Chapter 160, The Catalyst for War.
With a sigh, Nawaki threw the iron sword to the ground and sat down. He was truly tired...
And ... so boring!
Nawaki lay on the ground, enjoying the breeze on his face.
"Is this what you call working hard?" Raijin's shadow clone appeared silently behind Nawaki.
Raijin knew Nawaki wasn't one for hardship. After all, as a child of the Senju clan, if he had trained even a little harder, his performance wouldn't have been so poor last night.
"Uh... I..."
Nawaki jumped up, his fair face turning slightly red with embarrassment.
"If you can't keep up, you should go home. After all, continuing like this would reflect poorly on my teaching abilities," Raijin said to Nawaki before turning to leave.
For a child of that age, if he doesn't want to, no amount of talking will help.
"Wait! I was wrong!" Nawaki panicked when he saw Raijin leaving and quickly grabbed his hand.
"You're not wrong. Not wanting to train is natural; nobody wants to train. It's not a mistake," Raijin said, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Will you still teach me?"
Upon hearing the words, Nawaki blinked and asked Raijin nervously.
"Didn't I tell you the method?"
Raijin turned around and asked Nawaki in return.
"I definitely won't be lazy next time."
Senju Nawaki pursed his lips, not knowing what to say, and just said to Raijin.
"Come with me."
Raijin glanced at Senju Nawaki and headed towards the third training ground.
...
"Lazy?"
On the training ground, Tsunade approached Senju Nawaki and asked from above.
"I... am just a little bit tired."
Nawaki looked at Tsunade in front of him and instinctively took a step back.
"Use shadow clones, practice the twelve seals, swordsmanship, and chakra control simultaneously, while your real body trains Taijutsu with us here."
Raijin tugged at Tsunade and said to Nawaki.
"Okay."
Nawaki nodded obediently and split into several shadow clones to train simultaneously.
Actually, it's better to train alone. Being watched by so many people here, especially with Uchiha Raijin and Tsunade around, Nawaki felt a lot of pressure.
But what can he do?
Who let himself get caught being lazy?
And this mentality is exactly what Raijin wanted.
...
"Retsu-sama, how is Ichiro doing in Konohagakure now?"
Land of Moon, Uchiha Commerce.
Knowing that Uchiha Retsu was on duty today, Uchiha Daikawa warmly stood at the door to welcome him.
"He's doing very well. Ichiro is now an excellent Genin, and if nothing goes wrong, he has more than enough to become a Chunin."
Uchiha Retsu said with a smile on his face.
A Chunin doesn't bring much improvement to the Uchiha.
But a family with deep roots is built up bit by bit like this.
"That's good to hear."
Daikawa nodded repeatedly. After all, in this dog-eat-dog world, having the strength of a Chunin means having the ability to protect oneself.
Even if his strength is far from the top, he can always run away.
"I know what you're thinking. In a few years, the family will send Ichiro to be by your side as your guard."
Retsu looked at Daikawa and patted his shoulder.
As the president of the Uchiha Land of Moon branch, assigning a Chunin-level guard to Uchiha Daikawa is no problem.
If this guard is also a direct relative of the president, the family is even more willing to make it happen.
The atmosphere within the Uchiha family is actually quite good.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it. Please come in."
Upon hearing this, Daikawa quickly grabbed Uchiha Retsu's arm and led him into the commerce building.
"You're too polite. Although we have different roles, we're both working for the family."
Seeing this, Retsu patted Daikawa's back.
"For the family!"
Daikawa nodded vigorously, and at that moment, his sense of belonging to the Uchiha reached its peak.
The two exchanged glances and walked into the commerce building, laughing loudly together.
...
"Kakuzu, one Jonin and two Chunin, can you handle them?"
As Daikawa and Retsu entered the commerce building, two figures appeared silently on a distant hill.
"An Uchiha Jonin... I wonder if he has the Sharingan..."
Kakuzu frowned slightly, his tone carrying a hint of difficulty.
"According to the information, that Uchiha Jonin has already activated the Three Tomoe Sharingan."
Speaking to Kakuzu was a man in a mask, his entire body shrouded in a black cloak, obscuring any details.
"Three Tomoe..."
Kakuzu pursed his lips, acknowledging the challenge of facing an Uchiha with the Three Tomoe Sharingan, even for someone like him.
"Are you confident? If not, let's forget it."
The masked man glanced at Kakuzu beside him and asked softly.
"No problem."
Kakuzu replied casually, then his figure slowly sank into the ground.
It was difficult, but the payment was too substantial to pass up...
"War is about to begin..."
His gaze resting on the brightly lit trading company, the masked man chuckled and likewise disappeared into the ground.
He was well aware of his own limits; taking on an Uchiha with the Three Tomoe Sharingan, plus two Uchiha Chunin, was a challenge indeed.
But such matters had to leave no trace, so he bypassed the underground bounty network and went straight to Kakuzu.
After all, while the bounty network kept the identity of those posting jobs confidential, the content of the jobs was not.
With Kakuzu as the main force and himself waiting for the right moment, it was the safest approach.
As for money, Zetsu, who had lived in the ninja world for over a thousand years, was not short of it.
After all, making money had been too easy over the millennia.
The reason for going to such lengths was to ignite the spark that would start a war.
A significant trading company and an elite squad wiped out.
And among them, a pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan.
How would the Uchiha react?
How would Konohagakure handle this?
What would the major hidden villages do?
Zetsu was already looking forward to it.
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