The Second Shinobi World War was over.
A brutal conflict that had lasted for years finally came to an end with Kumogakure's surrender.
Standing among the crowd, Kyusei quietly watched Orochimaru pass by—leading over a thousand elite shinobi through the streets.
At this time, Orochimaru was only twenty-four.
This was the peak of his life.
Black hair flowing like a waterfall, sharp and resolute features, dressed in black combat gear that accentuated his tall, imposing figure—
this was not yet the twisted, cold-blooded monster from the original timeline.
What radiated from him now was the iron-blooded aura of a battlefield general.
Strong.
Reliable.
And filled with boundless confidence.
At such a young age, he had already proven capable of independently commanding an army and defeating Kumogakure head-on.
At present, even Tsunade and Jiraiya could not yet lead troops on their own.
In the eyes of the village, the future Fourth Hokage would inevitably be chosen between Hatake Sakumo and Orochimaru.
No one could imagine that Sakumo would one day choose suicide,
or that Orochimaru would later destroy his own future through forbidden experiments.
Watching Orochimaru walk through the cheering crowd, Kyusei felt no urge to sigh or reminisce.
Only a sense of fate's cruel irony.
This Orochimaru felt completely different—
almost like a different person compared to the one he knew from the original story.
"Let's go."
As the crowd began to disperse, Kyusei glanced at the girl beside him.
Hyūga Naori.
Kaoru had been taken out on missions by Jiraiya recently, and Naori—being unusually free—had dragged Kyusei out early in the morning to watch the spectacle.
"Honestly," Naori said, eyeing him suspiciously,
"you really don't seem interested in Orochimaru at all."
"Are you interested in him?" Kyusei asked back.
"Hmm~~"
Naori thought for a moment before answering carefully.
"I wouldn't say interested exactly."
"But someone young, powerful, and loaded with achievements for the village?"
"Most people would pay attention to someone like that."
Kyusei fell silent.
As the heir of the Hyūga clan, Naori's future status—if everything went smoothly—would never be lower than that of the legendary Sannin.
Yet she still had this side to her.
"By the way," Kyusei asked casually,
"I haven't seen you these past few days. Where'd you run off to?"
With Orochimaru's victory celebrations underway, Sakumo had been busy attending welcome events, giving Kyusei an unintentional two-day break.
On the way back, Naori frowned in dissatisfaction.
"What do you mean 'ran off to play'?"
"Is that really how you see me?"
"Isn't it true?" Kyusei shot back.
Naori was the Hyūga clan's successor, and after three years of "gilding" her résumé in ANBU, she had formally returned to the main house.
As part of the Hyūga main family, she rarely took missions.
In Konoha, anyone might be busy—but the Hyūga main house was famously idle.
Seeing Kyusei's obvious lack of trust, Naori grew annoyed.
She'd recently been absorbed in studying the History of the Hyūga Clan, particularly the origins of the Caged Bird Seal, spending most of her time buried in the clan's archives.
That was why she hadn't had time to bother with Kyusei.
Even Sarutobi's assignment for her to "accompany the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki" had been temporarily shelved.
And yet, in this brat's eyes, she was just a freeloader?
"Hmph."
Naori snorted, clearly displeased.
Kyusei was about to respond—but suddenly paused and glanced back.
"What is it?" Naori asked.
"…Nothing," Kyusei said slowly.
"I just felt like someone was watching me."
More precisely, he had sensed malice.
Now a perfect jinchūriki, Kyusei could instinctively perceive hostile intent.
Just a moment ago, there had been a gaze filled with ill will directed at him.
"You're being paranoid. Come on,"
Naori said, grabbing his arm and dragging him toward his house.
"What're we eating today?"
—
Not long after they left, two white figures cautiously emerged from the ground.
"That was close," one of them muttered nervously.
"Is the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki really that sensitive?"
It had only glanced at Uzumaki Kyusei once—and nearly been discovered.
"Enough. Let's go," the other said flatly.
"We still have Lord Madara's orders."
"That thing beneath the Uchiha ancestral grounds—
we're digging it up tonight."
Without another word, it sank back underground.
"Tch, how boring," the first one complained, but followed soon after.
—
Madara Uchiha's target was a girl sealed away centuries ago—
a weapon once forged by the Uchiha clan itself.
Back when the Uchiha and Senju were locked in endless war,
a young Uchiha girl with extraordinary talent had been turned into a living weapon.
To fully awaken her potential, her parents were deliberately sent to die on the battlefield.
The result?
The awakening of the Uchiha clan's legendary supreme dōjutsu—
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
But that still wasn't enough.
Through secret techniques, she was forced to undergo two additional dōjutsu transplants.
The process was unimaginably painful.
Eventually, during a massive battle, she was jointly sealed away by the Senju, Uzumaki, and Sarutobi clans.
Thus, the Uchiha's war weapon came to hate the clan that had created her.
Her name—
Uchiha Hikari.
Madara had only learned of her existence by chance in his youth, buried within forbidden Uchiha records.
But now, to counter the rise of the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki,
she was suddenly… very useful.
Even if she came from centuries ago, she had been sealed as a child.
To Madara, that made her an extremely convenient tool.
As night fell, deep beneath Naka Shrine, within a hidden chamber—
A stone coffin was unearthed by the two white creatures.
Inside lay the Uchiha clan's forgotten weapon.
Uchiha Hikari.
Kyusei could never have imagined that simply becoming a perfect jinchūriki
would cause Madara Uchiha to accelerate his plans—
bringing Nagato and Uchiha Hikari onto the stage decades earlier than they should have appeared.
But even if he knew now…
It was already too late.
Because the coffin sealing Uchiha Hikari
had already been placed before Uchiha Madara.
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