Chapter 230 - Hyuga Ritsu's Burning Greed
Less than a hundred meters from the Hokage Building stood a three-story structure that served as the offices of the new Cultural Relics and Archaeology Division. The name had been Hiruko's invention - technically it should have been the Hokage's privilege to name the department, but the name Minato had come up with was so spectacularly bad that both senior advisors had immediately and enthusiastically endorsed Hiruko's alternative instead.
Minato had reluctantly surrendered his carefully considered, impressively dramatic name in favor of Hiruko's flat and thoroughly uninteresting one.
At present, Hiruko held the title of Division Chief. Hyuga Ritsu served as Deputy Chief beneath him. Below them were several team leaders, each managing a small group of researchers who approached the Rinnegan from different angles and disciplines, all circling that single specimen floating in its nutrient tank in the center of the main laboratory.
The research was going poorly.
"Still nothing."
"Failed again."
"I've said it repeatedly - at this rate it doesn't matter if it's two months or two years or twenty. We need to find a host body for these eyes. Without a living subject we're only ever going to be looking at the surface."
The second-floor laboratory was in an uproar.
There was none of the quiet, focused atmosphere one might hope for in a research environment. It sounded more like a market. The researchers had been arguing constantly, frustration from weeks of dead ends spilling into open conflict.
Around the edges of the room, ninja wearing forehead protectors from multiple villages watched in silence. Some listened carefully. Some scribbled notes. Others stared at the sealed tank at the center of the room, the one filled with the custom nutrient solution in which the Rinnegan floated, pale and intact.
Up on the third floor, in the offices above.
Even the floorboards were not enough to muffle the noise from below.
Hiruko listened to it and let out a quiet sigh. He didn't intervene. His own mood was low enough without adding the chaos downstairs to it. Two months of work on the Rinnegan and he had nothing to show for it.
Though not everyone had come up empty.
He looked across the room at the young man sitting on the sofa, calmly drinking tea. "Ritsu. You finished developing the new technique?"
"More or less."
"Have you tested it?"
"I have. The power is solid."
Hyuga Ritsu had just come up from the main laboratory and stopped by Hiruko's office for tea. The expression on his face was relaxed and quietly pleased.
He was one of two people in the division who had actually gotten something out of studying the Rinnegan.
Over the past two months, he had spent the majority of his time in the building, returning day after day to observe those eyes with his Byakugan. Through sustained observation he had perceived something extraordinary - the simultaneous presence of all seven chakra natures: yin, yang, water, fire, wind, lightning, and earth, woven together in a single unified whole. Drawing on that observation, combined with everything he had accumulated and theorized before, he had successfully developed a new technique of exceptional destructive power.
"Having good eyes really is convenient," Hiruko said, with undisguised envy.
Ritsu smiled and said nothing.
The other person who had gotten something out of the research was Uchiha Shisui - the strongest fighter the Uchiha clan currently had. He had reached some kind of insight during his observation sessions, though the exact nature of what he had gained was not clear to anyone outside of Shisui himself.
But the value of having exceptional eyes was undeniable.
The Hyuga clan's Byakugan and the Uchiha clan's Sharingan were both extraordinary in combat, but their usefulness extended far beyond battle. The Rinnegan research was a perfect example: how had Hiruko, an expert of the highest caliber, come away with nothing after two months, while two young men of entirely different backgrounds each walked away with something? The answer was simple. Both of them had eyes that let them see what others could not. Some of what they saw could be described in words. Some of it genuinely could not.
Hiruko sighed privately. The Hyuga and Uchiha were both allied clans - which was fortunate, because if they weren't, both the Byakugan and the Sharingan would be sitting near the top of his list of targets for the Chimera Technique's five required bloodlines.
At that moment, a knock at the door.
Hyuga Takuma entered. He carried an invitation from the Fourth Hokage.
"Takuma. What's the situation over there?"
"The envoys from the Rock, Cloud, Sand, and Mist villages just left the Hokage's office." Takuma didn't know the details of what had been discussed, only that the summons had been issued immediately after those visitors departed.
Ritsu raised an eyebrow and looked at Hiruko. "Sensei. My guess is this is about the Rinnegan."
"The two-month window is up. The four villages getting restless makes sense." Hiruko leaned back slightly, thinking it through. "But didn't Hokage-sama already build in a safeguard? Given the current situation, Iwagakure shouldn't be able to prove they can protect the Rinnegan from being stolen - Konoha can simply cite that and refuse the transfer. What's there to discuss?"
Ritsu stood and straightened the creases from his clothes. "Maybe something unexpected came up."
"I hate unexpected things."
Hiruko sighed but rose from his chair anyway. The two of them headed out together.
By the time they reached the Hokage's office, everyone else had already arrived. The two senior advisors, Uchiha Fugaku, and Nara Shikaku were all present - their offices were in the same building, so naturally they had gotten there first.
"Hokage-sama. Is this about the Rock Village demanding the Rinnegan back?"
Hiruko asked the moment he walked in.
"That's correct."
"What's changed? Can't you just use the safeguard clause to turn them away?"
Minato's smile carried a trace of weariness. "Something unexpected. Dodai, the Cloud envoy, announced that the Cloud Village is willing to contribute to protecting the Rinnegan during the transfer. After that, the Sand and Mist envoys both immediately agreed to do the same."
"The Cloud Village..." Akimichi Torikaze couldn't stop himself. "Have they forgotten how their Third Raikage died?" He said it and then immediately shook his head with a rueful laugh. "I suppose when the stakes are high enough, even the deepest grudges get set aside."
Hyuga Ritsu nodded. His initial surprise at hearing the four villages had united faded quickly into something closer to recognition. None of the four villages' leadership were fools. They could all see Konoha growing stronger by the year. If they didn't want to go back to struggling to breathe under Konoha's shadow, setting aside their differences and presenting a common front was their only real option.
It was inconvenient. But it made complete sense.
The safeguard clause Minato had built into the agreement worked on the premise of a single village being unable to guarantee the Rinnegan's security. Against one village, Konoha could cite insufficient strength and refuse. Against a united coalition of four, that argument didn't hold. Trying to use it anyway would make it obvious to everyone that Konoha had simply decided to keep the Rinnegan for itself and had never intended to honor the agreement in the first place.
Which was, admittedly, more or less accurate. But some things needed the appearance of legitimacy. Walking down the street with everything exposed was something only a barbarian would do.
"If we genuinely refuse, do you think they'd actually declare war on us?"
Inuzuka Jaw put the question out plainly.
Nara Shikaku's response came with a grim smile. "They might actually do it."
Uchiha Fugaku nodded. "Even united, they probably couldn't beat us. But right now they'd at least have a fight on their hands. Give it a few more years and it won't be 'probably can't beat us' - it'll be 'definitely can't.'"
His gaze moved briefly to Hyuga Ritsu.
Ritsu was sixteen. Uchiha Shisui was fifteen. Even setting aside any future growth and assuming their current strength never increased, they could sustain this level of combat power for at least thirty more years. And if Konoha continued to monopolize the Rinnegan's research and managed to achieve something significant from it, the shinobi world would become entirely Konoha's to dictate.
"Hokage-sama, what's your thinking?"
Hiruko asked directly.
Every eye in the room shifted to the young Hokage behind his desk. Minato absorbed the attention, considered for a moment, and spoke.
"About half an hour ago, the four envoys made their joint proposal in this room. From what I could tell it was improvised - none of them had even consulted their own Kage yet. But once that idea is out in the open, it's very hard to push back down. All four Kage are sharp. Even with everything they hold against each other, the likelihood that they'd set it aside temporarily to act against Konoha in this is very high. We can certainly handle a simultaneous conflict with all four villages. But my priority right now is eliminating the missing-nin Uchiha Tatsuhata. He's the real threat. Everything else comes after."
He didn't state his position outright, but the meaning between the words was clear enough. He was leaning toward transferring the Rinnegan to Iwagakure.
A thoughtful silence settled over the room.
Ritsu blinked once, smiled, and said, "In that case, why not just give the Rinnegan to the Rock Village?"
"Clan Head Hyuga. Don't say things carelessly."
Akimichi Torikaze frowned.
The old man was true to his clan's reputation - once something good was in hand, he didn't want to let go of a single bite of it.
"Elder Akimichi, I'm not being careless. The situation is what it is. Our choices are: keep the Rinnegan, openly break with the other four villages, and fight the Fourth Shinobi World War right now - or transfer the Rinnegan to Iwagakure and try to use it as bait to lure the missing-nin Uchiha Tatsuhata into range, and eliminate him once and for all."
His smile was bright.
All that was left for his bloodline completion was the Uchiha. Even if the purity of the Kaguya and Senju bloodlines he had absorbed earlier wasn't quite enough to complete the Otsutsuki transformation after adding the Uchiha, that was a problem to solve after he had the Uchiha bloodline in hand. For now, what mattered was getting his hands on Uchiha Tatsuhata's lineage - and Tatsuhata's Uchiha blood was about as pure as it came.
He was fully aligned with Minato on this. Use the Rinnegan as bait. Pull that particular fish up out of the water and deal with it.
"But if Iwagakure gets something useful out of the Rinnegan during their turn, couldn't that become a threat to our position?"
Inuzuka Jaw raised the concern.
Ritsu left it to someone else.
Hiruko shook his head with quiet certainty. "Not a chance."
Both senior advisors turned to look at him. Even Minato's expression shifted toward curiosity.
Hiruko's face was slightly uncomfortable, but he pushed through it. "Studying the Rinnegan is extraordinarily difficult. I have spent two months on it and produced nothing. The Rock Village may have their own methods and skills, but I don't believe their capabilities exceed ours in this area. Two months or ten years - I doubt they'd fare any better." He paused. "And the same way they've been sitting here watching us work, we'll be sitting there watching them. If they somehow stumble into a genuine discovery - which I consider unlikely - there are somewhat more direct methods available to us for recovering the Rinnegan at that point."
It was clear from this that his position had shifted to align with Minato's.
What had moved him was Ritsu's choice. Hiruko gave his prized student unconditional support as a matter of course - that was simply how it was between them. There was also, if he was being fully honest, a secondary motivation: the pressure of two completely fruitless months had worn on him considerably, and if handing the Rinnegan off to Iwagakure bought him some breathing room, that was genuinely not unwelcome.
"I support whatever Hokage-sama decides."
Uchiha Fugaku's position was consistent. Before Minato had shown his hand, Fugaku had spoken freely. Now that the Hokage's inclination was visible, Fugaku would back it completely - even if it made him look like a man who shifted with the wind. That was simply how Fugaku operated.
That left only the two senior advisors and Nara Shikaku without a declared position.
Nara Shikaku's expression was pained, his forehead creased with visible reluctance. "Hokage-sama. Even if we're fishing, I don't think there's any need to rush. Uchiha Tatsuhata is not a fool. If the plan fails, we won't just lose the fish - there's a real chance the fish takes the bait with him."
Before Minato could respond, Ritsu spoke.
"Division Chief Nara, nothing in this world comes with a perfect guarantee. If you're going fishing, you accept the possibility of losing the bait. That's part of it. And as for waiting - sitting here passively while we wonder when the missing-nin Uchiha Tatsuhata decides to show up on our doorstep isn't appealing to me either. I would rather try to hold the initiative in our own hands."
He was practically champing at the bit.
His greed was burning.
Nara Shikaku squeezed out a helpless smile. He wasn't convinced. But looking at the Hokage's expression of quiet agreement, he understood clearly that this was very likely already decided, and opposition from him alone was not going to change the outcome.
He drew a slow breath. "Then we need to plan this carefully. We should be aiming for one decisive strike - something that eliminates Uchiha Tatsuhata without giving him the chance to slip away and drag this out any further."