The Forgotten Sasuke

Chen had never expected that his intervention would not only cost Naruto the chance to play the hero, but also ruin any chance of making a good impression on Hinata.

"What's wrong? You seem to dislike him a bit."

Feigning ignorance, Chen asked.

"People in my family say he's a fox demon, a disaster. He's always causing trouble, and he's even spray-painted some of my clan's shops."

Hearing Hinata's words, Chen didn't know what to say.

He knew Naruto liked to paint the Hokage Rock, but he didn't think he'd started that young.

Or was Naruto's original ambition to become a house painter?

"Regardless of what he is, he's still just a child for now. You should just treat him like any other kid. As for his antics, I think he's just trying to get people's attention; I don't think there's any real malice behind it."

Chen couldn't say too much; after all, Naruto was the scapegoat for the fox demon rumors, but the painting was entirely his own doing.

"Maybe you're right. Chen, you're truly kind."

Hearing Hinata's words, Chen didn't know how to respond. He didn't feel like kindness had much to do with him.

Chen didn't linger with Hinata any longer and turned to head toward his home.

"Strange, why do I feel like I've forgotten something? Oh well, if I've forgotten it, I won't bother thinking about it."

Chen muttered to himself as he returned home. He used his afternoons to develop ninjutsu; after all, he felt he should have techniques that were uniquely his own.

Immersed in the world of ninjutsu development, time seemed to slip away, and by the time Chen snapped back to reality, it was already dusk.

"Hey, are you sure you haven't forgotten something?"

The system's voice rang out, leaving Chen looking puzzled.

He thought the system had issued a mission, but when he opened the task panel, he found it completely empty.

"Forgotten what? Are you trying to mess with me again? Please, I've barely rested; let me be a couch potato for a while, won't you?"

The system didn't reply to Chen's words, while somewhere in Konoha, a certain unlucky soul was weeping.

The next morning, Chen arrived at Training Ground No. 7 as usual. He hadn't walked far into the grounds before he saw a lump on the ground.

Poor Sasuke had been buried in the dirt by Chen for nearly a day and a night.

Seeing Sasuke, Chen finally remembered what he had forgotten the day before.

"Is Second Pillar still alive?"

Watching Sasuke remain motionless, Chen felt a twinge of worry.

After all, it was one thing to play around, but if he actually killed Sasuke, he would probably have to flee Konoha ahead of schedule.

"Please, let me out!"

Hearing Chen's voice, Sasuke burst into loud sobs.

It was then that Chen noticed Sasuke's face seemed to be covered in some yellow liquid, and as he got closer, he caught a whiff of urine.

On top of that, there were weeds on Sasuke's head, along with a dried-up pile of feces.

Seeing this, Chen felt a bit guilty, so he decided to go easy on Sasuke for the day.

After successfully digging Sasuke out, Chen didn't dare get too close; there was no helping it, the smell on Sasuke was just too foul.

Not to mention the state of his head, but because he had been planted in the ground for nearly a day, Sasuke had also wet his pants in a spectacular fashion.

Buried in the dirt like that, one could only imagine the stench.

And so, Sasuke ran home while sobbing.

However, because the smell on him was so overwhelming, and for reasons known only to Sasuke, he hadn't even bothered to clean the mess off his head.

Consequently, Sasuke suffered another social death, as everyone on the streets saw him sprinting by with a pile of excrement on his head.

"Do you think the reason Fugaku awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan was because he saw Sasuke like this?"

Chen asked, watching Sasuke's retreating figure.

"You guessed wrong. Fugaku had already awakened his Mangekyo by this time. To be precise, he had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan even before the Nine-Tails incident. Aside from Fugaku himself, only the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, knew about it."

Chen was stunned by the system's words. He had only been making a casual remark; he hadn't expected such a thing to be true.

"So Minato knew about Fugaku's situation and still chose to trust the Uchiha? What can I say? He was truly a good Hokage. It's a pity he died so young; otherwise, Konoha wouldn't have ended up like this under the Third Hokage."

The system didn't answer Chen. After all, who could really say?

The Third Hokage was indeed devoted to Konoha with all his heart, but as Hokage, he lacked a certain ruthlessness.

Perhaps the Third Hokage once possessed that edge, but as the years wore on, it had been whittled away bit by bit.

While some of the affairs in Konoha were indeed the result of Danzo's machinations, many things would not have turned out this way had the Third Hokage acted with greater decisiveness.

Although Konoha remained powerful today, it was already teetering in the wind and rain.

If Konoha were truly a paradise, why would Tsunade and Jiraiya have chosen to leave? Could it really just be hemophobia and a penchant for gathering material for books?

Chen did not wish to judge the Third Hokage; perhaps if he were in that position, he would not necessarily do any better.

But, dislike is dislike.

Chen did not dwell on other matters and instead resumed his training, yet the system seemed to find things too boring and began stirring up trouble once again.

Ding, system notification: Infiltrate Hyuga Hinata's room at midnight. Failure penalty: Wear women's clothing and dance an erotic dance on the roof of the Hokage Office Building for three hours.

"Damn you, system, is this how you play? If you want to kill me, just say so; stop giving me tasks like this!"

"I think it's quite interesting. Why don't you take the opportunity to win over Hinata? You can push all the blame onto me, the system; tell them you were forced, not acting of your own volition. How about that? See how considerate I am?"

Listening to the system, Chen was truly speechless. What kind of bizarre system was this, and why did it always have such outrageous tasks?

"Setting everything else aside, I'm five years old, and Hinata is four—a year younger than me. What do you think could possibly happen between us? Furthermore, that's the Hyuga House; the entire clan possesses the Byakugan. How do you expect me to evade their eyes? Finally, if I actually did that, do you really think anyone would believe I was forced?"

"That's a fair point, I forgot you can't even get it up yet."

"You motherf..."

"Alright, alright, don't be angry. This task only requires you to appear in Hinata's room, and 'midnight' here refers to any time after the sun goes down. So, use your brain to figure out a way to appear in her room during that window. Rest assured, I absolutely, positively will not make you do anything inappropriate for your age."