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Hatake Kuroshi rested his hand on the Wood Style clone, propping his cheek, and looked at him with a half-smile.
Tenzo's usually dull eyes instantly lit up, almost sparkling with stars.
He quickly took a step forward, tilting his head up, and looked at Kuroshi with anticipation, exclaiming.
"You weren't over there just now, right? You just suddenly appeared..."
"What is that blue thing?! Do you really have a kekkei genkai?!"
"So cool, 'boom' and everything gets surrounded!"
"If you're so strong, then Kakashi-senpai..."
He was about to speak louder, loud enough for everyone around to hear.
Kuroshi didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble, so he raised his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture.
Tenzo forcibly swallowed the rest of his words, covering his mouth with both hands.
"Shh, this kind of thing needs to be kept secret."
"It'll be a hassle if others find out, so don't say anything."
Tenzo nodded, still covering his mouth.
Kuroshi smiled and patted Tenzo's head.
"Good boy, oh, by the way, if you have time, fix the corridor."
"It's all wood, you should be good at this kind of thing."
"It's up to you."
Kuroshi gave Tenzo a thumbs-up, showing him a "you can do it" expression, then walked away with a flourish.
Nice, saved on repair costs!
"You're amazing, Kuroshi-nii, you actually messed up the corridor like that."
"The wood is completely shattered into dust."
Tenzo, who was still unaware of the evils of the world, sighed repeatedly at the corridor after the fight between Kuroshi and Orochimaru.
After fixing the corridor, Tenzo completely forgot about Kakashi asking him to come back and get something.
He didn't remember until he saw Kakashi's face back in the Anbu and exclaimed in realization.
"Fix, fix the corridor, I forgot!"
Tenzo mumbled a few words to Kakashi, then rushed back.
Seeing Tenzo running back home in a daze, Kakashi, whose brain was in his knees, knew it must be related to Kuroshi.
"That guy... is he putting someone under a spell?"
…
Although traces of the fight with Orochimaru were found near the Hatake house, luckily, the Hatake brothers weren't home, so there were no casualties.
Orochimaru only left behind his skin, and by the time the pursuers arrived, he was long gone.
The reason for the rogue ninja's return to the village was determined to be Orochimaru sneaking into Konoha to steal past research data.
Orochimaru's return didn't cause much of a stir, because besides taking some justifiable data, nothing else happened.
Sarutobi Hiruzen specifically visited Hatake Kuroshi.
"It's fine if you two brothers live together, but Kakashi spends most of his time in the Anbu dormitory."
"The Hatake house is a bit secluded, and it's not possible to guarantee absolute safety."
"It's a good thing you weren't home during this incident, or you might have been caught in the crossfire."
"You can consider moving to the dormitories in the village, it's closer to your school."
This concern was basically just a formality. If he had cared about him earlier, he should have assigned him a dormitory when he first became a teacher.
Kuroshi didn't mind, the old man didn't have any ill intentions towards him.
After all, the Hatake family didn't have any extra people or money.
No one would even bother to target them.
He just simply didn't like the old man.
After all, Sakumo's incident happened with his tacit approval.
Kakashi could be completely unaware, fooled into becoming an Anbu without a care in the world, but don't try to fool him.
"Ah~ It's fine, I'm more used to living there."
"Besides, my father still has a lot of things there, and I need to clean up regularly."
"It would be inconvenient to move."
But in reality, it was mostly Kakashi who did the cleaning. He was a bit of a neat freak, and he had been a bit of a clean freak since he was a child.
Hearing the name Hatake Sakumo, Sarutobi Hiruzen also sighed softly.
Others might not know, but he couldn't possibly not know. Hatake Sakumo committed suicide in front of Kuroshi.
Although Kuroshi looked like he was fine, deep down, he must have some lingering resentment.
"If you don't want to, I won't force you, but if you want to move, just come to me."
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't force him, but simply gave him a word of advice before letting Kuroshi leave.
So, that's how it is.
Kuroshi's place suddenly became a haven, basically isolated from the surveillance of both the Anbu and the Uchiha.
Kuroshi looked at Itachi and Shisui, who were curiously looking around his house as if two young masters were visiting the countryside, and couldn't help but kick each of them.
"What's with the reaction, you two, have you never seen the home of an ordinary single man?!"
Itachi and Shisui raised their hands in surrender and sat down at the tatami table.
After settling down, Itachi sighed helplessly.
"Sorry, it's our clan's business, and we're taking up your place."
"The Uchiha clan is in a mess right now, there are surveillance people everywhere."
"Besides our own people, there are also Anbu and Root members."
"The places we usually go to are now full of spies, so we have to come to you."
…
"We couldn't find a suitable place, so Itachi suggested coming here."
"And as we came along, there were indeed fewer people the further we came."
Shisui took over the conversation, clasped his hands together, and smiled.
"It's fine, stop with the polite words, just bring something."
Kuroshi narrowed his eyes and spread his palms towards them.
Itachi and Shisui exchanged glances, shaking their heads helplessly.
Shisui, the master of Shunshin, and Itachi, the genius Uchiha, two Uchiha geniuses, acted like two younger brothers paying protection money, placing two bags of sweets in Kuroshi's hands.
"Oh, there are even two flavors."
Kuroshi excitedly opened the bags.
It was at times like this that Kuroshi always had this subtle sense of incongruity.
Kuroshi didn't think much about how these two people viewed him, but he chewed on the sweets while looking at Shisui.
The Anbu and the Uchiha clan messing around was fine.
But why would Root get involved, isn't that supposed to be an Anbu exclusive thing?
Root's involvement means Danzo is also wading into this muddy water. If this shady dude is involved, can the Uchiha clan survive?
A whole nest of red-eyed rabbits will be caught and made into spicy rabbit heads.
This idiot Shisui wouldn't have already revealed that he has Kotoamatsukami, would he?
After Kuroshi's mouth was stuffed with sweets, Itachi's already not very cheerful expression became even more gloomy.
"I've done a lot to try to stop the coup."
"But it hasn't had any effect, it's just delayed things for a few days."
Kuroshi propped his cheek, pondering.
"After all, it's a coup by your whole clan, it's not bad that you managed to delay it for a few days."
Shisui patted Itachi's shoulder, reassuringly smiling.
"Yeah, this kind of thing can't be cancelled just like that."
"I haven't convinced anyone either, after all, whether they're good or bad, they're all Uchiha, and they're surprisingly united at this time."
Although he was talking about bad news, Shisui's expression was surprisingly calm.
Kuroshi gradually confirmed his previous thoughts.
As expected, this guy must have told the Hokage's leadership about his Mangekyo Sharingan.
He's going to use Kotoamatsukami on the entire clan.
That's why Root members are now widely infiltrating, as long as Shisui shows any signs of taking action, they can intervene.
"Anyway, you've already delayed things, but after all, there are still two experts in the Uchiha, you and me."
"If we try harder, we'll definitely find a way."
No matter how you look at it, this sounds like a consolation to Itachi.
"Hey—you guys are both really strong, right?"
"Why not just suppress them by force?"
Kuroshi raised his hand, his blindfolded eyes fixed on the two of them.
Itachi and Shisui were momentarily stunned, looking at Kuroshi in a daze.
His blindfolded eyes, his cheeks stuffed with sweets, made them unable to tell if he was serious or joking.
"Force… suppression?"
"That's impossible, no matter if it's the Uchiha clan members, or the Anbu and Root, they're all very familiar with us two."
Shisui mumbled, a bit confused.
He was ready to sacrifice himself to put the entire clan under a genjutsu.
Now it sounds like Kuroshi has an even stranger plan.
Kuroshi's lips tightened, a slight smile playing on his lips, like a mischievous white cat.
He beckoned the two in front of him, and the two black heads leaned closer.
Kuroshi whispered a few words, and Itachi and Shisui couldn't help but widen their eyes.
"Although this is not a bad idea, but you really…"
Before Itachi could finish, a dark little head suddenly popped up from the window.
A pair of black eyes were curiously looking at them.
"What are you guys talking about! Nii-san! Shisui-nii!"
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