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Chapter 161n
🕑 Added 2025-09-15 17:26:24 +0000 UTCChapter 161n
2-in-1-chapter
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The next morning, after eating breakfast at home, Uchiha Itachi stepped out the door. His younger brother no longer needed him to escort him to school, so he simply followed along for a short distance, watching Sasuke walk through the gates of the Academy before turning back toward the Hokage building to check the mission assignment hall for any suitable tasks.
With autumn fading into winter, the stifling summer heat had at last begun to recede.
Itachi walked through a quiet side street. Bearing the Uchiha crest on his back, he avoided crowded areas whenever he could. Those half-hidden yet never fully concealed glances of fear and dislike were impossible to appreciate, so he preferred to take longer routes along lonely alleys rather than tread the main thoroughfares.
Moving through such deserted paths had another benefit: it allowed him to think freely without worrying about colliding with others.
In his mind, he considered what his father had said over dinner the night before—whether he should go to the frontlines and experience the battlefield again. He had not yet made a decision, still hesitating. His childhood memories of war had grown faint, nearly forgotten. Even so, his sharp mind understood that seeing battle once more was not a bad thing.
He was a shinobi, and in a certain sense, shinobi were weapons for killing. A weapon that had never shed blood remained a mere imitation.
“Itachi.”
The familiar, clear voice from behind him made him stop in his tracks.
He turned to follow the sound. Standing there was a graceful girl, smiling like a flower, with long, crow-feather black hair and a beauty mark beneath her right eye. She wore the standard Konoha forehead protector, and though Itachi could not see it from the front, the Uchiha crest was stitched into the back of her clothes.
“Izumi, what are you doing here?”
Since she bore the same clan crest, her surname required no explanation. Combined with Itachi’s greeting, it was clear that this girl was Uchiha Izumi.
“Of course I came to find you!”
With her hands clasped behind her back, Izumi skipped toward him.
“Find me? For what?”
As his childhood friend drew near, Itachi’s heartbeat quickened slightly, though he kept his composure. Unlike boys his age, he did not allow restlessness to disturb his calm.
“It was Ranzan-senpai. I ran into him this morning. He said he had gone to your house looking for you but you had already left, so he found me instead and asked me to bring you.” Izumi explained why she had appeared here.
Inwardly, she thought Ranzan-senpai’s choice had been a wise one. Even Uncle Fugaku might not know Itachi’s exact whereabouts, but she knew his small habits—where he liked to walk, what paths he preferred. That was why she had been able to catch him on such a quiet street.
“Ranzan-senpai?”
Itachi’s brow furrowed slightly.
He was not personally familiar with the man, but the name itself needed no introduction. As a member of the Uchiha, unless one was still an infant or already lost to senility, everyone in the clan knew the name Uchiha Ranzan.
The clansmen said Ranzan was the right hand of the clan head, and that compared to the absent clan leader who had gone to the frontlines, it was Ranzan who truly controlled the Police Force.
But Itachi’s knowledge of Ranzan did not come from clan gossip.
He knew Ranzan was Uchiha Rēn’s confidant. After his father was deposed as clan head, Itachi had been secretly summoned by the Third Hokage, who entrusted him with a mission to investigate Rēn and his followers.
The Third had warned him that Rēn would be the source of chaos for the village, that the Uchiha clan under his leadership would plunge into irreversible ruin. To protect the village and preserve the clan, Rēn and his faction had to be uprooted and eliminated. Only then could peace and stability return.
Yet before Itachi could uncover the full extent of Rēn’s activities, the clan head had already forced the Third Hokage from power. And just as Itachi was speculating about when the old man might make his return, news came that a renegade from Kirigakure had assassinated him.
Once Itachi confirmed the report was true, he abandoned the mission entirely.
What he could not be sure of was whether anyone besides himself and the Third had knowledge of this task, or whether any documents had been left behind. Fortunately, since the Fifth Acting Hokage had assumed power, no one had approached him to continue the mission, and no clansmen had ever confronted him as a traitor.
Perhaps it had all simply ended there.
Still, he instinctively avoided the clan head and his circle, refraining from joining the ranks of young Uchiha who had eagerly thrown themselves under the banner of their powerful new leader.
“What does Ranzan-senpai want with me?”
“I asked him that too,” Izumi said. “He told me the clan head hopes you’ll join the Police Force, that you’re a pillar of the clan’s future.” Her face lit up with excitement. “I knew it! With your talent, Itachi, it was only a matter of time before the clan head noticed you.”
Uchiha Izumi felt both pride and joy, even though the one being valued was Uchiha Itachi and not herself. She was genuinely happy that he had gained such recognition.
“You want me to join the Police Force? Is this an invitation?”
Unlike Izumi’s smile, as bright as a blooming flower, Itachi’s expression revealed little. The girl was long accustomed to his serious demeanor. Back when they were still at the Academy, Itachi would occasionally show a gentle smile, but since graduating and becoming a shinobi, those smiles had grown fewer and fewer.
“I don’t really know the details either. Senior Ranzan told me to bring you to the Police Force. He probably wants to tell you something directly. What is it, Itachi, do you not want to join?” Izumi’s intuition caught the faint resistance Itachi was trying to conceal.
She could not quite understand it.
No matter what reputation the Police Force had among the villagers, within the Uchiha clan not just anyone could enter. The Police Force had a fixed quota, and only the best among the clan usually qualified. Izumi herself had once hoped to join, but she had been eliminated.
“…Yesterday, Father asked if I wanted to train on the front lines.”
Itachi gave a simple explanation.
Although the reason sounded a little forced, Izumi didn’t press him. Instead, she asked with concern, “Then are you planning to refuse the clan head’s invitation?”
“I haven’t decided yet. But since the clan head invited me, I should at least meet him. As for what I’ll choose in the end… I’ll decide when the time comes.” Itachi abandoned his original plan of heading to the Hokage Building and changed direction, walking with Izumi toward the Police Force headquarters.
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At the Police Force, Rēn sat yawning in the office.
The night before, his grandfather had kept him up half the night in conversation, so by dawn he had only managed to doze briefly. After a muddled breakfast, Fujika had gone off to the Academy, while Rēn, walking unsteadily, arrived at the Police Force building and could not stop yawning once he sat down.
“Commander?”
Uchiha Ranzan looked at the drowsy clan head with a headache of his own.
“…Ah, Ranzan, where were we?”
“Kimimaro of the Kaguya clan. How should we settle him?” Ranzan reminded.
“Right, Kimimaro, Kimimaro… what should be done?”
Rēn rubbed his face, stifled another yawn, and shook his head as he thought. To be honest, with his current physical condition, missing one or two nights of sleep was nothing, unless it stretched on for days. He looked this worn out only because he simply wanted to sleep and made no effort to suppress his drowsiness.
How to handle Kimimaro was a troublesome matter. Clearly brainwashed by Orochimaru, the boy was dangerous. Placing him in the Academy would put the other students at risk. Yet outside the Academy, there seemed to be no suitable place to settle the troublesome child either.
It was fortunate that Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō were already in the ground. Otherwise, the moment Kimimaro arrived in Konoha, he would have been seized. The Kaguya clan’s Shikotsumyaku was an extremely powerful kekkei genkai. Controlling Kimimaro meant not only gaining a formidable fighter but also a chance to ensure that bloodline limit continued in the village.
Rēn was not particularly interested in preserving the bloodline itself, only in the Shikotsumyaku as a technique. Moreover, Shisui seemed intent on teaching Kimimaro, so Rēn had no intention of handing the boy over to the village authorities.
Still, how exactly should he arrange things for an eight-year-old child?
The Academy was unsafe, Shisui was away at the front… should he send the boy to be temporarily cared for within the clan? That was not impossible. If Shisui had left loose ends, was it not natural for Elder Jun to clean them up?
As Rēn pondered passing the boy onto Jun, Ranzan spoke up: “If there’s no better option, just bring him here to the Police Force.” The words struck Rēn like music to his ears, a sudden enlightenment.
The Police Force always had at least five Uchiha jōnin on duty. Even with Kimimaro’s talent, he would cause no trouble there. In the daytime, he could be kept busy with menial tasks; as for the nights… Rēn had already let him stay at his house the night before.
Shisui lived alone, and it was unthinkable to let Kimimaro stay unsupervised in an empty house. A boy that restless could not be left unchecked.
Rēn’s parents did not mind an extra guest. Grandfather Genshi, however, had voiced strong objections the moment he laid eyes on Kimimaro, sensing the untamed wildness in him and calling the boy dangerous to keep around. But for one night, he reluctantly tolerated it.
“Placing him in the Police Force could work. In fact, I was already planning to have the Police Force start recruiting shinobi from other clans and even from among civilians. Kimimaro could be the first trial case. To be honest, his skills are impressive—ordinary chūnin would likely struggle against him.”
Rēn was suddenly energized, all traces of sleepiness gone.
“By the way, Ranzan, did you manage to find… Uchiha Itachi?”
“I went to Elder Fugaku’s home this morning, but he was already out. I’ve sent someone to look for him though, so you should see him before long. Why, Commander, do you have a new idea?”
Watching the sudden spark in Rēn’s eyes, Ranzan’s instincts warned him. Was this another one of his schemes?
