In the Hokage Tower Office, the Third Hokage held out a formal document directly in front of Shen.
"Kumo is sending envoys to apologize to the Uzumaki clan?" After reading its contents, Shen's face was filled with disbelief.
"Surprised? Even I didn't expect them to do this. It seems Konoha's strength is visible to the entire shinobi world." The Third Hokage took a sip of tea, waiting for Shen's reaction.
After a brief moment of thought, Shen understood their intentions: "Looks like there's trouble with the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki."
Putting down his teacup, the Third Hokage nodded approvingly: "Exactly. They're surrendering to the Uzumaki clan so they can resolve the issue regarding the jinchuriki."
Shen disagreed, however: "These people have a shady past. Who knows—they might try kidnapping someone during the visit."
"Then refuse Kumogakure's request? Our village needs stability right now; we cannot provoke them."
Konoha always tried to stay peaceful—avoiding fights whenever they could. This approach was particularly evident during the reign of the Third Hokage.
Not that the strategy was bad—just way too passive.
As victors in both the Second and Third Great Ninja World Wars, Konoha didn't even ask for war reparations—truly living up to its reputation as the shinobi world's so-called "great humanitarian" (read: fool).
Balance? There's no balance in weakening your own village to keep things even across the shinobi world! Even the First Hokage kept the most powerful tailed beast—the Nine-Tails—in Konoha!
Thinking about these reparations, Shen's usually cheerful face darkened, his jaw clenched in anger.
In his past life, his homeland had been dragged down through countless unjust compensations. Yet despite all that, its five-thousand-year-old civilization still stood tall atop the world.
He suddenly shot up from his seat, slammed the desk, and locked eyes with the Third Hokage: "These people have ulterior motives. If they come to Konoha, I'll use my Sharingan to find out exactly what they're planning!"
This was the first time the Third Hokage had ever seen such a grave look on Shen's face.
Still keeping the big picture in mind, he tried reasoning gently: "I called you here simply to give you a heads-up. You can mess around as usual in Konoha, but if something goes wrong this time, it could lead to war."
"Fine, I understand," Shen replied before turning and leaving the office.
Knowing his current age and position, Shen realized that it wasn't appropriate to question the current Hokage's decisions openly.
Left alone, the Third Hokage relaxed his posture.
His eyes showed no trace of worry, and his lips curled slightly upward—he appeared quite pleased.
"Fell for it, you brat?"
The current Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, seemed to have his own plans.
Back home, Shen sat in his room, going over key plot points from the original story.
"So that's their plan—hit two targets with one move, huh?" Soon enough, he figured out exactly what Kumo's plan was.
They would send envoys to apologize to the Uzumaki clan while secretly arranging personnel to cause chaos. With some luck, they might even succeed in taking away people from both sides.
"The original Konoha was a pile of crap. They let Kumogakure kidnap Kushina and Hinata, then even handed over the Hyūga Clan Head afterward to apologize—it's rotten down to its roots."
Shen saw how the Third Hokage had just acted and immediately knew—the author's plot logic was to blame for this weakness in diplomacy.
"Just 'apologizing' like it's some sort of national ritual, huh? No matter what happens, say sorry first—no questions asked!"
"Keep backing down and compromising—again and again. If Konoha hadn't been built on such strong foundations, Hiruzen Sarutobi would've ruined it completely by now."
Knowing the root of all problems, Shen now only wanted to drive this leader out of power; under such leadership, Konoha would never have a future.
It's fine to be kind and gentle by nature, but if you keep smiling through every insult, things won't go your way.
But if you still smile happily when bullied straight to your face, no wonder in his previous life people smeared him into being seen as pure villain material.
Although aging leaders losing ambition could be one reason, even so, Konoha couldn't afford to place itself under someone like that.
Of course, Shen knew speaking out wouldn't gain much belief—his somewhat prophetic guess already sounded excessive.
But he just couldn't help being angry; he long considered Konoha his home, and such humiliating things shouldn't happen to his own family.
"Is it Senju, Uchiha, or Hyūga?" He didn't even need to think before knowing the correct answer.
Certainly Hyūga; originally, when the Cloud ninja scheme began, their target was the very young Hinata.
After reaching this conclusion, Shen started analyzing the deeper motives behind Kumogakure: "A jinchūriki can't be an outsider; they must want a woman from the Uzumaki clan then."
Make someone take care of a nearly useless jinchūriki after kidnapping her, then expect her to marry you?
Not even free-riders would dare think like that! If someone did, they'd deserve capital punishment!
"But regarding Kushina's situation, will that overenthusiastic teenager Minato handle it well?" Shen planned to personally stay at the Hyūga compound while sending a Shadow Clone to Uzumaki village.
"Yeah, and I should record everything."
After making up his mind, Shen contemplated potential consequences: "At worst, eliminate all these ambassadors. And if Kumogakure dares retaliate, tell them to take the Third and offer him up as compensation—for my sake!"
The powerful Uchiha Clan of Konoha—actually offering up their clan head as compensation? If the Third wasn't immediately driven from office, Shen felt something was deeply wrong with the Shinobi World.
Let alone demanding the Uchiha clan head's life as atonement—even a simple bow or apology would send the entire Uchiha Clan attacking Kumogakure the same night.
The proud Uchiha absolutely refused to accept anyone bullying them openly.
"At absolute worst, it's just a war between Kumogakure and Konoha, then those other villages…"
Would Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Amegakure, and Takigakure really miss this opportunity to retaliate?
"A Second Great Ninja War? Seems like it's just delayed by a year or two." He found this outcome quite unsatisfactory.
Tiring himself out solving the issues between Konoha and Sunagakure over territory and resource distribution, an incident as small as Uzumaki village affairs could still trigger a full-scale war.
"It seems the mindset of ninja needs a complete overhaul." In Shen's opinion, everything came back to Sage of Six Paths' original mistake.
Spreading chakra is a good thing in theory—but seriously, can we afford to have no backup plan? Are we just going to let ninjas slowly turn into nothing more than tools of war?
So long as you pay, anything goes—it's not like you're anything more than mercenaries! But even mercenaries can say no to missions.
What about ninjas then? Save your teammates but fail the mission, and you'll face ridicule and scorn from the village. In the end, you're forced to take your own life, branded a criminal even in death. The whole system is monstrous.
"I've got to get stronger."
After realizing everything, Shen decided to hand over the Laboratory work to Orochimaru and focus solely on increasing his strength.
It wasn't just about his own strength—he and all Uchiha clan members had to train relentlessly as well.
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