Brother, You'll Defeat Him

A few hours later.

"Teacher Eiji, I can control Chakra now."

He gathered Chakra beneath his feet and swung back and forth across the giant tree.

He looked quite happy.

"Hehehe, la la la, I really am a genius."

Naruto grinned happily, and immediately lost control of his Chakra.

His foot slipped, and he fell face-first toward the ground.

"Holy crap! Help!"

Eiji covered his face. This kid really is...

He caught Naruto in one motion, then casually tossed him toward the riverbank.

"Walk on water. If you accidentally fall in, you'll drown, you know~"

Naruto swallowed and carefully stepped onto the surface of the water.

Driven by fear, Naruto desperately squeezed every bit of potential from his body.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Eiji narrowed his eyes. He had clearly seen an orange glow flash across Naruto's body.

He hadn't expected his cheat to activate so soon.

And then...

"Glub glub, help me, glub glub!"

"Ah... looks like it still isn't working."

Eiji hauled Naruto back up.

Little Naruto expertly removed his clothes, dried himself, changed into fresh clothes, and placed the ones he had taken off beside the fire to dry.

It was obvious that he had repeated these actions countless times already.

As for the wounds on his body, they were slowly healing as well.

"That's enough for today. We'll continue another day."

Uchiha Clan Compound, training ground.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Looking at the small fireball he had spat out, Sasuke felt somewhat dejected.

"Just as Father said, I still can't compare to you, Brother."

Sasuke plopped down on the ground, picked up a small stone, and threw it.

Itachi gently stroked Sasuke's head.

"That was already very good, Sasuke. At your age, I couldn't do this yet either."

"That's not true, Brother. Father said you're a rare genius in the clan. No matter what ninjutsu it is, you only need to be taught once to learn it."

At the words "genius ninja," Itachi paused before quickly returning to normal.

What genius ninja? I'm merely that man's stepping stone.

As the Young Clan Head of the Uchiha, Itachi possessed an extremely proud heart.

At the same time, he knew that he was his father's pride.

Even after he had lost to Eiji, his father had never blamed him.

During this period, he often dreamed of the scene of being defeated by Eiji.

It was nearly becoming his inner demon.

To defeat this inner demon, he trained like a madman. Even his close friend Shisui could barely stand watching anymore.

Shisui urged him to adjust himself properly before continuing.

But Itachi couldn't listen to that.

After every spar, Itachi would ask Shisui one question.

"Can I defeat Eiji now?"

Shisui would only shake his head and tell him not to worry about it.

Then Itachi understood.

Shisui's meaning was obvious: Stop asking. You can't beat him.

Itachi's sudden silence also made Sasuke sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

His eyes shifted, and he quickly guessed the reason.

"Brother, you'll defeat that guy sooner or later!"

"If you can't beat him, then I'll wait until I grow up and take the Chunin Ninja Exams. I'll defeat him in front of everyone!"

Sasuke waved his fist, looking completely confident.

Itachi smiled and rubbed Sasuke's head.

My dear little brother, as long as I have even one breath left, I won't let you charge ahead of me.

"Let's continue."

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"Okay!"

At the same time, at Danzo's home.

Because of Hiruzen's order, Danzo had been temporarily relieved of his duties.

During this period, he also couldn't go out freely and could only rely on his subordinates to pass along information.

But his most useful workhorse, Ryoma, was dead, which gave Danzo quite a headache.

He needed to find an opportunity to borrow a few useful shinobi from the various Ninja Clans.

If they refused, he could simply find them some charge, then invite their clan heads to Root Organization for a little tea.

"Lord Danzo, the two advisers have come to see you."

"Let them in."

Homura and Koharu removed their hoods and sat down in front of Danzo.

They didn't bother with pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"Danzo, what madness has gotten into Hiruzen? Why did he relieve you of your duties? Doesn't he know that Konoha can't go a single day without you?"

Danzo snorted coldly. "It's not as if you don't understand our Hokage-sama. He's determined to establish a kind and gentle image."

"Recently, he suddenly decided to win over the Uchiha clansmen. Naturally, I became one of the sacrifices."

Homura and Koharu sighed when they heard this.

Like Danzo, the two of them had always been hostile toward the Uchiha.

Whenever it came to matters concerning the Uchiha, they approved every measure targeting them.

But if anyone wanted to give the Uchiha even the slightest benefit, they would oppose it with all their might.

They even claimed that if Lord Tobirama were still alive, he would agree with what they were doing.

Hiruzen also trusted the three of them deeply, often consulting them about matters both large and small.

But who could have expected Hiruzen to suddenly make such a decision?

"What do we do now? With Danzo dismissed, the Uchiha must be laughing in their dreams."

"Those lunatics. Sooner or later, I'll wipe them all out. I won't spare even a child."

Homura pushed up his glasses and offered Danzo some reassurance.

"Our immediate priority is to formulate a new solution."

"Last time, we only made things worse. Not only did we fail to achieve our goal, we also gave that brat Eiji a chance to show off in front of Hiruzen."

"Now Hiruzen has also ordered him to investigate the intruder who can use Wood Style. With those words behind him, Eiji can use 'Hokage-sama's orders' as a shield no matter what he does."

At this point, Homura glanced at Danzo again.

"That intruder really wasn't one of your subordinates?"

Danzo snorted coldly. "Of course not. The only successful test subject was also taken away by Hiruzen and assigned to the Anbu."

"I see."

Danzo was a little angry.

What did Homura mean by that? After all these years of cooperation, did they not even have this much trust in him?

Besides, he had been suspended, but Homura and Koharu hadn't.

As Konoha advisers, the two of them ought to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining Konoha's stability during this period.

Yet judging by what they meant today, they didn't have any information at all. Instead, they had turned around and asked Danzo what to do.

Damn it, if he knew what to do, would he have ended up in this state?

What a pair of useless fools, just like Hiruzen.

Danzo was deeply worried. This village really will fall apart without me.

This made his ideal even firmer in his heart.

He absolutely had to become Hokage!

Several days passed, and the investigation into the intruder reached a bottleneck.

The three of them had practically turned Konoha upside down, but found nothing.

"Senior Kakashi, why do you think that intruder only has one Sharingan?"

Kakashi stopped as he examined the report. "Are you saying he actually isn't an Uchiha?"

"But instead obtained it for some special reason, just like me?"

Eiji let out an "Ah." Is that what I meant?

What I wanted to say was...

Forget it. It's hard to explain.

If I told him that the person was actually Obito, and that he only had one Sharingan because the other one was with him...

And that he survived because he encountered the Shinobi World's Asura, Uchiha Madara...

And that what they were doing now was destroying the world, blah blah blah...

Who would believe that?

Why not just say there are aliens in this world too?