Arata had no intention of explaining his joke about Kakashi's "book."
The group strolled at an easy pace toward the Uchiha clan compound.
After the Nine-Tails' attack years ago, the Uchiha had been relocated to the village outskirts.
In truth, from that moment on, the Uchiha's position in Konoha had begun to crumble.
Before that, even though they were never allowed into the true core of political power, they still controlled the Konoha Police Force, a department with real authority.
They still enjoyed the status of a great clan.
Even if the Police Force had been created by the Second Hokage as a way to monitor them, the end result was that the Uchiha held a great deal of practical power.
But after the Nine-Tails' rampage, much of the Police Force's authority was stripped away.
Even their clan grounds were pushed to the village's edge.
The Uchiha were proud to the bone.
There was no way they would just accept this without resistance.
But because of their difficult personalities, they had poor relations with every other clan.
Even if they wanted to form alliances and seize power that way, they couldn't.
The only path left to them was coup d'état.
The truly awkward part was—
Even within the Uchiha, there was no consensus on whether they should take power by force.
Not every Uchiha was willing to start a violent takeover.
In the end, the result everyone knows:
The Uchiha clan was wiped out.
Sasuke knew none of this.
He didn't know the truth of the massacre.
After his clan was destroyed, the village's treatment of him was… very good.
His life was filled with praise, admiration, and people envying his lineage.
Because of that, even though Sasuke's heart was set on becoming strong enough to kill Uchiha Itachi, he felt no resentment toward the village itself.
Without the pressure and influence of a still-intact clan, many of Konoha's families were actually very interested in him.
Take Ino, for example—heiress of the Yamanaka clan.
She was free to like Sasuke as openly and obsessively as she wanted, and her clan never intervened.
Why?
Because they approved of her getting close to him.
Right now, Sasuke was the only remaining Uchiha in the village.
And because the clan no longer existed, if Sasuke were to end up with Ino someday, the Third Hokage wouldn't object.
With no clan backing him, even if Sasuke wanted to "do something," how much damage could he actually cause?
But his Uchiha bloodline—
That was something many people coveted.
Not just Orochimaru.
Many Konoha families had their eyes on it as well.
Add to that Sasuke's own talent, and his popularity only went higher.
After the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke hadn't been treated unfairly at all.
On the contrary—
He was living far better than most children.
So at this stage, Sasuke's sense of belonging to Konoha was very strong.
All of this, of course, rested on one condition:
He didn't know the truth about his clan.
If he ever learned it…
Things would be very different.
No matter how justified, how "necessary" the village's choices had been—
The massacre of the Uchiha would always be tied to the Third Hokage.
The old man might not care much about that possibility.
In his eyes, with the Uchiha gone, Sasuke had no real way to threaten the village.
That was part of why he'd placed Sasuke in Team 7.
Even if Sasuke became Hokage one day and learned the truth—
So what?
The one who carried out the massacre was Itachi.
At worst, Hiruzen's sin was hesitating for too long and failing to stop what happened.
Without the Uchiha clan breathing down his neck, could a Hokage Sasuke really lack basic political sense?
Anyone sitting in that chair had to rise above personal grudges.
And no matter what, the Third could always push the blame onto Danzō, the one who had pushed hardest for the Uchiha's eradication.
That had been his thinking—before.
Now?
Now things were different.
The Third Hokage had decided to train Arata instead—
To wait until Arata reached twenty years of age, gained true Hokage-level power, and then step down and hand the position to him.
By then, Hiruzen would be well over seventy.
For a shinobi, that was old.
Even Ōnoki, still clinging to power at that age, had a body that was barely holding together.
If it weren't for the lack of a strong successor, Ōnoki would've retired already.
Of course, the Third didn't realize that Arata's strength was already at Hokage level.
Only Arata himself still believed his combat experience was too shallow, that he wasn't truly at Kage-class, that he was "at most" a jōnin.
But what kind of "jōnin" could effortlessly kill Black Hoe Raiga, an elite jōnin from the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?
What kind of jōnin drew awe from the Nine-Tails?
Among everyone who knew his real strength, Arata was the only one who thought he was "far from Kage level."
The Third's current plan was this:
If, when Arata turned twenty, he was still seen as too young and the voices of opposition too loud, then he would first make Kakashi the Fifth Hokage as a transition.
Once Arata's age and prestige had caught up, he'd inherit the mantle.
Perfect and clean.
None of this, of course, was known to Arata.
Nor to Kakashi.
Arata just believed the Third wanted to squeeze more work out of him earlier.
Kakashi thought the Third was simply trying to recruit and nurture him politically.
Neither of them had realized—
The Third Hokage had already decided:
Arata would be the one to take his place.
While Arata was walking with the others toward the Uchiha clan compound…
Kakashi, having bought Jiraiya's latest novel, headed to Honmoto Tōichi's home.
Fortunately, Tōichi had no mission that day.
As soon as Kakashi sat down, Tōichi couldn't hold back any longer.
"What exactly happened on that mission?"
"Why did you take him out of the village without even telling me?"
After Arata had left, Tōichi had received a new mission and gone looking for him—only to be told by the Third that Arata had been temporarily reassigned to Kakashi's squad for an out-of-village mission.
And then he'd been gone for over a month.
For that entire month, Honmoto Tōichi's nerves had been on edge.
He was terrified it was all part of some scheme by the Third—
that the Hokage was planning something against Arata.
Looking at how anxious Tōichi was, Kakashi felt a stab of guilt.
Because now that Arata had been promoted to chūnin, and the Third's intent was clearly to pull him into the village's core affairs—
There was no way he could continue doing low-level missions under Tōichi as if nothing had changed.
Tōichi was Arata's real teacher.
But after only a few days under his wing, Arata had "graduated."
The man had barely had time to teach him anything before the boy was being pulled away.
Kakashi felt sorry for him.
If he hadn't taken Arata out on that mission—
if Arata hadn't drawn the Third's attention there—
He might still be working under Tōichi, slowly growing at a normal pace.
Kakashi could see clearly that Honmoto Tōichi cared deeply about Arata.
Just like himself, Tōichi saw Arata as a personal disciple.
But he'd barely had any time with him.
Kakashi remained silent for a long moment.
Seeing that, Tōichi's heart sank.
"Say something. What happened to Arata?"
"You promised you'd protect him."
Kakashi's expression made it look like something terrible had happened.
Tōichi's composure cracked. He practically shouted the words.
Seeing him so frantic, Kakashi felt his mouth twitch.
The explanation he was about to give—
He was pretty sure Tōichi was not going to be happy about it.
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