Three days later, the sky hung heavy and gray.
Kakashi stood before a gravestone, a single white flower in his hand. A gentle breeze stirred his silver hair.
"Dad…"
He crouched down slowly, placing the flower at the base of the grave.
"You broke the rules for the sake of your comrades, didn't you?"
As he spoke, a light drizzle began to fall. Kakashi kept his head lowered; whether it was rain or tears trickling down from beneath his mask, it was impossible to tell.
It was a long while before he spoke again.
"I have comrades now too. But I won't be like you. I'll follow the rules. I swear… I will."
Standing again, he took a deep breath, his face giving away nothing.
"Dad, I'll come visit you again when I have time."
With his hands shoved into his pockets, he turned to leave. Just as he stepped out of the cemetery, his gaze flicked to the side.
"When did you get here?"
Ryosuke was standing there, holding a spare umbrella, which he extended toward him.
"I've been here for a while," Ryosuke replied.
Kakashi didn't take it. Without another word, he walked off into the rain, soon vanishing down the street.
Ryosuke withdrew his gaze and stepped into the cemetery, stopping in front of his parents' grave. He stood there for a long moment before letting out a quiet sigh.
"Mourning the dead has no meaning. Life is something fragile—easily broken."
A cold voice sounded from behind him.
Ryosuke turned to see a man with long black hair, vertical golden pupils like those of a serpent, pale skin, and blue-green magatama earrings. The unsettling aura and distinctive appearance left no doubt—it was one of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru.
"What has meaning, then?" Ryosuke asked.
"Trying to change that. That's what matters."
"Change?"
"Finding a way to make life more resilient… perhaps even eternal."
A feverish gleam lit Orochimaru's golden eyes. From within his robes, he produced a small box.
"If you wish to know the secret of eternal life, come find me after you graduate from the Academy."
Ryosuke accepted it.
Ding! Uchiha Sasuke (Shippuden) Card points Value +5.
Ding! Yakushi Kabuto Card points Value +2.
Card points Value?
Kabuto's increase was no surprise. But Sasuke's? Orochimaru counted too?
Thinking it over, Ryosuke realized it made a strange kind of sense—after all, Sasuke had defected to Orochimaru and trained under him for two and a half years. That was a sort of twisted teacher-student bond.
Orochimaru, satisfied that Ryosuke had taken the box, turned and walked away.
Watching his retreating back, Ryosuke made up his mind: after graduation, he needed to interact with Orochimaru more.
Looking down, he could tell by the weight and feel that the box didn't contain anything alive. Slowly, he opened it.
"A white snake… skin?"
He was genuinely surprised. Orochimaru had given him something deeply symbolic—the white snake stood for luck and regeneration, a personal emblem of Orochimaru himself. That meant the man clearly had high expectations for him.
Ryosuke closed the box and left the cemetery, heading toward his destination: Konoha Orphanage.
"You're from the Uchiha? What business do you have here?"
The shinobi guarding the orphanage eyed him warily despite his age.
"I want to see the director."
The guards exchanged glances, and one of them ran inside.
"Wait here. Someone's gone to get her," the other said.
Ryosuke nodded, stepping under a sheltered spot and closing his umbrella.
Before long, a woman emerged—dressed like a nun, wearing black-rimmed glasses, her golden hair spilling out as she pushed back her hood.
"Hello, I'm Yakushi Nono, the director of Konoha Orphanage," she said, her smile warm and without a trace of condescension.
"Hello, my name is Uchiha Ryosuke, from the Uchiha clan. I've come today to make a personal donation to your orphanage."
"Donation?"
The older woman beside Nono frowned, clearly skeptical. After all, Ryosuke was just a child himself.
"My parents left behind several properties and 800,000 ryō before they passed away. I want to donate all of it to the orphanage."
"…Your parents passed away?"
Nono's eyes softened with pity and resignation as she looked at him.
Ding! Yakushi Kabuto Card Value +2.
"Yes. They died on a mission not long ago…" Ryosuke lowered his head, letting the silence speak for him.
Ding! Yakushi Kabuto Card Value +5.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," the older woman sighed. "As a member of the Uchiha, you'd need the clan leader's approval to dispose of your assets."
Ryosuke unzipped his backpack and pulled out a contract.
"…This is clan approval?"
The woman's eyes lit up as she read it. The orphanage had been in a dire state since the Second Shinobi War ended—Root had been sending wave after wave of war orphans from other villages, but no funds to support them. Nono had been barely keeping things afloat by working part-time as a medic-nin at the hospital. Without her, the orphanage might already have shut down.
"This…"
Nono's gaze moved from the paper back to Ryosuke.
"I may be Uchiha, but I'm also a part of Konoha. With my monthly clan and village stipends, I can't spend this much on myself. Please, take it."
He then handed over the property transfer documents.
"This is the deed transfer. If you agree, Director, just sign here."
The older woman beside her looked to Nono.
"Director, this is a blessing! This could keep us running for two and a half more years!"
Nono hesitated, conflict flickering in her eyes.
"Director," Ryosuke continued, "right now, it's just me and my younger brother left in my family. You could say we're orphans too. I understand the pain of having no parents. If I can help them, I will—they're the future pillars of Konoha. But in return, whenever I come by, you have to feed me."
That last line brought a faint smile to Nono's face. She drew a steadying breath, resolve settling in her eyes.
"Alright. I'll sign."
Ryosuke reached into his bag for a pen—only for Nono to grasp his hand and shake her head.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]