Chapter 284: Both Crazy and Stupid
"What's your take on peace? That is, for the ninja world to achieve overall peace, rather than the endless world wars between the five great nations."
Haruno Sakura suddenly raised this grand question.
Sasuke was stunned.
"That kind of thing... is impossible to achieve, isn't it?" he said, a little at a loss. He had clearly not thought much about this kind of question. "The wars and hatred between our five great nations have continued since the founding of the five great ninja villages!"
"No, it's actually possible," Sakura said, shaking her head.
She stood on the ledge of the rooftop. One more step forward and she would fall to her death. This position, which was enough to make an ordinary person's heart pound and legs go weak, was just child's play for Sakura now.
The girl walked nimbly and deftly in the dangerous zone, and continued, "For example, if a ninja as strong as Hashirama Senju or Uchiha Madara were to reappear in the world, and none of the major nations could contend with his absolute power, then the rules of the game would change because of him. If he wants peace, the great nations will not dare to lightly start a war. If he wants war, or even to destroy humanity, the great nations can only play along with him to the end."
"Are you hoping that we become such ninja, and then bring peace to the ninja world?" Sasuke frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "This kind of peace, achieved under high pressure, will rebound immediately after we die."
"Peace achieved under high pressure is also better than war," Sakura said with a light laugh. "As for a higher form of peace, I actually haven't figured out how to achieve it either."
The peace of her previous life was, to a certain extent, also deterred by the threat of mutual destruction from nuclear bombs, which would restart the Earth ONLINE. It was just a cold war, and had not formed into a hot war... Sakura didn't dare to say that her wisdom was higher than that of 6 billion people.
She finished her walk, came to Sasuke's other side, and said.
"But you also agree that, if possible, we should try to avoid war. At least, not to be the one to actively provoke a war, right!"
"That should be the case. Are you trying to say..." At this point, Sasuke knew what Sakura wanted to say.
"Your Uchiha clan is very contradictory. On the one hand, you build a city that can only be put into use after peace has been achieved, and on the other hand, you intend to start a war!" Sakura jumped down from the wall, walked to Sasuke's side, and said faintly.
If the person speaking was not Haruno Sakura, and if he had not just seen the direct evidence of the Uchiha's ill intentions, Sasuke might have thought that these words were a provocation against him.
But at this moment, he was silent. A word was stuck in his throat, but he couldn't spit it out.
Some things, he had actually been aware of for a long time, especially after entering the Anbu. He could access more information and knew more. He just hadn't been willing to think about it deeply.
He just wasn't willing to believe that the clan he was so proud of was actually just a bunch of traitors who intended to betray the village and the country.
Now that this layer of window paper had been suddenly pierced by Haruno Sakura, in front of the girl's burning gaze, Sasuke could no longer escape and had to face this problem head-on.
"That's impossible..." he said with some difficulty. "Any sane Uchiha wouldn't do such a thing!"
Sasuke took a deep breath.
"The Uchiha's family tree records the awakening of every clan member's Sharingan. From that, you can see that in the... dozen or so years before that night, the number of people who awakened the Sharingan each year was getting smaller and smaller. Clansmen with the Sharingan had become rare in the clan."
He said slowly, "In the past, during the clan's most prosperous period, there were at least three or four pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan in the clan, and there were at least dozens of clansmen with three tomoe! But... before that night, including my father, our clan had less than twenty clansmen with three tomoe, and there were not many who had awakened the Sharingan."
"The only one who could be called a top-tier combat power and had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, after Shisui-nii's suicide, was... that person who had slaughtered his own clan. If our strength hadn't declined to such an extent, how could that person have so easily killed everyone!"
"With just this low level of combat power, any sane person would not think that such strength could accomplish the act of defecting from the village, right!"
Sasuke was no longer the ignorant youth he had been.
Having been in the Anbu for so long, he was very clear about Konoha's strength!
Indeed, in terms of high-level combat power, Konoha had a gap. After the Sannin, the middle-aged and younger generations no longer had a top-tier combat power at the "Kage" level.
However, at the next level, the elite Jonin, and the level below that, the Jonin and Tokubetsu Jonin, Konoha was full of talented people!
Most of these ninja served in the Anbu, which was directly under the Hokage. The Anbu squads numbered in the top twenty were all elite teams led by elite Jonin. The members of the teams in the top fifty had to have at least Jonin-level combat power. After the number fifty, a standard execution team of one Jonin with two or three Chunin, Tsunade could form dozens of new teams in a single day!
It could be said that the Anbu had gathered almost more than half of Konoha's high-end combat power!
They were usually inconspicuous, silently carrying out their missions. Because they wore masks all year round and hid their identities, even the ninja in Konoha, if they had not been in the Anbu, would find it difficult to estimate how many of them there were and how terrifying their power was.
These people were the part of Konoha's iceberg that was below the surface.
Even at the peak of the Uchiha's prosperity, they did not have the strength to contend with the entire Konoha, let alone at that time!
"So, the people who wanted to do this kind of thing, either they had a mental problem, or they had a problem with their IQ, right?" Sakura said sarcastically.
Either they were too crazy, or they were too stupid.
Or, they were both crazy and stupid.
"Uh...!" Sasuke was suddenly stuck, but he had no way to refute.
The black-haired youth raised his head and looked at the sky.
He said, a little helplessly, "The Uchiha did indeed have the intention of betraying back then. Whether it's from the village's records, or from the narratives within our clan, it can be seen from the bits and pieces. But I always thought..."
He had once forced himself to believe that it was just the clansmen's dissatisfied complaints, that they had just thought about it in their hearts, and had not dared to put it into action. But after seeing that warehouse, some things could no longer be denied.
To store a small amount of strategic materials was a normal clan behavior. To collect a certain amount of strategic materials could still be said to be a commercial act. But for a clan that was full of resentment towards Konoha to spend a huge amount of the clan's assets to buy strategic materials sufficient to complete a war...
In addition to the other materials, the Uchiha's rebellion had, in fact, been in preparation for a long time!
No matter how Sasuke tried to spin it, he couldn't forcefully insult his own intelligence...
The black-haired youth's mind was in turmoil.
He clenched his fists.
He subconsciously wanted to refute, to find a loophole.
"It shouldn't be like this! Was there not a single clear-headed person in the clan!" Sasuke said, almost through gritted teeth, his emotions stirred. "There must be a hidden story in this!"
The black-haired youth suddenly turned around, placed his hands on Sakura's shoulders, and looked straight into her eyes. "Sakura, have you seen something about the Uchiha recently?!"
"Don't get excited," Haruno Sakura sighed.
Sakura held the youth's hands down and looked back at Sasuke. "Some things, I've only just recently come to understand a little, but I'm still not sure. So I can't tell you too much right now. I can only say that the secret hidden behind this is beyond your and my imagination..."
"The only thing I can be sure of is that in this world, the number of people who possess the Mangekyo Sharingan, apart from Shisui who committed suicide, and Uchiha Itachi, there is one other person."
"Your Uchiha clan, besides you and Uchiha Itachi, has one other survivor!"
"He is extremely strong, wears an orange mask, and hides in the darkness, weaving some kind of conspiracy... On the night of the massacre, his figure was there..."
"I have a premonition that we will face him sooner or later!"
Sasuke was too shocked to speak.
After returning to the village, the vacation was basically over.
Haruno Sakura had returned to the daily cycle of doing missions and training.
During this period, because she had been recuperating from time to time, Squad 14 had gathered less and was now only a team in name.
Yūgao was having a child, and her belly was already very obvious. Shino and Sakura had been to see her a few times. The little baby was gradually taking shape in its mother's belly. Gekkō Yūgao, with her belly, had a blissful look on her face as she stroked her abdomen. The sharpness of a swordswoman seemed to have completely disappeared. This left Shino and Sakura, who were used to Yūgao's "strong woman" temperament, very surprised.
"I never thought Yūgao would show this kind of expression..." Shino said with some emotion as he came out of Yūgao's house.
"Did you think Yūgao would still be holding a sword, her expression serious, and training every day while she's pregnant?" Haruno Sakura retorted. "By the way, Captain, when are you getting married!"
"We're already engaged, hehehe..." the Anbu squad leader said, a smug look on his face, his smile looking a little猥琐 no matter how you looked at it. "We'll get married when the time is right!"
"Are you ready for marriage?" Sakura looked at Shino's figure. He hadn't gained a few pounds. Sigh, young people are just so impetuous!
"By the way, don't you dare raise any flags..."
"You're good at everything else, but this bit of superstition, you have to change," the captain said, shaking his head. He walked in front with a light step, pulling away, and seemed to be in a very happy mood. "Remember to come and join the fun!"
"Hn, Sakura-kun, you're also about to be promoted to Jonin. Work hard! See you later!"
"See you later!"
What Shino had said about Haruno Sakura's promotion to Jonin was indeed coming soon.
In a recent high-level meeting, Tsunade had gone against all objections and had reached a resolution to use a simplified procedure to specially promote a batch of outstanding ninja to Jonin. In this batch's list, Haruno Sakura's name was conspicuously present.
The assessment for Jonin was far stricter than the Chunin assessment. In addition to requiring outstanding combat power, a Jonin was also required to possess intelligence gathering, analysis, and the ability to lead and command a small team.
After all, after becoming a Jonin, she might become a team leader.
Such an assessment would not be passed with just one or two short exams. The village would assess the ninja's mission completion over a long period of time to evaluate whether they met the standards for promotion.
The number of missions, the rank of the missions, and the quality of the mission completion would be the key.
At the same time, she also had to show her leadership ability—this was actually something Sakura was relatively lacking in. She had almost no experience in leading a team to complete a mission through teamwork.
Konoha, Hokage's Office.
"You'll have to work hard and do more missions recently," Tsunade said, handing a stack of mission briefs to Sakura, her legs crossed. "Even if we've simplified the procedures and requirements for you, the number of missions you've completed is still too small. The conditions are not met."
After all, she had only been in the Anbu for less than a year, and it had only been half a year since she had been promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin.
She had done a lot of high-level and super-high-level missions. The problem was that Konoha didn't have ranks like SS or SSS. A mission to search for Orochimaru's tracks and a mission to fight Orochimaru were of the same rank.
Normally, for a ninja in peacetime, it would take at least a year and a half to prove themselves. A situation like Kakashi's, where he had been promoted on the front lines during a great war, would not occur.
Even for Haruno Sakura, who had recently begun to make a name for herself, she could only be accommodated so much. Some hard requirements still had to be met.
"Yes, Master."
The girl took the thick stack of mission sheets, her face a little dark.
So many!
"Oh right, your training, how's the progress recently?" Tsunade asked again.
"So-so. Phase Three of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals can only be done slowly. As for the Yin Seal, I've already done a lot of the preliminary preparations for Phase Two..."
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