Uchiha Kei walked up to Naruto's shabby little house and kicked the door open.
"Nani? What are you doing?!"
Naruto was half-naked, his face filled with panic.
"I got a mission bonus. Want to go eat at Ichiraku Ramen?"
"You broke down my door just to ask if I wanted ramen?"
Naruto yelled furiously.
I'm done for. The wind's definitely going to blow right through my room tonight...
Poor thing...
"How about some Three-Color Dango, too?"
Uchiha Kei asked tentatively.
"Three-Color Dango, too? What do you take me for? Do you think I'm the kind of person who has no bottom line when it comes to food?"
Naruto got angry and lunged at Uchiha Kei, waving his arms wildly.
"How about two more boxes of instant noodles?"
Uchiha Kei calmly held up two fingers.
"Kei, your big brother's door is old and falling apart. I was only worried you'd get hurt! Your leg's okay, right?"
Naruto twisted sharply in midair and landed in front of Uchiha Kei with an extremely difficult maneuver.
His anger vanished completely, replaced by a face full of ingratiating smiles.
For Naruto, ramen, Three-Color Dango, and instant noodles were the three most wonderful things in the world.
Getting one would make him very happy.
Getting two would make him very content.
Getting all three meant he'd have no regrets in life!
After tidying up a little, Uchiha Kei took him to Ichiraku Ramen.
Ichiraku Ramen was always packed. After waiting in line for ten minutes, it was finally their turn.
At the sight of the steaming ramen, the two of them swallowed involuntarily.
"Let's eat!"
"Let's eat!"
They clasped their hands together in unison and dug in with equal enthusiasm.
"Kei, how much was the bonus for this mission?"
Naruto asked between bites, his words muffled.
"The Hokage thought the mission should've been an A-rank, so the bonus was pretty big."
Uchiha Kei answered during a brief pause in his eating.
"How many bowls of ramen will that buy?"
"Enough for a year."
Naruto stopped eating and stared at him, eyes shining.
"That much?!"
Uchiha Kei instinctively covered his pocket and warily shifted away.
"What are you planning? I worked hard for that money!"
"Don't be so stingy! We're good friends!"
"We're good friends as long as we don't talk about money. Once we do, we're enemies!"
"..."
As the two of them joked and bickered, someone suddenly sat down beside them.
Uchiha Kei turned his head curiously and met a pair of gentle eyes.
"Shisui, you're back."
Uchiha Kei froze for a moment, then lit up with delight.
Uchiha Shisui had returned to the village. Didn't that mean...
That person was back, too!
"Mm, I'm back."
Shisui smiled warmly, though the fatigue on his face was hard to hide.
"Thanks for all your effort, Shisui."
Capturing that person had been much harder than killing him.
"Compared to you, it wasn't much effort."
Shisui said pointedly.
Uchiha Kei responded with a hearty smile.
That was true. With Shisui's strength, dealing with that person had been troublesome at most, but there had never been any real danger to his life.
Uchiha Kei was different.
On the surface, he was just an eight-year-old child, someone who could only grow into a talented young shinobi.
"Talented young shinobi" might sound like praise.
But a talented young shinobi who hadn't yet grown up posed no threat at all.
"I brought him back, but..."
Shisui hesitated, his expression a little strange.
"I'm not sure you could even call that guy human anymore."
Uchiha Kei nodded.
He already knew all that.
"Can we really trust someone like him as an ally?"
"Of course we can."
Uchiha Kei answered confidently.
"In a way, as long as you give him a direction to pursue the truth, no one is more reliable than he is."
Shisui was only half-convinced, but the man had already been captured. They could only wait and see what happened next.
"What are you two talking about?"
After finishing his second bowl of ramen, Naruto's hunger had finally been temporarily appeased.
"Some interesting stuff."
Seeing Naruto's eager expression, Uchiha Kei waved him off.
"But it has nothing to do with you right now. Once your Rasengan reaches a normal size, you'll be qualified to know."
Naruto immediately deflated.
After seeing Naruto home, Uchiha Kei and Shisui walked down the street.
"You want to ask about Uzumaki Naruto?"
Seeing how Shisui had seemed about to speak all along, Uchiha Kei got straight to the point.
"Yes."
Shisui didn't hide it.
"Is Uzumaki Naruto part of your plan?"
"More or less, but not entirely."
Uchiha Kei stopped and looked seriously at Shisui.
"A grown Nine-Tails Jinchuriki would certainly help with our plan."
"But that's not the real reason I treat him especially well."
Shisui stopped as well, waiting for him to continue.
"Naruto's had it much worse than I have."
A look of remembrance passed through Uchiha Kei's eyes.
"When I realized how cruel this world was, Naruto was the only friend I had."
"Can you understand what it feels like to be somewhere unfamiliar, with no one to turn to?"
"Back then, I was desperate and despondent. But when I looked back, I saw someone who'd been through the same things I had."
"What kind of strength does it take for someone to be surrounded by darkness, yet still yearn for the light?"
Shisui listened quietly, recalling what he knew about Naruto.
Indeed, there was only one person who'd been isolated and bullied since childhood, yet could still smile so carefree.
Uzumaki Naruto.
The boy who'd been called the "Fox Demon" since he was little.
"Strength and power can make a person's ambitions swell without limit, but Naruto can temper that kind of ambition."
After saying that, Uchiha Kei continued walking.
Shisui turned his words over in his mind, unable to suppress the smile in his eyes.
He had agreed to join Uchiha Kei's crazy plan not out of any ambition to dominate Konoha or the Shinobi World.
He did it because he wanted the village and his clan to coexist peacefully.
Uchiha Kei's beliefs reassured him.
He wasn't trying to win over the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki for the sake of their plans. He was doing it because he cared.
Shisui led Uchiha Kei to a wooden house in the forest.
"He's in here."
Uchiha Kei nodded and went to open the door.
"That guy's cunning, and he's powerful, too. Be extremely careful."
Just as Kei reached for the door, Shisui still couldn't help warning him.
"Don't worry."
He pushed the door open, and dazzling light suddenly flooded the sealed wooden house.
Inside, something like a snake writhed on the floor.
At the touch of sunlight, it raised a pair of cold, vertical pupils.
Uchiha Kei watched him in silence, and he observed Uchiha Kei in turn.
"Who are you?"
The voice was hoarse, with anger he could barely conceal.
Uchiha Kei walked closer, pulled a chair over from the side, and sat down with an easy expression.
"Answer me! Who are you, and why did you capture me?"
Reeking of a foul stench, he edged closer to Uchiha Kei, step by step.
It was one thing for Shisui to look down on him. He'd been outmatched, and losing to a Uchiha wasn't shameful.
But this little brat in front of him was only eight or nine years old. What gave him the right to look down on him, too?!
He opened his enormous mouth, baring two venomous fangs that gleamed with a cold light.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Orochimaru."
A pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"I'm Uchiha Kei."
Before you continue