Fugaku has gone mad; he's going to create a new Uchiha clan in Kirigakure.

"Knock knock knock~"

A ninja from the Anbu knocked on the door.

"Enter!"

Tsunade's voice came from inside the room.

The door was pushed open, and Uchiha Sasuke, head down, slowly walked into the Hokage's office.

He looked around the room. There were the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Kakashi, and as the son of the Uchiha clan leader, he knew most of the Jonin.

Tsunade ignored Sasuke, leaving him standing in the doorway. She continued tapping the table with her knuckles, her sharp gaze sweeping over the people in front of her.

"Where were we? Oh, Naruto."

"Who created this situation where that child was treated like a monster in the village and ostracized by everyone?"

The office was quiet for a few seconds. The three members of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio exchanged glances, while Kakashi turned his gaze to the window, as if there was something particularly interesting about the clouds outside.

"say."

Tsunade's voice rose an octave.

Nara Shikaku sighed, adjusted his glasses, and finally spoke.

"Fifth Boss, this matter... is rather complicated."

"Complex?"

Tsunade sneered.

"How complicated is it? So complicated that you don't even dare to say who gave the order?"

"It's Elder Danzo."

Shikaku's voice was soft, but clear.

"He proposed a theory that Jinchuriki are dangerous weapons, and everyone must reject and fear them. In this way, when someone is kind to them, they will become extremely dependent on that person, making them easier to control. Of course, this plan... also received the tacit approval of the Third Hokage."

"Bullshit!"

Tsunade slammed her hand on the table, the solid wood surface groaning under the weight.

"Bullshit!"

She grabbed the pen on the table, and it snapped in two with a sharp "crack" in her hand, the ink splattering onto the documents on the table, spreading into a blinding blue.

"Putting aside whether what they did was right by the Fourth Hokage, what if his actions caused the Jinchuriki to harbor resentment and eventually turn against the village? Have you considered what the consequences would be for a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki filled with hatred for the village?"

She stood up, placed her hands on the table, leaned forward, and her amber eyes burned with anger, her breasts undulating in response.

"How can we possibly improve Konoha by associating with these insects!"

The office was completely silent.

Sasuke stood at the doorway, even his breathing was shallow. Honestly, he was only seven years old, and faced with such a roar, his legs felt weak. And what was this "Jinchūriki" thing? He didn't quite understand it, but it sounded like something very powerful...

Tsunade took a deep breath and straightened up.

"Relay my orders."

"First, Danzo is removed from his position as head of the Root Department, and Jiraiya shall take over all affairs of the Root Department."

"Second, inform the entire village of this as quickly as possible."

"The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina Uzumaki were heroes who sacrificed themselves to protect the village. Their son is not a monster, but the orphan of heroes. I will make sure this news spreads to every corner of Konoha before sunset."

"But, Fifth Hokage, Naruto's identity is..."

"It's your mother! Everyone in the village knows he's a fox spirit, how could the enemy not guess he's a Jinchūriki? No buts! Third."

She looked at Kakashi, her tone softening considerably.

"Bring Naruto over tomorrow, I want to see him."

"Yes, Fifth Generation."

Kakashi, Shikaku, Choza, and Inoichi bowed in unison and turned to leave the office. As they passed Sasuke, Kakashi paused slightly, glancing at him with his exposed eye. His expression was complex, but he said nothing.

The door was gently closed.

Only Tsunade and Sasuke remained in the office.

Tsunade sat back down in her chair, picked up a cloth, and slowly wiped the ink off her hands. Then she looked up and her gaze fell on Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke".

"it's me."

Sasuke instinctively straightened his body. His seven-year-old body was still very thin, but his spine was taut, as if the person standing in front of him was not a person, but a ferocious beast that might pounce at any moment. As a result, he instantly forgot about Naruto, who had just been thinking about him.

"I called you here because the matter of the Uchiha clan has been settled."

Tsunade finally spoke, her voice as calm as if she were stating a fact that had nothing to do with her.

"As the last Uchiha clan member remaining in Konoha, I believe you are entitled to know the truth—I mean, the whole truth, and the matter..."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, gazing out the window.

"It all started about sixty years ago..."

---Divider line

Ichiraku Ramen.

Steam rose, and the aroma of bone broth filled the small shop.

Naruto was sitting on a high stool in front of the counter, holding a huge bowl of miso chashu ramen, and eating it with gusto.

He would occasionally look up at Uncle Ichiraku, who was busy behind the counter.

Uncle Ichiraku was slicing char siu, his knife moving so fast it was almost invisible, the paper-thin slices of meat neatly arranged on the plate.

He noticed Naruto's gaze, looked up, and smiled at him.

"How is it? What does it taste like?"

"Super delicious!"

Naruto gave a thumbs up, a big, untroubled smile spreading across his face.

Because Uncle Ichiraku is one of the few people in the village who doesn't dislike him.

Naruto didn't know why this was happening.

He didn't know why he was hated, why everyone called him a monster, why the adults would pull the children away when they saw him, or why the children would throw stones at him and call him a "fox demon."

He hoped he could do something to change the situation.

He tried playing pranks, graffitiing on the Hokage Rock, and talking and laughing loudly in an attempt to get attention, even if it was just to be scolded.

But the result was that he became increasingly disliked.

"Ring ring ring—"

The crisp sound of a bicycle bell came from outside the ramen shop, interrupting Naruto's thoughts.

He turned his head and, through the open door of the ramen shop, saw a green bicycle riding by on the street. The rider was wearing a dark green uniform, and a large box with the Konoha logo was strapped to the back of the bicycle.

It is the communications department within Konoha Village.

They were responsible for transmitting orders from the Hokage Building, targeting the entire village of Konoha, as quickly as possible.

The method was simple—posting notices on the bulletin boards of every alley.

Naruto has seen it many times.

As usual, the cyclist stopped in front of the bulletin board opposite Ichiraku Ramen, took a roll of paper from his box, brushed it with glue, and stuck it on with a "smack." Then he got back on his bike and continued on his way, the sound of the bell fading into the distance.

Naruto squinted, trying hard to read the contents of the notice.

The distance is a bit far, so the words are hard to see clearly, but...

At the very top of the notice, there seemed to be a portrait with several people on it, one of whom had blond hair, blue eyes, and six whisker-like lines on his cheeks.

"Huh?"

Naruto was stunned. Wasn't that him?

He put down his chopsticks; there was still half a bowl of noodles left, but he didn't bother to eat it.

"Uncle, the money's here!"

After saying that, he jumped off the bar stool and rushed out of the ramen shop like a gust of wind.

---Divider line

"...In the end, Konoha paid 8.5 billion ryo to ransom the captured Konoha ninja from your father, and then signed a peace treaty."

Tsunade finished recounting everything.

"So, now you understand the grudge between Konoha and the Uchiha clan, right?"

The office was silent for a few seconds.

The dark cloud in the sky moved away from the sun, and the sunlight slanted in through the window, casting a bright patch of light on the wooden floor.

Sasuke stood at the edge of that patch of light.

He lowered his head, his hands hanging at his sides, his fingers unconsciously curling and then relaxing.

"Understood."

He finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse.

Although he was only seven years old, he was not stupid.

At the Ninja Academy, he was not only first in his grade in combat, but also second only to that woman with the big forehead in academics. He could understand complex ninjutsu diagrams, memorize the timeline of major events since the founding of Konoha, and analyze the tactical gains and losses in battle examples.

Therefore, he may not be able to see certain deeper things, such as the intricacies of human nature, the deals behind politics, and the selfish motives hidden beneath high-sounding reasons.

However, based on the available intelligence...

The root of the problem lies with Konoha.

Without Konoha's relentless pressure, without the suspicion and exclusion following the Nine-Tails' attack, without Danzo's Root organization's covert instigation, perhaps there would never have been a so-called martial arts faction, there would never have been Fugaku Uchiha's defection, and none of this would have happened today.

"Good that you understand."

Tsunade nodded.

"Based on this, the Konoha leadership, namely the former ruling group headed by the Third Hokage, considers you a ticking time bomb."

Sasuke's body stiffened slightly.

"They have proposed two solutions for how to deal with you."

Tsunade turned around, leaned against the windowsill, and crossed her arms.

"The first option is to imprison you and make you live under surveillance. When you grow up, we will find you more than a hundred wives, make you keep getting married and having children, and rebuild a completely new Uchiha clan."

Sasuke: "???"

It took his seven-year-old brain three seconds to understand the meaning of the sentence, and then his face turned red.

"The second type."

Tsunade, seemingly oblivious to his embarrassment, continued speaking.

"The Third Hokage intends to personally train you. He hopes to cultivate you into a vanguard against the Uchiha clan of Kirigakure, using the power of the Uchiha to fight against the Uchiha."

She paused, then added.

"In other words, he wanted to train you to be a knife, a knife pointed at your father, but I rejected both plans."

Why?

Sasuke was stunned. Analyzing the situation, both plans seemed reasonable, though he might personally prefer the first one... perhaps...

"It's because of the history I'm telling you that, in the final analysis, Konoha was at fault first, or more accurately, the Hokage faction led by the Third Hokage misinterpreted the Second Hokage's ideas. Restricting the Uchiha was not the same as excluding the Uchiha, which led to today's outcome."

"The Fourth Hokage might have been able to salvage the situation because of his bond with your father, but his sacrifice completely destroyed any possibility of the Uchiha clan ever integrating into Konoha."

"Furthermore, although it was your brother who raised the butcher's knife, he was ultimately influenced by them."

"Given your father's cunning, if he were to follow the Third Hokage's methods, he could easily reveal the 'truth' in the future. Not only you, but the entire new Uchiha clan born because of you would be forced to leave with your father in an instant. All our efforts to nurture you would only be aiding the enemy."

Tsunade sat down again, leaning forward and placing her hands crossed on the table.

"In fact, in my opinion, you and your brother are both pitiful."

"What do you mean?"

Do you think your father is impressive?

"...sharp."

Sasuke nodded. From Tsunade, he learned of his father's heroic deeds: single-handedly fighting against Konoha's elite forces, breaking through the Four Red Yang Formation head-on, capturing over a thousand ninjas, and forcing Konoha to pay an exorbitant ransom...

This made him somewhat...admiring.

Yes, worship.

That man, the father he once thought was serious, rigid, always busy with clan affairs, and rarely smiled at him, turned out to be so formidable.

"What an amazing father."

Tsunade's voice was soft, yet it struck Sasuke's heart like a hammer.

"Why would someone raise a child like Uchiha Itachi, who was so radicalized that he wanted to kill his own parents and believed that 'killing his entire clan would bring peace to the village'?"

Sasuke was stunned.

"And why did they leave their youngest son in Konoha without a word?"

Tsunade looked at Uchiha Sasuke.

"That's why I say you two are pitiful. Essentially, he only used his two sons as tools. He used the eldest son to lull us into a false sense of security, giving his Mangekyou Sharingan, which had awakened at some unknown time, time to adapt. This is evidenced by how skillfully he used his abilities. Crossing the Crimson River four times and treating Konoha like dogs—such amazing and decisive tactics must have been simulated in his mind hundreds or thousands of times."

"The younger son... was more like a hostage. When you stayed overnight at a classmate's house, Konoha thought he probably wouldn't do anything reckless, but in reality, he sacrificed both of his sons like trash."

Sasuke opened his mouth.

He wanted to argue, to say "that's not how it is," to say "my father must have his reasons"...

But he couldn't say anything, because the Fifth Hokage was telling the truth. Perhaps there were reasons why he couldn't be taken away, after all, the situation might have been very urgent at the time. But his brother had become a madman who wanted to kill their parents, and that wasn't something that happened overnight. His father, the father he somewhat admired, couldn't possibly have been unable to stop it...

In that instant, Sasuke Uchiha felt as if something was stuck in his chest.

So, can fatherly love be deceiving?

Then, with a sharp pain, he felt as if the whole world had changed...

...

"So."

Tsunade's voice pulled him back to reality. He looked at Uchiha Sasuke's Sharingan but ignored it, just as confidently as she had said before.

"From the moment he abandoned you, what did the so-called hatred of the Uchiha clan have to do with you?"

"I..."

Sasuke's voice was stuck in his throat.

"That's why I rejected the Third Hokage's idea. Your brother is a madman who is trapped in his own world, and you are just a pitiful abandoned person. The decades-long grudges between Konoha and Uchiha have nothing to do with you, and you don't need to bear any pressure. I will not ask you to do anything."

"But my father's eyes have already proven the value of the Uchiha clan, you wouldn't..."

"So what?"

Tsunade smiled.

"This village was founded by the Senju clan, by my grandfather. Although my grandfather has passed away, Konoha, which has grown into a great tree, will not collapse just because one person is missing, even if that person is a member of the Uchiha clan."

"so."

Tsunade took a document out of the drawer and pushed it to the other side of the table.

"I hereby declare that you are free from this day forward. No one will restrict you anymore. The Uchiha clan's mansion, all the businesses and shops left behind, all belong to you. You can manage them yourself or entrust them to others, it's up to you. Any further questions?"

Sasuke took a deep breath, walked to the table, and looked at the document. The document was very thin, with only a few pages. At the top was written "Resolution on the Disposal Plan for Uchiha Sasuke," and below it was the Hokage's seal.

He stared at it for a long time.

Then, he shook his head.

"No problem."

"very good."

Tsunade took the file back and put it in the drawer. She stood up and walked to Sasuke. Seven-year-old Sasuke was only up to her waist, and she had to look down to look into his eyes.

"Then, Uchiha Sasuke."

Her voice was formal, carrying the authority befitting a Hokage.

"On behalf of the Fifth Hokage, I'm now entrusting you with a long-term mission. Are you willing to accept it?"