Konoha, at the Hokage's office in the Hokage Residence.
Inside were Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura—Konoha's "F4"—all seated together. Once everyone was present, Hiruzen spoke bluntly:
"One billion ryō has gone missing from Konoha's treasury!"
One billion ryō is by no means a small amount of money.
Hiruzen, as Hokage, had experienced who knows how many storms in his life. Holding that position, a ninja needed sufficient poise and strength of character, and Hiruzen of course possessed those. Yet even he, upon hearing such a piece of news at first, was utterly shocked.
The base pay for an S-rank mission begins at a million ryō.
Calculating from that minimum standard, one would need exactly ten thousand S-rank missions' worth of pay to reach that sum. And a ninja village typically takes half the total reward from missions performed by its ninja, meaning a total of twenty thousand S-rank missions would be needed for the village to gather that much. If all that were to be done within a single year, Konoha's ninja would have to complete an average of 55 S-rank missions every single day just to earn that sum in time.
Never mind S-rank—on an A-rank mission, normally one cannot simply finish in the span of a single day.
Having realized such a staggering sum had disappeared from the village treasury, Homura and Koharu were both enraged. Danzō's expression too became extremely grave. He was putting on an act, of course. The others might not know how the village money disappeared, but he certainly did.
Seething with anger, Mitokado Homura said:
"Hiruzen, what in the world is going on?"
"How could so much money suddenly vanish from the village treasury?"
Money, to shinobi, is extremely important. A shinobi village exists to train and support ninja, but it is also home to many civilians whose own or whose children's talents may qualify them to become ninja. Those large numbers of people cannot all be fed just from ninja mission pay. Thus each village needs the daimyō of its Great Nation to grant periodic funding.
That is why the daimyō, despite not residing in the village, still has a significant influence on it. If a village's citizens want to live well, if the village as a whole wants to develop further, it will require the daimyō's financial aid.
At this moment, Koharu and Homura, both glaring at Hiruzen in growing dissatisfaction, clearly expected answers. As Hokage, Hiruzen was responsible, no matter what explanations he might give.
Confronted by their discontent, Hiruzen spoke calmly:
"I personally, along with our top Anbu, investigated the site."
No sooner had he said this than Koharu pressed him:
"What's the result of that investigation?"
Hiruzen did not conceal anything and reported plainly:
"Inside the Konoha treasury, and in the surrounding area, there were no signs of destruction. All indications suggest it was done by an insider."
Those words caused both Koharu and Homura's faces to change drastically.
Within Konoha, those who can come and go from the treasury at will are basically only these four. They were all fiercely loyal to the village. Yet if, from someone's point of view, it was "for Konoha's sake," one of them might have quietly used that enormous sum for what they believed could revitalize the village. Such a possibility existed.
Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura all wore solemn looks as they directed their gazes at Danzō. Among them, the one with the greatest likelihood to do something like that was surely Danzō.
Danzō maintained a dark expression, looking equally severe, as if outraged and troubled by the same matter.
Homura hesitated a moment, then said, uncertainly:
"The Root's information-gathering is always excellent. You have no relevant intel on this?"
Homura's words were fairly courteous. Danzō's face turned gloomier, and he answered coldly:
"No."
At present, what he needed to do was deny everything, no matter what.
Seeing that after Homura had raised the topic to this extent, Danzō remained tight-lipped, Hiruzen grew even more frustrated. He demanded:
"In that case, Danzō—tell us your view on this. A sum this large cannot simply go missing. We owe the whole village an explanation!"
One billion ryō was no trivial figure. It demanded an absolute explanation.
"During the time the treasury was robbed," Hiruzen continued, "Koharu, Homura, and I had not even gone near it."
The meaning was perfectly clear: the Anbu monitoring everyone's movements across the village could corroborate that none of the three had touched the treasury.
Hence the question of who did it was obvious.
Danzō's face was grim, as though it might drip water. Of course, from his perspective, so long as they could not produce ironclad evidence that it was him, he would not admit a thing.
…
While Danzō was confronting Konoha's "F3" in anger, Orochimaru, in a certain facility's deepest chambers, was in the final stages of his Impure World Reincarnation…no, rather, of his "Living Corpse Reincarnation" technique.
This shinobi world's scientific forerunner was about to conduct yet another major experiment. In his view, if he fully obtained the body of an Uchiha, it would open new horizons.
In his subterranean research base, everything was prepared. In a fluid-filled tank, Uchiha Obito, subdued by Orochimaru, was resting silently. One side of Obito's body was evidently not his own, but Orochimaru was in too much of a rush to investigate further. He wanted that Uchiha vessel so badly, he could taste it!
He double-checked each element. Then, making a hand sign, Orochimaru—voice quivering with excitement—exclaimed:
"An Uchiha body! So worth anticipating!"
Thanks to so much preparation, he finally had it.
"Urgh—!"
His neck lunged forward like a snake, biting down at Obito's neck inside the fluid tank. At once, Orochimaru's body and Obito's body established a chakra link.
His soul, following that channel of chakra, slowly migrated into Obito's body. This took neither too long nor too short.
Very soon, Orochimaru discovered something that astonished him:
Within Obito's body, there was another soul!
"What…? How can this be?"
Even one as knowledgeable as Orochimaru found it mind-boggling. He had foreseen all sorts of scenarios for Reincarnation, but had never once imagined he would encounter something like this.
Slightly cursing in his mind:
"That wretched brat Uzumaki Senshi actually gave me a problem-laden Uchiha …"
…
Meanwhile, around the Land of Fire near Konoha, at a certain black market:
Uzumaki Senshi and Uchiha Itachi's entry caused many eyes to turn.
Itachi stated icily to the black market's staff:
"I want to accept every single mission you have."
Raised in the shadows, black markets remain a colossal presence in the shinobi world, their intelligence networks not lacking. The moment Senshi and Itachi walked in, some staff recognized them—especially Senshi, who had come not long before.
But Itachi's request left the black market manager perplexed:
"All the missions here? You want to accept them all?"
Itachi, expressionless, nodded:
"Yes."
"How can you possibly finish all those missions?"
Hearing that, Senshi just chuckled:
"Are you sure you understand my mission abilities?"
It was a pity the manager wasn't the type to respond with, "I've long wanted to see what it's like for the so-called Black Market Legend at his peak." So Senshi found it slightly dull, made a dismissive wave, and said:
"Doesn't matter if we can do them or not—your job is just to hand them all over."
He pointed to Itachi, telling the manager to hurry up. The Land of Fire was a great nation, so it really did have a mass of black-market missions. But Senshi didn't care, no matter how many or how tricky.
As they took every mission from the black market, the many other ninja present looked on in disbelief:
"They're crazy! Taking every mission in the hall?"
But not everyone there was clueless. One ninja piped up:
"Don't you know anything? That red-haired man…that's Uzumaki Senshi!"
Instantly, the entire place fell silent. A name is as weighty as a tree's shadow.
Senshi's name carried absolute authority in the black market.
"Gah—!"
After a while, everyone drew a sharp breath. Some recognized him: The man who had performed countless missions. He had the highest completion rate. He was known as the "Mission Terrorist," with a record that far surpassed even that of Kakuzu, who had been working as a bounty hunter since the First Hokage's era.
Furthermore, Senshi had maintained an unbroken 100% success rate—truly a legend.
None in the hall dared protest any further. Soon Senshi and Itachi swept the entire black market's tasks into a stack of commission scrolls.
Observing that stack in Senshi's hands, Itachi stood by quietly. So many missions…where does one even begin?
Senshi shot him a broad grin, patting him on the shoulder:
"Alright, that's done. Let's go handle them right away."
As if reading his partner's thoughts, Senshi said:
"We'll finish the tasks we have, then come back. By the time we're done, these guys will have stacked up a few more. Perfect timing!"
Itachi: "….."
He found he was at a loss for words. So many missions… and Senshi actually wanted them all done?
He recognized that these tasks ranged from trivial to extremely dangerous. Each day you completed one or two, you might eventually get through them in a normal scenario. But Senshi wanted to swallow the entire backlog at once.
He couldn't help but recall Kakuzu's haggard face… or Kisame's claims of nearly being sold off. Indeed, partnering with Senshi was akin to riding a runaway horse.
At that moment, Senshi clapped his hands:
"Wood Release: Wood Clone!"
In a flash, cracks split the ground, and multiple Wood Clones rose up in a row. The clones lined up for instructions, each collecting various mission scrolls from Senshi. Indeed, Senshi's plan was to delegate huge amounts of work to his clones, so they could scatter and complete tasks in parallel.
Seeing that, Itachi felt an odd sense of déjà vu. As a boy, he had occasionally used Shadow Clones to handle chores or training. Now Senshi was similarly employing Wood Clones to mass-handle black market tasks.
Finally, Senshi pulled out one mission scroll labeled "Capture a Dangerous Missing-nin," tossed a few more to his clones, then turned to Itachi:
"Alright, let's go. This scroll's the first."
He placed a hand on Itachi's shoulder, a swirl of dark red portal opened up, and they disappeared into the swirling space.
…
While Senshi and Itachi were busily "harvesting" missions in the black markets outside Konoha, the Konoha itself wasn't calm.
At the Hokage's office in the Hokage Residence, Hatake Kakashi had just arrived outside and lifted his hand to knock—only to see the door pulled open abruptly from inside.
Out stormed Danzō, expression dark, slamming the door with an indignant snort and stomping away in a fury. Kakashi, baffled, entered the office.
Inside, the Third Hokage Hiruzen, flanked by Koharu and Homura, wore faces of anger. The latter two marched out just as aggravated.
Kakashi had never seen them that incensed. He wondered:
"What on earth happened in here?"
Watching Koharu and Homura vanish in a huff, Hiruzen let out a slow sigh, trying to quell his own anger:
"Alright, Kakashi—what is it?"
Kakashi, wordlessly, lifted his hitai-ate to reveal an empty socket. Instantly, Hiruzen—who looked ten years older after the day's stress—nearly jumped as though de-aging with shock:
"What—your Sharingan? Where is it!?"
The Sharingan was critical to Konoha. After the Uchiha clan's downfall, Kakashi's eye was especially precious. Moreover, Kakashi was one of the village's elite, extremely powerful. For someone to forcibly take his Sharingan was almost unthinkable.
In a grave tone, Kakashi said:
"It was taken from me… by a very strong shinobi."
Hiruzen's shock and anger soared.
"You were robbed of it…for real?"
He always thought that scenario nearly impossible. But even more startling developments were yet to come. Kakashi gave a pained sigh and continued:
"And, however hard it may be to believe, in the same moment he took my Sharingan, something else happened that left me truly confused."
With that, he reached into his pouch and produced a small glass container, setting it atop Hiruzen's desk.
~~~
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