long breath.

His gaze had turned completely cold.

"And soon, we move.

"This is the best opportunity we’ll ever get."

"You mean..."

Kuu paused, then suddenly realized what his father meant.

"Orochimaru’s rumors?"

"Yes."

Shin nodded, his fist tightening unconsciously.

"The current situation around Orochimaru was created by Senju Hikaru.

"His purpose is to strike at Orochimaru and weaken Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"But we can also ride the situation he created and use it for ourselves.

"And besides—

"who can really say whether that missing child wasn’t taken by Orochimaru?"

The disappearance of the clan member was something Shin had been watching closely as well.

But unfortunately, the Police Force’s investigation had uncovered nothing.

The child had simply vanished into thin air.

Under those circumstances, turning his attention toward Orochimaru was only natural.

After all, it was not the first or even second time the man had been linked to such rumors.

Yes, there were obvious political motives behind them.

But that did not mean the rumors had come from absolutely nowhere.

For all Shin knew, there really was something filthy hidden beneath it all.

Hearing that, Kuu nodded slowly.

Using Orochimaru’s name as cover really was an excellent smokescreen.

Though he, too, felt a trace of sadness at the thought of turning on members of his own clan, he also knew perfectly well that they had no way back now.

If they moved forward, there would be danger—

but after success, there would also be open road.

If they stood still, or worse, retreated, then all that awaited them was a bottomless abyss.

By now, there were few choices left.

But there were many things they still had to do.

"I understand, Father."

Kuu’s expression turned serious as well.

"I’ll take care of it properly.

"There won’t be any loose ends.

"But there are some things I still want confirmed.

"For example... that ANBU Minister..."

"You can go meet him."

Shin answered immediately.

He had no intention of objecting to that.

"As Saya’s father, it’s only natural for you to meet the man she now serves under.

"And beyond that, as one of the main participants in what’s coming, it would be better if you could read his intentions for yourself."

Shin fell silent for a moment.

If it were possible, he actually would have preferred his son never meet Senju Hikaru at all.

Even now, Hikaru had shown no obvious sign of wanting to seize direct control of the Uchiha or the Police Force.

And yet, without realizing it, he had already influenced them deeply.

Especially Shin himself.

More than anyone, he wanted to break free of that influence.

And yet the result was exactly the opposite—

he kept drifting closer and closer to Hikaru.

He didn’t want his son to repeat the same path.

But reality was merciless.

He couldn’t push Hikaru away.

He couldn’t stop this.

And more than that, he was no longer able to resist it.

Everything about what they were about to do now—

every angle, every opportunity—

was already full of Senju Hikaru’s shadow.

It could even be said that this was Hikaru using the dream in their hearts to reshape the entire Uchiha clan.

Shin shook his head lightly, no longer wishing to think about it.

All he could do now was hope for a better future—

and hope the younger generation would one day be able to break the pressure that terrifying boy had placed upon the Uchiha.

"Kuu, I’m leaving the rest to you."

Shin stared at his son, his voice low.

"I want this resolved cleanly and safely.

"Do you understand?"

"I won’t disappoint you, Father."

Kuu lowered his head and answered with absolute seriousness.

"No. It isn’t only that."

Shin’s expression turned complicated, and his tone softened.

"After we succeed...

"I hope you can keep your heart steady in the future.

"Don’t end up like me."

Having said that, Shin ignored the questioning look in his son’s eyes and simply waved him away.

Whether Kuu understood now or not, it no longer mattered.

Because within the Uchiha clan—

the hunt had already begun.

◇ One bonus Chapter will be released for every 150 Power Stones.

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