Hours passed, the sun slowly setting down on the Konoha village, orange light shining through the trees and hitting. Inside the almost completely ruined Uchiha Compound that was slowly but surely being repaired, two shinobi were having a meeting.
Fugaku Uchiha and Minato Namikaze, The Uchiha Patriarch and the Hokage.
"So, have you found any possible leads to the masked man?" Minato asked, his face donning a serious expression unlike his usual carefree one.
"None, all Uchiha shinobi are usually documented because of dojutsu however, there isn't a single one that has gone unaccounted for, at least since Konoha was founded. There are records of the Warring Clans Era, however, they are mostly gone and eroded. It's most definitely someone out of the Uchiha Clan here in Konoha." Fugaku replied whilst holding an equally, if not even more serious expression than Minato.
A Sharingan user outside of the Uchiha Clan was a huge deal, it meant that their bloodline had been leaked. It was a matter of life and death to the Uchiha Clan as a whole, something they would never let go or allow.
"I see… well then, I'll get going. I heard my student had awoken. Let me know if you find anything," Minato spoke as he gave a court nod to Fugaku, who returned before Minato dispelled his shadow clone self.
Being the Hokage, especially in a time like this, meant that he had no time to even leave his post, and thus, for anything that he had to do, he had to send shadow clones instead, leaving him almost completely drained the entire time.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, around half an hour ago, in the Konoha Hospital, a certain shinobi woke up from his coma.
Kazuo Hyuga.
Opening his eyes, Kazuo was first blinded by the white lights of the hospital room, causing pain to shoot into his eyes for a few moments before he slowly adapted.
'I survived?' Kazuo thought as he slowly tried to raise his body up, managing to do so slowly before surveying the room that he had woken up in.
It was a private room in the Konoha Hospital, usually reserved for high ranking shinobi or special vip personnel like the civilian council members.
'I guess being the Hokage's student does have some pretty nice perks. Too bad they're most likely going to be gone soon. Tch… I have to make sure to get as many rewards as possible from the village and steal as many jutsu as I can before they find out, or I have to do something that compromises the fact that I've defected the village.' Kazuo quickly thought in his mind, already thinking of ways to use the village for all its worth.
It was at this moment that a medical ninja came inside the room.
"You've woken up. We will be doing some quick checks immediately to see if anything is wrong. The Hokage has already been notified and has said that he will be arriving quickly." The nurse spoke in a formal tone as she walked to his side and sat on a small white medical chair before lifting her hand towards Kazuo's abdomen, her hand glowing blue.
'Do they have a sensor to see when people wake up? Or some other kind of system?' Kazuo thought inwardly as his body tensed slightly, this was someone he didn't know, and it was almost instinctual for Kazuo to be wary of all ninja, even Konoha ones. He had died his fair share of times to them after all.
'Root is gone, however, that's one good thing. Rest well in Hell, you piece of shit.' Kazuo thought, having to stop himself from smirking outwardly so he wouldn't seem like a madman.
"Everything seems to be in order. You're healthy, however, your chakra reserves are still recovering, and the chakra network is still overused. Rest for a week with no training or major chakra usage, and everything should be fine. You will likely experience another bout of military pill addiction withdrawal symptoms during this time. You'll be given some medicine to counter it, which should similarly be gone after around two to four weeks. Come in for a check-up every week." The medical ninja said as she lifted her hand and walked out of the room.
'I'll have that damn withdrawal again? It was bad enough last time, fuckin hell.' Kazuo thought, almost shivering at the memories of cold sweat and cravings that had kept him up almost all night for days.
"Kazuo!" A voice said as four people rushed inside after the ninja.
Obito Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Rin Nohara, and Minato Namikaze.
Rin instantly ran to his side and sat down whilst the three others walked and stood around the bed.
"How are you? What did the nurse say?" Kakashi questioned, his face donning his usual almost emotionless expression.
"Nothing much, said I was healthy however, I need a minimum of one week's rest before I can train again, and that I'll have to deal with military pill addiction for around two to four weeks. But overall, I'm not in any bad condition." Kazuo replied.
"Right, that's great," Obito said awkwardly as he looked at the scene of Rin practically on top of Kazuo.
Looking at the sight, Kazuo felt both disgusted and, at the same time, felt like laughing aloud.
'She's a damn kid, you asshole. I may be an arsonist, serial killer, thief, sociopath, or psychopath, however, I am not a pedophile. No thanks, but fuck, I really want to fuck with his head.' Kazuo thought inwardly, grinning whilst maintaining a soft, warm smile on his face.
"So how's everything going, Sensei? Is the recovery of the village going well?" Kazuo asked, his voice tinged with curiosity.
"Well, yes, most of the buildings are under reconstruction, the main damage is to the shinobi forces, but even they are not so high that we can't recover from them relatively quickly. There are some other certain matters that I can't talk about here, so I'd like you to come to my house after you are discharged." Minato replied, in a voice that felt strange to Kazuo.
'He's serious, however… this tone an expression, it's not how Minato would usually give to his student who just woke up from a coma.' Kazuo thought instantly suspicious.
"Anyway, how long was I out for?" Kazuo asked curiously as he lay back down on the bed.
"Three days, thankfully, we managed to find you quickly enough, or you may not have even survived. You were in severe chakra depletion when we found you unconscious. What happened?" Rin said, her voice tinged with fear for him.
"Well, this masked guy came after me, thankfully I managed to dodge him for enough time that he decided to give up on me however, I had to use a lot of my chakra, leaving me in that state," Kazuo replied calmly, his voice and tone completely stable, giving no signs to the fact that he was lying at all.
"Right… the masked man. They say he was a Uchiha. Did you see anything, Kazuo?" Obito asked, his voice slightly strained. It was clear that this was a touchy subject for him.
"He is. I saw something resembling a sharingan through his mask, though the pattern was different from the usual tomoe." Kazuo replied, his expression turning serious.
'It would be great if Konoha found some information about this guy,' Kazuo thought inwardly.
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Here's the chapter. 12 chapters are left in this volume, the finale will be quite interesting.
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