Sorry, I'm a Mole

# Chapter 10: Sorry, I'm a Spy

"You really want to choose this path?"

Obito asked with a dark expression.

Aoba nodded numbly.

"Why?" Obito was silent for a moment, then asked again.

Unable to reveal the real reason, Aoba had no choice but to fabricate a moving excuse. "Didn't we make a promise? When the war ends, you'll come for me. Besides, someone like me, a war orphan, definitely couldn't survive out there on my own."

Obito's body jolted violently, as if recalling those days before—the daily bickering and fooling around, and those childish words about always having his back.

Suddenly, Obito's tense expression relaxed, and the look in his eyes toward Aoba softened slightly.

It's precisely because of this that I can't let you stay.

This place is hell, and the only ones who remain in hell are... demons!

"Since you've chosen this path, don't regret it."

Leaving behind these words, Obito resumed his cold demeanor and turned to leave.

Aoba let out a sigh of relief, but strangely, even though he had already made his choice, why hadn't the task prompted completion?

"You went soft, Obito."

White Zetsu appeared beside Obito as if out of nowhere, grinning.

"No. I'm keeping him because he still has value." Obito refuted coldly.

"Oh? What value does this useless brat have? You should have already seen it—Lord Madra didn't teach him anything precisely because he recognized that this kid's talent would at most make him an ordinary ninja in this lifetime, not worth the effort to nurture." Black Zetsu spoke up.

Obito was silent, then after a few seconds, slowly spoke: "Since Madara already saw all this, why did he still keep him? That man wouldn't do something without a reason. And I'm merely doing what 'Uchiha Madara' ought to do."

Hearing this, both White Zetsu and Black Zetsu shut their mouths.

"So you plan to keep him?"

"No. Send him away. Send him to Konoha!"

"Send him to Konoha?" White Zetsu was stunned.

"I told you, he has value. War orphans with ordinary talent like him are one of the 'reclamation' resources of the great villages. If his talent were special, the villages would investigate him repeatedly instead. So this is an opportunity. He can perfectly infiltrate Konoha from within, and when the time comes, he will surely become my asset."

This reasoning from Obito seemed sound enough, but...

"If it's just gathering intelligence, my clones and I are sufficient. There seems to be no need..."

"I trust my own judgment. And you only need to obey my orders. Understood?"

Then Obito closed his eyes. Although Aoba's choice surprised him, he immediately thought of using this method to temporarily keep him away from hell, because he believed this war would end eventually, and the victor would surely be Konoha.

That way, the world would welcome a brief period of peace, and Konoha was one of the safest places.

There, Aoba could grow up safely. By the time his plan was realized, his promise could also be fulfilled.

Unknowingly, after witnessing Kakashi personally kill Rin, the last shred of softness left in Obito's heart turned out to be a kid who hadn't even grown up yet—something Madara probably never anticipated before his death.

At the tail end of Konoha Year 47, with Konoha's victory in the Kikyo Mountain Battle and the Kannabi Bridge Battle, the western front of the Third Shinobi World War came to an end.

Iwagakure, powerless to turn the tide, had tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice, slinking away in retreat and leaving a mess behind.

Countless villages had been destroyed in the flames of war, corpses littering the fields.

The Konoha ninja responsible for cleanup swept the battlefield while gathering war orphans in large numbers, sending them back to Konoha in batches.

Some say war is fought with money, but what matters more than money is population!

After several consecutive major battles, genin graduating from the Ninja Academy were sent to the front lines almost as fast as they could be produced.

If you saw a group of ten-year-old children wielding kunai and slaughtering each other on the battlefield, don't be surprised—most of the adult ninja had already fallen in battle.

Every one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages had suffered a sharp population decline. If the fighting continued, it would be four- and five-year-old children sent to the battlefield next.

Because of this, gathering war orphans back to the village became an unspoken understanding among all the great villages.

These homeless children would make tremendous contributions to the villages' futures. Just the newborns they would produce after growing up would replenish the villages' precious fresh blood.

Not to mention that a large portion of these children, having experienced the pain of war, would become new combat-ready ninja.

So when it came down to it, the ones who truly suffered in war weren't the Five Great Shinobi Villages at the center of the conflict, but the small villages destroyed in the flames, the ordinary people powerless to resist.

As for hatred?

Don't be ridiculous. If they couldn't even handle something so trivial, how could they wage war? A little favor, a little brainwashing, and it was basically handled. What kind of waves could a bunch of helpless children stir up?

It was under these circumstances that Shimiya Aoba, starving for days, dizzy and lightheaded, was finally discovered by Konoha's rear units together with a few other kids he'd been traveling with.

The moment he saw that familiar forehead protector, tears nearly streamed from his eyes.

Heaven knows how he had struggled to survive these past days after White Zetsu dumped him in some remote forest.

If not for the three abilities he'd drawn from the Beginner's Gift Pack, he'd probably have become animal droppings by now.

Moreover, worried that White Zetsu had been secretly observing him the entire way, he didn't dare to actively reveal his abilities—his life was as miserable as it could get.

Of the dozen or so war orphans he'd encountered along the way, only four or five of them remained by the time they left the forest. The rest had either been taken by wild beasts or starved to death. As for those too weak to keep up and left behind, their fates needed no further elaboration.

And just as he was leaving, that shitty mission finally showed some movement.

Phase One Complete. Reward: Worn Wooden Treasure Chest X1

Phase Two Unlocked.

Mission Name: Who's the Mole

Description: Infiltrate Konoha, stir up some trouble from time to time.

Mission Reward: Depends on completion

Mission Failure: Don't ask. If you ask, it's self-detonation!

Phase Three: ???

This mission was pretty much the same as what Obito had told him to do, except neither Obito nor that damn system had clearly stated what he was supposed to do. It looked like he'd have to figure it out on his own.

But seriously, each mission was more suicidal than the last!

Damn it!