There was no doubt about it.
The taller boy was Uchiha Shisui, and the shorter one was Uchiha Itachi.
At this point in time, both were still very young.
Itachi looked no more than four or five years old, while Shisui was around eight or nine.
But Uha understood all too well children in the shinobi world matured mentally far faster than their peers on Earth.
The two boys sat down and ordered two bowls of ramen.
Itachi sat with a sullen expression, clearly troubled by something.
"What's wrong? Did you lose a one-on-seven again?" Shisui asked with concern.
"Shisui…" Itachi's gaze was distant and confused. "Why do people fight? Why must there be war? Why can't everyone just live in peace?"
Shisui shook his head and answered gravely, "I don't know either. But if I could stop war, I'd give it everything I have."
"So would I." Itachi nodded solemnly.
"…"
Uha, seated nearby, was speechless.
Seriously?
You hear that? You hear that?
Kids not even ten years old, talking about global peace and warfare?
Their maturity was staggering far beyond their years.
But then again, wasn't this the bitter reality of the shinobi world? It was this brutal environment that shaped such children.
Compared to kids their age on Earth, the contrast was like heaven and earth.
Uha let out a faint sigh, a quiet resolve forming in his heart.
"Even if it's just for these unfortunate kids, I have to bring some real change to this damned ninja world."
And if nothing else worked...
Then maybe it was time for the five major nations to go down in flames.
They were always the ones starting wars for their own benefit. Enough was enough.
Uha didn't speak to the boys directly. He simply watched them eat their ramen and leave.
Clack!
As he stepped out of the ramen shop, Uha stomped the ground lightly.
A passing girl walked up and asked with a dead-serious face,
"Excuse me… do you know what it's like to take a poop? If so, could you please describe the feeling to me in detail?"
"…?"
A dark line formed on Uha's forehead. "Afei?"
Afei.
The strangest of all the White Zetsu clones.
Because he couldn't digest or excrete like a normal person, he often asked Obito about defecating he was obsessed with it.
Back when Obito was physically weak, Afei had to wrap around him just to keep him mobile.
But now that Obito had grown stronger, Afei had become an independent entity.
The girl shook her head violently and declared, "I'm not Afei. Don't spout nonsense. Just tell me what pooping feels like!"
"Shut up already. Send a few White Zetsu to tail those two Uchiha boys. If anything suspicious happens, report to me immediately. Got it?" Uha said, too annoyed to waste words.
Shisui's fate weighed on his mind.
Years of internal conflict between clan and village eventually pushed him to side with the latter.
In the original timeline, after the Nine-Tails incident, the village elders began blaming the Uchiha for the disaster.
Tensions escalated, and civil war seemed inevitable.
Shisui had pledged to Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, that he would use his eye technique, Kotoamatsukami, at the next Uchiha assembly to stop the coup.
But what he didn't know...
That promise exposed his most powerful technique, making the already untrusting Danzō Shimura covet his Sharingan.
Shortly afterward, Danzō ambushed him with Izanagi, caught him off guard, and stole his right eye.
Fearing the left eye might be taken next, Shisui entrusted it to his only true friend Itachi.
He asked Itachi to protect both the Uchiha name and the village before ending his own life by jumping into the river.
Though the Nine-Tails incident hadn't happened in this timeline, the Uchiha clan's ambition and thirst for power remained the same.
Even Madara Uchiha, in his prime, had looked down on his own kin.
Calling them "short-sighted fools who could never understand my noble intentions and vision."
The Uchiha revolt was inevitable. It was only a matter of time.
And Uha had no interest in saving a clan too blind to save themselves.
But Shisui and Itachi those two were different.
They had both the clarity of mind and the strength to match.
If possible…
Recruiting them into the Akatsuki might not be such a bad idea.
"Got it," Afei said, shrinking back a little. "Anything else you need?"
"What about Obito? Has he dealt with Kakashi yet?" Uha asked.
"Not yet."
Afei shook his head. "According to White Zetsu's intel, Kakashi joined the Anbu recently and left the village on a mission. It might take a while."
"Then go help Obito. Have a few White Zetsu disguise themselves as 'Root' agents and assist him in taking back the Sharingan," Uha said after a moment of thought.
"Oho? You're pinning the blame on Danzō? Genius!" Afei's eyes lit up.
"Blaming? That's not blaming. Danzō did this in the original timeline. This has nothing to do with us." Uha corrected him flatly.
"Right, right! I'm on it." Afei nodded enthusiastically and turned to leave.
Watching him go, Uha chuckled to himself.
Heh…
Let's see how Danzō reacts when he gets blamed for something he hasn't even done yet.
By the time the Third Hokage comes to interrogate him, the old bastard will probably be completely dumbfounded.
"What a shame..."
Because Orochimaru's illegal experiments were recently exposed, he had fled the village.
And since Danzō was known to have collaborated with him, he'd been busy cleaning up the mess and wasn't currently at Root HQ.
Uha's gaze turned cold, his voice low.
"Otherwise, I'd have just killed that old dog Danzō on the spot. Problem solved."
He wasn't weak.
In his Resurrección form, there were few in the shinobi world who could take him head-on.
But if he got ganged up on, things could get dicey.
Then again, it wasn't a big concern.
His current Reiatsu was only at mid-tier Level 4.
All he had to do was keep completing missions and steadily improve his spiritual pressure.
Once he broke into the high-tier range, most shinobi wouldn't even be able to match him in his base form.
Besides, his Arrancar powers were… unique.
They came from Ulquiorra Cifer, Espada No. 4 from the Bleach universe.
The Espada were ranked based on their killing potential, and Ulquiorra though ranked fourth was the only one capable of performing a second release:
Segunda Etapa.
Many Bleach fans believed he was the true strongest of the Espada.
Now, with the system backing him, Uha could also rapidly master Segunda Etapa.
And when that time came...
Who in this world would be strong enough to force him to reveal his true form?
As he pondered this, a familiar mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
Ding! Side Mission Unlocked!
Side Mission: Borrow the Scroll of Seals from Konoha and recite the name of every technique written in it.
Reward (Pending): Unknown.
Uha blinked, stunned. "???"
Borrow the Scroll of Seals… from Konoha?
WTF?
System, are you serious?
That scroll contained some of the most dangerous jutsu in the entire village. It had been guarded by generations of Hokage.
Aside from a few rare techniques, most of it didn't even interest him.
But for Konoha, it was practically a national treasure.
And the system expected an outsider like him to "borrow" it?
Was it trying to get him killed?
The only reason Naruto was able to steal the scroll back then was because the Third Hokage had secretly orchestrated it.
It let him get rid of Mizuki, the traitor.
It gave young Naruto, who had massive chakra reserves, access to a core technique.
And it allowed Iruka's heartfelt speech to finally give Naruto a sense of belonging.
All in all a move that killed several birds with one stone.
So borrowing the scroll? Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.
Looks like he'd have to take it by force.