Four Months of Calm

The weather has gradually turned cold during this period, and the leaves have begun to yellow.

These four months have been so mundane; if one could ignore the increasingly severe rumors, it would seem as if the village and the Uchiha had reconciled as if nothing had happened.

It appears there have been some unusual movements from the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth during this time, which further validates the suspicions of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Fortunately, the appointed time is almost here; if nothing unexpected happens, only two members of the Uchiha clan will remain.

During this time, Chuanhe has made full preparations, and he seems to have understood the intentions of Itachi.

The way Itachi thinks is quite simple; one only needs to look at the situation of Sasuke to understand.

Chuanhe has also spent these four months further contemplating the issues surrounding the Uchiha.

Just as Itachi stepped outside the clan to view problems from the perspective of Konoha.

Chuanhe has now stepped outside the strange cycle of Konoha to view things from the perspective of the entire ninja world.

Why must the Uchiha clan inevitably perish?

When facing the other four great nations, it is clearly the Byakugan that possesses the more threatening power.

A battlefield with radar versus one without is a difference as vast as heaven and earth.

Yet, the Hyuga clan lived safely until the very end.

Even when Pain invaded, they actually went to visit relatives en masse, which is simply absurd.

Setting aside whether they truly had relatives outside the Land of Fire, the idea that other ninja villages wouldn't be tempted when the head of the main branch, Hyuga Hiashi, and others traveled outside the Land of Fire is something Chuanhe simply does not believe.

At that time, Naruto had only achieved a major breakthrough in friendship with Sunagakure, so they indeed lacked a motive to commit a crime.

To say nothing else, Kumogakure had done similar things in the past; it is unrealistic to think they wouldn't be tempted.

From this macro perspective, Chuanhe is more inclined to believe that it is Ōtsutsuki Isshiki pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Because Black Zetsu lacks this motive.

After a thousand years, he still needs the Uchiha bloodline in case something goes wrong with the Rinnegan.

Whether the Hyuga clan perishes or not is a matter of complete indifference to Black Zetsu.

But if the Uchiha clan were to perish, Black Zetsu would have no choice but to stake everything on one throw.

Perhaps the reason the Hyuga clan was left behind is simply because they could serve as "vessels."

Think carefully about the military strength of the entire ninja world; it has grown weaker and weaker since the founding of Konoha.

High-end combat power is becoming increasingly scarce.

Kekkei Genkai are also becoming fewer and fewer.

These are all people who pose a threat to the Ōtsutsuki clan.

During the Warring States period, the entire ninja world was in full bloom.

Although there was war and many people died, for a creature like a ninja, this was simply the most perfect soil.

After entering the "peaceful" era, the power of the entire world dropped significantly.

The Senju clan and the Uchiha clan, who had fought for who knows how many years during the Warring States period, both perished in an era of peace.

If this were a story, one could naturally be indifferent.

But Chuanhe is in the real world now, and such an abnormal phenomenon has ultimately caught his attention.

Is Ōtsutsuki Isshiki really that clever? Chuanhe muttered to himself in his heart.

In Chuanhe's impression, the Ōtsutsuki are all like Kaguya, carrying a kind of clear-eyed stupidity.

In terms of power, they rely on brute force, prioritizing the idea that overwhelming strength creates miracles.

Perhaps thinking from this angle, taking the Uchiha clan into seclusion really is a very good idea.

Chuanhe has no reason, nor the energy, to protect this world; he is just a selfish person who only wants to guard his own small patch of land.

His kindness is limited to the scope of what he can manage.

Perhaps all of this is just Chuanhe overthinking, but he has to be on guard.

Even if the possibility of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki appearing is extremely low.

He has made the worst-case preparations; if Ōtsutsuki Isshiki were to appear at this time, Chuanhe would do his best to seal him within the Four-Dimensional Topological Labyrinth.

Hmm, perhaps he could change the name.

[Samsara Deadlock]

No exit, no entrance; it is quite fitting.

In this way, the world can at least be safe until the era of Boruto.

Currently, Chuanhe has no means to deal with the Karma.

This thing likely has no soul.

As long as a vessel remains, Chuanhe cannot kill the opponent.

It was much like his Soul Sealing Technique.

Thinking of this, Chuanhe suddenly thought of Orochimaru.

He wondered how his research was going and if he had achieved the immortality he desired.

Given Orochimaru's personality, he would never experiment with such a technique on himself first.

In truth, Chuanhe held no malice; he simply wanted a companion for the infinite life that lay ahead.

As for the child Hui, Chuanhe currently felt no signs of such potential in him.

Hui had recently felt somewhat numb from his training, and now he tried to chat with his mother every day.

The time Chuanhe had mentioned to him was drawing ever closer.

Hui felt a sense of unease in his heart; perhaps this was what they meant by "the closer one gets to home, the more timid one becomes."

During this period, he had not broken through to the next stage.

Chuanhe had told Hui that these things were meant to be learned over a span of years.

It was just like how long it took us to learn to walk, to speak, to hold chopsticks, and so on.

For beings like them, who were four-dimensional, they had only just been born.

However, Hui had made some progress; he could now perform a Space Severing of about three meters in length, or a pinpoint Space Severing the size of a fist within a five-meter radius.

These were secondary, though; the best news was that he could finally use Four-Dimensional Perception normally while at full chakra capacity.

It was a pity that he hadn't discovered anything special from the Ninjutsu Rifle. Chuanhe felt a slight sense of regret, thinking that perhaps some things were not meant to be rushed.

The dimensional techniques Chuanhe taught, aside from those requiring Sealing Technique, did not consume much chakra, and some could even be performed without any chakra at all.

They consumed "mental energy" far more than anything else.

The dimensional techniques of the Gate of Opening stage were too taxing on brain cells, and Hui could not offload the processing to the Ninjutsu Core.

During this time, Hui had also discovered a drawback to the Shadow Clone Technique.

For Hui and Chuanhe, the flaw of this technique was that it could not inherit Four-Dimensional Perception.

Shadow clones were merely simulated souls; they could only react to the same situations in the same way as the original.

For chakra, it was very useful.

But for Chuanhe's family, the technique was merely a tool.

What Hui was actually worried about now was his taijutsu, which was his true weakness.

It seemed Chuanhe hadn't told him how to train it at all.

This left Hui feeling rather depressed.

What Hui knew was still what he had learned from Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto Uzumaki had finally mastered that damn Rasengan over the past few months.

During this time, he had accelerated his training through a large number of shadow clones and successfully learned the technique.

The main reason it had dragged on for so long was that there was simply no one to teach him.

It wasn't that Hui didn't want to teach him, but Chuanhe had strictly forbidden it; for the past few months, Hui hadn't shown Chuanhe what he wanted to see. Naruto was at a starting stage and could not be overly interfered with.

Everything Hui learned was only revealed to him by Chuanhe after he had reached a certain level of understanding.

Naruto himself hadn't discovered the trick of using shadow clones to help form the sphere, and had learned the technique through sheer brute force.

With a goal in mind, Naruto's perseverance was astonishingly strong.

However, he hadn't the slightest clue about the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Damn it! Grandpa Third, did you calculate all of this?

Next semester, I will definitely master this technique!

Meanwhile, Sasuke had fallen into a state of confusion during this time, as he had no techniques left to practice.

After completing his training in the Earth Clone Technique, Uchiha Sasuke could only boredly practice shurikenjutsu and taijutsu.

If there was any change in Sasuke during this time, it was that he could finally hold conversations with his father, Fugaku.

Occasionally, Fugaku would even accompany Sasuke in his training.

This was the thing that made him happiest.

Senior Chuanhe had indeed not lied to him; Fugaku truly loved him.

Most of the students at the Ninja Academy had been told by their parents during this time to return home as early as possible after school, as there seemed to be bad people in the village kidnapping children.

Hui watched all of this, a flicker of worry crossing his heart.

For some reason, he thought of a sentence Chuanhe had once told him.

"Danzo is the most direct villain in this village."

Could it be him?

Since it was only a Shadow Clone that remained at the academy, he always left quite late, specifically to dispel the clone directly.

However, he seemed to have noticed a problem recently: why did the young lady of the Yamanaka clan leave just as late as he did?

Today, Hui finally couldn't hold it in anymore. He turned his head and said to Ino, who was walking behind him with her head down, "Ino, what's wrong with you lately? Why aren't you going home at this hour?"

"Ah... this... well, haven't they been saying there are bad people in the village lately? I'm just worried about you."

Ino appeared somewhat incoherent.

Over these past four months, Sakura had also noticed Ino's unusual behavior.

At this moment, she was eavesdropping beneath the hallway window.

Hearing this, Sakura crouched down and covered her mouth, giggling secretly.

Hui was stunned after hearing Ino's reply; he seemed to understand what she meant.

He felt a bit awkward, wondering if he was perhaps a little slow in this regard.

Still, this feeling wasn't bad.

To keep her from worrying, Hui asked Ino to lean in, as he prepared to tell her a little secret.

Ino leaned in, feeling somewhat shy.

At this moment, Sakura felt her own face burning.

She had expected some kind of beautiful encounter.

Yet, this was the sentence Sakura heard instead.

"Hui, you big idiot!"

Following that, Ino stormed past her in a fit of rage.

"Huh?"

Crouched on the floor, Sakura was completely bewildered.

Did Ino not even notice someone as obvious as her?

What exactly had just happened?

Sakura looked curiously toward the classroom, but she saw nothing at all.

The entire classroom seemed empty, leaving only Sakura standing there, disheveled in the wind.

"Ha? What on earth just happened?"