Not far away, aboard the giant snake "Da Ryūen," Uchiha Kei listened to the constant stream of intelligence reports being sent to him and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
"Damn Jūbei. If he’s not careful, he might actually end this whole story early!"
As he spoke, Uchiha Kei shook his head.
"Hundreds of people launch a terrorist attack on Konoha, and they still can’t deal with it. No wonder Orochimaru had to kill the Fourth Kazekage in advance when he launched the Konoha Crush."
Kei took another bite of the melon in his hand.
The melon was sweet, but his heart was bitter.
"Sigh. If only the Third had spent a little less time scheming, there wouldn’t have been any need for a Konoha Crush plan in the first place."
Come to think of it, Orochimaru’s feelings toward Konoha were incredibly complicated.
He seemed to neither want Konoha to prosper nor actually want Konoha destroyed.
It was just like Kei’s attitude toward his friends:
He was afraid his brothers would suffer, yet he was also afraid they would end up driving a Land Rover.
What a complicated man!
Oboro, who had been sneaking melon behind Kei, noticed his complicated expression and asked with concern,
"What is troubling you again, Lord Kei?"
Kei smiled and decided not to share his little thoughts with Oboro.
Just then, the Yakushi family appeared before Uchiha Kei.
As one of the causes of the current incident, the Yakushi family had accompanied the army as well.
They did not want Naka to be falsely accused. After all, Yakushi Nonō had spent so many years in Konoha that she had seen this sort of thing far too many times.
It didn’t take much imagination to figure out how Konoha would twist the story and smear Naka.
Of course, under the current circumstances, arguing over who was right or wrong was meaningless.
Even so, Yakushi Nonō still wanted to make the facts clear.
She could not allow the Uchiha to have mud thrown at them without saying anything.
Looking at the Yakushi family, Kei sighed inwardly.
The twists and turns of fate could always be traced back to something.
Some stories seemed destined to happen again, no matter which world they took place in.
At this moment, Tenjō Tensei stood behind Uchiha Kei, while a small blade had appeared at his waist.
Tenchi Blade.
The little thing was a short blade that had taken the initiative to attach itself to Uchiha Kei.
However, in the presence of Tenjō Tensei’s overwhelming pressure, the little blade did not dare to act recklessly.
It could only tremble timidly at Kei’s waist, desperately seeking his favor like a secret lover or a neglected concubine who could never see the light of day.
Kei stroked the short blade and sighed.
"I was just laughing at the entanglement of cause and effect. It feels as though there are certain things in this world that, the moment they encounter one another, are destined to become entangled somehow."
"What do you mean, Lord Kei?"
Oboro, the professional spectator, continued chatting with Kei.
"Oboro, do you know something? In another shinobi world, Jūbei’s guardian spirit was Taira no Masakado. He was the first person in that world to rebel against the Emperor."
"Rebel against the Emperor? That doesn’t seem like such a big deal! The shoguns in our world have had similar ambitions."
Different worlds seemed to produce completely different worldviews.
"But he was the first one!"
"The first person to break with tradition!"
Kei had always respected people who dared to do what no one else had done before.
"Oh, then that’s pretty impressive! What happened afterward? Did he succeed?"
Since their leader had asked, Oboro naturally had to play along.
The spectators around them also began calling out enthusiastically.
Kei shook his head.
"No. The first person to eat the crab may be great, but the results are usually tragic. More often than not, the people who benefit from the path they opened are the second and third people to eat the crab."
Oboro nodded and continued asking,
"So what happened to Taira no Masakado?"
Uchiha Kei looked toward the seven members of the Yakushi family.
"He was dismembered into seven pieces. His head was placed on a stake and displayed as a warning. It was the first time people in that shinobi world had ever seen such a punishment, and everyone was terrified."
Ever since the Uchiha had acquired the power of Fear, hearing that someone had been frightened only excited them further.
"Whoa! Did so many people fear him that he became a yokai?"
Among the Uchiha, becoming a yokai seemed to be considered an honor.
After all, yokai were practically candidates for becoming gods. Sooner or later, they would ascend to godhood anyway.
"Exactly. Taira no Masakado became one of the Four Great Vengeful Spirits, one of the most terrifying spirits in existence."
"And then?"
"Later, that shinobi world also developed shoguns. As their power grew, they developed ambitions similar to Masakado’s and began venerating him. They even elevated Taira no Masakado to the status of a God of War."
The moment he said this, the surrounding Uchiha became even more excited.
Kei continued while looking toward the Yakushi family.
"The shoguns built seven shrines for Taira no Masakado. They were Torikoe Shrine, Masakado’s Kubizuka, Kanda Shrine, Tsukudo Hachiman Shrine, Mizuinari Shrine, Yoroi Shrine, and Kurabutōishi."
The surrounding Uchiha followed Kei’s gaze and looked at the Yakushi family.
The Yakushi family was completely bewildered.
"So that’s what Lord Kei means? Jūbei and the Yakushi family are connected by fate?"
"It’s not that simple. What I’m about to tell you is even stranger."
As he spoke, Uchiha Kei drew the short blade from his waist.
"This Tenchi Blade was the shogun’s companion blade!"
Kei’s voice became increasingly ominous, like someone telling a ghost story.
"What is so strange about that?"
His subordinates found that their lord wasn’t frightening at all.
If anything, he was rather adorable.
"Listen to me! After the shoguns began venerating Taira no Masakado, Tokyo—which was then known as Edo—began enjoying favorable weather and abundant harvests, as though Taira no Masakado were genuinely protecting the shogunate."
"By comparison, Kyoto, where the Emperor resided, became so impoverished that it could barely support the imperial household."
"Eventually, the shogun failed to realize his ambitions, while Kyoto continued to decline. The Emperor could no longer remain there, so he moved to Edo, which had become extremely prosperous under the shogunate’s rule."
"But the Emperor also knew that Edo was protected by a barrier."
"That barrier had been formed using the power of Taira no Masakado."
"And Masakado had been an enemy of the Emperor."
"Obviously, the Emperor couldn’t remain in a territory protected by the power of someone who had rebelled against him."
"So they came up with a solution: they would construct another formation to suppress that barrier."
"The Emperor then built five more structures."
"These five structures were mausoleums. Together, they formed another formation that was positioned directly over the northern portion of the original Big Dipper formation, where the seven shrines dedicated to Taira no Masakado were located."
"These five sites were Yanaka Cemetery, Aoyama Cemetery, Zōshigaya Cemetery, Tsukiji Hongwanji, and Yasukuni Shrine."
"Aren’t those the names of the five people from the Sarutobi Clan?"
One of the subordinates had been listening with great interest and even followed up with a question.
"Yes. Those are indeed the names of the five people from the Sarutobi Clan."
Uchiha Kei nodded and continued.
"After this barrier formation was established, the Imperial Family stopped being troubled by supernatural disturbances, and their lives became much more peaceful. The barrier really did seem to work."
"But do you know what happened afterward?"
"What happened?"
His subordinates dutifully played along.
"Later, there was a devastating Great Kantō Earthquake that caused enormous casualties. Tsukiji Hongwanji, which was one of the sites anchoring the Big Dipper formation, was completely destroyed."
At this point, Kei’s expression became even more eerie.
"At first, the Emperor didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, could anyone really expect magic to govern a country?"
"But afterward, it was as though the barrier had been opened."
"A group of people entered the Emperor’s territory through the opening at Tsukiji Hongwanji."
"Then came a massive bombing campaign."
"And the descent of a little boy from the heavens."
"Together, they completely destroyed the Emperor’s rule."
"From that point onward, the Emperor became little more than a mascot and lost his political power."
"Isn’t that a little too fatalistic?"
"Did all of this really happen in another shinobi world?"
The subordinates did not answer him. Instead, they asked another question.
"Yes. It happened in another world."
"Don’t you think it bears a rather striking resemblance to what’s happening today?"
Kei refused to give up.
Everyone thought about it.
There really was something strangely thought-provoking about it.
Everything seemed intertwined by cause and effect.
First, the Yakushi family’s Shichika-sha came into conflict with the Sarutobi family’s Five Mausoleums.
Then Jūbei, the representative of Taira no Masakado, killed Tsukiji Hongwanji.
Afterward, Jūbei seemed to have activated some kind of cheat code.
He infiltrated Konoha, despite the village being protected by countless barriers, and somehow managed to launch a completely unreasonable surprise attack.
And now, with even less reason, he was preparing to unleash a genuine Little Boy-level apocalypse upon Konoha!
"Don’t you think that’s creepy?"
Uchiha Kei gazed at the dark clouds in the sky.
The Little Boy of Taira no Masakado was about to descend!
"Sigh. By the time Konoha gets used to asking, ’How many floors can one bag of rice carry?’ they’ll probably have adapted to it."
"Hmm! No, that’s not right."
"By then, Konoha will probably have an entirely new population."
"This current batch probably won’t survive."
The ordinary people of the Kurokyō refresh at midnight.
Who knew whether the civilians of Konoha could do the same?
Heh.
Trying to govern a country through supernatural formations really wasn’t a reliable strategy.
But then again, if a country kept encountering bizarre supernatural incidents like this, it wasn’t surprising that people would eventually start believing in such things.
And apparently, traveling to another country’s territory to steal its national fortune was perfectly within the realm of possibility too!
:::
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