In Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report, a concept is presented where crimes can be foreseen, and criminals are punished before the crime ever takes place.
Putting aside the logical issue of how one could ever verify the accuracy of such a prediction once the supposed criminal has already been executed, and the predicted future erased, and also setting aside the philosophical question of whether a future that can be predicted and altered can still be called the future at all, there remains only one core problem.
If it is known that someone will commit a crime in the future, is it justifiable to punish them in advance?
This was a dilemma countless transmigrators had faced.
And now, Uchiha Hayashi faced it as well.
Obito, the future mastermind who would manipulate the Nine Tails into destroying Konoha, a direct participant in the Uchiha Clan massacre, the supreme commander behind the Akatsuki and Kabuto's forces during the unprecedented Fourth Great Ninja War, and one of the key executors of the Eye of the Moon Plan.
And now, that same Obito was nothing more than a barely formed embryo.
Should Hayashi kill Obito in advance?
Or rather, should he sneak into Kyoko's hospital room late at night and end two lives with a single strike, cutting off every future disaster at the root?
This thought lingered in his mind for a long time, yet he ultimately chose not to act.
Mercy?
No. This had nothing to do with mercy.
The very first lesson Orochimaru had taught him was that a ninja must never show mercy.
During their first mission, Hayashi, Mikoto, and Nawaki had already killed unarmed civilians, including women and children.
If he truly decided to act, Hayashi would not hesitate in the slightest.
The real question was whether doing so would actually solve anything.
At the end of the day, Obito was merely a piece personally chosen by Madara. The true roots of everything lay with Black Zetsu and Madara himself.
This was not to say Obito was redeemable. The massacres he carried out in Rin's name could never be erased.
However, even if Obito were eliminated now, would Madara, lurking in the shadows, not simply choose another successor?
As long as Madara remained alive, there would always be another "Obito."
Rather than facing an unknown enemy, it was far better to face one he understood completely.
The ninja world was, at its core, a world driven by information. Naruto's victory over Pain had relied heavily on intelligence.
Hayashi possessed knowledge of the plot itself. He knew exactly what Obito would become and what abilities his Mangekyo Sharingan would grant him.
This was the greatest advantage a transmigrator could have.
So why take the long road?
Because of that, Hayashi's real concern was not Obito being chosen, but Obito not being chosen.
That possibility was very real.
As a butterfly that had flapped its wings countless times, Hayashi had already altered the timeline beyond recognition. If Madara chose someone else instead, it would not surprise him at all.
At present, he worried about two things.
The first was Itachi being chosen by Madara.
During the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, Itachi would already have been three or four years old. If Madara simply waited a few more years, he might find a far more intriguing candidate than Obito.
Itachi was frighteningly close to perfect.
While Itachi's Mangekyo might not have been as broken as Obito's, his most terrifying trait was not his raw power, but his intellect.
A fully healthy Itachi enhanced with Hashirama's cells, combined with that mind, was a nightmare Hayashi had no desire to face.
Obito, at least, was manageable. When wearing the mask, his intelligence seemed intact, but once that mask shattered, he often behaved like someone who had lost half his brain. Compared to Itachi, he was a far inferior opponent.
That said, given current developments, whether Itachi would even be born remained uncertain.
Which led to Hayashi's second concern.
What if Madara chose him instead?
Obito had an age advantage over Itachi, but Hayashi held the same advantage over Obito.
The similarities were unsettling. Both were orphans, both had been taken as disciples by figures outside their clan, both stood apart from the average Uchiha.
It was almost as if they were following the same script.
The only difference was that Hayashi's current strength was far higher.
But in Madara's eyes, that meant nothing.
If Madara wished, he could create multiple pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan with ease.
Because of that, Hayashi could not help but remain wary.
An outstanding person like him was impossible to truly hide. No matter where he stood, he was like a firefly in the darkness, impossible to ignore.
In short, Hayashi had many concerns. But regardless of whom Madara might choose in the future, acting against Obito now was unnecessary.
Setting aside the ten plus year window, killing someone inside the village would be the most foolish decision possible.
After chatting a bit longer, Hayashi headed back to his home.
As the clan head, Uchiha Yama would not go back on his word once it was given.
So when Hayashi saw a scroll hanging from the handle of his front door, he was not surprised in the slightest.
As for whether someone might steal it, that was laughable.
This was the Uchiha Clan compound. Who would dare steal something here, and did anyone think the Uchiha shinobi hidden nearby were decorations?
The messenger left the moment Hayashi returned, and he brought the scroll inside without another thought.
This was not the Uchiha Secret Tome.
Like the scroll the Third Hokage had sent previously, it contained a brush marked with a special seal.
After opening it and skimming through the contents, the first technique that caught his eye was something called "Human Bomb."
For a moment, Hayashi wondered if some extremist group had transmigrated into the Uchiha Clan.
After reading a bit more, he lost interest entirely.
This so-called Human Bomb technique relied on the Ketsuryugan to function.
Leaving aside the question of how powerful it might be, he had only ever heard of the Sharingan. What was a Ketsuryugan supposed to be?
Hayashi frowned and read the explanation again. It turned out the Ketsuryugan was the bloodline limit of the Chinoike Clan, a family that had once been imprisoned by the Uchiha. Their secret techniques had been obtained during that time.
Even so, it was meaningless to him.
No matter how powerful a technique was, if it required a bloodline he did not possess, it might as well not exist.
A bad feeling rose in his chest as he continued reading.
Sure enough, the rest of the scroll was filled with similar techniques. They looked impressive on paper, but were completely impractical. Every single one either required a specific bloodline limit or a lost training method.
In other words, they were unusable.
This scroll was nothing more than a record of foreign secret techniques the Uchiha Clan had collected over the past thousand years.
Who exactly was this meant to fool?
He could not help but curse under his breath.
Flipping further down, Hayashi found no trace of Madara's legendary Fire Release techniques, nor any forbidden jutsu like Izanagi or Izanami.
Given Madara's personality, there was no reason for him to destroy such techniques. He had not even taken the Sage of Six Paths' stone tablet, so those techniques had to still exist within the clan.
They were simply hidden by Uchiha Yama.
There were a few advanced ninjutsu recorded here, but every single one was also present in the scroll left behind by Kagami.
At this point, it was clear that Uchiha Yama understood Kagami far too well.
Hayashi let out a quiet sigh.
After carefully sorting through the contents, he finally selected a single support type ninjutsu.
That, at least, was worth learning.
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