Orion had no intention of explaining anything.
The group slowly made their way toward the Uchiha Clan district.
After the Nine-Tails incident, the Uchiha Clan had been relocated to the edge of the village.
Or rather, after the Nine-Tails disaster, the Uchiha Clan's position within Konoha had become extremely bad.
Although the Uchiha Clan had never truly entered the village's political core before that, they had at least controlled the Konoha Military Police Force, a department with real authority.
And they still enjoyed the treatment of one of Konoha's great clans.
Even though the Military Police Force had originally been created by the Second Hokage to monitor the Uchiha Clan.
In the end, however, the clan still managed to gain considerable influence through it.
But after the Nine-Tails incident, much of the Military Police Force's authority was stripped away.
Even their clan compound was moved to the outskirts of the village.
The Uchiha Clan was incredibly proud by nature, so naturally they could not remain indifferent to such treatment.
However, because of the personalities of the Uchiha themselves, they had poor relationships with nearly every other clan in Konoha.
Even if they wanted to seize power by forming alliances with other clans, they simply couldn't do it.
Their only option was a coup d'état.
The awkward part was that the Uchiha Clan itself was deeply divided on whether they should use force to take power.
Not every Uchiha supported rebellion.
And in the end, the result was the complete annihilation of the Uchiha Clan.
Naturally, Sasuke knew none of this.
He did not know the truth behind the massacre.
After the Uchiha Clan was exterminated, the village had actually treated him extremely well.
He was constantly surrounded by praise, admiration, and envy toward his background.
As a result, although Sasuke desperately wanted power to kill Itachi Uchiha, he held absolutely no resentment toward the village itself.
Without the influence of the Uchiha Clan remaining, many clans inside Konoha had actually become very interested in Sasuke.
For example, Ino Yamanaka, as the heir of the Yamanaka Clan, was openly free to like Sasuke without anyone in her clan interfering.
That was because her family actually supported her getting close to him.
After all, Sasuke was currently the only remaining person in Konoha with Uchiha blood.
And since the Uchiha Clan no longer existed, even if Sasuke ended up with Ino, the Third Hokage would not object.
Without the backing of an entire clan, even if Sasuke wanted to cause trouble someday, how much impact could he really have alone?
On the contrary, many families secretly coveted the Uchiha bloodline he possessed.
It wasn't just Orochimaru.
Many clans within Konoha desired it as well.
Combined with Sasuke's outstanding talent, it only made him even more desirable.
So after the massacre, Sasuke had not suffered much hardship within Konoha.
In fact, he had lived better than most children.
At present, Sasuke possessed a deep sense of belonging toward Konoha.
Of course, all of this was based on one condition:
He did not know the truth behind the Uchiha massacre.
If he ever learned the truth, things would likely become completely different.
No matter how reasonable or unavoidable the Third Hokage's explanations might have been, the destruction of the Uchiha Clan was still connected to him in the end.
But the Third Hokage probably wouldn't care.
After all, he had no idea how powerful Sasuke would become in the future.
At present, the Uchiha Clan was already gone.
Even if Sasuke wanted revenge against Konoha, he simply lacked the ability.
That was also one of the reasons the Third Hokage had placed Sasuke into Team 7.
To put it simply, even if Sasuke became Hokage one day and discovered the truth, so what?
Itachi Uchiha was the one who carried out the massacre.
At most, the Third Hokage's fault had been indecisiveness.
Without the influence of the Uchiha Clan behind him, would Sasuke truly become Hokage while lacking political wisdom?
As someone in a high position, he wouldn't realistically allow personal hatred to cloud his judgment.
Moreover, the Third Hokage's mistakes were not entirely unforgivable.
In fact, he could simply shift most of the blame onto Danzo.
After all, Danzo had been the one constantly advocating for the destruction of the Uchiha Clan.
However, those had been the Third Hokage's old thoughts.
Now, his thinking had completely changed.
He had already decided to nurture Orion.
In fact, he was even planning to have Orion succeed him as Hokage once Orion reached twenty years old and possessed true Kage-level strength.
After all, by the time Orion turned twenty, the Third Hokage himself would already be over seventy.
For a shinobi, that was extremely old.
Even Ōnoki's body had already begun failing at that age.
If not for the lack of a suitable successor, Ōnoki would have retired long ago.
Of course, the Third Hokage had no idea that Orion's current strength had already reached Kage level.
The only person who underestimated Orion's strength was Orion himself.
He still believed his combat experience was far too lacking to truly qualify as Kage level.
At most, he considered himself high jōnin level.
But what kind of jōnin could casually kill an elite jōnin like Raiga Kurosuki?
What kind of jōnin could leave even the Nine-Tails astonished?
Among everyone who understood Orion's true power, Orion himself was probably the only one who still believed he was far below Kage level.
The Third Hokage's current plan was simple:
If Orion reached twenty years old and still faced too much opposition because of his youth, then Kakashi could temporarily become the Fifth Hokage first.
A transitional Hokage.
Once Orion became older and gained sufficient prestige, he would then officially inherit the position.
In the Third Hokage's eyes, this arrangement was nearly perfect.
Naturally, Orion knew none of this.
Neither did Kakashi.
Orion merely thought the Third Hokage wanted to turn him into a workhorse earlier than expected.
Meanwhile, Kakashi only believed the Third Hokage was trying to recruit and cultivate Orion.
Neither of them had imagined that the Third Hokage had already decided Orion would one day inherit his position.
As the group headed toward the Uchiha Clan district—
After buying Jiraiya's newest novel, Kakashi made his way to Kihon Dōichi's home.
Fortunately, Dōichi had no mission today.
The moment Kakashi sat down, Dōichi immediately asked anxiously,
"What exactly happened during this mission?"
"Why did you take him out of the village without even informing me first?"
After Orion had left, Dōichi originally planned to assign him a mission.
Only then did he learn from the Third Hokage that Orion had been temporarily assigned to Kakashi's team and had already left the village.
And he had been gone for over a month.
During that entire month, Dōichi had been worried sick.
He feared this was all part of some scheme by the Third Hokage.
That perhaps they intended to do something to Orion.
Looking at how anxious Dōichi was, Kakashi felt somewhat awkward.
After all, Orion had already become a chūnin now.
And the Third Hokage's intentions were obvious—he wanted Orion to become involved in village affairs.
That meant Orion would no longer continue carrying out ordinary missions under Dōichi.
Dōichi had been Orion's true teacher.
Yet after only a short time as his instructor, Orion had effectively already graduated from him.
Dōichi hadn't even had enough time to properly teach Orion many ninjutsu before Orion was already leaving.
Kakashi honestly felt somewhat guilty toward Dōichi.
If he had not taken Orion away—
If Orion had never attracted the Third Hokage's attention—
Then perhaps Orion would still be carrying out missions alongside Dōichi right now.
Kakashi could tell how much Dōichi valued Orion.
Just like Kakashi himself, Dōichi treated Orion as a true personal disciple.
Yet Orion had only spent a handful of days under him.
Kakashi remained silent for a long time.
Seeing that silence, Dōichi became even more nervous.
He thought something terrible had happened to Orion.
"Say something already!"
"What happened to Orion?!"
"You promised me you would protect him!"
Because Kakashi's expression looked far too much like someone about to announce bad news, Dōichi lost control emotionally and shouted directly at him.
Seeing Dōichi so agitated, Kakashi's mouth twitched slightly.
He suddenly felt that what he was about to say next would probably make Dōichi extremely angry.
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