The Time I Beat the Hokage's Son Until He Peed Himself, and He Still Thought I Was a Good Person

Rough red bricks, kunai whistling past his scalp.

And four Ninja Tools in the dead end, perfectly outlining a human body.

Asuma's Adam's apple bobbed violently.

He forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, lowered his head, gripped his chopsticks again, and continued shoveling food into his mouth as though nothing had happened.

"Mm, what is it?"

Hiruzen quietly observed the subtle changes in his expression and pressed on. "What do you think of him?"

Asuma's chewing slowed.

His brows twisted tightly together as he fell silent for several seconds.

What flashed through his mind was not the pursuit or the despair, but Ye's utterly non-hostile face after he had put away all his weapons in that dead end.

The way he had brushed the gravel off his School Uniform, and the moment he had finally handed over that pair of brand-new sandals.

That smile had been bright and clean, like a clear April day.

Asuma swallowed the food in his mouth, set down his chopsticks, and wore an exceptionally serious expression.

"I think he's someone who loves and hates boldly."

Asuma paused, then added.

"But his personality is too strange. He and Obito are both completely different from the Uchiha I've met before."

Hiruzen's hand, which was holding food with his chopsticks, froze in midair.

"Different?"

"Yeah."

Asuma rubbed his nose, his expression becoming exceptionally conflicted.

The movement tugged at the wound at the corner of his mouth, making him suck in a sharp breath.

"The Uchiha Clan members I usually see all walk around with their noses in the air, like they wish they could write 'I'm number one in the world' across their faces."

"But Ye isn't like that."

An indescribable complexity entered Asuma's voice.

"He's arrogant, but not the kind of arrogant that looks down on people."

"He does whatever he wants, but... after beating you up, he gives you shoes."

Asuma lowered his head and looked at his feet.

Today, he had changed into a normal pair of shoes.

He had stuffed yesterday's brand-new sandals into the deepest corner of his cabinet.

To this day, he firmly believed that muscle spasms had caused him to keep falling all the way home.

"That kind of person... anyway, he's pretty weird."

Hiruzen set his teacup back on the table, rubbing the rim with his fingertips as his gaze went still.

Loving and hating boldly, then giving someone shoes after beating them up.

If he had not watched the entire scene through the Crystal Ball himself, he might have actually believed that explanation.

Asuma yawned, rose to his feet, and headed toward his room.

As he passed his father, he paused, as if stating an objective fact that had nothing to do with him.

"Oh, right. He's very accurate with kunai. More accurate than Kakashi."

After saying that, he walked into his room without looking back and slammed the door shut.

While Biwako cleared away the dishes, she noticed that Hiruzen was still sitting where he was.

He held the teacup without taking a single sip, his eyes fixed on some unfocused point on the tabletop.

"Still thinking about what happened during the day?"

she asked softly.

Hiruzen did not answer directly.

He slowly rose to his feet, walked to the living room window, and pushed it open a crack.

The night wind poured in through the gap, stirring the loose strands of hair before his forehead.

His gaze passed over the uneven rooftops of the Sarutobi compound and fell upon the distant outline of the Uchiha compound, submerged in the night.

In Hiruzen's mind, the scenes from the Crystal Ball replayed frame by frame.

The unrestrained audacity of chasing someone through half the village with a red brick, the absolute precision of using four kunai to nail out a perfect human outline.

And that final sincere face, switching expressions with ease and without a single flaw.

This seven-year-old child's depth of character and seasoned methods far surpassed those of his peers.

Even a child like Asuma, who had grown up in the Hokage compound.

Had been utterly won over by the other's combination of hard and soft tactics, unable to muster even the slightest resentment.

Hiruzen turned around, leaned against the window frame, and crossed his arms over his chest.

His thoughts were inevitably dragged into a deeper political quagmire.

The rift between the Konoha leadership and the Uchiha Clan was deepening at a visible rate.

The voices from Danzo's side were growing increasingly harsh.

At every Elders' Council meeting, that old friend would reiterate that the Uchiha had to be strictly controlled, even stripped of power.

White Fang did not approve of such radical methods.

But that young man was far too idealistic. He always believed that enough sincerity could dissolve every barrier.

Naive.

Hiruzen closed his eyes.

If only one side was burning, he could still put out the fire.

But the Uchiha were burning from within as well.

The Hawk faction, led by the Elder, was exceptionally hard-line. Deep down, they believed Konoha owed the descendants of its founding heroes.

The hidden fire born from that sense of humiliation permeated the compound.

Clan Head Fugaku acted prudently, barely maintaining a balance between the Hawks and the Doves.

But Hiruzen knew very well that Fugaku's restraint did not mean he did not want to rebel. It only meant the time had not yet come.

Both sides were testing the edge of the cliff, while he stood between them, and the strength he had left to keep the balance was being exhausted bit by bit.

Hiruzen opened his eyes, and his gaze sharpened once more.

His fingers unconsciously tapped against the window frame, producing a rhythmic knock.

He recalled another scene he had seen in the Crystal Ball during the day.

Every previous generation of new Uchiha students had formed their own clique from the first day of school, banding together and excluding outsiders.

But this year, Obito had proactively become close with the civilian girl Rin Nohara.

And Uchiha Ye was even more outrageous, taking the civilian dead last Might Guy as his sworn brother.

After school, the two of them had even been doing physical training at the Training Ground.

This completely tore open the Uchiha's iron curtain of isolation.

Especially Ye. Hiruzen had seen through him after only a casual glance.

Chakra reserves at the Peak Genin level, freakish Ninja Tools precision, and psychological gamesmanship far beyond that of a seven-year-old child.

Not a trace of reverence for the Hokage's son's identity.

Such a genius would inevitably become a core figure of the Uchiha Clan in the future.

A thought slowly and clearly took shape in Hiruzen's mind.

If he could draw Uchiha Ye into the Hokage faction.

On one hand, Ye could become a crucial window through which the Konoha leadership could understand the Uchiha's internal movements.

On the other hand, an Uchiha genius willing to proactively interact with outsiders, unconstrained by clan status, and even capable of making outsiders like him.

Was himself the best icebreaker for shattering those barriers.

As long as he was given sufficient attention and guidance under the Will of Fire.

He could become a bridge between Konoha and the Uchiha, as well as an excellent weapon for checking the Uchiha's internal Hawk faction.

Biwako untied her apron and walked over, gently patting Hiruzen's shoulder.

"It's late. Get some rest early. You still have official duties to handle tomorrow."

Hiruzen came back to himself and nodded.

He gave one final look toward that pitch-black direction beyond the window, then slowly shut it tight.

"A different kind of Uchiha..."

Hiruzen reached out and extinguished the living room light, murmuring to himself in the darkness.

In those weathered eyes lay both the deep calculations of the Hokage and an exceedingly faint trace of expectation.

Perhaps among this generation's youth, there truly could grow some promising seedlings unbound by narrow clan beliefs.

One by one, the lights in the Sarutobi compound went out, and Konoha fell asleep.

And at the same time.

Uchiha Ye, upon whom the Third Hokage had placed great hopes and regarded as a future bridge of communication for Konoha.

Was lying sprawled without an ounce of dignity across the wooden bed in his old bedroom.

He was not asleep at all.

Ye's eyes gleamed in the darkness as he stared fixedly at the translucent System Panel that had appeared in his mind.

His gaze was locked tightly onto the number in its upper-right corner.

Current balance: 93,550 points.

Ninety-three thousand five hundred and fifty points!

He was less than seven thousand points away from reaching the one-hundred-thousand mark.

The consecutive ten-pull mechanism was about to unlock, and the legendary Hidden Prize Pool was within reach.

"Hehehe... hehehehe..."

Staring at that string of numbers, Ye let out a long, wildly unrestrained and lecherous laugh in the empty bedroom.

The laughter pierced through the thin wooden wall, drawing a burst of agitated barking from the black dog in the neighboring yard.

A stray cat passing over the roof was so startled by the unhinged laughter that all its fur stood on end.

It fled into the night without looking back.