"Kaito, do you think I'm an idiot?"
Sasuke's face darkened as he clenched his fists, glaring sideways at the infuriating guy in front of him.
Three minutes earlier…
Kaito, with two sunflowers perched on his shoulders, had forcibly rescued Sasuke from the "seal" of his warm blankets while he was sound asleep.
Sasuke, just waking up, immediately erupted with morning grumpiness.
But when he saw the two long-faced sunflowers on Kaito's shoulders, he was so startled that he fell back onto the floor with a yelp, scrambling on all fours to retreat to the corner of the room.
Then, Kaito very seriously informed Sasuke that the two sunflowers on his shoulders were summoning creatures.
The Shinobi World was vast, with summoning creatures like ninja dogs, ninja cats, and so on.
So it was perfectly normal for him to have summoning sunflowers.
Sasuke was both shocked and speechless at this.
The reason Kaito had come to find Sasuke was mainly to test whether the sunflowers' healing abilities could work on others.
Moreover, before entering, he had also learned through some communication that the sunflowers could release glowing orbs three times a day.
That made a total of six healing opportunities.
Enough to heal himself.
The rest was to see if they could heal others.
"I'm not lying to you, they can even talk," Kaito said with a straight face, then promptly slapped the "Left and Right Guardians" twice each. "Talk!"
The sunflowers had roughly figured out how to deal with this foolish human. After being slapped, they immediately showcased their impressive linguistic talents.
The Left Guardian boomed in a deep baritone:
"Give him a show!"
"Damn! Go! Ignore~"
The Right Guardian, upon receiving the order, first let out a low growl, then erupted into a full-blown roar.
"Awooo—"
"Woof woof woof—"
It barked while leaning its head toward Sasuke, looking exactly like a vicious dog from a landlord's household.
When Sasuke heard the rapid barking sounds coming from the sunflowers, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"What kind of Shinobi Flower is this supposed to be?!"
Slap! Slap!
Kaito's expression remained impassive, even somewhat cold.
He promptly rewarded each sunflower with two more slaps, showing that he was gradually getting used to this absurd behavior.
"Produce two orbs."Hinata received the command, closed her eyes, and began to emit a radiant glow from her entire body.
Sasuke, witnessing this strange phenomenon, was more than a little curious about what the dog-like Hinata might do next. He craned his neck, stretching it out as far as he could, his eyes wide open.
The next second, a blinding flash of light suddenly filled the room.
Kaito, having suffered a similar mishap before, had already closed his eyes when he gave Hinata the command.
But Sasuke wasn't so lucky…
"ARGH—"
"KAITO!!!"
Sasuke clutched his eyes in agony, roaring in pain. Even with his eyes shut, the world remained a blinding white expanse…
A few minutes later.
Having recovered somewhat, Sasuke, his face dark with anger, shoved Kaito out of the room. Before leaving, he even gave the damn guy a kick for good measure.
"Get out!"
"Get the hell out of my room."
BANG—
Sasuke slammed the door shut with force, then locked it with a sharp click, leaving Kaito standing alone outside.
"My bad, my bad… I should've warned you…"
"But hey, Sasuke, listen to me—"
"Try seeing if that light orb inside can heal you."
Kaito called through the door, his voice tinged with apology.
After confirming Sasuke was okay, he hadn't even gotten a chance to speak before Sasuke unceremoniously kicked him out.
After shouting for about ten minutes with no response from inside, it was clear the kid was genuinely pissed.
"Alright."
"If you don't wanna try, fine. I've got something to take care of, so I'll head out for a bit."
"I'll bring back some dango for you."
Kaito lingered at the door for a while longer, finally shouting a few more resigned words inside. Still, no reply came. With a sigh, he slung his "left and right guardians" over his shoulders and turned to leave.
"TEN SKEWERS!!"
Sasuke's furious roar echoed, his anger still palpable. But at the door, Kaito's lips curled into a faint smirk.
"Got it."
With that, Kaito closed the front door and left the house.
The Naka River wasn't too far from Kaito's home. To avoid arousing suspicion, he wandered the streets as usual.
By the time he reached his destination, he was carrying twenty skewers of dango in his left hand, a cake, and leading two Shiba Inus he'd bought from a kennel with his right.
Tucked under his arm were several bouquets of chrysanthemums.
He'd bought the flowers from Ino's shop—apparently, they were meant for mourning the dead.
Kaito figured it was best to prepare for both outcomes, so he picked up a few bouquets.
If Shisui still ended up dying as in the original story, these flowers would serve as an early tribute.
"Captain Shuuichi, that's Kaito Uchiha."
"Should we keep an eye on him?"
A Root ninja glanced at Kaito's retreating figure before signaling to his squad leader, Shuuichi.
"No need."
"He's just a waste without the Sharingan."
At this, Shuuichi paused for three seconds before adding in a slightly odd tone,
"Lord Danzo said…"
"Even if Fugaku's two younger sons awaken the Sharingan, they're not to be handed over to him. They'll be used for experiments instead."
Mentioning this, Shuuichi recalled the look of disdain on Danzo's face when discussing the two brats.
It seemed…
Mental illness might be contagious through the Sharingan.
Shuuichi completely understood Lord Danzo's sentiment.
After all, while other Uchiha had personality flaws, those two kids were genuinely unhinged.
"Fall back. Our focus now shifts temporarily to Shisui and Itachi."
Shuuichi waved his hand, and the Root ninjas nodded before vanishing from the rooftops.As the Root ninja departed from the eaves, Kakashi, who had been reading Icha Icha Paradise on a tree branch, snapped his book shut with a "snap," muttering to himself.
"Chrysanthemums? Offerings?"
"Is this... mourning the deceased?"
Assigned by the Third Hokage to monitor the mission, Kakashi narrowed his single visible eye as he watched Kaito Uchiha's departing figure.
The direction this kid's heading...
Isn't the cemetery, is it?
Seeming to notice something, Kakashi tucked his book back into his ninja pouch and vanished from the treetop in an instant.
Kaito spent nearly two hours wandering the village triggering missions until sunset when he finally arrived at the Naka River.
The area was vast, and the original story's information wasn't enough to pinpoint exactly where Shisui had jumped to his death.
Relying on intuition, Kaito placed the chrysanthemums he carried along the riverbank. Worried the flowers might blow away, he even secured them with a few stones after setting them down.
At each spot he arranged, Kaito would press his palms together and silently mourn Shisui for a few seconds.
He placed six offerings along the bank and three on the cliff.
After completing his premature memorial for Shisui, Kaito began walking his Shiba Inu around to scout for temporary lodging nearby.
Kakashi, who had watched the entire process from a distance, couldn't have been more exasperated.
Watching Kaito Uchiha now walking his dog, Kakashi's eye twitched uncontrollably.
As for Kaito's behavior—wandering around the village all day buying strange things before coming to Naka River to walk his dog...
His assessment was just two words:
"Mental."
After muttering his critique, Kakashi pulled out his book again from the ninja pouch, leaning against a rock to carefully study Lord Jiraiya's literary masterpiece.
...