"What you're facing there is no longer the kind of enemy numbers alone can overco!"
To Jiraiya's surprise, Fukasaku and Shima spoke almost in unison.
"As much as we hate to admit it, Uchiha Chizumi has probably already surpassed even Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara at their peak."
"And back then, the shinobi world did consider uniting in order to resist those two!"
Slowly, the two sages brought up an old story from long ago. Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara ending the Warring States era and subduing the shinobi world had never been an empty claim—they had truly beaten the entire world into submission.
If Hashirama had wanted to do more than simply establish villages, then with the combined power of himself and Madara, they could absolutely have unified the entire shinobi world. That, too, had been one of the reasons Madara and Hashirama eventually parted ways.
"The Great Toad Sage tried to prophesy Uchiha Chizumi, but…"
"But in the Great Toad Sage's visions, Uchiha Chizumi simply doesn't exist!"
"And the Great Toad Sage also gave us strict instructions not to provoke him if at all possible."
"For soone even the Great Toad Sage is wary of, Uchiha Chizumi has probably grown enormously stronger again over this last stretch of ti."
After hesitating for a mont, Fukasaku and Shima finally told Jiraiya what the Great Toad Sage had said. At this point they were stuck in a lose-lose situation. On one hand, they wanted to bring the Child of Prophecy back to Mount Myōboku. On the other, they absolutely could not afford to offend Uchiha Chizumi.
But all of Konoha knew perfectly well that Naruto called Uchiha Chizumi "teacher."
Now Fukasaku and Shima could only pin their hopes on Jiraiya. They hoped he might change Naruto's mind and persuade him to go back to Mount Myōboku with them—except lately, Jiraiya didn't seem nearly as committed to that idea as he used to be.
"I see…"
After hearing Fukasaku and Shima out, Jiraiya also fell silent.
No one knew that he himself had been trying to understand Absolute Justice too. At first he had thought Absolute Justice was completely cold and inhuman, but little by little, Jiraiya had begun to realize that justice itself simply could not be sentintal.
If Sarutobi Asuma had not died, then more and more people would have co to think: If even the Hokage's son can try to assassinate Uchiha Chizumi, then we can assassinate other people too.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi's daughter-in-law had not died, then people would have co to think that colluding with other villages wasn't a capital cri after all.
Chizumi's lack of sentint, on the other hand, had drawn a clear line for everyone. It had given both ninja and civilians a proper sense of right and wrong, and taught them what could be done—and what absolutely could not.
"If the shinobi world were reshaped according to Uchiha Chizumi's vision, then it really would beco a better place, wouldn't it?"
"The Child of Prophecy…"
"The Child of Prophecy is supposed to change the shinobi world. Uchiha Chizumi can change the shinobi world too. So why doesn't Uchiha Chizumi count as the Child of Prophecy?"
Jiraiya muttered to himself inwardly. He absolutely refused to admit that rifling through Hiruzen's crystal ball from the trash pile hadn't been purely for peeping.
No, obviously he had simply reached a deeper understanding, and as a result had beco less enthusiastic about Mount Myōboku's whole "Child of Prophecy" business.
anwhile, in the Land of Grass, Uchiha Chizumi already knew that the Lands of Earth, Wind, and Lightning had ford a coalition army to kill him—but he didn't care much.
"A couple more sweeps, and the Land of Grass should be completely cleared of evildoers."
"The Land of Grass truly lives up to its na. Evil there grows back like weeds with every spring breeze!"
Chizumi looked at Hōzuki Castle before him. While the rest of the shinobi world had all turned their eyes toward the coalition army of Earth, Wind, and Lightning, Uchiha Chizumi had already swept across the Land of Grass three full tis.
And yet the evildoers there seed inexhaustible. Every ti Chizumi left a town, new criminals would spring up in his wake. Even he couldn't help marveling at how rotten the Grass Country's atmosphere was.
"We still need to bring the Police Force into the Grass Country, ow!"
"Chizumi, if it's only you, then unless you stay in the Grass Country forever, this country has no chance at all, ow!"
Even Kitsujiro couldn't help sighing. He couldn't understand how a country could possibly end up like this.
"I'm afraid we're running out of people for the Police Force…"
Chizumi was equally helpless. More and more Uchiha were taking justice as their standard, but after sending a number of the clan's elites to build the Police Force in the Land of Water, there were already serious limits on how much he could draw from them.
If he pulled any more Uchiha away now, Konoha's own public safety would start having problems.
Even Konoha's regular ninja couldn't be reassigned on a large scale to build more Police Forces, because the village itself still needed ninja to defend it.
A lack of manpower—that had beco the most urgent problem facing Uchiha Chizumi.
"I still think Shisui's Sharingan was wasted, ow!"
"If Shisui were here, he could just alter the thinking of so of the criminals whose cris weren't that severe, then use them to temporarily form Police Forces and maintain order."
Kitsujiro suddenly thought of Uchiha Shisui. As far as he was concerned, Shisui giving his Sharingan to Uchiha Itachi could only be described one way: the guy was blind.
Then again, Shisui really had been blind…
"Once we finish the last two sweeps, we'll look through those towns and find the ones who haven't committed evil. Let them form provisional Police Forces first."
Chizumi didn't pay much attention to Kitsujiro's suggestion. To him, using eye techniques to alter another person's thinking could never count as justice. Even if Shisui had left him his Mangekyō Sharingan, he wouldn't have done sothing like that.
"Are you really sure there's nothing to worry about with that coalition army from the Lands of Earth, Wind, and Lightning, ow?"
Kitsujiro brought up the other matter again.
"The shinobi world needs to understand that Absolute Justice cannot be stopped."
Chizumi shook his head. In truth, he had long expected the daimyo of Earth, Wind, and Lightning to do sothing irrational sooner or later. For him, a coalition army was not necessarily a bad thing.
As long as he could defeat the coalition head-on, those three daimyo would be forced to realize that Absolute Justice was sothing no one could stand in the way of.
Though whether those daimyo would still live long enough to see that realization was another matter.
And just as Uchiha Chizumi was preparing to continue his purge through the Land of Grass, two White Zetsu slipped underground into Iwagakure and reached the space directly beneath Ōnoki's coffin.
"So these are the assistants Black Zetsu promised ?"
"Special organisms implanted with Hashirama's cells?"
"They can use Wood Release, move freely underground, and even disguise themselves as anyone…"
Yakushi Kabuto looked at the White Zetsu before him, and a flicker of intrigue flashed behind his glasses. Once Black Zetsu had assigned the White Zetsu to him, it had also told him that even severed limbs could be instantly restored if attached to a White Zetsu body.
As a researcher, Kabuto—like Orochimaru in the original tiline—imdiately recognized White Zetsu's far broader potential.
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