In the woods of the fourth theater.

The completely wet chakra test paper had increased in weight as it had been soaked and softened by water, and it fell to the ground like a white mud with a "snapping" sound.

The three brothers took a step back in unison, their faces different.

"Yoshiyu," Uchiha Sasuke said with some regret as he didn't understand what was going on, "why did you break this piece of paper." In this case, you won't be able to take it back to your father. ”

Yi Yong withdrew his empty hand, and the word "innocent" was written on his face.

“…… I don't know what's going on, and all of a sudden it's like that. ”

"You don't have to worry, test strips are meant to be disposable."

Uchiha Itachi shook his head slightly, "However, your situation is very special. The chakra attribute of mutual restraint of water and fire rarely appears in the same ninja, and ......"

He looked at Yiyong's eyes with a solemn expression, and his tone was a little solemn.

"Your chakra has an extremely high affinity for the water element, so high that it can overwhelm the Uchiha's family fire attribute. I'm afraid that no one will believe it. ”

"Is that a bad thing?"

Sasuke looked at Itachi's gaze a little strange, full of inquiry, "Why does my brother look unhappy?" ”

"If Yoshiyong is willing to become a ninja, maybe it's better to say something."

[But it's not much better.] 】

Itachi crouched down and explained to the two, "Although the water escape ninjutsu is not very aggressive, it is superior to its large range, and it can easily change the terrain and destroy wooden buildings. With the affinity of the water attribute of Righteous Bravery, as long as the chakra is enough, I am afraid that B-level ninjutsu can be used as a forbidden art, and this does not take into account the existence of natural water sources around. Can you imagine how excited the people would be when they found out about this? ”

In his mind, he had already begun to imagine the scene of Yiyong behind his father, manipulating the flood river to wash away the entire Konoha Village, and his father laughing in front of him.

According to the records of the clan, before Konoha established the village, when Senju and Uchiha were enemies, Senju, who was not yet the second Hokage, used the sea-like water escape ninjutsu to attack the Uchiha's old site, completely destroying the residence of the clan and causing a large number of casualties.

Now that there is an opportunity to return the favor with the other, it is impossible for those who hold grudges to miss this opportunity.

The most important thing is that as long as the righteous and brave water escape is strong enough, the ape flying clan, who are also good at fire escape, will be restrained to the death.

And among Konoha, there are very few earth ninjas who are good at dealing with water escape.

Even if ninjas can survive the water and fight on the water, what about the civilians and the shinobi who can't tread water?

Itachi didn't dare to think about it anymore.

"Let's make a deal."

He looked at Sasuke and Yoshiyong and said, "Father asked about today's situation, and we only said that Yoshiyu's chakra is a water attribute and a fire attribute, not to mention the specific situation when the chakra test strip changes. ”

Then he turned his head and told Yiyong alone, "If your father gives you another test strip to test, you just refuse as usual." ”

Yi Yong nodded approvingly.

"But why hide this from your father?"

Sasuke doesn't quite understand.

It's obviously a good thing to be noticed by my father.

Before, it was just that Yiyong didn't care about his father's opinion, but now, even his brother is promoting this kind of behavior?

Is their father's approval really so worthless to them?

"Sasuke, once his father knows about this, Yoshiyoshi will no longer be free."

Itachi sighed, the real reason for many things, he and Sasuke couldn't understand, and Sasuke couldn't understand either.

"My father will be forced by the upper ninja of the clan to train Yiyong to practice water escape, and he will be cultivated as a secret weapon. When the time comes, you won't be able to see him, and you won't be able to eat the food cooked by Yiyong. ”

[This does not take into account what the clansmen might do in order to improve his pupil power......]

Then he paused, staring at Sasuke with blazing eyes, "Do you really want this to happen?" ”

"No, I don't want to."

Sasuke shook his head palely, "But Dad probably wouldn't do that." ”

"He is the patriarch of the Uchiha first and our father second, and he must think about the future of his clan."

Itachi seemed to understand Fugaku very well, but his tone became a little colder.

He remembered that when he opened his eyes when he was eight years old, his teammates Amama and Kokoko were killed by the masked man, and his father didn't care about the fact that someone lost their lives, but just fed the fish while happily congratulating him on opening his eyes, "truly becoming a member of the Uchiha".

Since then, he has not expressed any real thoughts in front of his father, but has only quietly observed.

However, the more he saw and heard, the more he resisted the so-called "pride of the Uchiha".

If it weren't for the reluctance of Sasuke and Yoshiyong, he would really want to leave this house.

I really want to think about it.

"Sasuke, if you're going to become a ninja, keep that in mind."

Itachi gently touched Sasuke's immature face, "Sometimes, being better than others will only make you be used and consumed earlier. If possible, I wish you were born in the City of Fire, not in Ninja Village and Uchiha......"

Being blessed with such an abnormal wish, Sasuke suddenly fell into an ice cave and didn't know how to respond.

Yiyong glanced at Itachi deeply, remembering that the other party had repeatedly refused his father to take the Shinobi exam.

Presumably, Itachi also knew very well that once he became a shinobi, he would have to participate in more complicated battles.

[Obviously only ten years old......]

[But have you already seen the essence of ninjas as consumables?] 】

For the first time, he felt that Itachi was working harder than when he was thirteen or fourteen years old.

At that time, he was engulfed by hatred for ghosts and shame for his sister and the rabbit, but he could still use these feelings to push himself forward, and he had inexhaustible motivation without having to think about the question of what he was living for.

But Itachi intellectually understands the truth that he is a "consumable", but he can still persist and live unwaveringly, without being affected by that sense of despair and meaninglessness......

This is by no means something that can be summed up by words like "mature" or "precocious". And with a hint of paranoia ready to bounce back.

He grabbed the corner of the ferret's coat and said quite sincerely, "Don't push yourself too hard. ”

Uchiha Itachi was stunned for a long time before revealing a bright smile.

At this point, the morning training was completely over.

After the three brothers finished lunch, Itachi said to the two, "Rest is also part of cultivation. You can sleep here first, or go swimming in the shallow lake over there, and I'm going to leave for a while and return in the afternoon. ”

"Huh?"

Sasuke suddenly understood, "Does my brother still have a mission today?" ”

"Well, it's a C-class mission."

Uchiha Itachi nodded and said, "Because it's a commission from the Daimyo's Mansion, you have to go over on time." ”

The place where the daimyo ruled was in the capital of the Fire Country.

But most of his family, except for his eldest son, likes to spend their holidays in Konoha Village.

For example, Mrs. Daimyo, a dozen of her cats will be lost every day, and finding cats has become a daily task for Konoha Shinobi, and the rewards are rich.

"Then brother, you have to come back early."

Sasuke said with some reluctance.

Being alone with Yiyong when he was sober was a test of endurance for him.

He wanted to talk to Yiyong, but Yiyong always said things that made people angry.

"I try."

Itachi rubbed Sasuke's head, "When I come back in the afternoon, I'll teach you the trick of Hodo's fireball."

"During this time, you can't quarrel with Yiyong, and you can't make trouble and ignore him."

"Oh."

Sasuke said in Itachi's tone, "I'll try my best." ”

Itachi smiled and poked him in the head before leaving, but was stopped by Yiyong.

"Wait a minute."

Yi Yong opened the bottom of the food box, took out a fox mask and handed it to Itachi, "This is for you." ”

"Disaster Mask?"

Itachi immediately understood Yiyong's intentions, "Thank you, Yiyong. ”

After speaking, he waved his hand at the two brothers, and an instantaneous body technique disappeared in place, shocking Sasuke to be so handsome for a while, that he wanted to learn.

It's just that what the two of them didn't know was that although the Uchiha Itachi was gone, another pair of scarlet writing wheels burst out in the darkness of this deep forest, watching their every move.

……

"Bravery."

Under the shade of a tree, Sasuke leaned lazily against the trunk of the tree, and skillfully threw the kunai in his hand with his right hand, hoping to elicit Yoshiyong's expression of "envy" and "wanting to learn".

But the latter lay down boredly at the end of the shade, his eyes reflecting the white clouds in the sky, as if pondering the shape of the clouds.

[The resolution of the Breath of the Moon is 10 times that of the Breath of Fire, so the Breath of the Sun should be about the same.] 】

[Itachi is a three-hook jade, and it will analyze three hundredths of a hundred thousand per hour, even if I can collect the resolution of the breath of the moon three times a day, it will take a full ten thousand days, that is, more than twenty years, that is too long......]

[In addition to Itachi, the father, mother, and water stop are also three-hooked jade.] 】

[If I find some reason to let them cast illusions on me, maybe the progress will be much faster......]

As Yoshiyong was thinking, the face of his twin brother Sasuke suddenly came into his field of vision.

The latter was kneeling on the ground, staring carefully into his eyes, as if trying to see through him.

"Do what?"

Yiyong asked confusedly, "If you want me to train with you, please forgive me for refusing." We're too far off. ”

[With the strength of this body, it should be able to punch the round stone that Master Scales placed on the mountain (the one that Tanjiro cut before he went to take the test) into a big hole. 】

"Whoever told you not to train, how could it be my opponent."

Sasuke snorted stinkingly, completely misunderstanding what Yoshiyo meant, but in the blink of an eye, a trace of loneliness welled up on his face.

"But if you're serious, you're going to overtake me in no time.

"Your body is so good, and your strength is so great, even the chakra attribute is so exaggerated."

Sasuke's voice grew quieter and quieter, forcing Yoshito to sit up to hear clearly.

Sasuke pursed his mouth and said, "Y-You're not supposed to ......"

"Could it be anything?"

Yoshito patted Sasuke on the shoulder, "You make it clear." ”

"I mean!

"You probably knew that I was useless a long time ago, so for the sake of me, that's why you pretended that you didn't want to be a ninja, and pretended not to care about your father's attitude towards you, right?"

Sasuke finally spoke his heart.

"If that's the case, I don't need your pity."

The summer wind rustled through the canopy above the two of them, making a pleasant rustle.

After this cool gust of wind, Sasuke lowered his head and twisted to the side in shame, his eyes red.

Sasuke Uchiha has been a child who does not admit defeat since he was a child.

When Yiyong started doing housework, he also wanted to show himself, but he did it in a mess.

When he was criticized by his father, he was so panicked that he couldn't sit steadily, but Yiyong interrupted directly and asked when he could prepare dinner.

Although Sasuke never said it, he really envied Yoshiyu for being able to easily do things that neither he nor his brother could do.

It's just that as he gradually became sensible, Sasuke understood that what Yoshiyoshi was good at was not what his clan and father praised him.

This is a ninja village, a place where only the strong have a sense of existence.

Possess power, become a ninja, and be like your older brother, so that you can be appreciated by your father.

Around the age of four, Sasuke began pestering his brother to teach him shuriken, three-body jutsu, and Uchiha's fire escape.

After a year like this, he felt that he finally had something stronger than Yiyong.

He even felt a little pitiful because he didn't want to be a ninja and had to be attacked by his father's eyes every night.

It wasn't until last night that the younger brother, who had never trained, suddenly opened his eyes for some reason, and his father said that "Yoshiyu's talent is stronger than Itachi and Shisui", that Sasuke felt a little depressed.

This morning, when Yoshiyoshi easily lifted the food box and ran long distances without even breathing, Sasuke finally understood what his father meant, and understood that he was not mistaken.

Gradually, the details that he had never considered before also poured into his mind.

For example, every time Yiyong buys vegetables, the size and weight of those vegetables.

For example, every summer, he is so hot that he sweats profusely, but Yiyong's side is cool.

For example, every time he went out, his mother would tell him to be careful, but he rarely said that to Yiyong, obviously he still had so much money on him.

Because my mother knew very early that Yiyong was not so strong since yesterday.

It's always been strong.

If you think about it, this home-

He was the only one who was treated completely like a child and a weakling!

"Why are you crying?"

Yiyong was a little annoyed.

He's not a butterfly ninja, he doesn't coax children.

"You answer my question first."

Sasuke stared at Yoshiyu with some reluctance, "Did you say you didn't want to be a ninja just to keep me from looking so pitiful?" ”

Deep in the forest, the pupils of the writing wheel eyes shrank, and they obviously wanted to know the answer to the question.

With the "favor" of Yoshiyong to Sasuke, he absolutely did this kind of thing.

Yiyong took a deep breath and spat out a few words quite formally: "Absolutely not." ”

"Why?"

Sasuke was stunned for a moment, "Why don't you want to be a ninja?" ”

"You should ask yourself why you want to be a ninja."

Yi Yong looked up and asked without thinking.

"Eh, because Mom and Dad and my brother are all ninjas—"

"You mean, you're just imitating them?"

"But Daddy, too, wants us to be ninjas—"

"That means you're just choosing your goals according to your family's conventions and what they expect from you."

Yi Yong looked at him with a deep gaze, "Even if you don't know what you want to do after becoming a ninja, as long as you have the power, as long as you let your father and clan recognize you, as long as you make Uchiha famous, will everything be fine?" ”

“……”

Sasuke looked at Yoshiyu in surprise.

The latter was the first time he had spoken to him for such a long time, as if he wanted to make up for what he hadn't said in the previous years.

"Is there anything wrong with such thoughts?"

Isn't that what everyone is doing?

Uchiha Fugaku in the distance also frowned, for fear that Yoshiyu would spread some strange thoughts to Sasuke.

Yi Yong did not answer immediately, but stared at the clouds in the sky for a long time.

The shape of that cloud is very similar to the appearance of the two palms of the Sorrowful Mingyu Xingying.

"Sasuke, you chose to become a ninja, but do you know the price that could happen?"

Yiyong turned his head to look at his siblings, who looked a little similar to him.

"Have you ever thought that one day you will have a hand-to-hand encounter with others, and there will be a river of blood and corpses all over the field?"

It was the scene in the Infinite City, when he fought with Onimai Tsuji. They had to hurry by stepping on the corpses of their companions.

"Have you ever thought about watching your friends and family being killed by an enemy who doesn't make sense at all?"

The corpses of his sister and the rabbit appeared in front of him in a mutilated state.

"You've only seen the ninjas of the clan revered, but did you know that they're just the ones who survived?

"It is easy to choose to be a knife in the hands of others as a profession, to say that you want to be a person who wields power, but you have no idea of the possibility of being killed, you have no idea of the pain of losing your relatives and friends, and you just give everything for the empty words of 'fame,' 'glory,' 'pride,' and 'power,' and revel in it."

Yi Yong raised his head and squinted at the sun.

"Use all kinds of beautiful words to trick children who don't know anything and haven't seen other choices into ninjas, and when they see the cruel truth, they can use the hatred and pain caused by the sacrifice of their relatives and friends to keep these children alive as ninjas. Transform the contradictions and conflicts of interest between tool users into mutual hatred between tools, and pass them on as a matter of course from generation to generation until they become common sense.

"Why don't I want to be a ninja, you ask?"

Yoshiyu glanced at Sasuke, who had already been dizzy from the words he couldn't fully understand.

"That's why."

"Bang Bang Bang-"

There was a burst of clapping, but it wasn't Sasuke.

Uchiha Yoshiyu and Sasuke turned their heads at the same time and found a strange young man squatting on a dirt flow wall, more than ten meters away from them.

But in the next second, with a brush, the man had already appeared in front of the two.

Itachi's instantaneous technique that is not lost to Itachi.

The man looked handsome with the characteristics of Uchiha, but his eyebrows were raised high, and he didn't look very good-tempered. He was the one who just applauded.

"I didn't expect to hear such words from the patriarch's son."

There was a strange smile of contempt on the corner of his mouth, "Such a crooked reasoning shouldn't be something that you kid can say, right?" Did you listen to the patriarch, or did that coward Uchiha Itachi tell you! ”

"You are not allowed to insult my brother!"

Hearing that Itachi had been called a coward, Sasuke angrily stood in front of Yoshiyu and held the kunai in his hand to his chest.

"In order not to meet me, he didn't even go to the training ground of the clan, ran to such a far place to hide, and said that he was not a coward?"

As he spoke, he looked behind the two brothers, Yoshito and Sasuke, where three young men walked out, "What do you three think?" ”

The three of them exchanged glances, as if they wanted to say something, but when they saw that the head of the man had an impatient glint in his eyes, they quickly nodded yes.

"Who is he?"

Yi Yong glanced at the relative positions of these four people, and was a little puzzled, these people should be clansmen, why did they look like they were not good.

"This guy is Uchiha Yanhuo, who was going to challenge his brother in the Uchiha acting arena before, but was stopped by the clan's Shangnin."

Uchiha Sasuke looked at the Uchiha flames, his eyes full of anger.

If it weren't for this man, he and his brother wouldn't have had to run so far every day.

"Oh?" Righteousness and courage suddenly realized.

Is that similar to the Immortal River in the Demon Slayer? Always come to him for trouble for some reason, but in fact, there is no malicious kind of person?

However, the words of coward are much milder than the words used by the immortal Minoru when he scolds him.

He opened the [Transparent World] and aimed at a few people, and through the volume of energy in his brain, it could be seen that among these four people, the Uchiha Yanhuo was the three-hook jade writing wheel eye, and the other three were all one-hook jade.

In Itachi's words, all three of them have a lower ninja level chakra, and they should all have graduated from the ninja school.

"Okay, I'm too lazy to talk nonsense with you two guys who don't understand anything."

The Uchiha raised his head proudly, "I just heard the seniors in the clan say that the Uchiha Itachi came here specially because it was in this venue, but I only saw the two of you." So, where the hell did that guy go? It can't be that you know I'm coming over and hide again, right? ”

"What does it have to do with you where the weasel is!"

Sasuke replied, "Fifteen years old is still a middle ninja, what qualifications do you have to shout here." Brother Zhishui said that Itachi has long had the level of forbearance, and it is many times stronger than you don't know! ”

A tic-tac-toe appeared on the Uchiha's forehead, and the other three looked incredulous.

The Uchiha stopped the water, although the elders of the clan did not agree with his position, but openly admitted that he was the first person in the clan. If it's his evaluation......

"How dare you say that."

He stared at Sasuke Uchiha and explained, "I was targeted by that guy from Mito Menyan, so I didn't become a shinobi!" Besides, I've been looking for that guy from Uchiha Shisui for a long time, and he's about the same as your brother, and he never dared to appear in front of me! ”

"Wait a minute."

Yiyong interrupted him and analyzed quite seriously: "If you are hated by the people in the village and can't become a shinobi, you can make up for it." If you come to trouble the Itachi, even the people will hate you in the future. ”

The Uchiha flames fell silent.

He stared at Yiyong quietly, looking at the other party's expressionless, but as if full of mockery......

A string in my heart suddenly broke.

He waved his hand at one of the henchmen he had brought with him.

"Tie them up and take them away and hide them."

Uchiha Yanhuo's face contorted, and he commanded with a sinister smile: "If Uchiha Itachi refuses to fight me, let these two little imps starve all night in the wilderness." ”

Uchiha Fugaku, who was deep in the forest, saw this scene and prepared for it.

With Sasuke's character, he will definitely resist and be subdued.

When the brothers feel helpless and a thirst for power rises in their hearts, he, the father, will come down to prevent the situation from getting worse, and by the way, punish the junior who has recently caused a lot of resentment among the people.

While changing the idea of volunteering, it can also make up for the slightly blunt parent-child relationship in the past, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

However, he had barely taken a step when he saw the child who had walked up to Yiyong with the rope clutching his stomach and fell to his knees without warning.

Yi Yong held the young man's shoulders and gently hooked his feet to make him lie down.

[It's a bit heavy......]

"I'm sorry, Itachi has been tired lately."

Almost instantly, he had already tied up the boy who was about to tie him up in a knot (Inosuke: ?). )。

"If it's just for this kind of reason, please don't disturb him, and leave quickly."