Causal Deduction, Ten Deaths and No Life!

Uchiha Xuanshi stumbled through the front door.

His chest felt as if it had been stuffed with a wad of cotton soaked full of water. Every breath took all his strength.

"Brother? Why are you back at this hour?"

In the living room, a girl of twelve or thirteen sat cross-legged on the tatami. She held a piece of deerskin in her hand and was carefully wiping several shuriken. Hearing the door open, she lifted her head, her ponytail swaying behind her.

Uchiha Akane.

Xuanshi's younger sister.

Her face wore the carefree smile unique to her age. Sunlight spilled through the window onto her face, turning the fine fuzz there golden.

The sight was too glaring.

Xuanshi instinctively avoided her gaze, his voice tight. "I'm not feeling well. Came back to lie down for a bit. Don't come bother me."

With that, he didn't wait for Akane to answer. He hurried through the living room and slipped into his bedroom.

Click.

The door was locked from the inside.

Xuanshi leaned back against the door, his body sliding down the wood grain inch by inch until he collapsed onto the cold floor.

Akane's mutter came from outside the door. "Weird... you were clearly fine this morning. Do you want tomatoes for dinner?"

"...Whatever."

Xuanshi squeezed out the two words through his teeth.

Dinner?

Would he even get the chance to eat dinner?

On his retinas, that blood-red countdown was still ticking tirelessly.

71:48:22

Every passing second carved into his flesh.

Xuanshi raised a hand and rubbed hard at his stiff cheeks.

Calm down.

He had to calm down.

He was a transmigrator. He knew the plot of Naruto like the back of his hand. That was his greatest bargaining chip.

As long as he handled this properly and avoided the certain-death options, he could definitely survive.

"System."

He silently recited it in his mind.

Buzz.

That deep-blue screen of light appeared again, covering the dim ceiling.

The interface was so simple it was crude.

At the very top was that suffocating line: [Clan Prosperity: 5].

Below it were several options.

[Time Reversal (Gray, Insufficient Prosperity)]

[Clan Enhancement (Gray, Insufficient Prosperity)]

[Causal Deduction (Lit, Consumes 0.1 Prosperity/Use)]

Only this one could be used.

Xuanshi stared at those words.

Deduction.

In other words, simulating the future.

He took a deep breath and forced down his wildly pounding heart.

The first path, and also the most orthodox path—report it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was the Hokage. At least on the surface, he maintained a merciful persona. If he learned that Danzo planned to exterminate the clan, then as the supreme leader who pursued stability, he would definitely stop him.

"Deduction: sneak into the Hokage Building tonight and expose Danzo's conspiracy to the Third Hokage."

Xuanshi's will moved.

The system interface flickered.

[0.1 Prosperity consumed. Deduction begins.]

The screen of light before his eyes suddenly warped, like an old projector beginning to fast-forward a film.

The images were not continuous, but jumping fragments, projected straight into Xuanshi's mind.

Image one: late at night. Xuanshi avoided the Police Force patrols and, using his familiarity with Konoha's terrain, climbed in through a side window of the Hokage Building.

Image two: Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, green smoke rising from his pipe. After hearing Xuanshi's report, shock and grief appeared on his face, and he slapped the table heavily.

"I understand." The Third Hokage sighed, his gaze kindly. "You are a loyal subject of the Uchiha, and even more, a child of Konoha. I will handle this matter. Go back for now and do not spread it."

Image three: Xuanshi left the Hokage Building and walked down the only road back to the clan compound.

Image four: the streetlights suddenly went out.

Several black shadows dropped silently from behind the utility poles.

No nonsense, no interrogation.

Three long blades pierced Xuanshi's chest, lungs, and throat at the same time.

Image five: a face wrapped in bandages emerged from the shadows. Danzo leaned on his cane, looked coldly at the corpse on the ground, and waved at the Root ninja beside him. "Clean it up. Tomorrow, announce that Uchiha Xuanshi attempted to assassinate the Hokage, fled out of guilt, and has already been executed on the spot."

Image six: the Third Hokage stood before the window, watching a signal flare rise in the distance. He took another deep drag from his pipe and said nothing.

[Deduction ended.]

[Survival time: 4 hours.]

[Cause of death: Root interception.]

[Evaluation: You thought of politics too simply. Between solving the problem and solving the person who raised the problem, they chose the latter.]

Xuanshi's eyes snapped open.

His back was covered in cold sweat, and his throat still seemed to retain the phantom pain of being cut open by sharp blades.

"...Those old foxes."

Xuanshi gritted his teeth, his nails scraping several white marks into the floor.

Reporting it was a dead end.

The Third and Danzo, one playing the good cop and one the bad cop, were essentially wearing the same pair of pants.

Since soft methods wouldn't work, he would go hard.

I'm an Uchiha.

I have the Sharingan.

What if he used his intelligence advantage, set up an ambush in advance, and killed that scourge Danzo?

As long as Danzo died, the radicals would be leaderless. For the sake of balance, the Third would have no choice but to appease the Uchiha again.

"Deduction: set an ambush at the entrance to the Root base tonight and assassinate Danzo Shimura."

[0.1 Prosperity consumed. Deduction begins.]

Images flooded in again.

Image one: Xuanshi buried twenty explosive tags at the sewer entrance.

Image two: Danzo appeared.

The explosive tags detonated, flames shooting into the sky. Danzo was blown to pieces.

Image three: just as Xuanshi was about to retreat, a hand suddenly reached out from the air behind him and clamped around his neck.

The "dead" Danzo stood there completely unharmed. The bandages on his right arm loosened, and a pale eye slowly closed.

Izanagi.

A forbidden technique that rewrote reality.

Image four: Danzo took Xuanshi's eyes and threw his corpse at the entrance to the Uchiha compound.

Image five: the next morning. Konoha's upper levels used "the Uchiha attacked the leadership" as their reason and launched the clan-extermination purge three days early.

[Deduction ended.]

[Survival time: 2 hours.]

[Evaluation: Your strength cannot support your ambition. A mayfly shaking a tree only speeds up death.]

"Pfft!"

Xuanshi's chest tightened, and a mouthful of metallic sweetness surged up his throat. Nosebleed dripped onto the back of his hand.

This kind of immersive death experience placed an astonishing burden on the mind.

His head felt like it was splitting apart, as if someone were sawing through his skull.

But he had no time to wipe the blood.

No.

Still no.

He couldn't beat them, and he couldn't negotiate with them.

Then only one path remained.

Run.

Clan honor, Konoha peace—let it all go to hell.

As long as he could take Akane and survive.

"Deduction: take Uchiha Akane immediately and defect from the village."

[0.1 Prosperity consumed. Deduction begins.]

Image one: Xuanshi knocked Akane unconscious and carried her over the wall.

Image two: the two of them slipped into the Forest of Death and sprinted toward the border.

Image three: they ran ten kilometers. No one pursued them from behind.

Just as a trace of hope rose in Xuanshi's heart, the space ahead suddenly twisted into a vortex.

A man wearing a tiger-striped mask walked out of the vortex. Only one right eye was exposed, flickering with a mocking red light.

"Oh? A little mouse still wants to run?"

The man's voice was low.

Image four: countless cold chains shot out of the void and instantly wrapped around Xuanshi and Akane's bodies.

They tightened.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere.

[Deduction ended.]

[Survival time: 1 hour.]

[Evaluation: Before space-time ninjutsu, running away is a joke. Your name has long been on the must-kill list.]

The screen of light dissipated.

Xuanshi completely collapsed to the floor, like a dog whose spine had been pulled out.

His nosebleed flowed more and more heavily, dyeing his collar red.

Dead.

Every path led to death.

No matter which direction he went, at the end was either that masked reaper or Danzo's greedy eyes.

This... was a dead end.

The so-called system, the so-called foresight—in the face of absolute power and an inescapable net, they were like a clumsy joke.

Even if he knew the entire plot, this body of his was just an ordinary person who barely qualified as a special jonin.

What could he use to fight Izanagi?

What could he use to fight Kamui?

What could he use to fight all of Konoha?

"Cough, cough..."

Xuanshi coughed violently. Tears mixed with nosebleed and flowed into his mouth, salty, astringent, and bitter.

Akane's voice came from outside the door again. "Brother? Are you okay? I heard you coughing... I'm coming in?"

"Don't come in!"

Xuanshi roared, his voice so hoarse it startled even himself.

The footsteps outside stopped. Then came a cautious probing voice. "Then... I put some water by the door."

Xuanshi stared fixedly at the ceiling, his eyes covered in bloodshot veins.

Was there really no saving him?

Could he really only wait to die?

Countdown: 71:30:15

No.

He wasn't willing.

He wasn't willing to just turn into a corpse, into a trophy in someone else's eye collection cabinet.

There had to be something he had overlooked.

What other variable was there, one that even Danzo and Obito feared?

Xuanshi's mind spun frantically, dragging out every frame of Naruto he had watched in his previous life.

The Uchiha Clan...

The strongest genjutsu...

Kotoamatsukami...

Shisui!

Xuanshi suddenly sat bolt upright, his eyes frighteningly bright.

In the chaotic memories of the first chapter, he had instinctively assumed that Shisui was already dead.

But when he thought about it carefully...

What month and day was it in Konoha Year 47?

He threw himself at the desk and snatched up the calendar on top.

The date had been circled in red: July 12.

And in his memory, in the original work, the day Shisui threw himself into the river was on the eve of a clan meeting.

That meeting... was tomorrow!

In other words, the current Shisui was not dead yet!

Or rather, he was not completely dead yet!

Maybe Danzo had just stolen his eye. Maybe he was just about to leap off the cliff. Maybe he was still hesitating over whether to use Kotoamatsukami to change Fugaku!

As long as Shisui was still alive, the man who possessed Kotoamatsukami, the "strongest genjutsu," was the only way to break the deadlock right now.

If he could save him.

If he could use Kotoamatsukami to control Danzo, or control Fugaku...

Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance.

Xuan Shi wiped the blood from his face in one swipe and grabbed the ninja blade hanging on the wall.

He did not know whether the current situation matched the original work exactly. Maybe going there would just be suicide.

But sitting here meant certain death.

If he rushed out, at least he still had a 0.1 percent chance.

"Akane."

Xuan Shi pulled open the door.

Akane was standing outside with a cup of water. The sight of her brother's bloodstained face scared her so badly her hand trembled, and the cup nearly fell to the floor.

"Brother... your face..."

"Listen."

Xuan Shi pressed both hands down on her shoulders, using so much force that she frowned. "From now on, don't go anywhere, and don't open the door no matter who knocks. Lock every door and window, and stay inside sorting out your ninja tools. Do you understand?"

Akane was frightened by the ferocity in his eyes and nodded blankly. "I... I understand."

"Wait for me to come back."

Xuan Shi let go, offered no explanation, turned, and rushed out of the house.

Outside, the sky had already darkened.

The setting sun spread across the streets like blood.

Xuan Shi sprinted toward the Naka River as he remembered it.

Faster.

Faster still.

Even if he had to snatch a corpse, he had to take those eyes back!