Chapter 150: Traces Left Behind by Hashirama Senju
The members of the Uchiha clan participating in the special training were led by the ANBU into a vast underground chamber.
Several enormous stone pillars rose from the depths of the cavern.
Standing atop one of them and looking down revealed nothing but a terrifying abyss of darkness. The pillars seemed almost as if they had been erected to imprison some monster lurking within that darkness.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Rapid footsteps echoed from the metal plates above the underground chamber.
Uchiha Asuka ran his hand along one of the stone pillars and found it covered in moss. He glanced down into the darkness below.
Someone behind him suddenly spoke.
"Konoha really does have a place like this. The air is terribly stagnant."
Uchiha Hachijūrō looked down at the rusted metal plates beneath their feet.
"When I was young, this place was Konoha's sewer system. It handled all the waste from the surface. I heard the ANBU later renovated it into what it is today."
Asuka sniffed the faint moldy smell in the air, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
He knew exactly what this place was used for.
The ANBU's official headquarters was above ground.
This was Danzō's territory.
He hadn't expected Danzō to arrange for the special training to take place in Root's headquarters.
After all, Root possessed a precious Wood Release user.
With that thought, Asuka silently issued a command to the system and began thinking about the task displayed on his panel.
"Complete the classroom assignment given by the Ninja Academy teacher: collect traces left behind by Hashirama Senju in Konoha."
Hashirama Senju had left countless traces throughout Konoha.
From the First Hokage's hat displayed in the Hokage's office to the trousers preserved within the Senju clan compound, traces of him could be found almost everywhere.
Asuka had even asked Uchiha Madara about the traces Hashirama had left behind.
Madara had simply pointed toward the surrounding forest.
All of these forests had been created by Hashirama Senju.
At the time, Asuka had naively thought that chopping down one of those trees and giving it to his teacher would be enough to complete the system's mission.
So he had chopped down a huge tree, carried it all the way to Kurenai Yūhi's house, and handed it to Kurenai while she was cooking.
The system hadn't responded.
At first, he thought he'd simply chopped down the wrong tree.
So Asuka went back into the forest and chopped down several more.
Sigh.
Remembering Yūhi Kurenai's face, which had turned black as the bottom of a cooking pot, Asuka couldn't help sighing.
The mission still hadn't been completed.
And later, Yūhi Shinku had discovered what he'd done.
The old man had looked at Asuka with deep emotion before leaving, even patting him on the shoulder.
"Not many girls would like a gift such as a big tree."
Tap!
The next moment, faint footsteps entered everyone's ears.
Every member of the Uchiha clan raised their head at the same time.
"A child?"
Asuka's gaze passed over Fugaku and landed on a child wearing a fox mask.
Tsk.
Danzō really did have a soft spot for children.
Where had he adopted this one from?
Another orphanage?
The child swept his gaze across everyone before settling on Uchiha Fugaku.
"Elder Danzō ordered me to guide Clan Head Fugaku."
Fugaku nodded coldly.
"Let's go."
The child in the fox mask turned around and led everyone toward the northeastern section of the underground chamber, eventually arriving at a large open plaza.
By then, many Konoha shinobi had already gathered there.
Clearly, this special training wasn't limited to the Uchiha clan.
As everyone followed the child toward the center of the plaza, Asuka looked over the Konoha shinobi sitting there.
Then he heard several complaints from the clan members behind him.
"I don't think I need this training."
"Exactly. Our bodies haven't gotten rusty, and our stamina hasn't declined much either. What's the point of special training?"
"I heard the members of the Akimichi clan suffered terribly during the last round of special training. Their entire clan supposedly got smaller."
"That must have hurt."
Hearing the discussion behind him, Asuka glanced at the child standing rigidly nearby.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
A brown buzz cut.
Something resembling a mask over his face.
The boy looked strangely familiar.
Asuka just couldn't remember where he'd seen him before.
After thinking for a moment, Asuka left the Uchiha group and walked toward the child.
He studied him carefully for a while before asking,
"Do I know your father?"
The child's cheek twitched.
He deliberately lowered his voice.
"I'm an orphan."
"Oh. Then have we met somewhere before?"
"Of course not."
"Then what's your ANBU codename?"
"???"
The child cautiously took a step backward.
Why was he asking all these questions?
Sigh.
Asuka sighed softly, then sat cross-legged on the ground.
He summoned a serving of fried chicken and placed it in front of himself before eating casually.
"I've grown tired of life in the ANBU lately. I'm thinking about changing jobs."
"???"
The child stared blankly at the Uchiha who had suddenly started chatting with him as though they were old acquaintances.
What did "tired of life in the ANBU" mean?
Could someone simply quit whenever they wanted?
Asuka looked up at the pipes overhead, and his voice suddenly became low and melancholy.
"I've been in the ANBU for eight months. I've only received two missions."
"The first was sending me to Sunagakure for three months. The second was hunting down the missing-nin Orochimaru, and I failed."
"I heard my captain is going to get pregnant again after she returns this time."
"And here I am, an Uchiha overflowing with enthusiasm for battle, yet I can't find a single opportunity to fight."
The moment the child heard him mention his captain "getting pregnant," he immediately understood whose subordinate this man was.
Sarutobi Nanaka.
Danzō's files contained only Asuka's basic information. They didn't specify which ANBU squad he belonged to or provide much detail about his current chain of command.
Still, based on the stereotypical image he had of the Uchiha clan, the boy had to admit that the clan really did seem full of people obsessed with fighting.
After a moment of silence, he walked over to Asuka.
"What do you mean by 'changing jobs'?"
Asuka offered him a chicken leg.
The boy shook his head and refused it.
Asuka continued eating.
"It means changing workplaces."
"After joining the ANBU, I've only completed two missions in an entire year. And I failed one of them."
"My mission completion rate instantly dropped by half."
"I've realized that there isn't much of a future for me under Nanaka."
"I heard Uchiha Shisui is working under Elder Danzō, so I wanted to ask whether there are any openings."
The child's eyelid twitched.
Everyone in Konoha knew that Danzō hated the Uchiha clan.
Yet someone was actually volunteering to join him.
A Uchiha like this was either a bad person or an idiot.
Either way, he probably wouldn't make a very good subordinate for Lord Danzō.
"I'm sorry."
The child shook his head.
"I don't know anything about Elder Danzō's affairs."
"If Jōnin Asuka really wants to change jobs, you can go to the Hokage's office and ask Elder Danzō yourself."
"Seriously?"
Asuka pulled out a pen and paper, wrote a letter of recommendation on the spot, and handed it to the child with complete sincerity.
"Please give this letter to Elder Danzō and ask whether he's willing to take me in."
"You know I have to undergo training here, so I can't leave."
The child unconsciously tightened his grip around the letter.
He looked up at Asuka's utterly sincere expression.
He didn't know why.
This was the first time he'd encountered a Uchiha who was this eager to approach Danzō.
And somehow, it frightened him.
Was this guy plotting something?
Was he trying to deceive Lord Danzō?
Seeing the silent child, Asuka stood up and brushed the dust from the boy's backside.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"With my abilities, Elder Danzō definitely won't give up on me. From now on, we'll be teammates."
"Uh!"
The child froze.
Then he recalled the information recorded in Asuka's file and thought for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
Although he couldn't determine whether Asuka was truly loyal, Elder Danzō certainly wouldn't casually let such a talented shinobi slip away.
As one of Konoha's top medical jōnin, Elder Danzō would never abandon an opportunity like this.
With that thought, the child looked up at Asuka and answered seriously,
"Yamato."
"That's not a bad codename. It's much better than the one my captain came up with. Her naming skills are terrible."
As he spoke, Asuka suddenly snatched the letter back from the child's hands.
Then he spat a tiny fireball onto it.
The letter instantly burned into black ash.
"???"
The child stared at him in disbelief.
He instinctively clenched his fist.
Then he realized there was nothing in his right hand anymore.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked,
"What are you doing?"
"Sorry!"
Asuka scratched his head, his voice filled with regret.
"I suddenly remembered everything Captain Nanaka has done for me, and I felt guilty."
"I shouldn't abandon her just to join someone else's squad."
The child stared blankly at Asuka.
Then he swallowed dryly.
"You just said there was no future under Captain Nanaka."
Asuka slapped his right hand against his head and answered solemnly,
"Although following my captain has no future, her sense of justice is trustworthy."
The child was silent for a moment.
Then he asked,
"What is justice?"
Asuka blinked.
Then he reached out and poked the boy directly in the chest.
"Chest!"
With that, Asuka turned around and walked away without looking back.
He'd only wanted to know the kid's codename.
Who in their right mind would actually want to join Danzō?
That was like an old man deliberately looking for trouble and digging his own grave.