Chapter 107: Illusions of Grandeur & Future Foresight
Ren watched the spectral symposium with a faint, knowing smile. The dead Kages' laments were a confirmation of his long-held theory. The Hokage position was a gilded cage—a prestige trap that consumed time, freedom, and inexplicably, one's haircut. Naruto's post-Hokage buzz cut and Gaara's severe center part weren't just fashion choices; they were the outward manifestations of a soul ground down by endless paperwork and village politics. No wonder every Kage in the Pure Land was wistfully envying Fugaku's former job. At least that work had tangible, if deeply awkward, results.
After a tense interval, Kakashi and Sasuke returned to the grove. Both were freshly scrubbed, but a ghost of pine-scented soap couldn't completely mask the faint, clingy memory of the earlier trauma. Sasuke moved with a brittle stiffness, his eyes fixed on the ground.
"Sasuke," Kakashi said, his voice deliberately light but firm. "Your old injuries require careful management. Focus on control, not exertion. I'm going to… freshen up further." With a final, meaningful glance at Ren, Kakashi vanished in a shunshin, fleeing not just the scent, but the oppressive atmosphere of failure.
Naruto bounded over immediately, a whirlwind of orange and oblivious energy. "Hey, teme! Where'd you go? Did Kakashi-sensei give you some secret one-on-one training? No fair!"
Sasuke flinched almost imperceptibly. "No. It was just… sweat. I went to change." His voice was flat, hollow.
"Huh? Changed?" Naruto leaned in, sniffed theatrically. "Eugh! These clothes smell kinda… old. Like damp attic!"
"They've been stored too long," Sasuke muttered, turning away sharply. To halt the interrogation, he drew a kunai and hurled it at a distant tree with focused, desperate violence. It struck dead center.
"Think you can get ahead of me? No way!" Naruto, ever competitive, immediately followed suit, his own throw wobbling slightly before embedding itself next to Sasuke's.
Ren observed the fragile, resuming rivalry. A distraction tactic. Good for Sasuke. Bad for overall awareness. He turned to Sakura, who stood awkwardly to the side, unsure of her role.
"Sakura," he said, offering a disarming smile. "This is getting tedious. Care for a walk in the woods? I could use a guide who isn't trying to murder trees with their feelings."
Sakura's cheeks flushed a delicate pink. The offer, coming from the calm, impossibly competent Ren, was a lifeline from the oppressive tension. "O-okay! Sure!"
He took her hand—a simple, confident gesture—and led her away from the grove, toward the deeper, quieter parts of the forest.
[Pure Land Live Stream – Chat Log]
[VIP5, Admin: Tobirama Senju]: The host's deviation from the mission perimeter is statistically unwarranted. Is this another attempt at 'harem expansion,' as the viewers crudely term it?
[Regular: Hyūga Hizashi]: That boy! His hand! He's doing it again! He's leading another girl into the woods! My Hinata!
[Regular: Yūhi Maku]: I'm starting to see a pattern. He collects affection like others collect ninjutsu scrolls. A disturbing lack of specialization.
[VIP1: Uchiha Izuna (The Ultimate Sister-In-Law Connoisseur)]: Hold on. He's already got Mikoto's Sharingan. Is he… cultivating emotional attachments to later sever them? To force a Mangekyō awakening? It's a classic, if brutal, strategy. Efficient.
The suggestion landed like a bomb in the chat.
[Regular: Hyūga Hizashi]: WHAT?! You think he's… he's farming them? For their eyes?! Ren! You explain this right now!
[Regular: Yūhi Maku]: If you lay a finger on Kurenai with that intention, I will find a way to haunt you from this side of the veil, you little—!
Ren, strolling beside a blushing Sakura, chuckled inwardly. They really do have the worst imaginations.
[Host: Ren Arakawa]: Calm down, gentlemen. My methods are far more refined than 'wife-raising, wife-killing.' Do you see how many fully bloomed Mangekyō Sharingan are just… floating around here? I could just… ask nicely. Or win them in a bet. Izuna-san's, for instance, holds zero interest for me. It's tragically pedestrian.
[VIP1: Uchiha Izuna]: PEDESTRIAN?! You insolent brat! Name one better! Go on!
[Host: Ren Arakawa]: Uchiha Shisui. His Kotoamatsukami is hailed as the strongest genjutsu eye. It rewrites a target's will without detection, turning them into an undetectable puppet. Your Susano'o is flashy, but his is subtle, absolute control. Care to compare?
The chat paused. Shisui, often quiet, was put on the spot.
[VIP2: Uchiha Shisui]: …It's not that extraordinary. It merely allows for direct, untraceable cognitive intervention. A tool for peace, misused.
[VIP1: Uchiha Madara (The Philosopher of Carnage)]: …Unconscious will manipulation. An interesting power. The ultimate shortcut to compliance. Hn.
Madara's spectral form simmered with a sudden, intense curiosity. Such a technique… in my hands…
[VIP1: Uchiha Izuna]: Fine! One example! Shisui was a fluke! Name another!
[Host: Ren Arakawa]: Uchiha Fugaku.
Another silence, longer and more bewildered.
[VIP1: Uchiha Izuna]: The last clan head? The one who let his clan be slaughtered? You're joking. If he had power, he would have used it.
[Host: Ren Arakawa]: He did. He saw its use. His Mangekyō ability wasn't for direct combat. It was future sight. He saw the inevitable annihilation, the bloody future where his clan rebelled and was erased. He chose the lesser horror—a clean death at the hands of a son he could steel himself against, rather than a chaotic massacre by the village. He saw the future, Izuna. And he walked into it.
The revelation echoed through the Pure Land. In Konoha's ANBU archives, Fugaku was a footnote—a failed leader. In the Uchiha compound's final hours, he had been a stoic, resigned figure. Now, a new, terrible dimension was added: a man burdened with foresight, navigating a river with only one horrific destination.
[Regular: Uchiha Mikoto]: …Fugaku? You… you saw it? All of it?
[VIP1: Uchiha Fugaku]: … (No response. The transmission from his corner of the Pure Land showed only a deep, weary stillness).
[VIP1: Uchiha Izuna]: …Future sight? That's… that's not a power. That's a curse.
[VIP1: Uchiha Madara]: A curse indeed. To know the cliff's edge is there and be unable to turn the cart. A fascinating, useless power. No wonder he failed.
In the woods, Ren released Sakura's hand as they reached a small, sun-dappled clearing. "This is a good spot. Less… emotionally charged."
Sakura nodded, still processing the walk, the hand-holding, the escape from Sasuke's crushing despair. "Ren… what's going to happen? With Sasuke-kun? With the mission?"
Ren leaned against a tree, his expression unreadable. "Sasuke will either break or harden. The mission…" He looked toward the eastern coast, where a seaside fortress lay marked by ice. "…is about to change. We're not waiting anymore."
He wasn't just talking about Gato. He was talking about the calculus of power itself. With the dead as his patrons and their eyes as potential gifts, the very notion of "awakening" a Mangekyō was becoming obsolete. Why cultivate tragedy when you could simply… curate it?
The chapter closed not on the walk, but on the profound shift in understanding within the Pure Land. The past was being rewritten not by historians, but by a live-stream host, revealing that the Uchiha's greatest tragedy might have been led by a man who had already read the last page.
[Regular: Senju Hashirama]: …To see the future and be powerless… Madara, even for us, that is too heavy a burden.
[VIP1: Uchiha Madara]: Do not pity him, Hashirama. He looked, he accepted, he died. It is still weakness. True power creates its own future.
But for the first time, Madara's declaration rang slightly hollow, even to himself. The kaleidoscope's patterns were more varied, and more terrible, than he had ever imagined.
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