Chapter 83: An Orderly Ninja
The next morning.
Uzuki Yugao, who had spent the entire night taking care of Kana, had just stepped out of the room. As she closed the door, she saw Asuka and his two companions sitting on the bluestone slabs outside the courtyard.
They were no longer laughing and joking as they usually did. Instead, they seemed unusually quiet.
No.
That wasn't quite right.
His two companions were silent. As for their teacher, his eyes were filled with memories, and he had once again fallen into deep thought.
"Morning!"
Hearing the commotion in the courtyard, Asuka greeted Yugao before continuing to stare at the sky.
After investigating throughout the night, they had essentially confirmed two pieces of information.
First, the child kidnapper was not an ordinary person. He was a habitual offender who specifically targeted boys.
Second, since the children had been missing for three months, there might have been clues at the time. But as time passed, those clues had long since disappeared.
They had investigated all night and found nothing.
"Ahem~"
Seeing the panic on her two companions' faces, Yugao walked over and asked,
"How did the investigation go last night?"
Iruka lowered his head dejectedly.
"This mission is doomed to fail."
"There aren't any clues now."
"Fail?"
Yugao's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Hyuga Hanabi.
After seeing Hanabi nod, she turned toward Asuka.
"Teacher?"
Asuka held his head in both hands and leaned against the wall, speaking slowly.
"No one can guarantee that their mission will succeed one hundred percent."
"Besides, whoever stole the children is clearly a habitual offender. They didn't leave behind a single clue."
"Right now, I can't even determine whether the culprit is Orochimaru or Danzo's people."
"There isn't a single witness. The children seemed to disappear into thin air, and no one nearby noticed anything."
"In short, there are no clues."
Back when he anonymously wrote that report, there had been hundreds of donkeys outside the village that could testify to what happened.
"But, but…"
Hyuga Hanabi lightly bit her finger and frowned.
"If we fail our very first C-rank mission like this, will the Hokage-sama think we're unreliable?"
"If that happens, he'll probably reduce the frequency with which he assigns us higher-level missions."
Snap!
Asuka snapped his fingers in satisfaction.
"You're not stupid. You actually figured out that this will affect the frequency of your future missions."
"Hehe~"
Hyuga Hanabi rolled her Byakugan at Asuka.
Did she look like an idiot?
At this moment, Asuka stood up, dusted off his clothes, and said solemnly,
"Next, this will be the final lesson I teach you."
"How to become a farsighted ninja."
???
The three of them tilted their heads and looked at Asuka.
Did being a farsighted ninja have anything to do with failing a mission?
Was he telling them to calm down and not take the villagers' criticism to heart?
Seeing their confused expressions, Asuka didn't bother putting on airs. He simply said,
"Failure doesn't just damage the village's reputation. It also damages your own reputation."
"However, mission failure is unavoidable."
"Even the White Fang's team has carried out failed missions, let alone you."
"Then, Teacher, what is a farsighted ninja?"
"A farsighted ninja must first learn how to shift responsibility and quickly and accurately throw away this enormous, round blame."
"Shift responsibility?"
Hyuga Hanabi suddenly looked at Iruka and whispered,
"Does 'shifting responsibility' mean what I think it means? Putting all the blame on someone else?"
Iruka blinked, desperately searching his mind for another explanation of the phrase shift responsibility.
A moment later.
He realized that there seemed to be only one possible interpretation.
He could only nod helplessly.
"Teacher, isn't that irresponsible?"
Hearing Hanabi's question, Asuka shrugged and said casually,
"White Fang was the culprit, and now his bones have already turned to dust."
"What I mean by 'shifting responsibility' isn't randomly pushing the blame away. It's deliberately shifting responsibility."
"For example, we could blame this incident on…"
"Bang!"
At that moment, Iruka slammed his right fist into his left palm, his face lighting up with realization.
"We can blame the Hidden Cloud Village."
"Idiot!"
The corner of Asuka's mouth twitched.
He was speechless.
"The Hidden Cloud Village doesn't steal ordinary children."
"Then who should we blame?"
"Obviously, the king of taking the blame—"
"Forget it. Let's put all the blame on Orochimaru."
"He can't do anything about our failure this time anyway."
"These people are extremely experienced. They cleaned up every trace so thoroughly that they're nothing like ordinary kidnappers."
"In short, after this investigation, I can be almost certain."
"This was absolutely done by a ninja."
"The Land of Lightning isn't going to travel thousands of kilometers just to come near Konoha and steal children, especially ordinary children."
After Asuka finished explaining his plan, he noticed that although the three of them didn't object, they were staring at him with strange expressions.
That was rather unsettling.
"Ahem~"
He cleared his throat, gestured toward the house, and awkwardly changed the subject.
"Um… Yugao, how is the person inside?"
Uzuki Yugao pursed her lips.
She looked at Asuka standing straight in front of her, silently recited a few words in her heart, and then repeated all the information she had gathered while taking care of Kana throughout the night.
"…"
Asuka listened to Yugao's account and raised his eyebrows twice in surprise.
"So there weren't actually any other members of the Uzumaki clan?"
"There were only two of them in total?"
"The two Uzumaki members used the Shadow Clone Technique to fool the villagers when they went up the mountain?"
"Mm!"
Uzuki Yugao nodded and continued.
"Because the identity of the Uzumaki clan is sensitive, they threatened the villagers at night and intended to buy some food with money."
"So when the villagers saw so many people, they prepared enough food for a hundred people."
"But in reality, only two people ate the food, and the rest was wasted."
"The two of them didn't want to take advantage of the villagers for nothing, so they paid them."
"And that's how two years passed."
"Until half a year ago, Kana's husband became seriously ill."
"They spent all their savings on his treatment, but in the end, they still couldn't save his life."
"Later, the villagers came again to deliver food."
"But because Kana had no money left, she couldn't properly explain what had happened."
???
Without waiting for Yugao to continue, Asuka had already pieced together the rest of the story.
Kana couldn't afford to pay, and the villagers had no intention of continuing to deliver food.
Then one of the children disappeared by accident.
The villagers thought the red-haired Kana had become angry, so they tightened their belts and continued delivering food to her.
Eventually, the amount of wasted food became severe, and neither Kana nor the villagers had anything left to eat.
The villagers then went to Konoha to post the mission.
Kana was about to give birth, so she came down from the mountain to find food and a safe place to give birth.
"Sigh!"
At this moment, Uzuki Yugao suddenly sighed.
After talking throughout the entire night, she had discovered that her older sister was truly suffering.
She had wandered around from place to place since childhood. Not only had she never had a fixed home, but she had sometimes been hunted as well.
Even going outside required extra caution because she was afraid of being kidnapped.
Even living as an ordinary person in Konoha might have been better than wandering around the shinobi world.
After a moment of silence, she gestured toward the house and said quietly,
"Her original plan was to bypass Konoha and head directly to the Land of Grass."
"Teacher, should we take Sister Kana back to Konoha?"
Hearing this, Asuka rejected the idea without hesitation.
"No."
Yugao puffed out her cheeks and muttered,
"Teacher, why can't we take her to Konoha? Isn't the Uzumaki clan an ally of Konoha?"
Take her back to Konoha?
If the people of Konoha wanted to accept the remnants of the Uzumaki clan, they would have done so long ago.
Thinking about this, he shook his head disdainfully.
"She has gained her freedom. Doesn't she want to go to the Land of Grass?"
"We should support her."
"I heard the Land of Grass is very chaotic…"
Hyuga Hanabi's gaze moved back and forth between the two of them several times.
Then she lightly pinched Yugao's arm and whispered something into her ear.
Yugao's eyes lit up.
That's right.
Her teacher was an Uchiha.
Although some things might sound unpleasant when said aloud, the Uchiha clan really did possess a rebellious streak and an arrogant attitude.
Thinking this, she took two steps forward and casually said to Asuka,
"Teacher, Sister Kana is really amazing!"
Hearing such a bold statement come out of her mouth, Asuka's expression froze.
Damn.
Was his education really that worrying?
No.
That wasn't right.
It was those teachers at the Ninja Academy who had failed to establish a proper foundation for them.
Thinking this, he casually pointed at himself.
"You know your teacher has a girlfriend, right?"
Yugao glared at him angrily.
"I mean, she's very good at drawing."
Hearing that Yugao wasn't suggesting that he marry a widow, Asuka immediately perked up.
He lightly patted his chest.
"So am I. And I'm very good at drawing."
Thinking about his recently skyrocketing sales and mouth-watering royalties, Asuka instinctively placed his hands on his hips.
Looking at the proud Asuka, Yugao tilted her head and said innocently,
"But… Hanabi said she doesn't like looking at the things Teacher draws."
Asuka and Hyuga Hanabi simultaneously sucked in a sharp breath.
After glaring at Yugao, Hanabi noticed Asuka's gaze falling on her.
She immediately turned around and stared at a nearby tree.
Damn it!
She shouldn't have told her in the first place.
Looking at Hyuga Hanabi's back, Asuka took several deep breaths.
There was no need to ask.
It was definitely that girl again, using her Byakugan to peek into his safe.
Damn Byakugan. It really could…
Before he could continue thinking, Yugao continued,
"But Sister Kana is different."
"Everyone likes what she draws, both men and women."
"Teacher, did you know that after the country of the Uzumaki clan was destroyed, they had to live under assumed identities throughout the shinobi world and lost their source of income?"
"Later, in order to protect herself, Sister Kana learned this skill while studying ninjutsu so that she wouldn't starve whenever she couldn't make money."
"…"
Asuka expressionlessly packed up his ninja tool pouch.
The girls of the shinobi world matured far too early.
He had witnessed this firsthand when he was in the Ninja Academy.
While he was still fantasizing about awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan, the girls in his class were thinking about how to win his heart.
While he was researching how to prevent the clan's destruction, the girls in his class were talking about those things in front of him.
While he was worrying about his future, those girls would bring him lunch while secretly taking advantage of him.
He absolutely refused to believe that these little girls of only a few years old had never secretly read adult books.
Eleven years old?
Seeing Hyuga Hanabi scraping the ground with her toes, Asuka immediately thought of Hinata Hyuga.
As expected of the Hyuga clan.
She was still young and didn't have too many proper thoughts in her head.
"Teacher, do you know?"
"The most amazing thing about Sister Kana is that she can split herself into multiple clones and draw thirty books at the same time."
"…"
Asuka suddenly felt his heart tremble.
Thirty books?
Imagining thirty clones working together, his face was filled with an expression of jealousy.
He had never dreamed that he would see thirty clones working together.
Seeing the longing on Asuka's face, Yugao secretly gave Hanabi a thumbs-up.
Then, ignoring Hanabi spitting at her, she continued,
"Teacher, do you know what the most important thing about becoming Hokage is?"
Asuka was still imagining thirty people drawing together.
He instinctively asked,
"What?"
"Reputation!"
Yugao said with certainty,
"I think Teacher has the potential to become Hokage, but an Uchiha who isn't short of money drawing so many things every day not only affects his own training, it also makes the villagers think he's unreliable."
"Just like Jiraiya-sama."
"If the position of Hokage could be freely chosen, the villagers definitely wouldn't choose Jiraiya-sama, because he is always peeking at people while they bathe."
Hearing Yugao's loud voice, Asuka took a deep breath of the cool air of this nameless little village.
Thinking about it carefully, she seemed to have a point.
Drawing adult manga every day really was somewhat inappropriate.
Shouldn't his goal be to save his clan and strive to become Hokage?
But…
Adult books really did make a lot of money!
Asuka secretly glanced at the admiration on Uzuki Yugao's face, nodded, and said calmly,
"That makes some sense."
"Teacher…"
At this moment, Hanabi's sympathy had also been stirred up.
She walked over while twisting Yugao's arm and said,
"I have to admit that, in some respects, the Hyuga clan really is inferior to the Uchiha clan."
"Mm!"
Asuka looked at Hanabi emotionally.
"I'm really happy that you can understand this."
The corners of Hanabi's mouth curled upward as she continued,
"The Hyuga clan doesn't dare to accept the remnants of the Uzumaki clan."
"The Uchiha clan also—"
Before she could finish, Asuka saw a trace of cunning flash through Hanabi's eyes.
His eyelid twitched involuntarily.
"Teacher??"
Seeing her looking up at him with an admiring expression, Asuka couldn't help but raise his head toward the sky.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly reached out, pinched their cheeks, and said with a smile,
"I don't dare either."
"But my great-uncle does."
"Achoo!"
At that moment, inside the Uchiha clan compound, Ryoichi inexplicably sneezed.
He stood outside and looked toward the classroom in the clan compound, where Uchiha Madara was teaching.
His eyelids twitched twice.
What exactly had that grandson been teaching those children?
Why had his cousin been correcting them for so many days and still hadn't finished?
Besides, the night before last, he had vaguely seen his cousin talking to the air through a crack in the door.
The general meaning seemed to be…
His obsession with Hashirama over all these years had prevented him from dying just like that.
"Everyone, get out."
"Wait for this old man to die naturally, then come back and collect his body."
Shinigami—an existence invisible to outsiders, visible only to those on the verge of death?
He had never expected his cousin to speak to the Shinigami in such a commanding tone.
Looking at his cousin trembling all over as he walked, Ryoichi instinctively shook his head.
Terrifying.
Land of Grass, border.
Pakura stood with her hands behind her back, gazing at the end of the road ahead.
"Where are we going next?"
"We'll keep going and see what happens."
"Mm!"
Pakura nodded.
Then she turned toward the person speaking beside her.
Seeing her wrapped in a cloak with only her face exposed, Pakura couldn't help teasing her.
"Konan, I don't mind joining your organization, but these clothes are really ugly, aren't they?"
Konan's cold expression froze.
She lowered her head, looked at the Akatsuki cloak she was wearing, then stared for a moment at Pakura's clothes, which were turned inside out.
She calmly said,
"You suit these clothes very well."
"They can not only block those disgusting gazes, but also make your relationship more harmonious."
"Is it him?"
Asuka came to Pakura's mind, and she murmured softly,
"Is he really that petty?"
Konan looked straight ahead and said seriously,
"Even a kind-hearted Uchiha would probably be unable to awaken the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, no matter how talented he was."
"Oh~"
Pakura drew out the sound of her response.
Then she reached out and put an arm around Konan's shoulder.
Noticing the resistance in her body, she chuckled.
"You really know a lot!"
Konan secretly relaxed her stiff body while struggling to maintain her cold expression.
Her voice remained clear and calm.
"I've collected information about the Uchiha clan."
"Then you've collected information about Asuka too, right?"
"Mm!"
Konan nodded sincerely.
Konoha jōnin, Uchiha Asuka.
His grandfather, Uchiha Feihe, was suspected of possessing some mysterious Uchiha power.
All the information she had gathered indicated that Uchiha Feihe and Uchiha Madara had an extraordinary relationship.
Thinking this, she secretly glanced at Pakura before immediately looking away.
She admitted that when she first approached her, she had indeed possessed ulterior motives.
But now…
She merely wanted to find an excuse to trick Pakura into joining them.