Brewing Tea, Discussing Slaying

Yamanaka Chujiu quickly realized why he had made a mistake.

Because the Heart Severing Realm was so effective, he had grown accustomed to its sensory feedback and neglected the fundamental skills of a ninja.

This was only natural; those who rely on their eyes for sight will always have inferior hearing compared to the blind.

But Uchiha Itachi was only five years old—just how much of a genius was this child?

The reason he could not perceive Itachi within the Heart Severing Realm was simple: the child was mentally unstable.

Uchiha Itachi was fortunate; he was born into the powerful Uchiha clan, possessed exceptional talent and a sharp mind, and started his life at the destination many others spent their whole lives trying to reach.

Uchiha Itachi was also unfortunate, for he had an ignorant and foolish father.

Uchiha Fugaku discovered his son was a genius and decided he could not be raised like a normal person.

Thus, he threw the four-year-old Itachi onto the battlefield.

Four years old—he was still just a child!

With his outlook on life, the world, and his values only just beginning to sprout, Itachi was tossed into the battlefield to endure the greatest malice of humanity and witness the most brutal slaughter firsthand.

Unsurprisingly, his worldview shattered as a result.

Uchiha Itachi was truly a genius; he did not die from this collapse, but instead relied on astonishing resilience to hold on, using his superhuman intelligence to forcibly stitch his broken worldview back together.

However, his understanding of the world was too limited, and he could only fuse his worldview using a child's imagination, creating a bizarre logic that normal people could not comprehend.

This laid the groundwork for his sudden, self-destructive annihilation of his entire clan in the future.

The logic of a mentally ill person transcended the scope of Yamanaka Chujiu's understanding, and because he could not grasp Uchiha Itachi's logic, he could not discern his emotions.

Strangely, Yamanaka Chujiu could pinpoint the emotions of Orochimaru, who was also mentally ill, with perfect accuracy.

Yamanaka Chujiu's thoughts raced, but he quickly extinguished these chaotic notions, looked at the two Uchiha youths, and asked, "The Execution Line involves the darkest side of Konoha. Do you truly want to know?"

Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui shouted in unison, "Please, Senior Chujiu, teach us!"

Yamanaka Chujiu confirmed once more with great solemnity, "I know both of you have been to the battlefield and have witnessed the cruelty of the ninja world."

"But I must warn you: the truth behind the Execution Line is dark and cruel, no less than the mountains of corpses and seas of blood you saw on the battlefield."

"Are you truly mentally prepared?"

The two spoke in unison again, "We are prepared, we are not afraid!"

Yamanaka Chujiu nodded, "Then follow me."

"The Execution Line cannot be explained in a few words. Let us find a place where we will not be disturbed."

Deep in the Forest of Death, by a small stream, Yamanaka Chujiu cleared a patch of ground, gathered firewood, and boiled a pot of fruit tea.

The crackling bonfire, the babbling stream, the sweet fragrance of fruit, and the white steam together created a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere.

Sipping a cup of fruit tea in the breeze, Yamanaka Chujiu's heart gradually calmed.

The two Uchiha youths were not impatient; they sat quietly, accompanying him as he tended the fire and brewed the tea, their eyes filled with anticipation.

Uchiha Itachi, only five years old, was particularly composed.

Using the time spent brewing and drinking tea, Yamanaka Chujiu organized everything he had seen and heard, categorizing and sorting the various phenomena of the ninja world against the theory of the Execution Line.

As he finished organizing his thoughts, he also realized how he should treat Itachi and Shisui.

He would use them to indirectly influence Uchiha Fugaku, forcing the Uchiha clan to stand tall, display their true strength, and become a target that would attract the Third Hokage's aggression.

This was not harming the Uchiha clan, but pulling them back from a dead end.

Every living Uchiha held immense value for Yamanaka Chujiu.

Yesterday, by merely stirring their emotions, Yamanaka Chujiu had harvested a surge of profound, altruistic emotion from the three young Uchiha: Shisui, Inabi, and Tekka.

The emotional output of a single Uchiha youth was worth ten ordinary children, and the quality was so high that it instantly converted into spiritual energy for Chujiu, noticeably enhancing his strength.

Yamanaka Chujiu concluded that the Uchiha were a precious emotional resource—he could not let Shimura Danzō ruin them!

Yamanaka Chujiu began to speak: "The so-called Execution Line is a red line that exists within Konoha; it is the boundary of life and death once one slips down the social ladder."

"No matter who falls below this line, they will be purged by the rules, plunging into an abyss of death from which there is no return."

Uchiha Shisui could not help but ask, "Senior, does the 'execution' you speak of refer to those villagers from yesterday?"

Yamanaka Chujiu: "Yes. The Shanty Town is a hell, and the villagers driven into it are doomed."

Shisui was incredulous: "How can that be?"

Yamanaka Chujiu said: "The Uchiha clashed with Root over this today. It won't be long before it is fully exposed, and then you will understand."

"Many people see the executions, but some believe the executions are not the problem."

"In their eyes, the weak who struggle even to survive are a burden. By discarding these useless burdens, Konoha can travel light and become even stronger."

"These people firmly believe that those who are executed are merely the weak, and that they themselves are the strong who will never be executed."

"In reality, they are wrong. The people of Konoha are like a pyramid: the Hokage sits at the apex, while the poor and weak villagers form the base."

"Allowing the villagers at the very bottom to be executed is like letting the base of the pyramid weather and rot; it will inevitably collapse layer by layer, and even the most powerful ninja clan will fall as the foundation crumbles."

"Even the Hokage at the very top can fall, which is why it is called the Execution Line."

Uchiha Itachi licked his lips: "When I first heard Senior Chujiu mention the 'execution threshold,' I felt a powerful shock. Now that I understand the meaning of the execution threshold, I feel even worse."

Chujiu smiled: "That is why I told you both to prepare yourselves mentally beforehand."

He continued to explain how the execution threshold manifested in different ways for different people.

For instance, the execution threshold for ordinary villagers was rent.

Among the villagers, only a small number of elders who had been there since the founding of Konoha in the First Year had been allocated land under the auspices of the First Hokage to build their own homes.

Forty-eight years had passed, and the population of Konoha had expanded nearly tenfold.

The villagers who owned their own property were still those elders and their descendants; ninety-nine percent of the new villagers did not own homes and could only live in rented housing.

Because of the continuous influx of people, rent increased year by year, and villagers who could not afford it would end up on the streets.

However, Konoha was a military organization, and the curfew had never been lifted.

Displaced villagers could not spend the night on the streets and were forced into the living hell of the Shanty Town to barely survive.

Yamanaka Chujiu analyzed calmly: "On the night of the Nine-Tails, tens of thousands of houses in Konoha collapsed, and the number of displaced villagers was countless, yet not a single one of them could be seen on the streets. The only possibility is that they were all sent into the Shanty Town."

"I do not know how many people the Shanty Town can hold, but the fact that it can accommodate so many people is in itself abnormal."

"But think about it, why would the Shanty Town have such a massive surplus of capacity?"

The expressions of Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi changed drastically.