When the thing called “ambition” began burning fiercely in his heart, Hyuga Kagami found his thoughts becoming sharper and more agile as well.
The Kage-level powerhouses of White Fang and the Sannin’s generation had either died, fled, or left.
Now, the only one remaining was Jiraiya, who was hardly invested in village affairs and had no interest in the position of Hokage.
Among the Kage-level powerhouses of Minato and Kushina’s generation, aside from the Fourth Hokage and his wife—the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki—the other major clan heads, such as Hyuga Hiashi, Uchiha Fugaku, and the heads of the Ino–Shika–Chō clans, were certainly formidable in their own right, but they were still just a hair short of true Kage level.
The gap in Konoha’s pool of talent was already painfully obvious!
For Konoha, this was an enormous crisis.
But for Hyuga Kagami, it was an opportunity that might come only once in a lifetime.
Because as far as he was concerned, his only true competitors now were the rising ninjas of his own generation—Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, Shisui, Itachi, and the others.
As for Shisui and Itachi, the two rising powerhouses of the Uchiha clan, the strained relationship between the Uchiha and the village meant that the stronger they became, the more wary the village would be of them.
So in practice, they too were excluded from the competition.
“In the future, this will be my stage!”
Hyuga Kagami was utterly certain of it.
It was both confidence in himself and an expectation for the future he intended to seize!
But when it came to the concrete matter of actually acquiring power and influence, Hyuga Kagami currently faced two problems.
The first was his Tenseigan.
Although members of the Hyuga clan generally wouldn’t activate their Byakugan casually while inside the village, if one of them happened to activate it in front of him, his Tenseigan would be exposed immediately.
After all, there was still an obvious difference between the pure white Byakugan and the Tenseigan, whose depths seemed to contain a vast expanse of stars.
The second problem was his status as one of Orochimaru’s former subordinates.
Hyuga Kagami couldn’t think of any good solution to the first problem, so for the time being, he could only try to avoid other members of the Hyuga clan.
As for the second problem, considering that the village was currently desperately short on manpower, coupled with the Uchiha clan drawing most of the higher-ups’ attention, Hyuga Kagami felt that as long as he played his cards right, resolving it might not be particularly difficult.
A moment later, Hyuga Kagami’s expression darkened.
“A Chūnin—and one who was only promoted during wartime at that.
My status is far too low.
Anyone can walk all over me!”
Over the past few months, Hyuga Kagami had truly had his fill of being pushed around.
The helplessness of being ordered here and there at others’ whims, the fury of being marked for elimination, and the misery of having no control over his own fate—all these experiences had taught him one of the simplest truths imaginable.
If he didn’t want others stepping on him, then he had no choice but to climb as high as he could.
“I need to establish a new image for myself in the village—one completely different from the mediocre, unremarkable person I used to be!”
The moment he began thinking about how to raise his status, Hyuga Kagami instinctively thought of the Fourth Hokage.
That was right.
The Fourth Hokage was the quintessential example of an ordinary, clanless ninja rising to the very top in this era of the shinobi world.
If he had to sum up the Fourth Hokage’s defining traits, the words that immediately came to Hyuga Kagami’s mind would be “powerful,” “charismatic,” and “high-profile.”
The more brutal the war, the brighter the stage it provided.
It could be said that the Third Shinobi World War was what made the Fourth Hokage.
It allowed him, a young ninja from a civilian background, to rise all the way to the position of Hokage—the seat representing the highest authority in the shinobi world.
But now that the war was over, if Hyuga Kagami wanted to gain tremendous prestige, he would have to make himself even more conspicuous than the Fourth had been.
He needed to appear before everyone as an overwhelmingly powerful shinobi, making sure that everyone understood just how strong he was.
He wanted it so that whenever people considered who should succeed the Hokage, his figure would instinctively come to mind.
Of course, changing the image he presented to the village had to be done gradually.
He couldn’t rush it.
Otherwise, he would inevitably arouse the suspicions of the village higher-ups. Get faster updates on g.com.
Having made up his mind, Hyuga Kagami wasted no more time and immediately sprang into action.
In peacetime, the fastest way to showcase one’s abilities was through missions.
And an impressive mission record was also an important qualification for promotion.
Once the thought occurred to him, Hyuga Kagami acted on it immediately and headed straight for the Mission Center.
Compared to usual, the Mission Center seemed somewhat deserted today.
Walking up to the counter, Hyuga Kagami said to the staff member,
“I’m Chūnin Hyuga Kagami.
Could you show me which B-rank missions are currently available?”
After verifying Hyuga Kagami’s identity, the staff member handed him a mission list.
“These are all B-rank missions.
You’d be better off choosing from the first few pages.
Those clients have been waiting for quite a while.”
Hyuga Kagami was well aware that the village was severely short on manpower at the moment, causing a large backlog of missions.
So without saying anything more, he immediately began looking through the list.
The village had strict rules for classifying and assigning missions.
Jōnin could accept missions of any rank, including S-rank.
Chūnin could only accept missions from B-rank to D-rank, while Genin were limited to C-rank and D-rank missions.
Generally speaking:
S-rank missions were usually commissioned by major factions and primarily involved tasks such as assassinating important figures or stealing highly classified intelligence.
A-rank missions were also mostly commissioned by major factions, with objectives such as protecting important figures or hunting down rogue ninja.
B-rank through D-rank missions were generally commissioned by individuals.
B-rank and C-rank missions carried the possibility of combat, while D-rank missions involved no combat at all.
Hyuga Kagami was a Chūnin, but even without using the Third Kazekage human puppet, his strength was already at the level of a Special Jōnin.
That made B-rank missions the most suitable choice for him.
After briefly looking through the mission list, however, Hyuga Kagami frowned.
None of the missions posed much of a problem in terms of difficulty.
The issue was that the vast majority had minimum team-size requirements.
Even those with the lowest requirements demanded a team of at least two ninja before they could be accepted.
Just then, a short figure appeared at the service window beside Hyuga Kagami.
Hyuga Kagami glanced over from the corner of his eye— and immediately froze.
That little guy was none other than the Uchiha clan’s young genius—
Uchiha Itachi!
Although he was only six or seven years old, Itachi already displayed a maturity far beyond his age.
Despite being such a small child, he carried himself like an adult, seriously flipping through the mission list page by page.
A moment later, Itachi handed the list back to the staff member and asked in a somewhat childish voice,
“Excuse me, are there no C-rank missions that can be accepted by a single person?”
The staff member at Itachi’s window seemed long accustomed to dealing with members of the Uchiha clan.
He showed no surprise whatsoever at a six- or seven-year-old child asking to take a C-rank mission alone.
He simply shook his head as though it were perfectly ordinary.
If you want to accept a C-rank mission, you should find some ninja you know and form a team with them.”
Hearing this, Itachi looked troubled and murmured,
“Looks like I’ll have to wait until Big Brother Shisui returns to the village.”
Beside him, Hyuga Kagami chuckled.
“Kid, you haven’t even graduated yet, have you?”
Itachi replied politely,
“Because of the reconstruction, the Academy has been closed for four months.”
Hyuga Kagami hadn’t expected that the Ninja Academy had also been destroyed during the Nine-Tails’ attack.
“If school’s closed, then stay home and enjoy the break.
Going out on missions alone is dangerous.”
Itachi answered with an utterly serious expression,
“The village is short on manpower right now, and a lot of missions have piled up.
If no one completes them for too long, it’ll seriously damage the village’s reputation.
Eventually, the number of commissions the village receives will start decreasing as well.”
Hyuga Kagami stared at him blankly for a moment.
For once, he had no idea what to say.
After sizing Hyuga Kagami up for a moment, Itachi asked,
“Excuse me, Senpai, are you a Chūnin?”
Hyuga Kagami nodded.
Itachi’s face immediately brightened.
“Then, Senpai, do you happen to need another team member?
My name is Uchiha Itachi.
Although I haven’t graduated yet, I’m already capable enough to be a proper Genin.”
Hyuga Kagami shook his head.
“I’m planning to take a B-rank mission.
You’re not suitable.”
At the moment, the village was already suspicious of the Uchiha clan, while Hyuga Kagami himself had yet to completely shake off his own troubles.
Naturally, he wasn’t particularly eager to get involved with the Uchiha.
Itachi hurriedly said,
“I’ve already looked through the B-rank missions.
There aren’t any that can be accepted by a single person either, so you must need another team member too, Senpai.”
Hyuga Kagami thought it over.
In the future, he would inevitably have to deal with powerful members of the Uchiha clan.
If that was the case, gaining an early understanding of the Uchiha clan’s fighting style would certainly be useful.
And Itachi was one of the most dazzling talents of this generation of Uchiha.
Establishing a personal relationship with him early on might prove useful in ways Hyuga Kagami couldn’t yet anticipate.
Hyuga Kagami smiled as an idea formed in his mind.
“All right, then.
But you have to follow my orders in everything.
No acting on your own.”
Itachi immediately bowed to Hyuga Kagami.
“Please rest assured, Senpai.”