I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 387 When faced with a problem you can't solve, the best approach is to let someone who can solve it step in.

Shikaku realized that Root was targeting Sakumo Hatake, which didn't surprise Tatsuma, since Shikaku was too smart. However, judging from the situation, Shikaku not only realized it, but perhaps also had some information about it.

"How much do you know?"

After Tatsuma asked the question, Shikaku pondered for a moment, seemingly considering whether to tell Tatsuma. After a while, he said, "Root has been frequently operating in the northwest recently, with village and privately commissioned operations intertwined, and they have repeatedly provoked Iwa ninja."

Upon hearing this, Chenma nodded and said, "First, draw out the hatred, then give that accumulated hatred an outlet. It's simple, but effective."

"What about you?"

Since we're going to talk about this topic, Shikaku won't hold back. Tatsuma got information from him, so he should give him some back.

"Danzo faked his injury, and Root will soon be taken over by someone else, and then he will agree to the conditions that Lord Sakumo had proposed at the time."

Tatsuma also shared what he knew, and after a brief moment of thought, Shikaku said, "To recruit a promising colt and then discard a colt to make a general, that's brilliant."

"Chengko" is a term in Shogi that refers to changing the position of a piece. Pawns, rooks, and knights can become ko, and their subsequent moves are the same as the king. Rooks can become dragon kings, and knights can become dragon horses.

Discarding a piece means voluntarily giving up one's own piece to gain a greater advantage. Of course, the term "Chenma" can be more simply summarized as temporary work or changing the legal representative.

The company appoints an unfortunate individual as its legal representative, then instructs the company's actual senior management to engage in illegal activities. Once the scheme is exposed, the blame is shifted to the legal representative or a "temporary worker." In this way, the company achieves its goal without incurring significant losses.

No matter where you are, this is a "masterpiece".

"Is there any good way?"

After Tatsuma asked the question, Shikaku paused for a moment, then countered with, "Is it necessary?"

Tatsuma frowned and retorted, "Is it unnecessary?"

"The village can afford to lose Sakumo Hatake. As long as Sakumo Hatake lives, Root will not stop. If he continues to fight Root, the village will only suffer more losses. This is unnecessary internal strife."

Shikaku's tone was very calm, and Tatsuma's brows furrowed more and more, and his lips pursed. This Shikaku definitely had something wrong with his thinking, but for a moment, Tatsuma didn't know how to refute him.

Because this is a ninja who, even as his death countdown begins, can still calmly say, "Do what you should do."

Perhaps the Nara family's traditions made him forget to think as an individual, and instead, he always put the collective first.

As long as it's for the good of the collective, it doesn't matter if an individual in the collective dies, even if that individual is oneself.

Such thinking is absolutely distorted, but sometimes, a group needs to have people like that.

What Tatsuma saw was the persecution of his fellow villagers, but perhaps in Shikaku's eyes, it was some necessary internal conflict. Tatsuma was thinking about how to stop the persecution, while Shikaku was thinking about how to minimize the damage to the village, or how to end it as quickly as possible.

After a long silence, Tatsuma said, "I cannot agree. Right now, the target is indeed only Sakumo-sama, and the village can afford to lose Sakumo-sama. Letting it go seems to be the least damaging option."

But will Gen stop there? My teacher hasn't been to a casino for two years, but I never expect her to say goodbye to casinos for the rest of her life, you know what I mean?

In my opinion, Root will never stop. Konoha doesn't have that many people to die. They can afford to lose one, but what about ten? A hundred? A thousand? Do they always think that letting things drift is the least damaging approach?

Shikaku, who rarely spoke to Tatsuma in such a serious manner, unconsciously became serious as he mentally considered the possibilities Tatsuma had mentioned.

Tatsuma's statement contradicted his understanding, because what he saw and what his father told him were that Sakumo Hatake and Ne had a long-standing feud and had been targeting each other for many years, so they could not coexist.

However, he hadn't considered whether someone else would become a thorn in Gen's side again, because there weren't many qualified people, but what if Gen went even further?

Not only can they not tolerate those at higher levels who conflict with them, but what if they can't even tolerate those at the middle or lower levels?

Judging from the current tug-of-war within the Dark Side, there are indeed signs that Root is eliminating dissidents. But isn't this something the Third Hokage tacitly approved? The Third Hokage couldn't possibly tolerate Root to the point of wantonly harming the village's interests, could he?

Shikaku frowned, his tone no longer relaxed, and said, "I can't be sure if things will develop the way you say, but if you just want Root to stop this operation, then there is a way."

Upon hearing this, Tatsuma perked up. He hadn't expected Shikaku to actually have a solution. It was no wonder that this was a family tradition.

Under Tatsuma's expectant gaze, Shikaku spoke up: "The solution is actually not difficult, but with the resources you have, it's impossible to do it, which is why you couldn't think of it."

The solution lies not on your side, but on the root itself. You can stop the root once or twice, but you can't stop it from happening again and again.

"If we want Sakumo Hatake to stop being targeted by Root, Root itself has to give up this idea."

"I've barely even had any contact with the roots, let alone control Danzo's will. How can I possibly influence it?"

"That's why I said, you may not have the resources to do this, but there is one person who can."

As Lu Jiu spoke, he pointed above himself and continued, "If it is that person who discovered that Gen harbors malicious intentions, then with his resources, it would be very simple for him to stop all of this."

"But... how can we let him find out? It's really difficult. After all, I'm not suitable, you're not suitable, and even Lord Sakumo isn't suitable."

Tatsuma shook his head. Trying to shake the friendship between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo would be difficult.

Shikaku smiled and said, "Actually, you've done almost everything, you just haven't figured it out yet. Danzo faked his injury, and the Third Hokage will definitely have some resentment in his heart. At this time, a person of sufficient importance discovered Root's conspiracy and told him."

The matter was thus naturally resolved.

"Who has enough weight?"

"Someone who needs to please you at this stage."

Shikaku raised his hand and pointed to the documents on the table. Tatsuma turned around and looked at the name on the documents—"Sarutobi Shinnosuke".

"Don't forget what I just said. The tasks Root has been carrying out recently aren't just village-related; there are also some 'private' commissions. Those are the roots of corruption. With your abilities, getting involved is a piece of cake."

Shikaku lowered his hand, reverting to his lazy demeanor. Tatsuma understood Shikaku's meaning and murmured, "The gold exchange? Or are we directly colluding with other countries?"

"I didn't say that, and I don't know either. Go look it up yourself."

Shrug and look utterly dejected, Shikaku said, "I knew I shouldn't have associated with someone like you. It always leads to big trouble."

"Thank you for the letter of recommendation."

Tatsuma paused for a moment, and Shikaku's eyes lit up, thinking that Tatsuma was about to withdraw his "threat." Unexpectedly, Tatsuma said, "I will write it more sincerely and try to get you transferred here."

"You ungrateful bastard!"

Shikaku cursed, stood up from his seat, and walked towards the door. Tatsuma said, "Didn't you say you were going to stay here until you got off work?"

"If I stay any longer, I'm afraid I'll become the public enemy of the ninja world. Don't mention knowing me unless there's a problem, and definitely don't mention it if there is. Staying around someone like you will only bring misfortune."

Shikaku left Tatsuma with a picture of the back of his head and an internationally friendly gesture before hurriedly leaving, seemingly genuinely afraid that staying any longer would bring misfortune upon him.

Tatsuma didn't mind, and even silently thanked Shikaku for leaving. As expected of the Nara family, they say they're afraid of trouble, but they always manage to solve problems that others can't handle.

The laboratory fell silent again, and Tatsuma began to review the files on Sarutobi Shinnosuke and the others. He had only intended to deal with the three brats briefly before, and the files were just something to flip through.

But now that we're going to rely on their strength, we naturally need to understand them properly.

Judging from his resume, Shinnosuke is practically a perfect ninja, proficient in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, and possesses all five chakra natures. It can be said that he perfectly inherited Hiruzen Sarutobi's genes.

He is also skilled in the use of various ninja tools and has considerable expertise in sealing techniques and medical ninjutsu. However, in the section on whether he possesses summoning techniques, it says "secret".

Looking further down, there's a mission record: 8 completed D-rank missions, demonstrating consistent performance. Almost every genius has 8 D-rank missions in the early stages, as this meets the requirements for the Chunin Exams.

23 C-rank missions, 17 B-rank missions, 2 A-rank missions, and 0 S-rank missions. For a ninja who has only graduated a few years ago, this resume is already quite rich, after all, Shinnosuke did not experience the war period.

Unlike Tatsuma and Minato, whose mission records are accumulated in dozens of times, Tatsuma and others' mission records are not very reliable for reference.

Continuing on, from the teachers at the Ninja Academy to the Jonin who mentored him after he became a ninja, and even his patron, all spoke highly of Shinnosuke. His mentor, a Jonin, was an old acquaintance of Tatsuma's, the former Anbu ninja Xiao, Sarutobi Ibusuke of the Sarutobi family.

Quick-witted, able to draw inferences from one instance, "sending" a light to a classmate in the dark, as well as other positive adjectives such as thoughtful, decisive, and meticulous, all fell upon Shinnosuke.

Looking at the resume alone, if you covered up the mission history, you could easily believe it was Hiruzen Sarutobi's personal file. Tatsuma knew that this resume was definitely exaggerated, and probably quite a lot of it.

Otherwise, when discussing contemporary geniuses in Konoha, the first and second names mentioned wouldn't be Tatsuma and Minato, but Shinnosuke, with others coming after.

Closing Shinnosuke's file, Tatsuma looked at the other two's files. The two teammates were not the same age as Shinnosuke. One was slightly older and was a ninja from the Yamanaka family named Yamanaka Satoru. The other was younger and was named Gendo.

The information on these two is much more mediocre. One is skilled in sensory perception and mountain secret techniques, while the other is skilled in lightning release and stealth. By comparing the resumes of his two teammates, Tatsuma probably has a better understanding of Shinnosuke's situation.

Instead of going to see them immediately, Tatsuma went to the Anbu base, looked for recent Anbu action reports, and also brought along some Root tracking reports, and began his research.

Two days later, Shinnosuke woke up as usual. After opening his eyes, he felt a little disappointed. His father said that he had arranged an assessment for him, but several days had passed and there was still no news.

This made Shinnosuke wonder if he had missed some details, but he was already very careful. Last night, after he finished training and went home, he studied a brown paper bag with orderly yet seemingly disordered black print for a long time.

It was eventually determined that it was the kraft paper the barbecue stall owner used to wipe the grill; the black marks on it weren't any secret codes, but simply charcoal buildup on the grill.

With a sigh, Shinnosuke got up and walked skillfully to his desk. Just as he was about to pick up his ninja headband and put it on, he discovered a wad of paper under his headband.

"Burning marks? Dampness? Shredded paper? Is this chakra test strip? Did Asuma come into my room and cause trouble?"

(End of this chapter)