Gojo Satoru pulled his forehead protector back down, covering that eye.
It was time. He should be going.
He turned and ambled away.
Uchiha Itachi noticed immediately.
"Wait!"
"You still haven't told me your name!"
Gojo Satoru said nothing, his tousled white hair fluttering in the wind.
All he left behind was an inscrutable retreating figure, which dwindled to a speck on the horizon.
Weird.
Who was he, anyway?
Why did he feel so familiar?
And why did the sight of him walking away look so familiar, too?
Uchiha Itachi shook his head and gave a self-mocking chuckle.
What am I thinking?
I've never even met him.
Who knows if we'll ever meet again?
Gojo Satoru slipped home without disturbing anyone.
He was back to his usual ways, lying on his back on a tree trunk with his eyes fixed on the system panel.
That fight had given him a wake-up call.
I've got to get stronger, fast!
The dangerous opponents ahead would only keep coming, one after another.
If he didn't want to end up at someone else's mercy.
Then he had no choice but to fight like hell to get stronger.
His current panel read as follows.
[ Host: Gojo Satoru. World: Naruto. Unlocked Jujutsu Kaisen power-ceiling template: Satoru Gojo. Unlock percentage: 33%. Skills: six eyes (complete version), Blue (incomplete version), Red (incomplete version). Roleplay points: 1200.
His unlock percentage was too low. He still couldn't use plenty of his skills properly.
Take today's encounter with Obito Uchiha, for example.
He could have had a thoroughly satisfying fight.
He still needed to hurry up and grind more roleplay points.
In the Hokage Building in Konoha.
"Sharingan, spiral mask..." Hiruzen Sarutobi murmured.
"Exactly like the accounts left behind when Minato died."
"I'm afraid troubled times are coming."
He looked at Minato's Photograph nearby and sighed.
"Heh." Danzo sneered across from him.
"The Uchiha. We should never have let them live in the first place."
"Sarutobi, you're too soft."
If he hadn't dithered over every little thing, would the Uchiha have caused so much trouble?
They should have simply killed them back then.
"The Uchiha didn't necessarily do this." Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to stare at Danzo.
"The Sharingan has already shown up. Why are you still denying it?" Danzo's face was rigid, his words dripping with disdain.
"The Uchiha are born schemers."
"That's far too prejudiced." Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head helplessly.
Being that stubborn was hardly a good thing.
"Prejudiced?" Danzo's gaze was hard as stone, and he refused to budge.
"Then tell me, if everyone else died, how was he the only one to survive?"
At those words.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was left speechless for a long while before he could reply.
"You... what are you trying to say?"
Danzo's face remained utterly rigid, his eyes full of cold calculation.
"The Uchiha orchestrated this from beginning to end."
"Just look at the outcome. They didn't lose a single hair, and they gained a kid who awakened the Sharingan-a genius, at that."
"Put that way, they certainly benefited from the outcome, but..." Danzo cut Hiruzen Sarutobi off before he could finish.
"An Uchiha brat who went straight to two tomoe the moment he awakened his eyes. You know better than I do what that means." Danzo gave Sarutobi a pointed glance.
The two stared at each other for a long time. In the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the first to look away.
He sighed. "What do you want to do?"
"Give me that child, Uchiha Itachi." Danzo didn't beat around the bush.
He knew perfectly well that if he demanded too much right away, Sarutobi would never agree.
"What do you want with that child?" Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him suspiciously.
What was he planning to do with the Uchiha Clan's eldest son?
"Since he's involved in this incident, I need to keep him under close watch."
"Let him join Root."
Danzo kept his explanation vague, withholding his full intentions.
Hiruzen Sarutobi lowered his head and considered it for a while, but still shook his head.
"He's too young right now. Root isn't suitable for him. Wait until he's older."
Relations between the village and the Uchiha were already so strained. If they sent the clan's heir into Root, people would come up with all kinds of theories.
"Too young?"
"An eight-year-old can go to war. How is that too young?" Danzo seethed at Hiruzen Sarutobi's decision.
He stared Sarutobi down, determined to get a definite answer.
"Danzo." Sarutobi shook his head helplessly.
"How about this? Once he's gained some more experience and is ready, we'll put him in the ANBU first."
"You'll be able to see him there, too." Sarutobi made a concession.
Danzo was still dissatisfied. He couldn't even secure the transfer of a single person now, and his face was black with anger.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was simply too soft. Who could he possibly keep in line when he was this soft?
Before you continue