Chapter 98: Come Here, Kid. Have Something to Eat.
Once a nation's most powerful military apparatus was fully mobilized, its might was immense.
After an entire night of searching, Minato Namikaze's expression turned grim as he read through the latest intelligence report that morning.
After reading it a second time, he handed the report to the Third Hokage sitting across from him.
Hiruzen Sarutobi accepted the report, glanced through it, took a deep drag from his pipe, and then passed it to Danzō beside him.
Danzō didn't even look at the report before handing it to the other two elders.
One of his bases had been breached yesterday.
The losses themselves weren't particularly significant. What he still couldn't understand was how those people had disguised themselves as researchers and infiltrated the base.
According to the jōnin guarding the base yesterday, more than a hundred people had continuously fled from inside.
Wasn't that treating Danzō like a complete fool?
The wall this old man had secretly maintained to protect Konoha had been infiltrated without his knowledge, and someone had even made a fool of him.
When the report eventually returned to Danzō's hands, he glanced at it before passing it to Minato.
After an entire night's investigation, they had caught seven couples engaged in adultery, two businesses producing and selling substandard explosive tags, and four people who had been spying on other people's private lives.
They had caught all sorts of people.
Yet not a single one of them had been the person they were looking for.
Danzō secretly glanced at the contemplative Hiruzen, lightly tapping his cane against the floor before speaking in a low voice.
"I suspect this matter is connected to the Uchiha clan."
The moment he finished speaking, he noticed everyone around him looking at him suspiciously.
Danzō's gaze immediately sharpened.
"The truth, the evidence, and everything else can be put aside for now."
"This is my intuition."
The room instantly fell silent.
Not a single person contradicted him.
Minato rubbed his forehead with a pained expression before secretly casting a pleading look toward the Third Hokage.
"Hmph!"
The Third Hokage exhaled a puff of smoke and slowly spoke in his aged voice.
"The Uchiha clan has already been ruled out as a suspect."
Sarutobi Hiruzen, you!
Danzō stood up and pointed at Hiruzen, his expression clearly demanding an explanation.
Hiruzen was already accustomed to this sort of scene.
He calmly placed his pipe on the table and looked out the window at Konoha, which was gradually coming to life.
Yesterday's incident had been deliberately kept from spreading to prevent panic among the villagers.
After a moment of silence, his gaze settled on Danzō.
"Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that some people's intuition really is accurate without any logical explanation."
"But I've already believed your intuition seventeen times."
Danzō's body stiffened.
He looked around the room at everyone present, his large hand gently stroking the weathered surface of the conference table.
Suddenly, he remembered the first time the four of them had sat around this very table for a meeting.
Those memories had become somewhat hazy over the years.
He could only recall a few scattered fragments.
After a moment, a hoarse, gloomy voice echoed through the room.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen, this is the last time."
The Third Hokage couldn't help glancing at Danzō before shaking his head.
"I don't believe you."
"Hmph!"
Seeing Danzō sit back down in his chair, breathing heavily, Minato finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Over the past six months, he had personally witnessed Elder Danzō's methods for smearing the Uchiha clan.
Whenever and wherever an opportunity presented itself, he never hesitated to grab a bucket of dirty water and throw it at them.
Seeing everyone's eyes turn toward him, Minato interlocked his fingers and rested his chin on them, his expression becoming serious.
"Appear relaxed on the surface, remain vigilant underneath, and investigate secretly."
"The negotiations with Kumogakure are about to begin, so this matter should be put aside for now. There's no need to make a huge spectacle out of it."
Meanwhile, in Konoha Park, a group of elderly men who had come for their morning exercise chatted as they worked out, discussing what had happened the previous night.
Although the shinobi who had conducted the search had been ordered by their superiors to remain silent, the sight of so many shinobi running through the streets searching for enemies had inevitably made the villagers suspicious.
However, when they cautiously waited until dawn before opening their doors, they were surprised to discover that everything outside was exactly the same as before.
Everything was peaceful and tranquil.
If not for Teuchi's bruised face and stammering voice, they might genuinely have thought everything that happened last night had merely been a dream.
Whoosh!
Just then, an inexplicable breeze swept through, rustling the leaves.
A group of elderly men chatting beneath the tree looked up at the trembling leaves.
They saw a figure lying on one of the branches, apparently resting.
"The places young people choose to sleep these days are really strange."
"Isn't that the truth?"
"The night before last, while we were all asleep, my grandson sneaked out in the middle of the night, went straight to the doghouse, chased the sleeping dog out, and climbed inside himself."
"..."
Fuyuki, lying on the branch above them, couldn't help rolling his eyes as he listened to the old men chatting endlessly below.
He still hadn't decided whether to go home.
The old man living across from his house was the kind of person whose mere name was enough to make a crying child stop.
Although Fuyuki saw Uchiha Madara's picture every day and sometimes even wondered what it would be like to meet him, if he really had the chance to meet the real person one day, only an idiot would willingly go see him.
Fuyuki snorted angrily before standing up on the branch.
That old bastard.
Thinking about how Ryoichi was still under that man's watch, with the possibility of heading to the Pure Land at any moment to reunite with his older brother, Fuyuki licked his dry lips and cursed under his breath as he headed toward the clan compound.
Among his elders, aside from the few who had spent more than a decade in prison, he was the only one still outside.
Uchiha Madara.
Thinking about that old man whose life force was frighteningly weak, Fuyuki's figure vanished from where he stood.
Uchiha Clan Compound
Creak!
A harsh sound suddenly rang out.
Ryoichi lowered his head and looked toward the window that had just made the strange noise.
Before he could figure out what had caused it, several shoe-shaped dents suddenly appeared in the wooden window frame.
He immediately connected it to last night's commotion, and his expression darkened.
These people are really annoying.
"If you want to use the window, then use the window. Why do you have to stomp on mine?"
"Heh heh~"
Thinking about the information he had received from the police that morning, Ryoichi couldn't help clicking his tongue.
More than a hundred people had somehow infiltrated Konoha and then suddenly disappeared.
The entire incident had left behind nothing but a strange, piercing laugh.
No useful information at all.
He wondered if those higher-ups had managed to sleep last night.
He himself had slept wonderfully.
Whoosh!
Seeing a dark figure suddenly appear in front of him, Ryoichi instinctively took a step backward.
When he realized that the figure was Fuyuki—and that the boy had stepped directly onto the window frame Ryoichi had just finished cleaning—he immediately became irritated.
"My house has a door, you know."
Fuyuki looked down at Uchiha Madara, who was blocking the doorway.
Then, without saying a word, he grabbed Ryoichi by the collar with one hand and ran.
A powerful gust of wind instantly howled past Ryoichi's ears.
It was as though he were standing on a coastline in the middle of a typhoon, with raging winds and enormous waves battering his face until he could barely open his eyes.
When he finally reacted, Ryoichi tore the plastic bag that had blown onto his face away and shouted,
"Kid, what the hell are you doing?"
"Hey!"
"Old man, I'm saving you."
"???"
Ryoichi was completely confused.
What is this kid doing?
I haven't even had breakfast yet.
Are you trying to give me indigestion?
Saving me?
Are you trying to strangle me to death?
Watching the clan compound grow farther and farther away, Ryoichi clicked his tongue and took another deep breath before sighing.
"Honestly, I don't understand what you're doing."
With that, he concentrated chakra into his feet, twisted his body, and landed firmly on someone's wall.
Riiip!
The sound of fabric tearing rang out.
Boom!
Then came the sound of a wall collapsing.
Fuyuki, who had been abruptly pulled to a stop, looked at the torn piece of fabric in his hand.
Then he looked at the collapsed wall.
Then at the furious homeowner.
"Old man."
Fuyuki glared at Ryoichi, pulled a wad of money from his pocket, and walked over to the homeowner.
After Fuyuki settled the compensation, Ryoichi tore off his ruined clothes and walked over to him bare-chested.
His expression was unusually serious.
"Tell me, old man. What exactly happened?"
By now, Fuyuki had also calmed down.
He looked around at the bustling crowd.
Seeing everyone staring at them strangely, Fuyuki dragged Ryoichi into an empty corner and lowered his voice.
"Old man, who is the person living in your house?"
Ryoichi answered without hesitation.
"My cousin."
Fuyuki took a deep breath.
"What is your cousin's name?"
"His name is—"
Ryoichi suddenly stopped.
He looked Fuyuki up and down, his tone becoming hesitant.
"You know?"
"Mm."
Fuyuki nodded.
Sigh.
Ryoichi suddenly sighed, a trace of guilt flashing through his eyes.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you."
"It's just that knowing this won't do you any good."
"So..."
Fuyuki suddenly leaned against the wall and looked up at the sky.
"Why did he come back?"
Hearing this, Ryoichi immediately jumped up and pointed at Fuyuki's nose, roaring in a low voice.
"You were the one who carried him back yourself!"
"And now you're asking me why he came back?"
"Why don't you ask yourself why you brought him back?"
"I had just finished eating and was humming a tune when I happened to see an acquaintance, so I went over and chatted with him for a few minutes."
"Then you brought him to my house."
"Do you know what the past month has been like for me?"
The corner of Fuyuki's mouth twitched.
Grinding his teeth, he said,
"Wasn't he your acquaintance? That's what you said yourself at the time."
"The last time I saw my cousin was when I was eight years old."
"We had nothing in common back then. We probably exchanged fewer than twenty words in an entire month."
Ryoichi suddenly looked Fuyuki up and down in surprise.
"Are you afraid of him?"
"You brought me out here to avoid him?"
"You're quite considerate, kid."
He chuckled, patted Fuyuki on the shoulder, and turned to leave.
"Old man, where are you going?"
"To buy my cousin something to eat."
"He doesn't have much time left."
"Don't be afraid."
"With me around, you're safe, kid."
Watching Ryoichi's departing back, Fuyuki gritted his teeth and followed him.
An hour later, the two returned to the Uchiha clan compound with the things they had bought.
Ryoichi caught sight of Fuyuki following behind him from the corner of his eye.
Seeing the boy's gloomy expression, he couldn't help reassuring him.
"Don't worry."
"In my cousin's eyes, neither you nor I amount to much."
"With his decisive personality back then, if he wanted to do something, he would've done it long ago."
Fuyuki touched the sword at his waist and said in a low voice,
"Old man, I think if we work together, we can defeat him."
The corner of Ryoichi's mouth twitched.
He didn't respond to the boy.
Where did he get the confidence to think the two of us could defeat Madara?
It's like a final exam.
Senju Hashirama scored 100.
Uchiha Madara scored 99.
And you and I both scored 5.
Two people who scored five points teaming up...
How is that any different from the second-to-last and last-place students joining forces and declaring that they'll surpass the top student in the entire ninja academy?
Creak!
Ryoichi pushed open the courtyard gate.
His eyes fell upon the old man sitting in the courtyard.
He waved the food in his hand and called out,
"Cousin!"
Uchiha Madara slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze lingered on the two of them for a moment before settling on the food.
More sweets.
"Oh, right."
Ryoichi placed the food beside Madara before pointing at the wary Fuyuki without concealing anything.
"Cousin, he knows your true identity."
Is that so?
Uchiha Madara held a skewer of dango horizontally in the air.
The sunlight reflected off the skewered dumplings, piercing his eyes with a faint, chilling glint.
Seeing Fuyuki warily staring at him, Madara suddenly threw his head back and laughed.
"Ha ha ha~"
"Come here, kid."
"Have something to eat."