By the time Kaito returned home, within less than an hour, the items had already been delivered to his small courtyard.
Tenten had even left a note tucked among the goods.
[To the precocious little Uchiha brat, I've secretly delivered the items. No one else will find out... but don't let your clan leader father spank you~]
Below the message was a cartoon drawing of Tenten sticking out her tongue, making Kaito both amused and exasperated.
After reading the note, Kaito casually tore it up and glanced toward his foolish younger brother, feeling an inexplicable wave of emotion.
It seemed...
The title of "Uchiha Clan Leader's Foolish Son" was one Sasuke would never shake off.
"Kaito?"
"What did you buy all this stuff for? Are you doing some special training?"
Sasuke crouched by the anvil, poking and prodding at it with his small hands, even sending a small arc of electricity at it.
His curiosity was palpable.
But his appearance made Kaito not want to talk to him at all.
At the moment, Sasuke was covered from head to toe in colorful light strips, with a string of bulb necklaces made from electrical wires around his neck.
Even a Christmas tree probably didn't have as many decorations as Sasuke was wearing.
Under the effect of his Lightning Release, these bulbs flickered at a frequency that was downright blinding.
There were at least six or seven different colors.
Forget about whether this was embarrassing—just the light pollution coming off him made Kaito not want to speak to him.
"Hey, wait!?"
"Kaito, where did you get so much money to buy all this stuff?"
As if realizing something, Sasuke turned to Kaito, his brows furrowing tightly.
"Itachi gave it to me," Kaito lied casually, his expression perfectly calm, with no trace of deception in his eyes.
Sasuke immediately flared up, pointing at Kaito and shouting, "I knew it!!"
"You must have taken my share too, didn't you!?"Ever since his brother left earlier and the word "promise" slipped from Kaito's lips, Sasuke had been wondering what these two could be hiding from him.
Now it seemed...
It must be that his brother was giving Kaito pocket money but not him!
"You're really noisy."
"Uchiha Kaito! You're going too far!"
To Sasuke, Kaito's calm tone was an admission of pocketing the allowance, making the child so angry that he left those words behind before running off to a corner.
Faced with his younger brother's accusation, what could Kaito say?
Pocketing allowance money...
Well, you might discover something even worse tonight.
Kaito felt a twinge of guilt for about three seconds before quietly setting up the blacksmithing tools in the yard.
After all...
These tools were filled with his brother's allow... love.
Setting up the blacksmithing equipment wasn't too difficult—the only heavy piece was the anvil, which took him a full half hour to move into place.
Of course.
It's worth mentioning that children in this world had ridiculously strong physical strength, especially since his current strength was almost equivalent to his adult self from his previous life.
After finishing all this, Kaito sat on the ground and pulled out the "Hidden Weapons Compendium" from his backpack to study.
Dragon Whisker Needle, material: hair gold...
King of Hell Note, material: Mystic Iron...
Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle, material: Deep Sea Mithril...
Repeating Crossbow, material: Mystic Iron...
The book not only described the methods for crafting hidden weapons but also included a set of special techniques and even thoughtfully listed all the required materials.
However, for Uchiha Kaito, whose knowledge of forging came entirely from watching blade-making competitions, this was somewhat difficult to comprehend.
The only vaguely familiar material was Mystic Iron, which was probably something like tungsten or high-manganese steel.
So here came the problem...
Holding the "Hidden Weapons Compendium," Kaito slowly crouched in front of the anvil, sinking deep into thought once again.
He knew some of the material names, but if the actual items were placed in front of him, he wouldn't be able to recognize them at all.
The blacksmiths in Konoha might have them, and it wasn't impossible to commission someone to forge the hidden weapons.
But.
Kaito was certain that if he tried that, the finished weapons wouldn't be delivered to him first—they'd end up in the Hokage's office instead.
Hopefully, the almighty Chakra could help him accomplish everything...
For the more common materials, he could use regular iron, while for the special ones, he planned to buy some Chakra Metal.
After finalizing his crafting plan, Kaito first ran inside to gather all the useless scrap metal in the house and piled them up randomly.
Since he didn't have a furnace, he built a simple forge and began using Fire Release to continuously heat the metal materials.
During the process, worried about running out of Chakra, he took out a sunflower to sustain his Chakra recovery.
About an hour later...
"Done?"
Kaito looked at the crucible glowing red-hot in the forge, picked it up with tongs, and slowly walked over to the prepared mold, pouring the molten iron inside.
Waiting for the ingot to solidify, he clamped it onto the anvil, picked up a large hammer, and began clanging away.
Mikoto and Fugaku arrived home at almost the same time. When they pushed open the front gate, Fugaku was greeted by an unbelievable sight...
Sasuke was wrapped in multicolored light strips, a string of light bulbs hanging around his neck, and holding a large bulb in each hand.
It was truly dazzling.
And beside him stood his older brother, Uchiha Kaito.The boy stood in the center of the courtyard, his back turned to the couple. In his left hand, he held a pair of tongs, while his right wielded a hammer, rapidly striking up and down on the anvil.
Inside the courtyard, aside from Sasuke's blinding light pollution, there was also the noise pollution of Kaito hammering away at the iron...
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Fugaku stood frozen at the entrance for a good three seconds, his expression a mix of shock and disbelief, before quickly retreating three steps and slamming the gate shut with a loud "Bam!"
"Honey...?"
Mikoto, standing by the entrance, noticed her husband's odd behavior, her face filled with confusion.
Fugaku didn't speak. Instead, he looked up at the nameplate on the gate, then glanced around, confirming that this was indeed his home. His expression grew increasingly troubled.
"Wife, help me check something..."
"Did I enter the wrong house?"
Fugaku's face was pale, his lips trembling slightly as he spoke.
Honestly.
He truly wished he had entered the wrong house.
"Huh?? Are you too tired?"
Seeing her husband's pallor, Mikoto reached out to touch his forehead, suspecting he might have a fever from overwork.
"This is our home."
"And also..."
"What's that sound inside...? Clang! Clang! Clang!?"
His wife's words offered no comfort. Instead, they made Fugaku's legs go weak, nearly causing him to stumble and collapse by the gate.
He was now certain...
What he had seen earlier was real.
Realizing this, Fugaku's anger surged from his heart, his fury boiling over. He raised his leg and kicked the gate open with a loud "Bam!", sending the door flying.
"Father, you're back?"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sasuke, seeing his father return, shrank back slightly in fear, his body flickering like a faulty lightbulb, betraying his nervousness.
Fugaku angrily pointed at the two of them, but the pair were so infuriating that he couldn't decide which one to deal with first.
"Tell me!"
"What are you two doing!?"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sasuke panicked and quickly hid the lightbulb in his hands behind his back. However, with so many LED strips wrapped around him, he couldn't remove them all in time.
In his flustered state, the lights on his body flickered even more intensely.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Hah!"
Fugaku gasped, unable to catch his breath, and collapsed backward, falling to the ground with a thud as he fainted.
...