The Uchiha Demon!

Deep inside the prison cell.

A white-haired figure seemed to be awakened by the voice. He slowly raised his head, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes like a demon's.

His lips curled at that moment, stretching the withered skin on his face all the way to his ears and making his expression even more hideous.

He hardly looked human at all. He was more like a demon with nothing but skin stretched over his bones!

"Is that you, Danzo?!"

Setsuna Uchiha's hoarse voice scraped out of his throat.

He had gone so long without speaking that his pronunciation was a little strange, but Danzo heard him perfectly clearly.

"You've gotten this old, too?!"

"That outfit..."

"So Tobirama Senju, that old bastard, has already stepped down—or even... died?!"

Bang!

Danzo's cane slammed down on the floor in front of Setsuna Uchiha, smashing it to pieces. Shards of stone sliced across Setsuna Uchiha's face.

Bright red blood trickled down Setsuna Uchiha's dry skin, but there wasn't a hint of fear in his demonic eyes—only the mockery of a cat toying with a mouse.

"Looks like he really is dead."

"And if you're not the one in power now, then it must be Hiruzen Sarutobi, right?!"

Danzo's expression changed sharply. Killing intent flooded his eyes, but he didn't strike again. He merely stared coldly at the old man sitting cross-legged in the cell, looking like a dried-up corpse in a grave.

He was beginning to waver.

Could he really keep this monster in check—the one who had once stirred up a storm under the Second Hokage, and even led the Uchiha in standing against the Konoha High Command?

"Ah... looks like I hit the mark again."

The mockery in Setsuna Uchiha's eyes deepened.

"So the Konoha High Command has finally had enough and decided to execute me?!"

"You're trying to provoke me."

Danzo lowered his eyes, hiding his emotions completely. It was as if his sudden burst of anger had been nothing but an illusion.

He returned to his usual air of having everything under control.

"You're begging for death? Then I won't give you what you want!"

"On the contrary, I'm here to let you go."

The atmosphere in the cell came to an abrupt halt.

Setsuna Uchiha looked up at Danzo.

Back when Setsuna Uchiha had been in power among the Uchiha, Danzo had been one of the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju's bodyguards. He had been overshadowed by the Second Hokage's other student, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Decades had passed, and Danzo had truly become a beast.

At the very least, no mediocre fool in the clan could match him in this kind of scheming.

Countless guesses flashed through Setsuna Uchiha's mind. In almost an instant, he found the one answer—the correct one.

"You're going to use me?!"

"Looks like you and that kid Hiruzen Sarutobi aren't on good terms. Something major must have happened within the Uchiha, forcing you to use me to..."

"The Uchiha and the Konoha High Command are going to join forces?!"

The expression on Setsuna Uchiha's face froze, then gave way to intense, exaggerated, unrestrained mockery!

"Hahahahahaha!"

"Those idiots are really going to fall for it a second time?!"

"They're beyond saving!"

At some point, the lights around them had gone out.

All the prisoners knew was that the manic laughter of a vengeful ghost had echoed from the cell at the very back of the prison for a long, long time before it finally stopped.

The rain in Konoha had been falling steadily for several days.

Uchiha Shingen's routine remained the same: clock in at work, slack off and discuss writing with Jiraiya.

At night, he trained with Jiraiya in the Forest of Death.

With two Shadow Clones helping him, his training progressed much faster.

But the tradeoff was triple the fatigue, and the strain on his body was gradually pushing him close to his limits.

"No training today. I'm taking you out for barbecue!"

After Uchiha Shingen clocked out, Jiraiya suddenly draped an arm over his shoulder and waggled his eyebrows.

"Training needs a balance of work and rest. If you keep pushing yourself this hard, your body will give out before you see any results."

Without waiting for Uchiha Shingen's opinion, Jiraiya dragged him toward a barbecue restaurant on the street.

Seeing Uchiha Shingen's puzzled expression, Jiraiya quickly added:

"Your senior brother's waiting there, too!"

"Senior brother?!"

Uchiha Shingen froze and shot Jiraiya a sidelong glance.

"I never agreed to be your student!"

"Old geezer!"

Jiraiya didn't care in the slightest. He nodded.

"Doesn't matter. By now, you're probably the only person in Konoha who doesn't admit it."

"Not important, not important."

Uchiha Shingen's expression stiffened. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

At the time, he'd just wanted to squeeze some useful information out of Jiraiya. He'd also figured that Jiraiya was the only powerful person he knew fairly well.

So he'd asked Jiraiya to guide him.

Who knew that afterward, both the Uchiha clan and Konoha would simply take it for granted that he was Jiraiya's student?

How had things taken such a screwed-up turn?!

He wasn't going to let the old geezer get away with this for free!

"Sigh."

"I just thought of a new idea, but what kind of student teaches his teacher? Forget it, I'll just..."

"Wait a minute!"

When it came to writing, Jiraiya immediately lost his composure. One glance at Uchiha Shingen's slightly raised lips told him he'd walked right into a trap.

But what was so shameful about writing?

Jiraiya thought it over, then clapped his hands.

"Let's just call it even. You call me teacher, and I'll call you student."

"Your abacus beads are practically bouncing off my face, old geezer!"

"Hey~~~"

By the time the two of them reached the barbecue restaurant, a group was already gathered around the table.

At the head of it sat a blond young man with a dazzling smile. One glance was enough to make him memorable.

He deftly placed slices of meat on the grill, cooking them until they were fragrant and crisp around the edges, then put them on the plate of the red-haired woman beside him.

The three boys sitting nearby immediately started teasing them.

"Oooh~~~"

"Minato-sensei is so biased! He only has eyes for big sister Kushina!"

Obito pursed his lips and immediately began to complain.

Rin stood up to grill some meat. Obito watched hopefully as she placed it on Kakashi's plate, and he promptly turned to stone.

Seeing the scene, Uchiha Shingen immediately pictured a lovey-dovey couple of jerks, with a tacky love triangle thrown in.

The corner of his mouth twitched. He turned to Jiraiya.

"Do we even need to eat? I'm already full from all the lovey-dovey stuff!"

Before Jiraiya could reply, Minato excitedly waved at them from across the room.

"Jiraiya-sensei!"

"Over here! Over here!"

Jiraiya waved back, then led Uchiha Shingen over and pulled out a chair.

What Uchiha Shingen hadn't expected was that the first person at the table to greet him wouldn't be Minato, his senior brother, but Obito, who'd been so devastated he'd nearly turned to stone.

"Sashiburi dana!"

"Shingen?!"

Obito stood up, carefree as ever, as if he'd just spotted a long-lost friend.

"Come to think of it, we haven't seen each other in a long, long time—not since we graduated from the Ninja Academy."

"Yeah..."

Uchiha Shingen nodded lazily in greeting.

It really had been a long time since he'd seen Obito.

They were in the same year and the same clan, and they'd both been fairly marginal figures at the Ninja Academy, so they'd naturally gotten along.