The Tsukuyomi World in the Dream

The reason the Yamanaka brothers kept their mouths shut was the "Will of Fire" that Hiruzen Sarutobi constantly had on his lips.

Wherever the leaves dance, the fire will burn.

The shadow of the fire will illuminate the village and allow new leaves to sprout.

However, while those four leaves—Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura—remained perfectly fine, the new sprouts, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, had already "danced" away.

As for why Namikaze Minato actually died, well, that was none of his business.

The point was, whether Namikaze Minato was dead or not, Hiruzen Sarutobi was living quite comfortably.

After a long silence, Yamanaka Chujiu couldn't help but ask, "Big Brother, has the Third Hokage always been this way—compromising, trading, and conceding—or has he slowly become like this in recent years?"

Yamanaka Inoichi sighed. "Though I hate to admit it, the Third Hokage has always been this way."

Yamanaka Chujiu said with dissatisfaction, "How can that be? Conceding to Uchiha Fugaku is one thing, but isn't it too strange to concede to Shimura Danzō?"

"Furthermore, this way of handling things by only caring about immediate stability without any long-term planning is just burying landmines for the village."

Yamanaka Inoichi sighed again. "There's no helping it; it has always been this way. I didn't accept your reckless behavior for no reason, you know."

Yamanaka Chujiu muttered, " 'Always been this way' isn't right," and then said nothing more.

After returning home, the two brothers went to their respective rooms to rest, and Yamanaka Chujiu had a dream.

It was a strange dream.

A red moon hung in the sky, reflecting off a dark, crimson firmament, while the ground was covered in a foot of filthy, bloody mud. The air was filled with a pungent, metallic scent of blood and the lingering stench of corpses.

Yamanaka Chujiu looked around in the dream, taking a long while to confirm that this was not his own dream.

As a member of the Yamanaka Clan, who excelled in mental combat, he skillfully created chakra through his imagination and concentrated it at the soles of his feet, using the technique of walking on water to sprint rapidly across the surface of the blood-mud.

He did not know how he had entered someone else's dream, but he knew he needed to find the dreamer as quickly as possible and find a way to startle them awake to escape the dreamscape.

Dreams are filled with mysterious and bizarre changes, full of strange developments that defy logic; if one is not careful, one can become lost within them, no longer able to distinguish reality from the dream.

By then, the various wonders within the dream—dream monsters, eerie rules, and high-speed time distortions—could all threaten the life of the intruder.

Being killed, dying of old age, or being killed by a rule in a dream would all manifest as brain death in reality.

The ninjas of the Yamanaka Clan, who were most skilled in mental manipulation, could not only extract information from the heads of the dead but also peer into the memories of the conscious, yet they strictly avoided entering the dreams of those in deep sleep.

Yamanaka Chujiu ran for a long time in the dream, but the surrounding environment never changed, as if he were imprisoned in place.

He felt no discouragement, nor did he feel fatigue; even his chakra had not diminished in the slightest.

In such a dreamscape, the "power of belief" was the strongest force; as long as Yamanaka Chujiu firmly believed in himself, he could be tireless, hungerless, and even immortal.

Yamanaka Chujiu did not care about time either; if he cared, he would believe in it, and if he believed, he would be trapped by it.

He just kept running and running, until finally, he heard sobbing—the crying of a young child.

Yamanaka Chujiu's tense nerves relaxed, and a smile appeared on his face. "Great, there's finally a change."

Without hesitation, he changed direction and sprinted toward the source of the crying.

The sobbing grew clearer, but the direction was erratic. Yamanaka Chujiu turned more than a dozen times following the sound before his eyes finally caught sight of the crying child.

The moment he saw the child, the direction and distance stopped shifting, and Yamanaka Chujiu appeared before the child in a single second.

The child was submerged in the bloody mud, with only his head exposed, his face covered in filth and bloodstains.

After looking repeatedly, Yamanaka Chujiu finally recognized from the tear tracks that it was Uchiha Itachi—a younger Uchiha Itachi than the one he had met yesterday.

This dream belonged to Uchiha Itachi, and at four years old, he was trapped in a nightmare.

Yamanaka Chujiu slowly crouched down and softly called his name: "Uchiha Itachi!"

Four-year-old Itachi looked up. "Who are you?"

Yamanaka Chujiu touched the forehead protector on his head. "I am a Konoha ninja, Yamanaka Chujiu. Where is this?"

Four-year-old Itachi's eyes were vacant as he murmured, "This is the battlefield. It is the first battlefield my father showed me. A terrifying battlefield."

"If there were no war, there wouldn't be any battlefields, right?"

Yamanaka Chujiu replied, "Yes, but war will never disappear, and battlefields will continue to emerge."

Itachi asked blankly, "I don't like the battlefield. What should I do?"

Yamanaka Chujiu answered, "Organize the brave, and keep the battlefield in a place where children, the elderly, women, and ordinary people cannot see it."

Itachi's eyes brightened. "Are Konoha ninjas the brave ones?"

Yamanaka Chujiu shook his head. "Most are, but they have failed to keep the battlefield far away."

Itachi asked, "Why?"

Chujiu replied, "Because they still do not know what they are fighting for, so their lives are wasted in vain."

Four-year-old Itachi looked at Chujiu, remained silent for a long time, and then asked again, "Can you save me?"

Yamanaka Chujiu replied, "I will try my best to help you, but the only one who can save you is yourself."

Itachi revealed a smile. "I want to save myself. What should I do?"

Yamanaka Chujiu said, "The first step is to stand up from this mire of flesh and blood!"

"Uchiha Itachi, you are the ninja seed with the greatest talent. You learned to refine chakra at three years old, and you already knew the technique of walking on water with chakra..."

"Now, stand up!"

There was a power in that suddenly amplified voice that compelled obedience.

Four-year-old Itachi stood up involuntarily, then gave a light jump, gathering chakra at the soles of his feet to stand steadily atop the mire of flesh and blood.

Yamanaka Chujiu smiled: "Very good, that is a perfect first step."

Four-year-old Itachi smiled as well. The blood and filth on his face visibly diminished, and after a sudden moment of confusion, he looked at Chujiu and said: "I remember now, you are Senior Chujiu, you taught me about the Execution Line!"

As soon as he finished speaking, four-year-old Itachi grew much taller, becoming the Uchiha Itachi seen just yesterday.

What an unreasonable dream.

Yamanaka Chujiu muttered silently, then asked again: "Itachi, what place is this?"

Uchiha Itachi answered earnestly: "This is the world of Tsukuyomi, but for some reason, it has taken on the appearance of the Asura Realm."

Hearing the name "Tsukuyomi," Yamanaka Chujiu scanned the surrounding environment once more: "So it is the world of Tsukuyomi."

"There is no cross binding Hatake Kakashi; is it because the false path of salvation has not yet been found?"