After returning, Kakashi Hatake prepared to improve Naruto Uzumaki's chakra control.
Naruto Uzumaki had already completed tree-climbing training.
Next came water-walking.
"Right… and hand seals too."
When it came to Naruto Uzumaki's hand-seal skill, Kakashi Hatake could only say it was hard to describe.
But when it came to Naruto Uzumaki's chakra reserves, Kakashi Hatake was honestly envious.
He was only a first-year Academy student, yet he already had more chakra than Kakashi Hatake, a jonin.
At such a young age, that kind of chakra reserve was absurd.
As Naruto Uzumaki grew older, his chakra would probably become dozens or even hundreds of times greater than Kakashi Hatake's.
As expected of the Uzumaki clan.
Danzo Shimura, deep within Root, had also begun to recognize Uchiha Fujie's potential.
Unlike Hiruzen Sarutobi, he did not station people around Fujie day and night. He only sent people to investigate from time to time.
What Root observed was enough to stir his interest.
Even without seeing Uchiha Fujie use the Sharingan, the strength he had shown already surpassed most genin and was enough to match some mediocre chunin.
Danzo Shimura was tempted.
If someone like that joined Root and was properly nurtured, he would become a powerful asset.
Danzo Shimura had absolute confidence in Root's brainwashing methods.
He believed Uchiha Fujie would never escape his control.
Because of Kotoamatsukami's subtle influence, Danzo Shimura never even considered placing a cursed seal on Fujie.
That was the terrifying part of Shisui Uchiha's eye.
Without realizing it, Danzo Shimura was already beginning to think in Uchiha Fujie's favor.
And he noticed nothing unusual.
In truth, the eye Danzo Shimura had taken from Shisui Uchiha could not currently be used.
Uchiha Fujie had already activated it once.
But Danzo Shimura had noticed nothing, because the process of assimilation had already begun.
That Sharingan was slowly assimilating Danzo Shimura and turning him into a new Fujie.
In the end, Uchiha Fujie discovered that he had actually overestimated Danzo Shimura.
With an arm full of Sharingan, one Mangekyo Sharingan, and Hashirama Senju's cells, Danzo Shimura's setup was monstrous.
If he had not fought like an idiot in the original story, he could have worn down any of the current Five Kage one-on-one and eventually killed them.
Unfortunately for him, against Fujie, all that power only made his fate more pitiful.
Sitting in the Academy and refining chakra, Uchiha Fujie gave a faint smile.
"At this rate, one year at most. That's all I'll need to completely assimilate Danzo Shimura and have a split body fully replace him."
The reason was simple.
Neither the Sharingan nor Hashirama Senju's cells truly belonged to Danzo Shimura.
The split body hidden within him could simply avoid those foreign elements and focus on assimilating the parts that actually belonged to Danzo himself.
A little later, Fujie learned of Hiruzen Sarutobi's plans through his split bodies.
He found out that Hiruzen Sarutobi intended to place him, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha in the same team later on.
"Kakashi Hatake, huh? They say he's mastered over a thousand jutsu and even knows the Eight Gates. He can barely count as a decent teacher. But how could his collection of techniques compare to Danzo Shimura's?"
He paused.
"Forget it. Only children make choices. I want both."
Uchiha Fujie forgot for a moment that he himself was only an eight-year-old child.
Still, thinking of Kakashi Hatake led him to another idea.
The death of Sakumo Hatake could be used as a weapon.
Uchiha Fujie had no intention of killing Hiruzen Sarutobi anytime soon.
Once Danzo Shimura was under his control, he would find a way to strip Hiruzen Sarutobi of the Hokage's seat.
He wanted Hiruzen Sarutobi to lose everything.
He also wanted the Sarutobi clan to suffer heavy losses.
And if something went wrong?
That would be Danzo Shimura's fault.
What did it have to do with him?
Konoha's leadership would be his first target.
As for Itachi Uchiha, Fujie intended to keep him alive for now.
He had a better punishment in mind for him.
Obito Uchiha, on the other hand, possessed Kamui.
Unless Fujie took Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan first, dealing with Obito Uchiha would not be easy.
For the same reason, Fujie did not intend to kill Obito Uchiha either.
If Obito Uchiha died, he would reunite with Rin in the Pure Land.
That would be letting him off too lightly.
No one in the classroom could have imagined that Uchiha Fujie, an eight-year-old child, was already daring enough to plot against Konoha's highest leaders.
The teachers, however, had long since stopped caring about him.
After a few so-called sparring sessions, they had realized they simply had nothing left to teach him.
As long as he did not cause trouble, they were content to turn a blind eye whenever he ignored the lesson.
For Uchiha Fujie, life in Konoha was peaceful, but also dull.
The split bodies, meanwhile, were having far more interesting lives.
The Aizen split body specialized in genjutsu.
With terrifying skill in illusions, he had already killed many chunin and even driven back jonin, all without using any Mangekyo Sharingan abilities.
The Mihawk split body specialized in swordsmanship.
He had gone to the Land of Iron and fought the samurai there, absorbing their swordsmanship and growing stronger with every battle.
There was no denying it—Absolute Control was a ridiculous ability.
It could turn an ordinary person into a genius.
Of course, only Uchiha Fujie and his split bodies could abuse it so shamelessly.
The Hancock split body was even more outrageous.
She bewitched countless ninja, took their ninjutsu scrolls, and then kicked them aside without a second glance.
Some had heard the rumors and still refused to believe them.
In the end, they all offered up their techniques willingly.
Desire of Beauty was simply too powerful.
And when combined with Amplified Desire, its effect was not much weaker than Kotoamatsukami.
Even jonin could not resist the Hancock split body's charm.
And that was with Desire of Beauty and Amplified Desire both functioning at only eighty percent of their true effect on her.
The Hancock split body specialized in ninjutsu, but up until now, she had never actually needed to fight.
The beauty granted by the Tomie Template was just too terrifying.
As for another split body, it had found a remote village and hidden there without causing trouble.
Its focus was on spiritual power and the soul.
Unfortunately, that field offered very little material to learn from, so it could only research everything on its own.
Techniques related to the soul were incredibly rare in the ninja world.
For now, neither the original body nor the split bodies had any real access to them.
"Finally…"
In a desolate wilderness, the Tomie Kawakami split body let out a long breath and waved a hand. A stream of water appeared and extinguished the surrounding flames.
She had just created a new split body and made it learn the newly developed self-destruction technique.
The resulting explosion had scattered flames everywhere.
If they were not put out, it might cause a wildfire.
"Looks like it's done. A technique similar to the Ultra Bomb. I can't be bothered to come up with a fancy name, so let's just call it Fire Release: Secret Art Bomb."
The principle of Secret Art Bomb was simple.
It involved pushing Fire Release chakra nature transformation to an extreme level within the body, greatly increasing the intensity in an instant, then compressing it all before releasing and detonating it at explosive speed.
There was no doubt that the technique had succeeded.
Its destructive power surpassed many other jutsu.
In terms of raw might, it was even stronger than the Massive Rasengan.
But the true success of the technique lay elsewhere.
Once the highly concentrated Fire Release chakra exploded, it completely vaporized the split body in an instant.
If it ever faced an enemy it absolutely could not defeat and did not want to leak information, this technique would be the perfect answer.
The moment that self-destructing split body died, both the original Uchiha Fujie and all the other split bodies immediately received its memories and learned the technique.
"Whatever. First I need to find something to eat. I've been stuck in this godforsaken place for too long."
The Tomie Kawakami split body set off.
Theoretically, neither the original body nor the split bodies needed to eat, drink, or sleep anymore.
As long as no one killed them, they could go on existing forever—until the world itself collapsed, or until time came to an end, assuming time even had an end.
Still, not needing to eat did not mean they did not want to.
All people had desires.
And the desire for food was one of them.
The Tomie Kawakami split body moved swiftly.
Ten minutes later, she suddenly came to a stop.
Within the range of her perception, she had sensed a very dangerous presence.
A few moments later, a man appeared before her.
His face was pale, and his eyes were like those of a snake.
The Tomie Kawakami split body recognized him immediately.
Orochimaru.
She did not think Orochimaru had come for her specifically.
That only meant one thing.
Her luck was terrible.