In the deepest part of the cell block.
A figure with a head full of white hair seemed to be awakened by the sound.
He slowly raised his head, revealing a pair of crimson eyes that looked like they belonged to an evil spirit.
At this moment, the corners of his mouth stretched wide, bunching his withered skin up to his ears and making his face look even more terrifying.
He barely looked like a human at all, but rather an evil spirit so thin it was nothing but skin and bones!
“So it’s you, Danzo?!”
Uchiha Setsuna’s hoarse voice squeezed out from his throat.
Because he hadn’t spoken for so long, his pronunciation was a bit strange, but Danzo heard it with absolute clarity.
“Have you gotten this old too?!”
“Those clothes…”
“So that old geezer Senju Tobirama has already stepped down, or maybe he’s even…
dead?!”
Bang—!
Danzo’s cane slammed violently onto the floor in front of Uchiha Setsuna, smashing the stone tiles to pieces.
A sharp shard of rock flew up, slicing across Uchiha Setsuna’s face.
Crimson blood trickled down Uchiha Setsuna’s shriveled skin, yet in those evil-spirit-like eyes, there wasn’t a hint of fear—only the mocking gaze of a cat toying with a mouse:
“It seems he really is dead.”
“And if you aren’t the one in power right now, then it must be Sarutobi Hiruzen, right?!”
Danzo’s expression changed abruptly, his eyes filling with killing intent, but he didn’t attack again.
He simply stared coldly at the old man sitting cross-legged in the cell, looking like a withered skeleton in a tomb.
He was wavering slightly.
This monster—who had once stirred up a storm under the Second Hokage and even led the Uchiha Clan to directly oppose the Konoha higher-ups—was this truly someone he could control?!
“Ah~ it seems I’ve hit the mark again.”
The mockery in Uchiha Setsuna’s eyes grew even stronger:
“What, have the Konoha higher-ups finally run out of patience and decided to execute me?!”
“You are trying to provoke me.”
Danzo lowered his eyes, completely concealing his emotions, as if the flash of fury from a moment ago had been nothing but an illusion.
He once again resumed his usual posture of having everything under complete control:
“Are you seeking death?
I simply won’t give you what you want!”
“On the contrary, I am here to let you leave.”
The atmosphere in the cell abruptly froze.
Uchiha Setsuna looked up at Danzo.
Back when he held power within the Uchiha Clan, the Danzo standing before him was merely the bodyguard of the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, and his brilliance was entirely overshadowed by the Second Hokage’s other disciple, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Now, decades later, he really had grown into a vicious beast.
At the very least, this level of shrewdness was not something those mediocre fools currently running the clan could contend with.
Countless guesses flashed through Uchiha Setsuna’s mind, and almost instantly, he found the sole and correct answer!
“You want to use me?!”
“It seems your relationship with that brat Sarutobi Hiruzen isn’t exactly good.
Something major must have happened within the Uchiha Clan for you to need to borrow my hands to…”
The expression on Uchiha Setsuna’s face froze, followed immediately by the most extreme, exaggerated, and unbridled mockery!
“Hahahaha—!”
“Those idiots are actually falling for the same trick a second time?!”
“They are beyond saving!”
It was unclear when the lights in the surrounding area had gone out.
All the death row inmates knew was that from the deepest cell in the prison, a maniacal laugh sounding like a vengeful ghost echoed for a long, long time before finally stopping.
…
The rain in Konoha drizzled continuously, lasting for several days.
Uchiha Shingen’s life remained as predictable as a straight line: clocking into work, slacking off, and discussing writing with Jiraiya.
In the evenings, he trained with Jiraiya in the Forest of Death.
With the assistance of his two Shadow Clones, his training progress was much faster.
But the trade-off was experiencing three times the fatigue.
The strain on his body was gradually approaching the absolute limit of what he could endure.
“No training today, I’m treating you to barbecue!”
After Uchiha Shingen clocked out of work, Jiraiya suddenly slung an arm around his shoulders, winking playfully:
“Training also requires a balance of work and rest.
If you keep pushing yourself this hard, your body is going to give out before you even see any results from your training.”
Without waiting for Uchiha Shingen’s opinion, Jiraiya immediately dragged him toward a barbecue restaurant down the street.
Seeing Uchiha Shingen’s face full of question marks, Jiraiya quickly added:
“Your senior brother is also waiting there!”
“Senior brother?!”
Uchiha Shingen paused, giving Jiraiya a sideways glance:
“I never agreed to be your disciple!”
“Old man!”
Jiraiya didn’t mind at all, nodding his head:
“That doesn’t matter anymore.
Right now, you’re probably the only person in all of Konoha who doesn’t acknowledge it.”
“It’s not important, not important.”
Uchiha Shingen’s expression stiffened, momentarily speechless.
At the time, he had only been thinking about squeezing as much useful information out of Jiraiya as possible.
Plus, Jiraiya was the only strong shinobi he was somewhat familiar with.
So he figured he’d let Jiraiya guide him.
Who knew that later on, both within the Uchiha Clan and across Konoha, everyone would just default to the “fact” that he was Jiraiya’s disciple.
How did things develop in such a messed-up direction?!
He couldn’t just let this old geezer take advantage of him like this!
“Sigh.”
“I suddenly thought of a new idea for the plot, but what kind of disciple teaches their teacher?
Never mind, I’ll just…”
“Hold on a second!”
Since it concerned his book, Jiraiya instantly lost his cool. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
Seeing the slight upward curve of Uchiha Shingen’s mouth, he immediately realized he had fallen into a trap.
But for the sake of writing…
there was no shame.
Jiraiya thought for a moment, then clapped his hands together and said:
“How about this?
We’ll each call the other what we want.
You call me Teacher, and I’ll call you disciple.”
“You’re scheming so hard I can practically hear the abacus clicking against my face, old man!”
“Hey now~~~”
…
By the time the master and disciple arrived at the barbecue restaurant, a group had already gathered around a table.
The blonde young man leading them had a bright, sunny smile that left a deep impression at just a glance.
His hands moved quickly and skillfully, placing slices of meat onto the grill.
He roasted them until they sizzled with a mouthwatering aroma, then placed them onto the plate of the red-haired woman sitting beside him.
This drew a chorus of teasing from the three teenagers sitting with them.
“Ooh~~~”
“Minato-sensei is playing favorites way too hard!
He only has eyes for Kushina-neechan!”
Obito pouted, immediately starting to complain.
Seeing Rin stand up to grill meat, Obito watched her with hopeful eyes, only to turn to stone instantly when Rin placed the cooked meat onto Kakashi’s plate.
Seeing this scene, an image immediately popped into Uchiha Shingen’s mind: a pair of deeply in love lovebirds, plus a totally cliché and dramatic teenage love triangle.
His mouth twitched slightly as he turned to look at Jiraiya:
“Do we even need to eat?
We’ve already been stuffed full of dog food!”
Before Jiraiya could speak, Minato in the distance excitedly waved them over.
“Jiraiya-sensei!”
“Over here!
Over here!”
Jiraiya waved back, then led Uchiha Shingen over, pulling out a stool and sitting down.
What Uchiha Shingen didn’t expect was that the first person at the table to greet him wasn’t his “senior brother” Minato, but Obito, who was still sitting to the side looking like he had been struck hard enough to turn to stone.
“It’s been a long time!”
“Shingen?!”
Obito casually stood up, looking as if he had just seen a friend he hadn’t spoken to in ages:
“Now that I think about it, we haven’t seen each other in a really, really long time since graduating from the Ninja Academy.”
“Ah~”
Uchiha Shingen nodded lazily as a greeting.
He and Obito really hadn’t seen each other for a long time.
They were in the same graduating class, belonged to the same clan, and both of them were rather marginalized figures during their time at the Academy, so naturally, they got along pretty well.