Chapter 197: Minamoto Miyuki: Not Learning, Not Learning!
The impeachment attempt against Uchiha Douhuan thus ended like a farce.
The court of the Land of Fire continued to operate normally. The only difference was that a batch of young officials was missing from the court, and a large amount of ownerless land had appeared within the Land of Fire.
The newly appointed officials who filled the vacancies continued to maintain the stable operation of the Land of Fire's court. Farmers in some regions suddenly found the heavy land rents above their heads gone overnight, and they were even allocated the land they had long dreamed of. As for the crickets Minamoto Miyuki wanted, Uchiha Douhuan also dispatched Team Eight, acting as a reconnaissance squad, to specially help him catch some from the Land of Grass. It could be said that, apart from the nine relations of some individuals being injured, everyone had a bright future.
After this incident, some people once again witnessed Uchiha Douhuan's terror. Furthermore, what was even more frightening was that, compared to when Abe Taiichi's faction was purged previously, this time, Uchiha Douhuan had the Daimyo's complete support, and no fault could be found from any angle.
And Uchiha Douhuan was also very satisfied with Minamoto Miyuki, this disciple of special status.
For Uchiha Douhuan, as long as Minamoto Miyuki didn't cause him trouble, he wouldn't hesitate to ensure this child a lifetime of wealth and honor. As for the child's fondness for play, he was, after all, just a child; being a bit playful wasn't a particularly grave sin. Moreover, this child's hobby was merely playing with crickets, which, for someone in his position, was already quite economical and practical.
However, after this incident, Uchiha Douhuan also suddenly realized that this disciple of his, whom he hadn't managed much since accepting him, also seemed to possess some wisdom.
Therefore, after Team Eight brought back the crickets Minamoto Miyuki wanted, Uchiha Douhuan personally took the crickets on a trip to the royal palace.
After Uchiha Douhuan arrived at the royal palace, he first announced his arrival, then was led by a eunuch into Minamoto Miyuki's palace hall.
When Uchiha Douhuan arrived, Minamoto Miyuki and Sarutobi Konohamaru were sitting on the floor of the palace hall with no regard for their image, staring intently at a small bowl. Inside the small bowl, two robust crickets were fiercely battling each other.
"Get him! Ame-no-Minaka!"
"Don't lose to him! Great Ape Demon!"
The two kids shouted while slapping the floor. However, Ame-no-Minaka, upon whom Minamoto Miyuki had placed high hopes, was defeated after battling Great Ape Demon for a while.
"Hehe! I won again!" Konohamaru chuckled gleefully. After using a small bamboo tube to retrieve his beloved champion from the small bowl, he said grinningly.
"Damn it! This is already the sixth cricket the village ninjas specially found for me! Why can't I still beat your Great Ape Demon!" Minamoto Miyuki's face was full of annoyance.
"Because that cricket of his has been nourished by special chakra," just then, Uchiha Douhuan, who had been watching for a long time, finally spoke. "Crickets caught from the wild are naturally no match for it."
Hearing Uchiha Douhuan's voice, the two kids turned their heads simultaneously.
"Uncle Douhuan?" Konohamaru, after seeing Uchiha Douhuan, greeted him with a cheerful smile.
"Teacher? Why are you here?" Minamoto Miyuki, after seeing Uchiha Douhuan, was also somewhat surprised. After all, these past few years, apart from holidays when Uchiha Douhuan would come see him, he was mostly left to his own devices at other times.
"The reconnaissance squad has already caught the crickets you wanted from the Land of Grass for you, so I brought them over incidentally. However, it seems there's no need for this anymore. Wild-grown crickets like these can hardly compare to those nourished by special chakra," Uchiha Douhuan said with a smile after handing a bamboo tube containing crickets to Minamoto Miyuki.
Minamoto Miyuki, after hearing Uchiha Douhuan's words, instantly glared angrily at Konohamaru: "Konohamaru! You cheated!"
Konohamaru naturally wouldn't admit it and immediately retorted, "How can you say raising my own cricket with my own abilities is cheating?"
"The chakra on this cricket, although very faint, bears some resemblance to your grandfather's summoning beast, Enma. Kid, you didn't happen to use the drugs the Enma clan and your Sarutobi clan use for cultivating combination ninjutsu on this cricket, did you?" Uchiha Douhuan's mouth twitched slightly.
After Sarutobi Hiruzen retired, he truly doted on Konohamaru, his current only grandson, to the heavens. If in the original timeline, the Third Hokage could only leave Konohamaru to his own devices because he couldn't let go of power, now, with the Third Hokage revolving around this kid all day, this kid's naughtiness was even worse than before.
Kakashi at the Security Department also received no few complaints from villagers about this kid, but out of respect for the Third Hokage, he couldn't do much about him either.
"Teacher, I want a cricket like that too!" Minamoto Miyuki, after learning the reason why he kept losing to Konohamaru in cricket fighting, became somewhat furious, then turned his head and said to Uchiha Douhuan.
"Regarding how to cultivate such crickets, I really haven't researched much. How about I go ask the Aburame clan for you? When it comes to insects, they are the experts in this field," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"That's great! Teacher, you're the best!" Minamoto Miyuki's face immediately lit up with joy after hearing Uchiha Douhuan's words.
"Alright, Konohamaru, you head back first. I have some matters to discuss with His Highness the Daimyo," Uchiha Douhuan then said to Konohamaru.
"Okay then," Konohamaru nodded, sensibly taking his beloved champion and leaving.
After Konohamaru left, Minamoto Miyuki immediately ordered tea and snacks to be prepared for Uchiha Douhuan, then led Uchiha Douhuan to sit down at a table in the palace hall.
Before long, a palace maid served the brewed tea for Uchiha Douhuan and the milk prepared for Minamoto Miyuki, along with a platter of exquisite pastries.
Just then, Minamoto Miyuki took a sip of milk through a straw before speaking, "Teacher, later, take all the tea leaves tribute from the small surrounding countries this year from the palace. I don't drink this stuff; it's just a waste keeping it here."
"I appreciate your kind intentions. However, those tea leaves are, after all, tribute from foreign states. If I take them, people will inevitably point fingers and gossip, leading to incidents like before," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Who dares! I'll kill them!" Minamoto Miyuki said fiercely.
"You are now the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. Some words cannot be spoken casually," Uchiha Douhuan reminded unhurriedly.
"I know," Minamoto Miyuki grinned sheepishly.
"However, Miyuki, you've been my disciple for over three years now, right? These past few years, I haven't taught you much. I have somewhat failed the heavy trust your father placed in me before his death," Uchiha Douhuan sighed. "Tell me, what do you want to learn from me? As long as it's something I know, I will do my best to teach you. Even if it's something I don't know, I will find a way to have someone teach you."
"I can learn anything?" Minamoto Miyuki's eyes lit up upon hearing this, but he still confirmed first.
"Yes, you can learn anything," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Then Teacher, I want to learn the method to cultivate crickets like Konohamaru's Great Ape Demon. Can you teach me, Teacher?" Minamoto Miyuki asked.
Uchiha Douhuan's mouth twitched slightly. To be honest, if it were Naruto here, Uchiha Douhuan would have already taken out his belt. But this kid was, after all, the Daimyo. Uchiha Douhuan reorganized his words, then continued, "Don't you want to learn something else that's useful?"
"For example?" Minamoto Miyuki looked at Uchiha Douhuan and asked.
"How about I teach you governance and statecraft?" Uchiha Douhuan inquired.
"What about that?" Minamoto Miyuki asked.
"The methods of governance and statecraft that I know, I dare not say they can bring everlasting peace to our Land of Fire, but they can ensure long-term stability and order for our Land of Fire," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Is it fun?" Minamoto Miyuki tilted his head and asked.
"The way of governance and statecraft is to bear the livelihood of the entire nation upon oneself. How can it be treated as child's play for amusement?" Uchiha Douhuan said seriously.
"Then not learning, not learning," Minamoto Miyuki shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Regarding governance and statecraft, I trust Teacher. I won't learn it. Thank you for your hard work, Teacher."
"Then how about I teach you to refine chakra and cultivate ninjutsu? Your father also wished before his death that I could teach you some means of self-protection," Uchiha Douhuan offered.
"Is it fun?" Minamoto Miyuki asked.
"Ninjutsu cultivation is like sailing against the current; it requires practicing through the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter, without any slacking off in the slightest," Uchiha Douhuan stated.
"Not learning, not learning!" Minamoto Miyuki continued to shake his head. "I'm right here in Konoha now. With Teacher around, I refuse to believe anyone can break through Konoha's barrier and harm me. Teacher and my senior disciple brothers will protect me, right?"
Looking at Minamoto Miyuki before him, with this 'Learning? Learn shit!' attitude, Uchiha Douhuan's mouth twitched slightly. Should he perhaps slap this kid on the back of the head three times now, then wait at home for him to come seeking him out in the middle of the night?
"Do you intend to just play around like this for your entire life?" Uchiha Douhuan asked.
"What's wrong with that?" Minamoto Miyuki retorted. "Isn't it fine to leave professional matters to professionals? That the Land of Fire can achieve such development speed today under Teacher's governance is something previous generations of Daimyo in the Land of Fire never accomplished. Even if I learned these things and handled them personally, I couldn't do better than you, Teacher. So why should I waste the effort?"
Minamoto Miyuki spread his hands and said frankly, "Besides, even if I don't learn these things, as long as the Land of Fire develops vigorously during my reign, will the evaluation of me in future history books be poor? So, Teacher, you and my senior disciple brothers should work hard. With you and my senior disciple brothers around, I can also play with peace of mind."
Uchiha Douhuan's mouth twitched. This kid seemed to be already treating him as free labor.
Although there was nothing inherently wrong with this – this kid's approach actually saved him a lot of effort – Uchiha Douhuan definitely couldn't directly agree to the kid's words at this point.
Uchiha Douhuan slammed the table and stood up. After staring at Minamoto Miyuki for a while with an expression of 'hating iron for not becoming steel' (disappointment), he finally sighed helplessly, turned, and intended to leave the royal palace.
Just then, Minamoto Miyuki was still calling from behind, "Teacher, don't be in such a hurry to leave! Take the tea leaves with you!"
...
After returning from Minamoto Miyuki's place, Uchiha Douhuan also went back to his own office, took out the military reform proposal from before, and began to add details to it.
Regardless of whether Minamoto Miyuki genuinely wanted to slack off and be a sage emperor governing with folded arms, or if he was feigning it like Emperor Kangxi to lull him, this Oboi, into a false sense of security, one thing would not change: at least for a very long time to come, this kid would not cause him any trouble.
As for the future? When Uchiha Douhuan truly completed his plan, he would probably have already stood at the pinnacle of the ninja world. At that time, whatever schemes Miyuki might have would no longer hold any meaning for him.
Two more days passed. After Uchiha Douhuan had completely perfected this plan, he finally proposed it at a Konoha Jounin meeting.
This plan was quickly approved and was scheduled to begin trial implementation formally after the Joint Chunin Exams concluded.
As the Chunin Exams approached, the powers in the ninja world that had replied to Uchiha Douhuan's invitation also successively arrived in Konoha.
The first to arrive in Konoha Village was the South Kirigakure squad personally led by Takagi Shōban. Generally speaking, for such Joint Chunin Exams hosted by one of the Five Great Nations, the invited ninja villages from other great powers wouldn't arrive too early. Only those from smaller ninja villages would arrive in advance. But as it happened, Takagi Shōban possessed none of the reserve befitting a Kage, directly wearing on his face the sentiment that being Konoha's dog was South Kirigakure's honor. When meeting and shaking hands with Uchiha Douhuan at the village gate, the expression on his face was remarkably like that of a filial son paying respects to his father on his birthday.
However, among the numerous small ninja villages that replied to Uchiha Douhuan's invitation this time, the figure of Amegakure was strikingly present.
Jiraiya, who had previously volunteered to go to the Land of Rain to investigate Akatsuki, had also returned to Konoha these past two days. At the same time, he brought back a message for Uchiha Douhuan: Nagato wanted to talk with Uchiha Douhuan. He would personally come for this Chunin Exam to show sincerity.
"You've worked hard, Lord Jiraiya," Uchiha Douhuan said after reading the intelligence Jiraiya brought back, as well as the formal visit request Nagato had sent, looking up at Jiraiya who had been waiting before his desk for a long time.
"Don't say that," Jiraiya waved his hand. "This is what I should do. After all, those three were cultivated by me back then. You were right before; if those three truly intend to be enemies with the village, then I would become a criminal who aided the enemy. Besides, I'm just a Genin now; I can't bear the title of 'Lord' from you."
"Don't say that. Lord Jiraiya's contributions to the village, the village has always remembered in its heart. If Lord Jiraiya wishes, I will restore your Jounin rank after some time," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Forget it. Traveling the ninja world, doing some creative work, such days are also quite good," Jiraiya chuckled carefreely. Although these years he still hadn't forgotten about the Child of Prophecy, the flourishing development of the Land of Fire and Konoha Village also made him start to believe that the changes brought by Uchiha Douhuan might really be developing in a good direction.
"By the way, Lord Jiraiya, since you're back, please trouble yourself to take Naruto to Mount Myoboku after some time to learn Sage Mode there," Uchiha Douhuan said.
However, as soon as Uchiha Douhuan's voice fell, a bustling knock came on the Hokage office door.
Naruto directly pushed the door and entered, panting as he said, "Teacher, not good!"
"What happened?" Uchiha Douhuan frowned. "What's with this rash behavior?"
"No time to explain! Just come home with me first, and you'll know," Naruto urged.
After Uchiha Douhuan followed Naruto back home, he saw another blonde sitting in Kakashi's living room, slurping instant noodles. His mouth also twitched slightly.
The newcomer was none other than the Land of Earth's newly minted rogue ninja, the former Tsuchikage's direct disciple with a 30 million bounty at the underground exchange (live capture mandatory), Konoha's Yamato Construction Group's Chief Demolition Expert, Deidara.
(End of Chapter)
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