Chapter 116: Ember's Development
The massive and tedious task of properly housing and managing the twenty-plus rescued Uchiha clan members who had joined the Ember organization fell almost entirely on the shoulders of Hizashi and Shisui, who handled all the arrangements and logistics.
Though Menma felt somewhat guilty about dumping all this responsibility on them, he was truly at a loss for what else to do.
Menma was completely clueless about managing an organization of over twenty people—allocating resources, managing emotions, planning for the future, and countless other administrative tasks.
Moreover, since he appeared here only as a shadow clone and couldn't maintain a presence at the Hot Water Country base for extended periods, he remained content to act as a hands-off leader, only providing broad strategic direction.
As the second core combat member of the Ember organization, Shisui voluntarily took on significant responsibilities. Drawing on his understanding of the Uchiha and his former ANBU experience, he carefully selected promising young adults from among the survivors—those with exceptional ninja talent and relatively trustworthy character.
Following Menma's directive to "build our own armed forces," Shisui reorganized these chosen Uchiha ninja and put them through rigorous training, forming an elite unit loyal to Ember that used equipment and training methods modeled after Konoha's ANBU.
Naturally, in addition to his identity as Ember's second combatant, Shisui gained a new title—Ember ANBU Captain.
He commanded this newly formed force, responsible for base security, intelligence gathering, and potentially executing special missions in the future.
As for those Uchiha civilians who hadn't awakened their Sharingan or lacked any ninja talent, along with their families, Hizashi leveraged his years of connections and influence in Hot Water Country to skillfully integrate them into various industries throughout the prosperous hot spring district.
Some went to work as hotel staff, others learned culinary arts at restaurants, while still others handled logistics and management tasks... allowing them to stay with their families and begin new lives in this foreign land with relative peace and stability.
Fortunately, the rescued Uchiha were mostly peaceful moderates and non-combatant civilians.
After learning the truth about the massacre and the darkness within Konoha's leadership from Shisui, though they felt tremendous anger and heartbreak, they also felt gratitude toward Ember for extending a helping hand, along with a desire to avoid conflict and live peacefully.
There were no extremists who, upon learning the truth, clamored for revenge against Konoha or the destruction of everything—though perhaps anyone with such inclinations had died that night.
Then there was Kakuzu, this "relic" from the First Hokage's era who had experienced an unexpected shift in his activities since joining Ember.
So commerce can be this profitable...
This was perhaps Kakuzu's most genuine and shocking realization over the past few years. Though he was a bounty hunter with Kage-level combat strength, he wasn't fundamentally bloodthirsty or warlike. For him, fighting and killing were merely means to accumulate wealth.
As long as he could earn massive amounts of money stably and efficiently, he wasn't opposed to changing his methods.
When he first saw the quarterly profit reports that Hizashi submitted regarding Hot Water Country's hot spring district and affiliated industries—figures so astronomically large they were jaw-dropping—those green eyes of his went wide with rare astonishment!
To personally control and experience this seemingly money-printing machine, this nearly hundred-year-old veteran of the ninja world did something unprecedented: he began seriously studying business management and investment from scratch.
With his extraordinary learning ability and the wisdom accumulated over his long life, he quickly displayed remarkable talent in this field.
Beyond voluntarily taking over management of the organization's increasingly vast commercial enterprises, he also "naturally" and almost domineeringly assumed control over Ember's financial operations.
Initially, Hizashi worried deeply about this, constantly fearing that this financial manager with a criminal record might suddenly abscond with all their funds.
However, as time passed, Kakuzu's almost obsessive dedication, rigor, and even miserliness when it came to "making money" and "managing money" completely shocked Hizashi.
He scrutinized every copper coin's movement, kept the organization's finances in perfect order, and even increased their capital through various investment strategies.
This lightened Hizashi's burden considerably... except whenever he needed to request funding for projects and faced Kakuzu's expression of reluctance and anguish—as if flesh were being cut from his bones—along with the faint dangerous aura he'd emit, Hizashi still felt his scalp tingle.
By now, Kakuzu seemed to feel that merely managing money couldn't fully consume his excess energy.
Perhaps to better "protect" the organization's assets and ensure these expensive "combat tools" were worth their cost, he added another job to his responsibilities—drilling the Uchiha ANBU members.
He called it "Only ninja who survive and complete their missions have value and justify every penny the organization spends on them!"
There was also the matter of that special room in the deepest part of Ember's underground base, heavily protected by multiple barriers and physical mechanisms... where Menma's most astonishing "harvest" from the night of the Uchiha massacre was quietly stored.
The room's lighting was dim, with only rows of specially designed nutrient tanks emitting a pale green glow. Within each container floated a crimson eyeball marked with black tomoe—dozens of Sharingan taken from the Uchiha hawk faction members.
However, what truly sent chills through one's heart were the three more exquisite and luxurious containers isolated in the room's center.
There lay three pairs of treasures that could be considered the ninja world's most precious artifacts—three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan.
They belonged respectively to Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Fugaku, and... Uchiha Mikoto, who had unexpectedly awakened hers only to lose them again.
These three pairs of eyes, each with unique forms and complex, ominous patterns, still radiated powerful Yin Release chakra fluctuations even separated from their original bodies.
Naruto had clear plans for these three treasures. Primarily, they would prepare for Satsuki's potential future evolution to Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Of course, he wasn't stingy. He understood that awakening the Eternal Mangekyo required only one pair of blood-related Mangekyo as "fuel." Therefore, he clearly indicated to Shisui that he could choose whichever pair from the three was most suitable for him, or whichever he most desired to use.
Naruto himself lacked Uchiha bloodline and couldn't fully utilize the Mangekyo Sharingan's complete power. In his view, investing these resources in top-tier Uchiha fighters like Shisui was the optimal "investment strategy."
As for that most special and dangerous pair—containing Kotoamatsukami and belonging to Shisui himself—it had never been placed in this collection room.
It remained in Naruto's personal custody, sealed within a specially crafted, compact scroll. This scroll was layered with incredibly complex sealing techniques.
Under these multiple seal barriers, even Shisui himself, at such close distance, couldn't sense the ocular power fluctuations that shared his origin.
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