Arashi naturally had to choose his personal guard with great care.
Strength and a clean background were only the bare minimum.
Most importantly, the candidate needed to look forward to the future while still being easy to influence.
Uchiha Shisui met every requirement perfectly.
“Since you already have someone in mind, of course I’ll support you.”
Minato nodded.
“Uchiha Shisui, right?
I’ll write an official order and have someone deliver it—”
“That won’t be necessary.
I’ll go personally.”
Arashi shook his head.
“It will show more sincerity.”
“You’re going to the Uchiha compound?”
Minato frowned slightly.
He personally held no prejudice toward the Uchiha, but the Third Hokage’s faction and years of public opinion within the village were a different matter.
Arashi was intelligent, but he had not lived in Konoha for long.
Minato worried that he might not understand how serious the situation was.
“I know.
The Uchiha are rather hostile toward outsiders.”
Someone had certainly guided the village into rejecting the Uchiha, but the clan itself was not entirely blameless.
At least, that was the conclusion Arashi had reached after several encounters with them.
“Still, I have a few connections there.”
Arashi smiled calmly.
“Besides, I’m visiting with good intentions.
Surely they won’t strike someone who comes with a smile.”
With Minato’s official order in hand, Arashi did not head straight for the Uchiha compound.
He first bought some fruit, then leisurely made his way toward his destination with the bag in hand.
Just as Minato feared, two guards stopped him the moment he reached the entrance.
“Advisor-sama, the area ahead belongs to the Uchiha clan.
Outsiders are not permitted to enter.”
Their choice of words was worth noting.
They clearly knew that Arashi was the Hokage’s chief advisor, yet they still called him an outsider and barred his path.
They had clearly never learned the meaning of tact.
Would the unruly villagers of Konoha, who even bullied the Nine-Tails’ jinchuriki despite the risk of him losing control and destroying the village, tolerate such behavior?
Arashi had naturally prepared for this.
He raised the bag of fruit.
“I’m not some random outsider.
I came to visit a lonely elderly member of your clan.”
“Are the two of you going to stop me from doing that as well?”
“A lonely elder?”
The two young Uchiha exchanged suspicious looks.
“Who are you here to visit, Advisor-sama?”
“Uchiha Obito’s grandmother.”
Their expressions immediately turned sour, as though they had swallowed flies.
They wanted to stop him, but Arashi’s achievements during the Third Shinobi World War were impossible to ignore.
He had genuinely saved the life of an Uchiha.
Under those circumstances, preventing him from visiting Obito and his grandmother would be difficult to justify.
Even after being allowed inside, Arashi attracted countless hostile looks as he walked through the streets without the Uchiha crest on his clothes.
For a moment, he almost wondered whether he had entered the Hyuga compound instead.
The rejection itself did not bother him.
The real problem was that asking anyone for directions would be rather troublesome.
At that moment, a sweet voice called out from behind him.
“Kaeda-san!”
Arashi turned and saw a cute girl with purple markings on her cheeks running toward him while waving.
She completely ignored the sharp gazes around her and stopped in front of Arashi before bowing.
Her face was filled with surprise and delight.
“What brings you here?”
“Rin.”
Arashi smiled.
“I came to visit Obito and his grandmother.”
The girl before him was Nohara Rin, the heroine of Tears Hidden by Kamui.
She was the spark that ignited the Fourth Shinobi World War and was praised by countless fans as the greatest goddess in Naruto.
“That’s very thoughtful of you.
I’ve never seen anyone else come to visit Obito’s grandmother.”
Rin’s eyes brightened even further.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Of course.
Obito will be delighted to see you.”
The corner of Arashi’s mouth rose slightly.
Someone had delivered him a pillow just as he was about to fall asleep.
Others might not know where Obito lived, but Rin certainly did.
Following his eager young guide, they soon arrived outside a small courtyard.
Rin called inside with a smile.
“Obito!
Kaeda-san came to see you!”
A series of loud crashes immediately came from inside, as though someone was frantically cleaning up.
Roughly half a minute later, the door flew open with a bang.
A boy wearing goggles but lacking his signature orange jacket rushed outside with his arms spread wide.
“Kaeda-san, what are you doing here?!”
He threw himself at Arashi like an excited puppy.
Arashi smiled and rubbed his head.
“First, I wanted to see how well your injuries had healed.
Second, I came to visit your grandmother.”
“You were wounded on the battlefield, so you’re a hero too.
As the Fourth Hokage’s advisor, I have a duty to visit you on his behalf.”
That was right.
Uchiha Obito, the male lead of Tears Hidden by Kamui, had somehow avoided dying during the Battle of Kannabi Bridge.
Of course, saying he died in the original history was not entirely accurate.
Uchiha Madara had rescued him, but Konoha had always believed he was dead and had even carved his name onto the Memorial Stone.
How could Arashi allow the instigator of the Fourth Shinobi World War, the true leader behind the Akatsuki, and the owner of Kamui to fall into someone else’s hands?
Near the end of the war, Arashi had already earned Minato’s trust as a strategist.
He deliberately kept track of Kakashi’s team and arrived with reinforcements during the Battle of Kannabi Bridge.
They rescued Obito while he was still trapped beneath the boulder.
In Arashi’s timeline, only Iwa shinobi died during the battle.
Obito alone became the hero of the Sharingan.
Kakashi had still formed a deep bond with him, but he never received Obito’s eye.
Unfortunately, half of Obito’s body had been crushed beneath the rocks.
Even if treated, he should theoretically have remained disabled.
Konoha did not possess something as useful as White Zetsu’s artificial body, and the old men in charge were unwilling to waste too much time or resources on him.
In the end, Minato and Arashi had personally sought out Tsunade, renowned as the greatest medical ninja, and asked her to treat him.
Thanks to her efforts, Obito could at least stand and walk again.
With his current physical condition, however, returning to active duty would require something like Orochimaru’s experiments or White Zetsu’s advanced modifications.
For now, he could only live as a civilian.
Obito felt endless gratitude and trust toward the man who had saved his life and helped bring Tsunade back to treat him.
That was why he had embraced Arashi the moment they met.
Obito’s grandmother soon stepped out from behind the door.
The elderly woman was equally grateful to the savior of her only grandson.
Her knees trembled as she tried to kneel before him.
Arashi hurriedly caught and supported her.
Although he had actually come for Shisui, he showed no impatience at all.
He entered the house with the fruit as though visiting Obito and his grandmother had truly been his only purpose.
The four of them sat down and began chatting.
Arashi knew exactly what an elderly woman wanted to hear.
He either praised Obito’s courage during the war or hinted that he was still searching for a way to heal him completely and allow him to become a shinobi again.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“This is Fugaku.
May I ask whether Advisor Kaeda is still here?”
Obito and his grandmother were stunned.
Judging from Obito’s memories in the original story, he had been an insignificant fringe member of the Uchiha clan.
After all, he had been considered a failure.
None of his happy memories involved his clan.
Nearly all of them revolved around Rin.
Obito had awakened two-tomoe Sharingan in both eyes, proving that he possessed considerable talent.
Unfortunately, he could no longer serve as a shinobi, so the clan still saw no value in him.
Meeting someone as important as the clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, would normally have been impossible.
Arashi laughed inwardly.
‘He finally came.’
The Hokage’s chief advisor had personally visited the family of an Uchiha war hero.
There was no chance Fugaku could remain seated after hearing that.
Arashi immediately rose and opened the door, welcoming Fugaku inside.
“Clan Head, your timing is perfect.”
“I was just telling Obito that I plan to send him to Orochimaru-sama for experimental treatment.”
“Perhaps his research can free Obito from his injuries and allow him to become a shinobi again.”
Fugaku’s expression immediately turned hideous.