The Hypocrite of Konoha: I’ll Reach the Top of the Ninja World Through Acting

Transmigrated into the orphaned remnant of a family in Konoha at the end of World War II, Shimizu Soseki knows that brute strength alone won’t keep anyone alive for long in this cruel ninja world. With the soul of a highly intelligent criminal, he decides to put his “professional skills” to use: acting. And so a “hypocrite” is born, clear as a spring on the outside and unyielding as stone within.

At the Ninja Academy, he gets top marks in theory and is a “genius” at hand-to-hand combat. He easily takes Asuma under his wing, while showing just the right measure of warmth and talent to Kurenai Yuhi. In an age when Konoha yearns for heroes, he delivers passionate “in-depth analyses” of the Will of Fire with heartfelt sincerity, becoming the perfect young “Light of Konoha” in the Third Hokage’s eyes, a boy of “profound ideas.”

Yet beneath that dazzling halo lies the “scum of Konoha,” pulling one shady trick after another: he cleverly arranges for an old ninja who’s been skimming compensation funds to humiliate himself in public, while he plays the wronged genius who was “forced to defend himself.” He secures Tsunade as his teacher through a “chance encounter” and “heart-to-heart” timed to hit her weak spots perfectly. Amid the fires of the Third Shinobi World War, he “predicts” an Iwa ambush and “outsmarts” a Suna stronghold, earning acclaim all the while. In secret, he “runs into” the three members of the Akatsuki in the Land of Rain, using his superb acting and “peace proposals” laced with his own agenda to sow the seeds of division. Even on the night of the Uchiha massacre, he becomes Itachi’s “life mentor,” “rationalizing” the slaughter and roping the prodigy into his own cause.

Flying Thunder God, sealing techniques, a unique genjutsu system, multiple secret identities under the name “Mirage”... His strength and influence in the shadows grow in tandem. He creates the “Hall of Illusions: Infinite Library,” a benefit to the entire ninja world that is really a tool for stealing the wisdom of all who enter. He stirs up trouble, heightens tensions, and fishes in troubled waters, all to gather resources and power into his own hands.