Chapter 17: The Tsukuyomi World Within a Dream

The reason the Yamanaka brothers kept their mouths shut was the "Will of Fire" that Sarutobi Hiruzen constantly had on his lips.

Wherever the leaves dance, the fire will burn.

The shadow of the fire will illuminate the village and allow new leaves to sprout.

Yet, while those four leaves—Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzo, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura—remained perfectly fine, the new sprouts, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, had "danced" away.

As for why exactly Namikaze Minato died, that is none of your concern.

Just consider whether Namikaze Minato died or not, and whether Sarutobi Hiruzen is living quite comfortably.

After a long silence, Yamanaka Chujiu couldn't help but ask: "Big brother, has the Third Hokage always been this way—compromising, trading, and conceding—or has he slowly become like this in recent years?"

Yamanaka Inoichi sighed: "Although I don't want to admit it, the Third Hokage has always been this way."

Yamanaka Chujiu said with dissatisfaction: "How can this be? Compromising with Uchiha Fugaku is one thing, but isn't it too strange to compromise with Shimura Danzo?"

"Moreover, this way of handling things by the Third Hokage, only caring about immediate stability without any long-term plans, is just planting landmines for the village."

Yamanaka Inoichi sighed again: "There is no help for it; it has always been this way. I didn't accept your reckless behavior for no reason, you know."

Yamanaka Chujiu muttered "It being 'always this way' isn't right," and said nothing more.

After returning home, the two brothers went back to their respective rooms to rest, and Yamanaka Chujiu had a dream.

It was a strange dream.

A red moon hung in the sky, reflecting against a dark red firmament, while the ground was covered in a foot of foul, bloody mud; the air was permeated with a pungent smell of blood and an inescapable stench of corpses.

Yamanaka Chujiu looked around in the dream, and it took him a while to confirm it wasn't his own dream.

As a member of the Yamanaka Clan, who are most skilled in mental combat, he skillfully created chakra through imagination and concentrated it on the soles of his feet, using the water-walking technique to run rapidly across the surface of the bloody mud.

He didn't know how he had entered someone else's dream, but he knew he needed to find the owner of the dream as quickly as possible and find a way to startle them awake to escape the dream.

Dreams are full of mysterious and bizarre changes, filled with strange developments that defy logic; if one is not careful, one will get lost in them and never be able to distinguish reality from the dream again.

By then, the various oddities in the dream would become indistinguishable from reality; dream monsters, eerie rules, and high-speed time distortion could all threaten the life of the intruder.

Being killed, dying of old age, or being killed by a rule in a dream would all evolve into brain death in reality.

The ninjas of the Yamanaka Clan most skilled in mental manipulation can not only extract information from the brains of the dead but also pry into the memories of the conscious, yet they strictly avoid entering the dreams of those in deep sleep.

Yamanaka Chujiu ran in the dream for a long time, but the surrounding environment never changed, as if he were imprisoned in place.

He felt not a shred of discouragement, nor did he feel tired, and even his chakra had not decreased in the slightest.

In this kind of dream, "Ork Logic" is the strongest power; as long as Yamanaka Chujiu firmly believes in himself, he can be tireless, hungerless, and even immortal.

Yamanaka Chujiu didn't care about time either; if he cared, he would believe, and if he believed, he would be trapped.

He just kept running and running like that, until he finally heard sobbing—it was a young child crying.

Yamanaka Chujiu's tense nerves relaxed, and a smile appeared on his face: "Great, there's finally a change."

Without hesitation, he changed direction and ran toward the source of the crying.

The sobbing became clearer, but the direction was elusive; Yamanaka Chujiu turned more than a dozen times following the direction of the crying before he finally saw the crying child with his eyes.

The moment he saw the child, the direction and distance stopped changing, and it took Yamanaka Chujiu only one second to appear in front of the child.

This child was submerged in the bloody mud, with only his head exposed, and his face was covered in filthy blood.

After looking repeatedly, Yamanaka Chujiu finally recognized from the tear tracks that it was Itachi Uchiha, an even younger Itachi Uchiha than the one he had met yesterday.

This dream belonged to Itachi Uchiha, and at four years old, he was also trapped in a nightmare.

Yamanaka Chujiu slowly squatted down and softly called his name: "Itachi Uchiha!"

Four-year-old Itachi raised his head: "Who are you?"

Yamanaka Chujiu touched the Headband on his forehead: "I am a Konoha Ninja, Yamanaka Chujiu. Where is this?"

Four-year-old Itachi's eyes were vacant as he murmured: "This is a battlefield. It is the first battlefield my father brought me to see—a terrifying battlefield."

"If there were no war, there wouldn't be any battlefields, right?"

Yamanaka Chujiu replied: "Yes, but war will never disappear, and battlefields will continue to appear."

Itachi asked blankly: "I don't like the battlefield. What should I do?"

Yamanaka Chujiu replied: "Organize the brave, and keep the battlefield in a place where children, the elderly, women, and ordinary people cannot see it."

Itachi's eyes lit up: "Are Konoha Ninja brave?"

Yamanaka Chujiu shook his head: "Most are, but they haven't been able to keep the battlefield far away."

Itachi asked: "Why?"

Chujiu answered: "Because they still don't know what they are fighting for, so their lives are wasted in vain."

Four-year-old Itachi looked at Chujiu, was silent for a long time, and then asked again: "Can you save me?"

Yamanaka Chujiu replied: "I will try my best to help you, but the only one who can save you is yourself."

Itachi revealed a smile: "I want to save myself. What should I do?"

Yamanaka Chujiu said: "The first step: stand up from the bloody mud!"

"Itachi Uchiha, you are the ninja seed with the greatest talent. You learned to refine chakra at three years old; you were originally capable of the chakra water-walking technique..."

"Now, stand up!"

In the suddenly louder voice, there was a power that compelled obedience.

Four-year-old Itachi stood up involuntarily, then jumped lightly, condensed chakra at the soles of his feet, and stood steadily upon the bloody mud.

Yamanaka Chujiu smiled: "Very good, that is the perfect first step."

Four-year-old Itachi also smiled; the blood and filth on his face visibly decreased by a lot. After a sudden moment of confusion, he looked at Chujiu and said: "I remember now, you are Senior Chujiu; you taught me about the Execution Line!"

As soon as he finished speaking, four-year-old Itachi grew much taller, becoming the Itachi Uchiha he had just met yesterday.

What an unreasonable dream.

Yamanaka Chujiu muttered silently and asked again: "Itachi, what place is this?"

Itachi Uchiha answered earnestly: "This is the world of Tsukuyomi, but for some reason, it has turned into the appearance of the Asura Realm."

Upon hearing the name "Tsukuyomi," Yamanaka Chujiu once again surveyed the surrounding environment: "So this is the world of Tsukuyomi."

"There is no cross to bind Kakashi Hatake; has the false path to salvation not been found yet?"