"What’s wrong with that? Lord Kei said it himself: history is written by the victors. We won. Therefore, whatever we say becomes the truth."
Kasumi Gyōbu continued lecturing Gen’nosuke.
"Of course it works. But Gen’nosuke, this means you need to have a talk with the Sand Shinobi!"
Kasumi Gyōbu had come carrying Mr. Azukisai’s intentions.
"Now is your chance to atone through meritorious service. Use your newly awakened ability to get the Sand Shinobi to cooperate with the performance. This is Mr. Azukisai’s request. If you accomplish it, everyone will plead your case before Lord Kei."
"Of course, that depends on you honestly reporting what happened and actually accomplishing something."
"Yes, I understand. Please assure Mr. Azukisai that I won’t let him down."
Gen’nosuke put aside his habitual pity for others.
Perhaps he really did need to live differently from now on.
He just didn’t know who could give his life an answer.
Shishirō, who had been frantically harvesting eyes, overheard the conversation between Gyōbu and Gen’nosuke. He stopped what he was doing.
After spending all this time together, he still couldn’t bring himself to trust Gen’nosuke, this complete idiot.
Lord Kei was extremely tolerant of Gen’nosuke. He jokingly called him the Uchiha’s most unpredictable shinobi, saying that Gen’nosuke always managed to create miracles.
He could somehow ruin a good thing, only to turn the resulting disaster into something spectacular.
The man practically had a protagonist’s luck.
Who knew? Perhaps one day they really would have to rely on this fool to create a miracle and turn a losing situation around.
But Shishirō didn’t believe that.
Lord Kei was obviously just teasing Gen’nosuke. With Lord Kei leading the Uchiha, how could they possibly fail?
So Shishirō still thought it was best to keep an eye on this idiot Gen’nosuke.
His good looks had clearly been purchased with his intelligence.
Seeing Gen’nosuke forcing himself to keep going, Shishirō finally offered him a rare word of comfort, partly because of their long-standing friendship and partly out of consideration for Oboro.
"Gen’nosuke, don’t let yourself grieve over outsiders. The reason we think the flowers growing on a cliff are beautiful is because we stop at the edge of the cliff. We aren’t like those fearless flowers that can take a step toward the sky."
"You were shaken by what Benmaru did, but you’ve forgotten something: history has never decided victory and defeat based on moral virtue."
Shishirō hoped Gen’nosuke would understand.
People who had been raised on ideals and beliefs were often unwilling to accept that good people could lose or that villains could possess noble convictions.
After all, that wasn’t how the stories they heard growing up were supposed to end.
But once reality taught them the lesson, they would understand.
Heroes often met miserable ends, while the unscrupulous were usually the ones who succeeded.
And lofty slogans were nothing more than tools created by the victors to inspire those who came after them to sacrifice themselves.
Those words had become the propaganda of the people who benefited from victory—and the beneficiaries themselves didn’t even believe them.
"’Though lowly in station, they never forget their duty to their clan’ is a fine virtue. The ordinary people under the Uchiha need to recognize and embrace that virtue."
"The Uchiha need their devotion."
Kasumi Gyōbu chimed in at just the right moment.
"Don’t you think you’re treating those who sacrificed themselves for the Land of Rivers rather horribly? At least show them some respect."
Gen’nosuke still had some sentimentality left in him.
Gyōbu, however, laughed.
He was ugly enough normally, and his smile only made him look worse.
"Gen’nosuke, how many times does Lord Kei have to teach you this before you understand? Don’t judge a person by what they say. Look at what they do."
"What do you mean?"
Shishirō picked up the thread.
"What Gyōbu means is that, judging from Benmaru’s actions, he wasn’t nearly as noble as you think."
"He didn’t hate the nobles. He hated the fact that the Red-Eyes weren’t nobles themselves."
"He didn’t want to become an upper-class member beneath the Uchiha. What he wanted was to become one of the upper class in the Land of Rivers."
"Really?"
Gen’nosuke had actually begun to believe it.
But Gyōbu still wanted to deliver the final proof.
"Mr. Azukisai collected Benmaru’s soul, and a Zero-Tails called Hypocrisy was born."
"One person alone was enough to awaken a Zero-Tails. Benmaru really was an extraordinary fellow."
"Even in death, he managed to play you for a fool, Gen’nosuke!"
With that, Gyōbu opened a Sealing Scroll and stored Benmaru’s eyes inside.
Then he left laughing loudly.
The same thing was happening in the hands of forty or fifty Uchiha around them.
Watching the Kōga’s unanimously recognized idiot lecture him like this, Gen’nosuke was completely convinced.
He asked timidly, "Gyōbu... am I really that hopeless?"
Gyōbu didn’t stop walking.
Eventually, without turning around, he said:
"Perhaps you’ve simply become too powerful. That’s why you’ve become intoxicated by the abilities you’ve gained and gradually forgotten to look at things from the perspective of the weak."
"That’s normal."
"As long as you don’t forget the mission Lord Kei entrusted to you, you’re still a good Uchiha."
"Gen’nosuke, carry today’s humiliation with you and keep moving forward. Once you’ve washed away that humiliation, you won’t be troubled by what happened today anymore."
Kasumi Gyōbu walked away feeling refreshed.
Sure enough, spending time around Lord Kei and the others had improved the way he spoke.
What he didn’t know was that all of this had been arranged by Mr. Azukisai.
This time, the Uchiha had three objectives in the Land of Rivers, arranged from the least important to the most important.
First: obtain the Red-Eye Clan. Whether they were alive or dead didn’t matter. At the very least, their eyes had to belong to the Uchiha.
Second: ensure that a large army appeared on the southwestern border of the Land of Fire and advanced toward Konoha. It didn’t matter whose army it was. As long as it put pressure on Konoha, that was enough.
Third: create as many Zero-Tails as possible.
The more, the better.
Even turning the Land of Rivers into an uninhabited wasteland was acceptable.
But as soon as Mr. Azukisai entered the Land of Rivers, he noticed something was wrong.
The seasoned Azukisai understood that no one could guarantee what would happen the next second.
But unexpected developments didn’t matter.
As long as things ultimately tilted in their favor, everything was fine.
The Red-Eye Clan was attached to its homeland and unwilling to join the Uchiha?
It didn’t matter.
Kill them all and take their eyes.
They could even leave behind an inspiring story to educate the followers serving the Uchiha.
That hardly counted as an unexpected development.
But the Sand Shinobi entering the country were strange.
Sunagakure was famous for its puppet users, yet there were practically no Puppet Masters among the forces it had deployed this time.
An army like that couldn’t possibly attract Konoha’s attention.
Konoha wouldn’t even need to mobilize its main forces. Its border garrison alone could wipe them out.
What exactly was Sunagakure trying to do?
Azukisai had to figure it out.
Fortunately, there was still Gen’nosuke, who was eager to atone through meritorious service.
He could handle this somewhat risky situation.
After all, they were dealing with four or five thousand shinobi. Given how much Lord Kei treasured his subordinates, if even a few of them were injured under Azukisai’s command, Lord Kei would be unhappy.
But Gen’nosuke was different.
He could do whatever he wanted, and Lord Kei wouldn’t mind.
Lord Kei simply disliked the fact that Gen’nosuke was more handsome than him.
So perhaps it was a good idea to give Gen’nosuke a little help when the opportunity arose.
Since Gen’nosuke hadn’t died, he might as well have him do more work.
Let him go and find out what was wrong with the Sand Shinobi.
If that failed, they could even have the shinobi Gen’nosuke had gathered throughout the Land of Rivers join the Sand Shinobi.
That would give them an army of seven or eight thousand.
At the very least, it would make them look impressive.
Even if they couldn’t win, they could still give Konoha a scare.
Of course, the most important thing was still creating Zero-Tails for Lord Kei.
Lord Kei was counting on them to restore his health.
And having Gen’nosuke stir things up wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Creating a Zero-Tails required emotional stimulation.
The more intense and saturated the emotions, the more powerful the resulting Zero-Tails could become.
A Zero-Tails born from the emotion of Original Sin could even rival the One-Tail among the Tailed Beasts.
Hypocrisy, Pride, Wrath, Envy, Greed, Lust, and Sloth—
These were the seven emotions of Original Sin that were the easiest to use as catalysts.
Gen’nosuke happened to be the sort of person whose emotions were exceptionally intense.
Whenever someone interacted with him, the darkness buried within their heart was bound to be stirred up.
Whether they could create the seven most powerful Zero-Tails would depend entirely on just how much trouble Gen’nosuke could cause.
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