Oyashiro En watched Sasuke in silence as the boy sank into thought, making no sudden moves.
He was not a man without sense. After recognizing the enormous gap in power between the two of them, he had settled into a quiet compliance.
"Is there anything else you want to ask me?"
Oyashiro spoke up.
After the massacre, Oyashiro had taken his daughter Chino and built a life as a merchant. He had never told his daughter who her father truly was.
He had made something of himself in the shinobi world by now, but every year, he set aside a stretch of time to return to Hell Valley. To pay his respects to his late wife.
He had never expected to encounter an Uchiha here. And he certainly had not expected this particular Uchiha to be this strong.
The Blood Dragon Eye, like the Sharingan, awakened through intense emotional shock and deepened through that same force.
After his wife was hounded to death by their own clan, and after he had killed every last one of them himself, his Blood Dragon Eye had reached a formidable level of power.
Not a single member of the clan in Hell Valley had lasted more than one exchange against him.
And yet, in this direct clash of dojutsu power against the boy before him, he hadn't even managed one exchange. It was over before it began.
Oyashiro's question pulled Sasuke out of his thoughts. Sasuke looked at him and asked. "Could you ever sense where the barrier's chakra was flowing from?"
"No."
Oyashiro shook his head.
"Fair enough." Sasuke wasn't disappointed. He had only been asking on the chance that something might come of it.
"Then I have nothing more to ask."
Oyashiro narrowed his eyes and studied Sasuke for a moment. "Then I'll be taking my leave."
He turned to go.
"Wait." Sasuke called out lightly. Seeing Oyashiro shift into a guarded posture, Sasuke smiled.
"You came here to pay respects to your wife, didn't you?"
A man who had slaughtered his entire clan for the sake of one woman. Oyashiro was not someone to be taken lightly. It also said everything about the depth of his feeling for her.
"Don't mind me, En. Please, go ahead."
Sasuke waved a hand, gesturing for him to proceed as he liked.
"I'll come back another time."
Hearing Sasuke use his given name, Oyashiro showed no particular surprise, but he didn't simply do as suggested either.
Sasuke shook his head. "Actually, I'll be the one to leave. With me here, you'll always have your guard up."
Someone paying tribute to a dead wife naturally wouldn't want an outsider present. Especially not a member of the Uchiha, their ancestral enemies.
He would find somewhere else to continue his training.
"One more thing, I heard you're a merchant now. I wonder if we might have the chance to work together someday, En."
He said this as he was turning to leave.
Oyashiro's abilities were solid, comfortably at elite jonin level.
If he hadn't been unaware that Sasuke had the Eternal Mangekyou and had chosen to open with a genjutsu, he wouldn't have gone down so quickly.
Beyond his combat ability, Oyashiro's talent in commerce and intelligence gathering was remarkable in its own right.
Just ten years out of Hell Valley and he had become a well-known figure of wealth across the waters of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water, with his own intelligence network already established.
If the Blood Dragon Eye's potential in Oyashiro approached Mangekyou level, then his daughter Chino had the genuine potential to reach it.
In the original timeline, when pushed to her limit, Chino had used the Blood Dragon Eye to wipe out an elite Mist Village squad in an instant.
She had later dared to manipulate human puppets right under a Rinnegan-wielding Sasuke's nose without being detected. Her potential spoke for itself.
Cooperation?
Oyashiro was quiet for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm sorry. I may not have any particular interest in the old grudges between the Chinoike and the Uchiha, but that doesn't mean I can trust an Uchiha. I'll have to decline."
"Alright then. If you ever change your mind, you can find me in the Hidden Sound Village, in the Land of Rice Fields."
Sasuke gave a mild smile, said nothing more, and simply offered the address.
"The Hidden Sound Village!?" Oyashiro's eyebrows drew together. "Isn't that Orochimaru's territory?"
More than ten days ago, news of the attack on Konoha had spread through the shinobi world and shaken it deeply.
People had learned that the Hidden Sound Village, a minor village in the Land of Rice Fields, had been founded by Orochimaru.
After the incident, the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields sent diplomatic envoys hurrying to Konoha and the Land of Fire, frantically insisting that they had had no involvement and no knowledge that the Hidden Sound's leader was Orochimaru. The village was officially stripped of its name.
Word had it that when officials from the Land of Rice Fields and Konoha ninja later went to the Hidden Sound's location, they found nothing but an empty shell of a village. Not a single person remained.
The Hidden Sound had gone from an open presence to a shadow, and Orochimaru and his followers had vanished without a trace.
Is he going to defect to Orochimaru?
Orochimaru was powerful and his reputation was formidable, but the boy's own strength was already exceptional.
What reason would he have to go serve under Orochimaru?
Oyashiro found this puzzling.
"In a few more days, it won't be anymore."
Sasuke replied with a faint smile, his tone completely unhurried.
He didn't actually know the Hidden Sound's current location himself. But once he made his way into the Land of Rice Fields, that particular snake would find him on its own soon enough.
He's going to kill Orochimaru.
The boy's voice had been completely calm, but the meaning contained in those words was staggering.
A quiet shock ran through Oyashiro.
He looked at the boy again, and beneath the composed surface of that expression, he sensed nothing but deep, unhurried killing intent and absolute confidence.
At that moment, Oyashiro noticed something he had missed before: a faint red mark on the boy's brow, small and easy to overlook.
Experience told him it was something like a birthmark. Instinct told him it was not something so simple.
After a long silence, Oyashiro said in a measured voice. "I'll give your offer some thought."
"Then I'll look forward to the day you take me up on it, En."
Sasuke smiled, turned, and left.
Oyashiro watched in silence as the boy walked slowly toward the mouth of the valley.
Only after Sasuke had gone did he turn back, looking out at the scene before him, a distant sadness passing through his eyes.
At the valley's entrance.
Sasuke stroked his chin, studying the gate before him, built from some material that resembled steel but wasn't quite. After a moment's consideration, he detached it and sealed it into a storage scroll.
The Yata Mirror itself, as its central spirit artifact, had already been taken by Itachi.
But this gate had once served as the vessel that housed it. There was bound to be something particular about it.
Perhaps studying it carefully would reveal something about how the Yata Mirror's absolute defense functioned.
Sasuke knew that even if he never went looking for Itachi, Itachi would eventually come looking for him. Before that day arrived, he needed to be as prepared as possible.
He was someone who planned before he moved. Having the Eternal Mangekyou didn't make him feel invincible. He had no intention of walking in recklessly.
Just as he had spent a full month preparing before killing Danzo, he was already thinking carefully about how to approach Orochimaru.
Unless you had truly overwhelming, absolute power, the only path was to account for every detail and prepare for every possibility.
... A shame I couldn't find the vessel for the Totsuka Sword.
The thought crossed his lips quietly. Then he laughed to himself and stepped out of Hell Valley.
"Off we go. Time to fish for a snake in the Land of Rice Fields."
__
Summer. The sun was brilliant and sharp. Its warmth broke through the heavy clouds and mist, falling on the mark at the boy's brow.
That faint red line seemed to shift, ever so slightly. As though something within it had stirred, opening just a fraction, and letting a sliver of crimson show through.
___
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