The next morning, Yusuke and his family, dressed in black for the memorial service, left early for the designated location.
The weather was clear, but the road was filled with people heading to the memorial service, both ordinary villagers and many ninjas.
Everyone seemed very sad, and people rarely chatted on the road. Many acquaintances only nodded to each other as a greeting.
It was clear that even though the war was over, the sacrifice of so many villagers still cast a shadow over everyone's hearts.
Yusuke, with his mother Yuzuki on his right and Izumi on his left, had arrived at the monument for fallen shinobi. The memorial service would be held here.
It didn't take long for the area in front of the monument to be packed with people, all dressed in black.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Third Hokage slowly walked to the monument and began to eulogize the shinobi who had died in the Third Great Ninja War.
Many attendees had lost friends and family in the war, and as the Third Hokage delivered his emotional speech, many couldn't help but cry and stand up. The entire memorial service was filled with the sound of weeping.
The Third Hokage, at this time, was not yet as old as he would be when he appeared in the original story. Though not tall, he still had a strong posture.
However, Yusuke could see that the Third Hokage was starting to decline. As he aged, his strength would also gradually weaken.
The memorial service didn't last long. After the ceremony to honor the dead, the Third Hokage announced a shocking news.
He believed that the village had suffered too many casualties in this war and that he was partly responsible. He decided to step down and let the selection of the Fourth Hokage take place to govern Konohagakure.
Although many in the village expressed opposition, the Third Hokage remained steadfast in his decision and announced the two candidates for the Fourth Hokage: Orochimaru, nominated by the elder Danzo, and Minato Namikaze, nominated by the Third Hokage himself. There was an attempt to nominate Uchiha Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha clan, but he declined.
As a time traveler, Yusuke knew that Minato would ultimately win the election, but it was still expected.
Orochimaru was simply not qualified based on his appearance. He was too sinister and terrifying. He could play a horror movie without makeup. If you met him at night, you would be scared to death. No one would choose someone they were afraid of to be Hokage.
Minato, on the other hand, was a disciple of Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin. He was not only powerful and had numerous achievements, but he was also humble, a commoner, and very inspiring. He was already the heartthrob of the village.
If Minato lost the election, people in the village would probably suspect that there was something fishy going on.
In a secluded corner of the Konohagakure graveyard, a woman with fair skin and long black hair stood before an unmarked grave, lamenting: "Mourning the dead is meaningless. If death has meaning, it only exists when it can be used."
The woman was Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin.
"What is the meaning of life?" A six or seven-year-old boy with clear eyes and a handsome face suddenly appeared beside Orochimaru, curiously asking.
Orochimaru looked at the boy with appreciation. Due to his sinister appearance and the faint aura of killing intent he exuded, even Jonin would usually be afraid to approach him. Unless necessary, few people would talk to him.
But this boy looked at him without any fear, instead, he seemed neither humble nor arrogant.
"There is no meaning," Orochimaru said slowly, then added, "If there is, it only exists when life is eternal."
"Orochimaru-sama, I have a mission tomorrow, and I don't have much time. Let's start as soon as possible today." A voice interrupted the two who were discussing the eternal mystery of the meaning of life.
The two looked in the direction of the voice. A young man wearing the standard ninja vest was slowly walking towards them. It was Yusuke.
Yusuke had arranged to meet Orochimaru, so he asked Yuzuki and Izumi to go back first. He waited for Orochimaru for a while.
Hearing Yusuke's words, Orochimaru nodded to the boy, then said to Yusuke, "Yusuke-kun, I'm so sorry. When you get old, you like to do some useless lamenting. Let's meet at the usual place." With that, he disappeared from the graveyard with a few body flickers.
Yusuke glanced at the handsome boy and immediately recognized him. It was Uchiha Itachi, the tragic genius of the Uchiha clan.
Itachi was still a very cute little boy, but his eyes seemed to hold countless worries.
Yusuke wasn't familiar with Itachi. After finding Orochimaru, he didn't say anything more. He formed a hand seal with his left hand, two fingers together, and disappeared in a flash of flames, heading to the location he had agreed upon with Orochimaru.
"That big brother just now, he seems to be 'Flame Sword' Yusuke-senpai." Itachi murmured.
After Yusuke came to the Naruto world, Orochimaru was considered his half-friend, but they mostly interacted about ninjutsu.
Because Yusuke was a scientist before he crossed over, he was obsessed with developing ninjutsu after crossing over. Orochimaru was also considered a scientist in the Naruto world, so they had a lot in common.
For this reason, although Yusuke called Orochimaru "sama," his tone was very casual, like talking to a normal friend.
Yusuke wasn't good at the "biological science" that Orochimaru excelled at. Yusuke focused on the study of energy and how it works. Of course, in the Naruto world, this meant studying chakra and ninjutsu.
In one of Orochimaru's secret bases, Yusuke and Orochimaru were discussing the development of new ninjutsu.
"Yusuke-kun, the ideas you mentioned about cell gene inheritance have inspired me. The cursed seals developed with the First Hokage's cells have been greatly improved. Don't you want to try it?" Orochimaru tempted.
"No, I'd rather develop my own power than do all sorts of messy experiments on my own body." Yusuke refused.
He had no interest in letting Orochimaru put his immature cursed seals on him. Besides, he knew that these cursed seals were one of Orochimaru's methods to activate "Reanimation Jutsu."
"Is that so? That's a pity." Orochimaru said regretfully, then suddenly formed hand seals, his body transforming into hundreds of white snakes, frantically rushing towards Yusuke.
Seeing this, Yusuke quickly retreated, a katana appearing in his right hand. It was the Zanpakuto, Ryujin Jakka.
At this time, Yusuke hadn't activated Shikai, so Ryujin Jakka was in its normal katana form, with no flames attached to the blade.
Yusuke quickly swung his Zanpakuto, slashing at the incoming white snakes. However, to his surprise, the snakes seemed to have no physical form. The Zanpakuto passed right through them.
Hundreds of white snakes took the opportunity to swarm Yusuke, biting him tightly. The parts of his body that were bitten immediately began to petrify. Soon, Yusuke, completely petrified, was swallowed by hundreds of white snakes.
"Puff," a sound of flames crackling came from the middle of the hundreds of white snakes. A flash of fire, and the surrounded Yusuke disappeared.
"You've already mastered this technique? The speed is beyond my expectations." Yusuke's voice came from the other side. The Yusuke that had been swallowed by the white snakes was just a Fire Release clone.
Hundreds of white snakes quickly gathered, finally condensing back into Orochimaru.
Orochimaru took a scroll from his pocket and threw it to Yusuke, saying, "I was just helping you develop new ninjutsu, but it also gave me some inspiration. I took the opportunity to modify the "Many Snakes Substitution Technique." It's even more eerie and unpredictable after incorporating genjutsu and elemental chakra."
Yusuke took the scroll that Orochimaru threw and carefully unfolded it. After a while, Yusuke closed the scroll and put it in his pocket, then quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Phantom Crow Technique."
Yusuke's body suddenly split into pieces, which transformed into crows with flames wrapped around them.
These crows were sometimes normal, sometimes distorted, clearly not physical, or rather, not entirely physical. Yusuke called these crows "Fire Phantom Crows."
When Yusuke's body was completely split into dozens of Fire Phantom Crows, they circled in the air for a while, then gathered again, condensing back into Yusuke.
The "Fire Phantom Crow Technique" was based on Uchiha Itachi's most powerful "Crow Clone Technique." It incorporated elemental attributes on top of the genjutsu crow clone, making the technique more powerful, but also increasing the difficulty of execution.
"Your hand seal speed seems to have increased again. Based on your hand seal speed, you've already surpassed me." Orochimaru laughed. Even a normal laugh felt chilling.
Yusuke had spent a lot of effort on the basics of shinobi over the years. He had dabbled in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu, and he strongly agreed with the concept of "the fastest wins." He practiced hand seals every day without fail.
"It's just a minor skill. I wanted to discuss the development of this technique with you today, but I didn't expect you to finish it so quickly. I owe you one." Yusuke said slowly.
Orochimaru waved his hand and sat down casually on the tatami mat, saying, "What do you think about the election for the Fourth Hokage? How much chance do you think I have?"
Yusuke sat down opposite Orochimaru and didn't answer directly. "What do you think? Compared to Minato, what are your advantages?"
Hearing Yusuke's words, Orochimaru's pupils contracted, his eyes seemed to gather murderous intent, and he stuck out his snake-like tongue and licked his lips.
Yusuke didn't say anything, just quietly looked at him.
After a moment of silence, Orochimaru suddenly changed the subject. "A while back, I met a very interesting ninja. His puppetry was so formidable that even I found it difficult to handle. It made me interested in puppetry."
"A ninja who is good at puppetry and can make Orochimaru feel threatened, it must be Sasori." Yusuke thought to himself. Sasori had already killed the Third Kazekage and defected from Sunagakure, but he probably hadn't joined Akatsuki yet.
A friend asked where the protagonist's father went.
Because the protagonist's family's background is taken from "Itachi Shinden," the mother, Uchiha Yuzuki, and sister, Uchiha Izumi, are named characters, but the father has no name in "Itachi Shinden." The author didn't want to make up a name, so in this book, the protagonist's father is set up as someone who is always working away from home!
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