Chapter 195: The Pseudo Child of Destiny and the Peace Plan
To unravel this little mystery, Mie mentally pinged her main body to cross-reference the archives. Far away, the original combed through the system's vast database, sifting through the exhaustive clan dossiers she had compiled during her tenure as Hokage. Finally, the missing puzzle piece clicked into place.
Following the bloody close of the Warring States Period, the Uzumaki Clan had maintained amicable ties with the Senju, yet they harbored zero intentions of actually joining the newly founded Konoha. Unfortunately for them, the political climate of the era was unforgiving. Aside from the overly idealistic Senju Hashirama, the other three founding figures were militant radicals. Their diplomatic policy was remarkably simple: join us, or get beaten into submission. Naturally, the Uzumaki's initial refusal earned them a rather brutal 'persuasion' session from those three hardliners.
Battered and bruised, the majority of the Uzumaki Clan swallowed their pride, packed their bags, and assimilated into the Hidden Leaf. However, one stubborn splinter faction absolutely refused to bow their heads. The blood feud ran too deep; this particular branch had lost their grandfathers to Uchiha blades, and their fathers had subsequently perished in the ensuing retaliatory strikes against the red-eyed clan. Unwilling to share a village with their sworn enemies, these seven or eight holdouts severed ties with the main Uzumaki family and condemned themselves to a life of wandering across the Ninja World.
Nagato was a direct descendant of those exiled stragglers.
To add another layer of tragic irony, Nagato's parents had been collateral damage in the ongoing Second Great Ninja War, accidentally caught in the crossfire while the Four Nations Alliance clashed against Konoha's forces. The sheer cosmic spite of the situation was almost amusing. Fate, it seemed, had aggressively decreed that this boy would never become a 'Nagato of Konoha'.
"Sister, you've been staring at me..." A nervous voice broke her train of thought. "Is it... is it because I'm doing something wrong?"
Under the weight of Mie's unblinking, analytical gaze, the naturally timid boy had grown increasingly flustered. His hands fumbled, the sharp edge of the fish-gutting knife slipping and narrowly missing his index finger.
"Not at all. It's because you're incredibly impressive, Nagato," Mie replied smoothly, not missing a beat. "I only showed you how to scale and gut a fish once, and you've already mastered the technique."
She rubbed her chin, adopting a tone of solemn, scholarly observation. "Fortunately for all of us, you only inherited my butchering skills and completely bypassed my culinary techniques. You are a truly discerning student."
Beside the makeshift prep station, Yahiko and Konan exchanged a glance before bursting into bright, ringing laughter.
"Master finally admits it!" Yahiko crowed, pointing an accusatory but grinning finger. "Your cooking is absolutely terrible!"
"I concede to the truth," Mie sighed dramatically, waving a hand in lazy surrender. "Therefore, I am officially delegating all future kitchen duties to you three. I shall reluctantly take on the heavy burden of being someone who merely opens her mouth to be fed and stretches out her arms to be dressed. Ah, the grueling life of a spoiled aristocrat."
The tension bleeding out of his narrow shoulders, Nagato finally relaxed. A faint, bashful blush dusted his pale cheeks as he returned to preparing the meal. While the orphaned trio's culinary repertoire was decidedly average, their food was, at the very least, safe for human consumption—a stark contrast to Mie's hazardous kitchen experiments.
Once the modest dinner was cleared away, the atmosphere shifted. The three children shuffled closer, forming a tight semicircle around Mie. They stared at her, their eyes wide with a potent mix of burning expectation and nervous hesitation. The unspoken plea hung heavy in the damp air: they wanted her to teach them Ninjutsu. In the war-torn meat grinder that was the Land of Rain, mastering chakra was the only currency that bought survival.
This iteration of the Second Great Ninja War had violently derailed from the original timeline. Instead of a messy free-for-all, it was a brutal, unified siege: Konoha standing alone against the rest of the world. Because of this relentless pressure, Jiraiya—one of the legendary Sannin—was permanently pinned down on the blood-soaked front lines. He had absolutely zero time to wander the rain-swept countryside and stumble upon three starving orphans. Thus, the fated encounter between master and students had been perfectly, cleanly bypassed.
Mie's approach to mentorship was surprisingly hands-off, bordering on gentle. She laid down the fundamental theories of chakra control, provided the basic structural guidelines, and then stepped back to observe. She preferred to watch their natural affinities bloom, offering precise, tailored guidance only when they stumbled on their chosen paths.
Yahiko, predictably, possessed a natural affinity for Water Release. To give him a goal, Mie casually demonstrated the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet and the Great Waterfall Technique. The sheer destructive majesty of the roaring currents left the boy vibrating with kinetic energy. His eyes practically sparkled with feral excitement, looking as though he wanted to forcibly absorb the hand seals into his brain right that second.
Watching him bounce on his heels, chattering incessantly about wanting to learn every lethal technique in her arsenal, Mie raised a single, calming finger.
"Yahiko, you are entirely too impatient," she advised, her tone shifting into a smooth, authoritative cadence. "Mastering chakra is not a sprint; it is a grueling marathon. You cannot rush the process. Carving out a solid, unbreakable foundation now will pay massive dividends for your future cultivation. Persevere through the boring basics first."
"But I need to get stronger now!" Yahiko protested, his fists clenching at his sides. "I want to be even stronger than you, Master! Only then can I actually do the things I need to do."
"You want to change the current state of the Land of Rain?" Mie asked, easily deducing the boy's grand motivations based on her knowledge of the original timeline.
"That's only part of it." Yahiko lifted his chin, his voice suddenly ringing with a heavy, overbearing ambition that seemed far too large for his scrawny frame. "If I had absolute strength, I could change the entire world. I could rip this terrible, bleeding world apart and force it to become the way I want it to be."
A young boy's perspective was always painted in such bold, uncompromising strokes. It was no wonder the universe had briefly considered him a candidate for the Child of Destiny.
As Yahiko's grand declaration echoed in the damp cavern, the atmosphere shifted. Konan gazed at him, her amber eyes shimmering with a quiet, deep brilliance. Beside her, even the chronically shy Nagato lifted his head. His eyes, usually hidden beneath thick crimson bangs, widened with absolute admiration and unwavering support.
This was the raw, magnetic charisma of a natural-born leader. The charm of the Pseudo Child of Destiny.
Mie clicked her tongue inwardly, highly amused by the sheer theatricality of it all.
"If you want to change the world, raw military might is nowhere near enough," she countered smoothly, pouring a bucket of cold logic over his fiery speech. "You need a systematic structure. You need sustainable governing policies, economic use, and bureaucratic control. You're being far too idealistic. In fact, I once knew someone who shared your exact sentiments."
"Who?" Yahiko's eyes widened to the size of saucers, his earlier frustration instantly evaporating into immense, burning curiosity. "What kind of person were they? To actually share noble ideals like mine... where are they now?"
Konan and Nagato leaned in as well, staring at Mie with bated breath, waiting for the grand revelation of this legendary, like-minded hero.
Mie met their shining, hopeful gazes and delivered the punchline with a perfectly flat, deadpan expression. "She's already dead."
The trio froze. A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the room.
"...Master," Yahiko finally muttered, his mouth twitching. "If you just wanted to crush my confidence, you didn't need to invent a tragic martyr. But I won't give up. When I become stronger, Konan, Nagato, and I will work together. We'll scour the Ninja World to find more like-minded people, and we will change things."
Rather than argue, Mie reached into her robes, retrieved a heavily bound scroll—her infamous Ninja World Peace Plan—and tossed it directly into Yahiko's chest.
"Take a look at this, then."
Yahiko fumbled to catch the heavy parchment, unrolling it across the floor. The document was staggeringly long. Though it was technically just a preliminary outline—the 'deceased' author having lacked the time to flesh out the microscopic bureaucratic details—the sheer scale of the vision was stunning.
As Yahiko's eyes darted across the ink, a tidal wave of realization crashed through his young heart.
In his own mind, Yahiko's grand plan had essentially boiled down to: become the strongest, beat up the bad guys, and force everyone to stop fighting. It was a child's dream.
But the text on this scroll was a razor-sharp, pragmatic blueprint. It detailed the concept of a supreme entity—a extraordinary power standing above all individual nations—using overwhelming, centralized military force to deter aggression and enforce a mandatory, systemic peace. It was a flawless, highly evolved version of his own raw ideals. It struck a chord deep within his soul.
"Master..." Yahiko traced the elegant calligraphy, his voice trembling with awe. "Did... did you write this? This is absolute genius!"
Though Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato were merely street orphans, even they had heard whispers of the legendary figure who had penned such philosophies: Konoha's Fourth Hokage.
Long before the current war had reduced their homeland to ash, they had eavesdropped on desperate civilians murmuring in the rain. The adults had spoken of the Land of Fire with starry-eyed reverence, dreaming of migrating to a paradise where taxes were low, jobs were plentiful, and the invincible Fourth Hokage offered absolute protection.
Then, the illusion shattered. The war erupted, transforming the Land of Rain into a colossal meat grinder. At the conflict's peak, legions of shinobi from the Great Nations converged on their borders, slaughtering indiscriminately and sending the terrified civilian populace scattering like frightened rats.
Amidst the chaos, the orphans vaguely recalled hiding in the rubble as a squad of terrifying, red-eyed Konoha shinobi marched past. The Uchiha warriors had been practically vibrating with murderous intent, fiercely snarling to one another: "We will burn the Great Nations to the ground to avenge the Fourth Hokage!"
"She died... because the other nations didn't agree with her philosophy?" Yahiko's knuckles turned white as he gripped the edges of the scroll. His eyes flickered violently, processing the sheer weight of global politics. For a small, half-starved child to suddenly shoulder the burden of the entire Ninja World's geopolitical landscape—it was a tragically grand vision.
Mie offered a slow, solemn nod, perfectly playing the part of the grieving historian.
"That is correct. The ruling powers of the world feared her philosophy. They refused to surrender their autonomy to a unified peace, so they conspired in the shadows. They orchestrated a massive siege, sending an allied army of thirty thousand shinobi to grind her down until her chakra ran dry. That was her end. And her assassination is the fundamental catalyst that sparked this current Great Ninja War."
She leaned forward, her dark eyes locking onto Yahiko's trembling form.
"At the height of her reign, she was undeniably the strongest entity on the continent. Yet, she was still slaughtered because of the ideals written on that very scroll. So tell me, Yahiko..." Mie's voice dropped to a chilling, testing whisper. "...do you still wish to persist with your grand ideas?"
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