At night, inside a slightly dilapidated wooden cabin beyond the "Five Rings" of Konoha Village.
The glow from an oil lamp filled the entire room.
Seiki Shimaseki sat by the table, his gaze distant and unfocused. His right hand held a pen, casually scribbling across the paper.
These were writings carried over from his previous life, extremely messy. Even by standards of that world, these bizarre, unreadable characters would've been nearly illegible.
This made it so that, if anyone caught him writing like this, they'd probably think it was just absent-minded scribbling.
On the page were plans for recent and future developments. But since the future was never written in stone, his strategies needed adjustments too.
"Who would have thought I'm actually a genius," Seiki couldn't help but chuckle, thinking about what happened this evening.
He had originally set out to craft a genius image for himself to secure more resources.
It wasn't difficult.
If talent set the ceiling, hard work laid the floor. At least in Seiki's view, through effort and efficient learning methods, transforming himself into an ordinary genius was achievable.
In this world of shinobi, though, being a genius didn't always mean you were safe. Assassinations from enemy villages and internal factional struggles could cause even geniuses to perish before their prime.
From what Seiki knew, among his classmates there were actually many talented newcomers, but in original historical timelines, they failed to leave even their names behind.
While mediocrity might serve as temporary protection, the cost could be permanent ordinariness.
He had no kekkei genkai, no dojutsu, and no powerful backing. If he didn't strive to secure resources, perhaps during one mission or war, the name Seiki Shimaseki might vanish into the flow of history without leaving so much as a ripple.
Especially knowing what was coming — the Third and Fourth Great Ninja Wars — made the pressure feel all the more urgent!
Since risks couldn't be avoided entirely, Seiki preferred keeping control firmly in his own hands. At the very least, he didn't want to lose even the right to choose how he died!
On the brighter side, while these risks couldn't be avoided completely, their severity could still be adjusted.
The path he chose was leading him closer to The Third.
Regardless of The Third's reputation, he was certainly more reliable than Danzo.
Of course, simply becoming friends with Asuma didn't equate to aligning with The Third. The Third tolerated the Senju clan's disappearance and endured watching the hero's son suffer bullying — naturally he wouldn't change positions over just one of Asuma's friends.
This doesn't mean The Third was thoroughly despicable. As a politician, these were mature and reasonable actions.
Allowing the Senju clan to fully integrate into Konoha happened because he genuinely inherited Hashirama Senju's philosophy; he wanted villagers to understand that de-clanification was inevitable.
Letting Naruto suffer made it easier to manage this walking weapon of mass destruction. Such high-risk assets could indeed pose potential disasters if not controlled by leadership.
His ideas weren't wrong. What was wrong was his methods and failure to maintain proper balance.
Of course, none of that concerned Seiki much. His only task was to use Minato Namikaze as his template.
"A commoner ninja with outstanding talent, who doesn't limit himself to personal interests and willingly dedicates himself unselfishly to the village—he's truly a perfect embodiment of the Will of Fire!" Seiki couldn't help but exclaim inwardly.
"Even if there's already one Minato Namikaze, I believe The Third won't mind having another heir like Seiki Shimaseki. The more inheritors there are of the 'Will of Fire,' the more it demonstrates how correct his policies and actions have been."
As long as he could become one of The Third's chosen heirs of the "Will of Fire," he would possess absolute safety within Konoha! Although Danzo might be tolerated by The Third in some minor matters, when it came to ideals and paths, there was absolutely no way he'd ever step back.
Because that would represent a complete negation of his life and beliefs!
Therefore, from the very beginning, Seiki had never thought that Asuma's position as a friend could significantly influence The Third. What he really wanted was to use Asuma as a channel—to convey his thoughts directly to The Third.
Back when Seiki was still uncertain about his own talents, he decisively accepted this duel, precisely because winning or losing was never the main objective of this fight.
Victory would open new doors; even defeat could lead to other paths.
Naturally, though, he still hoped to win this battle if possible.
"My talent seems better than I imagined. In that case, as an ordinary genius, perhaps I should consider an even better starting point… such as…" Seiki's gaze passed beyond the window, landing on the darkened streets below, "…accidentally meeting Tsunade?"
Although due to past-life experiences, he found genjutsu more interesting, looking ahead, medical ninjutsu seemed to offer brighter prospects.
One key reason for choosing to begin his path as a medical ninja lay exactly with Tsunade herself… or rather, the legendary Shikkotsu Forest hidden behind her.
As an emotionally detached ninja, Sage Art undoubtedly represented the best way for him to strengthen himself. Not to mention, each of the Three Great Sage Arts also came with a powerful summoning beast as an added bonus.
In fact, one important reason he chose to become a medical ninja was precisely to prepare for that—Sage Chakra formed only after completely merging physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy, maintaining a precise balance where each accounted for exactly one-third. Otherwise, there would be danger of being corroded by natural forces.
This required extremely precise chakra control. That's why, even before possessing any chakra himself, he'd begun training in physical control.
As for why he specifically targeted Tsunade, the answer was simple—she was simply easier to approach than those other two candidates.
Orochimaru wasn't even worth mentioning; becoming his student might mean receiving an "affectionate" curse mark anytime.
As for Jiraiya, burdened already by the prophecy of the "Child of the Prophecy," taking on students freely was never really an option anyway—especially since he had Nagato on the outside and Minato within the village itself.
Tsunade, despite her current depression and rejection of love, was actually the most accessible target of all. Add to that the convenient bridge available straight from his class—
"Should I make contact with Shizune now?"
Seiki quickly dismissed this option without much thought. Although he was the class monitor, suddenly showing too much interest in Shizune would seem very odd.
Ideally, it would be better if Shizune approached him first on her own initiative.
"What about genjutsu then? With Kurenai as a middleman, getting close to her father might not be impossible." Seiki muttered silently to himself. For someone with no background like him, the easiest way to get his foot in the door was naturally to become a patron's protégé.
Though relying on a five-year-old little girl wasn't just shameful—it went beyond shame—he didn't have many options.
That's just how life could be—one step behind, and you're playing catch-up forever.
"No good either; being too hasty might risk ruining my reputation entirely. The best move would actually be to wait until after winning this duel and then act based on the outcome—which again brings me back to the starting point: I must defeat Asuma first."
After thinking for a moment, Seiki mockingly told himself, "Hmph, looks like I'm putting the cart before the horse here. Beating Asuma is supposed to draw attention and reduce risks—but acting recklessly might end up dragging me into more trouble."
"Besides, there's absolutely no need to go that far to beat Asuma. I just need one or two basic ninjutsu techniques combined with some psychological suggestion to do the trick."
Yawning, Seiki glanced at the paper covered in messy scribbles, pretended to shake his head helplessly, casually held the paper over the oil lamp until it burned away completely, then stretched lazily before walking toward his bed.
"I'll go get my first ninjutsu tomorrow. As for sage arts and genjutsu—those can wait until this matter concludes. I'll plan them carefully later!"
PS1: This isn't trying to whitewash the Third. In fact, from my perspective, everyone is a complex individual—a contradictory mixture of various personality traits. Using simplistic black-and-white views to judge people seems overly hasty. Just like the Third—in my eyes, he wasn't a qualified father or teacher, nor could he objectively be considered a genuinely good person. But as the shadow of a village, judging from the perspective of ordinary civilians, he should indeed qualify as a competent Kage. After all, politicians are meant to stay emotionally detached—too much sentiment can spell disaster for the entire community. In short, it will be hard to find truly evil characters in this book. As for character portrayals, I'll try my best to remain objective and fair. When I write about [White Fang's Death] later, I'll throw in a few more thoughts (that I probably shouldn't say), because I really don't believe a strong person would become so weak-willed due to mere rumors as to choose suicide—especially when his son was only six or seven years old.
PS2: Let me add one more thing—some readers might question my statement that the Third was a capable Kage, perhaps due to the fact that under his leadership, Konoha fell from its peak.
However, the fact is that when the Third took over Konoha, the First Hokage and The Second were already dead. At that time, aside from Mito Uzumaki, the village had little remarkable combat strength to speak of. All this occurred during the Second Great Ninja War. Faced with both internal instability and external threats, the Third took charge of Konoha and restored it to its former glory (at the protagonist's present time, the Third and Danzo are at their peak, the White Fang and the Sannin gained fame throughout the shinobi world, and the clan leaders have also grown up—this was truly Konoha's golden age). While it's true that Konoha later declined, if we look through history, having a period of wise leadership was already very rare indeed. Very few leaders managed to avoid mistakes as they grew old. That's why I say the Third, as a Kage, was at least qualified.
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