Chapter 206: The Book of Sealing

Chapter 198: Scroll of Seals

With the overall situation already settled, he certainly wasn’t willing to continue staying on a broken ship destined to sink.

Regardless, he was still a Uchiha Jonin with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan and carried a certain amount of weight; even if past experiences prevented him from entering the clan’s core circle, he could still maintain a certain status.

Looking at the two elders and Uchiha Jin, whose attitudes changed in just a few seconds before the Mangekyō Sharingan, as well as the clansmen who grew excited, emotional, and even fanatical before these eyes, Uchiha Gen spoke in a clear voice: “Regarding Fugaku’s disappearance, to avoid suspicion, I will not actively participate in it. I’ll leave it to you all to investigate yourselves here, how about that?”

Hearing these words, some of the old-timers present immediately deciphered the underlying meaning.

Uchiha Gen would not intervene and would leave it to them to handle.

What did this mean?

Was this the first pledge of allegiance?

No, it couldn’t quite be considered a pledge of allegiance yet; it was merely giving them an opportunity to express their stance and pick a side.

Would they choose the clan head and Fugaku’s faction, which were destined to become yesterday’s withered flowers, or choose the increasingly vigorous, zenith-reaching Great Elder and Uchiha Gen?

This made them know what to do even with their knees, and what kind of reply to give to Uchiha Gen.

As for the truth?

The truth was no longer important.

What mattered was simply what to do in the present and the future.

The Second Elder reacted first; he knew that the general trend was gone. Before these eyes, any political maneuvers appeared pale and powerless.

“Indeed, this matter definitely has hidden depths. Now that the war is not yet settled and the old clan head has abdicated due to injuries, Gen is currently the clan’s most crucial backbone. If he were to be framed again, causing the morale within the clan to waver, that would be no small matter.”

The Third Elder followed closely behind: “That’s right! Regarding the matter of Fugaku, we will thoroughly investigate it to the end! We will never let the schemes of petty villains succeed!”

The remaining clansmen also chimed in with agreement one after another.

Watching the scene before him, Uchiha Gen remained calm and untroubled inside.

Here on the front lines, he had suppressed all dissent relying on these eyes.

With the elites of the clan on the front lines not falling into chaos, more than half of the matter was already resolved.

Those feeble noises within the village could not stir up any waves either.

Early the next morning.

At the fortress entrance, after Uchiha Gen and Orochimaru completed the handover with Elder Akimichi Torifu who had come to take over the defense, without a moment’s delay, they transformed into two afterimages and galloped rapidly in the direction of returning to the village.

As Kage-level experts, how fast were the master and disciple on their feet? In around two days, they had returned to the village.

Inside the Hokage’s Office, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the dusty master and disciple returning from their journey, a gentle smile blooming on his face.

“Orochimaru, Gen, you’ve worked hard.”

“It certainly was hard work, Sarutobi-sensei. Wanting Danzo to fully cooperate in getting things done is no easy task.”

Orochimaru slumped down right opposite the Third Hokage, showing not the slightest bit of restraint.

“Thank you for your trouble, Orochimaru. However, within the village, besides this old man, only you are capable of competent handling of this position.”

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, exchanged a few more pleasantries with the two, and then steered the topic towards Uchiha Gen.

“Gen, what happened within the Uchiha clan is, after all, your family affair, and it is inconvenient for this old man to intervene too much. This matter will require you to bear the heavy burden; the Uchiha are also an important force of the village, and internal strife must absolute not occur.”

“Lord Third, I understand.”

Uchiha Gen nodded in acknowledgement.

“Also, regarding your eyes——” Sarutobi Hiruzen’s gaze seemed to accidentally fall upon Uchiha Gen’s eyes.

Two days prior, the latter exposed the Mangekyō Sharingan in full view of the public; it was inevitable that the intelligence would be transmitted back to the village.

If the Third Hokage didn’t even know about this, he would be far too incompetent.

“These eyes are eyes that represent fire, Lord Third,” Uchiha Gen said with a double entendre.

“Representing the Will of Fire, hm? This old man believes that you will certainly be able to use the precious power of these eyes in the most correct and important places.”

Seeing that Uchiha Gen did not reveal more intelligence regarding the Mangekyō Sharingan, the Third Hokage raised his hand to lift his pipe and took a puff, looked at him deeply, stopped probing, and instead said: “Alright, you’ve both had a hard journey, go get some rest first.”

“I’ve already had the Anbu prepare things; they can take you to the secret chamber beneath the Hokage Building to peruse the Scroll of Seals at any time.”

“Yes, Lord Third.”

After Uchiha Gen and Orochimaru departed, Sarutobi Hiruzen put down his pipe, sat alone in the office, and silently smoked his pipe with a deep look in his eyes.

“The Mangekyō Sharingan, the same eyes as Madara——whether this is a blessing or a curse, and whether he might change his loyalty toward this old man because of these eyes, remains to be seen. I must secretly instruct Orochimaru to test him out.”

Under the guidance of the Anbu, Uchiha Gen and Orochimaru passed through strict blockades and arrived at the basement secret chamber at the bottom of the Hokage Building.

However, what presented itself before them was not the complete Scroll of Seals, but merely a table of contents.

The jutsu listed above were not all open either; even upon selection, they could only read the corresponding scrolls, cutting off any room for operation to glance at anything extra.

“Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Four Symbols Seal, Reverse Four Symbols Seal——”

Uchiha Gen scanned the scrolls before him and discovered that, as expected, the Flying Thunder God Technique he wanted was not inside.

True to form, the Third Hokage still hadn’t dropped his very last shred of vigilance against him.

Even as Orochimaru’s disciple, as the heir to the Will of Fire certified by Mito during her lifetime, he still could not alter the fundamental background of originating from the Uchiha clan.

While this pair of Mangekyō Sharingan brought powerful strength, it probably also provoked even greater precautions from the Third Hokage.

He definitely wouldn’t want to see another Madara appear within the Uchiha clan, leading to a situation where the tail wagged the dog and became too big to control.

“Forget it, never mind these things for now; I’d better decide which jutsu to choose first.”

Uchiha Gen shook his head, cast aside the distracting thoughts in his mind, and began to quickly analyze.

Among so many jutsu, the ones that could catch his eye and bring a noticeable effect to his strength were only two.

Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags and Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu.

The former had immense power, but was too expensive—it was purely crushing people to death with money. Furthermore, the conditions for using it were quite harsh and prone to injuring oneself; Tobirama Senju developed it to be used alongside Impure World Reincarnation as human flesh bombs, or used in conjunction with the Flying Thunder God, teleporting away after sticking explosive tags onto someone.

He didn’t know Impure World Reincarnation, nor did he know Flying Thunder God; using Shadow Clones would also work, but by comparison, Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu was the absolute match for him.

The Sage Body endowed him with an extremely massive amount of Chakra, sufficient to support a large number of Shadow Clones. More importantly, he had a brilliant idea in his mind—the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu could perhaps be combined with the Shadow Body Flicker Technique!