July 2, 0:08!
In Konoha Village, in the Hokage's office, the guard captain who woke up from the forbidden area reported the emergency situation of the missing body of Madara!
"What did you say!" Naruto slammed his bandaged right hand on the table, and the documents piled up like a mountain on the table scattered all over the floor!
"Are you sure? The one who broke into the forbidden area and took away Madara's body was that Uchiha Chen?"
"Yes, Seventh Hokage. Many years ago, when I returned to the village after a mission, I met Chen once! I would never mistake such a recognizable face! He took down all my subordinates! I was also careless for a moment and fell into his Sharingan illusion, and fainted!"
Naruto's face was tense, "What are the casualties?"
The team leader said, "Fortunately, there were no casualties! Everyone was just knocked unconscious! I don't think that Chen would dare to do anything too extreme!"
"I see..." Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, sat back on the chair, rested his hands on his chin, and thought about what decision to make next.
How on earth did he manage to escape the protective barrier and the Yamanaka clan's perception system, coming and going without a trace...
Naruto was confused, but facing the facts, he had no choice but to accept it.
At this time, Shikamaru, the Hokage advisor standing by, suddenly asked: "Uchiha Chen, did you leave any words?"
"Huh?" The team leader was stunned for a moment. "Words! Oh, yes, it seems there really is something! He asked me to bring it to the Seventh Hokage!"
"What?"
At the moment the team leader was under the illusion, a sentence did vaguely ring in his mind.
"It seems to say... 'Tell the Hokage that I have already called you many times, and since you are determined not to do anything, I will have no choice but to do it my way.'"
"Ah? Did you say hello?" Naruto frowned and looked at Shikamaru: "Did Chen say... that he would come to take away Madara's body?"
Shikamaru pinched his chin in thought for a moment, then shook his head with certainty and said, "No, he did contact us several times in the past decade or so through letters, but he never mentioned that he wanted to take Madara's body."
Because it is not an official communication between the five major countries, Chen's personal letters will not be directly submitted to the official documents that Naruto has to deal with every day. Instead, Shikamaru, as an advisor, will preview them on his behalf and then decide whether to submit them.
(Precaution: Regarding the controversy surrounding Shikamaru's character, I'll reveal in advance that he was under some kind of 'jutsu', which was done by an unknown entity to both camps at the moment. I originally planned to reveal it as the plot unfolds, but there are a lot of controversies, so I'll give you a heads-up in advance.)
But Shikamaru felt that the contents of his letters were either unrealistic or alarmist, so he intercepted them all.
It was not until three years ago that Chen mentioned his identity as an Uchiha clan member in a letter for the first time, and Shikamaru told Naruto.
Naruto thought... the descendants of Uchiha, although they were a branch of the clan that guarded the forbidden land of the Blood Pond in the Land of Lightning nearly a hundred years ago, and their identities had long been transformed into civilians, they could still be considered distant relatives of Sasuke, right?
So he thought about taking some time to meet Chen in person...but unexpectedly, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire wanted to meet Naruto, and it was a very important matter. As a result, Naruto had to rush there without even having time to leave his shadow clone.
Just like that, Chen's dove was released.
Naruto reminisced, "Remember that day, we kept him at the reception desk for a long time?"
Team leader: "Yes, yes, yes! That was when I came back to report on my work. I saw him at the reception desk. He was sitting there, constantly looking down at his watch!"
Naruto said, "After that time I stood him up, there was no news from him at all. I never thought that today, he would do something so unprecedented..."
When mentioning the time he stood someone up, an indescribable look flashed across Shikamaru's eyes.
"Naruto, now that things have come to this, I should tell you some things about Chen..."
Naruto shuddered slightly and winked at the team leader, who immediately understood and left the room, locked the door, and waited in the corridor.
Naruto propped his chin up with his hands, "Go ahead, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru lit a cigarette.
"I shouldn't have hidden this from you. Chen's words in the letter were quite suspicious, so I privately investigated his background a long time ago."
"First of all, the identity of the descendants of the Uchiha clan is indeed true. The turmoil caused by Kumogakure Kinkaku and Ginkaku also affected the Uchiha clan members who stayed behind in the forbidden area of the Blood Pond. Most of the clan members died. The few who survived did not return to Konoha, but settled in the Land of Lightning under an assumed name."
"Chen's parents were among those who stayed in the Land of Lightning, but their identities were accidentally exposed, leading to the revenge of the survivors of the 'Pond of Blood', the former enemy of the Uchiha, and they both died."
"Leaving behind the brothers Chen and Jin to depend on each other for survival."
"Your life story is quite complicated, and then what?" If it weren't for what happened to Madara, Naruto would probably empathize with Chen when he heard this.
"Later, it was reported that the surviving members of the Blood Pool tribe were killed one after another, even the women and children were not spared. All the survivors of this tribe were completely wiped out. There is no confirmed information that this pair of brothers did it out of revenge, but I believe they are definitely involved."
"Revenge?... The same path as Sasuke did back then, just like the Uchiha's fate."
Shikamaru continued, "Chen and Jin were not part of any ninja village, nor did they join the Allied Shinobi Forces to participate in the Fourth Shinobi World War."
"If he were a civilian, avoiding the war in the ninja world would be understandable, but his actions after the war were too obviously purposeful."
"You know, as the most outstanding hero of the Ninja War, you have the strongest appeal in the entire Ninja World, and you are truly the leader of the Five Kage. He has a deep connection with the Uchiha of Konoha. It would be fine if he wanted to get close to you and find a place to settle down, but he had to use such a grandstanding method."
Naruto asked, "How do you grandstand?"
Shikamaru flicked the ash off his cigarette and said, "This person actually questioned the Hokage's direct rule in his letter! He said that as the village's highest fighting force, the 'Kage' shouldn't spend so much energy dealing with tedious official duties, and that an organization similar to a secretariat should be established to take over the Kage's functions. The Kage should focus entirely on training his fighting power! Is this something he should worry about?"
Naruto didn't comment on this.
"Later, I heard that his brother had died."
Naruto was stunned, "How did he die?"
Shikamaru said, "There's no way to find out about this matter, but ever since his brother's death, Chen's actions have gone off the rails. He's been found involved in things like gold exchange offices and underground black market auction houses, these dark corners hidden in the shadows of the ninja world!"
"It's said that in just a few years, he's managed to acquire enough funds to support a large ninja village like Konoha for years. What is he, an idle ninja not affiliated with any ninja village, going to do with all this money? It's hard not to think of the Akatsuki back then, whose goal was to amass wealth!"
"If this is all, then in my mind, this person is at most just an underground broker who is amassing wealth without the care of his family!"
"What really made me label him a 'dangerous element' was that he said in his letter that members of Kaguya Otsutsuki's clan are still active in this land!"
"What!?" The three words 'Otsutsuki' made Naruto sit up in shock.
When he first took office as Hokage, Sasuke summoned the Five Kage and made similar speculations about Kaguya training White Zetsu soldiers - and that the Otsutsuki were lurking in this ninja world.
In order to verify this conjecture, Sasuke has been conducting secret investigations outside over the years!
And Shikamaru's next words were even more shocking: "However, even Sasuke hasn't verified the information yet, that Uchiha Chen actually mentioned the name of the Otsutsuki in the letter!"
"What's the name!?"
"I remember it was Otsutsuki, Isshiki!"
"Otsutsuki, Ishiki?"
Shikamaru saw that Naruto seemed to be taking it seriously and said, "My guess is this: after that discussion, someone among the Five Kage accidentally leaked the news, and when Uchiha Chen heard about it, he started making a big fuss about it."
"But...what is he trying to achieve by doing this?"
"Three years ago, on the day you stood him up, I went to the reception room and asked him in person how he knew the information about the Otsutsuki. What do you think Uchiha Chen said?"
Naruto slowly sat back in his chair, "What did you say?"
"He actually said he saw it in a dream. Ha, that's a skill only the giant toad immortals of Mount Myōboku have. How could he be so worthy of that? He didn't even think twice before telling a lie."
"But I didn't expose him outright. Perhaps he had some hidden concerns about the source of his intelligence and was reluctant to speak directly. To be on the safe side, I decided to test his sincerity."
"How did you test it again?" Naruto frowned deeply.
Shikamaru said, "I told him directly that your words and actions are too suspicious. As the advisor to the Hokage of Konoha, I simply cannot believe what you said."
"If you want to prove yourself, then follow our Konoha's rules and seal your chakra first, then stay in Konoha's confinement room for a while. Then, our Konoha's Yamanaka Clan will verify whether what you said is true or not!"
Naruto propped up his chin, frowned, and asked, "And then? How did Chen react?"
"Puff!" Shikamaru's face was sullen as he lowered his head and lit another cigarette.
As the smoke rose, shikamaru wrinkled the end of his cigarette, "That Uchiha Chen, he actually said..."