Chapter 295 – The Letter
"You really took a huge gamble today."
As soon as they left the Kaguya clan's domain and settled in one of the ANBU safe houses, Imai Kenta finally broke the silence.
He still couldn't wrap his head around what had just happened.
The conversation between Uchiha Kei and Kaguya Shigemitsu was so daring that just remembering it gave him a headache.
He had never imagined Kei would be bold enough to support an entire clan's coup d'état in another country.
Sure, if it somehow succeeded, the potential payoff would be tremendous—
but Kenta didn't believe for a second that the Kaguya could actually pull it off.
Even if they did… would they ever honor their deal afterward?
The whole thing reeked of risk.
Not only did it contradict their mission's original purpose, but if Kei truly intended to back the Kaguya, then they'd lose any excuse to take the clan's potential Kekkei Genkai user with them.
And if, by some miracle, the coup did succeed, Konoha would have personally created a dangerous new enemy.
The moment the Kaguya took power, they'd have every reason to tear up the treaty Kei forced them to sign.
Hyūga Ayaka remained quiet beside them, though her pale eyes never left Kei.
She had known him long enough to understand one thing: every move he made was deliberate.
He never acted without a plan.
And when necessary, he'd use any means to reach his goal.
So, while his actions had startled even her, she knew there had to be logic behind it.
All she had to do was wait for him to explain.
---
"It's risky, yes," Kei said calmly, scribbling something on parchment as he spoke, "but not reckless.
We came here to make things happen. Going back empty-handed would be… embarrassing. I just didn't expect opportunity to knock this quickly."
"Opportunity?" Kenta frowned. "Don't tell me you think the Kaguya are bound to lose?"
"Or…" Ayaka interjected softly, "are you planning to inform the Mizukage about them?"
"That would expose you completely, Kei. I don't see how that helps."
Kenta nodded. "Yeah. If their rebellion fails, the treaty you signed will surface—and when it does, you'll be branded a conspirator.
Even if you warn the Mizukage, politics will twist it until you're blamed. The fallout would be devastating."
Ayaka sighed. "And if the Kaguya win… well, they're unstable to begin with. Who knows if they'd even honor the deal?"
Kei finished writing, sealed the parchment with wax, and looked up at them with a faint smile.
"Relax," he said evenly. "They're going to lose. That's guaranteed.
And as for the treaty—no one will ever find it."
---
He wasn't boasting.
He knew the Kaguya's fate.
The clan wouldn't fall to the Fourth Mizukage—
they'd fall to Obito and Black Zetsu.
Kei's lips curled slightly.
And Obito… was his man.
A man burning with guilt for his past, desperate to redeem himself by aiding Konoha in secret.
All Kei had to do was whisper a word during their next meeting.
The Kaguya could have the best equipment in the world; their fate was already sealed.
Even if Kei said nothing, Obito would know exactly what to do once he got hold of those documents.
The only mild concern was evading Zetsu's surveillance—but even that could be managed.
Obito could simply hide the information, hold onto it for leverage, and wait until the time was right.
Ten years later, when he was gone from the Mist, those papers would be meaningless anyway.
In short, Kei planned to bleed the Kaguya dry—
to profit off their arrogance, strengthen Konoha's coffers, and leave the Mist Village even weaker and more divided.
He'd be helping Obito and Konoha at the same time.
And while chaos tore through the Mist, he'd quietly take Kimimaro away—
a perfect outcome.
---
"So that's what this is," Ayaka murmured, eyes narrowing.
"You already have someone inside the Mist."
"Of course," Kei said with a soft chuckle.
"What, did you think I'd actually make such a stupid move without a backup plan?"
He leaned back, smirking. "Kaguya Shigemitsu may play the humble victim, haggling and pretending humiliation when he signed the deal…
but trust me, he never intended to pay a single ryo."
Kei's voice carried a trace of amusement.
The negotiation had been enlightening. He'd underestimated the man.
At first, Shigemitsu's performance had been convincing—rage, resistance, then reluctant acceptance.
But the more Kei observed, the clearer it became: he was acting.
If Kei hadn't tested him with that final comment—"Payment after delivery"—he might have fallen for it himself.
The man had planned to get the weapons and never pay.
A textbook Kaguya move—brash, arrogant, and shortsighted.
But Kei wasn't a fool. And neither was Konoha.
Payment would always come first.
Otherwise, not a single blade would leave the warehouses.
In the end, it wasn't a partnership. It was a heist in disguise.
---
"If that's the case," Kenta said, finally relaxing, "then everything works out.
We don't expose ourselves, we bleed them for profit, and we can still extract Kimimaro without suspicion."
"And Orochimaru gets what he wants," Ayaka added quietly.
"When the rebellion starts, the chaos will cover everything.
He'll have all the freedom he needs to slip in and take his 'specimens.'"
Kei nodded. "Exactly.
We might not be able to convince the Kaguya to defect later, but at least we can profit while they self-destruct."
He sealed the letter completely and formed a quick sequence of hand signs.
A pulse of chakra spread across the floor, and a summoning seal lit up beneath his palm.
A moment later, a hawk appeared in a burst of smoke—sleek, sharp-eyed, trained for long-distance communication.
"Carry this," Kei said as he tied the message to its leg.
The bird took off into the misty night, disappearing into the heavy fog that cloaked Kirigakure.
Flying through the Mist was dangerous; hawks were large, easy targets.
But in this suffocating haze—especially at night—it would be nearly impossible to see.
Kei smirked.
So long as no one knew the unsealing code, the message would be unreadable even if intercepted.
Better to trust the fog than worry about what couldn't be controlled.
---
Meanwhile, far away in Konoha's Hokage Office, Minato Namikaze sat behind his desk, finishing the last of his paperwork.
He glanced at the clock more than once, eager to head home.
Since the night of the Nine-Tails attack, his priorities had shifted.
He still cared for the village—but he'd nearly lost everything that night.
Now, he tried to make time for his family whenever he could.
Still, he couldn't ignore his duties.
He smiled faintly, thinking about the man who made those duties easier.
Uchiha Kei.
His friend, his partner—and, as Minato often joked, his tutor in the fine art of avoiding overwork.
Even after being away from Konoha for over a month, the Police Force was still running flawlessly.
At first, Minato had worried. Could such a key department function without its leader?
But to his surprise, the system Kei had built didn't just hold—it thrived.
Even Uchiha Fugaku, the former chief, had come to inspect it once… and left without a word.
The structure was simple yet brilliant:
Kei had divided the Police Force into five units—four operational divisions and one central administrative corps.
The admin corps handled all governance, managed primarily by clever, methodical minds—members of the Nara clan and capable civilians.
Disputes or special cases were escalated through written reports to Kei's office.
Routine matters ran themselves.
Controversial ones waited for Kei's decision upon his return.
It was efficient. Professional. Modern.
Even Shikaku Nara had been impressed.
In less than a year, Kei had turned the Police Force from a family-run institution into a functioning, semi-autonomous government body.
To Minato, it was nothing short of genius.
A system built on logic, trust, and delegation—something unheard of in a world where leaders still insisted on doing everything themselves.
The Hokage chuckled softly to himself.
Maybe he'd learned something from Kei after all.
When he returned home that evening, Minato and Shikaku immediately began discussing how to replicate Kei's administrative system.
Kei's model for the Konoha Police Force had proven almost revolutionary—
streamlined, efficient, and self-sustaining even without its commander present.
If they could adapt even part of that structure to Konoha's governance, the village's bureaucratic operations could run twice as fast with half the effort.
Of course, they couldn't simply copy it wholesale; a village-wide administration and a single department were two different beasts.
Still, both men shared the same regret—
"If only Kei were still in the village," Shikaku muttered.
"He could've designed the whole system for us in half the time."
Minato chuckled softly, shaking his head. "He'd probably complain that we were overcomplicating things."
Then, his expression turned thoughtful as he glanced at the paperwork on his desk.
He had already begun circulating intelligence reports about the Land of Water through Konoha's internal channels, subtly preparing the village for whatever might come.
At the same time, he was drafting reforms to improve welfare for genin and chūnin—benefits long overdue since the end of the Third Ninja War.
He sighed.
"If Kei-kun were here," Minato murmured to himself, using Kei's familiar nickname, "everything would be much easier."
His blue eyes softened. "I just hope he's doing all right out there… But knowing him, I doubt he's in any real danger.
He's strong—and he's carrying my kunai.
If anything went wrong, he would've called me already."
Minato meant that sincerely.
He knew Kei's habits better than anyone. If he were in serious trouble, he'd have already triggered Minato's Flying Thunder God seal.
That was how things used to be—except that every time Kei called for him, Minato had been late.
Each time, duty had delayed him by a minute too long.
But this time… he silently swore he would not be late again.
If Kei ever needed him, he'd be there instantly.
He wouldn't lose another friend.
Not him.
Not the one man who'd stood beside him as both partner and equal.
---
"Lord Hokage!"
The doors burst open, and Shikaku Nara came running in, panting, his hair disheveled—a rare sight for someone usually so composed.
Minato blinked. "Shikaku? What's wrong?"
To see the village's calm, calculating strategist in such a state meant something serious had happened.
"It's about Captain Kei—Uchiha Kei," Shikaku said, catching his breath.
"A message just arrived from him."
Minato's heart tightened. "A message?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shikaku nodded, regaining his composure. "An ANBU falcon brought it in.
It landed directly in one of our hidden bases—probably because it was trained there in the first place.
The ANBU recognized the markings and brought it straight to me."
"I see."
Minato's voice grew steady, his fingers tightening around the desk as he gestured for the others in the room to leave.
"You're dismissed," he said quietly.
The ANBU guards bowed and vanished into the shadows, leaving only the two men behind.
In all of Konoha, only three people knew Kei was currently on a secret mission.
Minato, Uchiha Fugaku—and Shikaku himself.
Not even the other members of the Nara, Yamanaka, or Akimichi clans were aware of the details.
There was always the possibility that a few others—perhaps the Senju or Hyūga elders—had suspicions, but no proof.
When the room was finally silent, Minato looked up.
"All right, Shikaku. What did he send?"
Shikaku stepped forward and placed a sealed letter on the desk.
"Hawk delivery. It bears his personal chakra signature, and…" he paused, "the seal is one of yours."
Minato's expression softened with faint recognition.
He had once taught Kei a unique encryption seal, designed to conceal messages so that only the intended recipient could read them.
He placed his hand over the paper, feeding chakra into the seal.
The surface shimmered, glowing briefly—then lines of elegant script began to appear.
For a few seconds, Minato simply read in silence.
Then his expression changed.
First confusion, then disbelief—
and finally, something between amusement and exasperation.
A small, helpless smile tugged at his lips.
Shikaku blinked. "Hokage-sama…?"
Minato didn't answer. Instead, he chuckled under his breath, an incredulous sound filled with both admiration and frustration.
Shikaku frowned, curiosity gnawing at him.
What could possibly make the usually composed Fourth Hokage react like that?
He knew Kei was extraordinary—strategic, dangerous, brilliant.
After the Nine-Tails' attack, his reputation had skyrocketed.
Even among the Uchiha, most had once thought of him as Fugaku's puppet—until they realized he was anything but.
Now, no one in their right mind believed Kei was anyone's pawn.
If anything, he wanted others to think that way—because it made his moves impossible to predict.
---
"Kei… that bastard," Minato murmured at last, laughter still in his voice.
Shikaku raised an eyebrow. "What did he do this time?"
Minato handed him the letter, shaking his head in disbelief. "Read it yourself.
Then burn it—and don't breathe a word to anyone."
He straightened his cloak and gave Shikaku a wry grin.
"It's almost time to head home anyway. Think it over later—I've got a family waiting for dinner."
And with a faint flash of yellow light, the Fourth Hokage vanished from the room.
Shikaku stared at the empty space where he'd stood, muttering, "Flying Thunder God really does make commuting easier…"
Then he turned his attention back to the letter.
He unrolled it carefully, eyes scanning the lines—
and as the meaning sank in, his face twisted into the same incredulous, almost speechless expression that Minato had worn moments ago.
Whatever Kei had written from the Mist…
it was something only he could have come up with.
Something brilliant.
Something insane.
Something so very Uchiha Kei.
---