Chapter 198 (Patreon)

The sun was already beginning to set by the time Kizaru finished his work for the day.

Together with the three elders, he had drawn up a detailed war plan and informed them of his choices for the five permanent secretary positions.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo were both pleased with the list Kizaru had presented. In their eyes, Kizaru was becoming more and more like an exemplary Hokage.

What pleased them most was not that the list included members of the Sarutobi and Shimura clans, but that it contained no one from either the Uchiha or Hyuga clans.

Although Konoha’s senior leadership placed different levels of trust in those two great clans, they had always followed the same general policy toward them: grant them prestige and entrust them with important duties, but keep them away from positions of genuine political authority.

Historical grievances and the immense strength of the two clans were part of the reason for this approach. More importantly, however, most Uchiha and Hyuga shinobi possessed an exceptionally strong sense of clan identity and placed great importance on loyalty to their families.

Shinobi from other clans naturally considered their families’ interests as well, but few valued their clan ties as deeply as the Uchiha and Hyuga did.

For that reason, ever since the Second Hokage’s era, Konoha’s leadership had maintained a policy of publicly supporting the two great clans while quietly limiting their political influence.

Kizaru knew nothing of the satisfaction or thoughts running through his teacher’s and uncle’s minds. If he had, he would certainly have told them that they were thinking too much.

There was only one reason he had not appointed anyone from the Uchiha or Hyuga clans to the Secretariat.

The shinobi of those two clans were far better suited to combat and medical research. Assigning them to administrative work would only waste the potential of their kekkei genkai.

Placing every resource where it could be used most effectively and assigning the right person to the right position had always been Kizaru’s way of doing things.

If either clan produced a genius in politics or economics, Kizaru would transfer that person into the Secretariat the moment he learned of them and make them part of his think tank.

Glancing at the clock on the wall and seeing that it was time to leave, Kizaru exchanged a few final words with the three elders. He then returned to his desk, put on the Hokage’s haori, bade them farewell, and left the office.

The three elders were already familiar with Kizaru’s habits and had no objections. After watching him leave, they spoke among themselves for a while before departing from the Hokage’s office as well.

Kizaru greeted the villagers he passed after leaving work, but he did not return home, nor did he go looking for Tsunade.

Today, he intended to put in a little secret overtime.

Although he called it overtime, all Kizaru planned to do was dig out the little pests he had been watching for the past several years before the war began.

Those pests were not spies from another shinobi village. They were several White Zetsu who had followed Nagato and his companions to Konoha and had been secretly monitoring him ever since.

With both his Observation Haki and senjutsu perception covering the village, everything happening throughout Konoha remained within Kizaru’s awareness.

Until now, he had deliberately left the White Zetsu alone, along with Black Zetsu, who occasionally infiltrated Konoha to gather intelligence. Part of the reason was that Kizaru found their little game of cat and mouse amusing. The other reason was that he could use them to gather information about Madara Uchiha.

However, the Third Shinobi World War was about to begin, and Kizaru had already assigned Madara a role in his postwar plans—as both a common enemy and an experimental subject.

The White Zetsu hiding inside the village had therefore outlived their usefulness.

Rather than continue wasting his attention on them, Kizaru decided it would be better to capture them and deliver them to the research institute for Tsunade and Orochimaru to study.

Whether it was Orochimaru’s research into Wood Release and reincarnation techniques or Tsunade’s work on rapidly cloning limbs and organs, the White Zetsu would make exceptionally valuable experimental material.

Kizaru had even considered what would happen after the war.

If he led Konoha’s shinobi to Madara’s underground base and brought back the one hundred thousand White Zetsu hidden there, the research institute’s progress in the biological sciences would advance at an astonishing rate.

Orochimaru would no longer have any reason to complain to Kizaru about the shortage of high-quality experimental material or the difficulties involved in conducting certain forbidden research.

Whenever Kizaru thought about it that way, he could not help but feel that Madara Uchiha and Kaguya’s ever-devoted son, Black Zetsu, were practically his good-luck charms.

They could serve as enemies upon whom the world could focus its hatred, provide Konoha with an enormous supply of high-quality experimental subjects, and accelerate Kizaru’s plans for both unification and scientific development.

They were practically great benefactors of Konoha.

Kizaru had already made up his mind. Once he established a unified nation governed by the shinobi class, he would summon Madara with the Impure World Reincarnation and pin an enormous red rosette to his chest in recognition of his contributions.

As for Black Zetsu, Kizaru would not mind rewarding him either. If he remained obedient and cooperated in the future, Kizaru could help break his mother’s seal and release Kaguya Otsutsuki once he became a god.

Kizaru was quite interested in Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan from which she came.

Of course, the main reason was that Kizaru had already begun to regard the planet beneath his feet as his own territory.

If the Otsutsuki clan intended to plant a Divine Tree here and steal the planet’s natural energy from him, then their actions were no different from outright robbery.

Kizaru had no intention of tolerating such banditry.

It would have to be eradicated.

You want to plant a Divine Tree on this planet and devour all its life and energy, do you?

Then your bodies and lives can become nourishment for this planet instead.

Kizaru also wanted to see whether burying members of the Otsutsuki clan who had consumed Chakra Fruits within the earth would return some of that stolen energy to the world, making the planet’s life force and natural energy even more abundant.

Of course, those were all plans for the future.

For now, Kizaru intended to steadily raise his conquest progress by unifying the world, reforming its system of rule, and ultimately becoming the planet’s true god.

With those future plans drifting through his mind, Kizaru followed the presence of the White Zetsu until he reached the outskirts of the village.

There were five White Zetsu hiding within Konoha. Four were gathered here, while the final one was lurking near the Uchiha clan compound.

Recently, Nagato and Yahiko had been spending most of their days inside Sasori’s secret base, helping him improve the mecha. As a result, the four White Zetsu assigned to monitor Nagato had no choice but to follow them and remain hidden in the ground near the base.

Kizaru-nii had officially become Hokage, yet the mecha they had prepared as a gift for him was still unfinished. This had left both Nagato and Yahiko growing increasingly anxious.

Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about it.

Sasori, the mecha’s creator, remained dissatisfied with what he had built. He was constantly searching for ways to improve its performance, forcing them to delay the gift again and again.

To Yahiko, who was impulsive and passionate by nature, the mecha was only supposed to be a gift—a giant toy for Kizaru-nii. The current model was already incredibly powerful, so he saw no reason to keep delaying.

Sasori did not agree.

His dedication to technical research bordered on obsession, and he was determined to create a mecha capable of standing up to Kizaru-nii’s power.

With his formidable Observation Haki, Kizaru had already discovered Sasori’s secret base and knew that the children were working on a mecha.

However, because he had never listened in on their conversations, the one thing he did not know was that they intended to give it to him.

Had he known, Kizaru would undoubtedly have been rather pleased.

Standing on a stretch of grass several hundred meters from Sasori’s secret base, Kizaru kept both hands in his pockets as he glanced around, a faint smile resting on his face.

Since unlocking the power tied to his conquest progress, Kizaru had grown increasingly proficient at controlling natural energy and the very matter that formed the planet.

Without so much as lifting a finger, Kizaru caused the earth around him to come alive.

The ground began to churn and roll like the waves of the ocean.

Within only a few breaths, four nearly pure-white humanoid figures were spat out of the earth.

The sudden and bizarre attack left the four White Zetsu momentarily bewildered. They stared at Kizaru with wide eyes, completely unable to understand what had just happened.

“Run!”

One of the White Zetsu finally reacted and shouted before attempting to dive back underground.

Unfortunately, it failed.

Under Kizaru’s control, the ground itself rejected the White Zetsu and refused to allow it back inside.

The surrounding soil and green grass twisted together, forming thick ropes that bound the four fleeing White Zetsu. The ropes lifted them from the ground and slowly dragged them through the air until they were suspended directly in front of Kizaru.

“Oooh... how frightening.”

Kizaru gazed at the four White Zetsu bound before him, his lazy smile taking on a faintly unsettling edge.

Knowing there was no point in interrogating biological weapons such as these, Kizaru gave them no opportunity to speak. The instant the White Zetsu opened their mouths, the ropes formed from the earth forced their way inside and gagged them.

Kizaru took a prepared sealing scroll from the outer pocket of his suit jacket.

Now able to enter Sage Mode whenever he wished, he unfurled the scroll, molded his chakra, and swiftly formed a series of hand seals before sealing all four White Zetsu inside.

Once he was finished, Kizaru turned his gaze toward Sasori’s secret base in the distance.

After considering it for a moment, he decided not to visit them. Instead, he turned around and headed toward the Uchiha clan compound to capture the final White Zetsu lurking within the village.

Children deserved to keep a few secrets of their own.

After all, that was one of the greatest joys of childhood, and Kizaru had no intention of taking it away from them.