The worry that had been hanging over Renya's heart was finally set aside.
With the interference of external factors gone, someone once again returned to a completely laid-back lifestyle.
"This is what life should be like!"
Renya lay on a reclining chair, feeling the sunlight spill over his body, and couldn't help narrowing his eyes in comfort.
Such a leisurely life.
He really couldn't understand why Madara refused to give up the "Eye of the Moon" plan and peacefully return to the village to enjoy retirement.
Making the entire shinobi world achieve peace was unreliable anyway—enjoying one's later years was far more practical.
Now that Madara was no longer wreaking havoc, the development of the shinobi world had finally returned to the right track.
From now on, there was no need for him to worry about the shinobi world's development anymore.
After all, in a few more decades, the protagonist Uzumaki Naruto would be born, and whatever happened after that would have nothing to do with him.
By then, he would be around fifty years old—perfectly fitting the age for retirement.
When the time came, once Danzō retired and handed the position of Hokage over to Hiruzen, they could all happily enjoy their retirement together.
The only regret was that the prerequisite for Uzumaki Naruto's birth was Hashirama's death.
Put that way, Senju Hashirama only had about ten years left.
Birth, aging, illness, and death were part of the natural order, and Renya had long since grown accustomed to it.
Uzumaki Mito's physical condition had been getting worse and worse, possibly because half of the Nine-Tails had been extracted.
This caused her health to begin deteriorating.
Even with the powerful Uzumaki constitution, she had started falling ill frequently.
Because of this, Uzumaki Mito proactively suggested that the village begin searching early for the next Nine-Tails jinchūriki candidate.
The implication was that her time might not be long, and the village should prepare in advance.
...
Hokage Office.
"The situation is like this. Who do you think would be suitable to take on the role of Nine-Tails jinchūriki?"
Shimura Danzō looked at Renya and the others and spoke in a deep voice.
The matter of a jinchūriki was of critical importance. A suitable candidate had to be chosen to prevent a loss of control that could cause irreparable harm to the village!
"Mito-sama is an Uzumaki, and she has firmly suppressed the Nine-Tails. I think choosing another Uzumaki to serve as the jinchūriki would be better."
Koharu Utatane voiced her opinion.
She believed the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques were extremely powerful, making them the best candidates to become jinchūriki.
As long as an Uzumaki served as the jinchūriki, combined with powerful sealing ninjutsu, there would be no possibility of the Nine-Tails going berserk.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present subconsciously nodded, feeling that the argument made a lot of sense.
It just so happened that the village had students from the Uzumaki clan, from whom one could be selected to serve as the jinchūriki.
Seeing everyone agree, Shimura Danzō did not make a final decision immediately, but instead looked toward Renya, who had remained silent the entire time.
He felt that his friend had his own unique perspective on the matter of jinchūriki.
As it turned out, he had guessed correctly.
"Do we really still need jinchūriki and tailed beasts now?"
Renya suddenly spoke.
Hearing this, everyone present turned to look at Renya, seemingly unable to understand what he meant.
"Of the nine tailed beasts in the shinobi world, Uchiha Madara absorbed eight and a half. The other villages have long since lost their jinchūriki."
"In fact, for us, whether or not we have a jinchūriki is no longer important."
One had to know that the tailed beasts absorbed by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had already been assimilated into it, which meant that in the future shinobi world, only the Three-Tails and half of the Nine-Tails would remain.
The other tailed beasts would no longer exist.
In Renya's view, things like jinchūriki were becoming increasingly dispensable.
He did not want Uzumaki Kushina to die tragically as she did in the original story because of the tailed beast.
Although Uchiha Madara was dead, the mastermind behind the scenes, Black Zetsu, still existed.
For all one knew, the Rinnegan on Madara's corpse might already have been taken.
However, this was something Renya had considered long ago.
The Rinnegan on Uchiha Madara's body had been tampered with by him and Senju Tobirama. The pair buried with Madara was nothing more than a superficial imitation.
At first, Renya truly did not want to tamper with Madara's corpse.
But later, thinking of Black Zetsu's scheme to revive his mother, he ultimately made a decision that went against his own heart.
No one was allowed to stop him from living a laid-back life—not even Uchiha Madara!
Thus, he secretly had Senju Tobirama cultivate a pair of Rinnegan.
They didn't need to possess the actual power of the Rinnegan; they just had to look like Rinnegan.
Unless Uchiha Madara personally replaced his eyes with that pair, there was no way to sense any problem with them.
And a dead person could not replace their eyes with Rinnegan.
Even if someone else replaced their eyes with that pair and found they couldn't use the Rinnegan's power, at most they would think they hadn't fully mastered the eyes yet.
But in reality, the true Rinnegan had been secretly hidden away by him.
This couldn't be considered inheriting an estate—at most, it was temporary safekeeping…
After all, Renya hadn't directly replaced his own eyes with them like Uchiha Obito did.
It couldn't be called seizing property.
He had done this extremely covertly; even the White Zetsu secretly observing him would not discover it.
Aside from Senju Tobirama and himself, there was no third person who knew!
If Madara still harbored ill intentions and tried to use the Edo Tensei Technique to make a comeback, then it could only be said that he was far too naive.
Renya truly wanted Uchiha Madara to abandon the "Eye of the Moon" plan and return to the village to enjoy retirement, but who told that guy to be so stubborn?
If there was anyone to blame, it could only be the mastermind behind the scenes…
Just imagining Black Zetsu's expression after scheming for decades only to discover that the Rinnegan was fake was something to look forward to.
Even if he couldn't see Black Zetsu, there was no way he would let that guy who had tricked Uchiha Madara have an easy time!
"Renya, what do you mean by that?"
Shimura Danzō looked at Renya in confusion, not understanding what he was trying to do.
Or rather, he had guessed—but didn't dare to believe it.
This guy couldn't possibly be insane enough to slaughter the last two remaining tailed beasts, could he?!
The others also looked at Renya with puzzled expressions, waiting for his explanation.
"I think we can release the tailed beasts. As long as they don't cause trouble, we can let them return to the mountains and forests."
Renya stated his view.
Even if Uchiha Madara or Madara's chess pieces made a comeback and intended to target the Three-Tails, at the very least, it wouldn't implicate Konoha and a jinchūriki.
This would completely avoid the tragedy of Uzumaki Kushina in the original story.
Besides, Senju Hashirama's actions of sealing the tailed beasts back then were indeed a bit unreasonable.
The tailed beasts had been living just fine in the shinobi world since the era of the Sage of Six Paths, yet Hashirama felt they were too powerful and simply captured and sealed them all.
That kind of behavior was far too domineering.
Anyway, now that only one and a half tailed beasts remained in the shinobi world, it might as well be better to release them back into nature.
"Renya, are you serious?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others asked softly.
They couldn't understand when Renya had become so humane, to the point of suggesting releasing the tailed beasts back into the wild.
In their eyes, tailed beasts were powerful weapons of war.
Yet at this moment, Renya was planning to abandon those weapons of war…
The few of them subconsciously looked toward Shimura Danzō.
He was the Third Hokage of Konoha Village.
Naturally, the final decision rested in his hands.
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+100 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo