The Uchiha clan, which was wiped out entirely, lacked vision.

Chapter 291 All for Konoha Village

"A bright future?"

Seeing that even his respected Mizuki-sama was so short-sighted, Itachi felt a deep sense of sorrow.

He is an intelligent and sensitive person, and coupled with his cold-hearted nature, he is not tempted by interests or emotions, which often allows him to observe from the sidelines with detachment.

This allowed him to avoid being blinded by the glittering facade and to see directly through the false prosperity to the most real and core issues.

He saw everything that was happening in the village clearly.

"People's hearts are restless" is an understatement; most families have already given up on themselves.

Many families nowadays are desperately trying to gain benefits for themselves, much like the madness of someone on their deathbed.

Even if Konoha Village collapses in the future, they will need enough wealth to escape and live in other neutral countries.

The desperate attempt to cram people into the "Trial of the Brave" teams is simply a helpless choice made by various races in their desperation to protect themselves.

Everyone understood these things implicitly, and no one spoke of them except for Kazuma and his group who came from Kyoto.

Oh, and those low-level ninjas were also kept in the dark.

They could fool Kazuma and Lord Xugu, but how could they fool Itachi, who grew up in the village since childhood?

What Kazuma and the others saw was perhaps the appearance of Wood Release ninjas, the smooth reconstruction of the village, and the restoration of the village's strength, while what Itachi saw was the change in the atmosphere of the village.

He watched as the villagers' hearts gradually crumbled with each defeat, and as the ordinary ninjas grew increasingly irritable day by day.

If it were the Itachi of the past, he might have secretly killed those parasites who were dragging the village down. But after what happened with Uchiha An, Itachi has matured a lot and will no longer make such simple and crude decisions.

He can identify problems, but he lacks the ability to solve them.

He had initially thought that perhaps Lord Ma had other plans for this, and he shouldn't speak carelessly, but now he really had no choice but to speak up.

"Master Shuimu, have you been keeping track of what's happening with the various clans in the village?"

"Oh, all the tribes are working very hard now, everyone is working hard for the reconstruction of the village!" Mizuki replied confidently.

"No, Lord Mizuki, these are all just appearances. In reality, they are all secretly exploiting the lower-level ninjas and desperately trying to gain benefits for their clans."

"Hey, Itachi, you're being too sensitive," Mizuki said dismissively. "Politics often requires compromises with the ninja clans."

"The reconstruction of the village requires the help of the ninja clan. As long as they don't go too far, the village won't blame them for it."

""

"Lord Jiraiya just doesn't understand this principle. He offended all the ninja clans, and in the end, he couldn't even save his own life."

"Lord Kazuma would never make such a mistake."

"But if we do that—" Itachi was about to continue trying to persuade Mizuki, but Mizuki raised his hand, interrupting him.

"Itachi, I know you're doing this for the village's good, but even if the village has some minor problems, they can be gradually resolved over time. There's absolutely no need to take the risk of opening that Paradise Box."

"Perhaps Itachi, you don't know, but the Land of Grass was once a powerful nation, yet it was destroyed overnight, most likely because of that 'Box of Elysium.'"

"I strongly oppose you opening the Box of Ecstasy before I obtain complete information about it."

"Alright, that's enough for now. I still have work to do. You should go back and rest."

Mizuki casually tossed the scroll containing the "Box of Elysium" back into Itachi's arms, then waved for him to leave.

Itachi walked out the door with his head down, stood in the middle of the square, looked around, and felt lost.

People were coming and going around, and many were busy. It did seem to resemble the prosperity of Konoha Village in its heyday. However, upon closer inspection, one could see that these people had blank expressions, rarely smiled, and had heavy frowns between their brows.

It's far inferior to what it was when Konoha was at its peak, not even compared to when the Fourth Shinobi World War just ended a few months ago.

Although the villagers suffered many casualties at that time, behind their sorrowful faces were glimmers of hope.

But now, although few people died in the destruction of the village, most people's faces are filled with confusion, unease, panic, and helplessness.

All sorts of negative emotions made Itachi, with his strong senses, feel as if a huge stone was constantly pressing on his mind, making him restless day and night.

He wandered aimlessly through the streets and unknowingly arrived near the Hokage Rock.

Because of the previous turmoil, the new Hokage Rock has never been recarved, and it is now just a large, solid stone wall.

He looked up blankly at the empty space above, where the stone statues of the three generations had once stood.

He has never missed three generations as much as he does now.

Feeling lost, he desperately needed guidance from others.

Compared to the way Kazuma and Mizuki do things, he always felt that the Third Generation Elder was more suitable to be the village leader.

Even when the village faced enormous difficulties while the three generations were still alive, they always seemed to have a solution.

No matter when or where, the three generations always give people a sense of reliability and trustworthiness, and never plunge people into panic.

This is something that Kazuma and Mizuki will never be able to do.

Therefore, although he was used by the Third Hokage to exterminate his entire family, and was betrayed by the Third Hokage to bow down and apologize to Uchiha An—

But as long as it's for the good of the village, he's willing to accept any of this.

As long as it's for the good of the village —

Itachi looked down at the scroll in his hand, stood there for a long time, and finally made up his mind, slowly unrolling the scroll.

Given the current state of Konoha Village, conventional methods are no longer sufficient to reverse the situation. Only by devising innovative and unconventional approaches to inject a powerful boost into the village can the current stalemate be broken and Konoha Village be revitalized.

As soon as the reel opened, with a "whoosh," a huge metal box, about five or six meters long and wide, was released.

The box is engraved with the inscription "All things return to bliss". Each of the four sides of the box has a relief of a ghost or deity, with different expressions of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness.

The box was quite large and heavy. When it landed on the ground, it made a loud "boom" and kicked up a lot of dust, immediately attracting the attention of the surrounding ninjas.

Immediately, ninjas rushed towards them, shouting, "Itachi, what are you doing?"