Chapter 15

Even the Toad Sage, who had kept his eyes closed all this time, opened them now. "Little Jiraiya, there's nothing wrong with this boy."

"If he had come here with crooked intentions or lies, he never would have been able to step onto those stairs."

"As for the answer you want to ask about, I cannot give it to you."

"I cannot see through his future."

When the Toad Sage spoke, he was not brushing Jiraiya off.

He truly could not see **.

This boy's road ahead was completely hidden behind a thick fog. "All right, I understand."

"Can he... stay here to train?"

Jiraiya asked slowly.

At first, he had only wanted to test Sasuke, with no other intentions.

But now, Jiraiya truly had the thought of taking him as a disciple. "He may train here, but he cannot form a contract with Mount Myoboku."

After saying that, the Toad Sage closed his eyes again.

Jiraiya still had questions in his heart, but he did not press further.

The Toad Sage was too old now.

Every time he opened his eyes, it consumed no small amount of his life.

Afterward, Jiraiya turned his gaze back to Sasuke.

The boy's eyes were still that hard.

Both his legs were shaking, yet his gaze did not retreat in the slightest. "Little Jiraiya, take him to rest first."

"If he keeps holding on like this, it will damage his foundation."

Shima Sage spoke softly. "Mm."

Jiraiya nodded and turned to leave the palace. "Lord Jiraiya, were you waiting for me?"

In just that short while, Sasuke had already reached the palace entrance.

A hint of provocation hung on his face.

But that provocation did not last long.

Because he passed out directly.

When Sasuke stepped onto the last two stone steps, his entire body had already completely reached its limit.

He did not hesitate at all and directly activated Lightning God Mode. Lightning exploded inside his body, and his cells went madly active as if ignited, forcibly carrying him across those two steps.

But that was all. One more step, and he would not have been able to take it. "This thing... really is a monster."

The corner of Jiraiya's mouth twitched, and his face carried an expression that was hard to tell was annoyance or regret. "I'm really starting to regret bringing this kid here."

Even though he said that, he still reached out, scooped Sasuke up, and carried him out of the palace. They went to the wooden hut Jiraiya had built back when he trained here.

Shima Sage and Fukasaku Sage followed as well.

Half an hour later.

Three people—no, two toads and one person—stood blankly beside a bed. "Little Jiraiya, tell me the truth. You brought him here just to test whether he was lying?" Fukasaku Sage's mouth had been open for ages, and he still could not close it.

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head and gave two dry laughs. "I... that was probably what I was planning before..."

"All right, since it's already come to this, let him recover properly first." Shima Sage took over. "Go find something for him to eat. When this boy wakes up, he'll definitely be starving. We'll watch over him here."

"Understood."

Jiraiya did not say more and turned to leave.

On the other side, although Sasuke lay there without moving, his body was swallowing the surrounding energy bit by bit.

The natural energy of Mount Myoboku.

It was not that the Shinobi World had absolutely none of this stuff, but it was so thin it was basically the same as having none. But the natural energy in a sage land was different. That thing could be transformed into senjutsu chakra.

Without a specialized training method, casually absorbing this kind of energy was basically no different from swallowing poison.

Yet Sasuke just so happened to have no adverse reaction.

When Shima Sage said she would watch over him, it was actually because she feared something might go wrong with his body, so she could suppress it immediately.

In the end, several hours passed. "Old man, did you see anything?" Shima Sage's voice was full of shock.

Fukasaku Sage stared at Sasuke without blinking. "His body... is automatically harmonizing natural energy. And there are already faint signs of the embryonic form of senjutsu chakra. With the two of us here, it seems we can't help at all."

After saying that, even he found it absurd. A body actively transforming senjutsu chakra on its own—forget seeing it before, he had not even heard of it. "Grumble, grumble..."

A somewhat untimely stomach growl interrupted the two toads' shock. "Hehe, um... two seniors, can I eat something first?"

Sasuke, who was supposed to be unconscious, had opened his eyes by now and was looking at them with a beaming smile. "You're awake?!"

The two toads practically jumped up at the same time.

Fine, his body had not been corroded by natural energy. But after being exhausted into that ghostly state just now, he had actually recovered so quickly. He even knew he was hungry—normally speaking, someone whose body had been overdrawn to the limit would not possibly have an appetite.

Sasuke felt a little embarrassed under their stare. "How about... I lie back down?"

In truth, he had not really passed out at all. His body had indeed reached its limit and temporarily entered a dormant state, but his consciousness had remained clear the entire time. He could feel the changes in his body, and he could hear what was being said outside.

The ramen as wide as a bowl was still wriggling in the bowl. Sasuke stared at that lump of stuff, and his stomach flipped.

He had not missed a single word of what those two toads had said just now. He had heard it all. "Uh..."

The two toads choked at the same time.

Sasuke's question was too sharp. They simply had no way to answer it. "I'm back."

"You brat... you're awake?!"

At that moment, Jiraiya walked in carrying a large bowl.

Outside the house, the ground could be felt shaking. Clearly, some big thing was moving around out there. "Mm, I'm awake. I..."

"Grrr..."

Before Sasuke could finish speaking, his stomach growled first. "Hungry?"

"Here, eat something."

"This is Gamabunta's feed. I really couldn't find anything else."

"It took a lot of talking before Gamabunta agreed to give some up..."

As Jiraiya spoke, he brought a bowl of still-moving "noodles" before Sasuke's eyes. "Uh..."

"I think I might not be that hungry after all."

"Besides, I brought soldier pills. I can..."

"Mmph, mmph, mmph... I'm not eating... mmph, mmph..."

A few minutes later.

Sasuke lay on the bed with a face full of gloom.

He wanted to throw up—but could not.

The moment those "noodles" entered his stomach, his body absorbed them cleanly.

But the moment he thought of that wriggling sensation in his mouth, Sasuke's stomach churned all over again. "Kid, take this."

"If you ever need Mount Myoboku's help in the future, come to us anytime."

Fukasaku Sage walked up to Sasuke and handed him a black scroll. "This is..."

The moment he took the scroll, Sasuke felt a strange fluctuation.

After staying at Mount Myoboku for more than a day, Jiraiya brought Sasuke back to Konoha.

Uchiha Clan Compound. "Sasuke, I'll think carefully about that matter you mentioned."

"But you need to be careful too. Orochimaru is no easy opponent."

"I'll go first."

"Once I finish a particularly important matter, I'll come find you again."

After dropping those few words, Jiraiya vanished.

Sasuke knew full well—Make-Out Paradise was about to go on sale.

The "important mission" Jiraiya mentioned was most likely rushing off to snatch a book. "Sasuke."

"You're back?"

At that moment, a familiar voice sounded.

It was Uchiha Itachi. "Brother, you're done with your mission?"

"Do you have time to spar with me today?"

Sasuke took a deep breath, and an enthusiastic smile piled onto his face.

He did not agree with some of Itachi's methods, but when it came to sparring, this man was indeed reliable. "No training today."

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere."

Itachi walked up to Sasuke and crouched down, a smile on his face. "Uh..."

"I'm not a kid anymore. You still want to carry me?"

"I..."

"Don't look at me like that. You're making it seem like I did something bad."

"I'll get on, all right?"

Unable to withstand Itachi's resentful expression, Sasuke still lay on his back.

The next second, Itachi disappeared from where he stood with Sasuke.

Deep inside a dense forest.

From far away, Sasuke saw a familiar figure.

Shisui Uchiha.

Was Itachi—moved by what he had said, planning to work with Shisui to do ideological work on him?

After landing, Itachi put Sasuke down. "Brother, you brought me to Big Brother Shisui because there's some special training trick you want to teach me, right?"

Sasuke asked tentatively. "Sasuke, Itachi didn't bring you here to train some technique."

As Shisui Uchiha spoke, he took out a few sheets of paper and handed them over.

The papers were filled entirely with praise and glorification of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and their understanding of the Will of Fire was practically even more thorough than the Hokage's own.

Quite a few die-hard supporters of the Will of Fire, the moment they saw the words Sasuke had written, directly treated them as golden rules.

But how could they know that Sasuke had deliberately written all of this for Naruto to memorize so he could fool that old man Hiruzen Sarutobi?

He had not expected even Shisui to get carried away after reading them. "Yes."

Sasuke weighed things in his mind and nodded. "Since you've comprehended the Will of Fire so deeply, why would you say those things in front of Itachi?"

Shisui's tone carried puzzlement.

He felt that if a person could reach this state, then leaving aside everything else, at the very least, he should follow it in his actions.

But this child before him just so happened to do the opposite.

Sasuke rolled his eyes wildly in his heart. His big brother really was short on sense, spilling everything out. "The Will of Fire, and all that praise for the Third."

"Big Brother Shisui, can you still not see through it?"

"What the Uchiha lack right now isn't some powerful ability, nor some incredible helper."

"What we truly need is a peaceful situation."

"I'm doing this because I don't want people coming to trouble me and delaying my training."

Sasuke took a deep breath and directly laid out the words he had originally planned to reveal to Itachi and Fugaku.

If he had not run into Shisui today, Sasuke would have almost forgotten—this person before him seemed to be about to die before long.

And it was precisely because this guy died that Itachi completely hardened his heart and set out on the path of carrying out the Will of Fire.

Later, he directly became the butcher who slaughtered his whole clan. "A peaceful situation."

"You mean, once your strength is about enough, you plan to make a move against the village?"

Shisui's eyes suddenly turned cold, and the fighting spirit and killing intent honed through years of missions all pressed down. "What's the point of making a move against the village?"

"When I'm strong enough."

"Before absolute fists, the village will be begging us Uchiha to protect them."

"As for all these rotten problems now, at the root, it's just that we aren't strong enough."

Sasuke spread his hands, too lazy to deal with it.

These two before him.

Shisui Uchiha!

Uchiha Itachi!

In terms of talent, they indeed left their peers far behind.

But their brains were just so-so.

That guy Shisui.

After awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, the first thing he did was not to think about how to change the village's attitude toward the Uchiha.

Instead, he ran off and handed this fatal piece of information to Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo.

From beginning to end, this guy had dug his own grave.

As for Itachi... the matter of the clan massacre could not be washed clean in this lifetime.

Even if that guy Kishimoto desperately tried to patch it up afterward, black was still black. "Strength!?"

"Trying to gain recognition by relying on fists alone—something like that won't last long."

"Back then, we Uchiha..."

"But back then, were we ever forced into this state?"

"The Uchiha were forcibly driven to the side to live!"

"The Police Force is just a decoration in the village!"

"And what kind of attitude do the villagers have when they look at the Uchiha?!"

Before Shisui could finish, Sasuke fired off three questions in a row, directly shutting the other party up. "Sasuke, first let Big Brother Shisui finish."

As soon as Sasuke finished speaking, Uchiha Itachi fell silent.

Some things, if you had never experienced them yourself, were empty words no matter how you said them.

He had just been about to keep explaining, but the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back—what Sasuke had just said was exactly the situation the two brothers and Shisui had spent so long struggling to barely secure. "Brother Shisui."

Sasuke called out, then directly opened his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

The moment his ocular power spread, Shisui's eyes seemed to be caught by something and automatically turned along with it. "You've already evolved to three tomoe?"

Shisui's voice was dry, his throat as if something had blocked it.

The Uchiha's Sharingan was not something that could awaken gently and peacefully. Shisui himself had the Mangekyo; he knew better than anyone what price had to be paid behind it. "Brother Shisui, if we want the current Uchiha to turn things around, trying to please the higher-ups alone is useless."