Chapter 134: Konoha Heroes Memorial
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"How did you know about these things?" The Nine-Tails behind the bars, after raging for a while, also calmed down and asked, staring intently.
"Is that important?" Uchiha Douhuan asked with a smile, his Sharingan active.
The Nine-Tails looked at Uchiha Douhuan's Sharingan. It knew that Uchiha possessing such eyes often had strange abilities; perhaps the other party learned these old secrets through such means.
After remaining silent for a while, the Nine-Tails finally spoke, "You mean, that little brat just now is the boy the old man spoke of?"
"In any case, I have seen images of you two fighting side-by-side," Uchiha Douhuan said sincerely.
The Nine-Tails, capable of sensing good and evil in people, stared intently at Uchiha Douhuan. It could sense that although Uchiha Douhuan's intentions weren't entirely pure, when he spoke these words, he was indeed frank and honest, not lying.
"Hmph, that little brat? Is he worthy of fighting alongside me?" The Nine-Tails raised its head and said disdainfully.
"Believe it or not, how about this: let's make a deal," Uchiha Douhuan chuckled.
"A deal?" the Nine-Tails hesitated.
"In the future, restrain your chakra somewhat, don't interfere with Naruto's learning. In exchange, Naruto will be Konoha's last Jinchuriki," Uchiha Douhuan stated.
"What do you mean by that?" the Nine-Tails asked, puzzled.
"Simple. If you are willing to accompany Naruto properly throughout his life, I will grant you freedom in the future. Furthermore, I will designate an area in the ninja world in the future where you and your eight siblings can live well. No one will ever disturb you again," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Do you think I would believe the words of you humans?" The Nine-Tails' eyes flickered slightly, but it still gritted its teeth and retorted.
"Believe it or not, it's up to you. However, Naruto is my disciple now. If he can't learn ninjutsu because of you, I really will come beat you up," Uchiha Douhuan warned.
"Do you think I'm afraid of you?" the Nine-Tails roared, but its expression looked somewhat like bluffing despite its fierce tone.
Uchiha Douhuan didn't say anything, merely releasing his Complete Body Susanoo within this seal space. After evolving to the Eternal Eye, Uchiha Douhuan's Susanoo also gained complete armor, covered in intricate patterns formed from flowing natural energy. At its waist hung a true exclusive divine weapon: the long sword named Futsu-no-mitama.
The Nine-Tails looked fearfully at Uchiha Douhuan's Susanoo, its mind involuntarily recalling the two individuals who could effortlessly toy with him decades ago.
However, after warning the Nine-Tails, Uchiha Douhuan proactively dismissed his Susanoo, then spoke, "I hope you can get along well with my disciple in the future. I won't tell him your name for the time being. As for whether you choose to tell him your name yourself later, that is your own freedom. I will not interfere."
With that, Uchiha Douhuan turned, and his figure slowly dissipated within the seal space.
The Nine-Tails inside the seal space, after hearing Uchiha Douhuan's words, its eyes also flickered.
[Does this Uchiha understand the significance of my name?]
...
After exiting the seal space, Naruto outside also slowly regained consciousness.
Seeing this, Sasuke and Neji quickly gathered around, wanting to find out what exactly had happened.
"I saw a fox! It was thaaat big!" Naruto exclaimed, gesturing with his hands to describe the size to the other two.
Sasuke and Neji were completely bewildered. Although both held significant status within their respective ninja clans, neither was old enough yet to know what a Jinchuriki truly was. Therefore, regarding the 'thaaat big' fox Naruto spoke of, they were clueless.
"Alright," at this moment, Uchiha Douhuan also woke up. He patted Naruto's head and said, "Since you now know about the existence of the fellow living inside your body, then get along well with it from now on."
"Okay!" Naruto nodded, then looked down at his own stomach. "Never thought such a big fox could actually live inside my body."
"During this period, after school, the three of you will all come here to learn Sealing Jutsu," Uchiha Douhuan said, looking at the three little ones before him. "Sasuke and Neji, although you two don't necessarily need to use this as your primary combat method, learning some basic Sealing Jutsu is still very necessary."
"Yes!" Sasuke and Neji nodded.
...
The next day, after formally accepting Naruto as his disciple, Uchiha Douhuan also had someone spread the news that a Konoha Heroes Memorial was about to be built in the village.
The ninjas who learned of this were greatly surprised and delighted. After all, in the past, being a ninja was a profession lived in the shadows. But now, Uchiha Douhuan told them that they too could become heroes standing under the sunlight. Furthermore, the location of this memorial was very significant: on the large plaza right in front of the Hokage Building, directly facing it.
For the ninja population of Konoha, this was undoubtedly like dropping a huge bomb into their perception. Over the next period, as the memorial officially began construction, the cohesion among Konoha's ninjas grew stronger day by day.
This was also the scene Uchiha Douhuan wanted to see.
Uchiha Douhuan knew that the future Konoha would definitely face a one-against-four war. Although Konoha had been the victor in the previous ninja world wars, each victory was a pyrrhic one. They lacked the ability to expand on their gains. Part of this was due to Sarutobi Hiruzen's weakness, but more so, Uchiha Douhuan felt it was because the village's logistics and the ninjas' fighting spirit could no longer keep up in the later stages of war.
Before finalizing his plan, Uchiha Douhuan had also carefully investigated the conditions of the Land of Fire. Logically speaking, although the Land of Fire was located in a battleground region, possessing the most fertile land and the most favorable climate, its war potential was fully sufficient to achieve the unification of the ninja world. However, under the leadership of nobles in the ninja world who didn't even qualify as competent feudal lords, even farming wasn't done properly, completely wasting the Land of Fire's geographical advantages.
What was even more ridiculous was that although they were the dominant side on the battlefield each time, towards the end of the war, it was paradoxically Konoha's ninjas who first showed pessimistic sentiments about the war.
And the fundamental reason for this problem was that the current ninja system could only cultivate a group of assassins but couldn't foster a batch of qualified soldiers.
Therefore, if Uchiha Douhuan wanted to achieve the unification of the ninja world, reforming this ninja system was imperative. Relying on a group of mercenaries who worked for money couldn't truly win wars.
However, changing this system was not something that could be accomplished overnight. Most of the systems established by the Second Hokage had become deeply ingrained over the decades. To change them, it was best to start subtly, gradually transforming everyone's mindset bit by bit.
And this matter of building the memorial was Uchiha Douhuan's first step.
The construction of Konoha's memorial proceeded in an orderly manner, and the situation within the village was thriving.
After the first batch of factories around Konoha Village were successively completed, the village's employment rate also steadily rose. The commoners who had poured into the Land of Fire due to the capital relocation all found jobs and earned money. As their lives improved, the voices of those troublesome citizens initially sent to the Samcheong Education Corps, who harbored deep dissatisfaction towards Uchiha Douhuan, were completely suppressed.
Now, if they dared say even one bad word about Uchiha Douhuan, ninjas wouldn't even need to intervene; their neighbors would teach them a profound lesson.
Amidst this steady positive development, Uchiha Douhuan, however, put on a mask of pain (figuratively).
Every evening while teaching Naruto Sealing Jutsu, Naruto's talent in this area truly left Uchiha Douhuan amazed (in a negative way).
He finally understood why parents in his previous life would break down while tutoring their children with homework.
It was hard to imagine that the son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, two sealing masters of the ninja world, would struggle so immensely learning even the Two Symbols Seal.
This sealing technique, Uchiha Douhuan taught a simple math lesson to the three little ones who came for class, explaining what a quadratic function was and the characteristics of its graph. Afterwards, Sasuke and Neji quickly grasped the key points and could use it presentably.
But Naruto? Uchiha Douhuan spent a full two days just getting him to understand that the graph of a quadratic function is a parabola. Then came the more abstract part: constructing specific sealing formulas to make chakra change under specific laws. Naruto remained clueless for a whole week about how to do it.
It should be known that after Uchiha Douhuan chatted with the Nine-Tails that day, the Nine-Tails had already restrained its own chakra, minimizing interference with Naruto's ninjutsu learning.
The reason Naruto learned with such difficulty was entirely because his little brain had allocated absolutely zero skill points to mathematics.
It was foreseeable that the future Uzumaki clan head might, like him, the Uchiha clan head inept at genjutsu, be completely clueless in his own clan's area of expertise.
Uchiha Douhuan looked with a headache at the formula Naruto carved on the scroll, which then caused a chakra riot due to chaotic parameters, tearing the scroll apart. He sighed helplessly.
"Sorry, Teacher. I'll try again," Naruto said, scratching his head with an embarrassed grin.
"Naruto, you absolutely must get along well with the big fox inside you in the future, know that?" Uchiha Douhuan said, facepalming.
"By the way, Teacher! Yesterday, I think I entered the place where that big fox is again!" Naruto quickly changed the subject.
"Is that so?" Uchiha Douhuan chuckled. "Then how did your chat with him go?"
"That fox has such a terrible personality," Naruto pouted, then said, "Yesterday, I just told him my name is Uzumaki Naruto and asked him his name, but he just yelled at me fiercely and kicked me out."
"Don't be discouraged," Uchiha Douhuan smiled upon hearing this. "That fox isn't someone who tells his name easily. But, I believe you can definitely become friends with him."
"Yes! I'll work hard!" Hearing this, Naruto became full of energy again and said to Uchiha Douhuan.
...
Two weeks later, the Konoha Heroes Memorial was officially completed.
This memorial stood thirty-five meters tall, with a base fifty meters long and wide. On its surface, sculptors who usually worked on the Hokage Rock carved reliefs depicting major events experienced since Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara made their vow by the Naka River and formally established the Hidden Leaf Village. Of course, some events, like the battle between Uchiha Madara and the First Hokage that created the Valley of the End, were omitted.
Furthermore, engraved on the surface of the monument were the names of every ninja who had sacrificed themselves for the village since its founding.
On the day the monument was officially unveiled, Uchiha Douhuan specially held a grand ceremony. Besides him and Sarutobi Hiruzen, the two Hokages, even Daimyo Minamoto Miyuki, who had recently become obsessed with cricket fighting with Konohamaru, was invited to the site by Uchiha Douhuan.
Moreover, at the unveiling ceremony, the heads of the major ninja clans in the village all stood in prominent positions. Among them was Naruto, dressed in ceremonial robes embroidered with the Uzumaki clan crest.
The villagers attending the ceremony were utterly astonished to see Naruto in that position.
"Why is that demon fox brat there?" a graduate of the first batch of the Samcheong Education Corps whispered among the crowd.
"Do you want to die?" Just then, a companion beside him quickly covered the man's mouth. "That's the young master of the Security Department Captain's household!"
"So what? The evil Security Department and the evil demon fox brat are in cahoots; neither is..."
Before the man could finish his sentence, several unfriendly gazes from nearby locked onto him, and he sullenly shut his mouth.
Soon, the unveiling ceremony officially began. After it started, the invited master of ceremonies began introducing the identities of the dignitaries on the stage.
When it was Naruto's turn, the MC's words shocked everyone: "Uzumaki Clan Head, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto stood up, waving to everyone with a cheerful,傻乐 (shǎ lè - silly/simple-minded) grin on his face.
"Uzumaki clan? Is there such a ninja clan in the village?" Not just the commoners, even some ninjas began whispering among themselves at this point.
After the official completion of the Konoha Heroes Memorial unveiling ceremony, under Uchiha Douhuan's instruction, the history of the Uzumaki clan, previously concealed by the village, began to spread within the village.
Only then did everyone realize that the village once had a super-major clan as an ally, no less than the Senju and Uchiha. Only due to some unforeseen events, this ninja clan disappeared into the river of history. And Naruto was currently the sole surviving blood descendant of this ninja clan in the village.
From then on, the rumors about Naruto being the demon fox brat completely vanished within the village. After all, under the administration of the Security Department, slandering and bullying an "ordinary" orphan versus bullying and slandering the clan head of a meritorious ninja clan were completely different in nature, even if this ninja clan now only had Naruto left.
And after a few more days, Uchiha Douhuan also, in the name of the Fifth Hokage, issued a proclamation to all nations of the ninja world.
Konoha would step forward to protect all Uzumaki survivors. All surviving members of the Uzumaki clan in the ninja world could come to Konoha to receive protection. Furthermore, if other powers in the ninja world were willing to provide clues about Uzumaki descendants, they would receive Konoha's friendship. Conversely, if any power dared to harm Uzumaki descendants, Konoha would pursue the matter to the end.
(End of Chapter)
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