The next morning.
In a forest far away from Konoha Village.
Hearing the sounds of birds, Sasuke looked dazed.
The light of dawn shone sideways from the east, piercing through the trees, scattering dappled light on Madara, warming him.
Sasuke hadn't come back to his senses yet.
"What are you thinking about?" Linto asked.
Sasuke spoke his mind: "I just feel... it's a bit unbelievable that we escaped so brazenly like this."
Linto nodded slightly, understanding Sasuke's confusion.
After leaving Konoha Village, Linto had been rummaging through the memory fragments of his past self, learning about Konoha's position in the ninja world.
If a bunch of Konoha ninjas were determined to keep people,
they couldn't have left the village alive with only level 2 Star Platinum and level 1 Hermit Purple.
Linto thought it over carefully until dawn, and then he gradually understood the situation.
There were many aspects of the game involved.
First of all, several major families and some strong people didn't participate in the battle.
There was Uchiha Itachi's factor in this; nobody wanted to provoke a madman who killed his entire clan.
Another factor was "the rabbit dies, the fox mourns."
There was something fishy about the Uchiha clan's extermination.
Everyone couldn't find evidence, but they weren't stupid.
If they could wipe out an Uchiha today, they could wipe out a Hyuga or an Aburame tomorrow.
Many strong people avoided this matter, unwilling to participate.
Secondly, there was the decision of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
If the Hokage had forcibly issued an order, or even appeared himself, Linto would definitely not be able to beat him, nor escape.
Perhaps out of guilt for the Uchiha Clan, this legendary "Ninjutsu Professor" never showed his face from beginning to end.
Hesitation leads to trouble.
Finally, there was Kakashi, the only one who was willing to appear and stop them.
His identity was also very interesting.
He didn't belong to the Uchiha Clan, yet he possessed the Sharingan, and had a very ambiguous relationship with the Uchiha.
Kakashi was one of the few people who could get involved in this matter without getting his hands dirty.
Linto recalled the fight with Kakashi.
"...He held back. Rather than a fight, it was more like an assessment."
Sasuke asked in surprise, "Assessment? Assessing what?"
Linto pointed to his eyes: "Assessing whether we can protect these eyes outside."
The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan symbolized mystery and power.
Just look at Kakashi; just getting one Sharingan made him a "Copy Ninja" in one fell swoop.
Everyone wanted a chance to get ahead.
Once the news of Linto and Sasuke escaping Konoha spread, countless ninjas and bounty hunters would be watching them.
Without enough combat power, it was better to stay in Konoha as a prisoner than to have their eyes dug out and their bodies dismembered.
"Also, we always have to have some kind of obstacle when we leave Konoha; otherwise, it wouldn't look good. Kakashi played the role of this obstacle, both assessing us and deliberately holding back."
"But why would he help us?"
Linto pondered for a moment and said, "Because of his Sharingan, maybe?"
Maybe he felt indebted to the Uchiha, so he wanted to give them one last helping hand… this was Linto's guess based on the available information.
Linto's guess was close, but there was another reason:
That was Kakashi's own judgment.
Kakashi didn't know the real reason for tonight's tragedy, but he had worked with Uchiha Itachi, and knowing Itachi, he couldn't have done such an inhuman thing.
There must be something wrong.
Therefore, Kakashi had to act.
He wanted Linto and Sasuke to escape. Once they left the village, if the mastermind hiding behind the scenes wanted to do something, their hand would have to be "extended."
The further the hand extended, the more likely it was to leave clues, so that Kakashi could unravel the truth.
This night seemed to be only about the Uchiha extermination case, but the information, the games, and the weighing of interests behind it all intertwined, like a chessboard.
Linto was just a piece that suddenly appeared on the chessboard.
However, Danzo, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uchiha Itachi and others were playing shogi.
And Linto was a "chariot" from Chinese chess.
Smashing all the layouts and hidden lines.
"Brother Shou, you're really amazing."
Little Sasuke exclaimed sincerely: "It's one thing to be good at Ninjutsu, but I didn't expect you to be able to deduce so many things. It's just like a prophet in a fairy tale."
Linto smiled.
Deducing and analyzing based on available information wasn't that difficult.
As long as you had enough logical analysis ability, plus a moderate amount of information, that's enough.
"Want to learn?" Linto asked.
"Of course!"
Sasuke's eyes lit up: "I want to become someone like Brother Shou too!"
"Then let's start by learning math, to develop your logical thinking ability."
"Eh?"
They were on the run until midday, when the sun was high in the sky. Linto and Sasuke were so hungry that their stomachs were sticking to their backs.
They occasionally passed by small villages in the middle, but considering that they weren't far from Konoha Village yet, and worried about being traced by Danzo's people, they didn't go in.
Using Hermit Purple's vines, Linto caught a wild rabbit.
But Linto was stumped about how to cook it.
"Kill it, skin it, take out the insides, and roast it," Sasuke said, tilting his head slightly. "Brother Shou, don't you know how to kill rabbits?"
Linto really didn't.
He had never been in the kitchen since he was a child, not to mention rabbits, he had never even killed a fish.
It wasn't that Linto didn't dare, he just didn't know how to start.
Little Sasuke put his hands on his hips and smiled.
Finally, there was something he was good at. He took the rabbit from Linto's hand, took out a kunai he carried with him, and skillfully cut it open, saying:
"I'm very good at this. When I used to train with kunai with Itachi, we would often catch rabbits and fish to eat. Back then..."
As he spoke, his tone gradually lowered, his movements slowed down, and bright eyes filled with misty tears.
Sasuke sniffed hard.
"Tell me, why would Itachi do these things? Could he have some hidden difficulties?"
Sasuke hoped that the omnipotent Linto could deduce an answer for him, to explain the mysteries of last night.
"Of course, he has hidden difficulties."
Sasuke suddenly raised his head.
Linto continued, "But having hidden difficulties doesn't equal to doing the right thing. To judge a person, you can't look at what they think, you have to look at what they do."
The scheming of bad people is not as good as the spur-of-the-moment idea of stupid people.
"Hidden difficulties are just the origin of the problem, but based on this origin, countless completely different paths can be derived. But Uchiha Itachi, he chose the simplest, and also the stupidest path."
Sasuke understood a bit, but not completely.
Linto gently patted him on the back, "Don't worry, slowly think about it if you can't figure it out. You're still young, you have a long life ahead of you."
Sasuke gave a sound of agreement, and concentrated on processing the rabbit. Linto squatted beside him learning, occasionally asking a question or two. Between the questions and the answers, Sasuke gradually came out of his sad mood.
Without salt and seasoning, the roasted rabbit tasted very ordinary.
But Linto was eating very seriously. This was his first meal since coming to this world.
During the short break, Linto finally had time to check the gains from last night's battle.
Soul Fragments: 652.
There were 65 draws.
Among them, Linto originally had 300 fragments.
From the Root organization all the way here, rushing to the edge of Konoha Village, he gained 52 soul fragments.
Defeating Kakashi head-on got him 300 soul fragments.
Defeating Uchiha Itachi gave Linto 800 soul fragments. Kakashi only had 300. This wasn't to say that Kakashi was that much weaker than Itachi.
It was because the two had different mindsets toward the battle.
Uchiha Itachi attacked with the intention of killing Linto, while Kakashi was the opposite, holding back a lot during the battle. Raikiri and Kamui weren't used.
It was just that Uchiha Itachi suffered from a lack of information. Linto used a small combo, not giving Itachi a chance to display his moves.
652 fragments.
Linto decided to draw cards first.
Level 2 Star Platinum was strong enough in the close-range combat area. Even if he saved up to 1000 fragments and leveled up to 3, it would just be adding icing to the cake.
From the battle with Kakashi, Linto realized his weakness:
A lack of mid-to-long-range combat skills.
He needed a new Stand to make up for this shortcoming. Otherwise, it would be easy to be kitesurfed to death.
After carefully considering the pros and cons, Linto opened the system interface.
Draw cards!