Saving the Uchiha clan starts with becoming the clan leader.

"Uchiha Obito said irritably."

His life these past few years has been anything but easy.

While waiting for Nagato to become familiar with and fully master the power of the Rinnegan, they were also racking their brains to help expand the Akatsuki organization. However, the harsh reality could not satisfy their lofty ideals. Expanding the core members of the Akatsuki organization was really difficult. They did recruit new people, but those useless people died one after another while carrying out missions.

Until now,

Leaving aside Pain, Konan, and Jupiter, the current members are only Kakuzu, Orochimaru, Hidan, and Deidara, who was recently recruited. They can barely form two small teams that can act freely: Kakuzu and Hidan in one team, and Orochimaru and Deidara in another.

The previous group was a relatively stable combination. They had been working together for over a year without any problems, unlike before when Kakuzu and Orochimaru had several major conflicts and even fought each other, causing Pain a lot of headaches. It was only when Hidan was recruited that Pain was able to quickly separate these two incompatible guys.

The issue is,

Orochimaru and Deidara, this new pairing, seem to be at odds. Who knows when they'll start fighting? Kakuzu and Orochimaru are both incredibly resilient, having fought several times without defeating each other. But frankly, if the young Deidara were to clash with Orochimaru, the organization would likely lose another member.

Ugh!

Running an illegal organization isn't easy these days!

"Alright! Alright! So what... what brings you to Konoha all of a sudden?" Black Zetsu changed the subject, looking at the Ninja Academy in front of him. "Here... a bunch of kids. Could it be that there are some backup candidates here?"

"Did you see that girl with the fire fan family crest on her clothes?"

"...I don't think there's anything special about it."

"That's Uchiha Munen's sister."

"Huh?"

Black Zetsu glanced at Uchiha Obito with surprise, but unfortunately, that damned mask blocked his vision, so he couldn't see what expression he had. "Are you planning to... take hostages? Will that method even work? Uchiha Sogen, that guy will be threatened."

"According to my investigation, Uchiha Munen loves his younger sister very much."

Obito Uchiha rested his chin on his hand. "Also, did you see the two girls next to Uchiha Fujika... who is Uchiha Sogen's sister? The one with long reddish-brown hair is Kurama Yakumo, a descendant of the Kurama clan of Konoha. The one with long brown curly hair is Tsuchigumo Hotaru, the granddaughter of En no Gyoza. And both of them are Uchiha Sogen's disciples. I won't go into the former, but the latter... don't you find it interesting?"

"The granddaughter of the wandering monk?"

Black Zetsu's wicked scheme began to bubble up.

The Enno Gyoza died at the hands of Kazuma, and now Tsuchigumo Hotaru is a disciple of Uchiha Sogen. This matter... has great potential! If used properly, it might be able to bring down this troublesome guy, Uchiha Sogen.

"So you're planning to use Kazuma..."

"Do not."

Kazuma directly dismissed Black Zetsu's unspoken schemes and plots, saying, "I haven't yet determined how to make the most of them, but in any case, taking hostages is the most basic tactic. Sometimes... it's not necessary to hold all the pieces in your hand; leaving them out might actually be more useful."

"Plans exist to achieve goals. It is foolish to blindly follow a plan without adapting to changes in circumstances."

Hearing Obito Uchiha's almost blatant sarcasm, Black Zetsu chuckled dryly, not taking it to heart. It was just a couple of sarcastic remarks, nothing to worry about. He had been tempered by a thousand years of experience and wasn't easily angered. As long as Obito Uchiha didn't slack off and worked diligently, he wouldn't mind being mocked for another day.

"I'm just offering a suggestion; you can ignore it if you don't want to hear it."

"Just watch and don't interfere. For Lin's sake, I will do whatever it takes to achieve that ambition."

As he spoke,

He looked up at the sky.

The spring sun shone with a gentle glow, lovingly caressing the grass, trees, mountains, and rivers of the earth. Unfortunately, he did not like this gentle spring day; what he longed for was the scarlet moon he had seen in the illusion!

[Chapter 292. Feeling like a thorn in my side]

Black crows circled silently in the air, their shadows blending into the swaying figures.

The boys are competing against each other on the practice field.

The sudden burst of flames engulfed the swooping black crows, and the inexhaustible momentum continued to surge forward like an erupting volcano. The scorching heat swept in all directions, and smoke billowed into the sky. The boys and girls watching the battle exclaimed in amazement, excitedly watching this rare and magnificent scene before them. Only the teacher in charge of the lesson was covered in sweat.

I regret it!

If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have cheated during the lottery.

If he could have foreseen this situation, he would never have arranged for Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha to be his opponents. Unfortunately, there's no going back in life, and all he can do is try his best to prevent the students from getting hurt.

As for stopping the competition—

The two, caught up in the moment, completely ignored the noise from the outside world.

They only had each other in their eyes.

"Sasuke, your Fireball Jutsu feels even more powerful now."

Naruto held a paintbrush in his right hand and a scroll in his left, freely scribbling on the blank canvas. One after another, realistic birds and beasts leaped out of the paper and rushed towards Sasuke opposite him. He had already mastered this Yang Release secret technique, [Super Beast Imitation Painting], which he learned from Sogen.

only--

Naruto's art style is now noticeably different.

"Tch, Naruto, all you do is hide in the back... If you've got the guts, face me head-on!" Sasuke swung his katana, the sharp blade slicing through the realistic, dark-colored bird-beast, the blade itself now stained black with ink.

But no way,

His chakra is limited.

It's impossible to use Fire Release techniques indefinitely to defend against enemies. Rather than wasting chakra using Fire Release techniques to attack these ink-based creations, it's better to use a sword to solve the problem whenever possible. This is a lesson he learned from his many defeats against Naruto.

"Your attempts to provoke me won't work! Sasuke, you've used that trick far too many times."

Naruto replied with a grin.

Completely ignoring Sasuke's provocation, she continued to draw, with wild boars, coyotes, hyenas, crows, night owls... constantly leaping from the paper, as if she had no idea what it meant to conserve chakra. This was in stark contrast to Sasuke, who was so stingy that he would even mentally rehearse before using a transformation technique.

"Just admit defeat already! Don't wait until your chakra runs out and I have to carry you back to the classroom again."

As soon as he finished speaking,

Sasuke's face turned bright red.

Having fallen for the provocation, Sasuke was now in a similar state. Enraged, the boy let out a roar like a young tiger, the single tomoe in his scarlet eyes spinning rapidly. He gripped his katana and charged at the group of birds and beasts made of ink, his blade flashing as if slicing melons and vegetables.

However... this momentum was clearly not enough to crack the walls, and naturally it couldn't help him kill even one more ink creation.

in contrast,

The swarming birds and beasts almost overwhelmed him.

In anger,

He threw three shuriken.

Unfortunately, this last-ditch effort was not enough to defeat Naruto. The hastily fired shuriken were also affected in their accuracy, with only two hitting Naruto's chest before being knocked down by a swooping crow. The shuriken that missed its mark grazed Naruto's left side.

"boom!"

White chakra smoke rose up.

The shuriken that missed its mark transformed into Sasuke's appearance—no, that's not quite right. It should be said that Sasuke deactivated his transformation jutsu and reverted to his original form. Meanwhile, Sasuke, who was engulfed by birds and beasts made of ink, also made the same "bang" sound.

That was a shadow clone.

"Naruto, surrender!"

Sasuke held a small katana to Naruto's neck.

"When...when did you do that?" Naruto's drawing stopped, and he looked at Sasuke in confusion, unable to figure out when he had completed the series of actions of using Shadow Clone Jutsu, switching to his real body, and then using the Transformation Jutsu.

He was confident that he hadn't looked away.

"It was when I used the Great Fireball Technique earlier! Everyone's attention was drawn to the Great Fireball. Taking advantage of the smoke and dust that rose up at that time, I made a little preparation. After all, there is no chance of winning a war of attrition against you."

Sasuke explained calmly.

You can no longer tell that he was angry and embarrassed after being provoked. It was all acting, nothing but acting.

"Back then? Okay! I was careless this time. If I had known this would happen... I should have created a few shadow clones to confuse them from the start. Anyway, I have an endless supply of chakra." Naruto readily admitted his defeat and began to reflect on his mistakes.

"Hey, you're deliberately trying to annoy me, aren't you?" Sasuke couldn't help but complain.

Listen to it.

To say "Anyway, we can't use up all our chakra"... is that even human language?

If this gets out, it will probably cause a lot of heartache. Insufficient chakra is a problem that plagues 99% of ninjas in the world throughout their lives.

"Is it finally over? U... the winner is Uchiha Sasuke."

At this moment,

The tense, sweating teacher, as if relieved, shouted impatiently, "Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, quickly form the reconciliation seal, and then let me see... the next pair is... Kurama Yakumo vs. Inuzuka Kiba, both of you come forward."

Naruto and Sasuke formed a reconciliation seal, then left the center of the arena arm in arm, giving the space to their next pair of opponents.

The issue is--

Only one of the two opponents was present. Kiba Inuzuka stood on the field holding Akamaru, staring at his teacher.

As for the other person,

"Yakumo? What are you daydreaming about? It's your turn."

Uchiha Fujika reached out and poked her friend next to her, who for some reason hadn't moved forward.

"Hmm... Just now, I felt like someone was watching me from behind?" Kurama Yakumo frowned slightly. Her naturally enormous spiritual power gave her keen perception. Even though she wasn't a sensory ninja, she still noticed something unusual.

Unfortunately,

The feeling was so vague that she wasn't sure if it was an illusion or something else.

"Is someone watching you?"

Fujika paused for a second, then a 'strange' smile appeared on her face. She leaned close to Yakumo's ear and said, "Could it be that some idiot is about to confess to you again, but doesn't have the courage and can only watch you from the shadows?"

"What?! What are you thinking about, Fujika?"

Yakumo pushed away his friend in an annoyance.

However, this interruption...

She was increasingly unsure about what it meant to feel like she was being watched. Urged on by the teacher once again, she temporarily suppressed her confusion, quickly stepped forward, and prepared to finish this boring lesson quickly before slowly investigating.

fighting,

It ended very quickly.

Faced with Yakumo's illusion, Kiba Inuzuka, who had been boasting about showing Yakumo how powerful he, Inuzuka-sama, was immediately controlled by the illusion. He stupidly threw a punch at his teacher, leaving the teacher speechless and helplessly declaring Yakumo Kurama the winner, while wiping away a cold sweat.