Chapter 106 (Patreon)

After paying the remaining balance, Fugaku took out another list. It contained the names of ten Uchiha who would participate in the second round of Sharingan awakening training.

He was genuinely curious about how Kushina had managed to accomplish such a thing.

Kushina merely looked at him with a smile.

“Fugaku-san, think carefully. What does the Uchiha clan excel at?”

Had no one in the Uchiha clan ever considered using genjutsu to stimulate the awakening of the Sharingan?

In truth, the idea had never occurred to them before. The Uchiha had never systematically studied the conditions behind the Sharingan’s awakening.

All they knew was that witnessing the death of a friend or family member often caused the Sharingan to awaken or gain another tomoe.

As for why that happened, no one had ever investigated it closely. If someone awakened the Sharingan, they awakened it. The cause had never seemed important.

It was often said that the person who understood you best was your enemy.

Without relying on any of the Uchiha clan’s ancient secrets, Senju Tobirama had studied them more thoroughly than they had ever studied themselves.

Fugaku remained visibly confused after hearing Kushina’s hint, while Shikaku, who stood beside him, fell into thought.

However, that was all he could do.

He did not know the exact conditions required to awaken the Sharingan. He could only speculate based on historical records, the intelligence available to Konoha, and what Kushina had just said.

“All right. I’ll leave the rest to you two. I have a fūinjutsu class to teach.”

Kushina pushed aside the documents in front of her and left the office with a smile.

Fugaku remained where he was, still trying to understand what she had meant.

Shikaku, however, was thinking about something entirely different.

He had noticed the sudden change in Kushina’s mood.

For the past ten days or so, although nothing had happened, she had often seemed distracted. As the days passed, her restlessness had only become more apparent.

Yet the moment Yakushi Nonō returned to the village, Kushina seemed to recover completely. The color returned to her face overnight, and today she had even been in the mood to tease Fugaku.

She had been humming softly when she left the office just now.

It wasn’t as though Shikaku was neglecting his work and wasting time studying his superior’s mood.

Anyone with experience knew that understanding their leader’s thoughts and temperament made work much easier. Otherwise, one might unknowingly step on a land mine without ever realizing what had gone wrong.

Unfortunately, Shikaku lacked the information necessary to reach an answer. No matter how intelligent he was, he could not determine the reason behind Kushina’s sudden change.

After Roy went to see the three children, he joined Kaorui in looking after them.

More accurately, he watched while Kaorui did nearly all the work.

Naruto and Karin were easy enough to handle. Once they had eaten their fill, they sat on the floor and entertained themselves with their toys.

Roy, on the other hand, refused to behave. Not only did he interfere while Kaorui was trying to feed the children, but his wandering hands repeatedly left her face burning red.

If she hadn’t been alone with the children at the moment, Kaorui would have dragged Roy back to his room and properly dealt with his troublesome behavior.

When Yugito finished her training for the day and entered the room to speak with Kaorui, Roy finally left.

As he made his way toward the Academy, he began considering new ways to earn money.

Sooner or later, Kushina would finish teaching the other villages fūinjutsu. He also couldn’t continue squeezing money from the Uchiha clan forever. Even if they developed specialized training programs for the other shinobi clans, the profits wouldn’t last indefinitely.

They needed a proper source of income.

Roy considered several successful business models from his previous life, but none of them seemed particularly suitable for Konoha.

Real estate, for example, would normally have been an obvious choice. Everyone needed a home, so buying land, constructing houses, and selling them should have been profitable.

However, the shinobi world had rarely known peace. Many existing houses remained unoccupied, so there was little reason to believe newly constructed homes would sell.

Even if he copied the marketing methods from his previous life and tied housing to a child’s education or future marriage, the demand still wouldn’t be high enough.

At Konoha’s current stage of development, real estate simply wasn’t a viable option.

It wasn’t until Roy reached the Academy and saw one of its teachers speaking with Yakushi Nonō that inspiration struck him.

During the Third Shinobi World War, that teacher had lost an arm and a leg to enemy explosive tags. Afterward, he had been assigned to manage records at the Academy.

Injuries like his were hardly rare.

Countless shinobi throughout the Five Great Nations had lost limbs in battle.

If Roy could develop a flexible prosthetic limb that was easy to control, rather than simply carving a piece of wood into the shape of an arm or leg and fastening it to the body, there would undoubtedly be a market for it.

Even in his previous life, where technology had been far more advanced, creating prosthetic limbs that moved as naturally as real ones had been extremely difficult. Establishing a connection between the brain, nerves, and artificial limb remained the greatest obstacle.

Strangely enough, it might be easier in the shinobi world, despite its bizarre and uneven technological development.

This world possessed chakra.

Chakra threads could take the place of nerves, allowing a person to control the movements of an artificial limb directly.

“Konoha should have some scrolls on Sunagakure’s Puppet Technique.”

When Nonō saw Roy drift into the room, she initially assumed that another mission had come up.

Instead, the moment he entered, he began staring at Kobayashi-sensei with a strange smile on his face, seemingly lost in thought.

“Yakushi-san, is something wrong?”

Kobayashi Masasuke noticed that Nonō had abruptly fallen silent and was staring in his direction. He immediately straightened his back.

If she continued looking at him for a few more seconds, he might even begin thinking of names for their future children.

When Nonō had first arrived at the Academy as a teacher, Masasuke hadn’t dared approach her.

Although they were around the same age, the difference between them seemed too great. Nonō was gentle, graceful, and beautiful, while he had lost an arm and a leg. In his eyes, they belonged to completely different worlds.

Over time, however, he realized that Nonō never looked at him with pity or discomfort because of his injuries. Whenever he needed help, she would naturally lend him a hand without making him feel self-conscious.

To Masasuke, she was like an angel who had descended into his life.

It was impossible not to want to grow closer to her.

Because of that, whether he had a reason or not, he often found an excuse to come over and chat with her.

There was no harm in trying, after all.

“It’s nothing.”

Nonō withdrew her gaze from Roy and answered calmly.

“I just remembered that I still have some work to finish.”

“I see. Then I won’t keep you any longer.”

Once Masasuke left, Nonō glanced at Roy again.

He was still staring at the now-empty seat.

For a moment, she couldn’t tell whether he had been lost in thought or had genuinely been staring at Masasuke.

“Roy-kun, is there another mission?”

Nonō’s voice pulled Roy from his thoughts.

Elsewhere, the recent changes sweeping across the shinobi world had also reached Pain and Konan.

Konoha’s change of Hokage and its decision to openly teach fūinjutsu to other villages were among the matters placed before them.

Neither Pain nor Konan could understand what Konoha hoped to achieve through these actions. Even Zetsu and Obito, who was still presenting himself as Uchiha Madara, found the situation difficult to explain.

In the end, they gave up trying to uncover the reasoning behind it.

Whether Kushina had lost her mind and decided to spread the Uzumaki clan’s fūinjutsu across the shinobi world, or whether Konoha was concealing a deeper scheme, it didn’t matter.

Before absolute power, any conspiracy would be meaningless.

“Zetsu, have you made any progress in locating potential new members?” Pain asked.

“I’ve found Sasori of the Red Sand, the genius puppeteer who defected from Sunagakure.”

Pain considered the information for a moment before turning to Konan.

“Konan, you will approach him and invite him to join the Akatsuki.”

It wasn’t that Pain had specifically wanted to send her. He simply had no one else available.

Ordinary members would stand no chance against a puppeteer of Sasori’s caliber. Of those strong enough to handle him, Kakuzu was currently away earning money, while the man claiming to be Uchiha Madara did not answer to Pain’s orders.

Nagato’s real body was in no condition to travel, either.

That left Konan as the only suitable choice.