Darkness stretched on without end, yet humanity was always striving for fairness.
But fairness was something even the gods did not believe in.
Take what was happening now. If the surrounding Uchiha clansmen saw the transformation of these two women, they would surely cry out in protest at the injustice.
They trained themselves to the point of madness.
They trained relentlessly.
And in the end, their results were inferior to those of two women who had merely been whispering to each other.
Heaven had never rewarded diligence!
But what did injustice matter?
Myths were the stories of gods.
Whomever a god wished to bless, that god would bless.
Simply because the god was willing to.
These two short-lived Uchiha women, who should have died young, now had their own missions to fulfill.
Naturally, they needed to accept the will of the gods.
Thus, two Pseudo-Mangekyō Sharingan were born.
Their power surpassed the Three-Tomoe Sharingan but remained weaker than the true Mangekyō Sharingan, allowing the two frail women to leap directly into the ranks of the strong.
Neither possessed the blessing of Susanoo, yet one had the dōjutsu Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, while the other possessed Kushinadahime.
Uchiha Mikoto’s Ashinazuchi could summon a sea of sake, while Tenazuchi could cause the summoned sea of sake to evaporate into an intoxicating fragrance that bewitched the mind.
When the two abilities were combined with the Uchiha Clan’s mastery of Fire Release, enemies could be killed while lost in a drunken dream.
Such a dōjutsu could be considered a strategic-level technique.
At least in terms of its area of effect, it truly summoned an entire sea.
Uchiha Izumi’s Kushinadahime, on the other hand, was rather unimpressive.
It was a support-type dōjutsu that could only strengthen another person’s Susanoo.
Its greatest advantage was that it could empower multiple Susanoo simultaneously.
In that respect, she and Uchiha Itachi were practically a match made in heaven.
When the two women worked together, their two Three-Tomoe Sharingan, each possessing its own dōjutsu, could actually summon a Susanoo wielding the Three Sacred Treasures.
One plus one was definitely greater than two.
The Uchiha of Konoha now seemed to have gained a little more capital.
At the very least, they had gained a little more capital with which to speak loudly.
It seemed that some existence was doing its best to balance the disparity in strength between the various Uchiha factions.
Unfortunately, its efforts could not keep up with Uchiha Kei’s luck.
Kei had gained far too much from this trip to the Land of Grass.
Although the power he could currently draw from the Chakra Network was still rather limited, and its coverage was not particularly large, it could already double an individual’s original chakra reserves.
As the divine authorities of the Four Heavenly Sovereigns continued to grow, as ordinary Tailed Beasts continued to increase in number, and as he eventually gathered the final Sin Tailed Beast, Kei believed that he could create a Chakra Network covering the entire shinobi world.
At that point, by combining the increased chakra reserves provided by his sealing and summoning-beast technology, the support of the Chakra Network in the heavens, and the growing number of Tailed Beasts, creating a world where everyone was a jinchūriki might not even be impossible.
Of course, the vision sounded magnificent.
But the phenomena currently being displayed were somewhat deceptive.
The Uchiha were not yet powerful enough to break through the heavens.
Ultimately, the Four Heavenly Sovereigns were merely four spirits that had evolved from creatures the size of thumbs into beings the size of palms, becoming subordinate gods of this world.
They still could not transcend this world’s power level.
Even their own strength could only increase when the world itself advanced.
They were essentially employees working under the will of the universe.
Their function was somewhat similar to the Saints of a higher-level universe, such as the Saints of the Primordial World, but their power was nowhere near comparable.
After all, in a small world like the Naruto world, forget Saints—even a Great Firmament Golden Immortal could casually create dozens of beings of that level.
But so what?
Kei was not living in an infinite universe.
With his current strength, being able to run rampant throughout the shinobi world was already enough.
The entire Uchiha Clan fell into a frenzy of celebration.
Himawari’s figure soaring through the sky ignited the enthusiasm of the Uchiha.
The cheers belonged to every Uchiha.
But the actual benefits belonged to Uchiha Kei himself.
Kei clenched both hands and collected the four newly acquired Tailed Beasts.
"Humans really should travel more often. You never know when you’ll stumble across something good!"
Five Tailed Beasts revolved within Uchiha Kei’s hands, forming a complete cycle with the Hypocrisy within his body.
Only one gear was missing.
Once that final gear was added, an engine drawing its power from Heaven and Earth would be born.
And the chain reactions caused by the battle in the Land of Grass were absolutely not limited to this.
By reenacting the myth of Maitreya, the Future Buddha, purifying the world, the Uchiha Clan had brought the authority of Truth into the universe.
Thus, every Uchiha had gained the opportunity to reach enlightenment.
At critical moments, they could suddenly understand things that had previously eluded them.
Such an insight could be enough to change the outcome of a desperate situation.
The mythology of ōkuninushi-no-Kami had increased the power of Uchiha weapons.
The concept of a Divine Artifact was another harvest for the Uchiha Clan.
But it had also brought a negative consequence.
The failure of ōkuninushi had caused the previously invincible gods to acquire another concept:
Gods could be driven away.
They might not be killable.
But they could be defeated and forced to retreat.
Once this understanding was confirmed, various methods of expelling gods would inevitably appear.
The worst of all was the failure of the Evil God Buddha.
That mythological performance had brought the concept of "sleep" into existence.
Although this had not brought the Uchiha any immediate benefit, it had nevertheless verified many things.
For example, gods might not be killable.
But they could be put to sleep.
That was one method of defeating a god.
The Buddha had not died.
He had merely transformed into a spiritual jewel and fallen into slumber.
But a sleep lasting thousands or even tens of thousands of years was enough to completely sever a god’s relationship with human society.
Given enough time, humanity would forget that god.
And a forgotten god would eventually degenerate into a monster.
For a god that had fallen into the status of a monster to become a god again, it would have to pay a far greater price.
The monsters in Nanga who worked themselves to death accumulating faith just to obtain a single shrine had essentially become laborers.
That alone was proof enough.
But impersonating Kaguya’s had been Uchiha Kei’s most profitable mythological performance.
It had returned the authority of the Creator to the will of the universe.
The mythology of Kaguya’s had seized the authority that the Sage of Six Paths had coveted but could never truly control, greatly weakening the power of the native gods and Sages.
The dimming of Mount Myōboku and the Shikkotsu Forest stood in stark contrast to the radiant triumph of the Heaven-Extending Divine Realm.
Fortunately, Shikkotsu Forest only needed a single Sage.
If Mount Myōboku wanted to produce another Sage, it would have to go through a great deal of trouble.
But even these were not Kei’s greatest gains.
Uchiha Kei had written the legends of the Four Gods of Chaos, earning the recognition of the will of the universe.
In addition to obtaining four Tailed Beasts, Kei had also obtained authority over the Four Gods.
These corresponded to the emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, manifesting as Wealth, Rage, Wine, and Lust, and granting Kei four conceptual-level techniques.
The one he liked most was Joyful Wealth.
This technique allowed Kei to lend his power to anyone, whether or not they were his subordinate.
They did not need faith.
They did not need loyalty.
They only needed to sign a contract with him.
A contracted individual could then obtain an opponent’s chakra by defeating them.
However, every time the contractor absorbed someone else’s chakra, a certain percentage had to be returned to the Chakra Network.
The more shinobi a contractor defeated, the more chakra they had to contribute to the Chakra Network.
It was practically a pyramid-scheme mastermind rolling his profits into an ever-growing snowball.
As for Pleasurable Lust, which bewitched the mind; Sorrowful Wine, which weakened the will; and Wrathful Rage, which manipulated the mind, Kei regarded them as nothing more than large-scale ninjutsu.
They were extremely powerful in mass combat.
They could repeatedly manipulate people’s emotions:
Joy.
Sorrow.
Joy.
Sorrow.
Joy.
Sorrow...
Until the victim finally collapsed and became incapable of recognizing even their own family.
But they were ineffective against people with sufficiently strong wills.
"The Toilet God only has this much ability?"
Kei did not value these techniques.
Nanga already possessed far too many strategic-level techniques of similar caliber.
When something became abundant, it became cheap.
Even nuclear weapons.
The anticipated authorities of Omniscience, Space-Time, Judgment, and Vengeance had also appeared.
But Kei had not yet obtained the opportunity to control them.
Therefore, he had not received the corresponding rewards from the will of the universe.
Loulan seemed to have opened the door to space-time, while the Uchiha had obtained the key.
That was rather interesting.
As for the rewards for Vengeance and Judgment, they had been granted to the Uchiha of Konoha.
This left Kei rather confused.
What exactly determined how these rewards were distributed?
Still, what he had obtained was more than enough to make him happy.
He happily counted his gains, becoming completely immersed in them.
After quickly reviewing his own condition, he began considering his next move.
According to his plan, he needed to seize as many authorities as possible, dilute existing faith, and increase his own strength.
Everything he obtained represented something the Sage of Six Paths had lost.
As one side rose while the other declined, the imbalance in strength would eventually be broken.
The problem was that nobody knew exactly what methods the Sage of Six Paths had developed after scheming within the shinobi world for more than a thousand years.
He had acted far too rarely.
There was simply no way to accurately judge him.
Thus, Kei remained somewhat cautious.
But the Sage of Six Paths could not fully understand Kei’s methods either.
After all, an illiterate who had no idea what it meant to weave destiny could never understand how someone could use reasonable bullshit to secure benefits for himself.
Before Kei could finish indulging in his own brilliance, a flash of golden light appeared.
The Golden Flash of the Hidden Whirlpool Village—Minato Namikaze.
The moment he appeared, he frowned as he looked at the shattered Land of Grass.
His heart was filled with displeasure.
"Uchiha Kei, what have you done this time?"
The strong were always inexplicably confident.
Now that Minato had become somewhat stronger, he subconsciously placed Uchiha Kei in the position of a weakling.
And Kei’s response was to test his newest ability.
The stronger Kei became, the more he hated talking.
If you could solve something with your hands, why bother talking?
Kei waved his hand.
A pink fragrance drifted through the air.
The anger in Minato’s eyes changed in the very next instant.
He genuinely had not expected Uchiha Kei, someone who had always shown goodwill toward the Hidden Whirlpool Village, to attack him the moment he arrived.
Just as Kei had never expected the leader of a small village under Nanga’s command to question him the moment he arrived.
This called for a lesson.
As Kei acted, the Uchiha Kei before Minato’s eyes suddenly transformed into the image of Kushina.
Not the adult Kushina.
But the stubborn girl he had fallen in love with at first sight in his youth.
Seeing that girl, Minato’s eyes softened.
Everything in the Land of Grass suddenly ceased to matter.
Even the anger that had just risen within him vanished.
Minato reached out his hand, intending to touch his lost youth.
His trembling lips had just begun to form words when his body became as unresponsive as if he were drunk.
His will weakened.
His consciousness began to blur.
The person before his eyes continuously shifted between the hateful Uchiha Kei and the young Kushina.
Only then did Minato realize that he had fallen under a genjutsu.
He tried to break it.
But he simply could not control his emotions or body.
At one moment, he was furious.
The next, delighted.
Then calm and numb.
Then violently irritable.
His entire being was manipulated in the palm of Uchiha Kei’s hand.
His emotions were repeatedly toyed with.
His heart was tormented.
His will was destroyed.
Until his sanity finally collapsed.
He crumpled to the ground as though he had been completely broken.
Seeing Minato lose his combat ability the moment he arrived, Kei shook his head.
"Forty-Two Labor of Emotions Formation. This thing really has something to it."
The richer a person’s emotions, the greater the damage.
Kei felt that he had underestimated this combination.
The very fact that humans were called human meant that regardless of how excellent their reputation was, so long as they could not let go of their seven emotions and six desires, they would inevitably become prisoners of their emotions.
Looking at the incapacitated Minato, Kei released the technique.
Minato lay on the ground and looked at Kei with disbelief.
"What did you do to me?"
Kei did not even bother looking down at the powerless Minato.
Instead, he raised his head toward the sky.
"Minato-san, instead of worrying about that, why don’t you take a look at your precious student?"
Following Kei’s words, Minato looked toward the heavens.
Because the Buddha’s Dharma Body had vanished, numerous meteorites were falling from the sky.
Kei had personally controlled these meteorites.
Naturally, he knew where the disaster should land.
But one meteorite had gone out of control.
It no longer obeyed Kei.
And it was falling toward a place where it absolutely should not have fallen.
Obito, who was rampaging through the Kannabi Bridge area beneath a Susanoo, had taken the full force of the meteorite.
And that was not all.
The White Zetsu surrounding him had simultaneously detonated themselves.
As a result, the entire Kannabi Bridge disappeared.
Every trace of what had happened was erased.
Nobody knew exactly what had occurred there.
Nobody knew whether anyone could have survived such a catastrophe.
Minato froze.
He did not know what to say.
This was something he had never anticipated.
He had thought Obito could handle things on his own.
That was why he had chosen to come to the Land of Grass.
But the Land of Grass did not need him.
And Obito, who did need him, seemed to have...
Minato did not dare continue the thought.
Kei shook his head.
"Boring. This is really boring."
With the word boring, he gave everything that had just happened its final judgment.
Obito’s death at his own hands was simply too deliberate.
But it did not matter.
Even if Six Paths Madara came, Kei would not be afraid.
Much less Uchiha Obito.
The reason Kei called it boring was because something far more interesting was happening in the Land of Wind.
Kei had hastily left Nanga to seek some entertainment.
Perhaps, deep down, he was unwilling to witness more farewells.
Whether it was Uchiha Tsubame leaving, or Oboro, Gensuke, Koshirō, and Chikako getting married, all of it heralded separation.
It meant that the days when everyone could simply play together would no longer be the norm.
From then on, living at opposite ends of the world and rarely seeing one another would become the reality of life.
That was why he had embarked on this journey.
Kei, who was escaping reality, was somewhat melancholy.
But Oboro, the bride who had already married and left home, was filled with happiness.
It was almost like the difference between an old father giving away his daughter and a newlywed bride.
At this moment, in the vast desert, Gensuke and Koshirō, the two newlywed husbands, were traveling toward the Land of Wind.
They had only recently settled in the Land of Rivers.
After completing the reorganization and training of the shinobi there, they had received a diplomatic letter from the Land of Wind.
The Sand Shinobi had decided to completely open themselves to the Land of Rivers.
They were even preparing to join the Nanga Alliance.
The condition was that the Land of Rivers would likewise open its shinobi missions to the Sand.
In other words, illegal immigration was being legalized.
It was essentially the same relationship that had once existed between the Land of Rain and Konoha, except that this time it would be made completely public.
In other words, as long as Konoha was willing to support them, they would become Konoha’s mercenaries.
This was a tremendous achievement.
The two newlyweds also knew that they had run off with Lord Kei’s maid.
That meant Lord Kei was currently displeased with them.
If they could facilitate this agreement, it would undoubtedly be a major achievement.
It would also serve as an explanation to Lord Kei.
Thus, the two men departed with an escort consisting of forty Uchiha and five hundred Red-Eyes.
But they never expected to accidentally enter Loulan.
This group of Uchiha had crossed into another timeline.
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