Naruto: The Hidden Shadow Style

Haseo didn't know whether he could truly remain composed if ordered to carry out such a massacre, but one fact would not change because of this uncertainty—some people from Konoha would likely be completely erased after tonight.

Yet they were nothing more than political bargaining chips, and such transactions weren't particularly unusual. One system might prove superior to another, but no politics could ever claim greater purity than another… In Haseo's eyes, the Hidden Leaf had become far more complex and multi-layered.

But there was one thing that the Anbu ninja accompanying him tonight hadn't gotten wrong—ninjutsu was indeed fascinating, holding undeniable allure for every ninja. The level of attraction varied among individuals, yet in most cases, if a ninja had the chance to take extreme risks for a technique, he probably would.

To ninja, ninjutsu would always remain a scarce resource. Though the Ninja Academy founded by The Second Hokage was an unprecedented innovation—making it possible for commoners to learn techniques previously limited to shinobi families—it offered only the most basic instruction from start to finish… Fundamentally, the Ninja Academy existed for chakra dissemination rather than widespread ninjutsu distribution.

Up to now, ninjutsu transmission still relied mostly on traditional, inefficient one-on-one oral instruction. If someone wanted to become a ninja capable of mastering numerous advanced jutsu, first he needed to find a teacher willing to teach them all… Naturally, that described only legal and normal procedures. Those who could steal the Scroll of Seals or similar scrolls faced entirely different circumstances.

Haseo quietly reached his hand toward his ninja tool pouch. Without sheer coincidence, the Ninja Tools he carried would have kept those jutsu completely inaccessible to him for his entire life.

"Mission complete. We can disband now."

As dawn approached, Linker said to Haseo. The faint sounds in the night had long fallen silent, and the stench of blood had reached its peak… So, as a temporary Anbu operative, Haseo's mission was over.

"What a pain. You know, I was supposed to be on vacation," Haseo remarked while loosening his stiff neck after standing guard all night. After glancing at his temporary teammate, he walked off alone.

Of course, Haseo didn't actually care whether this time counted as rest or whether the village would pay overtime compensation—but right now, he really did feel exhausted.

The operation stretched from deep into the night until daybreak, after which the entire emergency status across Konoha ended… You couldn't help but respect how efficiently the village operated.

Up until now, Anbu's official surveillance mission on the Uchiha had been lifted. However, Haseo suspected it was only "officially" so. The village had always placed limited trust in the Uchiha, and now this fragile trust had cracked again—how could things possibly be mended so easily? Any appearance of reconciliation was merely superficial.

Yet even superficial healing was precious. The Uchiha would once again send their clansmen to the Front Line. Overall, although this incident had left hidden dangers between both sides, the immediate crisis currently facing Konoha had been resolved—at a bloody cost.

Haseo, who had been recalled to the village specifically to counter the Uchiha's Sharingan, had not actually encountered a situation where he needed to stand against them. This, one could say, was a fortunate turn of events amidst misfortune… If even Haseo himself considered this a stroke of luck, then naturally Danzo and the village were all the more willing to accept the current outcome.

Back when the village had persecuted the Fuma clan, Haseo hadn't spoken out… Otherwise, he would have died alongside them.

Afterwards, Haseo returned to his residence, ate breakfast, washed his body, cleared his mind, and immediately fell asleep. He got tired easily precisely because he overthought things. But as a mere ninja whose role was simply to carry out tasks, he didn't need an overly active mind.

The village hoped to cultivate Ninjas into emotionless killing machines—an extreme approach indeed. Yet someone like Haseo, a seemingly insignificant individual who found himself worrying about issues that should concern the Hokage, represented another extreme altogether.

However, before he could settle into a peaceful rest, the same trio from yesterday showed up again, entering directly through the window without even knocking.

"This guy doesn't look particularly cute while sleeping either."

"That's just how guys sleep, you know? On the other hand, Tsunade, you seem cuter than usual when you're asleep."

"Wait a second, how do you know what I look like when I'm asleep?"

"Oh? Well… Right, I heard from Orochimaru."

"Do you really think anyone would believe such a clumsy lie, Jiraiya? And besides, faking sleep any longer isn't gonna help, right?"

With a sigh, Haseo opened his eyes and muttered helplessly, "First off, when someone wants to enter another person's home, they should knock first and wait for permission. That's basic courtesy. Do you think Konoha is your house…"

Well, he swallowed the rest of that sentence. In some sense, Konoha really was owned by Tsunade's family.

"Second, when someone who's clearly sleep-deprived is pretending to keep resting, you should just leave them be. Can't be that hard to read the situation, can it?"

Haseo didn't really have a way to deal with those uninvited nuisances.

"Sleep-deprived? Oh yeah, getting enough sleep can indeed be tough on this street." Jiraiya thought he caught the main point hidden within Haseo's words and nodded understandingly.

This guy gets way too much out of everything.

Haseo thought to himself, "Living this high up, I don't easily lose sleep over minor disturbances." He sighed before continuing, "It was the mission. I didn't get enough sleep because of an urgent task last night. In fact, I only just got home not long ago."

"That's right—the events from yesterday," Tsunade immediately said. "Who exactly was the one who attacked me, and why did he do it... Has the village changed its stance toward the Uchiha, and is that connected to that attacker?" She quickly abandoned her previous line of questioning and turned to Haseo to ask about yesterday's incident.

Of course she'd be concerned—it's not like anyone would shrug off being personally attacked. However, with their information-gathering capabilities, normally they shouldn't have needed to hear the details from Haseo. But since they came here, that meant they hadn't obtained the intelligence elsewhere.

In other words, this was something that shouldn't have become known to them.

"Who knows?" Haseo said. "Last night, Orochimaru and I handed the attacker over to Anbu. Probably just a spy from another village—and not a very smart one at that... This time, nothing serious happened, but you people with special statuses should be more careful in daily life." On matters like this, he wouldn't offer more than necessary.

Tsunade faintly realized that Haseo's response was evasive, yet she had no means to force someone to speak what they didn't want to say.

"I see," she continued probing. "Then what about the Uchiha? Your mission last night was monitoring the Uchiha, right? Will this mission continue? Are you staying in the village for long?"

"Not necessarily. The issue involving the Uchiha has concluded, I think—they saw reason eventually. As for myself… probably I'll return to the front soon. That's where shinobi truly belong. Right now, I'm just temporarily back in the village."

Now that the Uchiha had made their stance clear, Konoha also needed to respond appropriately. First, the village should withdraw the assembled Anbu forces—both sides should at least publicly demonstrate their intention to "make peace and cease hostilities."

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