Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

"That's good too, at least there's something to do, otherwise the village would be in trouble."

Suddenly, thoughts of the future began to flood my mind.

Other powerful ninjas in Konoha's future include Sakumo Hatake, Jiraiya, Dan Kato, and Might Guy...

However, their fathers have not yet been found. There's no way to plan ahead and start by doing favors for their fathers; they can only wait for them to appear from who knows where in Konoha someday.

He then pulled himself back to his senses.

Seeing the smile in Uchiha Chiri's eyes, he casually asked, "Chiri, what are you laughing at?"

"Huh? Was I laughing?" Chiri snapped out of her reverie and explained, "I was thinking, isn't it a bit of a waste of Ayano's talents to lead a team to take on a cat-catching quest when she's a Jonin?"

Shen Er shook his head and said habitually, "That's good. There's no need for war. Everyone can live a peaceful life."

Everyone lives a peaceful life?

This won't do...

Being a ninja is a profession that involves living on the edge of a knife and licking blood.

The more chaotic the situation, the higher the ninja's income and the more opportunities they have to become stronger.

During the months that Hashirama was missing last year, the Konoha ninjas were very busy. There were constant small skirmishes on the border, and they had endless missions to complete every day, so their income naturally increased.

After Hashirama returned, the situation gradually stabilized, and the number of missions decreased.

Even Tobirama Senju had spare time to train disciples.

The wars in the ninja world are ultimately a struggle for interests. Some people yearn for peace, while others crave war; it has nothing to do with hatred, but is purely for the sake of profit.

Commission fees rise during times of war and turmoil.

Naturally, some people are eager to fight wars.

Shen Er was one of them.

Speaking of money, even Shen Er is in short supply.

The various experiments conducted in secret were burning through money like water; the daily maintenance of the experimental equipment alone was a huge expense.

The ninja world outside Konoha is vast, and it contains many interesting ninjutsu, secret techniques, and bloodline limits.

The Sand Village's Puppet Technique, the Grass Village's Dragon Life Reincarnation Technique, the Mist Village's Shikotsumyaku...

These things can't be bought with money; you can only get them by robbing.

Shen'er's identity dictates that he must remain in Konoha to stabilize the village. He cannot easily leave the village; once he does venture out, he must swiftly eliminate the enemy, achieve his strategic objectives, and immediately return to Konoha.

In special operations, intelligence is an extremely important element.

Therefore, he needs an organization specifically to gather intelligence for him.

This part of the affairs has always been handled by Uchiha Yan.

The Akatsuki ninja group under her command is now taking shape.

However, as the ninja group expanded, problems arose one after another.

The most important issue is funding.

The one million ryo allocated to Uchiha Yan earlier was merely a drop in the bucket when it came to building a mature underground organization.

The members' food, clothing, shelter, territory expansion, and intelligence gathering all required money. Even though Uchiha Yan led the group to raise funds by exchanging heads at the underground money exchange, there was still a huge shortfall, which ultimately had to be filled by Shen Er.

But even the money he earned at the hospital...

Basically, the goal is to make money in Konoha and bring Konoha flowers out of the village.

"Time to make some money."

She pulled out a napkin, wiped her mouth, stood up, and said to Zhili, "I'm going home now. If you have anything important to do this weekend, you can come find me."

In other words, don't come if it's not important.

...

Shen Er's five senses descended upon Zero through the Earthly Grudge.

Zero-Shiki mostly doesn't participate in the Akatsuki's operations, but instead stays alone in the capital of the Land of Rice Fields, where he bought a street-front shop on the outskirts and opened a "cursed medicine clinic".

On the surface, it's a respectable medical clinic.

Secretly, it was a private "black hospital" for the underground ninja world of the Land of Rice Fields, and also the intelligence hub for the Akatsuki ninja group.

Medical ninjas are extremely valuable in the ninja world.

The major ninja villages all cherished it like a treasure, while the Land of Rice Fields, a small country frequently plagued by turmoil, had a particularly high demand for medical care.

Being treated by a medical ninja is like having a second life.

The Cursed Healing Clinic only opens during fixed hours each day. Even then, it's only during these times that Zero-Type is remotely controlled using Earth Grudge Fear. The rest of the time, Earth Grudge Fear sustains its life through instinct.

Uchiha Yan emerged from the dark room of the clinic, keenly sensing Zero's change: "You've come."

"This is today's list."

Uchiha Yan took out a treatment list and handed it to Shen Er.

He quickly scanned the accounts and extracted key information.

Five surgeries tonight, not particularly difficult, but the total compensation is three million taels...

The reward is equivalent to three S-rank missions. Medical care without the backing of the ninja village is expensive!

Uchiha Yan couldn't help but complain, "I said, if you're so short of money, why don't you let me lead a group to rob someone directly? Wouldn't that be a faster way to make money?"

In her view, having the Akatsuki ninja group spread advertisements in the underground ninja world to attract injured underground ninjas and wealthy businessmen with unspeakable troubles to seek medical treatment was far too cumbersome.

There's no better way than just wearing a mask and robbing them directly.

"Robbing money is certainly easy. But the Land of Rice Fields is bordered by Konoha to the south, Iwagakure to the west, and Kumogakure to the east... In such a place, once an organized robbery gang emerges, it won't be long before a bounty is sent to the offices of the three great ninja villages' kage."

Shen Er washed his hands while explaining casually.

Before you have absolute power, you have to make money by the rules.

Openly robbing will only invite a collective attack.

He even prepared the medical instruments needed for the surgery. Using Zero's body, he wouldn't use any techniques related to his original body, such as Heavenly Compassion Thread or Palm Healing Technique; he would rely entirely on his medical knowledge accumulated during his time in Takigakure.

"Tsk, you're overthinking things."

Uchiha Yan immediately deflated.

The investigation team led by Uchiha Bin alone made her hide and go into hiding.

If we get targeted by the three major powers...

Those days were even harder.

The surgery lasted all night and passed quickly.

Shen Er handed over the three million ryo he had just received and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy it to Uchiha Yan, saying, "We need to speed up the construction of the Akatsuki ninja group, but we must strictly control the quality of the members. We'd rather have fewer people than recruit ninjas with clean backgrounds and pure hands."

The Akatsuki's role is intelligence work.

Recruiting money-grubbing ninjas like Kakuzu would rapidly strengthen a ninja group, but it would also render the group ineffective as an intelligence-gathering tool.

The First Shinobi World War could break out at any moment.

He must adapt to the trends of the times and make plans in advance to seize profits in future wars. The money he spends now will, in some form, become bloodline limits, secret techniques, and magical items in the future, returning to him a thousandfold.

"Understood." Before parting, Uchiha Yan asked the question that mattered most to her once again:

"So, when will you help me increase my strength?"

If one could possess the power of the kaleidoscope, one would no longer need to be so restrained.

And this time...

Shen Er finally gave her a definite answer.

"I will arrange a trial for you on January 15th next year."

"As for whether you can awaken the power of the Kaleidoscope through this, that depends on your own awareness."

Uchiha Yan's heart clenched, and he could clearly hear his own hot and rapid heartbeat.

...

March.

Shen Er successfully completed the final step of rewriting the Yin Seal.

It can use the Yin Seal to gather daily chakra into the diamond-shaped mark on the xiphoid process of the body, in order to maintain youth and accumulate chakra.

June.

The number of Impure Earth Talismans has reached seventy, bringing us one step closer to our goal of one hundred.

September.

After numerous experiments and at the cost of three Chunin hearts, he successfully developed a new use for the Yin Seal: using the Earth Grudge Fear to extract chakra from others and temporarily store it in the Yin Seal.

There are quite a few ninjutsu in the ninja world that can absorb chakra, but Earth Grudge Fear is actually the weakest in this aspect.

The target must be made to completely lower their guard, and actively refine their chakra to cooperate with the extraction.

The extraction process is slow, requiring three steps: extraction, conversion, and storage. It is even slower than refining chakra oneself, and the enemy will not give him such an opportunity.

This usage is only permitted for research purposes.

Unlike Wood Release and Samehada, which possess the ability to directly absorb chakra and have practical combat value.

April 1, Konoha Year 9.

Uchiha Chiri completed the accumulation of Primal Chakra.

The experiment of creating an artificial kaleidoscope is imminent.

Chapter 52 Awakening, Opening Eyes, Kaleidoscope (Please continue reading!)

The days were uneventful yet busy, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

April 10, Konoha Year 9.