Uchiha Arashi looked down at Naruto.
The little boy was small and thin, and seemed a little malnourished. His clothes were old, but at least he looked clean and tidy.
Naruto's life wasn't very good.
It wasn't that he lacked money. He had enough to support himself, at the very least. His real problem was that he couldn't spend it, even when he had it.
Because of the rumors, everyone around him thought Naruto was the Nine-Tails fox. Shopkeepers refused to serve him, and parents wouldn't let their children play with him. Everyone had deliberately isolated him. Under those circumstances, Naruto had to spend a lot of energy every day just to find food. He even went down to the river to fish by himself. And now he said he wanted to buy a book... Uchiha Arashi was genuinely curious.
What had made him decide to do that?
"I... I..."
Naruto hesitated, his face turning red as he sneaked a glance at Uchiha Arashi.
Seeing the shopkeeper simply smile at him, he suddenly found a little courage.
"I saw my classmates reading that book... I thought, I thought... if I read it too, maybe I could become friends with them..."
He stammered.
So that was why!
Uchiha Arashi suddenly understood.
Naruto had lacked friends ever since he was little, and he desperately wanted others to accept him. Even the reason he'd decided to become Hokage in the first place was tied to that.
"Reading the same book doesn't necessarily mean you'll become friends... But why would I turn down a sale? Teyvat Travelogue, right? There are two books in all. Which one do you want?"
Uchiha Arashi came out from behind the counter, took the two books from the shelf, and set them in front of Naruto.
"I suggest you buy one first and see if you like it. If you really don't, you won't have to buy the second one. You'll save yourself some money, too."
"Big Brother Shopkeeper, you really, really are willing to sell them to me?"
Naruto's eyes widened. He seemed unable to believe it.
"Why wouldn't I be? You buy a book, I make money. I can't think of a reason to refuse."
Other people might be afraid of the fox, but he wasn't. The seal on Naruto was still solid, for one thing. And even if it broke by accident and the Nine-Tails got out, he refused to believe that two Mangekyo wouldn't be enough to suppress it. If they couldn't, then he and Izumi might as well give up on overthrowing Konoha and avenging the Uchiha, and just go have kids somewhere no one knew them.
"Th-then I want both!"
At last, someone was willing to sell him something. Naruto shouted, overcome with excitement.
"I suggest you buy one first. If you like it, you can buy the second."
"No! I want both! Even if, even if I don't like them, I'll keep them!"
"Suit yourself."
Uchiha Arashi shrugged and stopped trying to persuade him.
Naruto paid, then ran off happily with the two books in his arms.
Only after he was gone did Izumi come out from the back.
"Is that kid special?"
she asked.
"Why do you ask all of a sudden?"
Uchiha Arashi was counting the money. He looked at Izumi, puzzled.
"You're never this attentive with ordinary customers, especially when they're kids... Is he the only one who's special? What makes him different from everyone else?"
Izumi asked, watching Naruto's retreating figure.
"He is pretty special. He's the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki."
With Izumi, Uchiha Arashi could speak freely about certain things.
"The Nine-Tails? You mean..."
Izumi's eyes widened at once.
"That's right. When the Nine-Tails was sealed again a few years ago, he was used as its vessel."
He didn't tell her Naruto's true identity. The village had done such a good job keeping that secret that, aside from a few top officials, most people didn't know Naruto was the Fourth's son. It would be hard to explain where he'd gotten that information, so he decided not to say anything.
"So you're planning to control the Nine-Tails?"
Izumi mused.
Releasing the Nine-Tails really would be the quickest way to create a crisis in Konoha.
And with the Mangekyo, controlling the Nine-Tails wouldn't be a problem. They'd only need to make a few arrangements...
"Hold on, hold on. What are you thinking? Don't worry. I may want revenge for the Uchiha, but I'm not so deranged that I'd release the Nine-Tails in the village. And if the Nine-Tails gets out, this little guy is as good as dead. I wouldn't do something like that unless we were out of options."
Uchiha Arashi smiled and shook his head.
Besides, the Nine-Tails wasn't invincible. Like the Mangekyo, it seemed overwhelmingly powerful, but if Konoha got serious, they still had ways to deal with it. It would just cost them more.
So the Nine-Tails was at most a bonus. Anyone who thought they could overthrow Konoha with the Nine-Tails alone was dreaming.
"Anyway, don't worry about him. What's for dinner? I'm a little hungry."
"Why have you been eating so much lately? You ate not long ago. Is it because of your arm?"
Izumi's gaze settled unobtrusively on Uchiha Arashi's right arm.
"Maybe it has something to do with it. Anyway, I've had a huge appetite lately. Make extra meat for dinner. And the younger kids are growing, too. They need more nourishment."
"I don't need you to remind me!"
Izumi rolled her eyes at Uchiha Arashi and turned to go back.
Uchiha Arashi watched her go with a smile, then continued sitting behind the counter, lost in thought.
"What a wonderful story."
Kakashi closed the book and sighed softly.
He'd finished reading all of Teyvat Travelogue. The first nation was a land of freedom, and the bond between Barbatos and Dvalin had moved him. The second was a land of contracts, where people protected by the gods sought to grow, stepped out of their comfort zones, and learned to protect themselves. That story, too, had made him yearn for something more.
Unfortunately, the stories of those two nations didn't fit Konoha or the Ninja World.
Ninjas had no place in a life of freedom, and ordinary people couldn't possibly do without the protection of ninjas.
That was the beauty of novels, though. They could break free from reality and let the imagination run wild.
"No wonder he's a Reviewer. His writing is excellent. I wonder when he'll finish the third book. The Eternal Nation Locked by Lightning—Inazuma... What an intriguing name."
Kakashi still didn't know that all three Anbu squads had been wiped out. Lately, he'd been investigating Orochimaru, but Orochimaru was even better at hiding than he'd expected. Kakashi had searched every inch of the Land of Fields without finding the slightest trace of Orochimaru or that so-called hideout.
Many others throughout the Ninja World felt the same way Kakashi did.
Together, they provided a vast amount of Power of Recognition, which flowed like rivers until it finally gathered before Uchiha Arashi.
Inside Shadow Space.
"I can already faintly sense the limit. In half a year at most, I'll be able to create a Gnosis."
Uchiha Arashi's eyes shone as he thought.
Before you continue