Light

Flipping through the classified documents left behind by Danzo, Tsunade read of human experimentation, the slaughter of fellow village ninjas, and plots to seize the eyes of the Uchiha Clan. The text even hinted that Danzo had orchestrated an assassination attempt on the Third Hokage, and that the death of the White Fang might have been linked to him as well.

These were merely the facts that could be gleaned from the files; in the places where the light did not reach...

Furious, Tsunade could only reach one conclusion: he deserved to die ten thousand times over!

When Tsunade moved to purge Root, one-third of its operatives were killed by Aburame Torune and Yamanaka Fu, along with other die-hard loyalists to Danzo. Fortunately, the Anbu discovered the situation in time to stop them, though they paid a price to do so.

After handling everything, a heavy-hearted Tsunade sealed these documents into the top-secret archives. At the same time, the test results for Uzumaki Reikawa came back, confirming he was indeed of the Uzumaki Clan, and his bloodline was unexpectedly pure.

Jiraiya returned from gathering intelligence, and upon receiving this information from Tsunade, his expression darkened. Combined with the intelligence he had gathered on the Akatsuki, it was truly a mess. Furthermore, he recalled the report the Toad had delivered earlier: the three little ones from back then were already dead.

Yet, Jiraiya suddenly thought of Uzumaki Reikawa. He intended to see the boy himself; he couldn't deny a sliver of hope in his heart, mostly because the timing was simply too coincidental.

Over here.

"Catching cats, farm work, cleaning gutters..." Uzumaki Reikawa's face fell. "Is this all I can take?"

Kakashi nodded earnestly. "You are currently only a genin; you cannot take high-level missions." Kakashi didn't mention that if a higher-ranked ninja led the team, they could perform high-level tasks.

Uzumaki Reikawa actually knew this, but he hadn't been part of the ninja establishment, and he shouldn't know it yet. Was I being too conspicuous?

During this moment of hesitation, the cat-catching mission was snatched up by other genin. "..." He glanced at the farm work mission; forget it, it took too long. Since he didn't have a sense of smell anyway, Uzumaki Reikawa was just about to accept the gutter-cleaning mission.

"Is Uzumaki Reikawa here?" Jiraiya's voice arrived before he did.

As soon as he entered, his gaze locked onto that head of red hair—there was no helping it, red was truly eye-catching.

When Uzumaki Reikawa heard the shout, he subconsciously reached out and pulled the mission slip down. However, the moment he turned his head, he saw that dazzling, green, brilliant radiance atop Jiraiya's head~

"..." That is truly conspicuous! Uzumaki Reikawa's mouth twitched. No, I can't laugh, I'll be treated like a lunatic. He coughed twice to suppress his gaze, forcibly holding back his laughter. "I'm here. Is there something you need?"

Kakashi stepped forward and greeted him, "Lord Jiraiya."

Jiraiya nodded and asked, "Has the registration been completed?"

"It's all done, I'm just choosing a mission now."

Jiraiya signaled that he understood and took a serious look at Uzumaki Reikawa's face. He did indeed look very much like Nagato, but why did the boy's expression feel so strange? "Do you know who I am?"

Hearing this, and looking at Jiraiya's questioning face, along with that green light on his head, no, I can't hold it in! Uzumaki Reikawa's facial expressions went out of control. "Sorry, excuse me for a moment, I need to use the restroom."

However, after Uzumaki Reikawa went inside, a burst of laughter erupted from the restroom. But because he didn't want those outside to hear, he laughed in agony, as if he were gasping for his final breath.

Once he steadied his mindset and finished his internal pep talk, he walked out to see Kakashi and Jiraiya looking at him with dead-fish eyes.

Uzumaki Reikawa asked, "What's wrong?"

"We heard it all. What were you laughing at?"

Uzumaki Reikawa awkwardly covered up, "Nothing, I just thought of a funny joke earlier and accidentally laughed out loud."

"..." Kakashi and Jiraiya.

Forget it; Jiraiya didn't intend to get to the bottom of it. His purpose in coming here was to check on this descendant of the Uzumaki Clan and, incidentally, test his strength.

He wanted to see if there was anything he could teach him. The Akatsuki organization's goal was the Tailed Beast, and Uzumaki Reikawa had high talent; he should play a significant role in the future confrontation with the Akatsuki. "Come with me for a moment."

Upon hearing this, Uzumaki Reikawa spread out the mission slip in his hand and said, "I just accepted a D-rank mission, can you wait a moment?"

Jiraiya asked, "Did you register the mission yet?"

Uzumaki Reikawa shook his head.

Jiraiya thought for a moment and said to Kakashi, "Then, Kakashi, I'll trouble you. From now on, I will look after Uzumaki Reikawa. You take care of this mission for Reikawa."

Kakashi subconsciously took the mission and looked at the "Cleaning Gutters" task. "..." I @￥#*

What was Uzumaki Reikawa thinking? Out of so many missions, he had to pick cleaning gutters. That smell could make a person stink for a whole day!!!

After Uzumaki Reikawa was taken away, he suddenly realized this situation. He didn't have a sense of smell, so it didn't matter, but as for Kakashi—he should probably offer a moment of silence.

Following behind Jiraiya, Jiraiya suddenly asked, "Do you know Nagato?"

"Nagato? Who is that?" Seeing the genuine confusion in Uzumaki Reikawa's eyes, Jiraiya sighed. Although they both had red hair, who could guarantee that Nagato was also of the Uzumaki Clan? And those eyes... could he be the Child of Prophecy?

Over at Uchiha Gen's side, after successfully roasting two snakes, he fed them to the kitten. Unexpectedly, the kitten quite liked them; it couldn't finish them all at once, so he put them in the refrigerator for storage.

According to what he knew from his past life, there should be about two and a half years left before the Akatsuki organization began their operations. By now, they should have gathered most of their information, and the first ones they would capture were the Seven-Tails and the One-Tail.

Inferring from this, White Zetsu should also be in the vicinity. If he showed interest in the Tailed Beast, the members of the Akatsuki should reveal themselves. He just had to strike the right balance; if he were seen as a threat, he would be done for.

Anyway, he didn't actually want to capture a Tailed Beast. The bigger the commotion, the better. Thinking of this, Uchiha Gen decided to write a warning letter:

Greetings. Given that your Kazekage is already dead, and I don't know who will see this letter first, I won't address it to anyone in particular.

I want to take a Tailed Beast as a pet. I feel that your One-Tail is quite cute. I hope you won't be ungrateful. In three days, I will come to collect the One-Tail. Consider yourselves notified.

To avoid it being dismissed as a prank, Uchiha Gen carefully packaged the letter. Using his Sharingan, he snuck into Sunagakure and placed it neatly in the very center of the table at their meeting spot.

During the infiltration, he happened to find the Four Celestial Commanders—those idiots—hiding nearby. Uchiha Gen thought about it and decided to capture and knock them all out.

He couldn't let White Zetsu equate him with those guys. They had the Nine-Tails and didn't go for it, instead going for the One-Tail. And even after capturing it, they foolishly dreamed of conquering the Five Great Nations with just the One-Tail, only to be killed by Gaara in the end. There was really no one like them.

However, what Uchiha Gen didn't know was that the Akatsuki were actually looking for him too. Since he was likely of the Uchiha Clan, Obito had come personally and passed by the pet shop where the kitten was kept.