The task was successfully completed, and the atmosphere of the team relaxed quite a bit.
Kiba and Akamaru were trotting ahead, chasing a rabbit, while Shino walked in silence.
Hinata followed the team quietly, her gaze occasionally falling on the back of her teacher, Kurenai Yuhi.
Kurenai-sensei is pregnant... so this child is Mirai Sarutobi.
Hinata's thoughts drifted; as the child's name surfaced, another name closely linked to it appeared in her mind.
Asuma Sarutobi.
And then, the lamentable ending in the original work.
Akatsuki Organization's Hidan and Kakuzu invade the Land of Fire, Asuma dies in battle, leaving Kurenai Yuhi to face the pain of losing her husband alone, giving birth to a posthumous daughter amidst endless sorrow.
Hinata's brow furrowed slightly; she had always been calm and rational, knowing she had changed many things and that the Butterfly Effect had long since made the future unrecognizable.
But whenever these specific "original plot nodes" concerning the fates of those around her appeared clearly before her eyes, it still made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
Asuma-sensei is a Konoha Jonin, the mentor of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio, the son of the Third Hokage, and moreover, Kurenai-sensei's beloved husband and the father of the future child.
The current Asuma is a living person, not just a character in a script.
Hidan and Kakuzu, these two members of the Akatsuki Organization—according to the timeline, their activities are likely to be put on the agenda soon.
But because of her own appearance, the Akatsuki Organization's plans might have been adjusted, yet those S-Rank Rogue Ninjas whose goals are killing and collecting bounties remain a massive threat.
With her current strength and the resources she controls, if she plans ahead, she might be able to change Asuma's fate.
This wasn't just to change a "plot line," but also to protect this gentle and resilient teacher before her—who seemed to radiate light at this moment—and to protect a child about to be born who should not lose their father.
Even without points, she would do it.
In the original work, because of the Gaara incident, Tsunade would send Naruto, Kakashi, and Might Guy's team, while Asuma and the others were assigned to suppress Kakuzu and Hidan.
Countless thoughts whirled rapidly in her mind as she considered her plans for the future.
She glanced at Kurenai-sensei, who was walking ahead and smiling while listening to Kiba brag about the recent battle, and Hinata's gaze gradually became firm.
There are some things that, once known, cannot be ignored.
Meanwhile.
Uchiha Sasuke stood alone in the shadows at the edge of the training ground.
The night was as black as ink, with only the pale light from a distant laboratory outlining his lonely figure.
He unsheathed his kusanagi sword; Danzo's blood seemed to still linger on its blade, but that pleasure of revenge had long since been swallowed by a larger, darker void.
He had personally killed one of the culprits responsible for the Uchiha tragedy, but what then?
Konoha was still there, perfectly fine.
The Third Hokage, Utatane Koharu, and Homura Mitokado—those high-ranking officials who had acquiesced to, indulged, and perhaps even participated in the persecution of the Uchiha—still held high positions.
The Uchiha Clan was stigmatized as "madmen attempting rebellion," while the truth remained buried in the darkness.
"Was the Uchiha... really the one in the wrong?" Sasuke gazed into the void of darkness, his Mangekyo Sharingan opening on its own in the shadows, emitting an eerie and cold light.
"Or is it that the very system of Konoha, this twisted structure itself, is what's wrong?"
His thoughts returned to the distant past; according to the records he had seen, from the time the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara established Konoha, the Uchiha seemed to have been excluded from the core of power.
It was fine at first, but after Madara and Hashirama disappeared, everything began to change.
The duties of the Police Force seemed important, but in reality, they were for isolation and surveillance; generation after generation, suspicion and estrangement continued to accumulate, finally evolving into the tragedy of the clan's massacre under the fuse of the Night of the Nine-Tails and the instigation of people like Danzo.
If Konoha itself was a deformed product built on injustice, suspicion, and the sacrifice of specific clans, then what meaning was there in merely killing a single Danzo?
As long as this system exists, as long as power is still monopolized by a few who are accustomed to using dark methods to "maintain stability," then tragedy will sooner or later repeat itself in other families and with other people.
A mad and tempting thought grew wildly in his heart like a poisonous vine: destroy it.
Uproot Konoha and completely destroy the Konoha that bred the Uchiha tragedy!
Let fire purify everything, let this hypocritical Village disappear, and establish a new order, a new system.
This thought made his blood boil faintly, and the desire for destruction burned in his Mangekyo.
But another figure, another name, acted like a bucket of ice water, timely dousing his feverish thoughts.
Uchiha Itachi.
He was still alive, that older brother who bore all the sins and walked alone in the darkness.
If he chose the path of destroying Konoha, then what about his brother? The Village that he endured such great pain to "protect" back then—would he now bury it with his own hands? What would Itachi do? Would he stand on his side, or become his enemy once again?
And what after the destruction? Did he really know how to build a better world? Or was destruction itself the goal, the only way to vent this endless hatred and emptiness?
Sasuke felt an unprecedented sense of contradiction and internal conflict. On one side was the extreme path of completely negating everything and seeking liberation through destruction; on the other was his complex and unspeakable emotion for his brother.
"Brother... if it were you, how would you choose?" Sasuke whispered to the cold air, his voice filled with pain and struggle.
"Continue to protect the Village that destroyed everything we had? Or..."
He could not find an answer; after the goal of revenge vanished, his life seemed to lose its only coordinate, leaving him to swing violently in a whirlpool of love and hate, destruction and protection, radicalism and void.
Sasuke slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the light of the Mangekyo was dim and uncertain.
He had already made up his mind; he now possessed power, and he wanted to sever all bonds.
Sasuke's gaze swept toward the direction of Konoha, the faces of Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi flashing through his mind, as well as Kakashi's Sharingan.
In the eyes of the current Sasuke, who saw clearly the darkness of Konoha and was filled with paranoid anger over the fate of the Uchiha, the fact that Kakashi possessed the Sharingan was no longer a "testament to friendship" or a "Legacy."
Rather, it was a blatant sacrilege, a theft and desecration of the Uchiha Clan's Bloodline Limit!
Kakashi using the Sharingan to fight, copying Ninjutsu, and even developing "Raikiri"—all of this seemed to Sasuke like using the Uchiha's heritage to serve the Konoha that persecuted them; it was simply a massive irony.
Sasuke's expression shifted unpredictably.
And Snake Auntie had already witnessed all of this.
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