Raindrops were fine and dense, occasionally blown by the wind into the umbrella, soaking Ryosuke's clothes.
Ryosuke, Sasuke, and Konan each held a black umbrella, walking on the street of the Uchiha ruins.
On both sides were pitch-black houses. The corpses and bloodstains had already been cleaned up. The scent of blood was faint, only a trace of indistinct stench remained, like the smell from an abandoned slaughterhouse.
Things remained the same, but people were gone; all things had come to rest.
Ryosuke didn't have deep feelings toward the Uchiha. It was merely that he had happened to descend into this body.
But Sasuke had lived here since childhood. He was familiar with every street, knew every neighbor.
In the misty rainy night, pitch black all around, Sasuke seemed to see the family, elders, and friends he once had.
"Do you want to kill Danzo?" Ryosuke asked.
Konan was startled and turned to look at Kakashi following a dozen meters behind.
Come on, is that the kind of thing you can just say out loud?
Konan lowered her voice, "At this distance, with a ninja's hearing, he can hear every word clearly. I know you're strong, but we're in Konoha's territory!"
Ryosuke shook his head.
If he hears, he hears.
He was not a ninja.
When he kills, it is righteously and openly, not in hiding.
Moreover…
"If Danzo had that kind of influence, would it have been Sarutobi Hiruzen who got to be Hokage?"
Konan turned back and looked at Kakashi.
She saw this Copy Ninja whistling, having walked farther away, pretending like he hadn't heard a thing.
"I want to kill Danzo."
Sasuke stopped, reached out, caught the rain falling from the sky, and said, "But not today."
"Right now, I'm not Danzo's match. If I wanted to kill Danzo, I'd definitely need you to do it. But Brother Ryosuke, I can feel it, you don't have much emotion toward the name 'Uchiha.'"
"You attacked Itachi simply because he did something wrong in front of you. That's all."
You do have reason to kill Danzo, but your reason surely isn't as much as mine, nor as deep. If I let you do it… that'd be too much of a waste. After all, there's only one chance."
Sasuke seriously said, "I want to personally kill Danzo and Itachi, to give the hundreds of wrongful Uchiha souls… an explanation."
Konan nodded.
She understood Sasuke.
Back then, when she and Nagato killed Hanzo, they had the same thought.
"Besides."
Sasuke touched the crown of thorns on his head.
Ever since waking up, this thing felt embedded into his skull, it couldn't be taken off.
"While I was unconscious, I saw a strange uncle. He told me a lot of things, I couldn't understand them, yet it felt like I understood a lot. I don't know why, but I feel that killing Danzo… isn't all that useful."
Ryosuke's gaze fell on the crown of thorns on Sasuke's head.
'Strange uncle… was that a Saint?'
Ryosuke was silent for a moment, then softly sighed and said, "Yeah, what you said is right. Killing Danzo is useless. Killing Orochimaru is also useless. Killing Zabuza Momochi, Raiga Kurosuki, Fuguki Suikazan, all of it is just as useless."
Konan listened in confusion to the two of them.
'What was useful, what was not? If you kill them, then they're dead, what's it got to do with being useful or not?'
But Ryosuke's next sentence struck Konan like a bolt of lightning.
"'They' cannot be killed to extinction."
She looked at Ryosuke's profile.
Under the dense raindrops, his outline was a little blurred, but his eyes were particularly bright.
Ryosuke looked into the boundless darkness. He had three paths to obtaining soul fragments, defeating strong enemies, changing the worldline, pledging his own soul.
When he had first gotten the system, Ryosuke thought "worldline change" meant altering the plot of the original story.
Since it meant changing the plot, wouldn't killing some main characters do the trick?
After killing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, there was no prompt that the worldline had changed.
Back then, Ryosuke guessed it might be because these characters were too marginal, killing or not killing them didn't affect the plot much.
But after killing Orochimaru, still there was no worldline change prompt.
There's no way Orochimaru was a marginal character, right?
On the way back, Ryosuke thought about it the whole way. The only explanation was, killing people, altering the plot, that wouldn't cause the worldline to change.
As long as this messed-up world still ran on its current rules, killing Orochimaru would sooner or later result in another creepy mad scientist being born, continuing to oppose the bloodline-dominated shinobi world with twisted experiments.
"Then what should be done?"
Konan's tone was serious, like a student seeking knowledge.
At this moment, she forgot the hostile relationship between her and Ryosuke. She just wanted to know the method to break the game.
"You want to learn?"
Ryosuke smiled, "I'll teach you. But before that..."
He reached out and flicked a finger. The raindrop shot out like a bullet, with a bang hitting the two tightly shut wooden doors.
The wooden doors flew open with a boom, revealing a person sitting in the courtyard pavilion.
Danzo sat in the pavilion. On the table were tea and snacks.
He nodded slightly at Ryosuke, gestured an invitation, and his voice came through the curtain of rain, "Ryosuke, would you be willing to come in and have a cup of tea with this old man?"
Ryosuke withdrew his smile, strode into the pavilion, pulled out a chair, sat down, his gaze directly falling on Danzo's old face.
Sasuke and Konan stood one left, one right, behind him.
In Kamihara Hayato's intel, Ryosuke had seen Danzo's photo.
Seeing him in person, he felt even older and gloomier than in the photo, like a rope soaked in too much blood.
He didn't have the instant intimidation of a sharp blade. But the longer you spent with him, the more you'd feel a bone-chilling pressure.
"I thought you'd be hiding in some underground hole, too scared to come out. Never thought you'd dare show up in front of me."
Ryosuke placed the Ruin Greatsword by his side.
Danzo picked up the teapot, "The one hiding in a hole is a rat. I am the Root of Konoha. For Konoha, I must meet you."
"And then?"
"Then, have you stay."
Danzo poured a cup of hot tea. The fragrance spread, it was top-quality tea.
He pushed the first cup to Ryosuke, "I want you to return to Konoha, to serve the village."
Ryosuke raised his hand and pointed beneath his feet, "You are in the Uchiha ruins, this land stained with blood and wrongful souls, and you're inviting me, the one behind the massacre of the Uchiha, to come back and work like a horse for you?"
"Are you insane?"
"I'm not insane."
Danzo said, "Ryosuke, I can understand your confusion. But don't worry, very soon, you'll agree with me, because I will offer you a price that you cannot refuse."
As he spoke, Danzo opened the eye hidden beneath his bandage.
A scarlet Sharingan slowly spun.
Danzo stared at Ryosuke, "I will help you climb to the peak."
"I will make you become Hokage."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰