Somewhere in a snowy valley of the Land of Frost.
Hyuga Yuto, wearing a straw hat, walked through the wind and snow.
The slaughter three hours ago didn't cause much fluctuation in his heart. It was a completely overwhelming crush, and the victims were bandits who treated human lives like grass. He felt no pressure killing them.
Hyuga Yuto was not a pervert who enjoyed killing and gouging out eyeballs, nor was he a righteous hero who punished evil and promoted good. His purpose in killing the bandits was only one thing – to obtain a huge amount of money!
The world of Naruto had a long history and a well-established and self-consistent system. Although there was supernatural power like chakra, and top experts could even move mountains and fill seas, everyone, including those experts, still lived in the same world and the same society.
Since they lived in a society, they naturally had to form bonds with others: affection, loyalty, morality, dreams...
In the ninja world, money was still very important, or even extremely important!
Many years later, even a powerful organization like the "Akatsuki" couldn't completely detach themselves from society and focus solely on their plans. They still needed a hardworking and resentful sucker like Kakuzu to make money. For example, if the Akatsuki lacked money, they wouldn't be able to afford their cool Akatsuki robes.
Of course, Hyuga Yuto also needed money.
Bandits were experts at looting money. If all the loot from this raid, including jewelry and silverware, was converted into money, it would be equivalent to the reward for carrying out ten A-rank missions!
This was a large sum, enough to serve as Hyuga Yuto's starting capital.
With less than six months to go before the Third Great Ninja War, he had to be prepared.
In the wind and snow, Hyuga Yuto ran towards his destination. His feet stepped on the snow, leaving only a shallow dent, which was instantly covered by the falling snow, leaving no trace.
Along the way, although he didn't deliberately observe, the Byakugan, which he activated every once in a while to ensure his safety, still allowed him to see countless skeletons buried under the snow.
Many of them were adults holding children.
If there was a heaven, perhaps children who died in this posture would quickly find their parents... if there was a heaven.
Hyuga Yuto sighed in his heart, unable to describe how he felt. A few days ago, when Tsunade bid him farewell, he felt the same way as he did now.
Hyuga Yuto knew very well that this probably proved that he still had a conscience, understood compassion and gratitude, and was not a beast. If he were placed in a different environment, he might even be called a "good person".
However, even though Hyuga Yuto still possessed human emotions and a bottom line, he knew what his role was in this world.
—A villain!
An undeniable villain!
Perhaps a small villain who would die halfway through, or perhaps the final boss who would survive until the end. No matter which situation, Hyuga Yuto was a villain.
What is a villain?
Character, morality, strength, deeds... none of these were enough to judge whether a person was a villain.
There has always been only one criterion for becoming a villain – whether they oppose the protagonist!
Those who stand on the opposite side of the protagonist are the villains.
Would Hyuga Yuto stand on the opposite side of Uzumaki Naruto?
Since the year he was three years old and branded with the Caged Bird Seal, Hyuga Yuto could answer with certainty:
Yes, the future me will definitely be Naruto's enemy, without any room for maneuver.
The Hyuga clan were enemies, so Konoha was an enemy, so Naruto was also an enemy. This was a very simple chain of logic.
Actually, in the first few years, Hyuga Yuto had some resistance to becoming a villain.
Standing on the opposite side of the protagonist, this pressure was too great. Hyuga Yuto dared to bet that if the villains in those literary works knew from the beginning that their opponent was the protagonist favored by the world, most of them would lose their will to fight.
Moreover, the psychological pressure Hyuga Yuto faced was even greater. As a transmigrator, he still had a bottom line in his heart. He might be able to make up his mind to do cruel things, but he wouldn't feel comfortable doing them.
To be fair, the protagonist of this world, Uzumaki Naruto, was a good person from any perspective.
Even if he talked too much, he was still a good person.
Going against a good person was actually quite uncomfortable.
However, today, after killing all the bandits, Hyuga Yuto stepped on the snow and looked at the countless skeletons buried in the ground, his mood gradually calmed down.
He suddenly felt that even if the great and good Uzumaki Naruto became Hokage and a savior, this world hadn't changed... at least, it hadn't significantly gotten better.
Hyuga Neji died, and the branch family still had the Caged Bird Seal on their foreheads; the world still had the Five Great Ninja Villages, and the living environment of those small countries had never been guaranteed; the nine tailed beasts were still scattered around, and it was hard to say that they had gained freedom.
The Six Paths level Uzumaki Naruto, during the years when he was invincible in the world, dragged the equally invincible Uchiha Sasuke to maintain the order of the old world.
The Five Great Nations coexisted peacefully, ninjas put down their hatred, and civilians lived and worked in peace and contentment... Under Uzumaki Naruto's golden chakra, there were of course no contradictions, and no one dared to have contradictions.
Had the world changed? Yes, it had.
Had the world not changed? It had never changed.
If the time frame was extended to the entire history, in a sense, Uzumaki Naruto had done almost nothing.
Hyuga Yuto, who was on his way, suddenly remembered the words of a certain writer he liked very much in his previous life:
"Almost all the evil villains in fantasy novels are charismatic and radical revolutionaries. They dare to imagine a completely different world order and can't wait to detonate the seeds of change before the conditions are ripe."
"On the contrary, all the great, bright, and righteous heroes are defenders of the mainstream ideology. They have conservative worldviews and lack creativity. Apart from fighting monsters and going home to hug girls, they have almost no other pursuits."
While running, Hyuga Yuto put down the burden in his heart.
A villain was a villain. Confronting the Child of Prophecy sounded pretty cool too...
The young man chuckled abruptly.
Hyuga Yuto's thoughts were racing, and before he knew it, he had arrived at his destination - an abandoned temple.
He was already familiar with this kind of place. He used a Transformation Jutsu to change his appearance into that of an adult, put on his straw hat again, changed into a wide robe, and slowly walked in.
He stopped by the third stone pillar on the right side of the entrance, made a few hand seals, and pressed it with chakra attached.
A secret passage appeared. Hyuga Yuto walked down the steps carved from bluestone. Under the illumination of the oil lamps embedded in the rock wall, he entered a spacious underground stone chamber.
"Welcome to the Land of Frost branch of the Exchange Office, sir," a woman wearing a rat-faced mask said softly.
"Please tell me your name."
The corners of Hyuga Yuto's mouth, hidden under the straw hat, curled up slightly, and he said the fake name he had chosen for his activities in the underworld, a name full of memories:
"Kudo Shinichi."