Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 352 Kakashi

Along the street, accompanied by Itachi, Aokiji walked and looked around at the surrounding buildings and pedestrians: "This village is really lively."

Itachi looked around and nodded in agreement. The beauty and peace of the village were precisely what he wanted to protect.

"It's just a bit of a pity..."

The blue pheasant drawled out the word meaningfully.

Itachi asked, "What's a pity...?"

Aokiji casually replied, "Nothing has changed."

Even after decades, the village remains largely unchanged.

Itachi lowered his eyes slightly, pondering the meaning of these words, wondering if Aokiji was conveying a message of dissatisfaction with the village.

If a sentence can be interpreted in two ways, then it will not have two different meanings.

There's not much change; to put it positively, it's called stability; to put it negatively, it's called decay.

Itachi glanced at Aokiji's face without revealing his expression. Ignoring the other's smiling, fake mask, he felt that the other was probably expressing a second meaning.

Aokiji had no intention of continuing the conversation, and changed the subject: "But speaking of which, do you know where Orochimaru is right now?"

Itachi fell silent...

"How could you not recognize him?" Aokiji said with a smile, "Don't tell me he's dead. Otherwise, with his talent, he should be quite famous in the village. It's impossible that you don't recognize him."

"No, it's just..." Itachi was a little unsure how to begin.

"But...what..." Aokiji followed up with another question.

Itachi glanced around discreetly. The street was full of pedestrians, and it was not appropriate to discuss the matter of Orochimaru's defection here.

He planned to take Aokiji to a secluded place for a detailed talk, but a familiar, lazy voice came from ahead, interrupting his plans.

"Hey, isn't that Itachi? That's rare, isn't it? You're walking around so casually on the street, and with other people too..."

Itachi looked ahead and saw a thin young man with white hair standing in front of him. His face was covered by a mask and a headband hanging at an angle, which covered his left eye.

Besides him, there was a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes standing next to him. He was already dressed in green and had a watermelon-shaped haircut, which made him look like a watermelon.

Kakashi...

Itachi looked at the masked youth, a hint of seriousness flashing in his eyes.

Kakashi is a renowned elite Jonin of the village and a member of the Hokage's Anbu.

Does his presence here mean that higher-ups have already taken action and are testing the waters?

He was overthinking it; Kakashi and Guy were just passing by.

Itachi had already prepared his response in his mind, but his uncle Aokiji acted first.

He walked up to Kakashi and patted him on the shoulder in a familiar manner: "Hey? Isn't this Sumo? It's been a long time."

Kakashi was completely bewildered when someone called him that.

Hatake Sakumo is his father's name.

He looks very similar to his father, so it's understandable that some people mistake him for his father.

The problem is that it's strange that these words came out of the mouth of a child who looks about twelve or thirteen years old, especially since he seemed to be very familiar with the child.

Aokiji looked Kakashi up and down and said strangely, "Speaking of which, how come you're still so young?"

He wasn't so blind as to admit his mistake; he said it on purpose for fun, and also to set the stage for what would happen later.

The young man with the watermelon-shaped haircut approached Kakashi: "Kakashi, do you know this guy?"

Kakashi shook his head: "I don't know him at all. Didn't you hear what he called me?"

After saying that, he looked at Itachi, his eyes asking a question.

It seems that Uncle Aokiji mistook Kakashi for Kakashi's father, which led to this comical situation. Itachi was quite helpless about it, and he explained:

"Uchiha Aokiji... an elder of my clan."

The young man with the watermelon-shaped haircut looked at Aokiji's youthful face, completely bewildered: "Elder? Are you kidding me?"

Itachi probably knew what Guy was thinking, and further explained, "Don't let his appearance fool you, he's actually several years older than my father."

"Uchiha Aokiji...?"

Kakashi recognized the name; he made a quick mental connection, and what he found shocked him: "Wait, you mean this is...that person?"

Itachi nodded: "Yes."

Kakashi immediately understood what was going on; no wonder the white-haired boy in front of him mistook him for his father.

But hasn't he been dead for many years?

And why does he look so young...?

Kakashi was puzzled.

Aokiji said strangely, "Shumo, you've been acting strangely just now..."

Itachi explained from the side, "Uncle Aokiji, this isn't Sakumo Hatake, he's Sakumo Hatake's son..."

"White Teeth's son?"

"Yes."

Aokiji feigned realization: "Oh, no wonder..."

Kakashi exclaimed in surprise, "That's truly astonishing."

Aokiji asked, "Where is your father?"

When this question was raised, Kakashi's expression darkened, but he quickly rallied: "Father has been gone for many years..."

Aokiji apologized, "I'm sorry..."

Please don't mind.

"Things have really changed..."

Aokiji gazed into the distance, his voice tinged with a hint of melancholy.

Kakashi asked curiously, "All these years, what exactly happened to Aokiji...?"

Aokiji lowered his head and remained silent...

Seeing that he was unwilling to talk about it, Kakashi wisely stopped asking, apologized, and then left with Guy.

His relationship with Itachi was at most a superior-subordinate one; it was already considered good enough that they greeted each other when they met.

As for Aokiji's reappearance, that will be decided by the village's higher-ups; it's not his place to worry about it.

Itachi remained expressionless, glancing around as if to think that their every move was probably being monitored.

These secret agents, disguised as pedestrians, blended in so well that even he estimated they would be difficult to spot.

"Speaking of which, how are Jiraiya and Orochimaru doing?"

Seeing what happened to Sumo, Aokiji said with feeling, "I hope the two of them won't end up like Sumo, otherwise I'll be very sad."

"As for Lord Jiraiya, he's currently traveling and doesn't come back to the village often. As for Orochimaru..."

A change in address signifies a change in attitude and stance.

This is the information Itachi revealed to Aokiji.

Given the other party's keen perception, it's unlikely they wouldn't have noticed.

Aokiji quickly picked up on this message: "Looks like we need to find a place to have a proper talk."

"Um."

"Where should we go..." Aokiji pondered for a moment, then had an answer: "I've got it... Come with me."

Itachi followed without much thought, but he was quite surprised when he arrived at his destination.

This is the cliff where he used to spend a lot of time with Shisui.

"You probably didn't expect this place to exist. In the past, my lover and I often came here to dream about the future of the village."

Aokiji's words triggered Itachi's memories of spending time with Shisui in the past. For a moment, he was overwhelmed by the scene and lowered his head, his eyes dimming.

"What's wrong?"

A shrewd glint flashed in Aokiji's eyes.

"It's nothing..." Itachi said evasively, quickly suppressing his sadness so the other person wouldn't notice.

In the past, he and Shisui had also discussed the future of the village here.

Aokiji's inner canthus narrowed slightly: "Now you can talk to me about Orochimaru, right?"

Itachi slowly spoke: "Orochimaru... has defected."

Aokiji feigned wide eyes: "Defect?"

While observing the other person's expression, Itachi said, "Yes."

Aokiji frowned and asked, "Why did he defect?"

Itachi noticed that Aokiji was calmer than he had imagined and replied, "It seems he was conducting human experiments, even using his own village comrades as subjects... He was discovered by the Third Hokage and then defected."

Aokiji fell silent.

Itachi asked, "Uncle Aokiji, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to bring Orochimaru back to the village..." Aokiji closed his eyes for a moment, his voice filled with determination.

Itachi had reservations: "Orochimaru harmed his comrades. Even if we manage to bring him back, it will probably be difficult to explain to the village."

"It doesn't matter, I'll take action."

"..."

"And if we're talking about harming comrades, the higher-ups are the least qualified to say such things."

Aokiji curled his lip and said disdainfully.

Itachi looked down the cliff and couldn't help but think of Shisui, who had jumped off the cliff to commit suicide. He clenched his fist slightly.

Danzo...

(End of this chapter)