"Alright, Hiruko—"
"Hmm?!"
Orochimaru suddenly felt a response from the small white snake he had outside the base; someone had secretly infiltrated his base.
Moreover, this person... had quite a background.
"Hehe, Jiraiya, did Sensei send you to investigate me? Has he already started to suspect me?"
"Let's go, Hiruko. Someone has broken in here. We'll go elsewhere to talk in detail."
After Orochimaru led Hiruko into hiding, Jiraiya slipped into Orochimaru's secret base.
"Has Orochimaru already left? His counter-reconnaissance is so sharp. Just what is he hiding?"
Jiraiya crouched down to examine some traces left by Orochimaru, his expression growing grimmer the more he looked.
There were human organs and tissues in Orochimaru's base, proving that Ryou was right—Orochimaru was doing it too!
Konoha, Uchiha Clan.
"Lady Tsunade, what did you say?"
Mikoto asked with some confusion.
Tsunade shook her head: "Nothing, I just thought of something. By the way, can I have these things of Ryou's?"
Mikoto nodded.
After Tsunade left with Kushina, Fugaku approached with the high-ranking members of the Police Force.
The arrival of the Princess of the Senju Clan at the Uchiha compound was something the Uchiha people valued highly.
The Uchiha were very eager to improve their isolated environment within the Village.
"Mikoto, did Tsunade discover anything?"
Mikoto shook her head.
Uchiha Yashiro was somewhat disgruntled: "Tsunade clearly still has feelings for Ryou. Damn it, if the Third hadn't intervened back then, we could have formed a marriage alliance with Tsunade, and our position in the Village wouldn't be so awkward."
Fugaku shook his head: "Even if the Third had agreed, the Senju wouldn't have. The Village higher-ups are deliberately excluding us."
Seeing Fugaku and the others complaining about taboo subjects, Mikoto pulled Itachi into the house.
Once inside, Itachi looked at Mikoto in confusion: "Mom, I heard clearly just now. Lady Tsunade said Uncle isn't dead."
Mikoto covered Itachi's mouth: "Itachi, forget it quickly. Even if your uncle isn't dead, he must be dead."
Itachi was somewhat puzzled but could only nod.
Mikoto then cautioned Itachi again: "Itachi, don't show your eyes to anyone else, not even your father."
"Why?"
"No reason, it would only harm you!"
Because of Ryou, Mikoto was not as submissive to Fugaku as in the original story, nor did she unconditionally support all her husband's decisions.
Outsiders like Tsunade at least set up a grave for Ryou, while Fugaku was more focused on quickly severing Ryou's connection to the clan.
What he brought back to Mikoto and their son was just a word of apology, followed by the 'brilliant move' of expelling Ryou from the clan beforehand and striking out his surname to preserve the Uchiha's reputation.
Mikoto thought of Ryou's evaluation of Fugaku—an "incompetent husband."
Could the Uchiha have protected Ryou? To be honest, they couldn't!
But the Uchiha could have used Ryou's techniques to bargain with the higher-ups, or even offered them to the Daimyo to seek political support.
But Fugaku sought stability; as soon as the Ryou incident broke out, he immediately placed Ryou under house arrest.
After Ryou defected, Fugaku removed him from the records and then led the Police Force to hunt him down.
Furthermore, regarding Itachi, Fugaku was somewhat heartless.
When Itachi had just turned four, Fugaku took him to the battlefield to kill people.
At that time, Ryou had come to the door and had a huge argument with Fugaku, saying that exposing Itachi to the darkness of the Ninja World too early would ruin him.
But Fugaku said this was a Ninja's destiny, something a cowardly Chunin like Ryou, who hid in logistics, could never understand.
Itachi was to be a Ninja in the future, and getting in touch with the darkness as early as possible would give him a head start.
At the time, Mikoto didn't know who to listen to; she could only follow the Uchiha tradition of following her husband.
After that, Fugaku had Mikoto and Itachi reduce their contact with Ryou.
Mikoto noticed the changes in Itachi after he returned from the battlefield; he would sometimes chase after famous Ninjas in the Village to ask about the meaning of life.
Fugaku thought this was maturity, that this was the mindset of a Hokage.
But Mikoto felt this was a burden brought by premature maturity; Itachi was starting to lose his will to live.
It only improved after he came into contact with Shisui.
But a scar is a scar, let alone a scar in the heart.
Mikoto hugged Itachi tightly; her brother had already left her, and she could never let Itachi be involved in Fugaku and the others' schemes again.
Itachi looked at his sad mother, then glanced at the Uchiha adults outside discussing how to launch their great undertaking!
For the first time, he wanted to grow up quickly so he could know more; if he were grown, he could have stopped his uncle from defecting sooner.
But why did Uncle defect after harming his fellow villagers?
After returning from the battlefield, Itachi had gone behind his parents' backs to ask Ryou about the meaning of life.
Ryou was busy forging Exploding Tags at the time and casually replied to him: "Making money."
And after making money?
"Getting people!"
Lord Orochimaru said life has no meaning, and Uncle's meaning was making money and getting people.
Then what was Mother's meaning? Father's meaning? And the clan's meaning?
Itachi gazed at the Uchiha's red and white fan crest, lost in thought.
Now only Shisui could give him the answer, but Shisui was at Kirigakure front lines.
After leaving the Uchiha compound, Tsunade remained sullen, clearly having something on her mind. Kushina didn't continue to bother her, saying she was going to the market to buy groceries and then left.
Clutching Ryou's belongings, Tsunade walked toward the Hokage Rock.
She was struggling, hesitating whether to report to the Third Hokage that Ryou wasn't dead.
But Ryou had indeed blown himself up in front of the Sannin and Minato. Who could have pulled off such a deception?
Tsunade truly couldn't understand what power in the Ninja World could deceive the Sannin.
Yet she firmly believed that a scourge like Ryou wouldn't die so easily.
Could it really be that because her old feelings for Ryou hadn't faded, she was having hallucinations?
As Tsunade looked at Ryou's Exploding Tags, she suddenly noticed a slight abnormality, because the pattern on the back of each forged exploding tag seemed to have a symbol.
Tsunade put them together, slowly arranging and deciphering them, but this script was in cipher, which could only be read with a specific method.
She suddenly remembered the Ninja games she played with Ryou when they were young; Ryou had taught her a cipher method.
Tsunade deciphered one according to Ryou's method, and the code was successful. After turning a street corner, she found a secluded spot and took out a pen to record it.
After a considerable amount of effort, Tsunade finally recorded it all.
Forbidden jutsu: Creation Rebirth
Tsunade stared blankly at this forbidden jutsu; this was exactly the forbidden jutsu she had been conceptualizing these past few years.
Tsunade had the Yin Seal and the Creation Rebirth Technique; these were forbidden jutsu passed down to her by Uzumaki Mito.
"Note: According to the new 'Boruto' setting, the Yin Seal was not developed by Tsunade."
At this stage, the Creation Rebirth Technique only released the Chakra in the Yin Seal to grant oneself powerful recovery abilities.
But no matter how much one recovered, it could never match the consumption of battle; Ninja battles had always been high offense and low defense.
Thus, Tsunade wanted to develop an even stronger recovery ability—namely, the power of regeneration. This was the prototype of 'Creation Rebirth.'
In her spare time, Tsunade would combine the Senju Clan's records and Hashirama's cultivation materials to develop Creation Rebirth.
But because of the Third Ninja World War, she never had the time. She didn't expect Ryou to have stolen her Ninjutsu scrolls and deduced this forbidden jutsu.
Tsunade felt that if she didn't have the boost from her Senju bloodline, her talent for Medical Ninjutsu would be inferior to Ryou's.
Tsunade suddenly noticed another line of words Ryou had left for her below.
"I don't owe you anymore, Tsunade."
"That day, you actually knew I stole your Ninjutsu. If the Inuzuka family had let out a single dog, I would have been exposed. But you didn't pursue it and even helped cover for me. That's what I owed you."
"Given your temperament, you'd likely turn your nose up at my forbidden jutsu, so I'll give you this one that suits you!"
"By the way, Tsunade, I want to tell you a secret. Actually, on the day of our appointment, I was planning to drug you."
"I prepared a potent drug for myself too, planning to die gloriously on top of you."
"Tsunade, I wanted you so much! I even dreamed of it!"
Boom!
Tsunade smashed her fist into the nearby wall, directly shattering it.
But what followed was not rage, but teardrops splashing onto the ground, turning into fine droplets of water.
"Ryou, you despicable thief, next time I meet you, I'll definitely beat you to a pulp."
Tsunade was now one hundred percent certain that Ryou wasn't dead. How could such a scourge die?
"Which brat dares to smash my wall?"
The owner of the smashed wall rushed over from the front yard in a rage, starting with a curse, but seeing it was Tsunade, he quickly lay down and played dead as if he'd seen a ghost.
Tsunade burned all of Ryou's belongings with a fire, tossed a pile of money to the owner whose wall she'd broken, and then glanced at the Hokage Rock.
She strode toward the Hokage's Office. She wasn't going to report to the Village committee, but to be elected as the next Village branch secretary.
Tsunade looked at the Hokage Rock. How could the Village her grandfather spent his life protecting be allowed to become their private property?