The most tragic thing in this world was that, more often than not, those without any moral boundaries were the ones lecturing those who still possessed some sense of morality, teaching them how to become more virtuous.
In Konoha, the Third Hokage was launching the final mobilization for the memorial ceremony.
Within the shrine of the Naka Shrine, Uchiha Kei had made a rare appearance.
He did not appear before the public, however. Supported by Oboro and Uchiha Sayuri , he listened to reports from the Uchiha about their day-to-day affairs while waiting for the final results of an operation.
Hyōma and Azusai had returned.
And they had brought back more than two thousand five hundred pairs of Red Eyes.
The extermination campaign against the Red-Eye Clan had wiped the clan completely from the shinobi world.
From now on, no one would remember that they had ever existed.
Yet the massacre had brought Uchiha Kei an unexpected surprise.
Quite a few of them had awakened their eyes.
One had even reached the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
The Red Eye manifested tomoe upon awakening, while the Sharingan manifested tomoe in a different pattern.
Kei toyed with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan before joking with his subordinates.
"How interesting. I wonder if all ocular bloodline limits evolve through emotional instability."
"I wonder whether slaughtering those Uchiha in Konoha would also produce a few Mangekyō Sharingan."
The Uchiha around him clearly had no idea what was funny about the joke.
Nor did they think their lord’s words were excessive.
In their minds, they were the true Uchiha.
The Uchiha in Konoha were merely a bunch of poor relatives who wanted to follow in their footsteps but constantly dragged them down.
Only Azusai, the operative who had carried out this mission, looked somewhat awkward.
"Um... My lord, we didn’t actually exterminate the entire Red-Eye Clan. Some survivors were fortunate enough to remain alive. We’ve kept them in captivity."
"Oh?"
Kei put down the Red Eye in his hand, suddenly interested in hearing the rest.
Those on the front lines had their own battlefield intelligence.
Those commanding from the rear needed to give the people on the front sufficient autonomy.
One absolutely could not interfere with every little detail and micromanage the battlefield from hundreds of miles away.
Seeing that his lord was interested, Azusai was happy to continue his report.
"My lord, I don’t know whether the bloodline trait of someone who receives an eye transplant can be inherited by their descendants."
"The Red Eye and the Sharingan are simply too similar. The only obvious difference is the pattern that appears after awakening—the Red Eye develops tomoe, while the Sharingan develops its own tomoe pattern."
Azusai bowed slightly.
"My lord needs more Uchiha clansmen. The Red Eyes are the perfect disguise. Although they aren’t as powerful as the Sharingan, and we don’t even know whether they can evolve beyond the Three-Tomoe stage, no one would question it if we claimed they were a branch family of the Uchiha."
"I was worried they might become extinct, so I deliberately kept some children who know nothing about the situation and placed sealing techniques on them."
It wasn’t that Azusai had suddenly developed compassion.
He was simply worried that if the transplanted bloodline could not be inherited, they would only have created a single generation of branch-family Uchiha before the Red-Eye Clan disappeared completely.
So they had preserved some children.
They would serve as breeding stock to ensure that the Red Eyes could continue to be cultivated.
Kei burst out laughing after hearing this.
"Well done, Mr. Azusai."
Those who had received the transplanted Red Eyes would eventually become a branch family of the Uchiha.
As for whether someone like Neji Hyūga might emerge from this branch family in the future, Kei wasn’t worried in the slightest.
So what if someone like that appeared?
What kind of waves could they possibly make?
None.
"Where are Gennosuke and Koshiro? Why didn’t they return with you? Oboro and Uchiha Sayuri are still waiting for the two of them to get married!"
Kei already knew what had happened with Gennosuke.
But he had no intention of blaming him.
The order to subjugate the Red-Eye Clan had been issued by Kei himself.
The people carrying out the mission had also been appointed by him.
The details of how they accomplished it weren’t important.
As long as they acted according to the objective he had given them, that was enough.
As for the outcome, that too had remained uncertain until Kei himself interrupted the original plan.
Although everyone believed the incident had been Gennosuke’s fault, things had already reached this point.
A superior who was willing to shoulder the blame for his subordinates would naturally earn their loyalty.
And it wasn’t as though Kei’s leadership had truly caused the problem.
Even if it had, who would actually dare blame him?
Besides, winning a little goodwill never hurt.
Subordinates were naturally moved by such a leader.
But when their lord brought up Gennosuke, everyone’s expressions became rather strange.
Gennosuke hadn’t returned for exactly the reason Kei had once joked about.
That bastard really did seem to have the protagonist’s fate.
Whenever he caused a huge disaster, he would somehow stumble into an even greater opportunity and perform some incredible deed.
Koshiro hadn’t returned because he had been dragged along by Gennosuke.
The Kōga Group and Iga Group had an unspoken agreement.
Whenever a member of the Kōga Group went on a mission, someone from the Iga Group would accompany them.
Neither side would allow the other to monopolize the good fortune.
The same went in reverse.
It could be explained as sharing credit.
It could also be explained as supervision.
Azusai awkwardly glanced at Oboro.
He didn’t know how to answer.
Seeing his expression, Kei decided not to make things difficult for him.
Instead, he turned toward the straightforward Kasumi Gyōbu.
"Kasumi Gyōbu, you tell me."
Kasumi Gyōbu had no intention of hiding anything.
"My lord, that bastard Gennosuke has gotten involved with the female commander of the Sand shinobi. He’s too busy flirting with her to come home."
Azusai sucked in a sharp breath.
He hurriedly looked toward their princess.
Fortunately, she appeared not to have heard a word.
She was still happily stealing snacks from her lord’s plate without a care in the world.
Only then did Azusai relax.
He quickly explained,
"My lord, Gennosuke knows that he is guilty. But he has also discovered an opportunity to atone by rendering a great service."
"You gave Gennosuke far too much money. Although he wasted quite a bit of it, he still has plenty left."
"Gennosuke intends to use that money to accomplish something major. If he succeeds, he may be able to wash away the stain of his mistake. He hopes you will grant him permission."
There were some things one needed to understand.
Just because one’s superior said, "You did nothing wrong," didn’t mean one could truly convince oneself that one had done nothing wrong.
You still needed to know exactly what you had done.
Your superior might tolerate your mistakes.
Others might not.
Kei waved his hand.
"Go ahead. Spend it."
Then he added,
"All of you remember this. Don’t try to save money for me. I have plenty of it."
"You need to understand something: for us, money that gets spent is real money. Money that remains in our hands is nothing more than paper."
Kei, who could exchange points for enormous quantities of currency, felt like a walking mint.
Sooner or later, he would probably destroy the shinobi world’s economy through inflation alone.
Rather than hoard money until that happened, he might as well spend as much as possible beforehand.
After all, he could still exchange points for supplies.
Even if the entire monetary system collapsed, it wouldn’t affect his own life or that of his subordinates.
And disrupting the trade system established by the daimyō was actually beneficial to Kei.
This was what Kei jokingly regarded as breaking the daimyō’s monetary hegemony.
Therefore, Kei never cared about his subordinates spending money extravagantly.
What did interest him was how little Oboro seemed to care about her fiancé’s behavior.
"Oboro, your fiancé is flirting with another woman, and you don’t care?"
Oboro, who was eating like a hamster, answered while clutching a pastry.
"My lord, I have confidence in myself."
Kei was genuinely in an excellent mood today.
"Hahaha! Our Oboro really is confident!"
Although Oboro was older than Kei, he had lived through two lifetimes.
He had always been accustomed to treating Oboro like a daughter.
Oboro dusted the crumbs from her hands.
"Of course I am! My lord, have you forgotten about my eyes?"
"As long as I refuse to acknowledge something, it doesn’t exist!"
As she spoke, she confidently pointed at her own eyes.
Kei was so furious that, despite his seriously ill condition, he dragged himself over and smacked her on the head.
"Idiot! Your eyes are our most important strategic resource. Don’t you dare use them for nonsense!"
Oboro clutched her head, tears welling up in her eyes.
She secretly swore that she would steal every last one of Lord Kei’s snacks as revenge.
Kei couldn’t be bothered with this little girl who would apparently never grow up.
It wasn’t really her fault.
Everyone spoiled her.
It would be stranger if she actually grew up.
He would just leave the headache to her future husband.
Kei turned back toward Azusai.
"How many Tailed Beasts did you create this time?"
"Three. Koshiro is still continuing the Tailed Beast project."
"Then give Hyōma’s operation a Tailed Beast as well."
"Yes, my lord."
That’s right.
The reason Kei was in such a good mood today was because there was finally hope for his body.
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