Each clone had its own tasks to handle. Compared to them, the original body was much more relaxed.
For now, Uchiha Fujie's greatest source of entertainment was bullying Sasuke Uchiha.
After all, Uchiha Fujie still could not reveal himself openly.
That evening, Uchiha Fujie was once again instructing Sasuke Uchiha while sparring with him.
More precisely, Sasuke Uchiha had come to challenge him again.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Sasuke Uchiha formed hand seals at high speed, and a fireball burst from his mouth.
The fireball was not especially large, and his sealing speed was still somewhat slow.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."
Uchiha Fujie lazily raised one arm and, in an almost careless manner, formed a single hand seal with one hand.
A massive fireball roared out, twice the size of Sasuke Uchiha's.
Uchiha Fujie's fireball quickly swallowed Sasuke Uchiha's fireball whole.
Fortunately, the moment Sasuke Uchiha saw it, he dodged aside.
This was not the first time Sasuke Uchiha had seen Uchiha Fujie cast the Great Fireball Technique with one hand.
One-handed seals were already outrageous enough.
But Uchiha Fujie used only a single seal, which was practically the same as casting without seals at all.
So no matter how many times Sasuke Uchiha saw it, it still shocked him.
The ANBU reserve hiding in the shadows was equally stunned.
He felt that he himself might not be able to defeat Uchiha Fujie.
He could certainly crush Sasuke Uchiha, but he also knew that Uchiha Fujie had definitely been concealing his true strength the entire time.
From beginning to end, Uchiha Fujie stayed on the defensive.
No matter how Sasuke Uchiha attacked—whether with ninjutsu, taijutsu, or even shurikenjutsu—Uchiha Fujie always responded later yet somehow struck first, countering with the exact same kind of move.
Once Sasuke Uchiha had exhausted every trick he had, Uchiha Fujie suddenly accelerated and sent him flying with a kick.
Then he looked down at him from above.
"Sasuke Uchiha, you're still far too weak. Just in terms of hand seal speed alone, Itachi Uchiha can form six seals in a single second. Seeing your progress makes me worry. It's a good thing I'm still alive. Otherwise, if we had to rely on you, the Uchiha clan would never avenge itself."
Uchiha Fujie showed no mercy at all with his words.
Mocking Sasuke Uchiha had already become part of his daily routine.
And just as expected, Sasuke Uchiha's eyes had already evolved into the two-tomoe Sharingan.
Still, Uchiha Fujie could not help but marvel at how strange Sasuke Uchiha was.
Things had already diverged from the original story, yet Sasuke Uchiha still had to evolve his two-tomoe Sharingan in two separate stages.
The previous time, one eye had become two-tomoe while the other remained one-tomoe.
Only now had both eyes finally reached the two-tomoe stage.
Sasuke Uchiha staggered to his feet.
"The one who kills Itachi Uchiha will be me. You're only ahead for now."
Sasuke Uchiha did not challenge him again.
In truth, every time one aspect of Sasuke Uchiha's strength improved, he would develop the illusion that he could turn the tables and defeat Uchiha Fujie.
And then he would get beaten down again.
That was just how things always went.
After some time passed and his strength rose a little more, he would come back for another challenge.
In reality, Uchiha Fujie was the best possible teacher for Sasuke Uchiha.
Uchiha Fujie had mastered the nature transformation of Fire Release chakra, knew how to compress Fire Release ninjutsu and reduce the number of seals required, and even understood medical ninjutsu.
The medical ninjutsu had been obtained by the Hancock clone from Konoha ninja stationed at the border.
Both the clones and the original body had mastered it with ease.
As a result, Sasuke Uchiha could train as hard as he liked without worrying about hidden injuries.
"Hm? So I finally obtained the Eight Gates Formation."
While guiding Sasuke Uchiha in ninjutsu and genjutsu, Uchiha Fujie suddenly received the forbidden technique known as the Eight Gates Formation.
The knowledge had been sent over by the Hancock clone.
Who would have thought that a thick-browed man like Might Guy would also be interested in beautiful women?
Uchiha Fujie immediately asked the clone what exactly had happened.
In the original story, Might Guy never married.
If that remained true, then the Might family line would end with him.
And what made it even more interesting was that Kakashi Hatake also never married.
Kakashi Hatake was the last seedling of the Hatake clan.
"How boring. So it was just memory extraction."
After learning the truth, Uchiha Fujie lost interest.
After all, if Might Guy could have been used directly, then there would have been no need to open all Eight Gates.
Even opening the Seventh Gate would already make him comparable to a Kage.
As it turned out, Might Guy had not been affected by Desire of Beauty.
It had been his teammates who were influenced.
The Hancock clone had used them to ambush Might Guy, then read his memories and obtained the Eight Gates Formation.
Afterward, she sealed off this part of Might Guy's memory, as well as the memories of his teammates.
"The Eight Gates really is an excellent technique. I wonder if I would die after opening all eight gates. Even if I would, I can always have a clone use the forbidden technique instead. Now that I have it, the pace of certain plans can be sped up."
Although Uchiha Fujie looked as though he was doing nothing while hiding away in Konoha, he was actually controlling the overall situation from above.
Every single clone was under his direction.
"So Iwagakure has chosen a ceasefire too? That makes sense. If the war continues to escalate, Onoki won't be able to bear the losses. It looks like a relatively peaceful period is about to begin."
Uchiha Fujie quietly analyzed the situation.
He would never stir up war casually.
Everything he did had a purpose.
"Next, I need an identity that can enter the Akatsuki. Kakuzu is dead now, isn't he? The Akatsuki will definitely recruit someone new. Maybe one of the clones can join them."
Uchiha Fujie needed one clone to infiltrate the Akatsuki as a mole.
When the time was right, he would seize the final fruit of everything and make himself the Ten-Tails jinchuriki.
Joining the Akatsuki was not difficult.
All one needed was great strength and the status of a missing-nin.
Once those conditions were met, the Akatsuki would come recruiting on its own.
"Rather than creating a fresh clone and having it build a reputation from scratch, it would be better to have a clone assimilate a well-known ninja and turn that person into another Tomie."
Uchiha Fujie quickly finalized the plan and handed the matter over to the Mihawk clone in the Land of Iron.
Originally, this task should have gone to the Aizen clone.
However, the Aizen clone already had its own mission, and at the moment, the Mihawk clone was the closest to the Land of Lightning.
There were no especially powerful missing-nin in the Land of Lightning, but there was always a way.
At this moment, it had been seven days since Kakuzu's death.
Through White Zetsu's investigation, the Akatsuki had already learned how Kakuzu died.
In Amegakure, the Akatsuki members were holding a meeting through the Illusionary Dragon Nine Consuming Seals projection method.
Aside from Pain and Konan, everyone else present was only a projection.
When he learned that Kakuzu had died at Orochimaru's hands, Sasori's expression turned grim.
If he had managed to kill Orochimaru earlier, Kakuzu would not have died.
It was not that Sasori shared any deep bond with Kakuzu.
Rather, he had been the one tasked with hunting Orochimaru down, yet Orochimaru had still gone on to kill Kakuzu.
That made Sasori seem incompetent.
"I'll go deal with Orochimaru personally. I'll take care of him and retrieve both his ring and Kakuzu's ring while I'm at it."
The Deva Path of Pain spoke indifferently.
To him, everyone in the Akatsuki was just a tool.
Aside from Konan, he did not care about any of them.
Likewise, the others had joined the Akatsuki with very little true loyalty in their hearts.
"Leader, leave this matter to me."
Sasori clearly had a different opinion.
He was extremely confident in his own power.
Then again, every member of the Akatsuki was confident in their own strength.
The Deva Path of Pain replied, "You are no longer Orochimaru's opponent. Orochimaru was already troublesome enough to begin with. Now that he has acquired Kakuzu's secret technique and possesses five hearts as well, it's safer if I go personally."
The Akatsuki still lacked manpower.
Pain had no desire to see Sasori die too.
Otherwise, they would need to recruit another person all over again.
Throughout the meeting, Itachi Uchiha said nothing.
In truth, he did not care much about what happened to Orochimaru.
What truly mattered to him was Sasuke Uchiha and Konoha.
From Hiruzen Sarutobi's intelligence, he had learned that there was another surviving Uchiha.
Though still young, this survivor was already quite strong. Even before graduating, he was no weaker than a chunin. At the moment, he was teaching Sasuke Uchiha, and Hiruzen Sarutobi intended to have both him and Sasuke Uchiha graduate early next year.
Itachi Uchiha's expression grew a little complicated.
He did have some impression of Uchiha Fujie.
But he clearly remembered that he had not killed him.
Could it be that Uchiha Fujie had been killed in his sleep by "Madara" or by Root, and after reviving, mistakenly believed that Itachi Uchiha was the one who killed him?
Itachi Uchiha wanted someone to accompany Sasuke Uchiha.
But he also feared that if Uchiha Fujie learned the truth, he might harm Konoha—or harm Sasuke Uchiha.
He decided he would observe for a while longer.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi later sent information suggesting that Uchiha Fujie held ill intent toward Konoha, Itachi Uchiha intended to use Kotoamatsukami to control him.
The Akatsuki meeting did not last long.
In the end, it was decided that Pain would personally take action.