Genshin wanted to resolve the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
If at all possible, he even wanted to prevent the Fourth War from happening in the first place.
This wasn’t only for the sake of his own peaceful, lazy fish life down the road—it was also for the growing number of people he’d come to care about.
No one understood the brutality of the Fourth War better than Genshin.
His teacher, Tsunade, was cut in half at the waist during her battle with Madara and nearly died on the battlefield.
Naruto had the Nine-Tails ripped out of him and died once already—if the Sage of Six Paths hadn’t topped up his account with an extra life, that would’ve been a permanent death.
Hinata, facing the Ten-Tails’ sky-blotting barrage of grafting spikes, would most likely have died too if Neji Hyuga hadn’t taken the hit for her.
And on the most crucial battlefields of the Fourth War, the sheer intensity of the fighting was absurdly high.
In the first phase, against the White Zetsu horde and the Impure World Reincarnation army, ordinary shinobi were still qualified to join the fight.
But once the second phase began with the resurrection of the Dance King, Uchiha Madara, essentially all combat power below Kage-level was weeded out.
Anyone below that tier who tried to take part in the battles after the Dance King appeared would just get instantly killed, like a speed bump—at that point, numbers meant nothing.
So, in order to deal with future enemies, Genshin needed to preserve as many of the Kage-level-and-above fighters he could rally as possible—at the very least, they couldn’t be allowed to die in meaningless internal strife.
Especially a character like Uchiha Itachi, who was heavily favored by the original author.
Honestly, no matter how the versions changed, he never fell out of the meta.
No matter how strong or hard-to-kill the opponent was, Itachi could always pull some perfectly countering technique out of his pocket.
You could call him a conceptual god in some sense—healthy Itachi is the GOAT.
Although Genshin didn’t think of himself as some chosen one or messiah, if the person was right there in front of him, within arm’s reach of his ability to save them, he simply couldn’t turn a blind eye—after all, as a modern man, the moral values rooted deep in his heart would leave his conscience uneasy.
It was also the reason Tsunade so often called him naive.
After a moment of silence, Itachi broke the stillness: “Some of the clansmen are already planning to turn against the village.
I understand the grievances of the clan, isolated and watched all these years, but for the sake of both the village and the clan, I can’t just let them run wild.”
“If there’s no other way, then as long as we clear out this group of radicals, the village will understand that we Uchiha have no intention of rebelling.”
Genshin stared into Itachi’s eyes for a long while, until Itachi grew thoroughly uncomfortable, then let out a sigh: “You’re too extreme, Itachi.”
Those few sentences laid bare, in full, the extremist streak buried in Itachi’s very bones.
“The way I see it, there’s nothing that can’t be settled by sitting down and talking—but first you have to find a way to get a seat at the table.”
Genshin paused, then tossed Itachi a question first: “Why do you think the village is so wary of the Uchiha?”
Itachi lowered his eyes slightly: “It’s because back then, Uchiha Madara defected and used the Nine-Tails to attack Konoha.
Ever since then, everyone has been on guard against our clan.”
Genshin followed up: “Then what was the reason the villagers all began to loathe the Uchiha?”
The question left Itachi a little stunned.
After hesitating, he answered, “Because we were too proud, unable to get along with everyone…”
But Shisui cut him off: “It’s because the Second Hokage established the Konoha Military Police Force to manage security within the village and arrest criminals, and he put our Uchiha Clan in charge of it—and that department… it really made a lot of enemies.”
Genshin nodded and said to Itachi: “Right, but that’s exactly where your problem lies, Itachi.
You don’t understand the root of the problem well enough, yet you want to crudely crush every opponent who dares stick their head out.”
Seeing Itachi looking a bit unconvinced, Genshin tapped his own head with a finger, telling Itachi and Shisui to hear out his analysis.
“As I see it, the Second Hokage didn’t simply mean for the village to ostracize the Uchiha Clan.
Clearly there was a follow-up plan behind this policy.
Judging from how he and the First personally split up the Senju Clan and merged them into the village, he was deliberately weakening the power of the ninja clans.
So, after he split up the Senju Clan, which clan became the largest ninja-clan power in the village?”
Itachi swallowed.
“It was… the Uchiha Clan.”
“So the Senju Clan is gone, yet the other ninja clans still get to hold power—does that make sense?”
Cold sweat broke out on Itachi’s forehead.
“No… it doesn’t make sense.”
“Right.
What comes next is my speculation, so just treat it as one possibility.
By my estimate, the Second’s follow-up move was this: after the Uchiha Clan had been ostracized by the villagers, he very likely would have let civilian shinobi join the Konoha Military Police Force too, and even go a step further and gradually let civilian shinobi hold power as well, thereby weakening the authority in the hands of the ninja clans.”
“And through working alongside civilian shinobi in one department, the villagers would gradually come to understand the Uchiha, and slowly the Uchiha Clan would integrate into the village too.”
“Originally the Second Hokage struck with the stick, intending to follow it up with a sweet date.
The very reason he went to the Land of Lightning to form an alliance was that he wanted a stable external political environment, so he could free up his hands to deal with the village’s internal problems.”
“But as you know, at the alliance ceremony…”
“The Second gave his life to shield the Third.”
Shisui picked up the thread.
Compared to Itachi, who was still in shock, he was slowly catching on—he had long faintly sensed the Second Hokage’s far-reaching scheme, he just hadn’t thought it all the way through.
So the problem lay with the executors who came after.
They merely continued carrying out the Second Hokage’s policy without making any modifications—forget the sweet date, it turned straight into a stick, then another stick, and then a full wind-up for one more stick.
“Originally the Fourth Hokage also intended to resolve this issue.
I heard from my teacher that the Fourth’s wife and Itachi’s mother were on very good terms.
But just as things were gradually turning for the better, along came the Nine-Tails’ Night.”
Genshin added that Obito pinned an absolutely massive false blame on the Uchiha, directly inflaming the conflict.
After great difficulty a Shisui finally emerged, only to be schemed to death by Danzo in the end.
The Uchiha Clan was like a drowning person struggling to surface—every time they just caught a glimpse of hope, someone underwater grabbed their leg and dragged them down another notch.
After being dragged down several times in a row, they were flat-out drowned to death.
You could say the Heavens themselves directly intervened, forcibly driving the Uchiha Clan toward extinction.
Itachi was already dumbstruck.
All this was still too far over the head of the eight-year-old, and he asked blankly: “Then what are we supposed to do—just wait to die?”
Idiot!
How could this brain be so slow to click?
Genshin bitterly rapped him on the head—just the way Itachi would later flick Sasuke’s forehead.
Genshin’s tone suddenly rose as he asked: “Where is the flashpoint most likely to inflame the conflict between the village and the Uchiha right now?
Itachi, you tell me!”
Itachi mumbled for a long while: “The… the radical faction within the clan.”
He looked just like a bad student being scolded by the homeroom teacher.
“And what else?” Genshin asked.
“And… and also…”
Itachi couldn’t come up with an answer.
A little despairing, Genshin poked Itachi’s forehead again and again: “I’m begging you, Itachi—be a little kinder to the clan, stop always fixating on killing them.”
As he looked at Itachi, the more he looked, the more Itachi’s face seemed to gradually merge with Pol Pot’s.
Thankfully Shisui came to Itachi’s rescue: “There’s one more flashpoint, and that’s the upper echelons led by Elder Danzo who want the Uchiha Clan to disappear—am I right?”
Genshin sighed and said: “Exactly.
Shisui, you should know—the Third’s stance is stability.
As long as the Uchiha don’t clearly move to stage a full-clan coup, he won’t make a move against you.
So as long as we keep both the radicals inside the clan and the radicals in the village in check, then open up the Konoha Military Police Force and bring in more people to help shoulder the blame, the conflict can be eased.”
“Understand, Itachi?
The Shinobi World isn’t all fighting and killing.
Sometimes you have to use your head.”
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🔥 New history: DanMachi: