'I knew there was no way this brat wouldn't notice me...'
Through the crystal ball, Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly met the boy's razor-sharp gaze. In those clear eyes, two blazing suns slowly ignited, dazzling and almost painful to look at. In that instant, Hiruzen's old eyes blurred, even seeing a faint double image.
That kind of symptom was something you got from staring directly at the sun.
Which meant one thing—
the brat's Yang Release had clearly improved again since the day he showed off Wood Release to him.
And when he counted the time, it hadn't even been that long...
Hiruzen closed his eyes. His emotions rose and fell for a moment before he waved a hand and dispelled the Telescope Technique.
Pop.
As the crystal ball returned to normal, the gaze circling above the Uchiha compound disappeared with it.
Roy slowly withdrew his gaze and said with a trace of mockery, "Looks like our Lord Hokage doesn't agree with what I said after all..."
Fugaku and Tsunade both fell silent, neither of them picking up Roy's comment.
One was Hiruzen's direct subordinate and a regular at high-level meetings. The other was Hiruzen's beloved student, and besides Minato Namikaze, one of the hottest candidates to become Hokage. For reasons of position, or simply to preserve the Hokage's dignity, even after Roy's reminder made them realize Hiruzen had been spying on them, neither Fugaku nor Tsunade chose to press the matter further.
Clink, clank...
Mikoto lowered the kitchen curtain and went back to cooking.
Tsunade sat cross-legged on a cushion, looking at the tatami mat she had smashed to pieces in her excitement, and sincerely apologized to Fugaku.
"I'm sorry. I'll buy a new one to make up for it."
Fugaku waved it off, signaling that it didn't matter. Instead, he gave Roy a long, searching look.
"Ren, you'd better really be sure about this."
Something like resurrection was simply too shocking.
Not just for Uchiha Fugaku, who had never even heard of such a thing—Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin, had never heard of it either. Otherwise, she would never have ended up so devastated by the deaths of Nawaki and Dan Kato, never would have spiraled so far that she developed hemophobia and could no longer move on...
Roy only smiled and said nothing.
After all, leaving aside the fact that Impure World Reincarnation could already bring the dead back, the Naruto world had more than one resurrection technique that was plainly on record.
There was Chiyo's One's Own Life Reincarnation, which she used to save Gaara.
There was Izanagi, the technique Danzo had prepared in advance against Sasuke by consuming Sharingan.
There was Orochimaru's Curse Mark Reincarnation, a technique he created by drawing inspiration from Impure World Reincarnation in his pursuit of immortality.
There was Rinne Rebirth, usable once the Sharingan evolved into the Rinnegan through the combination of Yin-Yang Release.
And beyond that, there was the Ōtsutsuki clan's own Kāma Reincarnation, where they could brand a vessel in advance while dying and forcibly seize that body later.
There were too many examples to count.
Roy could feel Fugaku's concern and worry. At heart, the man was simply afraid Roy had promised too much too soon. If he failed to deliver later, he'd only embarrass himself.
With a light laugh, Roy said to Fugaku and Tsunade, "Father, Lady Tsunade... why don't we just let a little time pass?"
Impure World Reincarnation was in the Scroll of Seals.
Roy rose to his feet, stretched both arms lazily over his head, and said, "Since you've already waited more than ten years, I doubt this little bit longer will matter..."
Fugaku said nothing.
The man quietly turned his head and glanced at Tsunade across from him.
For just a moment, the woman's expression clearly trembled. Her chest rose and fell, and her breathing grew subtly heavier. Inside, she was anything but calm.
That was right.
She had already waited more than ten years.
Other people thought Tsunade never did anything serious, that she spent every day gambling or drinking herself senseless.
But what they didn't understand was this—
you could heal a damaged body, but wounds of the heart were far harder to treat...
Shizune sat behind Tsunade, looking at her with aching sympathy.
Tsunade's blonde hair was tied into twin ponytails that fell behind her. She took several deep breaths, stared hard at Roy, and said, "Fine."
"I'll wait."
"I've been waiting all this time."
"I'll keep waiting..."
"...until I die."
Roy laughed dryly. He'd only just been dragged here, and it wasn't even the time he usually slept, so there was still a trace of drowsiness in his smile as he said to Tsunade, "It won't take that long. I'll be right back..."
He rubbed Itachi's little head and tossed out a casual reminder.
"Don't forget to save me some breakfast."
Then, with one more glance—
he stepped forward and melted straight into the light.
In the next instant, flowing with the sunlight, he used Light Release to break through the limits of space itself and drift out the window. All that remained visible was a hazy streak of light shooting toward the very center of Konoha's shopping district.
That was where the Hokage Rock stood.
It was where the Hokage Tower was located.
And it was where the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and several of his advisers usually worked.
"That child... always rushing around like the world's on fire. Honestly," Fugaku muttered with a stern face as a gust of wind swept through the room and stirred everyone's hair.
He turned his head toward the window and watched Roy leave, scolding him under his breath.
Then he felt a cool gaze settle on him.
Turning back, he saw Tsunade sitting there with her arms crossed, staring at him coldly.
"If you're not satisfied with Ren, you can always let me adopt him," she said. "I don't have any children anyway. He may as well change his surname to Senju."
Fugaku: "..."
He gave an awkward little smile, pretended he hadn't heard her, and simply poured her another cup of tea.
"Have some tea, have some tea..."
As for words like "adopt" or "change his surname," he refused to acknowledge them at all.
That only made Tsunade let out a cold snort, though the envy in it was impossible to hide.
It was a cool, pleasant morning.
From the side, Itachi quietly watched the two of them. Then he looked back out the window and silently called out in his heart—
Nii-san...
He obediently stood up, picked up a broom from the corner, and started sweeping up the碎 pieces around the low table.
Seeing that, Shizune said gently, "I'll do it."
Before Itachi could react, she took the broom from his hands and began cleaning up herself.
Sunlight streamed through the window and formed patches of light on the floor. As Shizune swept, those patches disappeared and reappeared again and again...
Just like Roy, moving through the light, flickering in and out of sight.
In no time at all, he had crossed nearly half of Konoha's commercial district.
Then, with a single step—
he walked out of the light and slowly appeared in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi's broad desk in the Hokage's office.
"You came..."
"I came."
"You shouldn't have come..."
"But I'm already here."
Roy's feet landed softly on the polished wooden floor. At a glance, he saw that Hiruzen wasn't the only one in the office. Sitting on the sofa against the southern wall was an old man leaning on a cane, one arm and half his face wrapped tightly in bandages.
And the moment Roy emerged, still wreathed in a soft halo of sunlight—
a cold, razor-sharp gaze slammed down on him.
Roy spread his hands, glanced at the one-eyed old man, then turned to Hiruzen.
"Looks like I really picked a bad time to come."
The corner of Hiruzen's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. He shot Roy an annoyed look, then said to the old man, "Danzo, you can leave first."
"Space-time ninjutsu?" Danzo's gaze stayed fixed on Roy, clearly treating Hiruzen's words like hot air. "Since when could the Uchiha produce a second Minato Namikaze?"
The sarcasm and chill in his voice spread through the room at once, making Hiruzen frown with visible displeasure.
He was just about to say something when Roy slowly turned to face Danzo directly and said with a smile, "You're blind. Isn't it only natural you failed to notice?"
Hiruzen simply stopped talking. He leaned back in his chair comfortably, opened the cup in front of him, and took a leisurely sip of tea.
Right on cue, a cold snort sounded.
Danzo's half-visible face darkened immediately. He slammed his cane hard against the floor, producing a dull thud.
The only left eye not wrapped in bandages stared at Roy like a venomous snake.
"Sharp-tongued brat. Do you even know who you're talking to?"
"Oh?" Roy said in exaggerated realization, as if he had only just noticed him. "So it's Lord Danzo. Sorry. For a second there, I thought it was just some stray dog barking by the roadside. Didn't realize it was you, Lord Danzo. My bad, my bad~"
Pfft—
Hiruzen nearly sprayed his tea. He almost choked to death on the mouthful he had just taken, coughing twice in a rather undignified way. When both Roy and Danzo looked over, he waved a hand.
"Cough, cough... don't mind me. I'm just reading the war reports..."
Danzo: "..."
A vein visibly bulged at his temple, though he quickly suppressed it again.
This man—the Hokage's "shadow," the one who had desecrated Uchiha corpses—looked at Roy dangerously. In his mind, he recalled what Orochimaru had told him before defecting. Without showing it, he forcibly suppressed the rage rising from his chest and pretended not to have heard the insult.
He only asked, "What are you here for?"
Roy looked at him in surprise, as if looking at an idiot. He pointed toward the office door.
"The door's right there. If you can come here, why can't I?"
"This is the Hokage's office, not some academy classroom!" Danzo snapped. "Students are not allowed in here without permission!"
"Sorry to inform you," Roy said, nodding as if that were perfectly reasonable, "but with the Hokage's special approval, I already graduated early. I'm no longer a student. I'm a ninja."
"Brat," Danzo's voice rose sharply, "even ninjas need to report in before entering. And you're not even a genin—just some little nobody of a ninja..."
"That's true enough," Roy said thoughtfully.
Then he turned and looked at Hiruzen.
"Lord Hokage, am I allowed to be here?"
At the same time, using aura as an encrypted transmission, his next words flowed straight into Hiruzen's mind:
Lord Hokage... you don't want the village's only Wood Release user dying on the battlefield, do you?
The corner of Hiruzen's eye twitched hard. With visible resignation, he raised his head and said to Danzo, "I called him here."
"Hiruzen... you!" Danzo stared in shock.
Hiruzen waved a hand again. "Enough. You may leave."
"What happens on the front line still needs to be discussed carefully at a jōnin council meeting. It's not something we can decide rashly right away... We'll wait until Jiraiya's message arrives."
Danzo rubbed the cane in his hand. With half his face hidden under layers of bandages, it was impossible to read his expression clearly, but the visible half narrowed into a cold, ugly stare.
His gaze moved back and forth between Roy and Hiruzen.
His backside might as well have been glued to the sofa. He simply sat there and refused to move.
Seeing that, Hiruzen raised a brow.
"You're still not leaving?"
Danzo gave a cold snort.
"As an adviser, I believe I have the right to sit in."
"You do," Hiruzen said calmly, reaching for the Hokage hat resting on the corner of his desk and placing it on his head. His expression turned blank. "But I think you've misunderstood one thing."
The moment the hat settled onto his head, Hiruzen's whole aura changed. He looked at Danzo with undeniable authority.
"I am not discussing this with you."
"This is an order."
"And I—"
"am the Hokage."
Boom!
An invisible pressure descended straight onto Danzo.
With his face set hard, Hiruzen in that instant seemed to overlap with the carved stone faces on Hokage Rock outside the window.
Danzo's mouth twitched violently.
At last, leaning on his cane, he stood.
Under the pressure of the Hokage's authority, he could no longer keep sitting there. With a cold snort, he stormed out and slammed the door behind him.
"Hmph!"
"You'll regret this!"
His last bitter snort drifted back in through the gap beneath the door.
Hiruzen let out a slow breath, casually removed the Hokage hat, took out his old pipe from a drawer, lit it, and drew deeply. Then he exhaled a ring of smoke and glared at Roy in irritation.
"Well done. It's been years since anyone dared threaten me like that. You're the first, brat."
Roy watched Danzo leave, lingering for a moment on the arm wrapped in layers of bandages. Then he turned back with a smile, casually found a chair, and sat down as if he were in his own house.
"Same here," he said. "It's also been years since anyone dared spy on me so openly. You old geezer are the first."
Old geezer...
The corner of Hiruzen's eye twitched again. He nearly choked on his smoke this time, and used the cough to cover himself.
"That wasn't spying. I was looking out for the younger generation!"
"If it had been anyone else, do you think I would've even bothered to look?"
"Ungrateful little brat..."
"Oh?" Roy said expressionlessly, staring at Hiruzen.
His clear, bright eyes seemed to hold hidden suns within them, and in an instant Hiruzen's eyes began to ache faintly again. He was reminded at once of how Roy had caught him in the act earlier and forced him to awkwardly withdraw the Telescope Technique.
Tick. Tick...
Time passed, second by second.
In the wide Hokage's office, ever since Danzo slammed the door and left, a heavy silence settled over the room for the first time.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and stared at Roy across the desk.
After a long moment, seeing that the boy refused to let go of this point, he sighed helplessly and finally gave in.
"You win. I won't spy on you anymore."
Roy's expression relaxed. Leaning back in his chair, he faced Hiruzen and extended his right hand.
"Compensation," he said. "For emotional distress."
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
"What compensation do you want?!"
"The Scroll of Seals," Roy said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "I want to read the Scroll of Seals."
~~~
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