If he wanted to really do something, he had to think differently—like MONEY. Yes, this is the thing that actually controlled the whole world.
The reason behind all of the wars in history was this: money. The reason Konoha was the strongest village, aside from its overabundance of talent, was because the First Hokage, with the help of the Second Hokage, was able to sell tailed beasts to other villages at the starting of the village settlement, giving Konoha a huge boost.
The reason Sunagakure would place their lives on the line to attack Konoha in the future was because they lacked money. So if power alone was not enough, Kaida would have to shift his goal to something completely different.
'But money alone will not be enough,' Kaida thought. From his knowledge about the world till now, he knew there is no one in the world who holds more money than Daimyo and nobles. But whenever a ninja needs money, a noble will inexplicably find himself robbed out of the blue, and even if he somehow finds out who was behind that, he would keep his mouth shut. Money could be earned back, but life couldn't.
'So just money will not be enough. I will need power as well… but even someone as powerful as Minato and Third Raikage died alone. Just the power of a single person is not enough as well. I need to have a strong backing, a backing that everyone will fear what would happen if they moved against me or my family.'
With this thought spanning in multiple directions, thinking of various possibilities in the world, it has to be known that even a three-tomoe Sharingan increases the mental capacity of its user when they evolve, let alone the Mangekyo Sharingan. Just the level of detail they could provide when utilized correctly for a few seconds is enough to fully destroy a normal mind completely.
That's why when Kaida was on Mount Myoboku, not only his body became strengthened but also his mind. With the help of new changes, he was able to think of multiple scenarios in detail like never before. If we have to compare: if some normal person plays chess, they will think of 2-3 or max 5 moves ahead with 2 or three combinations.
A Uchiha with three tomoe may think 10 moves ahead with more than 5 to 10 variables and combinations, while a person with Mangekyo Sharingan will think of 20-30 moves ahead easily while keeping in mind 30-plus combinations and variables simultaneously—something even a computer would find hard to do.
Kaida was utilizing this mental capacity to its full extent, thinking of all possible scenarios in his mind about what may happen in the future if he actually decided to go with the plan he was making. Changing the events in the timeline had mostly made the information he had from his previous life very unreliable, but even that was used to predict possible scenarios.
'For now, I need to focus on getting initial funds to start something big and work on bringing back an important player back in the game,' Kaida thought as he opened his eyes, now completely clear and focused. Many plans and their sequences were forming in his mind, out of which he had chosen the first he had to do now.
Since it was already nighttime, he went to his home to take some sleep, because things were about to get chaotic very soon for him.
...
"These are the only two options we have," Shikaku said in the meeting that was taking place late at night because it took him so long to find out two perfect plans for the attack.
"Either send 150 ninja each to both bases and destroy them completely, with two grandmasters deployed, or deploy a team of 30 ninja along with S-rank ninja, like Shisui and Jiraiya. Both of them are borderline madness, but I assume you have a good explanation for it?" Hiruzen asked, his hand holding a smoke pipe filled with something much stronger than his usual dose.
The amount of work he was doing was really just keeping on increasing day by day, now that he was also handling the dark side of Konoha—which was the role of his friend—he found himself not even having time to breathe.
"It is pretty simple. Both Kumo and Iwa know we are going to attack them and have planned for it. All of their outposts are filled to the brim with ninja, with an average of 60 ninja in each, some with strategic locations even having more.
To target those, we have to do something that is absurd enough to catch them off guard. And I could even think of these two methods: one will have enough quantity to destroy the base easily, and the other we have quality to achieve the same even more easily."
"But what if we lose a grandmaster in this mission?" Hiruzen asked. The value of a fuinjutsu grandmaster was equivalent, if not a little higher, than an S-rank ninja. With the multitude of tasks they could do and their low fighting power, sending them on such a mission was a decision that couldn't be taken lightly.
This was the reason Kumo only sent a seal master and fell for the trap twice, as it was a careful trap laid by many fuinjutsu grandmasters combined—a seal master had no chance of identifying that.
Shikaku, who knew this, understood the value of a fuinjutsu grandmaster in such a mission. That's why he had placed them on the list.
"Our forces got a chance to run away and even kill some of the enemy because they didn't have any fuinjutsu grandmaster. If we make the same mistake, it will be the epitome of foolishness. And something happening to a grandmaster in the presence of 5 elite jonin and 10 jonin, with multiple special jonin and chunin, is almost impossible.
And in the worst-case scenarios where the Raikage or Onoki himself moves and appears, we will not be in too bad a situation. Our village has recently got an Uzumaki—none of our grandmasters will be able to match her." It was an extremely cold calculation, thinking of life as just numbers, which every leader in the world had to do.
"And what about the second option?" Hiruzen asked.
"It is actually something even I think a little too absurd. True, they will be able to place blame on us about our S-rank ninja's chakra traces on the outpost," Shikaku said, a similar reason why four ninja in the Kumo attack didn't move by themselves and left the work to others. But then a cold smile appeared on Shikaku's face.
"But we could simply deny that and say it was a completely baseless rumor. Just like we can't start a war, they can't either, since we have to retaliate and show that Konoha is not someone they could attack without a price. This is the best option," Shikaku said. He even remembered the time when Kumogakure had tried to steal Konoha's Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan, and when stopped, threatened to start a war.
It was completely absurd, and every ninja in Konoha wanted to retaliate at that time. But since that happened just two years after the Nine-Tails attack, and Konoha was in no condition to attack at that time, the Hyuga clan had to lose an elite jonin while Konoha had to bring its head down to keep itself out of war.
But that sowed a seed of deep hatred in the hearts of many. Even now, it was the Hyuga clan which came forward to give the most resources—whether money or ninja—for the attack on Kumogakure's outpost.
Now that Konoha was no longer in the same situation as before, it was time to show the world the same.
Hiruzen, who understood the feelings behind Shikaku's words, shook his head as he looked toward the Hokage monument. With his eyes still there, he said, "Send order to Kakashi, Shisui, and Jiraiya to come back."
Shikaku nodded his head and left, ready to prepare for the event that is about to come next.
***
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