A Conversation in the Hokage's Office

A member of Root who had just left the forest arrived at a secret base. This was Danzō's stronghold, Root's headquarters.

"My lord, the mission failed." The Root member knelt on one knee before a desk and spoke to the elderly man in a kimono seated behind it.

The old man was none other than Danzō, the leader of Root.

Danzō was flipping through the intelligence in his hands. Without even looking up, he asked, "Failed? An Elite Jonin like you failed to take away a child who isn't even a Genin? What happened?"

"My lord, it was the Anbu. Acting on Hokage-sama's orders, they took Sasuke Uchiha away," the Elite Jonin kneeling on the ground answered truthfully.

"Hmm? The Anbu?" Danzō set down the document and looked up at the Elite Jonin. By now, Danzō had already transplanted Shisui's eye. Bandages were wrapped around his head from his forehead, completely covering his Right Eye.

"Since that's the case, you may withdraw first," Danzō ordered the Elite Jonin on the floor.

"Yes, my lord." After answering, the Elite Jonin withdrew.

"Hmph! Hiruzen, are you still trying to protect the remnants of the Uchiha? It seems I'll have to make the trip myself."

At the same time, something similar was taking place in the Hokage's Office.

"Hokage-sama, the mission is complete. Sasuke Uchiha is safe and unharmed." Several Anbu members knelt on one knee before the Third Hokage, who was reviewing documents.

"Mm, very good. You may withdraw."

"Yes." The Anbu answered, then all withdrew.

After the Anbu had left, the Third Hokage put down the document in his hand, picked up the pipe on his desk, and walked over to the office window, gazing out at the village.

"Itachi, I'm truly sorry. This is all I can do for you."

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." After the Third Hokage responded, the door was pushed open and a ninja entered.

"Third Hokage, it's already very late. You should return home," the ninja said respectfully.

"Mm, wait a little longer." The Third Hokage continued looking out at the village without turning around.

"Third Hokage, who are you waiting for?" the ninja asked curiously.

"I'm waiting for someone. All right, don't worry about me. You may all go home." The Third Hokage waved his hand, telling the ninja to leave.

"Yes, Third Hokage. Then I shall take my leave." The ninja bowed to the Third Hokage before withdrawing.

Not long after the ninja left, the office door opened again without a knock. Footsteps sounded behind the Third Hokage.

"You've come, Danzō?" With his pipe between his lips, the Third Hokage turned to look at the visitor.

The man was Shimura Danzō, fellow student of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, alongside the Third Hokage.

"You knew I would come." Shimura Danzō narrowed his eyes as he spoke to the Third Hokage.

"Yes. I know you better than anyone. The moment my Anbu returned to report, I knew you would come." The Third Hokage looked at Danzō calmly.

"Why did you send people to stop me?" Danzō demanded.

"Then tell me, why must you take Sasuke Uchiha away?" The Third Hokage took a puff from his pipe and looked at Danzō.

"Hmph. I said it a year ago: the Uchiha are too dangerous. Too many Uchiha cannot be allowed to escape our control. And I also said then that I could spare those two Uchiha survivors, but one of them had to join Root," Danzō said.

"Oh? If that's the case, then tomorrow I'll have someone send Uchiha Chen to your Root. How about it?"

"Enough, Hiruzen. What I want is Sasuke Uchiha, not that idiot Uchiha Chen."

"You know it as well. Only Sasuke Uchiha and Uchiha Chen remain of the Uchiha Clan. Since the Uchiha tragedy a year ago, Uchiha Chen suffered a severe mental blow. He has become a fool incapable of even taking care of himself, practically useless." The Third Hokage smoked as he spoke. "So Sasuke Uchiha is the Uchiha Clan's only remaining seedling. If anything happens to Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi will not let it go. You should understand that clearly."

"What could a mere Rogue Ninja possibly do?" Danzō said disdainfully.

"Whether he's truly a Rogue Ninja or not, you know in your heart. Besides, Itachi holds certain secrets of Konoha. If Itachi reveals them, you know the Consequences..."

"Hmph! We never should have allowed him to leave alive," Danzō said bitterly.

"That was impossible. Someone had to bear the blame for such a major incident. And don't forget, Itachi awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Teacher once told us how terrifying those eyes were. You haven't forgotten, have you?"

"The Mangekyō Sharingan?" A flash of greed passed through Danzō's eyes. Of course he understood the Mangekyō Sharingan; Uchiha Shisui's Right Eye had long since been transplanted into him.

"Are you truly going to protect those Uchiha survivors?" Danzō still refused to give up.

"Everything I'm doing is for the village. In any case, no matter what, Sasuke Uchiha cannot be taken away by you. As for Uchiha Chen, I can hand him over to you." In the Third Hokage's eyes, Uchiha Chen was already useless. He had no value left to exploit, so handing him over to Danzō would conveniently silence him.

"Hmph! I have no need for that piece of trash."

"Then this matter ends here. All right, I'm tired. I'll be leaving first." With that, the Third Hokage prepared to leave.

"Hiruzen, I hope you won't regret what you've done today."

The Third Hokage paused when he heard Danzō's words, but in the end, he ignored Danzō and left directly.

Having just gone through a dangerous ordeal, Sasuke returned home. Looking at how cold and empty the house was, he unconsciously clenched his fists. In the end, he released them helplessly, walked into the kitchen, and began making food for himself.

Sasuke made enough for two people. Once it was ready, he carried one portion into a room. The room contained only a low table and a tatami mat. Someone lay on the tatami, completely covered by a blanket. Sasuke set the food down on the table in the room and gave the raised blanket a complicated look. Then he walked out, closed the door, and returned to the living room to eat alone.

After hearing Sasuke close the door, the blanket on the tatami shifted. Then, a head poked out from beneath it.

It was Uchiha Chen.

Chen immediately sat up, then crawled toward the food Sasuke had brought in. He muttered, "Time to eat, time to eat. Sasuke finally brought food for baby. Baby's starving to death."

Sasuke, who was eating in the living room, heard those words, and his face instantly darkened. In the end, he could only sigh.

He never would have thought that Chen, once so cold and aloof, would become like this. Life truly was unpredictable.

The two of them had never gotten along before, but after that tragedy a year ago, Chen had repented to Mikoto outside the gates of the Uchiha Compound before crying himself unconscious. Sasuke had taken him to the hospital, but Did not expect that by the next day, Chen had become like this. The doctors said he might have suffered too great a shock. In short, he had become an idiot. His intelligence was only that of a one-year-old, and he could not even take care of himself. Although Sasuke could have sent Chen to an Orphanage, he could not bring himself to do it. He was afraid Chen would be bullied there with no one to look after him. In the end, Sasuke brought Chen home and took care of his daily needs himself. Though the two of them did not get along, they were still blood brothers—and each other's only remaining family.

At that moment, Chen, who was eating in the room, suddenly stopped moving when he heard a voice.

A cold, mechanical prompt devoid of emotion said, "Ding! Surveillance of the Host has been removed."

"Hm?" Chen's eyes filled with surprise, utterly different from the vacant expression he had worn moments ago.

"What did you say? You mean the people watching me have left?" Chen asked the system in his mind.

"Yes. No persons or objects monitoring the Host have been detected in the Host's vicinity," the system replied.

"Finally... they finally withdrew?" Chen's expression grew somewhat excited. "It's been a year. A whole year. Every moment of this past year, I've had to be extremely careful. To avoid exposing any flaws, I didn't even step outside the house once. I never expected Danzō to be so suspicious that he would have people watch me for an entire year."

As it turned out, Chen had not truly become an idiot. He had been pretending for the past year, all to deceive Danzō.

This had started a year ago. While Chen had been in the hospital, he received a prompt from the system saying that he was being watched. As for who was monitoring him, Chen guessed that it had been someone sent by Danzō. He had thought about the reason before. In the Original Story, the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had always held deep prejudice against the Uchiha. As Tobirama's student, Shimura Danzō had been influenced by him and was likewise extremely wary of the Uchiha. Although only three Uchiha remained after their clan's extermination, the potential of the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai was simply too great. An ambitious man like Danzō would never allow too many such individuals to remain beyond his control. He might seize either Chen or Sasuke and bring them into Root to control them.

Though this was only Chen's speculation, he still did not dare take the risk. So he thought of pretending to be an idiot in order to muddle through. He simply had not expected Danzō to be so suspicious that even after he had pretended to be an idiot, Danzō still sent people to watch him—and they watched him for an entire year. This past year had been miserable for Chen. Not only had he not dared leave the house, but he also had to act like an idiot every day. He had kept it up for a whole year, constantly afraid of revealing some flaw. His nerves were stretched taut every day, and he was nearly at his breaking point. If it had gone on any longer, Chen believed he would truly have gone insane.

But now, the people watching him had finally withdrawn. Chen suddenly felt as though he had been reborn.