Center of the Storm

The early summer of the forty-second year of Konoha should have been a season brimming with vitality.

However, the air surrounding the Hatake Residence was as cold as deep winter.

Uchiha Ryūha stood in the shadows across the street, watching the silent mansion.

The house was now shrouded in an invisible, oppressive weight.

Passersby would instinctively quicken their pace, and neighbors would deliberately steer clear of the front gate.

Even children at play would be pulled away by their parents, warned in hushed tones, "Don't go near that place."

Because the master of the house was Hatake Sakumo.

White Fang of the Leaf.

Once a hero, now a laughingstock.

Uchiha Ryūha walked around the street twice, hearing nothing but similar gossip.

"Have you heard? The few chunin he saved were discharged from the hospital yesterday. They were sobbing in the tavern, saying it was all Lord Sakumo's fault for abandoning the mission, causing them to be unable to hold their heads up in front of others..."

"The Hokage hasn't made a statement, but I heard that at the high-level meeting, Advisor Koharu and Advisor Homura both severely criticized the ninja who participated in this mission."

"The mission failure caused the trade agreement between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind to be delayed, resulting in a loss of at least thirty million ryō..."

"His son, Kakashi, hasn't been to the training grounds for the past two days; he must have been implicated as well."

Uchiha Ryūha listened with an expressionless face.

He opened the system panel and looked at the mission log.

[Current Side Mission: White Fang's Swan Song]

[Time Remaining: 84 days]

[Target Status: On the verge of a mental breakdown, life energy continuously weakening.]

The status indicator representing Hatake Sakumo had shifted from its initial green to a glaring orange-red.

Moreover, the color was deepening, like embers about to extinguish.

Uchiha Ryūha closed the panel.

He returned to the Uchiha compound and waited in his room until late at night.

By one in the morning, all was silent.

He changed into a set of dark gray casual clothes, tucked Kyōka Suigetsu behind his waist, and packed only kunai and smoke bombs in his ninja tool pouch.

He wore a black mask over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.

He pushed open the window, and the night wind rushed in.

His spiritual pressure perception spread out silently, like mercury spilling across the ground.

Within a radius of three hundred meters, every fluctuation of chakra was clearly reflected in his mind.

Seven Anbu were scattered throughout the village, five of them near the Hokage building.

Two were on the perimeter of the Uchiha compound—men sent by the Third to monitor him.

There were three others with more concealed, cold chakra lurking at different positions around the Hatake Residence.

Root.

Shimura Danzō truly had not let this place go.

Uchiha Ryūha adjusted his glasses, a flash of coldness in his eyes.

He took a deep breath and tapped his toes lightly against the windowsill.

Flash Step.

His figure vanished from the spot.

From the windowsill to a rooftop thirty meters away, there was no trace of movement in between, as if space itself had folded.

He landed on the roof tiles, his sound imperceptible.

His spiritual pressure perception locked onto the positions of the three Root members: one at the second-floor window of the tea house opposite.

One on top of the street signpost, and the third, most concealed, hidden in the attic of a vacant warehouse next to the Hatake Residence.

Three angles, perfectly covering all entrances and exits of the Hatake Residence.

Shimura Danzō had certainly invested heavily to monitor a dying man.

Uchiha Ryūha did not linger.

Flash Step activated again.

This time he moved fifty meters, landing on the backyard wall of a house next to the Hatake Residence.

The family kept a dog, but the dog merely twitched its ears, rolled over, and continued to sleep, completely unaware that anyone had passed by.

On the third Flash Step, he landed directly in the courtyard of the Hatake Residence.

His feet landed on the gravel path without making a single sound.

Almost the moment he touched the ground, Uchiha Ryūha placed his right hand on the hilt at his waist.

"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."

Hum—

An invisible ripple spread out from him as the center.

It silently enveloped the entire Hatake Residence and a fifty-meter radius around it.

This was "Area Envelopment."

It was not hypnosis targeting a single individual, but rather the "covering" and "replacement" of sensory perception for the entire area.

In the eyes of the Root ninja on the second floor of the teahouse opposite, everything at the Hatake Residence remained as usual.

Moonlight spilled quietly into the courtyard, and the gravel path was completely empty.

He even let out a yawn, writing on his recording scroll: "Midnight, no abnormalities at the target residence, target has not gone out."

The Root ninja atop the street corner signpost also failed to detect anything unusual.

As for the one in the attic of the warehouse next door, he was the one with the strongest sensory perception among the three.

He kept his eyes closed, covering the entire area with his chakra sensory technique.

Within his sensory network, there was only one weak, decaying chakra fluctuation in the Hatake Residence—that was Hatake Sakumo himself.

He frowned, feeling that something was off, but the sensory results were clear and unmistakable.

Perhaps he was just too tired.

In reality, Uchiha Ryūha was standing in the center of the Hatake Residence courtyard.

He looked up toward the direction of the dojo.

The paper door was tightly shut, but an oil lamp was lit inside.

The dim, yellow light shone through the paper door, casting the silhouette of a figure sitting in a kneeling position.

The figure remained motionless, like a stone statue.

On the floor in front of him lay a short blade.

Even through the paper door, Ryūha could feel the cold aura emanating from that blade.

It was the murderous intent of a weapon that had followed its master through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

White Fang Short Blade.

The tip of the blade was pointed toward the figure himself.

Uchiha Ryūha withdrew his gaze and stepped toward the dojo.

The gravel path made a very faint rustling sound beneath his feet, but under the "envelopment" of Kyōka Suigetsu, these sounds existed only within his own perception.

To the outside world, the courtyard remained silent.

He walked to the entrance of the dojo and stopped.

The light from the oil lamp on the paper door cast the silhouette of the kneeling figure, upright yet exuding an indescribable exhaustion and... determination.

Uchiha Ryūha reached out, preparing to slide open the paper door.

Just then, a hoarse voice came from inside:

"Whoever is outside, since you have come, then come in."

The voice was calm, but beneath that calmness lay a bottomless exhaustion.

Ryūha's movements paused for a moment.

Was he discovered?

Hatake Sakumo, White Fang of the Leaf, even at this point, still maintained the keenness of a top-tier ninja.

He was worthy of being a Kage-level powerhouse.

It was still difficult to deceive him with Kyōka Suigetsu at its Shikai level.

His Reiatsu intensity was still too low; if it were at the Jōnin level, he might have been able to fool the other party.

Ryūha adjusted his glasses and slid open the paper door.

The sound of the paper door sliding was exceptionally clear in the silence.

The scene inside the dojo came into view.

It was a very spacious dojo with dark wooden floors, polished until they were spotless.

On the wall hung a scroll with the character "Endure" written in vigorous strokes.

In the corner stood a sword rack, which was empty.

In the center, Hatake Sakumo sat in a kneeling position.

He was wearing dark gray loungewear, his hair was somewhat messy, and the stubble on his face was prominent.

The White Fang Short Blade lay silently on the floor before him.

Uchiha Ryūha walked into the dojo, the paper door sliding shut soundlessly behind him.

The light from the oil lamp flickered between the two, casting swaying shadows.

The dojo was quiet, save for the faint crackle of the burning wick.

Hatake Sakumo looked up, watching Uchiha Ryūha.

His gaze first landed on Uchiha Ryūha's face, swept over the glasses, then the high-collared robe, and finally settled on the Kyōka Suigetsu tucked behind his waist.

"Uchiha brat," Sakumo said, his voice raspy.

"At this hour, dressed like that, sneaking into my house... what are you trying to do?"

Ryūha stood where he was, making no move to approach.

He maintained a distance of three meters—a safe gap that allowed for conversation without triggering the other man's heightened vigilance.

"I've come to stop you from doing something foolish, Lord Sakumo," he said.