With little time left to live, Madara was about to make his final arrangements.
No one could change his determination to save the world.
Even if his final days were so desolate that the only one accompanying him was a single "incarnation of will."
Meanwhile, inside Naka Shrine, Uchiha Gen, Uchiha Kagerō, and Oboro stood in a line, doing everything they could to drag the sleeping Uchiha Kei out of bed.
The three of them represented three different age groups: the mature woman, the elegant older woman, and the young girl.
Together, they were working tirelessly to break the "seal" of the blankets and get Uchiha Kei out of bed.
"Lord Kei, please, get up! Miss Pakura has already been waiting for you for days!"
Oboro, the woman closest to Uchiha Kei, was the first to speak.
Unfortunately, her soft and adorable voice couldn’t move the heart of a man determined to stay in bed.
Being cute wasn’t enough to give Kei the motivation to break through his "seal."
"I’ve been fighting wars my whole life. Can’t I get some rest?"
Wrapped tightly in his blankets, Kei answered in a muffled voice before covering his head again and going straight back to sleep.
It was as though killing the Third Hokage had completed the work of his entire life.
Seeing that Oboro’s pleas had failed, Kagerō stepped in.
An elegant older woman had to reason properly with the lord of the house.
"My lord, Miss Pakura is a woman worthy of getting to know. She takes her responsibilities very seriously.
"Please meet with her at least once.
"Unless she sees you with her own eyes and receives your approval, Miss Pakura won’t leave.
"She carries the hopes of four thousand people on her shoulders!"
Kagerō’s voice was soft and ticklish, like someone teasing your ear with a cotton swab.
If she had been flirting with Kei, that might have been pleasant.
But Kei knew she wasn’t.
Neither of these two women had come for him!
They were both here because of their own lover, Uchiha Genshinosuke, and they were torturing Kei on his behalf!
Kei was very dissatisfied.
It was the same kind of dissatisfaction a father might feel when his precious daughter secretly ran off with some pig.
Yes.
Genshinosuke had returned.
But he might as well have stayed away.
He had brought a mighty allied force of more than seven thousand shinobi back to Konoha.
Unfortunately, by the time he arrived, the war was already over.
Konoha had already thrown itself into reconstruction.
His return served no purpose other than making Konoha restless once again.
This left Genshinosuke extremely disappointed.
"Damn Konoha! How could it have put up so little resistance?
"If I’d managed to come back this time and earn the merit of saving the village, wouldn’t that have turned everything around?"
That dark thought had crossed Genshinosuke’s mind when he first returned.
Unfortunately, not only had Genshinosuke failed to turn things around, he had also brought back a troublesome burden.
That burden was Pakura of the Sand.
Pakura, the leader of the allied Sunagakure forces, had come this time with genuine sincerity.
She wanted to negotiate with Uchiha Kei.
The four thousand Sand shinobi could no longer return to the Land of Wind.
And in terms of strength, they were incapable of invading Konoha.
With nothing left to their name, their fate was entirely in Uchiha Kei’s hands.
The down-and-out Sand shinobi had perhaps only one thing more than the rogue shinobi who wandered the world begging for a living:
They still possessed a little organizational discipline.
They wanted to find a way to make a living under Kei.
"Isn’t it just four thousand-plus beggars?
"The Land of Wind really is something else.
"If the environment is so difficult to survive in, then just move somewhere with a better environment!
"The shinobi world is huge, and there are plenty of empty places.
"Why send people out every year just to die?"
Kei was furious at having his pleasant sleep disturbed.
Back when Little Bean had discovered that there weren’t many Sand shinobi puppeteers among the forces that had originally invaded Konoha, he had found it strange.
After having Genshinosuke and Kogorō make contact with them, they finally understood the reason.
These were all Sand shinobi who were incapable of learning Puppet Technique.
Every year, these people had to invade Konoha and throw their lives away.
If they won, they earned the right to survive and could extort supplies from Konoha.
If they lost, they at least reduced the burden on Sunagakure.
There was something almost reminiscent of nomadic peoples preying upon agricultural societies.
There were certainly some powerful shinobi among them.
But puppeteers were scarce.
That was because in Sunagakure, a single puppeteer could be used as effectively as two ordinary shinobi while only consuming one person’s share of food.
A powerful ordinary shinobi couldn’t provide that kind of efficiency.
Therefore, Sunagakure didn’t support idle people.
Everyone had to risk their lives to earn the right to survive.
Kei finally stuck his head out from under the blankets and dismissed the two beautiful women.
"My lord has plenty of money.
"Any problem that can be solved with money isn’t a problem!
"If they’re willing to settle in the Land of Rivers, and I’ll provide all their logistical support, then as long as they don’t produce any resources themselves, I’ll support them."
Uchiha Kei was being exceptionally generous.
He intended to solve the problem with money.
"If Pakura wants to become the daimyō of the Land of Rivers, I’ll support her.
"The circumstances are what they are. It doesn’t matter who negotiates with me.
"So whether I meet her personally or not shouldn’t matter, right?"
Compared with the lives of four thousand Sand shinobi, Kei felt that getting some sleep was more important.
But the two women refused to let him off.
They wanted to secure Genshinosuke an opportunity to appear before Kei—a chance to personally present his achievements.
Whether Pakura counted as a merit or not would depend on how things were explained face-to-face.
After all, Genshinosuke had already been carrying the burden of his previous mistake.
This time, he had rushed back in hopes of accomplishing something meritorious, only to arrive after everything was over.
There was no need to mention how depressed he was.
At the very least, he deserved some credit for his efforts.
Otherwise, Kogorō would end up taking all the credit for the Land of Rivers operation.
Besides, Pakura’s feelings toward Genshinosuke were far too obvious.
The two women needed someone to stand behind them and make the final decision.
And Pakura’s arrival made Genshinosuke even less willing to face Kei.
Genshinosuke knew perfectly well that Kei treated Oboro like his own daughter.
Even though Oboro was actually older than Kei, that wasn’t important.
What mattered was that if Lord Kei discovered that Genshinosuke had gone out, accomplished absolutely nothing, and instead come back with a woman...
Would Lord Kei break all three of his legs?
Probably, right?
Just thinking about it made Genshinosuke’s legs tremble.
He could only beg Oboro and Kagerō to think of a solution for him.
Unfortunately, Kei really wasn’t in the mood to meet anyone lately.
Ever since he had sent Konoha’s various departing factions on their way, Kei had begun hiding away.
He didn’t want anyone disturbing him.
The people of Konoha were too troublesome!
Once you did someone a favor, it became impossible to avoid a second favor.
Then a third.
For example, after Kei’s meeting with Fugaku, he had originally intended to properly hand the burden of Konoha over to him and warn him about some of the hidden schemes behind the scenes, telling him not to let himself be manipulated.
Naturally, their private conversation couldn’t be revealed to anyone else.
But if Kei met Fugaku without letting everyone else know about it, wouldn’t that make people suspicious and unsettled?
Especially after meeting Fugaku, could he really refuse to meet San Chiyo?
After all, San Chiyo was one of the Uchiha’s most steadfast supporters of Kei.
But after meeting San Chiyo, could he really refuse to meet the Kurama Clan, which had supported the Uchiha Clan from beginning to end?
And after the Kurama, what about the Hyūga Clan, currently Konoha’s most powerful clan?
Then there were the Ino-Shika-Chō clans, who had brought a huge amount of military funding to Konoha and the Fourth Hokage.
Once he started meeting people, the list simply went on and on.
And most of these people didn’t even have anything serious to discuss with Kei.
Kei didn’t interfere in Konoha’s affairs.
They could discuss things among themselves.
And once Kei made a decision, they wouldn’t dare oppose him. They would certainly carry it out with all their strength.
As a result, these meetings were extremely perfunctory and official.
Their symbolic significance was far greater than their practical significance.
Their main purpose was to reassure the lower-ranking shinobi and the members of the clans who had been unsettled by the war.
The worst part was that every time Kei met with another clan leader, he gained another title.
If one wanted to address Uchiha Kei properly now, one would apparently have to say:
"Uchiha Kei, the **Uncrowned King of the Land of Fire, the Guardian of the Entire Central Continent, the Shadow Above Shadows of Konoha, the Chosen of the Gods, the Spiritual Leader of the Uchiha, the Child of Destiny, the King of Monsters, the Restorer of Uzumaki Honor, the Natural Lord of the Red-Eyed and Ketsuryūgan People, the City Destroyer, the Ruler of the Amatsukami and Kunitsukami, the One Who Enfeoffs the Gods in Heaven’s Name, Uchiha Kei!"
With a name like that, even checking into a hotel would be troublesome!
There was far too much exaggeration in this string of titles.
Even Kei himself was embarrassed by it.
At least Kei had more shame than certain people.
Besides, what Kei wanted was the freedom to do nothing whenever he wanted.
He didn’t want to be surrounded by people praising him and insisting that he had to accomplish some grand, world-shaking dream.
Wasn’t even the simple wish to sleep allowed anymore?
The answer was no.
Even if the people of Konoha finally left Kei alone, the girls from Nanga whom Kei had spoiled rotten wouldn’t let him rest.
They needed Kei to stand up for them in front of outsiders.
Especially when that outsider happened to be an exceptionally capable woman.
Finally, driven completely mad by the disturbance, Kei poked his head out from under the blankets.
He glared irritably at the two beautiful women.
"Don’t you two know that disturbing someone’s pleasant dream is a truly terrible thing to do?"
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