Maybe You Didn't Have to Be Too Normal

"If you ran into Sand Ninja, why are you unharmed?"

Uchiha Fugaku's voice remained calm, but somehow he seemed a little angrier.

Bieshu Feifan shrank back, ducking a little farther behind Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Mr. Uchiha Fugaku, the rather ugly one, don't look at me like that. I'm telling you, the Hokage is my brother."

"All right, everyone calm down. Feifan, tell me what happened."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was still pretending.

Bieshu Feifan inwardly rolled his eyes at him.

"I only made it back because those crooks turned on each other."

Uchiha Fugaku's expression darkened.

"What do you mean, turned on each other?"

"Exactly what I said. Let me tell you, that Captain Qiongyue ran into Sand Ninja wherever he went.

He ran into them whether he went or not.

Isn't it obvious? He was colluding with Sunagakure."

"Hey, hey, Feifan, watch what you say."

"Brother Hokage, I'm not making this up.

If he wasn't in contact with the Sand Ninja, how could he run into them everywhere he went?

As for turning on each other, that was even more obvious. Captain Qiongyue clearly wanted Sunagakure to kill us.

But those Sand Ninja who didn't understand the Will of Fire broke their agreement. They liked Captain Qiongyue better."

At this, both Hiruzen Sarutobi's and Uchiha Fugaku's faces darkened.

But Bieshu Feifan seemed not to notice and kept talking.

"Another piece of evidence was that those Sunagakure people didn't seem to like us three kids. Although, while they were attacking Captain Qiongyue, they nearly killed us too.

If I hadn't run fast, I might not have made it back..."

With a grim expression, Uchiha Fugaku waited until Bieshu Feifan had talked himself hoarse recounting his experiences on the journey, then asked again:

"What was your mission?"

"Mission?"

Bieshu Feifan froze.

"There wasn't any mission. Captain Qiongyue was just taking us to sell us to the Land of Wind.

We didn't have a mission."

"Jōnin Fugaku, this was a classified mission. If you want to know, I'll explain it to you privately later."

Through Bieshu Feifan's rambling account, Uchiha Fugaku had already formed a guess.

His cousin had most likely been sold out by the Konoha High Command.

And this Bieshu Feifan, whose intelligence seemed questionable, was merely a lucky unlucky fellow.

"Do you think he's dead?"

Uchiha Fugaku still held a sliver of hope. At least Qiongyue had still been alive when his squad split up at the end.

But Bieshu Feifan shook his head.

"Not a chance he survived. There were just too many people chasing Captain Qiongyue and attacking him.

Several waves, one after another. Some even brought dummies to help.

When he left me, his left hand had already been cut off, there was a kunai stuck in his thigh, and a whole bunch of Shinobi were chasing him with blades."

"Lord Hokage, I understand."

Uchiha Fugaku did not press the matter further.

But the moment he stood, his chakra visibly fluctuated, and his breathing quickened considerably.

That chakra made Bieshu Feifan's heart jump. Was he about to evolve his eyes into the Mangekyo?

Hiruzen Sarutobi also became alert the instant he sensed that chakra.

But Uchiha Fugaku made no other move and walked straight out of the Hokage's Office.

Watching Uchiha Fugaku leave with a grim expression, Hiruzen Sarutobi took two more deep drags of his pipe.

He inwardly regretted tacitly agreeing to Danzo's proposal back then. Now he had thoroughly offended the Uchiha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Bieshu Feifan again.

This brat really was lucky, making it back even from that.

As he smoked, Hiruzen Sarutobi took another look at Bieshu Feifan.

If this moron had died in the Land of Wind too, it would have been perfect.

"Brother Hokage, I demand that the Uchiha take responsibility for this operation. They need to compensate me..."

"Feifan, how did you survive?

And why did you go to the Land of Wind's capital? According to the Inuzuka Clan jonin, you stayed there for at least half a month."

"Oh, that.

It was all Uchiha Qiongyue's fault. Never mind him hooking up with the Sand Ninja-the real problem was that I hadn't brought any money.

I wandered the Desert of the Land of Wind for several days and nearly died of thirst.

Then I came across a city. It was a little hot, but otherwise pretty good.

I didn't have any money on me, so I simply stayed there.

I'd wanted to sell some Will of Fire to earn money, but I was a little afraid to.

Brother, let me tell you, the Land of Wind is a terrible place. Too hot, and there's too much sand..."

As Bieshu Feifan talked, he gradually went off on a tangent.

This time, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not interrupt. He merely smoked in silence.

Only once Bieshu Feifan finished did Hiruzen Sarutobi nod.

"Thank you for your efforts."

"It was nothing. All for Konoha. Brother, just give me a few tens of millions for my trouble. If you really can't afford it, make the Uchiha pay. It was all that Uchiha Qiongyue's fault anyway."

Hearing Bieshu Feifan's outrageous demand, Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression darkened, and his tone turned stern for the first time.

"Feifan, go get some rest. You must be tired after these past days."

Bieshu Feifan patted his chest.

"I really am exhausted to death. Remember to transfer the money to my account. I'll go rest for two months first."

Once Bieshu Feifan left the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately leaned back in his chair.

What a headache.

The Uchiha had found out about the plot against Uchiha Qiongyue!

Danzo was so careless.

Unfortunately, Danzo had gone to the front lines, or he would certainly have given him a scolding.

As for the talent the Inuzuka Clan jonin said Bieshu Feifan possessed, Hiruzen Sarutobi had paid it no mind at all.

He was just an idiot. What talent could he have?

Besides, a Shinobi killing some ordinary samurai was nothing worth boasting about.

Right now, Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind was entirely occupied with how to appease the Uchiha.

After some thought, he decided he might as well tell the truth:

It was all Danzo's fault. He, the Hokage, had known nothing about it.

On the way home, the idiotic expression vanished entirely from Bieshu Feifan's face.

His return alive this time definitely did not serve the Konoha High Command's interests.

But now that things had come to this, Hiruzen Sarutobi would not target him directly.

What mattered most was still working hard to improve his strength.

On his way back, just as he reached his doorstep again, another figure flashed past.

Bieshu Feifan hissed. His eyes saw it, but his body could not react in time.

His hand had barely touched his ninja tool pouch when a pair of Sharingan flashed before his eyes.

Three-tomoe!

A long while later, there was a thud.

The newcomer dropped Bieshu Feifan on the ground, then turned and left without attracting anyone's attention.

Not long after the Uchiha who had ambushed Bieshu Feifan left, an Anbu appeared in the Hokage's Office.

"Lord Hokage, Uchiha Fugaku acted personally. Bieshu Feifan suffered no actual harm and will wake up soon.

Judging by Uchiha Fugaku's expression, he probably didn't obtain any further information."

After the Anbu finished, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, then waved him away.

The office returned to the way it had been.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took another drag of his pipe.

It seemed Bieshu Feifan had not concealed anything. And since the Uchiha had not killed him, it seemed they still had reservations about the Hokage's name.

An unknown amount of time passed before Bieshu Feifan slowly came to.

His head hurt.

Those inherently evil Uchiha again.

The Sharingan he had seen before losing consciousness had not belonged to Uchiha Ji.

It had been an Uchiha with three-tomoe eyes, and extremely powerful ocular power.

Bieshu Feifan checked himself over. Fortunately, nothing had happened.

But at that moment, Bieshu Feifan suddenly felt that,

in Konoha,

things seemed to be getting less and less safe.

This was already the umpteenth time the Uchiha had attacked him, and the Hokage had offered no explanation.

Bieshu Feifan had already offended the Uchiha, and now he had come to the attention of their higher-ups.

That was hardly a good thing.

Then there was Hiruzen Sarutobi. His behavior today had left Bieshu Feifan very disappointed.

He wanted to do dirty deeds while keeping his hands clean.

And Bieshu Feifan had also vaguely sensed something off about the way Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at him.

It seemed returning alive this time had already offended Hiruzen Sarutobi a little, and possibly Shimura Danzō too.

Konoha just loved infighting. Things were better with that son he'd picked up in the Land of Wind's capital.

But now was not the time to complain. The most urgent task was to grow stronger.

After going home and shutting the door, Bieshu Feifan surveyed his surroundings with his Byakugan.

No one. Good.

Then Bieshu Feifan mobilized the special chakra inside him and carefully refined the chakra he had previously absorbed from Itadori Daiji.

Just like the Sage Body chakra he had absorbed before, it circulated through his body.

After nurturing it for several hours, he abruptly opened his eyes, and the kitchen knife flew over on its own.

Bieshu Feifan caught it, an irrepressible smile tugging at his lips.

Magnet Release.

He had done it.

But for now, his Magnet Release chakra reserves were still too small to be of much use in actual combat.

On his second day back in Konoha, a green-clad man with a watermelon haircut knocked on Bieshu Feifan's door.

Might Duy had come.

Seeing Bieshu Feifan open the door, he immediately broke into a huge smile.

"Feifan, let's have a trial of youth."

Looking at Might Duy, as energetic as ever, Bieshu Feifan asked:

"Brother Duy, has my Brother Hokage called you up for the battlefield lately?"

"No, but I've done quite a few D-rank missions these past two months."

Hearing this, Bieshu Feifan immediately felt that things were unfair.

Looking at the green-clad, watermelon-haired man giving him a thumbs-up, Bieshu Feifan suddenly came to a realization.

He was still too normal.

If he acted crazy like Might Duy, would Hiruzen Sarutobi find him off-putting?

Bieshu Feifan felt as though he had grasped something.