Drowned by Rabbits, Helpless

Just as the Escaping Rabbit spat out the words "feels average," the soil beneath its feet turned pitch black without warning.

The black shadow clung to the ground and expanded rapidly, forming a massive black disc over ten meters in diameter in the blink of an eye.

"What..." Shikamaru's pupils constricted sharply, and he instinctively tried to retreat.

But it was already too late.

"Pop! Pop! Pop!"

Accompanied by a dense series of popping sounds, a white torrent erupted from the black disc.

Countless white rabbits surged toward the three of them like a white tsunami.

Shikamaru's vision was instantly filled with overwhelming white fur.

He tried to clasp his hands together to form seals again, but a dozen rabbits slammed directly into his arms, rendering him unable to move.

"Choji..." Shikamaru only had time to shout Choji's name before his mouth was blocked by the furry bodies of several rabbits.

Before Choji could even refine his chakra, rabbits from all directions had already surged onto his chest.

He swung his arms, trying to brush the little things away, but there were simply too many of them.

He pushed ten away, and fifty more immediately filled the gap.

The heavy physical mass piled up layer upon layer.

Choji's legs were pinned firmly underneath; his massive frame didn't even last a second in the white tide before being completely buried.

Ino was still inside Sasuke's body at that moment.

She watched helplessly as the white tsunami swallowed Shikamaru and Choji, and immediately, the suffocating sensation of being buried alive was transmitted directly into the depths of her consciousness through the mental link.

Weight—pure, unadulterated weight.

Countless rabbits squeezed together, their white fur and red eyes covering everything in a dense, suffocating mass.

The air was completely squeezed out, and even the gaps in her hair and clothes were stuffed with soft yet heavy flesh.

"Ah—!"

The extreme sense of suffocation broke Ino, forcibly interrupting the Mind Transfer Jutsu.

Ino's eyes snapped open in her own body, and she gasped for air.

The moment her spirit returned, her own body was also buried beneath the white torrent.

The exact same crushing pressure she had just felt inside Sasuke enveloped her, and she couldn't move a single finger.

Shikamaru was pressed down so hard that only half his face remained exposed; through the gaps in the pile of rabbits, he looked ahead.

Sasuke stood quietly in place, and the rabbits that had been pressing down on him had vanished.

As for the rabbits pressing down on his side...

This guy Sasuke, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio doesn't have such large-scale lethality.

Can't win, might as well surrender.

Shikamaru opened his mouth and spat out a tuft of white fur.

"I give up!"

Because he was buried in the pile of rabbits, his voice wasn't clear, but Sasuke could still hear him.

He raised his right hand.

"Snap."

A crisp sound of fingers snapping.

The Escaping Rabbits quieted down, then immediately began to melt rapidly, turning into puddles of black sludge that seeped into the shadow on the ground.

The three of them finally had room to breathe.

Choji lay on the ground in a sprawl, his chest heaving violently as he sucked fresh air into his lungs.

Ino lay on the muddy ground nearby, her blonde hair still stained with bits of black sludge that hadn't dissipated yet, her mind still dazed.

Shikamaru sat up, rubbing his right shoulder, which had nearly been dislocated by the pressure, his face twisted into a grimace.

"What a drag..." Shikamaru let out a long breath and looked up at Sasuke.

"I knew there was something wrong with all those rabbits suddenly appearing in the village. You guy, you clearly said the rabbits weren't yours, yet you have every rabbit in the village in your pocket, don't you?"

"I never said the rabbits weren't mine." Sasuke walked over and stopped in front of Shikamaru.

"I only said it had nothing to do with me."

"What's the difference!" Shikamaru rolled his eyes, too lazy to argue further.

He pointed to his own forehead: "Take it, we lost anyway."

Sasuke bent down and peeled the sticker off Shikamaru's forehead.

Then he walked over to Ino and Choji, peeled off their stickers one by one, and stuffed them into his pocket.

After taking the stickers, Sasuke Uchiha did not leave immediately.

He turned around and stopped in front of Choji.

Shikamaru's hand, which had been rubbing his shoulder, froze, and Ino also regained her composure slightly, turning her head to look over.

According to the customs of Konoha, after winning, one usually had to throw out a few taunts or deliver a condescending victory declaration.

Shikamaru was already prepared to listen to Sasuke's lecture.

Sasuke spoke calmly.

"Calling you a pig earlier was my mistake."

Choji was still panting, and upon hearing this, he was completely stunned.

"I only made that assumption based on the name of your Ino-Shika-Cho formation; I had no intention of insulting your physique. My apologies."

Choji's mouth hung open as he stared blankly at Sasuke.

In his impression, Sasuke Uchiha was always that genius sitting in the back row of the classroom, indifferent to everyone.

Let alone admitting a mistake, he rarely even looked people in the eye.

Many in the class had mocked Choji for being fat, calling him a fat pig.

Shikamaru and Ino were his friends, but that was also due to the bonds between their families.

The Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka were partners for generations; they had been tied together since birth.

But Sasuke was an Uchiha.

There was no connection between the Uchiha and the Akimichi, no family interests that had to be maintained, and no need for one to rely on the other's secret techniques to survive.

Sasuke was apologizing simply because he felt this person was worth being friends with.

Choji clenched his right fist; the red mark on the back of his hand from the rabbit fur had not yet faded. He sniffed hard, forcing back the tears swirling in his eyes.

"Sasuke, you're a good guy. Of course! You're my friend too!"

Ino also forgot to tidy the black mud in her hair.

She had always thought of Sasuke as the type of cool, aloof handsome guy; this apologetic and candid attitude made her heart skip a beat uncontrollably.

Sasuke was still handsome now, but this gentleness was even better than before!

Sasuke looked at Choji's earnest expression, his eyes softening slightly.

"I am not a good person, nor am I a hero." Sasuke tucked his hands back into his pockets, his gaze sweeping over the three people on the ground.

"I will simply, out of my own selfishness, risk my life to protect the people I deem good."

Shikamaru sat on the ground, the corner of his mouth twitching.

It was indeed that matter.

The Uchiha clan massacre.

Losing all his kin overnight—it was impossible for anyone to remain the same after such an event.

Sasuke's current paranoid personality was a lingering symptom of that tragedy.

Shikamaru stood up and brushed the dirt and black mud residue off his pants.

He turned his back to Sasuke and waved his right hand casually.

"Let's go, Choji, Ino. The stickers are all gone, what are we still staying here for?"

He turned his head and glanced at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, Sasuke. Next time we meet, I won't lose to your Escaping Rabbit a second time."

Sasuke looked at him: "You can try."

Ino scrambled up from the ground and followed behind Shikamaru as they walked out of the woods.

After walking a dozen steps, she finally couldn't help herself, lowering her voice as she leaned toward Choji.

"Choji... what Sasuke-kun said just now, was it true?"

Choji stuffed a potato chip into his mouth and nodded vigorously.

"Of course it's true. Sasuke is a good guy."

Ino buried her face in her hands, her shoulders trembling slightly.

She didn't notice at all that the black mud on her fingers had smeared onto her cheek; she only felt her heart beating very fast.

"Sasuke-kun... so cool..."

The figures of the three soon disappeared into the dense woods.

The clearing in the training ground returned to silence, with only the rustling of wind through the leaves.

Sasuke lowered his head.

That white Escaping Rabbit had crawled out again at some point and was lying by his feet, scratching its long ears with its hind legs.

Sasuke crouched down and reached out to stroke the soft fur on its head.

Escaping Rabbit narrowed its eyes comfortably, a faint purring sound rumbling in its throat.

"Sasuke's friends are very nice," Escaping Rabbit said slowly in that soft, sweet tone. "Next time, I want to play with them again."

"They certainly don't want to be pinned down by you again," Sasuke patted its back.

The perspective pulled upward from the open ground of the training field.

Passing through layers of dense green canopy, following the angle of the slanting sunlight, it moved all the way to the deepest part of the forest.

Behind a sturdy oak tree that would require three people to encircle, two figures stood quietly on a pair of thick branches.

The wind blew through the treetops, fluttering the black cloaks with red clouds they wore.

The person standing on the left wore a conical hat adorned with a wind chime; the shadow from the brim obscured the upper half of his face, revealing only a pair of scarlet Sharingan. Three tomoe rotated slowly within his pupils.

The person on the right had long, pale hair and deathly white skin, with cold, flickering light in his vertical, golden snake-like pupils. A long tongue flicked out from his mouth, slowly licking across his lips.

Orochimaru had taken in everything that happened below.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Itachi Uchiha beside him, his eyes filled with undisguised curiosity.

"Truly an interesting power," Orochimaru's voice was hoarse and viscous, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue against one's ear.

"There was absolutely no chakra fluctuation, yet it could manifest physical entities of that scale. Itachi, was your adorable little brother like this on the night of the clan's annihilation as well?"

Itachi stood on the branch, his body motionless.

He did not turn to look at Orochimaru, nor did he answer the question.

His gaze remained locked firmly on Sasuke's direction below.

The power Sasuke had just displayed was more mature than what he had seen in that room that night. Those black shadows, those strange shikigami—they were not ninjutsu of the Uchiha Clan at all.

This power was too strong, and its growth rate was alarmingly fast.

Itachi's brows furrowed slightly beneath the shadow of his hat.

If Sasuke continued to grow at this rate, he would soon realize that Konoha had very little left to teach him. Once he felt that Konoha had lost its utility, given his current temperament of absolute rationality, it was highly likely he would leave the village directly.

This was not what Itachi wanted to see.

He had shouldered all the blame so that Sasuke could grow up safely in Konoha, so that Sasuke could build bonds with the village and eventually become a hero who protected Konoha.

If Sasuke left now, all the sacrifices he had made would be in vain.

Sasuke must be kept in Konoha.

He must be given a reason to continue staying in this village, to understand the people here, and to feel the bonds here.

Itachi was silent for a long time, his scarlet Sharingan gradually ceasing their rotation.

He finally turned his head to look at Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru," Itachi's voice was cold, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"I want Sasuke to stay in Konoha for the time being."

He stared into Orochimaru's golden snake pupils and asked slowly.

"Do you have any ideas?"