Konoha Needs Only One Sun!

Sakumo brushed off the topic of leaving the village.

He casually tore the white towel off the wooden post and tossed it to Ye.

"Wipe off your sweat. Don't catch a chill."

Ye caught the towel smoothly, smiling with harmless innocence.

The instant their fingertips crossed.

The [Mind-Reading Card] hidden between his fingers turned into a streak of white light and silently entered Sakumo's body.

Sakumo noticed nothing. He even lowered his head and patted Ye's shoulder.

An information panel popped up on Ye's retina.

An enormous amount of top-secret intelligence flooded directly into his mind.

This was the highest-level secret in Sakumo's mind regarding this mission.

[Mission destination: the mountain range along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth, Hidden Outpost No. 7.]

[Core objective: infiltrate and completely destroy Iwagakure's secretly constructed large-scale underground Explosive Tag warehouse.]

[Mission rank: S-Rank.]

[Estimated warehouse stockpile: strategic bombing supplies sufficient to cover the entire front line.]

[Departure time: three days later, at dawn.]

The route, personnel deployment, terrain features, and Iwagakure patrol frequency were all precise to the extreme.

This was a complete strategic blueprint that a Kage Level ninja had repeatedly simulated countless times before departure.

Now, every last word of it lay in Ye's mind.

Ye casually wiped his face with the towel, concealing the thoughts in his eyes.

The warehouse's stockpile was even more outrageous than he had expected. It had fully reached the strategic level.

Ye's mind raced as memories from his previous life rapidly connected with the intelligence.

If these supplies were not destroyed.

When the Third Shinobi World War fully erupted in the future, Konoha ninja on the Land of Earth front would face Iwagakure's overwhelming, carpet-style saturation bombardment of Explosive Tags.

The casualty rate would definitely soar in a straight line.

That made everything fit.

Once Sakumo abandoned a mission of this scale to save his companions.

By preserving those supplies, what he carried would not merely be the four words "mission failure."

On the front line, he would have indirectly sentenced thousands to death and taken the lives of countless Konoha comrades.

That was the underlying logic behind why all the village civilians later collectively went berserk in the original story and crazily condemned a hero.

Ye put down the towel and flashed a brilliant smile.

"Thanks, Uncle Sakumo! Once you're back from your work, I'll come seek your guidance again!"

Sakumo smiled and waved his hand.

Ye waved goodbye to Kakashi, Obito, and Asuma.

"Then I'll head back first. Happy summer vacation."

The four of them stepped out through the gates of the Hatake Residence.

As the residence gates slowly closed, the instant he crossed the threshold, all the obedience vanished from Ye's face.

He fell to the back of the group, hands in his pockets, his gaze grave.

With Sakumo's strength, capable of cutting through the Shinobi World as the White Fang of the Leaf, and his exceptional tactical ability.

Even if some unforeseen accident during the mission forced him to save his companions, it should not have ended in total ruin.

Unless someone had sold the operation route to Iwagakure in advance.

Letting the enemy lay an inescapable net along the necessary path and forcibly turn an infiltration mission into a dead end.

Even more crucial was the ensuing storm of public opinion.

Konoha's villagers had grown furious too quickly, too uniformly.

Public opinion capable of precisely igniting the entire village's hatred and driving a top powerhouse at the height of his prime to draw his blade and commit suicide could never have formed naturally.

Someone was pulling strings and laying traps in the shadows.

There was only one faction with the ability, motive, and means to silently manipulate both the Konoha leadership's intelligence network and civilian emotions.

Ye raised his head, his gaze crossing the bustling streets toward the sunless shadows behind the Hokage Building.

At the same time.

Deep underground in Konoha, within the Root Base.

Inside a dim stone chamber, half of Shimura Danzō's face was concealed in shadows beyond the candlelight.

Before him, a Root ninja wearing a raccoon-dog mask knelt on one knee, his back bowed.

Codename: Rain.

Danzo raised his right hand and rhythmically tapped his wooden cane against the stone floor.

Tap...

Tap...

Tap...

"Rain. Sakumo's preparations are complete. He will depart for the Land of Earth border at dawn three days from now."

His voice held no fluctuation.

With a flick of his wrist, Danzo pulled a black top-secret parchment scroll from his sleeve and tossed it directly beside the stone table at Rain's feet.

"This is the White Fang Squad's marching route and assault plan."

"Take it, bypass Konoha's outer sentries, and deliver it to Iwagakure's frontline command without leaving a trace."

The instant this undisguised order to collude with the enemy was spoken, the air froze.

Rain's pupils contracted violently, and his Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty beneath his mask.

As a Konoha ninja, the education and instincts ingrained in him since childhood made him resist betraying the village's top combat force.

Even if he was a Root death warrior.

"Lord Danzo, this..." Rain raised his head, attempting to break the silence.

The moment those five words left his mouth.

Danzo's gaze swept coldly toward him.

There was no Chakra fluctuation, yet tangible killing intent directly locked onto Rain's throat.

Cold sweat instantly soaked Rain's back.

"Forget it."

Watching Rain's hesitant movement, Danzo withdrew his gaze, his tone carrying even a trace of false concern.

"You're not in good condition today. Go rest for a couple of days first."

Relieved, Rain lowered his head and braced both fists against the floor, preparing to rise and withdraw.

The instant his knees left the stone slabs.

The wind stirred.

Danzo vanished from the stone chair and appeared directly behind him.

In the darkness, his withered palm became a knife-hand and precisely struck the back of Rain's neck from above.

A dull crack of bone echoed once through the stone chamber.

Rain could not even let out a groan. His body went limp, and he fell stiffly onto the cold stone floor.

Danzo stood beside the fallen Rain.

He took a white handkerchief from his broad sleeve and unhurriedly wiped away the faint dust on his fingertips.

Clap.

Clap.

Two crisp claps rang out.

With two swishes, two dark figures wearing different masks flashed out of the shadows at the same time and knelt on one knee before Danzo.

Codenames: Heaven and Earth.

Danzo casually tossed the handkerchief onto Rain's face.

He pointed his cane at the black scroll on the ground and looked at Heaven.

"The scroll. Deliver it to Iwagakure. Immediately."

"Yes!"

Heaven picked up the scroll and vanished instantly.

Danzo then tapped Rain's body with his cane and looked at Earth.

"Impurities have appeared in his thoughts. He is no longer pure. Take him away and reprocess his brainwashing."

Without a word, Earth hoisted Rain over his shoulder and disappeared into the depths of the corridor.

The secret chamber returned to dead silence.

Danzo turned around, walked to the wall, raised his head, and stared fixedly at the reliefs of the successive Hokage carved into the stone.

His gaze finally stopped on the Third's face. His shriveled lips moved as he uttered a chilling whisper.

His grip on the cane creaked.

"Sakumo, your prestige is too high. So high that you have already put on half of the Hokage's robe."

"But you simply cannot bear the weight of that garment."

The words squeezed out through his teeth.

"Konoha is unstable now. The village does not need an uncontrollable hero."

"Konoha needs only one sun. For the greater good of this village... you can only disappear."

At dusk, the afterglow of the setting sun covered the rooftops of the Uchiha compound, staining the sky blood-red.

Ye walked through the compound gates along his own lengthening shadow and onto the main street.

He knew full well that the enemy was hidden in the shadows and possessed enormous influence.

Iwagakure would certainly deploy heavy troops and set an inescapable net. On top of that, Root's death warriors would be firing arrows from the shadows.

This S-Rank dead end was exceedingly dangerous.

His body was only seven years old.

Even with the monstrous constitution of the Uzumaki and the dual-core drive of the Two-Tomoe, his Chakra reserves and explosive power far surpassed those of an ordinary Chunin, but it was still not enough.

To intervene in a border battlefield filled with ANBU and Jonin, rushing to the front alone would make him nothing more than cannon fodder.

If he wanted to interfere with White Fang's mission and save Sakumo, then use the opportunity to trigger a major earthquake among the higher-ups and harvest Guard-Break Points, he had to borrow strength.

He needed powerful reinforcements.

Preferably the kind of high-level muscle whose combat power was absurdly overpowered, who was fiercely protective of his own, completely unreasonable in his actions, and reckless enough to punch a hole through the heavens in a heated moment.

Looking across all of Konoha, the group that best fit that description...

There was only the Uchiha Clan!