Chapter 253: Konoha Riot
"There are always some idiots who try to grab things they were never worthy of." Kenichi narrowed his eyes at the men in front of him, then calmly wiped his hands.
He had waited in the Land of Snow for a full month and a half. Only after that long did these idiots finally believe he was truly gone, that he had already left the Land of Snow. Only then did they dare begin their foolish plan.
Forcing an abdication.
Kenichi watched from the side as they even acted out an ancient farce, parroting lines like, "The lord is young, the country is uncertain. This is a calamity that will destroy the nation," and, "Heaven's numbers have shifted, the divine artifacts have changed. This is the natural order."
Kenichi stared at them, genuinely stunned for a moment, wondering if he had transmigrated into an entirely different story.
Then he kicked them without hesitation.
"I have never seen people this shameless," he said, unable to hold it in.
The self proclaimed abdication enforcers collapsed on the spot, trembling so hard their knees looked ready to snap.
It was boring.
Kenichi had thought that men bold enough to scheme for the Daimyo's position might at least argue back. He had even been ready to unleash the verbal skills he had sharpened by watching endless cringe videos in his previous life.
Instead, the moment they saw him, they went limp. Cowards to the bone.
"Lord Amemiya!" Koyuki looked at Kenichi with open reverence. The worship and attachment in her eyes had become more and more obvious.
Kenichi's head ached.
This girl was genuinely troublesome. He did not know what she would become in the future, but a loyal subordinate was still a good thing. At the very least, he would not have to worry about his backyard catching fire.
That said, the mother worm's reproduction was also a problem. Kenichi still did not understand how the mother worm produced new parasites, or how long its lifespan was.
If its life cycle was limited, he would have to continuously cultivate the next generation of mother worms. And if things went well, he might even be able to keep raising their intelligence with each generation.
"How's the growth?" Kenichi glanced at the rebels sprawled on the ground, then yawned and asked casually.
The mother worm's growth probably would not be that fast, but with this creature, who could say? The chakra parasite was already extinct in this world. Besides the Sage of Six Paths, there was probably no one alive who truly understood its state.
If it matured smoothly, that was best. When the time came, he could use these idiots for experiments and see what abilities the mother worm's offspring actually possessed.
"It still needs more time, Lord Amemiya," Koyuki answered quickly.
Kenichi was not disappointed. He had expected that answer.
And since the parasites were not ready yet, there was only one thing left for these people.
They would die.
Presumably, they should have prepared themselves for that outcome.
Kenichi looked down at them.
They had not.
Several had already wet themselves. Kenichi could not help shaking his head. For most people, death was the greatest fear in the world, especially for those with power and money. Once they died, everything vanished.
For a moment, Kenichi even considered developing some kind of antiaging injection. If he had that, he could squeeze those rich people dry, just like the medical conglomerates in his previous life.
But it would take too long.
It would be faster to walk up to those "important" idiots and collect protection fees directly.
So he discarded the idea.
In the end, Kenichi still chose to kill the men in front of him.
He briefly considered a different use for them, locking them up and saving them for experiments once the mother worm matured. But the complications of imprisonment were not worth it.
More importantly, he had already waited here for a month and a half. There was no chance he would keep waiting.
So Kenichi took their lives without ceremony, gave Koyuki a few instructions, and then left the Land of Snow under her reluctant gaze.
From the airship, Kenichi quickly put the cold Land of Snow behind him. As it flew south, sunlight spilled over him. He stretched in satisfaction, then yawned again.
"So next, I go to Konoha and find Hinata," Kenichi muttered, scratching his head. "But do I really want to research her eyes?"
His research slot had been vacant for a while. Once he committed to a project, he could not swap it out casually. These plans took time, and the moment he started, he would be bound to it for a long stretch.
That was why he always thought carefully before choosing what to research.
Hinata's Byakugan was a tempting target. But Kenichi did not know what completing that research would actually give him, or whether it would conflict with his current three tomoe Sharingan.
Researching tissue meant that once the research finished, the result would be granted directly to him. In other words, he would acquire those traits.
But what would a mix of Byakugan and Sharingan become?
Kenichi had no idea.
"High purity Byakugan and Sharingan are both atavistic bloodlines," Kenichi said, gazing at the white clouds beyond the window and sinking into thought. "If I could obtain Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's genes, or the Sage of Six Paths' genes, then Byakugan would become meaningless anyway."
He had considered researching Hinata's high purity Byakugan before. But Hinata had not awakened the Tenseigan, so whether her eyes could even lead to it was uncertain.
And whether it was Tenseigan or Rinnegan, everything came back to one thing.
Ōtsutsuki genes.
Without the Ōtsutsuki clan's blood, those heights were unreachable.
It was also why the bloodline angle in Naruto's later era drew so much criticism. Effort and talent mattered, but bloodline mattered too. To many people, it felt ridiculous.
"Kaguya is out of the question," Kenichi murmured, stroking his chin. "She's still sealed, and if she's released, I can't beat her."
Kaguya was the best choice on paper, but she was far too strong.
The Sage of Six Paths had left no corpse behind, so in the current shinobi world, there was only one practical option left.
Black Zetsu.
But Black Zetsu was an emergency product, and Kenichi was not particularly eager to use him.
To put it bluntly, Black Zetsu was a contingency Kaguya created right before she was sealed. He could not even maintain a stable human form and needed to cling to others. Kenichi was not fully convinced Black Zetsu carried complete Ōtsutsuki genes.
Still, Kenichi had no better choice on hand.
"I also remember a mysterious organization called Kara," Kenichi said, looking down at the sea far below, bored by the long flight. He recalled something he had heard while watching videos on his phone before. "They're connected to the Ōtsutsuki."
Kara was an organization that appeared in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. It was hard to explain why Naruto Shippūden never mentioned them, but Kenichi did not care. Boruto was released later, after all.
Compared to Akatsuki, which he understood well, he knew almost nothing about Kara.
Back when he first heard the news that the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, had died, Kenichi had lost interest in Boruto entirely.
When the airship finally reached the Land of Fire, Kenichi made his decision.
He would research fusion technology between thermobaric bombs and chakra.
As for the Byakugan, he would handle that himself.
Researching the Byakugan might hand him the Byakugan, or it might hand him something else. But if he did it personally, he could try extracting Hinata's genes and refining his derivation of Ōtsutsuki traits. That could push his evolution on a life level.
"And I can see little Naruto along the way," Kenichi said.
He looked at the lush forest below, yawned, found a place to hide the airship, then left it behind and headed on foot into the Land of Fire.
Even in winter, the Land of Fire was not that cold. A shinobi like Kenichi could walk around in a single layer without worrying about getting sick.
He did not plan to waste time, so he moved quickly and soon reached the nearest settlement to Konoha, the same town Jiraiya and Naruto had once passed through when they went to find Tsunade.
But the moment Kenichi entered, he sensed something was wrong.
A town that should have been bustling and prosperous was now strangely deserted. The people on the streets hurried along with fear written on their faces.
"What happened?" Kenichi frowned.
He did not remember any wars that should have reached this far. After Konoha's conflicts with the Hidden Cloud Village and Iwagakure ended, the shinobi world entered a relatively stable period. Naruto's lonely childhood had unfolded in that calmer era, and he eventually grew into a shinobi who chased the dream of becoming Hokage.
Yet this town looked like a wartime rear area, the kind of atmosphere that only appeared when the front was going badly.
And this place was close to Konoha. If the situation was not extremely unfavorable, it would be almost impossible for fear to spread like this here.
Kenichi's mind turned.
Maybe it was not an external war at all.
Maybe it was Konoha itself.
He touched his face. This time he was using a Transformation Jutsu, because he had not encountered any "lucky people" along the way.
That was odd too. Konoha shinobi should have been moving through these routes constantly.
But right now, he had not seen a single one.
Combined with the town's mood, Kenichi felt there was a strong chance of an internal conflict in Konoha.
And the most likely source was the Uchiha clan.
"If that's true, then the shinobi world's plot is really…" Kenichi's eyes narrowed, and he stopped himself. "No, the plot already changed drastically the moment I interfered."
He thought of Shisui, Itachi, and Sasuke, all in the Land of Rice Fields.
With Shisui alive, Itachi could not become the executor of a clan massacre. Sasuke did not have to shoulder that pain. The future had already been thrown into chaos.
Kenichi left the disturbed town and hurried toward Konoha.
But when he got closer, he slowed.
More vigilant shinobi were stationed along the routes, and the air was heavy with alarm.
Kenichi crouched in the canopy of a tall tree and stared at Konoha in the distance.
The village that should have been prosperous and lively was burning. Flames licked upward, and thick smoke stained the sky.
"So it really is happening," Kenichi murmured, surprised despite himself. "Is Fugaku really that aggressive? How did I not know?"
There were not many unstable factors in Konoha. If this was an internal upheaval, the Uchiha were the prime suspect.
And from what Shisui had said before, Fugaku was not simple. He seemed to possess the same kind of power Shisui had. That meant Fugaku very likely had the Mangekyo Sharingan too.
The only question was what ability Fugaku's Mangekyo held.
Even with the increased vigilance, slipping in was not difficult for Kenichi. He approached Konoha's outskirts and then scratched his head when he saw what stood in front of him.
A massive defensive barrier.
It was obvious that because of Kenichi's actions, Konoha had poured an enormous amount of resources into strengthening its defenses, to a degree that was almost unimaginable.
Still, this was within Kenichi's expectations.
"It looks like I need to research barrier penetration," Kenichi sighed. "Otherwise, I'll be forced to brute force my way in every time."
He could have charged in like Nagato, but his research into bypassing defensive barriers was not extensive. And Konoha had reinforced theirs, making it even more troublesome.
Kenichi placed his palm against the barrier. Chakra condensed.
Then he forced a breach and slipped through, appearing on the roof of an izakaya inside Konoha.
Given the village's current state, Kenichi figured that even if the Third Hokage noticed, he probably would not be able to spare many shinobi to deal with him.
Then a loud boom shook the air.
Kenichi turned sharply.
In the direction of the Hokage Building, a pale purple giant rose into view. It was only a half body, but Kenichi recognized it instantly.
Susanoo.
Fugaku had the Mangekyo Sharingan, but what ability it granted him had always been unclear.