"Long time no see. I'm here again."
Late at night, in Konoha's cemetery, Jin stood before the grave of the Fourth Hokage, a faint smile flickering across his face.
After placing the prepared three-colored dango and sake in front of the tombstone, he muttered to himself for a while.
He'd been doing this for three years now.
Ever since his Flying Thunder God Technique could cover more than two hundred meters, he'd begun openly avoiding ANBU patrols and coming here to pay his respects.
Of course, calling it "paying respects" was generous—
It was really more like looting the corpse.
Because of the cooldown limitation on corpses, he could only come once a year.
This was the third time.
After finishing, like a devout youth completing a ritual, Jin lowered his head, pressed his palms together, and prayed:
"Brother Minato, you've gotta give me something good this time, right?"
Three years.
And all he'd gotten were two trash green traits.
For a Fourth Hokage, that was downright humiliating!
As he spoke, he took advantage of the moment and quietly extended his hands forward.
A faint layer of golden light gradually surfaced over his palms.
Body of Golden Light!
After six years, his mastery over this ability had improved drastically.
He could now even localize the golden light.
But this time—
When he reached into the ground, he froze.
He fumbled around.
Empty.
He tried the grave next to it—Kushina's.
Still empty!
Where were the bodies?!
Jin was stunned.
The previous times, the corpses had clearly still been there—so why had they suddenly disappeared now?
"Orochimaru?"
"Did that bastard come this early…?"
He sighed and shifted his gaze away from Minato and Kushina's graves to the others nearby.
The First and Second Hokage weren't here either.
There were tombstones, but he'd checked three years ago—those were empty.
As for the other shinobi…
Most of their remains had decayed beyond recognition. There was nothing left to loot.
On the outer perimeter.
Up in a tree.
Hatake Kakashi watched Jin's small figure from afar, a swirl of emotions rising within him.
"Paying respects…?"
"Sensei… so you still have a little admirer like this."
"Maybe he really is an outlier among the Uchiha."
"In that case, the way he treats Naruto actually makes a lot more sense."
At this moment, something deep in Kakashi's heart was stirred again.
Ever since the Nine-Tails incident—
As Minato's student, he'd come to pay his respects shockingly few times.
Subconsciously, his gaze shifted to another direction.
There, another small figure stood, its face seemingly filled with resolve.
But when Kakashi looked more closely, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Flowers that Rin loved… fresh ones…"
"But Rin's family died long ago. How could anyone in the village still know this?"
At this instant, the shock in Kakashi's heart grew even stronger.
He vaguely felt like he was about to grasp something—
But it was stuck right at the tip of his tongue.
Just out of reach.
Because of this, even his own chakra fluctuated slightly.
In the cemetery.
Feeling the disturbance in chakra behind him, Jin's eyes curved subtly.
"So you finally noticed the issue on Rin's side…"
He was actually quite curious—
If Kakashi and Obito were to meet again ahead of schedule, what kind of changes would that bring?
As for Obito—
Jin felt not even the slightest goodwill toward him.
There were very few truly pure villains in Naruto; most were just people with different convictions.
Even Itachi could sometimes be "washed" a bit.
But—
Except for Obito.
Blaming others for the death of a loved one was one thing.
But—
Causing the deaths of the teacher couple who had saved him countless times?
That was hard to excuse.
And more importantly—
During the Nine-Tails incident, he'd even wanted to kill a newborn Naruto.
Those two points alone nailed him permanently to the pillar of shame.
"Just wait. Once I copy Kamui from Kakashi, I'll dump crap into that space every single day!"
Muttering this, Jin was just about to stand up and check another grave—
When a faint sound suddenly reached his ears.
Rustle… rustle… rustle…
Outside the cemetery, multiple agile figures swept past.
Extremely fast.
Extremely quiet.
If not for the massive boosts to his senses from trait fusion, he wouldn't have heard a thing.
He turned his head in confusion, murmuring:
"More than a dozen figures? There shouldn't be anything important around here—wait, Danzō?! Root?!"
In an instant, it hit him.
Near the cemetery—
Was one of Root's bases, the so-called "foundation" of Konoha!
He'd discovered this by accident three years ago.
Who would've thought Root had a base here?
"Root mobilizing like this in the dead of night… what are they up to?"
With suspicion rising, the crimson glow and bulging veins appeared around his eyes almost simultaneously.
Sharingan + Byakugan!
A combo he privately called—
Red-White Eyes.
Under their joint vision, he clearly saw the animal-patterned paint on the masks of those figures.
"As expected… Root."
After confirming it, Jin quietly followed.
Whatever they were doing this late at night—
It definitely wasn't anything good.
And what was wrong with him looting a couple of corpses from behind, huh?!
As they moved farther, the trees around them first thinned out—
Then gradually grew denser again.
It was obvious they'd crossed from one side of the village to the other.
Compared to the unfamiliar cemetery area, this place was much more familiar to Jin.
The cliff!
More precisely—
The dense forest above the cliff!
More and more Root ninja leapt into the forest, hiding themselves.
In their hands—kunai, shuriken, or katana—gripped tightly.
All eyes focused on a single point.
There—
An old man wearing a dark-purple robe, with short gray-white hair wrapped in bandages, slowly stepped forward.
His pace was slow and heavy.
Each step made no sound, yet crushed fallen leaves into powder.
Like a coiled serpent, radiating silent pressure.
"Danzō. So it really is you, you old bastard."
At this point, the situation was crystal clear.
Danzō was preparing to harm someone again.
And who was the victim?
Jin glanced at the surrounding forest, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"Brother Shisui… please remember what I told you."
But thinking about it again, he knew it was unrealistic.
Among the Uchiha—
Aside from Itachi, their brains were… generally not very sharp.
Even the Mad Laughing Boss himself had gotten his heart ripped out by Obito—
And still managed to get his heart ripped out again by Black Zetsu.
Clearly, power wasn't lacking. Brains were.
"Looks like I might be exposed tonight…"
"The days of lying flat might be coming to an end."
Anticipating the imminent battle, Jin took a shallow breath.
Shisui was a pure, naive good boy—
Jin had hinted, and outright warned him, many times.
But since he'd run into this situation head-on, he didn't mind lending a hand.
Ideally—
He'd smash Danzō to death.
This was key to delaying the Uchiha clan's annihilation!
As for how Itachi would awaken his Mangekyō?
That could be dealt with later.
But just as Jin was about to make his move—
The Danzō ahead suddenly went poof, dispersing into wind.
The next second, almost all the Root ninja seemed to receive some kind of signal and instantly dashed toward another direction.
Watching that "clone" vanish, Jin frowned.
"So… the eyes have already been taken?"
"So this wasn't the place where the eye-gouging happened?"
Damn it!
Kishimoto, your flashbacks misled me!
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