Mourning Attire

Even the male Uchiha Itachi was so handsome.

Saying Naruto wasn't curious about Itachi turned female would be a lie.

Naruto walked slowly toward the inner chamber, checking along the way to see if there were any family portraits of Sasuke's family on the walls.

However, after a careful inspection, not even a single photograph was in sight.

This made Naruto wonder whether the Root had taken everything away, or if Sasuke had destroyed it all out of hatred.

Thinking of this, Naruto gave a wry smile, feeling like he was about to make a wasted trip.

He paced into the inner chamber of the room.

What met his eyes were merely minimalist furnishings and a bed, along with Uchiha garments casually tossed on the floor.

Naruto had already given up hope, but as he walked over to the vanity, he unexpectedly discovered a surprise.

It was a family portrait, covered in a light layer of dust yet perfectly preserved.

The man in the photo had a stern expression and a tall build-none other than Uchiha Fugaku, the one with the downturned lips, the last patriarch of the Uchiha.

Compared to Uchiha Fugaku's debt-collector face.

The gentle, long-haired woman standing beside him looked much softer.

Her large eyes curved into crescent moons as she faced the camera, her right arm holding a three- or four-year-old Sasuke in her arms, while her left hand affectionately pulled another young girl who also had long hair and an unusually resolute gaze.

The girl was only seven or eight years old, her face looking youthful, yet she gave off a quiet and peaceful vibe.

However, for some reason, beneath the little girl's large eyes, there were unexpectedly two tear-drop marks.

Naruto picked up the family portrait on the table and stared intently at Itachi turned into a girl, feeling for a moment that it was magical.

I have to say, this pair of sisters is prettier than the other.

Naruto offered a word of praise, put the photo back in its original spot without any lingering attachment, and then paced around the inner chamber looking for something.

There was nothing at the bottom of the wardrobe, nothing on the bed, and nothing in the corners of the vanity.

"It can't be that nothing was left behind, right?"

Naruto panted as he sat on the wooden floor, silently complaining in his heart.

Clink...

At that moment, a silver coin in Naruto's pocket suddenly slipped out, dropping straight onto the wooden floor and making a clinking sound.

Naruto subconsciously lowered his head; the coin was just a short distance from his palm.

Yet at this moment, Naruto seemed to have spotted something, his gaze not looking at the coin on the ground at all.

"Got it, there must be something in here."

Naruto swiftly pulled the sole kunai from the canvas bag on his back, inserted the sharp blade of the kunai into the gaps of the wooden floor, and slowly pried it upward with force.

Creeeak...

The narrow space between the boards was exposed on the wooden floor.

"There's actually nothing?"

Naruto wasn't discouraged in the slightest, turning his head to scan every location in the room.

Right away, he locked his target onto the space beneath the vanity.

He attempted to pry up the floor a second time.

Sure enough, after the gaps in the wooden floor were revealed, Naruto found what he wanted.

He carefully pinched the item and, taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, stored it directly into the system space.

It was a long strand of hair found in Itachi's room, right in the floor gaps beneath Itachi's vanity.

Naruto had ninety percent confidence that this long hair was left behind by Itachi.

Of course, Naruto himself still respected the deceased very much; doing this was merely leaving some backup plans for himself.

He remembered the three essential conditions for performing the forbidden Impure World Reincarnation quite clearly.

The first was to obtain a portion of the deceased's bodily tissue-in human terms, the DNA of the person to be reincarnated. With Naruto's knowledge, a single hair was enough.

The second required sacrificing a living ninja... in human terms, just someone with chakra in their body.

The third was the soul of the deceased, which must be in the Pure Land space rather than in a sealed state. For instance, souls sealed by the Reaper Death Seal could not be reincarnated through the Impure World Reincarnation without being released.

Naruto recalled the original story's plot, leaving Itachi's room before he knew it.

Obtaining a long strand of hair from Itachi made Naruto feel somewhat better inside.

In this lifetime, he certainly wasn't going to follow the original story's miserable main plot.

Yet he also knew very well that wanting to carve out his own path meant he could anticipate several initial trials he would have to face.

First, he would defect at the age of twelve by taking advantage of Sasuke's defection incident.

If things came to light, the primary enemies he would face were none other than the chasing jounin of the Konoha ANBU and the Root.

Only after that would come the Akatsuki's operation to capture the Tailed Beasts, and lastly, the Kages of the other ninja villages.

An army of reincarnated dead was Naruto's worst-case scenario prepared in advance.

He would not easily use this trick until the critical moment.

"Sasuke, what are you busy with?" Naruto poked his head into Sasuke's room, saw that the door to the inner chamber was closed, and added, "I'm heading back, alright?"

"Wait."

At that moment, Sasuke's voice came from the inner chamber, and the door was promptly pulled open.

Sasuke had actually changed into a heavy, dark-toned mourning outfit and stepped out.

"Why did you change your clothes?"

Naruto's flickering eyes drifted constantly over Sasuke's body, feeling that this type of attire actually looked quite stylish on Sasuke.

"This is mourning attire, generally worn when attending funerals or memorializing relatives. I was just trying it on to see if it fits."

After explaining, Sasuke raised his head to look at Naruto. "Can you wear mourning attire tomorrow morning as well?"

"Ah... me?"

Naruto was terribly awkward. "You know that because I'm not welcomed by the villagers and have no relatives of my own, I didn't prepare clothes like this at all, right?"

Understanding Naruto, Sasuke nodded as well, then bent down to pick up the bag in his hand and tossed it toward Naruto.

"Just wear this set for tomorrow temporarily?"

Naruto caught the black bag, opened it, and sure enough, it was a brand-new set of mourning attire.

"You really are something. Other people only wear mourning clothes occasionally when attending a funeral or a memorial, but you-you're great, you directly prepared two sets?"

Hearing this, Sasuke's pretty face instantly flushed red with anger, his large eyes practically spitting fire. "What nonsense are you spouting?! This belongs to that woman!"

Finished with the explanation, Sasuke huffily retreated back into the inner chamber, wanting to quickly strip the clothes off.

"That woman's? Itachi's older sister's?" Naruto was at a loss for words.

"Oh, right, Sasuke, I'm heading back first. Aunt Ichiraku and the others are probably waiting for me to get back."

As the words fell, no sound came from the inner chamber.

Seeing that Sasuke was still sulking, Naruto clutched the mourning attire, called out toward the inner chamber, and left.

Leaving Sasuke's house, Naruto strolled through the vast and desolate Uchiha Clan Compound.

Holding the mourning attire gifted by Sasuke in his hand, thoughts surged in Naruto's mind. The reason he could so readily agree to Sasuke's request to accompany him to the memorial was also out of sheer curiosity.

One had to know that after the Uchiha Clan was massacred in the original story, the corpses of so many clansmen had all vanished without a trace.

According to Naruto's understanding of Konoha, those Uchiha clansmen who died unjustly were not qualified to be buried in Konoha's public cemetery.

The only possibility was Uchiha's former territory, and Naruto was also extremely curious about the location of the Uchiha clansmen's graveyard.

After all, those were all backups for the Impure World Reincarnation.

Thinking all the way about the Impure World Reincarnation, Naruto walked out of the Uchiha Clan Compound before he knew it.

Yet just as he stepped out of the front gate, Naruto used Insightful Vision to perceive two gazes landing on him from afar.

"Ninjas monitoring Sasuke?"

Maintaining his composure, Naruto left the Uchiha Clan Compound without looking back.

Stuffing the mourning clothes in his hand into the canvas bag on his back, Naruto hurried toward Ichiraku Ramen.