Uchiha Sasuke, seeing Obito's confident demeanor, no longer said anything.
He only wanted to quickly finish the matter and transplant Itachi's eyes to take revenge on Konoha.
'However, Konoha, huh?'
Sasuke's gaze flickered as he looked into the distance. Due to the fast movement, he could only see a vague outline.
He muttered, "Maybe I can first collect some useful information in this Konoha."
However, Obito spoke urgently, "It's best not to make extra trouble. Don't forget, at this time, the Uchiha clan has not been exterminated yet."
"The time-space interference issue I mentioned before wasn't all lies. We'd better stay low-profile and not expose ourselves in front of too many people."
Uchiha Sasuke keenly noticed that Obito's thoughts had somewhat changed, and couldn't help but ask, "Weren't you indifferent to Konoha's fate? No, you were even indifferent to the entire shinobi world. Why care about these things now?"
Obito fell silent. He couldn't say that in the original timeline, he truly didn't care about that soon-to-be destroyed world because in that world, Rin didn't exist.
But in this world, Rin was still alive, Rin was still a Konoha ninja, how could he turn a world with Rin in it into a mess?
He coughed a few times and said, "In any case, follow my arrangement. Let's hurry to Konoha now."
Just like that, the two quickened their pace...
———
[Hokage, Obito Rebirth World]
[Konoha Village, Hokage's Office]
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat at his desk, handling official documents.
But his gaze was scattered and empty.
At this moment, perhaps he didn't even know what he was writing on the paperwork he was reviewing.
He was only using this method to numb himself, to make himself seem less sad.
Not long ago, a member of the Anbu specifically assigned to monitor the Root division suddenly sent him a piece of intelligence: the Anbu discovered that some Root members who remained in Konoha were no longer as obedient as before. Some even recovered their so-called humanity, real smiles appeared on their faces, not those fake ones.
This made them suspicious, what kind of unknown trick did Danzo pull before he left?
So they began a thorough investigation of those Root members.
And what they found shocked them. All the Root members who had been subjected to the tongue curse seal and various sealing jutsu had their seals mysteriously undone.
This meant that, to some extent, these members were freed from Danzo's control and became free.
No wonder these people had changed.
After the Anbu finished the investigation, they immediately reported this intel to Hiruzen.
Immediately, Hiruzen's heart turned cold.
The seals Danzo implanted were not something that could be easily broken. There were only two ways to remove them.
One was like a caged bird. When those people died, the seals on their bodies would automatically lose effect.
The other was if the caster, Danzo, had an accident.
'Without a doubt, these people are still alive and well. So… is Danzo dead?'
At the time, Hiruzen asked the Anbu how long the seals had been lifted. The Anbu reported that it had already been some time.
'So, Danzo had died before I sent out Minato's team.'
Although he had vaguely sensed something and even went so far as to dispatch the war-determining Minato team during wartime, even so, was he still unable to save Danzo?
Hiruzen suddenly felt something stuck in his heart. The more it stuck, the more uncomfortable it became. He couldn't even continue handling paperwork.
He could only put down his pen, adjust his Hokage robe, and stood up.
He looked toward the front of the Hokage's office, at the somewhat weathered and scarred door, and walked over.
BANG!
A sound.
Hiruzen slammed the door shut.
Outside, the guard who heard the noise rushed over, instinctively saying, "Danzo-sama, you've come out?"
Then, he saw that standing at the door wasn't Hokage Advisor Shimura Danzo, but the Third Hokage himself.
He immediately panicked and said, "I'm sorry. Hokage-sama, I mistook you for someone else. Are you… heading out?"
Hiruzen smiled faintly and said, "It's alright. Sometimes mistaking someone isn't your fault. Just keep guarding this place."
"I do indeed want to go out for a walk."
After speaking, Hiruzen put his hands behind his back and left the Hokage building.
Unlike Minato's team far away in the Amegakure surrounded by constant drizzle, Konoha at this moment was bathed in golden warm sunlight.
Hiruzen even had a momentary illusion, 'Konoha looks more radiant than usual.'
He strolled along the street, without a goal, not knowing where he was headed.
But he saw the smiling faces of the Konoha villagers on the street, saw children playing everywhere, and saw an old man carrying large bags while complaining, "Ah, without little Obito helping out, this old waist of mine is really strained… Little Obito, where are you?"
For some reason, a sense of accomplishment rose in Hiruzen's heart. He muttered, "Danzo, can you see this? This is the Konoha you protected."
"Although I am the Hokage bathed in the sunlight, without the roots underground, how could Konoha grow strong? Grow into a towering tree?"
Hiruzen's mood suddenly turned sorrowful again. Perhaps at this moment, he had already let go... But maybe not fully.
Unconsciously, he walked to the door of a small shop. This was a specialty shop in Konoha that sold tri-colored dango, very famous. The owner, like the Ichiraku Ramen shop owner, mastered a legendary secret recipe.
The tri-colored dango here weren't just loved by children, even adults often came to eat them, especially the Uchiha…
Hiruzen was no longer young. He didn't like sweets. But inexplicably, he suddenly craved a bit of sweetness. Just like that, he stepped inside.
At this moment, there weren't many customers in the shop. Only two people wearing straw hats and red cloud black cloaks, looking a bit gloomy, were sitting inside.
The aura on these two people gave him a sense of familiarity. He involuntarily walked up to them and said to the owner first, "One serving of tri-colored dango," then sat next to them.
When the owner saw that the Third Hokage had actually come to his humble shop, he was inexplicably delighted and quickly said, "Hokage-sama, I'll prepare it right away."
After speaking, he hurried into the kitchen to start skewering the dango.
As for the two customers beside Hiruzen, they subconsciously lowered their straw hats.
Hiruzen keenly noticed this movement, turned his head, and asked, "Are you Uchiha?"
He calmly said, "No need to be so guarded against me, we're all from the same village. I won't eat you."
This sentence seemed to stir one of them. His whole body trembled, and he couldn't help but ask, "Then tell me, what exactly is a village? What is a shinobi?"
Hiruzen was stunned. He hadn't expected this strange Uchiha to ask such a question?
In that moment, Danzo's face once again floated up in his mind, and his expression turned slightly nostalgic.
He slowly said, "A village is everyone's home, a peaceful and beautiful place."
"And shinobi, they exist to protect the village."
"They live in the shadows, silently dedicating themselves to the village. Perhaps they'll never be able to bask in the sunlight in their entire lives. But without a doubt, they are GREAT HEROES WHO PROTECT THE VILLAGE."
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