The morning sun the next day seemed a bit warmer than yesterday. At the entrance of the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Sai was still sitting in his usual spot, with his easel in front of him. In front of him, there were no longer those competing flowers.
Ino Yamanaka stood with her hands on her hips, her cheeks puffed out, trying to make an expression she believed best represented "happiness."
"How is it? Painter, have you captured it? The essence of happiness!"
Sai's brush hovered in mid-air, his brows slightly furrowed, and he gently shook his head at Ino. He still didn't understand; he didn't understand why the girl could always become happy for no reason.
"No, no, that's too forced."
Ino deflated, grabbed Sai's wrist, and walked towards the street. "I've decided, today's goal is to make you genuinely smile for once!"
Sai's body stiffened for a moment at the sudden warm touch, but he didn't resist. He categorized his interactions with Ino as part of a mission.
Konoha's most popular dessert shop was always packed with people. The air was filled with the sweet, cloying aroma of red bean paste, mochi, and syrup.
Ino skillfully squeezed her way to the counter, using the mission reward she had just received to generously buy ten skewers of three-colored dango, and also ordered two cups of steaming hot red bean soup.
She unceremoniously shoved one of them into Sai's hand. "Here, eat! Sweet things can make people feel better!"
Sai looked at the colorful mochi dango in his hand, then at the thick red bean soup in the cup beside it. Like he was executing a precise mission, he opened his mouth and bit into a dango.
The soft, chewy texture was followed by the sweetness of sugar exploding on his taste buds. A warm current slid down his esophagus into his stomach. The energy circulation within him seemed to become slightly more active because of it.
More than the food itself, Sai's attention was focused on Ino across from him. She ate the dango in small bites, her eyes happily narrowing into crescent moons, and the corners of her mouth uncontrollably turning up. Excellent material.
Sai silently noted this frame. Just as the two were enjoying their desserts, two familiar figures appeared at the shop entrance. Sakura Haruno and Uchiha Sasuke.
They had just finished a new round of high-intensity training, still carrying the scent of sweat. "I can't take it anymore! Why won't Naruto let us off? He's already a leader, but he still can't forget about our training tasks," Sakura complained.
Sasuke shook his head with a look of utter weariness, not saying much, just panting heavily. Sakura's gaze immediately locked onto Sai. That chilling aura, out of place with his surroundings, that standard fake smile.
Her pupils suddenly constricted. That was the scent of a "killing tool." Why was it next to Ino? Some terrifying hypotheses spread through her mind.
Sakura's body reacted faster than her brain. She lunged forward, instinctively pulling Ino, who was still unaware of the situation, behind her. Her eyes instantly became sharp, filled with vigilance.
"Ino, stay away from him!"
"Who are you? Why are you with Ino?" Her questioning carried an undeniable sense of oppression.
Sasuke's reaction was even more direct. His crimson Sharingan was already activated. The ink-black tomoe rested in his pupils, scrutinizing Sai in front of him. His judgment was the same as Sakura's.
He turned his head and said to Ino in a cold tone, "Stay away from this heartless guy, he's nothing but a tool."
"Tool"... Sai's heart ached, and for the first time, he felt an extreme aversion to that word being applied to him.
In an instant, Danzo's wrinkled face, that cold, emotion-stripping Zero Room, and "Shin," who had died smiling to "purify" himself... countless sealed fragments exploded in his mind. The perfect fake smile on Sai's face cracked for the first time.
He slowly raised his head, his dark eyes, tinged with a hint of anger, fearlessly met the crimson Sharingan. He recognized this was Uchiha Sasuke, often mentioned within the organization.
"You and I are no different. I am a tool whose emotions have been erased, and you are also a tool, yearning for power, bound tightly by the shackles of hatred."
The air solidified at this moment. Sasuke's pupils suddenly constricted. A visible surge of killing intent, mixed with shock and fury, erupted from him!
"What did you say?!"
Ino was startled by this sudden turn of events. But looking at Sai's face, which for the first time had shed its fake smile and appeared incredibly vulnerable, a strange courage surged within her.
She bravely spread her arms, standing between the two, and shouted loudly at the enraged Sasuke, "You're not allowed to talk about him like that!"
Ino hadn't expected that she would one day lose her temper with Sasuke. Though she realized this, her voice grew even louder.
"Sai… he just isn't good at expressing himself! You bastard!"
Sai looked at the blonde figure standing in front of him. She wasn't tall, even a bit thin, but at this moment, she was like an indestructible bulwark.
After Shin's death, his blank, desolate inner canvas was, for the first time, painted with a vague color that he couldn't define, yet carried a hint of warmth. It seemed to be… the color named "protection."
Sai took another step, moving in front of Ino, spreading his ink and raising his arm, adopting the stance for activating Super Beast Imitation Drawing.
"Step back, Ino, I'll handle this."
In the distance, on a rooftop at the street corner. A Root Ninja expressionlessly put away the miniature scroll in his hand, on which everything that had just happened was recorded in encrypted code.
He transmitted the information through a special channel. A few seconds later, Naruto's reply came. Just a short line of text. "Pressure test results good, exceeding expectations."
Naruto thought for a moment, then added a sentence. "I will personally appease them."
...At the top of the Hokage Rock, the wind was strong, blowing Jiraiya's long white hair. He finally found the disciple who had been giving him so much trouble.
Naruto stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the Village, which was as neatly arranged as a chessboard, his eyes as calm as a deep pool. "Taking over Root, threatening the Advisors, forcing Hiruzen-sensei to abdicate early…"
Jiraiya's voice was hoarse from suppressed anger. "Naruto, tell me, what exactly do you want to do? Become a second Danzo?!"
"Do you want to lead this Village into deeper darkness?!"
Naruto slowly turned around. There was no anger on his face from being questioned, only a calm that seemed self-evident.
"I only believe in three things."
"Absolute order, overwhelming power, and unquestionable execution."
He looked at Jiraiya, a hint of pity in his eyes. "The 'will of fire' you believe in, and the beautiful vision of mutual understanding between people, are noble virtues worthy of being written into fairy tales, but in the face of the impending darkness that can devour the entire world, they are too fragile to withstand anything."
"Believe me, Pervert Sage. I have seen that darkness."
"Only overwhelming firepower will make your enemies deeply reflect on whether they were truly wrong before they turn to dust."
Jiraiya was completely stunned by these utterly cold remarks and wanted to refute, but found that his subsequent arguments still held no ground in Naruto's logic.
"Then what exactly do you want?!" Jiraiya roared in anger.
Naruto took a step forward. Just one step, and that invisible, yet tangible, aura made Jiraiya, a legendary Sannin, feel a pang in his heart, his breath catching.
"What I want is not the Hokage."
Naruto's voice was not loud, but each word was distinct, like a heavy hammer striking Jiraiya's heart.
"What I want is to forge this fragile world, full of loopholes, weakness, and naivety… into an iron empire strong enough to resist the coming of the future 'Great Impurity.'"
"And Konoha is the first cornerstone."
Jiraiya's mind went blank. He couldn't fully grasp the meaning of Naruto's words, yet he could feel the chilling madness and grandeur hidden behind them.
Naruto's tone, however, suddenly shifted. "Of course, to achieve this goal, I need help."
He even showed a sincere smile to the dumbfounded Jiraiya. "Pervert Sage, I admit, your achievements in intelligence gathering and infiltration are unmatched."
"I formally invite you to serve as the honorary Advisor for the new Root's [External Purge Department]."
"I need you to use your intelligence network, spread throughout the Ninja World, to establish a 'Heaven's Eye' system covering the Five Great Nations for me, monitoring all anomalies that could threaten human survival."
Naruto looked at Jiraiya, his eyes burning. "The 'peace' you have pursued your entire life is too ethereal and too fragile."
"Only under absolute military deterrence and pervasive intelligence surveillance can an eternal, unshakeable, enforced peace be achieved."
Jiraiya's heart was stirred by enormous waves. The blueprint Naruto described was insane, autocratic, and full of the taste of iron and blood. Yet, he couldn't find any reason to refute it.
To call him a tyrant? A madman? But this young man had shown no desire for power from beginning to end. He was merely, for a goal so grand it was terrifying, like a programmed war machine, relentlessly crushing all obstacles.
Jiraiya remained silent for a long, long time. Finally, he just let out a weary sigh.
"Naruto, make sure to get enough rest. If you're too tired, get a good night's sleep."
"As for your invitation, I'll think about it.".
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