The next morning, Naruto walked out of his room, clutching his sore backside.
Don’t misunderstand. Kurama’s claws are longer than an entire person—if he really used the Thousand Years of Death, Naruto would’ve been done for.
The real reason his butt hurt was that he had a nightmare last night. In his dream, Kurama had stabbed straight through him, and he was so scared that he fell out of bed, landing on his backside.
The morning training session went on as usual. Naruto and Sasuke continued practicing their chakra nature transformation, while Sasuke secretly tried to communicate with the Karma mark.
As for Naruto, he spent the whole morning staring at Sasuke with a resentful look.
If someone didn’t know better, they’d think something happened between them.
But for Kakashi and the others, this was nothing new. Every time Naruto got tricked by Sasuke, he had that same expression.
After lunch, they were supposed to continue training, but before they could head to the training ground, ANBU stopped them.
They were told to go to the Hokage’s office.
Thinking something was wrong with Sasuke’s check-up results, they hurried there without wasting a second.
Inside the office, Tsunade sat with her hands supporting her chin, her eyes focused on a report in front of her. Jiraiya stood beside her, his face serious.
Neither of them spoke.
After a long silence, the office door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. Naruto strolled in casually.
"Hey, Granny Tsunade, are Sasuke’s test results out? What’s going on?"
Tsunade looked up but didn’t even glance at Naruto, who had entered first. Instead, her eyes were fixed on Sasuke, who followed behind him.
Seeing this, Kakashi, who was the last to enter, instinctively frowned.
"Tsunade-sama, is there something wrong with the test results?"
"Wait... don’t tell me Sasuke really..." Naruto’s face filled with horror.
But Tsunade ignored his usual over-the-top reaction. Instead, she looked at Sasuke seriously and said,
"Sasuke, we received an intelligence report. It’s about you."
It was the first time he had seen Granny Tsunade so serious.
She didn’t even yell at him?
This had to be something really serious.
At that moment, Naruto finally dropped his usual antics and kept quiet.
Sasuke lifted his head and looked at Tsunade, his expression suddenly changing.
"Something about me... it wouldn’t be..."
In the ninja world, there was only one possible topic when it came to intelligence related to Sasuke.
Realizing this, Sasuke clenched his fist.
Tsunade took a deep breath, picked up the report, and tossed it to Sasuke.
"Our intelligence agents spotted Uchiha Itachi in an old Uchiha weapons storage."
"If that were all, we wouldn’t have called you." Jiraiya took over, his voice deep. "But that guy wasn’t even trying to hide. He walked right past our agents like he wanted to be seen. The message couldn’t be clearer."
After saying that, both of them looked at Sasuke with serious expressions. "We spent the whole morning discussing this and decided to leave it to you."
Right now, Sasuke was someone they could trust.
Sasuke clenched the intelligence report in his hand, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan appearing without him realizing it.
After a long pause, he took a deep breath, pushed down the emotions stirring inside him, and looked at the two with a serious expression. "Thank you."
Tsunade shook her head. "I’ll keep this under wraps. No one besides us will know. But I’ll give you a mission that requires you to leave the village as a cover. How you handle it is up to you."
At this moment, Sasuke was truly moved.
He tightened his fists, forcing himself to suppress the overwhelming emotions inside, then bowed deeply to Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Thank you."
Normally, in this situation, Tsunade should have sent the Anbu or let the intelligence team keep investigating Itachi’s motives. But instead, after discussing it, they chose to contact Sasuke directly and let him handle it.
Even if Tsunade had kept this information hidden and secretly sent people to gather more intel, that would have been understandable. But she didn’t. Instead, she immediately informed Sasuke.
How could Sasuke not be grateful for that?
Not only that, but Tsunade and Jiraiya had also prepared a complete plan to ensure he had a legitimate reason to confront an S-rank rogue ninja.
Jiraiya chuckled softly. "You’re practically half my student. If I can’t even help you with something this small, what kind of teacher would I be?"
Then Jiraiya’s face turned serious as he gave a final warning. "But remember, no matter what happens, you must come back."
"Yeah!" Sasuke nodded firmly.
Tsunade pulled a mission scroll from her drawer and tossed it to Sasuke. "This is your cover mission. You don’t have to complete it—I’ll have the Anbu take care of it. Also, I won’t be sending Anbu to follow you, so if you notice anyone suspicious tailing you along the way, take them out. I’ll handle the rest."
She was referring to Root.
Sasuke understood and nodded without hesitation.
"And the second thing," Tsunade rested her chin on her hands again, "Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura will be going with you. On the surface, it’s just a normal team mission, but once you get there, they won’t interfere with your matters. They can also help keep others off your back."
"You got that, Kakashi?" Tsunade glanced at him.
Kakashi nodded. "Understood."
"And lastly, the third thing..." Tsunade paused for a moment, as if hesitating, before slowly continuing. "The Uchiha massacre... I’ve always felt like something about it doesn’t add up. Itachi’s defection also seems strange to me. But the Third Hokage didn’t leave me anything on this, so even I don’t know the full truth."
"If you find out what really happened, and if that truth shakes you to your core, you can hate me. You can hate the old man. You can even hate those old geezers still clinging to power. But please... don’t hold it against Konoha. The rest of the village is innocent."
There was a trace of regret in Tsunade’s eyes.
She couldn’t help it. She wasn’t in Konoha when the Uchiha were wiped out. Jiraiya wasn’t either. And of the people who knew the truth, the Uchiha were gone, the Third was dead, and those stubborn elders refused to say anything.
Even now, Tsunade still had no idea what really happened in Konoha back then. All she had were vague reports suggesting that the Uchiha had been planning a coup.
But how that led to Itachi wiping out his entire clan... no one knew.
Sasuke understood what Tsunade meant. In fact, he already knew the truth of the Uchiha massacre. Back in the era of the Sage of Six Paths, he had seen all of Itachi’s memories. He knew the full story inside and out.
At the time, it had shaken him to his core. But thanks to Naruto, he had found his peace.
Thinking about this, Sasuke smiled. "Tsunade-sama, don’t worry."
Right now, all he wanted was to understand Itachi’s thoughts. He wanted to know why Itachi chose to do what he did. Why he sided with the village instead of his own clan.
Sasuke glanced out the Hokage’s office window. The village was as peaceful and bustling as ever. Then, he turned back to see Naruto’s worried face, Kakashi’s heavy expression.
Maybe... he was starting to understand Itachi’s decision, even just a little.
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