Public Cemetery

The next day, Naruto went to school with an ugly swollen pig head. Knowing he did not look good, he was a little quieter while recovering.

An apology was due to the will of this greater world. It had not targeted Naruto or forcibly paired him with me for training.

Perhaps having learned its lesson, it also did not repeat the incident where Naruto and I sparred, only for me to be beaten into the hospital by a group of girls.

But then things developed like this:

Sasuke VS Kiba

Girl No. 1 VS Sasuke

Girl No. 2 VS Sasuke

If Iruka refused, they screamed—the combined sonic assault blasting right into his ears.

Not just Iruka. Anyone would have chickened out.

To keep things from getting too ridiculous, it only arranged three or four sparring matches for me each time.

This was not targeting Naruto. This was targeting me. Damn it.

Not wanting my school life to be too outstanding, I gradually lowered my grades bit by bit—for example, not getting full marks anymore; no longer showing off greater accuracy and skill in throwing, letting the other students catch up...

A whole series of Uchiha-Shang Zhongyong plans required a long period of execution.

Chakra was like stamina, limiting the upper limit of daily ninjutsu training.

I was somewhat disappointed that I had not obtained the Shadow Clone Jutsu right away, but being forced to sit in the classroom and attend lessons did indeed speed up my integration into the surrounding environment.

I did not have the habit of openly skipping class, but who did not know how to slack off during lessons?

Besides the Books at home, I could borrow Books from the library. Though the knowledge had been "corrected," encyclopedia-type Books—animals, plants, physics, chemistry, biology...—were still very valuable.

Whenever I had Chakra, I turned into an Uchiha scanner. When I ran short on Chakra, I digested and reviewed what I had learned.

I planned to become a Medical Ninja. That did not mean I had to work at a hospital; simply having Medical Ninjutsu skills was enough.

In a Different World, I would only feel at ease performing an eye replacement surgery with my own hands.

Knowing Obito and Black Zetsu were the real bosses, I truly did not dare entrust my little life to them.

Just thinking about that wall of Sharingan behind Obito, with me lying in front of him and letting him do whatever he wanted... What had Sasuke been thinking?

Tree Climbing, Water Walking, Rasengan—the standard set for anyone reincarnated into Naruto.

After school, I searched several empty houses, getting drenched in sweat and covered in dust. Then I practiced Tree Climbing. If I failed, I fell into the pond beside the tree. In the middle of summer, never mind the training results—it was fun either way.

"Is Uchiha Sasuke home?"

The old smoker's voice startled Sasuke, who was climbing a tree.

Oh no.

Splash! Water flew everywhere.

There was no doubt Sasuke was home.

A moment later, Sasuke came to open the door with half-dried hair, looking like he had been diligently studying.

Knowing Sasuke was in the courtyard and could hear him, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not barge in directly.

It had been a week since Hiruzen Sarutobi last came by. What could it be? The subsidy could not possibly be handed out once a week, could it?

Sasuke was a little puzzled.

"Greetings, Hokage-sama."

Some time had passed since the Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall. This time, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not deliberately wear the expression of someone attending a funeral. He looked much more normal. Mainly because he had noticed Sasuke was fairly rational, he knowingly asked, "It seems your condition has recovered quite well. Were you practicing Tree Climbing?"

"Thank you for your concern, Hokage-sama. I am feeling better. If there is something you need, please come inside and speak."

Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head.

"The village has finished burying your clansmen these past few days. Would you like to go take a look?"

There had been over a thousand people. How had Sarutobi managed that? He had not just tossed them all into one huge pit, had he?

Sasuke silently nodded.

Together with the Hokage, he hopped his way to a cemetery somewhere in the village.

It was not that clean, orderly plaza. I had never been here before.

For some reason, a chill ran through Sasuke's heart, and he raised his guard.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke."

!!

"I am deeply sorry about this accident involving the Uchiha. I bear some responsibility for it. But they did not die on missions or in war, so according to the rules, they cannot be buried in the Public Cemetery by the Memorial Monument."

"And there were simply too many of them, so we could only have each family share a single gravestone."

"I hope you can understand."

It was like playing some heart-stopping game. I thought he was planning to make a move against me.

"Thank you, Village Chief. If it were only up to me, they certainly would not have been laid to rest. Thank you."

One had to bow one's head under another's roof.

Hiruzen Sarutobi handed over a register.

"This contains the identity information of the Uchiha clansmen we were able to verify. You should find it useful."

This time, I did not have the original owner's emotions helping me along. I was completely calm, so I could only force myself to hold my breath and squeeze some moisture into my eyes.

"Thank you, Village Chief... I-I would like to be alone for a while."

Hiruzen Sarutobi lightly patted Sasuke on the shoulder, then turned and left.

Whether he had truly left or only pretended to, I did not know.

Whether people were really buried beneath those gravestones or they were empty graves, I did not know either. Cenotaphs were normal anyway; ninjas often died on missions and their bodies could not be brought back.

But to see the act through, Sasuke still kept vigil over the graves for half an hour. That part had to be real.

The register had broken the Uchiha clansmen down into scattered fragments. There was no way to see any connection between them, and putting it beside the family genealogy was no help at all in matching them up.

This cemetery was clearly for the Ordinary People of Konoha. Yet now, aside from the Uchiha, I did not see a single surname from any other major clan.

It was fairly tidy, but that did not stop it from being overgrown with weeds, cramped, and narrow. Graves pressed against graves. Even when setting foot down, one had to be careful not to step on someone's ancestor.

It was not as if the Uchiha Clan Grounds did not have their own cemetery.

Fine.

The Uchiha were not qualified to be together with you.

Honestly, it would have been better if there were nothing at all. Once I had investigated everyone in the clan and compiled them into a record, placing it in Naka Shrine would have looked better than this.

I knew what Hiruzen Sarutobi was thinking, but doing things this way was truly disgusting.

It was only a small interlude. School life was more peaceful than I had imagined.

Rather than thoroughly searching for more valuable items, Sasuke spent some time first visiting every house one by one.

The feared sight of rotting flesh everywhere did not appear. There were plenty of spoiled vegetables, though. Fresh meat had been stored in very small quantities—at most enough for one or two days per household. Most houses had no meat, while a few had some cured or preserved meat.

Nearly every household had some poultry eggs, totaling eight or nine thousand. One person could not possibly finish them all, so Sasuke had already started making Pickled Duck Eggs and Century Eggs.

After thoroughly searching more than a hundred houses, I finally found the training scroll for the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It was not an especially powerful ninjutsu, but it was what I needed most.

During that time, I found many duplicate ninjutsu:

A huge pile of Three Body Technique Textbooks

The complete set of Six Years of Textbooks

C-rank Earth Style: Earth Wall

B-rank Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bullet

Honestly, none of them had been found in particularly hidden corners. If the Third Hokage had left them behind, he might as well have handed them to me personally and earned some goodwill.

At my current stage, my Chakra reserves were Not Low, so compared to ready-made ninjutsu scrolls, the Ninjutsu Experience records that summarized countless training details were far more practical. Different handwriting, different ninjutsu training methods—if I got lucky, I could even dig out one or two ninjutsu from a few scattered words.

Unlike the eggs, which had been stacked together and filled an entire room, there were also large quantities of secondhand Blade Tools. To make them easier to retrieve, they had been sorted by type and spread out across two rooms.

After spending nearly 100,000 on ninjutsu scrolls, my savings still stood at over 300,000 through gradual collection.

Though the yield rate was indeed low, small gains added up. I should still be able to find more ninjutsu scrolls later.