An inexplicable look flashed through Sarutobi Hiruzen’s eyes. He sighed lightly, “If something similar happens in the future, please notify the Anbu in time. Fugaku, what do you think?”
Uchiha Fugaku bowed to Hiruzen, “Yes, Hokage-sama.”
Hiruzen waved his hand and said, “Let’s go, this matter is over now.”
As for who was the actual murderer of this incident, only a few people cared. The Great Elder was already dead so it made sense for everyone to regard him as the murderer. The villagers’ resentment would also stop with this.
As Hiruzen turned around, he saw Uchiha Tonan walk towards him from the crowd. Tonan said with a solemn look, “Sensei, I want to send off the Great Elder.”
Hiruzen nodded and patted his shoulder, “Go on, I know you’re soft-hearted. I’ll give you a day off.”
“Thank you, Sensei.”
The Great Elder’s house was full of people at this moment. When Tonan came in, everyone looked at him. Most of them had disgust in their eyes as if Tonan was an untouchable who should be avoided. The rest looked indifferent. These were the Great Elder’s trusted subordinates.
They knew about Tonan and remembering the previous entrustment of the Great Elder, they couldn’t give themselves away.
“Grandpa!…” Shisui laid on the Great Elder’s body and kept crying. Gradually, the two tomoe in Shisui’s eyes began to spin rapidly and turned into three tomoe. Then, he fainted.
Immediately afterward, a middle-aged woman hugged him. Tonan walked over and stood beside a kneeling man in the front. He sighed, “My condolences.”
The middle-aged man nodded and glanced at Tonan. He lowered his head and said, “Tonan-kun, leave… you… you’re not welcome here.”
Late at night, Tonan placed the wood carving he had earlier made of the Great Elder in its proper position on the altar. He placed three incense sticks in front of it and boiled a pot of tea. Pouring it into two teacups, he placed one in front of the Great Elder’s figurine.
Tonan sat in front of the carving while using Wind Communication and the white pigeons to observe the movement around the house. He picked up the teacup and shook his head with a look of pity, “Great Elder, if you don’t have a brain, don’t try to scheme others. Do you know what led to today’s outcome? It’s because you were walking the wrong way from the very beginning. In these past few days, you were thinking about arresting the real murderer to prove your innocence.”
“But it’s too hard to prove one’s innocence. Moreover, your innocence doesn’t matter at all. What other people want is the most important. Do you think that those people who poured dirty water on you didn’t know that you were wronged? No, they knew better than you that you were being wronged.”
“Do you think that those who spread rumors truly couldn’t tell the difference? No, they just had an inherent desire to spread rumors. Proving one’s innocence is very hard. Because you can’t wake up a group of people who are pretending to be asleep. From the viewpoint of human nature, people wouldn’t spread what they believe but would choose to spread what they wanted to express.”
“In this world, people never believed in a viewpoint but would rather choose one. There were so many loopholes, but why did everyone choose to oppose you? It’s because it happens to satisfy their inner desires. The common people are dissatisfied with the imbalance of resources, and they like to resent the big shots. The clan members feared that their descendants would become a sacrifice for geniuses.”
“And Konoha’s higher-ups are worried that you are not stable. These are their inner desires. Too many people are unable to stand your well-being. All lineups, rumors, and viewpoints are appearances. The inner desire is the essence. They don’t think that you are the murderer but they subconsciously hoped you were found out to be the murderer. For common people, since they can’t become wealthy, they could only hope that the wealthy’s foundation is intricate, thereby elevating their feeling of happiness.”
“For most clan members, since they knew it was very unlikely for their children to be a genius, they wanted to prove that although your grandson is a genius, you used dirty methods. On the contrary, the Konoha higher-ups are the simplest. They just wanted you to die. You lost because you didn’t have enough touch with the people. You only cared about the strong and geniuses in the clan.”
“Take care along the way. This is a final lesson for you. In the next life, it’s better to be a boorish fellow.”
Tonan smiled slightly and then chuckled. He emptied the teacup and smashed it to the ground, “Good tea.”
A few days later, at the Great Elder’s funeral, Shisui cried miserably while holding his wood carving. Tonan attended with a flower bouquet out of human sentiments. He had after all inherited the dead man’s legacy, he must express some feelings at the very least. As a human, one must not forget one’s roots. This point still had morality.
In the following days, Tonan followed Hiruzen to learn ninjutsu every day, while waiting for the establishment of the welfare institution. That night, he was with Hiruzen learning ninjutsu in the backyard.
Crackle, crackle, crackle~
Bang!
A boulder beside the pond suddenly burst and stone pieces fell into the pond, causing splashes. Although Hiruzen was aware of Tonan’s abilities, seeing this, he was still surprised. He looked at Tonan, whose entire body was covered with electric current, and generously praised his student.
“Very good Tonan, your ninjutsu talent is higher than what I expected. This is a compound-type nin-taijutsu that I created after studying the ninjutsu used by the Sandaime Raikage many years ago on the battlefield. It uses lightning-type chakra to stimulate cells to enhance speed and destruction. At the same time, it uses earth-type chakra to wrap the fists to enhance defense and weight. Although it’s complex, the effect is not weaker than Kumo’s lightning style secret technique.”
Tonan removed the lightning around his body and looked at Hiruzen with admiration, “Sensei, you’re amazing. You were actually able to combine two types of mutually restraining chakras. This is ingenious. If it were me, I could’ve never thought of it.”
Tonan’s eyes were sparkling as he looked at Hiruzen with reverence. This was a very effective way of dealing with Hiruzen. A smug smile appeared on the older man’s face as he picked up his smoke pipe, “In this Ninja World, nothing is impossible. It’s a pity that after I created this technique, I never had the chance to use it in battle. And as I got older, there were even fewer instances to do so.”
Tonan walked over to Hiruzen’s side and used fire-style ninjutsu to light the smoke for him. He said in a fawning tone, “A hero’s sword doesn’t age. Even if a war starts now, you’ll still be a ninja hero that can terrify big countries, Sensei.”
Tonan’s words were flattering to the extreme. Hiruzen’s smile deepened, “Don’t flatter me. The land for your welfare institution has already been fixed. After some time, all residential buildings there will be demolished. Then, the construction will begin.”
Tonan was very happy. The construction of his granary was finally about to commence. Immediately afterward, he took out a purse from his ninja bag and offered it to Hiruzen with both hands, “Sensei, this is the passbook with 600 million Ryo, please keep it.”
