Yashamaru's proposal left everyone thoughtful.
He took several deep breaths to calm himself before continuing:
"If—if you could also notify us in advance, that would be even better."
"That way, we could make preparations beforehand and avoid being dragged into the meeting at especially awkward moments."
Momochi Zabuza immediately felt the same way.
At this moment, he deeply admired Goat Boy for daring to make a request of His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, especially since the suggestion had been raised because of Zabuza's own experience.
He was the "Demon" Zabuza, the Demon who feared neither heaven nor earth and had never known the meaning of retreat.
He absolutely couldn't act cowardly!
He prepared several lines in his mind and silently rehearsed them a few times before abruptly standing and turning toward Uchiha Yoru.
But the instant his eyes met the colossal god's gaze, every impassioned word in Zabuza's mind vanished.
He could only say stiffly, "I-I also think... Goat Boy is... right."
Uchiha Yoru nodded.
"A very good proposal. Then the next meeting will be held ten days from now."
"Additionally, I will notify you ten minutes in advance."
After speaking, he pushed one hand forward and sent the four souls back.
...
Zabuza's terrible performance before His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor left him so agitated that he completely forgot Uchiha Yoru's deliberate warning at the beginning of the Divine Court meeting.
Not only did he fail to concentrate and prepare himself for the return, but he didn't even notice Uchiha Yoru's motion dismissing everyone.
Thus, the distraught Zabuza only felt his vision blur.
A full second passed before he realized that he had already returned to the material world.
In a battle between ninja, one second could cause the deaths of several people.
Even while running, losing focus for one second was enough to place a ninja in extreme danger.
Speed itself was a remarkably dangerous factor.
Momochi Zabuza screamed as he crashed into a thick tree branch.
The left arm he instinctively raised to protect his head broke along with the branch.
The agony of the fracture made cold sweat pour down his body, but he didn't dare stop and continued running.
After finally catching up to his teammates ahead, he was met with a furious rebuke from the captain.
"What the hell are you doing? A proud Kirigakure ninja actually ran into a branch. Were you asleep?"
Another teammate spoke with murderous intent.
"Do you realize how obvious a trail your mistake will leave for the Kumogakure ninja?"
The final teammate was a woman, but her ferocity and killing intent were no weaker than those of the men.
She said murderously, "If you make another mistake like that, run in another direction by yourself. Otherwise, I'll kill you first!"
Zabuza didn't answer.
He ignored all three of them while treating his broken arm as he ran.
He took out several long senbon and his ninja sword to use as splints, then firmly bound his left arm with bandages.
Once the broken bone was stabilized, the pain decreased considerably.
The ninja sword was also fixed at the front of his left hand, allowing him to continue using it in combat.
Only after recovering part of his fighting ability did Zabuza breathe a sigh of relief.
He didn't take the harsh words of the chūnin captain and his two genin teammates to heart.
Ever since the Fourth Mizukage revived the Bloody Mist policy, trust had once again disappeared between Kirigakure ninja.
Apart from squads that had remained stable for many years, in a temporarily assembled four-person team like this one, a ninja who refrained from stabbing a weakened teammate with a kunai was already considered an exceptionally good person by Kirigakure standards.
This squad was a rare and decent combination.
Zabuza certainly wouldn't become angry over a verbal dispute.
He didn't even hate the members of his previous squad who had attempted to kill him.
The person who truly enraged him was the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura.
It was all his fault.
The Bloody Mist policy had clearly ended, yet he had restarted it.
Didn't that mean the deaths of the more than one hundred classmates Zabuza had killed had become meaningless?
Zabuza had been extremely satisfied when the Bloody Mist policy ended because of his slaughter.
He believed himself to be a hero.
The classmates he killed were heroes as well—perhaps even greater heroes than he was.
They had sacrificed their lives to prevent even more Kirigakure ninja from dying through mutual slaughter.
What a magnificent death that had been.
But what about now?
Nothing had changed at all.
His classmates' deaths had become meaningless, and Momochi Zabuza's slaughter had transformed from a heroic act into a brutal crime.
He hated it!
Sooner or later, he would kill the Fourth Mizukage.
He would avenge his own lost heroic deed and avenge his classmates!
However, the most important matter at present was escaping the pursuing Kumogakure ninja!
...
Compared with Zabuza's tense and dangerous return, the other three returned without incident.
Tsunade had originally been drinking inside a room.
After spending half a minute regaining her senses, she realized that something was wrong with her condition.
The strongest medical ninja in the current shinobi world discovered that her emotions were completely misplaced.
She muttered, "What's going on? Why would I want to search for the Monkey Sage or even think about returning to Konoha?"
"What would I return to the village for? To compete with Sensei for power like Orochimaru?"
"I really must be sick. Mm, I need to give myself the best medicine!"
She ordered another ten bottles of alcohol, determined to drink herself senseless and solve the problem of her abnormal emotions.
Besides, perhaps she was merely dreaming right now.
If she became completely drunk and slept, maybe everything would return to normal when she woke up, as though none of it had happened.
Perhaps...
As for the money, she could deal with that after sobering up.
...
Konan had originally been calculating accounts in Amegakure.
To her, the meeting felt like only a brief moment of absent-mindedness.
She quickly remembered the one million five hundred thousand ryō.
Her beautiful face immediately blossomed into a smile.
After clasping her hands and thanking His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor for his mercy and generosity, she still felt too excited to calm down.
Konan had no choice but to leave the room and stand in the rain for a long time before regaining her composure.
Then she returned and continued calculating the accounts.
A large number had already accumulated.
They had to be cleared as quickly as possible before Amegakure could begin operating properly.
Although Akatsuki had taken control of Amegakure several years ahead of schedule, the position of chief accountant still fell into the hands of this prodigal woman.
However, the current Akatsuki was far too immature.
In terms of managing the household, Konan was already the best choice among them.
Even if she wasted money, she would waste less than everyone else.
Konan herself had been forced into the position and had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility.
Besides, the current Amegakure had nothing at all and couldn't even guarantee its own safety.
There was hardly anything available for her to squander.
...
Yashamaru was in Sunagakure within the Land of Wind.
It was currently dinnertime.
To everyone else, it merely appeared that he had briefly frozen while eating, and no one noticed anything unusual.
An enormous intelligence transaction had occurred during this meeting, yet he had gained nothing.
He hadn't even received the intelligence itself.
This left him rather disappointed.
Fortunately, he had gathered the courage to offer His Majesty a suggestion at the end, earning praise and another reward.
Yashamaru silently ate his meal without tasting any of it.
All his attention was focused inward as he carefully sensed the growth of his chakra.
[Only ten percent. As expected, it isn't as much as last time.]
Remembering the increase of more than thirty percent in his chakra reserves from the previous meeting, Yashamaru became even less satisfied.
His inner restraints began to waver, while a restless impulse stirred within him.
[Should I obtain some intelligence to exchange at the next meeting?]
It had to be said that after spending so long with the Zhurong alternate identity wrapped around the Heart Ape, Yashamaru displaying only a slight amount of restlessness and impulsiveness already proved that his temperament was exceptional.
On Zabuza's side, the impulsiveness had already grown so strong that he had begun seriously constructing a plan to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage.
...
After sending the four away, Uchiha Yoru severed his connection with the Divine Court hall.
He dispelled the Heavenly Emperor transformation and immediately dismantled the Monkey Sage alternate identity.
However, the change in the Heart Ape astonished him.
The Heart Ape was the foremost among his five heart-forms.
Every heart-form had evolved from the fundamental desires of life, while the Heart Ape represented the powerful drive behind action.
Precisely because of this, the heart-forms couldn't be destroyed.
Destroying any one of them would mean the collapse of Uchiha Yoru's humanity.
Heaven alone knew what consequences that would cause.
Because it originated from instinctive desire, the Heart Ape's desire-driven motivation was almost always expressed through agitation and impulsiveness.
It was rarely displayed as the courage to accept responsibility.
But it had happened before.
This gave Uchiha Yoru a direction for solving the problem.
Transform agitation into courage.
Transform negative impulsiveness into a positive virtue.
After condensing the Golden Core, the path of immortal cultivation had entered a grand and open Great Dao.
Naturally, it began to involve philosophy and morality.
The Golden Core had been nurtured and condensed by him.
It gathered Uchiha Yoru's essence, energy, spirit, and natural energy, governing everything within his life.
Therefore, he bore unlimited responsibility for the Golden Core.
The amount of energy circulating through the Golden Core was already extraordinarily powerful.
In the foreseeable future, that energy would become even stronger.
As the Golden Core's master, Uchiha Yoru would be forced to grow alongside it.
There was no possibility that he could remain at the level of a mortal while controlling the Golden Core.
Uchiha Yoru's intuition told him that if the growth of his wisdom failed to keep pace with the Golden Core's strengthening, then the Golden Core's constant accumulation of energy would resemble an airplane capable only of accelerating but unable to take off.
It would inevitably rush toward destruction at the end of the runway.
The best possible outcome would be the Golden Core separating from Uchiha Yoru and reversing the relationship between master and servant.
Uchiha Yoru would become its slave, forced to travel everywhere to satisfy the Golden Core's needs.
The Ōtsutsuki clan, which planted God Trees throughout the universe, served as his example.
Did people believe that because the Ōtsutsuki clan controlled the God Trees and could consume their fruits, they were the masters?
Wrong.
Between the Ōtsutsuki clan and the God Trees, it was difficult to determine which side was truly the master.
Uchiha Yoru didn't want to fall into such an outcome.
He needed to grow rapidly, optimize his heart-forms, and perfect his soul.
But what could he rely upon to grow so quickly?
Naturally, he could rely only upon suppressing and optimizing his heart-forms.
That was his sole point of entry.
With the Golden Core operating automatically, the previous work of suppressing the heart-forms and shearing away their excess spiritual power was now completely handled by the Golden Core.
Its efficiency had already reached the maximum.
The only task Uchiha Yoru still needed to perform personally was optimizing the heart-forms.
But as the pioneer of this path, when intuition couldn't provide guidance, he had absolutely no idea how to optimize them.
Now, however, he discovered that one portion of the Heart Ape had changed.
Within the essence of agitation and impulsiveness, a tiny fragment had undergone transformation.
The changed portion wasn't large.
It merely felt as though it had moved from a chaotic state into a stable and orderly state.
In truth, there was only one difference between courage and agitation.
Order.
In terms of specific behavior, acting immediately without thinking was agitation.
Carefully considering the possible consequences and still deciding to act was courage.
Once action began, the difference between the two became even greater.
Agitation lacked a stable driving force.
A decision to change one's behavior could arrive just as suddenly as the original impulse.
But courageous behavior possessed stable logic derived from careful judgment.
Unless powerful circumstances shattered that logic, courageous action became unstoppable and unyielding despite repeated setbacks!
[It is ordered action. That's right. It is courage!]
[Where did it come from?]
[What am I even thinking? It could only have come from Yashamaru, Tsunade, Zabuza, and Konan!]
[The human heart! No—the hearts of the people!]
[I understand. I finally understand. So this is the method.]
[The human heart is the heart of Heaven. By interacting with people, one heart responds to another, gathering the hearts of the people into my own until my heart becomes the heart of Heaven.]
[Although I don't know whether this is correct, at least it is a path.]
Uchiha Yoru happily patted the Heart Ape.
Then, before it could react, he immediately suppressed it back into the southern volcano.
The projection of the Heart Ape mask, which served as the foundation of the Zhurong alternate identity, was carefully placed upon the roof of the Divine Court hall, where it could receive direct illumination from the Golden Core's rays.
The Golden Core's radiance would slowly cleanse the traces of the Heart Ape's corruption, preparing it for the next use.
After returning to reality, Uchiha Yoru began preparing for his journey.
He already knew what had happened in Amegakure and was certain that an enormous incident would occur in the near future, creating an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.
However, the matter in the Land of Demons was also extremely important.
Mōryō, this boss, had only a limited amount of time remaining alive.
If he missed this opportunity, he would have to wait more than ten or even twenty years before attempting to capture Mōryō again.
After so much time, Heaven knew how enormous the changes would be.
Most importantly, Uchiha Yoru felt that he couldn't wait that long.
Therefore, he needed to go quickly and return quickly.
He would finish the battle swiftly, secure the material for the divine-power server, then return to resolve the Uchiha clan's affairs.
Uchiha Yoru's luggage was extremely simple.
He quickly completed his preparations, informed Miwa Masayo, took out the mission order and other documents, then pushed open the door.
At that moment, someone knocked on the courtyard gate.
Uchiha Yoru was greatly surprised, and an ominous premonition even surged within his heart.
[The Third Hokage? I thought he was merely passing by. Why would he knock on my gate?]
[The ninja behind him smell like the Ino–Shika–Chō clans, as well as... Root.]
[Unwelcome guests have arrived.]
But even knowing that the visitors were hostile, since they hadn't openly broken relations and Uchiha Yoru hadn't finished preparing, he could only open the gate and welcome them inside.
The instant the gate opened, both sides carefully examined one another and simultaneously revealed uncertain expressions.
The Third Hokage hadn't expected Uchiha Yoru to already be dressed for travel, holding the mission documents and village-exit papers as though he were about to leave immediately.
Sarutobi Hiruzen shouted inwardly:
[That was close. I nearly failed to intercept him.]
What Uchiha Yoru hadn't expected was that after not seeing the Third Hokage for several months, the man appeared to have suddenly aged by more than ten years.
His skin had loosened, heavy bags hung beneath his eyes, and even his back had become hunched.
Most of his powerful muscles had vanished, making his entire body appear several sizes smaller.
If his hair weren't still half black and half gray, the Sarutobi Hiruzen before him would look exactly like the Third Hokage of Konoha Year 60.
Good heavens, Orochimaru!
What exactly did you do to your teacher?
In truth, Orochimaru hadn't done anything particularly special.
He had merely handled Konoha's work according to his own efficiency and submitted it to the Third Hokage for approval.
Oh, he had indeed done one additional thing.
Three times every day, he demanded the approval results for the previous day's documents and imposed deadlines upon the Third Hokage.
This single change in efficiency requirements placed unprecedented restraints upon the Third Hokage.
He could no longer endlessly delay documents upon his desk, allowing them to pile into a mountain while tirelessly approving trivial matters such as students graduating early or genin being promoted to chūnin.
The reason Uchiha Yoru hadn't seen the Third Hokage for so long was that he had been trapped beneath paperwork and genuinely had no time to run around interfering with everything.
But after Orochimaru left, the Third Hokage once again gained sufficient time to move freely.
After both men experienced their initial surprise, they instantly returned to normal.
Uchiha Yoru greeted him first, invited the Third Hokage inside, and served tea.
Then the two began exchanging various polite remarks, testing one another's patience through an endless stream of conventional phrases.
The contest between Uchiha Yoru and Sarutobi Hiruzen continued for a very long time.
Both remained energetic, but the ninja standing behind the Third Hokage became dizzy and confused.
Even Nara Shikasuke, who possessed the sharpest mind among them, couldn't help clicking his tongue and marveling at the profound schemes of this old man and young man.
Ultimately, Uchiha Yoru, who possessed greater physical endurance and more available time, won.
After secretly sighing, the Third Hokage stopped circling the subject and introduced the six ninja behind him to Uchiha Yoru.
The first three were an Ino–Shika–Chō formation.
Interestingly, this squad was led by Nara Shikasuke rather than a member of the Yamanaka clan, which usually served as captain.
It was a rare arrangement.
The other group consisted of three Root ninja wearing smiles.
Uchiha Yoru smiled.
"They are all elite ninja of Konoha."
"However, Lord Third Hokage, what is the meaning of this?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled kindly.
"The mission to subjugate the monster in the Land of Demons concerns a creature that fundamentally cannot be killed and can only be sealed by the Land of Demons' priestess."
"It must be said that the difficulty of the mission is extremely high."
"Moreover, ninja from other villages will also participate."
"Therefore, I decided to send them to assist you."
"This will greatly increase the possibility of completing the mission and ensure that we do not lose to the other ninja villages in any respect, greatly enhancing Konoha's reputation."
Uchiha Yoru's smile turned cold.
He no longer concealed his disgust and said bluntly, "I don't need burdens or people who harbor hostility toward me."
After hearing Uchiha Yoru's words, the Third Hokage's expression also collapsed.
The false atmosphere of friendliness the two had deliberately created vanished instantly.
Two powerful auras erupted and clashed violently inside the cramped room.
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