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***
"Is this okay?"
Izumi Uchiha looked at Itachi and said softly, lowering her eyes to glance at Sasuke, who had fallen asleep.
Judging from his appearance, he was also very tired tonight.
"Aunt Mikoto."
Izumi gently put down Itachi's hand, turned around, and carefully handed Sasuke to Mikoto Uchiha's arms.
"Thank you."
Mikoto smiled softly, and at the same time, there was some joy in her eyes when she looked at Izumi.
It seems that Itachi's character change in recent days should also be due to this girl.
She knows Itachi very well, and Mikoto knows that her son is not a person who easily opens his heart to others.
"There is one more thing I want to ask of you."
Izumi suddenly looked at Mikoto seriously and said.
"What is it, tell me," Mikoto nodded.
The girl turned her gaze, looking at Itachi Uchiha lying on the hospital bed, and said, "Can I stay here tonight and take care of him?"
"No need to bother. I'll be fine here," Mikoto shook her head.
"I think you must be tired too. You should go back and rest."
"Please, I'm not sleepy at all," Izumi looked at Mikoto earnestly.
"ThisâŠ"
Mikoto was about to say something when Kushina Uzumaki reached from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Let her stay here. I don't think many people in the village will be able to sleep tonight."
Kushina frowned deeply.
She turned back to Shisui Uchiha and said, "You probably have your own things to do. We'll be fine here."
The village had been attacked, leaving severe damage and many injured.
They needed help right now.
"Yes!"
Shisui, after confirming that Mikoto and Sasuke were safe, was about to leave.
He nodded, his gaze lingering on Itachi.
"I'm sure you don't want to sleep like this!"
Then he quickly left the ward.
In the hospital room, Kushina and Mikoto's gaze returned to Itachi.
Naruto Uzumaki had only been born a short time ago, but his little face showed no sign of fatigue, only curiously observing everything around him.
Izumi moved around to the other side of the bed and sat down beside Itachi's arm.
Her clear, bright eyes gazed deeply at the boy, and she spoke with determination.
"Itachi, whether you truly saved the entire village or not, you at least saved me. So I will stay with you until you wake up!"
Just as the Konoha ninja began to clean up the mess in the village...
Within the Land of Fire, at the foot of a stone mountain...
Buzz!
Space distorted, ripples rolled in, and a figure emerged.
"Ahem!"
As the figure emerged, the masked man began panting violently.
He leaned against the cool rock and immediately sat down.
For some reason, the wound on his severed left arm had stopped bleeding.
The fear in his eyes beneath the brown mask remained.
If Swirl Zetsu hadn't returned to his aid just now, he would have been entangled by the Fourth Hokage.
Soon, once his eye power was exhausted, or if Minato discovered another flaw in his eye technique, he would have been dead!
In the deep darkness, the masked man finally removed his mask, revealing a face that even looked a bit childish.
It looked to be around fourteen or fifteen.
Even with the wisdom of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Itachi, they could never have imagined that the masked man they had feared so much was now a teenager.
His face, still childish, still showed traces of his former handsomeness.
The reason for this was that the right side of his face was covered in wrinkles.
Not just on his face, but also along his neck, merging into his collar.
"Hoohoo!"
After removing his mask, the boy finally took two deep breaths of cold air.
The icy sensation instantly permeated his entire body, gradually calming him down.
"Swish."
At that moment, the ground around him suddenly rippled like water.
A giant pitcher plant sprouted from it, gradually opening, revealing a black and white figure.
"I heard everything from Swirl Zetsu. What exactly happened?" Black Zetsu said in a deep voice.
The young man turned his head, brow furrowed.
"It's as if the people of Konoha knew my plan beforehand. When the Nine-Tails Jinchƫriki gave birth, Jiraiya was there, secretly assisting. The Fourth Hokage's response was also calm and orderly."
The most crucial part of his original plan was to strike when Minato lowered his guard after Naruto's arrival.
He had no chance of winning against Minato and Jiraiya head-on.
"How on earth did they know?"
The young man gritted his teeth.
It was impossible for the people of the Five Great Ninja Nations to know of his existence.
Black Zetsu was also perplexed.
Their plan truly shouldn't be known to anyone.
However, he had previously learned a general idea from Swirl Zetsu.
"The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, is quite a formidable figure!"
The young man's battle with the Fourth Hokage had been completely crushed despite the vast disparity in intelligence.
Besides the gap in physical strength between him and the Fourth Hokage, the greater gap lay in combat experience.
Fortunately, Swirl Zetsu wasn't human, and the mark inscribed by the Fourth Hokage could be easily removed.
Otherwise, the young man would never have escaped today.
"How could the wooden figure technique be broken?"
Black Zetsu demanded.
He could understand that the young man had been defeated by the Fourth Hokage, but even if he had been defeated, the latter wouldn't have been able to break the wooden figure.
Upon mentioning this, a look of shock washed over the young man's face.
He spoke in a low, startled voice, "Someone has used their eye power to override my eye control."
"How is that possible?"
Black Zetsu exclaimed in shock.
To break the wooden figure's eye control, one must possess the same level of eye power as the young man.
But no one in the current Uchiha clan possesses the MangekyĆ Sharingan.
"That's your problem," the young man looked at Black Zetsu, who had always been responsible for gathering intelligence.
"Could it be that Uchiha Fugaku, or someone else, has concealed their abilities?"
Black Zetsu muttered.
If someone in the current Uchiha clan truly possessed the MangekyĆ Sharingan, there would be no reason to hide it.
Unless the Uchiha clan wanted to use it as a trump card to seize control of the village.
However, as far as he knew, the current Uchiha clan leader, Fugaku, was not someone with such ambitions.
Furthermore, even if Uchiha Fugaku had concealed his MangekyĆ Sharingan, he wouldn't reveal it at this time.
That would undoubtedly alert the Fourth Hokage and the village leaders.
This would have a huge impact on the Uchiha clan's situation.
The only possibility now is that the Uchiha clan's top brass and the village's top brass had already reached some kind of agreement.
However, in the process of gathering intelligence, Black Zetsu did not detect any clues.
The strangest thing is that they took such a defensive posture, and it is impossible for them to block intelligence from the other four major countries.
Because the Third Shinobi World War had just ended, if a pair of MangekyĆ Sharingan appeared in Konoha, the other hostile ninja villages of Konoha should be informed as soon as possible to create a deterrent.
Black Zetsu suddenly looked at the young man and said in a heavy voice.
"The only explanation for your disastrous defeat today is that Konoha has known about our existence for a long time."
...
"Are you so sure?"
Just as Black Zetsu finished speaking, he opened his mouth again, and a completely different voice emanated.
Compared to the previous deep tone, this voice was much more frivolous.
"There is no other possibility."
Black Zetsu spoke again.
It wasn't just his body that was split into black and white.
Each of these two bodies, black and white, held a completely different will.
It was Black Zetsu who had analyzed the situation earlier, and it was White Zetsu who had raised doubts.
"Really?"
The young man lowered his eyes.
He believed Black Zetsu's analysis, because among all the people he had met, there was no one more experienced and knowledgeable than Black Zetsu.
Even the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Hokage, the oldest in the ninja world, could not compare to him.
"So how do you plan to track down the information? When did it start, and how did it leak out?" the young man asked.
Black Zetsu said, "I'll investigate this myself, but what you need to do now is disappear for a while."
"Although tonight's action caused some damage to Konoha, it was only the destruction of a few houses and the deaths of a few insignificant people."
His words were indifferent, the tragic scenes unfolding in Konoha seeming insignificant to him.
"But neither the Fourth Hokage nor the ninjas of Konoha will give up easily."
"You know this better than I do."
Black Zetsu looked at the boy beside him with a hint of amusement.
His plan to attack Konoha while the Nine-Tails Jinchƫriki was still alive had failed, but in his eyes, it was nothing.
He didn't even care much about the boy's life or death.
"Boring."
The young man glanced at him, then picked up his mask again, covering his face.
"I've said before, I'll sever all cause and effect in this world."
"To prevent tragedy from happening again, I'll use any means necessary."
Beneath the mask, those crimson eyes shone with determination.
This was destined to be the coldest night in Konoha's history.
The village suffered extensive damage, and the casualties were immense.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, which lingered for a moment.
However, no matter how dark the night, there will eventually be light.
After a night of hard work, the Konoha ninja had taken all the survivors they could find to the hospital for treatment.
They then cleared the village's collapsed buildings and streets, and recovered the remains of the deceased.
For some reason, the higher-ups didn't immediately allow the civilians in the shelters to return to the village.
Some areas of the village, while commonplace for ninja, were unacceptable to ordinary people.
The work continued until dusk the next day.
The Hokage Building in the village center was also nearly destroyed in the battle.
Therefore, Minato Namikaze conducted his duties in a makeshift tent.
"We must suppress the information about Itachi's coma in the Konoha hospital," Minato said, looking at Shisui Uchiha.
Although Itachi was still unconscious, Minato was certain that he was the one who had used his MangekyĆ Sharingan to break through the masked man's control.
He was the only one in the village who knew about this, but with such a failure, the masked man would likely immediately investigate.
His focus would undoubtedly be on the Uchiha, and if word of Itachi's overuse of his eye power leaked out, it could expose his secret.
While most wouldn't connect the two events, Minato still felt the utmost caution.
"Yes!"
Shisui nodded.
He was one of Minato's few trusted confidants.
After becoming the Fourth Hokage, although Minato had established his own ANBU, he could only trust a few people completely.
Shisui then left, and not long after, Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived.
"Minato, you're looking for me?"
Hiruzen looked at Minato, whose expression gradually darkened.
His eyes narrowed.
"Take a look at this," Minato handed Hiruzen a scroll.
Hiruzen took it and scanned it.
The scroll recorded the activities of Root members on the night the masked man manipulated the wooden figure to attack the village, as recorded by ANBU personnel.
"With their strength, they should have been able to play a greater role and reduce casualties."
The scroll that Minato handed to Hiruzen recorded not only the ordinary members of Root, but also the itinerary of their leader DanzĆ Shimura and Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin.
Both were incredibly powerful ninja, yet they had merely escorted a few civilians during a crisis.
While their actions weren't wrong, they clearly weren't fully utilized.
Hiruzen and Minato were well aware of this.
Their actions weren't accidental.
"ThisâŠ"
Hiruzen's expression tightened as well. He knew Minato's character well.
He could tolerate most things, but this had already crossed his line.
"I have great respect for Elder DanzĆ and Senior Orochimaru, but this kind of thing must never happen again. I assume you share my sentiments, don't you?"
Minato frowned.
Of all the Hokage of Konoha, he, the Fourth, was in the most awkward position.
Although he was Hokage, there were some matters beyond Minato's power to make direct decisions.
Politics was different from ninja power.
Although Minato had succeeded as Hokage, he wasn't born into a prominent family, so his say wasn't absolute.
Minato didn't object to discussing certain matters, but the actions of Orochimaru and DanzĆ were undoubtedly a challenge to his position as Hokage.
The Root personnel hadn't accepted the reassignment voluntarily.
It had been done under the supervision of the ANBU, following Itachi's prompting.
This showed that if Minato had let it alone, the situation would have been exactly as Itachi predicted.
In the face of a grave crisis for the village, DanzĆ and his Root had turned a blind eye in order to preserve their strength.
"I understand."
Hiruzen frowned.
This was unbearable for Minato, not to mention him.
"Now that the village's crisis has just been resolved, it's time to stabilize the people. Let's discuss some things later."
He sighed and turned to leave.
Minato understood that Hiruzen's actions were intended to maintain harmony among the village's top leaders.
However, the current village elders held outdated ideas, no longer suited to the times.
Although Konoha had won the Third Shinobi World War, stagnating was the opposite of progress.
If they didn't change, Konoha's position as the leader of the Five Great Ninja Nations would no longer be secure.
Those azure eyes flickered, as if pondering something.
Although the matters at hand were almost finished, he couldn't go to the hospital to visit Itachi as Hokage.
This would also arouse suspicion from others.
He could only wait until the dust settled and then visit as Mikoto's friend.
Minato sighed inwardly.
"I'm sorry, Itachi, I hope you can understand."
.....
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