The Closed Sharingan

Deep within Root lay a dim, gloomy space.

Shimura Danzō stood alone in the center of the room, his posture straight, yet his expression carried a trace of confusion.

He had actually dozed off without realizing it while standing. For someone like him, who remained highly vigilant year-round, this was undoubtedly an exceedingly strange occurrence.

What was even stranger was that, in that brief dream, he seemed to have seen scenes from a future he had never imagined.

Especially that Rinnegan boy from Amegakure, who stared coldly at him with unforgettable hatred and rage.

Those purple eyes seemed to pierce through the deepest defenses of Danzo's heart, filling him with an indescribable fear in an instant.

In the dream, Danzo even vaguely felt that he had once been ruthlessly killed by the owner of that Rinnegan.

Yet the moment he sank into that illusion of death, he suddenly awoke, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.

The instant he opened his eyes, Danzo's breathing became somewhat ragged, his chest heaving violently.

Before the fear in his heart had fully faded, he noticed that one of the Sharingan implanted in his right arm had closed without warning, its ocular power completely dissipated.

It was not merely the loss of ocular power or the closing of the Sharingan. Even the condition of his skin seemed noticeably younger...

Looking at the wrinkles on his reflection diminishing in reverse, Danzo pondered the reason.

Could it be because the Wood Release Cells were continuously revitalizing his body?

But why had one Sharingan closed?

He knew clearly that the Sharingan transplanted onto his body would never lose their ocular power for no reason unless he suffered fatal damage and activated Izanagi.

Yet he had merely closed his eyes for a moment. It was impossible for him to have encountered any fatal threat.

Could that bizarre yet realistic dream just now have been no illusion, but something that had truly happened?

Had he really already been killed once?

A chill immediately ran down Danzo's back. The more he thought about it, the more incomprehensible it felt.

That overwhelming unease left Danzo more irritated and anxious than ever before.

He calmed himself slightly and forced himself to sort through his thoughts.

Danzo quickly replaced the Sharingan with a spare one, but his heart still could not settle.

"Lord Danzo!"

At that moment, an Anbu ninja from Root suddenly appeared before him without a sound, respectfully dropping to one knee as he reported the urgent intelligence he had just obtained.

"Speak."

Danzo uttered the single word flatly, trying to conceal the anxiety and confusion in his heart as his face returned to its usual coldness and gloom.

"There are two pieces of intelligence. First, Uchiha Sasuke has disappeared from Konoha Hospital, and his whereabouts are currently unknown. Second, Jiraiya has just left the village and headed for Amegakure."

Upon hearing the first report, Danzo frowned deeply, a vicious glint flashing through his eyes.

Uchiha Sasuke had disappeared?

Drawing upon his years of experience in the Shinobi World and his sharp instincts, Danzo immediately focused his suspicions on Orochimaru.

Orochimaru possessed an almost pathological desire for the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan. A gifted young Uchiha like Sasuke was an irresistible temptation to him.

"Hmph. That man really couldn't resist making his move, could he?"

He knew perfectly well that Orochimaru's ambitions would never remain on the surface, nor would he be content to wait quietly. Sasuke's disappearance could almost certainly be attributed to Orochimaru.

But the second piece of intelligence...

Jiraiya had actually gone to Amegakure?

Danzo knew that Jiraiya's journey was surely to investigate Akatsuki, as well as its mysterious leader who possessed the Rinnegan.

"Amegakure..."

Danzo murmured softly. Recalling those hatred-filled Rinnegan eyes from his dream, a powerful unease rose in his heart.

The conflict between Amegakure and Akatsuki...

Naturally, he remembered it clearly...

The killing intent and hatred that Rinnegan had shown toward him in the dream were no baseless illusion. They represented some immense threat and warning.

"Jiraiya, you really do meddle in everything."

Inside the Hokage's office.

At this moment, Tsunade sat at the desk opposite Hiruzen Sarutobi. All kinds of dossiers and documents were spread before her, the most eye-catching among them being the detailed records regarding Uchiha Yuan.

Yet as Tsunade carefully flipped through the materials page by page, her brows gradually furrowed, and an unspoken unease and confusion emerged within her.

"Strange..."

Tsunade's fingers paused slightly as she turned the files. "Old man, why do I feel like there's something off about these records?"

Hiruzen was slightly startled by her words. He did not answer immediately, merely falling silent for a moment.

"You're right, Tsunade..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi finally sighed and admitted it with a complicated expression...

"As for Uchiha Yuan, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with him..."

Surprise immediately flashed through Tsunade's eyes, and her expression turned more serious. "Old man, you actually knew him?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly nodded, opened his drawer, and took out a stack of documents. Then he fell into recollection of events from many years ago.

After a moment, the Third Hokage finally made up his mind and spoke. "In fact, back when Uchiha Yuan was still studying at the Ninja Academy, he wrote many letters to us."

"Letters?"

Tsunade was slightly stunned by this...

"But I went through all his files and never saw any related records. There was only one short essay..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head with a bitter smile. "Actually, he wrote many similar articles... They were hidden among his school assignments and diary entries, passed to us in a very subtle manner."

"Assignments...?"

"You mean the child deliberately used his schoolwork to convey his thoughts to the village's higher-ups?"

"That's right. At first, we did not take it seriously. We simply regarded it as the ramblings of a young, lonely child seeking attention."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was deeply ashamed when he mentioned this matter...

"We were far too negligent back then..."

"If we had paid even a little more attention at the time, perhaps things would not be so difficult now."

Whenever he mentioned this, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt somewhat regretful...

Those letters...

Just like that short essay last time, Uchiha Yuan had still trusted Konoha's higher-ups greatly back then.

Thus, he had wanted to use this method to change the fate of the Uchiha he had foreseen.

Yes...

Long ago, Uchiha Yuan had already predicted the Uchiha Clan's fate and actively put forward many suggestions...

But all of those things had been ignored at the time...

Even they... had been extremely unfair to him...