They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 273 Uchiha Enters the Hidden Mist

Ninja World Stamp Collection Progress (7/∞).

If Hozuki Shingetsu had a system at this moment, then when he woke up the next morning, a progress bar would definitely appear in his brain with a "ding" sound.

"Yes, Kushina, Yukinagi, Sara, Yakushi Nonou, Konan, Tsunade, and most recently, Uchiha Mikoto... Yes, that's right."

Hozuki Shingetsu lay on the bed, counted on his fingers, and after realizing he hadn't made a mistake, sighed with considerable emotion.

"To think he could still investigate with both hands... After more than twenty years in the ninja world, what a failure of life!"

"But I do remember what was supposed to happen after the Third Shinobi World War, what was supposed to happen?"

Hozuki Shingetsu, with his head resting on the wave, pondered for a while before finally remembering.

"Yakura!"

In the original story, after the Third Shinobi World War, due to the power struggles within Sunagakure, it was ultimately handed over to Kirigakure under the pretext of negotiating peace with Kirigakure.

However, in this world, such a situation is clearly impossible.

There is now a general consensus in the ninja world, including in Kirigakure itself, that the next Shinobi World War will be a war in which the entire ninja world surrounds Kirigakure. So even if Rasa loses his mind, Chiyo and Ebizo will keep him in check and prevent him from doing something reckless and handing Pakura over to Kirigakure.

"What a pity..."

To be able to have such fair skin in the Land of Wind, a desert region with intense sunlight, without any sun protection, is enough to demonstrate Yekura's exceptional talent.

Hozuki Shingetsu couldn't help but mourn for his bull for two seconds.

"Lord Crescent Moon, the members of the evil cult from the Land of Hot Water have been brought back and placed in prison."

Just as Hozuki Shingetsu was in a daze, Akiba Masanobu's voice came from outside.

As one of the four great evils, the evil god can be said to be the easiest or the most difficult prey to hunt.

It's said to be the easiest because if you want to come into contact with an evil god, you must contact the evil god cult.

Among the Demon Country, the Grass Ninja Village, and the Uzumaki Clan, the Evil God Cult is arguably the weakest.

Hozuki Shingetsu didn't even need to go in person; he only needed to assign the task to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, who were able to capture everyone in the evil cult, including its leader.

If we're talking about the difficulty, the essence of summoning the evil god doesn't actually lie in the evil god cult, but rather in Hidan, the only key figure in hundreds of years who has been able to withstand the evil god ritual.

Without Hidan, even if they captured all the members of the Jashin Cult, it would be impossible to attract Jashin.

Judging from his age, Hidan should still be in Yugakure at this time.

Given that Yugakure is a ninja village that has crippled itself by focusing on economic interests, it shouldn't be a problem for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist to enter and kidnap Hidan.

Hozuki Shingetsu casually placed the glass tube containing Uchiha Fugaku's eye on the headboard, then put on his clothes and left the room. The first thing he asked Akiba Masanobu when he saw him was whether he had captured Hidan.

"We've caught him. That kid is currently being held with members of the Evil God Cult."

Akiba Masanobu lowered his gaze, not even glancing at the scenery in the room, and simply reported to Hozuki Shingetsu with his head down.

"Then let's organize an experiment and test the cult's 'invocation ritual' on that kid!"

Hozuki Shingetsu did not go to see Hidan immediately. At this moment, Hidan did not have the power of the Jashin, so seeing him would be meaningless.

Moreover, he is currently in the cooldown period of the Demon King's power, so even if Hidan succeeds soon, they will not be able to meet. In the end, they will have to wait three months before they can carry out the plan to become the jinchūriki of the evil god.

Now that three of the four great evils have been obtained, Hozuki Shingetsu immediately turned his attention to the Box of Elysium, his last prey.

"Any updates on that Box of Bliss?"

"According to intelligence from the Anbu, after paying a heavy price, with the help of the Eight-Tails' power and the treasure left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, Kumogakure has finally succeeded in sealing the monster that escaped from the Box of Bliss."

Akiba Masanobu reported: "However, just as the seal was successfully sealed, a mysterious man in black wearing a mask suddenly appeared out of thin air and snatched away the Box of Bliss along with the Amber Bottle."

"According to the memory search of the ninjas present at the scene, the ninja appeared out of thin air and seemed to possess space-time ninjutsu. Because of this, Kumogakure used it to attack Konoha, suspecting that the current Hokage, Minato Namikaze, stole it... The two ninja villages are currently arguing about this matter."

"A masked man? Space-time ninjutsu?"

When Hozuki Shingetsu heard these two labels, the name Uchiha Obito flashed through his mind instantly.

There was no way around it; those two labels were just too recognizable in the original work, causing Hozuki Shingetsu to subconsciously associate them with Uchiha Obito.

"So they really found one to fleece? Does that mean the Uchiha clan has no tragic heroes besides Obito? Or is this some kind of corrective force from the world's consciousness?"

Upon realizing this, Hozuki Shingetsu immediately turned back, opened the door, and, amidst Uchiha Mikoto's sweet cries, inquired about Uchiha Obito's whereabouts.

Upon learning from Mikoto Uchiha that Obito Uchiha had died in the Fourth Shinobi World War, but that his body had not been recovered, he confirmed his suspicions.

"It seems that Madara Uchiha was well-prepared before he decided to come and fight me... But it doesn't matter, one sheep is one thing, two sheep are another. I have the Rinnegan and several tailed beasts in my hands, Obito Uchiha has lost any chance of success, and is not worth worrying about at all."

Compared to the threat posed by Obito Uchiha himself, what was more distressing for Shingetsu Hozuki was the incident of him taking away the Box of Elysium.

"That thing must have been placed in the Kamui dimension. In this world, he didn't have much interaction with Kakashi Hatake, didn't give Kakashi an eye, and couldn't enter the Kamui dimension through Kakashi... But finding someone in the entire ninja world who knows space-time ninjutsu is like finding a needle in a haystack, isn't it?"

Just thinking about this gives Hozuki Shingetsu a headache.

Originally, I was thinking of taking advantage of the intelligence gap to advance to the Six Paths before the Fourth War started and have a smooth and exhilarating sweeping battle, but I didn't expect that in the end I would still have to have a head-on battle.

"Forget it, judging by this trend, a major war will break out within two or three years anyway. Obito Uchiha will definitely show up then, so we can just take it back then."

Having completely abandoned his plan to advance to the Six Paths before the war began, Hozuki Shingetsu could only focus all his attention on one thing—the relocation of the administrative center.

Due to the "one country, one village" political system in the ninja world, each country actually has two core areas: one is the administrative center area centered on the capital city, and the other is the military center area centered on each ninja village.

In the past, due to the influence of the supreme rulers of various countries, the military center always yielded to the administrative center.

However, Hozuki Shingetsu has now effectively become the ruler of the Land of Water and plans to formally assume the position of Daimyo through a series of "three resignations and three concessions" in the near future. Therefore, he must consider the future plans for the country.

It is foreseeable that Hozuki Shingetsu, who will become a daimyo in the future, will have two administrative teams.

One group is based in the capital city, treating him as a daimyo and helping him govern the country. The other group is based in the ninja villages, treating him like a mizukage and assisting him in governing the villages.

With the ninja village as the administrative center, it means that Hozuki Shingetsu's identity as a "ninja" outweighs his identity as a "daimyo," and with ninjas as his base, he will undoubtedly gain more support from his subordinates.

Conversely, it means that Hozuki Shingetsu strengthens his "daimyo" persona and downplays his "ninja" aspect, making it easier for him to control a country.

After careful consideration, Hozuki Shingetsu finally decided to make the capital city the administrative center.

In the ninja world, strength is everything. As long as you are strong enough, the ninjas under your command will naturally be loyal to you.

As the ruler of a country, the daimyo resides in the capital and governs the nation from the castle tower. This is a consensus among all the people in the country. To change this impression, what is needed is not strength but time. Therefore, Hozuki Shingetsu ultimately chose the capital over the ninja village.

In that case, the relevant administrative offices of Kirigakure need to be moved to the capital in advance to prepare for his formal becoming a daimyo.

"Not only that, but a series of rewards and benefits after becoming a daimyo must also be put on the agenda."

Although Hozuki Shingetsu used a trick, covering himself up with the skin of being the "adopted son" of the former daimyo and the husband of the current daimyo, it still could not hide the fact that he became a daimyo as a ninja.

This event, which challenges the order of the ninja world, will inevitably provoke hostility from all countries once it is ignited.

At this point, he would need support from his base in Kirigakure, so lavish rewards would be a must.

In addition, they also need to be firmly bound to the fate of this country, or rather, to the fate of the Land of Water under Hozuki Shingetsu's leadership, so...

"It's time for the 'Military Nobility' system, or rather, the farming and combat system, to truly be launched!"

The contribution point system currently implemented in Kirigakure is essentially a stripped-down version of the military rank system.

Hozuki Shingetsu changed the original reward of enemy heads into contribution points as a substitute for completing missions.

This change certainly gave the ninjas of Kirigakure more choices, but it also lacked the original Qin Ren's courage and fighting spirit—the kind that drove them to change their lives in order to go to the battlefield and kill the enemy.

Apart from killing enemies on the battlefield, there was no other way to change Qin's miserable situation. This was the foundation of Qin's strength, but also the root cause of its sudden collapse.

Once Hozuki Shingetsu officially becomes a daimyo, he plans to increase the exchange rate of contribution points, and rewards above a certain level will require a certain number of enemy ninja headbands to be exchanged for.

At the same time, the respect for the ninja profession will be increased nationwide, and land, reputation, ninjutsu, and even the title of noble can all be exchanged through the contribution point system.

If you have enough ability, then all of these things can be yours.

Hozuki Shingetsu believed that, apart from the Land of Water, which he led, no other country or ninja village possessed such courage.

Putting everything else aside, just the title of a nobleman, even if it's only for life and not hereditary, he believed that only he dared to open that door.

The allure of a noble title for a ninja, or rather, a ninja clan, is self-evident.

Don't be fooled by how prestigious ninja clans like the Uchiha and Senju are among the top ninja clans.

But even in the eyes of the lowest-ranking nobles, they were still just a bunch of mercenaries. Even though I can't beat you, that doesn't stop me from looking down on you.

To be able to transform from a ninja clan to a noble family is something that countless ninjas dream of.

Hozuki Shingetsu didn't believe that when the time came, his men wouldn't dare not fight to the death.

With this in mind, Hozuki Shingetsu immediately instructed Akiba Masanobu to begin preparations.

After more than ten years of getting along, Hozuki Shingetsu had completely trusted Akiba Masanobu. With the deadline approaching, he didn't hold back at all and told Akiba Masanobu his thoughts directly.

Upon learning Hozuki Shingetsu's true thoughts, Akiba Masanobu was both shocked and deeply inspired.

He was never a peaceful person to begin with. During the final battle between Hozuki Shingetsu and Ren, he was the first to stand up and support Hozuki Shingetsu.

His inherent adventurous spirit made him realize the immense wealth involved, so he immediately motivated himself to work overtime, writing materials to support his boss's idea.

It was at this time that the Uchiha clan, having received the news, officially moved into Kirigakure amidst the astonished gazes of the ninja world.

The bizarre phenomenon that Konoha's founder, Motokuni, joined the ranks of those responsible for the division of Konoha has led to a continuous increase in the value of the "Uchiha Human Rights Report."

After the Uchiha clan settled in Kirigakure, Hozuki Shingetsu, in order to appease the Uchiha clan and to demonstrate Kirigakure's inclusive spirit, immediately took Uchiha Itachi as his student, showing his sincerity towards the Uchiha clan.

The Eighth Hokage of Uchiha was extremely satisfied with this.

As Itachi Uchiha's teacher, Shingetsu Hozuki would naturally visit his student frequently, just like he did with Kabuto Yakushi, to give him guidance and, incidentally, discuss issues related to the child's family upbringing and education with the student's guardian.

After all, he is still in the period of power sealing, and Akiha Masanobu is helping him with government affairs. Apart from waiting for the cooldown, he can only find some fun to pass the time.

Therefore, for a time, you can see Hozuki Shingetsu anywhere except the Mizukage's office, such as the Hozuki residence, the orphanage, Uchiha Mikoto's residence, and Konan's house.

Time passed slowly under these conditions, and soon Hozuki Shingetsu's cooldown period was over.

On the Jashin Cult's side, Hidan's Jashin possession experiment also achieved a major breakthrough.

(End of this chapter)