Battle Before Chuanhe's Residence

Night, Chuanhe residence.

Chuanhe opened his eyes abruptly.

Has the time finally come? Chuanhe, who had intended to call Amber to send these Root ninjas straight to hell, realized that one of them looked somewhat familiar.

"This scroll? Sai? No, at this point in time, he should be about the same age as Hui. Who is he?"

Chuanhe could no longer recall the finer details. He vaguely remembered Sai, who seemed to cherish a self-portrait of himself quite dearly.

Could this person be related to him?

Chuanhe felt conflicted. He was truly a kind-hearted person; faced with this situation, he couldn't bring himself to strike.

If he didn't know them, it would be fine, but faced with this, he fell into deep thought.

Looking at this "Sai," who appeared to be no older than a Ninja Academy graduate, Chuanhe sighed. This hellish world—even children are forced to take up Kunai and go to the battlefield, and they call this peace? Is this still the strongest nation in the world?

Gilded on the outside, rotten on the inside. Danzo, you truly deserve to die a thousand deaths. I will let you "live well," slowly feeling the pain of everyone you have ever harmed.

Death? How could that be! Death is not the end of this world. How could I let you off so easily? Before that, you should enjoy what little life you have left.

Chuanhe gave up on thinking and decided to hand the choice over to his child, Hui. He had never let him down before; if he truly chose to fall from this moment on, Chuanhe would stop him.

It was also time for him to experience what the real ninja world was like. His unrealistic dreams might change as well.

Heh, in the end, I am also forced to let my own child take up arms for the battlefield. Peace? What a distant word; I have already forgotten what it feels like to lie in bed with peace of mind.

If, due to his own negligence, something were to happen to Hui, Chuanhe would not forgive himself, and even Yuki would not forgive him for it.

Just like that, silently watching the three sneakily approach Yuki's house, Amber, standing to the side, asked in confusion: "Master Chuanhe? Do you not need to deal with them?"

Amber was very puzzled. Master Chuanhe cherished this place very much. This was also her warm home. In the past, she was just a stray cat no one wanted on the side of the road, picked up and brought home by the kind-hearted Yuki.

Faced with uninvited guests, Amber really did not want blood to stain this sacred place.

"Let Hui handle it. Although it's a bit early, this is something he will have to face sooner or later." Chuanhe closed his eyes, his tone complex as he spoke.

"Meow, alright, but is Hui really going to be okay?" Amber appeared somewhat dejected and also very worried.

"Rest assured, there will be no problems. I believe in him." Having said that, Chuanhe's figure vanished from the room.

"Meow, wait for me! Master Chuanhe." Amber immediately followed, vanishing from the room as well.

The house fell into a deathly silence.

Hui lay on his bed with his eyes open, his head resting on his hands.

He couldn't solve the problem with the Flame Explosion Technique; it seemed he was still lacking something. He felt he needed to finish his father's lessons to understand what dimension elevation was.

He was currently wondering what else Four-Dimensional Perception could be used for. If it were for detecting ninjas, using chakra perception would suffice.

It seemed this perception was only useful when he needed to briefly step into the fourth dimension.

He was unwilling to give up, so he began to try and enter that state once more.

The chakra within a ninja's body is not all they possess. According to Hui's understanding, chakra is merely something obtained by exchanging "life energy" and "spiritual energy" through some unknown method. The Chakra Refinement Technique, which seems extremely simple and which everyone knows, is far more complex than he imagined.

In other words, although Hui could sense more and more accurately regarding chakra, if he used this Four-Dimensional Perception to sense the chakra entering the human body from the fourth dimension, no matter how proficient the opponent was in concealment, they could not escape his perception.

As long as the opponent still possessed chakra, this material exchange would inevitably occur. Even if the opponent wasn't refining chakra every moment, there would still be minute amounts of chakra flowing toward another place through the fourth axis.

Closing his eyes and sensing carefully, the chakra within his own body was also constantly returning to an unknown world through the fourth axis during this process.

Because Hui was not proficient with Four-Dimensional Perception, he first needed to lower his own chakra levels. When Hui dissipated more than half of his own chakra as the cost for perception, he finally began to see the chakra flowing between the fourth axis and the three-dimensional world, beyond what he already possessed.

"Let me see, one, two, three, three? Three strange chakras. Where did Father and Amber go?" Hui jumped up from his bed abruptly.

He took a Kunai from under his pillow. He casually tied it to the ninja tool pouch at his side. From it, he fished out a special Military Ration Pill, holding it in his mouth without swallowing.

His chakra perception hadn't detected the traces of these three at all; these three were at least Chunin-level ninjas.

Although his chakra levels were currently somewhat insufficient, they hadn't reached the point where an emergency replenishment was needed. He urgently needed Four-Dimensional Perception to locate the three. Countless books had told him that intelligence was the key to victory.

"Hmm, it seems something has come in." Hui observed that a fourth strand of chakra had appeared, which should be connected to the leader. Damn it, are they really enemies?

Hui intended to end the battle quickly. Although he didn't think these three could do anything to his father and Amber, he always had a sense of unease in his heart.

With a Rasengan condensed in his hand, Hui seized the opportunity to use [Space Leap], instantly appearing ten meters behind the last person.

This was the closest [Shortcut] he could find. Hui stomped his foot hard, using a Body Flicker Technique to smash the Rasengan into the back of the masked ninja. Afterward, he leaped to the left and vanished into the air.

The sudden change caught Shin and the remaining Root ninja off guard, but unnecessary emotions were useless. They had to complete the mission first.

"Buy me some time," Shin said without looking back.

Then, he opened his scroll.

[Ninja Art - Super Beast Imitating Drawing]

With just a few strokes, a lion in an ink-wash style jumped out of the scroll, roaring as it charged toward the Chuanhe residence.

Hui cursed inwardly. A miscalculation; it seemed the other two were just support. The main combatant was this leader's ninjutsu. Bad, very bad.

He could still sense the chakra of the three of them, plus a strand of chakra hidden inside the house and this ink-wash lion in front of him.

"I must prioritize dealing with the one who draws. If I give him more time, these ninjutsu creations will only keep increasing," Hui thought to himself.

Hui decided to go all out, swallowing the specially prepared Military Ration Pill.

He intended to break through from the front this time; there were no suitable [Shortcuts] left.

Feeling the chakra recovering within his body, Hui utilized his powerful chakra control to begin shape transformation. He molded his Rasengan into two high-speed spinning discs. They looked a bit like spinning shuriken, so let's call them [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken].

It felt like he had seen something similar somewhere before. Huh, surely this isn't another famous jutsu, is it? Never mind, time to end this fight.

Hui threw the two [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken]; one struck the lion squarely in the face, causing it to dissipate. The other, thrown toward Shin, missed its mark.

The [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken] carved a bottomless, blade-like hole into the wall behind.

Shin rolled to the side in a panic. Although it didn't hit him, it successfully interrupted his [Ninjutsu: Super Beast Imitating Drawing].

"Tch, troublesome."

Hui condensed two more [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken]. His eyes shifted into the three-tomoe Sharingan.

The moment their gazes met, Shin realized he had already lost.

[Genjutsu: Sharingan]

At that instant, Shin's body stiffened. The ink-wash snake that had been waiting for an opportunity inside the room also lost control.

At this point, Hui's chakra had dropped to a certain level again, and he once more activated Four-Dimensional Perception to find a [Shortcut].

[Space Leap]

Hui leaped to a spot about 20 meters behind another Root ninja. After two or three Body Flicker Techniques, he lunged behind him.

By the time the ninja noticed, it was too late; he was pierced through the chest by Hui's [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken].

Hui did not linger, using [Space Leap] once more toward Shin's direction.

He jumped onto the roof about 15 meters to Shin's right. He lunged down at Shin, using a sealing jutsu to temporarily seal his chakra.

"Tell me, why did you come to my house? Where are my father and Amber?" Hui asked in a dull tone, an inexplicable killing intent flashing in his eyes.

His father had been gravely injured right before his eyes yesterday; could this be the reason they came to ambush them?

Seeing Shin remain silent, Hui hardened his heart. He threatened him with the [Wind Style: Rasenshuriken] in his hand: "If you still want to save your companions, you had better tell me everything you know."

The hollow eyes behind Shin's mask remained emotionless.

Just then, a squad from the Uchiha Police Force arrived and witnessed everything.

Hui noticed them in advance and deactivated his Sharingan.

The leader was the standard hardliner Uchiha Tekka, who stepped forward and said: "Hui-kun is truly worthy of being Chuanhe-sama's heir. Leave these three to us. We will handle the aftermath."

At this moment, Chuanhe, who had been silently observing from the side, stepped out. He gave Hui a meaningful look.

"Squad Leader Tekka, leave these people to me; I will handle all of this."

"Chuanhe-sama, since you have spoken, then so be it. The elders in the clan, Elder Setsuna, have been concerned about you and hope you will visit him soon."

Uchiha Tekka did not press the issue further and left the scene with the remaining police force members.

Chuanhe looked at the scene, his heart filled with a mix of relief and complexity. Hui's combat talent was excellent; he had even created a Wind Style: Rasenshuriken on the spot that didn't exist in the original work.

Naruto could only achieve this by adding wind-attribute chakra, yet Hui had managed it purely through chakra shape transformation. Although the damage caused was only a head-sized cut rather than the explosive AOE of the original version.

Hui, as he had expected, did not deliver the killing blow. But as he was now, he was not qualified to be a ninja.

Elder Setsuna, is it? I didn't expect that old man to still be alive at this point in time. Is this the butterfly effect I caused? Regardless, I should go see what those hardliners are plotting.

Chuanhe provided them with simple medical treatment, then had Amber carry the three of them away.

Back inside the house, Hui couldn't help but ask: "Father, were these three here to assassinate us? Konoha should be very safe. Why..."

"Hui, there is no 'why.' In this world, hatred is sometimes completely irrational. The relationship between the village and the Uchiha clan is quite complex."

"That is not important. Hui, why did you show mercy?"

Hui hesitated, but still said: "Part of it is because of you, Father, but more so, deep down, I don't want to kill. Whenever I try to deliver a killing blow, a sense of guilt always surrounds me. Father, what will happen to those three?"

"I'm sorry, Father. Do you think I'm not suited to be a ninja?"

Chuanhe smiled and patted Hui's head. As he grew older, his hair was gradually turning into a spiky style.

"Follow your heart; there is no need to do things you don't want to do. If you don't know the answer, then set it aside for now. Perhaps you will have an answer in the future. Those three will remain 'alive' for the time being."

Lying on the bed, Hui looked at his slightly trembling hands and thought to himself.

Was this a test from Father? What kind of person does Father actually want me to become? If I don't become a ninja, what else can I be in this world?

Even though he had hidden it, he actually enjoyed the battle. Recalling his brutal instincts during the fight, Hui felt puzzled—was this really him?

Just then, Hui heard the sound of the door closing. Did Father go out?

Driven by an impulse, Hui followed Chuanhe. Using his immature Four-Dimensional Perception, he trailed far behind.