Danzo's Bad Luck

When Sasuke returned home, his parents were sitting there waiting for him.

Seeing him come back bruised and battered, they neither got angry nor asked how it had happened.

Honestly, after three years, they had gotten used to it...

Sasuke's mother, Uchiha Mikoto, stepped forward to apply medicine to him, her movements incomparably gentle and practiced...

"Father, I lost again..."

After a long while, Sasuke finally spoke with a shamefaced expression.

Though it was impossible to tell from his bruised and swollen face...

"...It's fine. Just win next time," Uchiha Fugaku said evenly.

He had no idea how many times he had said those words.

"But today was different!"

"My Great Fireball Technique and Phoenix Sage Fire Technique clearly hit her, but she wasn't hurt at all."

For the first time, a ripple appeared on Uchiha Fugaku's expressionless face.

Imitating Hinata, Sasuke made a strange stance. "She did this at the time, and she blocked all my ninjutsu just like that."

"Rotation!?"

Sasuke turned his head. "Brother!"

"Mm, Sasuke, I'm back."

Itachi Uchiha rubbed Sasuke's head.

"Father, Mother, I'm back."

A smile appeared on Itachi Uchiha's slightly weary face.

"Brother, Brother, what was that Rotation you mentioned?"

Only then did Itachi Uchiha look at Sasuke. Suppressing a laugh, he said, "Rotation is one of the Hyuga Clan's secret techniques. It is said to possess absolute defense." Sasuke's bruised and swollen appearance really was amusing.

"Absolute defense?"

"It's called absolute defense, but it can't possibly have no weaknesses. Rotation's weakness..."

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening! I'll figure out Rotation's weakness myself! I'll definitely defeat her, for the glory of the Uchiha Clan!"

After dinner, Sasuke hurried off to the backyard to train.

"What incredible talent!"

"Indeed. With a genius like that, why would the Hyuga Clan worry about not flourishing?"

The father and son were talking about Hinata.

Speaking of Hinata, Itachi Uchiha recalled the first time Sasuke had challenged her and gotten beaten into a pig's head.

That time, when Itachi Uchiha, the doting brother, saw his little brother's pig-headed face, anger rushed straight to his head. He had nearly been angered into awakening his Mangekyo.

When he learned that Sasuke had been beaten up by Hinata, his first instinct had been to beat Hinata into a pig's head as well and vent Sasuke's anger for him.

But reason had suppressed the impulse.

Not long afterward, still worried, he went to the academy and personally saw how his little brother had been beaten into a pig's head.

The more Itachi Uchiha watched, the more alarmed he became. Even the teacher acting as referee could tell that Hinata had held back.

There was no way he could have failed to see it, but with his Sharingan, he could see even more clearly. He also realized that Hinata's Taijutsu might be far from as simple as it appeared.

She had likely been concealing far more than just a little of her true ability.

As he continued observing, Hinata turned and glanced at him.

That single glance made him instinctively deactivate his Sharingan.

"What keen instincts..."

After that, Sasuke continued challenging Hinata, determined to win at least once.

Itachi Uchiha did not stop him.

At the end of the day, it was only a duel between children. He had no right to interfere, and besides, letting Sasuke suffer a little was a good thing for him.

"How is Shisui doing in the Anbu?"

Because Hinata had secretly thwarted Danzo several times and caused the Root some trouble, the Uchiha Clan Massacre had never happened.

As for Danzo taking Shisui's eyes, the sudden appearance of Bizarre Creatures in the Root's base had severely damaged the Root's strength. The Root was still recuperating, and Danzo had never found an opportunity.

If Kotoamatsukami did not pose such a great hidden danger, then even if the Uchiha possessed a pair of Mangekyo, they would not pose much of a threat to the Hidden Leaf Village in the current situation.

After all, no Bizarre Creature was inferior to a Mangekyo. In terms of abilities, they were even stranger and deadlier.

In truth, Hinata had recently been considering whether she should find an opportunity to kill Danzo, so he would stop making trouble all day long.

But in the end, Hinata abandoned the idea.

What did the matters between the Hidden Leaf Village and the Uchiha have to do with her, Hyuga Hinata?

If she had not felt that Sasuke's entire clan being slaughtered was simply too tragic, she would never have stopped the Uchiha Clan Massacre from happening.

Still, Sasuke had been challenging her to duels more and more frequently lately. She felt that perhaps she should give Sasuke a truly vicious beating and make him behave himself for a while.

"Brother Shisui has been assigned to protect Hokage-sama. He has become Hokage-sama's personal guard."

This news was just as Uchiha Fugaku had expected. Keeping Shisui, who possessed Kotoamatsukami, right under their watchful eyes was the only reassuring arrangement.

But it was also a signal that the Third Hokage had decided to appease the Uchiha Clan. After all, the village's demand for ninja was growing greater and greater.

Continuing to alienate the Uchiha Clan would be exceedingly unwise.

This let Uchiha Fugaku breathe a sigh of relief.

Over the past few years, the village and the Uchiha had grown increasingly close. At this rate, there would surely come a day when the village and the Uchiha could eliminate the rift between them.

As for how the village and the Uchiha had begun growing closer...

That, too, was related to those Bizarre Creatures.

After learning of the Bizarre Creatures' existence, some members of the Uchiha Clan initially did not care. They even refused the people assigned to form teams with them.

But their arrogance made them pay a painful price when facing those Bizarre Creatures.

Among those who had died during missions to capture Bizarre Creatures in the first two years, the Uchiha Clan had suffered the greatest number of casualties.

Then, in order to survive and avenge their clansmen who had died at the hands of Bizarre Creatures, they began forming teams with people from the village.

After all, even with the Sharingan, there were things they were not good at.

To compensate for their shortcomings, they could only team up with ninja from the village.

Over time, those who teamed up with the Uchiha Clan gradually came to understand the Uchiha.

They also realized that the Uchiha Clan was no different from them, and that most of them were even a little tsundere.

When Danzo learned of this, he could not sit still and wanted to stir up trouble.

But just then, two of the three Bizarre Creatures he had secretly captured escaped from the laboratory.

He could only organize the Root to seal those two Bizarre Creatures.

Fortunately, they understood the traits of those two Bizarre Creatures from when they had captured them. When they captured them again, aside from the loss of some experimental equipment, personnel casualties did not reach double digits.

But the loss of equipment alone was enough to keep him busy for quite some time.

After all, some of the Root's experimental equipment could not be bought openly. Replenishing it was extremely difficult.

Therefore, he could only set aside his plans to smear the Uchiha Clan for the time being.

Then, some time later, when he wanted to take Shisui's eyes...

A Bizarre Creature actually appeared right outside the Root's entrance!