I, Uchiha Yu, am solely focused on cultivating immortality

Chapter 102 Greed always leads to self-destruction.

Four Root ninjas, their palms sweating, watched over Uchiha Yu, but the surrounded Uchiha Yu simply stood still, seemingly enjoying the Root ninjas' infighting.

But in reality, he had already taken action.

Amidst the intense mental tremor, the 13 Root ninjas simultaneously saw a pair of three-tomoe Sharingan eyes, only to forget them in the next instant. This momentary lapse in attention caused their vigilance to be suppressed.

Then came round after round of identical operations.

In just three seconds, Uchiha Yu repeated the eye contact and forgetting of the Sharingan 16 times. The repeated "boy who cried wolf" numbed the Root ninja's vigilance instinctively.

In just three seconds, two living weapons at the level of exceptional Jonin were hacked down by a flurry of blows. To prevent the weapons from exploding, the Root ninjas first cut off their hands and feet.

Having sacrificed only one life and an arm, the nine Root ninjas eliminated the threat, and they couldn't help but feel that the mission wasn't too difficult. Their tension and vigilance subsequently dropped from their peak.

Humans are not machines. Even ninjas who have undergone brutal training experience ups and downs in their mental state, especially after a tense battle, relaxation is inevitable.

This was the opportunity that Uchiha Yu had been waiting for. Taking advantage of their involuntary relaxation, Uchiha Yu launched his genjutsu attack—a true genjutsu attack.

Uchiha Yu opened his three-tomoe Sharingan, pouring his powerful eye energy into his eyes without reservation. He then used the natural energy of the wind element to twist the light, simultaneously directing his gaze towards all twelve pairs of eyes.

Sharingan, Genjutsu, Binding Technique

The seeds of suggestion in the minds of the 12 surviving Root ninjas were detonated. While their brains were in a state of chaos, their central nervous systems were invaded by Uchiha Yu, who sent out incorrect neural signals.

The Root ninjas' muscles were stretched to their limit and never relaxed again, fixing each ninja's movement at the moment the genjutsu was activated.

The battle is over.

Aside from opening and closing his eyes, Uchiha Yu didn't make any other moves, yet he still won the battle.

Miwa Masayo remained perched on Uchiha Yu's shoulder throughout, lazily watching the Root ninjas kill each other, and watching them all be taken down by a single genjutsu.

She opened her mouth and yawned widely, saying, "Yu, you're getting more and more into using illusion magic, meow."

Uchiha Yu replied with a smile, "Yes, genjutsu is very effective. It's more suitable than large-scale ninjutsu when dealing with a dozen or so enemies."

"Moreover, killing with illusions is quite classy..."

He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers lightly.

The hearts of the 12 Root ninjas who were unable to move suddenly skipped a beat. Their heart muscles received the signal to exert force, while simultaneously blocking the life limiter signal that was supposed to protect them.

The heart muscle, having broken through the life limiter, unleashed a force thirty times stronger than a normal heartbeat, aided by a pre-secreted high concentration of adrenaline, and literally crushed the heart.

Because their nerves are controlled, Root ninjas cannot feel the pain in their hearts, but as living beings, they can still feel the approach of death.

Death is the greatest pain.

Although the Root ninjas' expressions, like their bodies, could not change in the slightest, their despair and pain were still conveyed to Uchiha Yu.

This led him to discover that one of the Root ninjas was acting strangely; unlike others, he did not show despair.

Are there still people in the world who don't despair in the face of death?

Uchiha Yu was extremely curious. He walked up to this unusual ninja, waved his hand to release some of his nerve control, allowing him to control his neck and above, as well as some of his intercostal muscles.

Uchiha Yu: "Why don't you feel despair?"

Root ninja: "How dare you kill a Konoha ANBU ninja?"

Uchiha Yu: "..."

Uchiha Yu: "Don't you risk dying from a ruptured heart?"

Root ninja: "Aren't you afraid of Lord Danzo Shimura's repercussions?"

Uchiha Yu: "..."

"Pah! You dog! I'll beep—beep—beep beep beep—"

Enraged, Uchiha Yu swore, even spitting on the Root ninja who was frozen in place.

"I'm in the middle of nowhere, what am I afraid of if they come after me!"

Miwa Masayo was amused. She patted Uchiha Yu's shoulder and made a melodious "meow meow meow".

Uchiha Yu looked up at the sky speechlessly, then severed all of the Root ninja's nerves again and began to examine his body to see what was causing him to face death without despair.

The tabby cat, its body limp from laughing, climbed onto Uchiha Yu's head, dodging the splattered blood, and asked, "After killing so many Root ninjas, aren't you worried about Shimura Danzo's pursuit, meow?"

Uchiha Yu's hands were busy, his eyes fixed on the Root ninja, carefully examining his body. He casually replied, "Don't worry, when we get back I'll rush into the commander's tent, lay out the orders and the corpse in front of everyone, report the mission's anomaly and the team's defection, and demand a thorough investigation of the mission procedures."

"Once things get public and become a big deal, it will be Danzo Shimura's turn to be caught off guard."

"But you said, meow, that the Third Hokage was standing behind Shimura Danzo. If you do this, he won't be able to cover it up anymore, meow?"

"Well, there's no other way right now, at least not."

"In the 43rd year of Konoha, the Third Hokage was still far from being able to control the entire village and arbitrarily manipulate the various ninja clans."

Danzo Shimura's conspiracy had a flaw that even the Hokage's power couldn't eliminate.

That is, if Uchiha Yu's power is strong enough, and the Root ninjas fail to kill him despite their best efforts, they will instead be killed by the one they are besieging, and this conspiracy will be exposed to the light of day.

The initiative in the entire incident would automatically shift to Uchiha Yu, whose mission assignment would be the most crucial evidence.

If he publicly displays this mission letter, complete with markings, badges, and serial numbers, it would be enough to prove that those unidentified Root ninjas forged the real mission letter and were able to infiltrate the Konoha ninja ranks.

This is an infringement of the Hokage's authority and responsibility. If the Third Hokage does not want to stand up and admit his guilt, then Danzo Shimura must stand up, take the blame with his head, and be punished to a certain extent.

Of course, aside from his reputation, Shimura Danzo will not suffer any serious losses, and may even suffer no substantial losses at all.

However, Uchiha Yu will gain great fame through this opportunity and will not be harassed by Shimura Danzo for at least the next year.

Besides a period of safety, you can gain much more.

If he performs well, he can describe all the Root ninjas here as "unknown enemies," which will not only earn him an A-rank mission record and corresponding rewards, but may even grant him a long vacation.

With these compensations, the disgusting experience of being treated by the Root ninjas wasn't so bad.

During the war, Uchiha Yu was able to live a leisurely life with Miwa Masayo. How happy they must have been.

He had even planned to leave the frigid Land of Hot Springs and go south to find a place with warm springs and flowers blooming, facing the sea, preferably an uninhabited island, where he would build a thatched hut to live in.

Every day I go out to sea to swim, enjoy fresh seafood, and reflect on the lessons I've learned in the past few months, trying to break through to the fourth stage of the Foundation Building period.

Uchiha Yu felt a sense of joy just thinking about it.

Miwa Masayo thought for a moment and nodded in agreement with his cat owner's statement: "Fortunately, the Third Hokage doesn't have that much power, meow. As long as this matter is made public, this crude conspiracy will be useless, meow."

Uchiha Yu paused for a moment, looked at the tabby cat, and said in a leisurely tone, "It's actually a good thing that he can't control everything. If the Third Hokage had really done that, he wouldn't have been far from death."

In the original history, the moment when Hiruzen Sarutobi, after killing Minato Namikaze and his wife, wrongfully murdering Hizashi Hyuga, and annihilating the Uchiha clan, went unpunished was the moment when his power reached its peak and he held absolute power in Konoha.

During that period, Uchiha Yu couldn't even fight back when surrounded by Root ninjas, let alone kill 15 Root ninjas. Otherwise, he would be considered a traitor to the village and country, a traitorous ninja!

However, the ninja world is ultimately a supernatural world where might makes right. As long as Hiruzen Sarutobi's strength does not reach the level of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and as long as he is not capable of suppressing Konoha Village on his own, he has no right to act recklessly in Konoha Village.

In fact, the massacre of the Uchiha clan was the final trigger, causing Konoha to retaliate against the Third Hokage. A few years later, the Konoha ninjas tacitly helped Orochimaru give Hiruzen Sarutobi a dignified funeral.

Suddenly, Uchiha Yu pointed at the Root ninja's chest cavity and exclaimed in surprise, "So that's how it is! It has two hearts!!"

The three-wheeled Yashiro peeked over.

Sure enough, inside the Root ninja's chest cavity, there was a soft, ruptured heart with several cracks on the left side, and a completely intact heart, weakly beating, that was significantly smaller in size.

Uchiha Yu shook his head repeatedly, offering a series of exclamations of amazement and praise:

"The location choice... is perfect!"

"The suturing of the blood vessels... exquisite!"

"The neural connections are connected like this... What a genius idea!"

Uchiha Yu immediately thought of one person: "Orochimaru, this must be Orochimaru's doing!"

"Oh dear, come to think of it, Wood Release Yamato should be seven years old this year. The Wood Release Awakening Plan should be over by now, so Orochimaru can finally free up some time to do other things."

"It seems that the Root ninjas I'm most familiar with are about to make their appearance."

Masayo Miwa circled the Root ninja a few times, and upon hearing Yuu Uchiha's words, couldn't help but ask, "Yuu, how will Orochimaru affect your plans?"

"Of course it has no impact."

Uchiha Yu said confidently, "I only want to control the Uchiha clan. As long as we follow the development of the situation and execute the plan, we can steadily move towards the final victory. There is no need to argue with Danzo over such trivial matters."

The tabby cat remembered that when Uchiha Yu commented on Uchiha Fugaku, he heavily criticized him for not caring about studying, so it asked, "Why are the new Root ninjas all about details, meow? Isn't this a major event that changes the balance of power from the ground up, meow?"

Uchiha Yu replied, "They are different. The goals are different. If it's about vying for the highest power in an independent organization, then basic strength is the foundation of everything. But Root is not an independent organization; it's part of the Hokage's power system in Konoha Village and doesn't possess any independence."

"The danger of Root lies not in how strong the Root ninjas are, but in the fact that Shimura Danzo can arbitrarily use the Hokage's authority without bearing the Hokage's responsibilities."

"Even the strongest Root ninjas are only at the level of Jonin, with a few elite Jonin appearing only occasionally."

"The Uchiha clan has always been able to maintain around thirty three-tomoe Sharingan, which is at the level of elite Jonin."

"The power of Root is insignificant compared to the power of the Uchiha clan."

Uchiha Yu quickly cleaned up the bodies, clapped his hands, and said, "Alright, everything's done. Let's go."

Masayo Miwa tapped his cat owner on the head and asked, "Aren't you going to leave the corpse, meow?"

"Just leave it here and wait for the Konoha ninja's follow-up investigation. They are the enemy, and my words alone cannot prove anything. We need some evidence for them to investigate."

Miwa Masase, gathering his strength, smacked his human on the head again, shouting, "Yu! Are you out of your mind, meow? This battlefield is so clean, won't it expose your illusion magic, meow?"

After being hit hard, Uchiha Yu seemed to be awakened by the blow, looking around without saying a word.

The tabby cat, worried that it had used too much force, asked with concern, "What's wrong, meow?"

"Thank you for reminding me. I don't know what went wrong, but I completely forgot that I needed to hide my information."

Uchiha Yu repeatedly slapped his forehead to keep himself awake.

Then he began bombarding the entire valley with ninjutsu. He used fire-style techniques to cover half of the valley floor, obscuring all traces of his battle and destroying several corpses.

The destroyed corpses included the Root ninja with two hearts, as well as two living Root weapons, covering up the traces of Uchiha Yu's dissection of the corpses and absorption of the mind monster.

After several checks by Masayo and Uchiha Yu, confirming that there were no more flaws left on the battlefield, they left with peace of mind.

……

Just as Uchiha Yu had imagined, the matter escalated and spread rapidly. No ninja could accept that the mission they had accepted was a trap designed to kill them.

What's even more unacceptable is that the Anbu, the Hokage's direct subordinate unit, mobilized 15 ninjas to ambush and kill a Konoha ninja who was just carrying out a mission.

Did the Third Hokage betray the Will of Fire he proclaimed, or was he incompetent and lost all the confidential information, allowing the enemy to successfully issue flawless official orders?

Regardless of the reason, it's all the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's fault, unless...

Unless, of course, Danzo Shimura, the head of the Root organization, steps forward.

He announced that it was his own mistake that led to the loss of a complete set of confidential documents, including the mission manual, passwords, and markings, which resulted in this serious incident.

The Third Hokage was furious and dismissed Shimura Danzo from his position as Hokage advisor, ordering him to... go home and reflect on his actions.

As a victim of this incident, and a hero who single-handedly killed 15 unknown enemies, Uchiha Yu received a public commendation from the Third Hokage, who also included him in the next round of Jonin promotion list for this achievement.

Looking at the excited Uchiha clan ninja who had come to inform him, Uchiha Yu helplessly shrugged and asked, "And then?"

Uchiha Kin was stunned and asked, "What, then?"

"Besides confirming my promotion to Jonin in the next round, are there any other rewards?"

Uchiha Yu counted on his fingers, "I killed 15 enemies while being ambushed, a full 15 enemies! Shouldn't I get an A-rank mission record? What about the mission bonus? What about my vacation?"

"No, no..."

"Tch, the Third Hokage is really stingy."

"You can't say that. The Third Hokage publicly commended you. All the ninjas and villagers of Konoha know about your achievements. You're famous throughout the land! Brother!!"

Uchiha Yu looked at Uchiha Kin. He knew that this guy who was conscripted with him was a dove, but he didn't expect him to be a Hokage supporter.

He shook his head and stopped talking to this guy whose values ​​were so different from his own.

After Uchiha Kin left, Miwa Masayo emerged from her hiding place, her beautiful eyes looking at Uchiha Yu, and asked with a smile, "My contractor, what about the vacation you planned?"

"Haha, I was wrong."

"I've caused him such a huge loss, how could he possibly give me a real reward?"

"The Hokage's public commendation and promotion to Jonin aren't considered rewards, meow?"

"Hehe, I killed 15 enemies in one battle, which is the best record among Konoha ninjas this year. The matter has blown up, and my reputation has already spread. The Hokage's public commendation is at most a formal confirmation, not even icing on the cake."

"As for the promotion to Jonin, it was already set in stone; the Hokage was just announcing the news in advance."

"Clan Chief Fugaku personally told the Third Hokage that I have awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Rinka-chan, how many members of the Uchiha clan in Konoha who have awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan are not Jonin?"

Uchiha Yu pointed to his nose with his thumb, pursed his lips, and said, "It's just me."

"Looking back now, I realize I never considered that the 15 Root ninjas I killed could be considered part of the Third Hokage's Anbu force."

"It's rare to see you, Uchiha Yu, make a wrong prediction. Is there something wrong with your brain, or is there something wrong with your precognitive abilities, meow?"

Uchiha Yu pointed to his heart and said with a wry smile, "There's something wrong with my heart."

"Those who manipulate time will eventually be manipulated by time, and it is only natural that someone like me, who manipulates people's hearts, would fall victim to the greed of people's hearts."

After obtaining Klein from the Root's living weapon, Uchiha Yu couldn't find a suitable way to store him. Seeing that this strange life form was about to dissipate, he desperately stuffed Klein into his own mental world.

At that time, Uchiha Yu encountered problems.

After the battle, he was so preoccupied with the spoils that he forgot to clean up the battlefield.

When considering the follow-up issues, he focused on the potential rewards and forgot to take into account the interests of the Hokage.

These are not minor issues; at the right time, such mistakes can even be fatal.

(End of this chapter)