The Anbu Visitor

Ever since Danzo left the Uchiha Clan Compound,

Sora Uchiha enjoyed a whole week of leisure. During that time, the vast majority of his peers were undergoing two weeks of prewar training.

Without the chattering girl beside him, he unexpectedly felt uncomfortable. It seemed as though something was missing from his daily life.

Of course, after Kurenai Yuhi finished her training, she sometimes came to see him, supposedly to honor their bet and bring him snacks. Most of the time she came alone, though Rin occasionally accompanied her.

From time to time, Sora Uchiha spotted Kakashi and the others training in the dense forests around Konoha. Obito was still the dead last, exhausting himself during every training session. As for Kakashi and Rin, Minato had also designed special training plans for them, so their training was difficult but perfectly balanced, with each of them improving in their own way.

Thus, Sora Uchiha's schedule followed the same three-point routine throughout that week:

He trained with Shisui in the morning, practiced basic ninjutsu alone at noon, and wandered around the village in the afternoon.

It was worth mentioning that on the fifth day, he saw Ryoma Aburame hurriedly return through the Konoha Gate. Seeing Ryoma, a faint sense of suspicion surfaced in his heart.

After Danzo left that day, there had not been the slightest movement from him. Sora found it strange. Danzo was not the sort of person to take no further action, so he was suspicious of Ryoma's return from outside the village. However, without any clues, he could only let the matter drop.

"According to the original history... what did Danzo do during the Third Shinobi War?" On the seventh night, Sora Uchiha lay on the roof tiles, gazing at the starry sky above as he pondered.

After thinking for quite a while, he finally recalled a little.

"If I remember correctly, Danzo went to Amegakure and sowed discord in the cooperation between Hanzo and Nagato... Then Yahiko died, Nagato turned evil, Obito took advantage of the situation, and the Akatsuki Organization's goal was twisted from bringing about the dawn that would change the world into achieving peace in the Shinobi World through extreme means."

That was all he could remember of what Danzo had done during the Third Shinobi War.

He gently shook his head.

"Although Amegakure is near the Land of Fire, I'm only a child right now. There's no way I can go there." Sora Uchiha sighed and could only silently wish Nagato and the others well.

"It's been more than a week since the Sunagakure scout died. Sunagakure should have taken some action by now, right?" he muttered.

He thought about how, under Momosuke's influence over the years, the Uchiha-run security force had become little more than a show. Enemy ninja could infiltrate Konoha with ease.

Of course, the Uchiha's ultimate goal was still to safeguard Konoha's peace. Thus, although the security force appeared lax, the moment Sunagakure's ninja began invading Konoha, the Uchiha would quickly step forward.

The Uchiha had always had only one goal: to make Konoha change masters.

To achieve that goal, the first thing they had to do was win people's hearts.

As the saying went: people might not learn from being taught, but one lesson from experience was enough.

If they wanted to improve the villagers' view of the Uchiha, mere words would not be enough. Only by letting the villagers experience terror and then having the Uchiha save them would they understand the Uchiha's importance.

Take Naruto in the future, for example. Before Pain's invasion, the villagers' attitude toward Naruto could be summed up as wishing that monster would just die.

Yet after Naruto saved Konoha, the villagers' impression of him changed in an instant, from "Nine-Tails demon" to "hero of Konoha."

Clearly, only after suffering the blows of society could people distinguish right from wrong.

"Sora, it's very late. Time to go to bed."

Inside the house, Riya stepped out from the warm lamplight and called to Sora Uchiha, who was lying on the roof.

"Got it," Sora replied, leaping down.

The night passed uneventfully...

The next morning,

A guest arrived at Sora Uchiha's home.

"Sora, someone is here to see you." Momosuke was sitting on the floor, leisurely drinking tea as he called toward Sora Uchiha's room.

That was simply how he was. At heart, he was clearly a rough man of the war faction, yet every day he pretended to be an elegant scholar and drank tea. This gave Riya a hard time, since Momosuke only knew how to drink tea, not brew it. She had to prepare it for him.

Before long, Sora stumbled out of his room with bleary eyes. Shisui had gone training alone that day and therefore had not woken him up, giving Sora a rare chance to sleep in.

"Who is it?"

Momosuke glanced at him indifferently. "Change your clothes. He's been waiting at the door for quite some time."

Waiting for quite some time?

Sora Uchiha was puzzled. Who was it? Why hadn't he come inside to wait? Why insist on standing outside?

He nodded, returned to his room, and changed into his usual Uchiha clan clothes before heading toward the main gate.

Creak--

The old wooden door let out a dull creak. Sora Uchiha felt that the gate really ought to be replaced. Come to think of it, the door had already been there for as long as he could remember. His father had said it had been passed down from his grandfather's generation.

In other words...

"By my calculation, this wooden door is nearly sixty or seventy years old. It really should be replaced."

Muttering to himself, he raised his head and saw a fox mask.

The Root? The thought sprang into his mind instinctively, but he immediately rejected it. At this time, the Root had no reason to seek him out.

Then it had to be the Anbu.

Sure enough, after seeing the Uchiha, the masked man spoke calmly. "Sora Uchiha, come with me."

A steady young man's voice came from beneath the mask. Judging by his voice alone, the man's age should have been around twenty-three or twenty-four.

Sora Uchiha nodded without asking any questions. The matter was already clear. The only reason the Anbu would come for him at this time was the matter Minato had mentioned: joining the Anbu.

"All right." He gave a concise reply. He had nothing to prepare anyway, so they could leave at once.

The masked man said nothing. He simply led the way. In only a moment, his silhouette had shrunk into a tiny black dot. Sora Uchiha froze for a second, then immediately gave chase.

The masked man's speed was extremely fast, and he occasionally changed direction, as though he did not care in the slightest whether Sora Uchiha could keep up.

Watching the figure in the distance, Sora Uchiha narrowed his eyes. He knew that this man was testing him.

The Anbu was not something one could join casually. A person either needed sufficient strength or some special ability, and Sora clearly belonged to the former category.

In other words, this pursuit could be considered the Anbu's test of him. He did not know how Minato had described him to the Third Hokage, but with a little thought, it had probably been nothing more than saying that he was extremely powerful.

As he was thinking, Sora Uchiha suddenly noticed that the masked man ahead had sped up again—by roughly thirty percent compared to before!

There was not the slightest trace of panic on Sora Uchiha's face. The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward. He drew Chakra toward the soles of his feet, and soon a pale-blue energy spread across the bottoms of his shoes.

Using Chakra to greatly reduce the friction beneath his feet,

he shot forward like an arrow released from its bow!