9 Eternal Newspaper II
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Chapter 9: Eternal Newspaper II
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"The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold." ~ Henry Ward Beecher
However, only when it functions as it's supposed to. Most often than not, it does not for it's in the hands of those who wish to use it for their own interest.
Isaac can not only have such a flaw. He does not even trust himself. No, he especially doesn't trust himself.
Speaking his thoughts would seem as if a God speaking about garbage, except that the God hates himself too.
Therefore, the news is better left in the hands of Artificial Intelligence when it's perfected. For now, he has to be responsible for it while self-reflecting on himself so as to not fall victim to bias.
It's especially difficult considering the news can change the world significantly, and many of his plans would be much easier if he just fabricated some headlines.
Therefore, by the mere presence of those tempting thoughts in his mind, Isaac declared himself unfit to oversee it.
The first newspaper was still written by him, however, and edited by him many times just to eliminate some bias. It still has his touch though.
"This is ridiculous!!" Homura Mitokado threw the newspaper to the ground in anger, even going as far as stepping on it repeatedly.
"We can't delay any further!" Koharu Utatane's anger was only shown in her expression, "We must find the source of the news at once!"
The two spoke before the assembly of the Konoha council of which they are a part of, and all the clan leaders as well as some individuals with special status.
Such an assembly usually only happens in times of war, all crowded in the meeting hall of the Hokage mansion which lies beneath the Hokage Rock, the mountain overlooking Konohagakure that has all the faces of the Hokage carved into the stone.
The reason for their outrage is naturally the Eternal Newspaper because the Uchiha's Patriarch's observations certainly didn't show just how much chaos the newspaper would bring.
The clan leaders narrowed their eyes but still remained silent in tactic understanding as the more they read the second section of the newspaper the more speechless they became.
The front page showed the horrible living environment around the world and the atrocities committed by the nobles and Daimyos with vivid details as if the writer were there.
The second section was the writer's analysis and commentary... The writer is of course Isaac, and the first words of the section were... The Daimyo is only a little bit less of a garbage than the nobles.
Well, it gets worse, thus why even the clan leaders's faces got darker and darker as they read further.
The newspaper went on to criticize the entire system which it called feudalism, a system that encourages exploitation.
It also creates an unmountable hierarchy in which if you were born a farmer, you die a beggar.
The system of feudalism which has only lasted for so long because of the Daimyo's lapdogs.
The lapdogs are of course the shinobi that live in villages with a concentration of less than 5% of the population of the world, a breeding ground for lapdogs.
The lapdogs are trained to only care for the well-being of their own village while doing their absolute best to make sure the Daimyos stay in power, all garbage.
It was something like that but with way more details, vivid details, and examples of everything wrong with this system.
However, the Eternal Newspaper very much stresses that nothing is perfect, and when looking at everything, we should judge the negatives and positives both to see if there is an issue in the system.
Therefore, the newspaper also provided all the positives of feudalism.
The conclusion was obvious. When comparing the positives and negatives of feudalism, it becomes clear that the negatives outweigh the positives to a significant extent.
It should be now understood why even the Hokage's face is utterly dark. The newspaper is calling for a rebellion. It's a call for chaos.
Even more problematic is that the newspaper speaks too much sense to the point that everyone simply tactically chose not to talk about its content and focused on how to stop it.
"I have tried to capture one of the birds," Suddenly, the Anbu captain spoke solemnly, "It exploded directly despite not receiving any attack, so any attempt at catching them may be useless."
"Did you follow them?" The Hokage suddenly asked, "Where did they? Which direction?"
"All directions until they disappeared above the clouds," The Anbu captain responded, "We lost them."
"The birds... They may not actually be birds," The one to interject was none other than our favorite, Danzo, "They don't leave any remains when they explode."
"It might be some kind of technique then?" That's an even worse possibility, so Sarutobi naturally turned his attention to the Uchiha and Hyuga Patriarch as the two have the eye powers necessary for judging the situation.
And they came to the same consensus, "They must be real birds, maybe some kind of unknown summoning beasts. Their chakra signatures are that of birds." The Uchiha Patriarch stated.
"I agree," The Hyuga Patriarch nodded, "Maybe the lack of remains is a mechanism left behind for purpose as their remains can lead back to their origin?"
"Wouldn't it be more like Tsunade's personal summon, Katsuyu?" The Anbu captain theorized, "Eternal's personal summon may also be able to divide itself into smaller clones?"
That's a problem because there are almost no techniques that allow flight, so dealing with flying animals is the most annoying thing to Shinobi as they can just effortlessly escape.
"I have an idea," The only person who seemed unconcerned about the whole thing spoke, Orochimaru, one of Konoha's three legendary Sannin.
The man was smiling with interest the whole time, "We can try to seal the birds before they explode then study them slowly. However, that would still be extremely difficult. We need to be prepared and swift."
"What do you need?" Sarutobi asked.
"Just time, about a month," Orochimaru responded.
"Too long!" Homura Mitokado venomously opposed, "The newspapers will be coming every week, and it clearly said that they'll be free for the first year. Do you have any idea just how much trouble a delay of a month will bring??"
"You have a better idea? A solution perhaps?" Orochimaru curiously asked, silencing the old man.
"Danzo, have your men look for traces of Eternal's source," Sarutobi instructed before turning his attention to the Anbu captain, "Confiscate all the newspapers and prohibit their acquisition... Burn them all."
It was a gloomy day for the leaders of the world because as Sarutobi soon came to know, every village and every country experienced the same thing.
They could all see the potential of Eternal News, specifically its worldwide reach, so it attracted many malicious eyes, some worse than others, an example being our kind friend, Danzo.
"Send someone to keep an eye on Orochimaru," Danzo was back in his hideout, thus his conspiratorial mind got to work, "Whatever solution he has, I want it."
"Also, send the rest of our members everywhere! I want to know everything about Eternal in less than a month! And I want it to be mind in under three. Do you all understand?"
He stood before all the members of the Root, overlooking them with scrutinizing and strangely eager eyes, eager for Eternal for he saw its value, his way of controlling the entire world!!
Therefore, only he can have it, at all costs, for his words meant having no bottom line in their pursuit of Eternal, so the Root members quickly spread out, bringing even more chaos to the world.
"Well said," Some, however, have very different perspectives, an example being a white-haired old man who read through the newspaper with curved lips, "The world is truly garbage."
Even he failed to see the true horror of the world, the suffering of the weak which he paid absolutely no attention to. Eternal gave him a new perspective, "So you two did not find any clue beforehand?"
"No, we did not." The dark entity standing before him responded in a gloomy tone.
"I guess? Hehe," The white entity giggled in response, although the man seemed quite used to its behavior.
"I don't want something like this to ever happen again," The white-haired man spoke coldly, "Find the newspaper's source. Then let's observe them for a while before determining if we can add them to the plan."
"I understand," The black entity nodded.
"Focus on geniuses that appeared in the past forty years, especially the ones that specialize in shadow clones jutsu."
The man further instructed, "Put more focus on Konoha being related in some way to the source. Shadow clone jutsu had leaked to some of the other villages but its origin is still Konoha."
"Shadow clone jutsu?" The black entity was utterly confused, "What does that have to do with the source of Eternal?"
"Hm?" The man raised a brow before answering, "Right, only I can see through all clones... The birds, all of them are Shadow Clones that mimicked real birds to perfection."
"Huh??" The black entity's eyes couldn't help but constrict at the thought, "Someone capable of creating so many clones... Wouldn't it?"
"No," The man shook his head, "Eternal may have found some way around it, so we aren't necessarily dealing with an old character but a genius like none other. It isn't out of the question that it's the result of eye powers, however, so keep an eye on the Uchiha."
The difference between the conclusion drawn by Konoha and the man was so significant that it was almost frightening.
The man speaking was after all the rival of the God of Shinobi... The old white-haired man is indeed none other than Uchiha Madara.
