Decaying Mist

Sasuke secretly observed Hokage. Black Shadow reminded him, "There should be ANBU monitoring around Hokage. Be careful."

The Nine-Tails had gone berserk recently, so Hiruzen Sarutobi would not let down his guard around Hokage during this period. Sasuke did not need to worry about that sort of thing. In outsiders' eyes, even the massacre of his clan had failed to awaken Sasuke's Sharingan. With such talent, he simply was not worth Root or the ANBU committing manpower to monitor. Besides, Konoha was going through troubled times. Who had the spare attention to constantly watch the Uchiha orphan?

Speaking of the Sharingan, no one else currently knew that Sasuke possessed a One-Tomoe Sharingan. It was an illusion fabricated by the Demon. Sasuke had tried many times, but in the end, he had failed to develop any abilities and had no choice but to give up regretfully.

Perhaps Sasuke had already guessed something, but that did not matter. After his friendly exchange with the Demon, Sasuke had deeply realized that no matter how much resentment he felt toward it, he could only bury it deep inside, then calmly accept the Demon's gifts.

--[Decaying Mist: Plunges all living things into endless withering and decay.]

This was Sasuke's newly acquired power, a curse that could spread over a large area and deal percentage-based damage.

I'm probably the first Uchiha not to treat the Sharingan as my core power, right? Sasuke thought with some self-mockery. He turned to look at Hokage in the distance and suddenly felt that this was not so bad. Indra's influence on him was far too great. He did not want to become that Second Pillar from the manga!

As Sasuke spied on him, Hokage went to school and slept alone. The villagers treated him terribly, especially after the Nine-Tails had nearly gone berserk recently.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had truly put in the effort to suppress the rumors this time. The facts proved that, as Hokage, dealing with rumors was not particularly difficult. Though he could not eradicate them completely, he could suppress them effectively.

Unfortunately, Hokage himself had developed some mental issues.

"Living on relief money, yet only able to eat expired food because no one is willing to sell Hokage normal food. It's hard to imagine that something like this could happen in a village illuminated by the Will of Fire." Sasuke frowned as he recalled the plot of that manga.

During the mission to rescue Gaara, Chiyo had once said to Sakura regarding the Tailed Beasts—"Konoha clearly has the Nine-Tails. As Tsunade's disciple, why don't you even know about the Tailed Beasts?"

Kakashi had answered, "In Konoha, the Nine-Tails is a classified secret that must not be discussed."

So-called classified meant that practically everyone in Konoha knew Naruto Uzumaki was the demon fox? Sasuke found that utterly baffling. He had thought it over countless times, yet still could not understand the logic behind it.

What Sasuke understood even less was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Third in the manga had been a great leader who devoted himself wholeheartedly to the village, the embodiment of righteousness and glory. Yet Sasuke always felt that something was off, though he could neither explain nor pinpoint it.

He had asked Black Shadow, but Black Shadow said, "You only need to understand Hiruzen Sarutobi according to his public persona. There's no need to overinterpret whether some conspiracy exists."

That left Sasuke stunned for a moment. Black Shadow seriously explained, "A mosquito bites you, and you decide to light mosquito coils to kill every mosquito in the room. Before doing so, would you waste time and effort distinguishing whether any particular mosquito was good or evil?"

"Whether Hiruzen Sarutobi is good or bad is irrelevant. Just kill them all equally. Why dwell on something so pointless?"

Sasuke nodded in confusion. He seemed to understand, just a little... the mindset of an alien being. Perhaps humans in Black Shadow's eyes were merely a swarm of mosquitoes?

When school ended in the evening, Naruto Uzumaki passed Ichiraku Ramen and lingered for a long time in a corner some distance away. He seemed to want ramen badly, but was wary of something.

Ichiraku Ramen was doing booming business. Before long, many people had lifted the noren at the entrance and gone inside.

"Our shop has introduced many new items. Would you like to try them? They're half price recently." Ayame warmly greeted the customers.

"Mm, all right." The customer looked at the new menu posted on the table. Besides several new ramen flavors, there were all kinds of snacks, including wontons, soup dumplings, and shumai.

"One serving of wontons."

"Certainly. Please wait a moment."

Everything was perfectly normal. A moment later, Ayame served a bowl of wontons. The customer ate in huge mouthfuls. "What kind of meat is the filling made from? It doesn't seem to taste quite like pork."

Ayame smiled sweetly. "That's our shop's secret recipe."

Since it was a secret recipe, the customer did not press the matter further.

Naruto Uzumaki smelled the fragrant wontons from far away. Ayame spotted him and waved, gesturing for him to come over and eat.

In Hokage's memories, Teuchi and Ayame were among the few people who showed him kindness. They had even treated him to free ramen before. Yet this time, Hokage could not move his feet. He was starving and desperately wanted delicious food, but his subconscious frantically stopped him from walking toward Ichiraku Ramen, as though something bad would happen the moment he stepped inside.

His thoughts and instincts struggled against each other. In the end, Hokage turned around and ran away without saying a word.

A diner who saw this could not help standing up for Ayame. "What a rude little brat!"

"Forget it. He's just a child." Ayame thoughtfully changed the subject.

She had sensed the ANBU monitoring the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Night fell, and it was Sasuke's hunting time again.

This time, his target was a Chunin. It had to be said that Sasuke possessed excellent combat awareness. Before long, he could use Decaying Mist skillfully. The Chunin was caught off guard and struck by it. His life force visibly drained away, and in the blink of an eye, he turned from a young man into an old man, then from an old man into a dried corpse. The corpse continued to decay until it became dust, leaving not even a trace of genetic material behind.

"With a technique like Impure World Reincarnation that blurs the boundary between life and death, you have to clean up completely after killing someone." Sasuke spoke coldly. At this point, he did not yet know that the victim's soul had already been devoured. He was simply doing the best he could within his abilities.

"So you turned into Itachi and came out to commit crimes?"

"He already reeks to high heaven anyway. It's his good fortune to have even a little remaining value squeezed out of him by me."

Sasuke had already broken. He vented all the frustration he suffered at the Black Shadow's hands onto others, passing his misfortune along. As expected, he felt much better. He had finally understood, Satori-style, that being a good person only left one feeling stifled and torn, while being a bad person allowed one to do whatever one pleased. Evil deeds might lead to a terrible death, but they really did feel good!

"Those people who dared make up nonsense about the Uchiha behind my back—I'll drag every last one of them out and kill them one by one!" A cruel smile hung at Sasuke's lips. His descent into darkness was not yet severe enough for indiscriminate slaughter.

But that would not last long, because... there was no turning back from hell.