"If Danzo had an army that couldn't be killed, what would he use it for?"
The Third Hokage's question instantly drenched Kakashi's back in cold sweat.
He could almost immediately imagine that terrifying scene: Danzo using the Shadowkhan to purge everyone who opposed him, forcibly seizing the Hokage position, then ruling all of Konoha through ruthless and sinister means, even waging war on other ninja villages.
By then, the entire shinobi world would be plunged into a sea of blood!
"I understand, Lord Hokage." Kakashi's gaze became utterly resolute. "I will never let that happen. I'll keep an eye on Shengu Xuan."
The next morning, in front of the Hokage Building.
The four members of Team 7 gathered again, but the atmosphere was completely different from yesterday.
Naruto Uzumaki stood as far from Shengu Xuan as possible, occasionally stealing glances at him with a mixture of awe and fear. Though he still wanted to say something, the thought of those hundred-plus red-eyed shadows from yesterday made him swallow his words.
Sakura Haruno went so far as to hide behind Sasuke, daring to show only half her head. She looked at Shengu Xuan as though he were some prehistoric beast.
The one who had changed the most was Sasuke Uchiha.
Gone was his "I'm the coolest person alive" expression. Instead, he stood neither too close to nor too far from Shengu Xuan, silently observing his every move with an extremely complicated gaze that mingled curiosity, scrutiny, and even a trace of fervor.
It was as though he intended to study every pore on Shengu Xuan's body.
"Yo, everyone's on time today." Kakashi appeared with a poof, his tone as lazy as ever, but when he looked at Shengu Xuan, there was an added gravity in his eyes that no one could decipher.
"Starting today, Team 7 will officially begin carrying out missions." Kakashi took a mission scroll from inside his clothes. "As newcomers, you'll start with the most basic D-rank missions to familiarize yourselves with how ninja work."
"What?! D-rank missions again?!" Naruto immediately shouted in protest. "I want tougher missions! Like protecting a princess, or fighting an evil ninja daimyo!"
"Idiot, we only just graduated. How could we take high-level missions like those?" Sasuke gave Naruto a cold glance.
"What did you say?! You obnoxious jerk!"
Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Kakashi rubbed his temples with a headache.
Shengu Xuan, meanwhile, had no interest in any of this. He was looking up at Hokage Rock nearby. In his eyes, those four enormous faces were nothing more than carved stones.
"All right, our first mission today is..." Kakashi unrolled the scroll. "...to bathe the daimyo's wife's pet cat, Little Tiger, and take it for a walk."
"Nooo!!!" Naruto's anguished scream rang through the skies.
Half an hour later, Team 7 successfully received their first D-rank mission from a cat as fat as a pig-helping weed an abandoned plot of land in Konoha.
On their way to the mission site, the group happened to pass an area enclosed by high walls and sealing strips.
The place was deathly still, utterly at odds with the prosperity elsewhere in Konoha.
The former grounds of the Uchiha Clan.
As they reached this place, Sasuke's steps noticeably faltered. His already icy expression instantly darkened further, his hands unconsciously clenched into fists, and flames of hatred burned in his eyes.
Naruto and Sakura both noticed the change in atmosphere and wisely shut their mouths.
Kakashi sighed too, and was just about to say something to break the oppressive mood.
Yet Shengu Xuan, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly stopped. He glanced at the sealed-off area and spoke flatly, his tone devoid of emotion, as though stating a fact.
"A clan destroyed by a single person. How pathetic."
Sasuke's body jolted, and he instantly turned his head. At some point, his Sharingan had activated. Two pitch-black tomoe slowly rotated in his blood-red eyes as he stared fixedly at Shengu Xuan!
"What did you say?!" Sasuke's voice seemed to squeeze out between his teeth, carrying a bone-chilling cold.
"Was I wrong?" Shengu Xuan turned and calmly met Sasuke's gaze, utterly unaffected by the murderous intent in his eyes. "Or do you think a clan that could be so easily destroyed isn't pathetic?"
"What do you know?!" Sasuke roared. "You don't understand the Uchiha at all! You don't understand how powerful that man is!"
"Oh? How powerful?" A mocking curve tugged at Shengu Xuan's lips. "Can he summon an undying army? Can he move so fast even the Sharingan can't see him? Or can he shatter a mountain with one punch?"
"..." Sasuke was instantly at a loss for words.
He had witnessed all three things Shengu Xuan mentioned with his own eyes yesterday.
Compared with the miracles Shengu Xuan had displayed, everything that man had done seemed... not quite so insurmountable after all.
Seeing Sasuke fall silent, the mockery on Shengu Xuan's face deepened.
"The so-called Uchiha are nothing but a bunch of fools who cling to their pathetic little bloodline and ocular techniques and think that makes them a chosen clan."
"Drowning in past glory, blinded by hatred, pinning all their hopes on a pair of eyes. A clan like that would have met its end sooner or later through its own arrogance and fragility, even if that man hadn't acted."
"You!" Sasuke trembled with rage. He wanted to argue, only to find he couldn't get a single word out.
Because Shengu Xuan's words, though grating, seemed to expose a bloody reality he had never considered.
"Weakness is the original sin," Shengu Xuan concluded at last. He stopped looking at Sasuke and turned his gaze toward the distant sky. "The Uchiha's tragedy wasn't that a traitor emerged among them. It was that the entire clan was too weak."
With that, Shengu Xuan set off again, as though he had merely made a casual remark about the roadside scenery.
"Stop!"
Sasuke shouted furiously and used the Body Flicker Technique to block Shengu Xuan's path. With his emotions fluctuating so violently, his Sharingan even showed faint signs of evolving to three tomoe.
"What exactly do you know?!" Sasuke stared fixedly at Shengu Xuan. "Why do you know so much about the Uchiha?!"
Shengu Xuan stopped and lowered his head slightly, looking down at Sasuke, who was half a head shorter than him, with a gaze that seemed to see through everything.
A scheming smile curled his lips, one that struck Sasuke as immensely dangerous.
"I know far more than you imagine."
"I know the final evolution of those eyes of yours. I also know the secret that man carries, and even... who the mastermind behind all this is."
Boom!
Those words exploded in Sasuke's mind like a bolt from the blue!
"What?!" Sasuke cried out involuntarily and grabbed Shengu Xuan by the collar. "Is that true?! A mastermind? Didn't he do it all alone?!"
"Want to know?" Shengu Xuan gently pushed Sasuke's hand away, his smile turning inscrutable.
"Then get stronger, Sasuke Uchiha."
"When you can last three minutes against me instead of getting planted in the ground like yesterday, perhaps I'll be merciful enough to tell you some of... the truths you dream of knowing."
After saying that, Shengu Xuan walked around the thoroughly stunned Sasuke and headed straight on.
Only Naruto remained there shouting, "Hey! Shengu Xuan, you bastard! What riddles are you talking in now?! What mastermind? What truth?!"
Watching this unfold, Kakashi felt his head ache even more.
He felt that he wasn't leading a ninja squad, but a mobile powder keg.
And Shengu Xuan was the one carrying matches, ready to light the fuse at any moment.
He was beginning to understand how the Third Hokage felt. This Shengu Xuan... just how was he supposed to "guide" him?!
Before you continue