Early morning. Just as the first light touched the village, a tall figure moved around in the Uchiha kitchen.
As the smell of food wafted through the house, a sleepy Gin slowly shuffled down the stairs, scratching his bird's-nest hair with one hand and stifling a big yawn with the other.
"Haah~"
Dark circles hung under his droopy eyes, but when his nose twitched and caught a whiff of the air, his brows suddenly shot up, energy returning to his face. With sparkling dead-fish eyes, Gin followed the scent and spotted Itama busy in the kitchen.
"Isn't this a bit much for breakfast?"
Itama had her long, black hair tied up high, exposing her pale and delicate nape. Without turning, she coldly answered with an icy tone completely unfitting for her age,
"Hmph! That's your food for the day."
"Hah? Where are you going?"
Gin jolted fully awake at those words, eyes locking on the girl's slim back.
No way his carefully raised little piglet was going to get snatched away by someone else's rotten cabbage.
"To Ji-zhi-nee's house."
"Phew~ You gave me a scare. I thought you were reaching that age already."
Gin sighed in relief. If this little rascal got tricked and ended up losing a kidney, his fate would be sealed.
"If I didn't have to cook for you, I'd be there already."
Itama stopped working and walked out of the kitchen, carrying a hearty breakfast, and dropped it in front of Gin with a sulky face.
The aroma was irresistible. Gin rubbed his flat stomach and immediately started scarfing down the food between praises.
"Not bad, not bad. Almost up to my level back in the day."
"Heh."
"By the way, where's Hikari? Still being lazy in bed?"
Gin asked mid-chew, suddenly remembering there was one more resident in the house.
"That old woman left before dawn."
Itama gritted her teeth as she cleaned up the trash. As usual, her actions were the exact opposite of her words. A good tsundere child.
"Hey, do you still want this?"
Just as Gin was inwardly proud of his excellent parenting, he heard Itama call from behind with a curious tone.
Gin turned and saw her holding up an old, tattered scroll. The more he looked, the more familiar it felt.
"That thing is… Ah! I almost forgot about it! Don't throw it, I still need it!"
He smacked his forehead, yelling quickly to stop her.
"Tch. Dirty and gross. What is this? Some ancient ero scroll?"
Seeing Gin look so eager, Itama seemed to understand at once. She pinched the dirty scroll between two dainty fingers and flicked it straight toward the stove for destruction.
"You little rascal! What kind of filth is in your head?!"
Gin panicked as he saw the scroll arc toward the flames and dashed forward—but it was too late.
Whoosh~
The scroll landed perfectly in the burning stove and was instantly swallowed by fire.
"Dammit! That was a gift from my distant prison bros!"
Gin was too late. All he could do was stare helplessly at the fire as guilt filled his heart.
Sorry, Kin bro. My household is cursed…
"Eh?"
Just as he was lamenting, Gin caught a faint blue shimmer in the fire. Startled, he quickly snuffed the flames.
"No way…"
Amid the white smoke, at the bottom of the stove, lay the scroll, unharmed and faintly glowing blue. It was ice-cold to the touch.
Clearly, it was no ordinary object.
"Disgusting."
On her way out, Itama glanced at Gin, who was now blankly clutching the scroll, and left with a look of contempt, slamming the door behind her with a bag of trash in hand.
Gin didn't mind the disrespect. After all, he'd raised her. A bit of sass was fine.
"Well, I've got a few years left… might as well go have some fun."
Rubbing the scroll, Gin's dead-fish eyes lit up with a rare gleam.
He tucked the scroll away, did a quick tidy-up, and left a note for Hikari and Itama before setting off in good spirits.
His first stop was the clan leader's office. Greeting the guards like old friends, he wandered the halls until reaching the office door and knocked casually.
Knock knock knock—
"Come in."
A familiar voice replied. Gin grinned and pushed open the door.
"Oh? Isn't this the retired old man himself? Still burning the midnight oil? Didn't you say you were gonna go feed birds and tend flowers?"
Inside, Tajima was bent over his desk writing. He looked up and adjusted his glasses.
"It's you, Gin. What now?"
"If you're here to request early retirement, forget it. You'll be working in the prison until you drop dead!"
Tajima grumbled at the sight of the ever-leisurely Gin.
With Madara and Izuna always out fighting the Senju, everything ended up back on his shoulders again.
"Retire? No way! I love prison duty! Let me stay till I die!"
Gin pounded his chest with a sincere look. He was ready to dedicate his life to Uchiha incarceration services.
"Then what are you here for? Madara and Izuna won't be back for a few more days. If you've got requests, go to the current clan head."
Tajima squinted suspiciously.
"I want to stretch my legs a bit. Got any missions?"
Gin shrugged.
"Missions, huh…"
Tajima flipped through some task logs and found a dusty, long-neglected scroll in the corner.
"If you've got time, go check out a place called Rōran in the Land of Wind."
"It's kinda far, so if you don't wanna go, that's fine too."
"Land of Wind? No problem! I'm in!"
Gin's eyes lit up at the familiar name and nodded excitedly.
Soon after, he walked out of the clan building with a mission scroll in hand, stopped by the market to stock up on supplies, and strolled toward the village gates.
The guards at the gate took one look at Gin and decided to go "selectively blind," waving him through without question.
"Let's see where the Rikudō Sennin (Sage of Six Paths) hid his treasure…"
While walking through the forest, Gin pulled out the scroll gifted by his prison bro Kin and read it carefully.
It contained an introduction about a trial left behind by the Rikudō Sennin. Before dying, he had embedded his sword at the place of his upbringing, leaving a message for his descendants—whoever passed the trial could claim the sword.
"That's it?"
Gin fully unfurled the scroll and frowned. That was all?
"Is this a trap from the Hagoromo clan to lure other descendants and rob them?"
Grumbling his suspicions, he flipped to the map and noticed something odd.
"Wait… it's actually on the way?"
Apparently, the marked location was indeed in the direction of the Land of Wind.
Since it lined up so perfectly, Gin stopped overthinking, stashed the scroll, and took off.
With a burst of chakra, he vanished from the spot, leaving only a sonic boom and blurred afterimages behind.
Fueled by curiosity, he reached the marked site within a day.
"This is it? Doesn't look like much."
He frowned at the shallow canyon before him. Untouched wilderness. No roads, no signs of civilization.
A nearby beast spotted him and crept forward to attack, but the aura Gin subconsciously released made it flee in terror.
Crack—
With a massive black double-bladed axe, Gin hacked his way through the forest.
As he ventured deeper, a ripple stirred in his blood—like something ancient was calling to him.
"Looks like there's something after all… Kin bro, you're a real one!"
(End of Chapter)
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