Uchiha Shinji stood before the emotionally charged Sasuke, who seemed desperate. Shinnō, however, didn't immediately agree. Instead, he shook his head like a drum: "No, no, no! That was almost a month ago. How could I find him now?"
Sasuke urgently asked, "Didn't you say he was in the Land of Hot Water?"
Shinnō forced a bitter smile: "Do you know how big the Land of Hot Water is? Finding someone there isn't easy! Besides, I just arrived in the Hidden Leaf; I don't plan on leaving anytime soon!"
The more Shinnō evaded, the more impatient Sasuke became.
He was well aware of the power difference between himself and Itachi. He had witnessed the terrifying might of the Mangekyō Sharingan with his own eyes.
So, if he didn't take advantage of Itachi's injury, he wouldn't stand a chance for revenge!
Determined, Sasuke's expression hardened: "What will it take for you to agree to take me to him?"
Shinnō, still reluctant, shook his head: "I'm just a regular doctor. I don't want to get involved in shinobi conflicts. You should find someone else!"
With that, he hurriedly stood up, grabbed his medical kit, and tried to escape.
At this point, there was no way Sasuke would let him leave, so he grabbed Shinnō's wrist and slowly applied pressure.
"Ow! Ow!"
Shinnō immediately cried out, dropping his medical kit to the ground.
Sasuke coldly said, "Sorry, but this matter is more important than my life. You will agree, whether you want to or not!"
Shinnō's face turned red: "Let go of me, now!"
"Turns out, he really is just a regular doctor!"
Seeing that Shinnō couldn't handle his strength, Sasuke relaxed his guard a bit while releasing Shinnō's hand.
He didn't completely trust Shinnō at first.
After all, this was his first time meeting Shinnō, and the timing of Shinnō's appearance was too coincidental, making him instinctively wary.
But Shinnō's desperate attempt to flee dispelled his suspicions.
Additionally, when Sasuke deliberately tested him, Shinnō didn't resist at all, behaving exactly like an ordinary strong man.
Someone like this posed no threat to him, even if there were ten or twenty more of them.
Shinnō, rubbing his wrist, complained: "You Hidden Leaf shinobi are from a big village. How can you use force to bully wandering doctors like us?"
Sasuke replied, "As long as you take me to that person, I can pay you a commission."
Shinnō, helpless, said, "Alright, we'll leave tomorrow."
Sasuke's gaze sharpened: "No, we leave tonight. Right now!"
Shinnō pondered for a moment and said, "It's a week's journey to the Land of Hot Water. We should at least pack some supplies and food. How about this: let's prepare separately and meet at the village gate in an hour!"
"Fine!"
Sasuke nodded slightly.
"I'll go prepare the food then!"
Shinnō cautiously started walking outside.
Sasuke stood still, not following him.
Seeing that Sasuke wasn't following, Shinnō's pace quickened, becoming almost a run as he disappeared from the training ground.
Sasuke smirked.
Moments later.
Shinnō arrived in front of the newly established police force headquarters in the Hidden Leaf.
He deliberately glanced around before quickly running towards the building, looking as if he was about to report Sasuke.
Whoosh.
At that moment, a figure descended from the sky, blocking Shinnō's path.
Shinnō immediately halted, his face showing an embarrassed expression: "Why... why did you follow me?"
It was obvious.
The figure that suddenly appeared was none other than Sasuke.
With his hands in his pockets, Sasuke coolly said, "Hey, there's no food here!"
Shinnō scratched his head: "Really? Haha, I must have made a mistake!"
Sasuke glared fiercely at Shinnō: "This is your last warning. Don't even think about reporting me, or I won't be so kind next time!"
Shinnō sighed: "Alright, I understand."
With Sasuke watching him closely, Shinnō dejectedly walked away from the police headquarters and towards the village's commercial district.
On the way, Shinnō curiously asked, "Aren't you going to prepare anything?"
Sasuke replied, "This is just one of my shadow clones. My real self is already preparing."
"'Shadow Clone Jutsu,' huh? Impressive. Even the young ones in the Hidden Leaf know such powerful jutsu!"
Shinnō clicked his tongue in amazement.
Sasuke said, "I'm not just any young shinobi. I'm from the Uchiha clan! Remember the name: Uchiha Sasuke!"
Meanwhile, Sasuke's real body.
He quickly returned to his apartment, packed a few things, and was about to leave when a thought crossed his mind: "This time, I'm going for revenge. I might not return alive. If I lose, I need to leave something for Shinji."
He believed that he and Shinji were the last hopes of the Uchiha clan.
He worried that if he died, Shinji might not be able to handle it.
"Sigh, if I'm gone, I wonder if that fragile guy Shinji can survive in the village!"
For a moment, he hesitated, unsure if he should go through with his revenge.
But soon, his desire for revenge overwhelmed everything else!
He went to his desk, took out a sheet of paper, and began writing a final letter to Shinji.
After finishing, he checked it over, folded the paper, and placed it in an envelope. On the front, he wrote, "To Shinji."
He then put the envelope in his pocket and left the apartment.
Walking down the street, Sasuke thought, "If I give this letter to Shinji directly, he'll definitely try to stop me after reading it! I should have someone else deliver it. By the time he tries to stop me, I'll already be out of the village!"
So, he wandered around the street, looking for a classmate to give the letter to.
But because it was so late, he wandered for a long time without seeing anyone. Just as he was about to give up, he ran into Naruto, who was wandering alone.
"Naruto!?"
Sasuke called out to Naruto.
Noticing Sasuke with a backpack, Naruto asked, "Sasuke, why are you carrying a backpack this late at night?"
"Uh, this... this is for weighted training. Don't worry about it!" After a quick excuse, Sasuke pulled out the letter from his pocket and handed it to Naruto: "Do me a favor and give this letter to Shinji tomorrow!"
Naruto looked at the letter and asked, "Why don't you give it to him yourself?"
Sasuke quickly said, "Don't peek!"
Naruto had no choice but to put away the letter: "Alright, alright, I won't peek! But why won't you deliver it yourself?"
Sasuke didn't explain and simply urged, "Remember, you can only give this to Shinji tomorrow!"
"Oh!"
Naruto nodded.
After parting ways with Naruto, Sasuke had no more attachments. He immediately found Shinnō, who had already bought the food.
After dispelling the shadow clone that was watching Shinnō, Sasuke learned through the returned chakra that Shinnō had tried to report him to the police headquarters.
This act by Shinnō erased his last suspicions.
In Sasuke's mind, if Shinnō were suspicious, he wouldn't have tried to report him to the authorities. So Sasuke concluded that Shinnō must have really just coincidentally encountered Itachi and then coincidentally arrived in the Hidden Leaf.
Sasuke asked, "Is everything ready?"
Shinnō, with a bitter face, replied, "The food is ready, but I just arrived in the Hidden Leaf, and now I'm already in trouble."
Sasuke said, "You'll have plenty of time to complain on the road! Let's go!"
Shinnō cautiously asked, "My temporary pass only allows me to enter and exit during the day. How are we supposed to leave the Hidden Leaf at this time of night?"
Sasuke thought for a moment and said, "We'll go through the side gate! Don't worry, if we run into guards, I'll handle them with genjutsu!"
"Alright."
The two of them took a secluded path and soon arrived at the Hidden Leaf's side gate.
This side gate was specifically for shinobi who needed to leave on temporary missions, and it was guarded 24/7.
So when the guards saw Sasuke approaching with Shinnō, they immediately signaled for them to stop: "Halt! What are you doing out so late?"
At this moment, Sasuke stepped out from behind Shinnō and activated his Sharingan.
In fact, the Three Tomoe Sharingan was already a very powerful genjutsu eye!
In the hands of a true Uchiha, the Three Tomoe Sharingan was a one-on-one trump card. Many villages had strict orders during wartime not to engage in single combat with an Uchiha who possessed the Three Tomoe Sharingan.
So, despite Sasuke's genjutsu being somewhat immature, the unprepared guard still fell under the spell, collapsing to the ground with a "thud."
Shinnō feigned surprise
: "This—"
Sasuke urged, "What's there to be surprised about? Let's go!"
"Yes, yes!"
Shinnō put on a frightened act, carefully stepping around the unconscious guard and exiting through the side gate.
Sasuke took one last look at the village under the night sky before resolutely stepping out of the gate.
What he didn't know was that in the original timeline, Itachi and his partner, Hoshigaki Kisame, had entered the Hidden Leaf through this very spot under the cover of dawn mist!
After successfully leaving the village, Sasuke urged, "We don't have much time, so you might have to endure a bit!"
Shinnō shook his head: "I'm a doctor. Traveling quickly isn't an issue for me. It's just..."
"Just what?"
Shinnō glanced at Sasuke's injured foot: "It's just that you recently injured your foot. If you don't rest properly, it might affect your recovery!"
Sasuke replied, "You underestimate shinobi. This small injury is nothing! Now, tell me, what kind of injury did that person sustain, and where is he hiding in the Land of Hot Water?"
As they walked, Shinnō's face displayed a satisfied smile.
As a skilled spy, he was very adept at manipulating people.
After receiving orders from Tobi, he hurried to the Hidden Leaf, gathering information on Uchiha Sasuke along the way. Before arriving, he had already completed a psychological profile of Sasuke.
He analyzed Sasuke's character, noting that while Sasuke had a pure side, he also had an arrogant side. Shinnō decided to play to these traits, deliberately assuming a weak position to guide Sasuke into taking the lead, thus lowering Sasuke's guard.
Because proud people, once they feel they have the upper hand, become blindly overconfident.
And that's exactly what Shinnō planned to exploit—Sasuke's Uchiha-born arrogance—to make Sasuke underestimate him, thus weakening Sasuke's vigilance.
Sure enough.
With just a bit of acting, Sasuke fell right into his trap.
It seemed that Sasuke was driving the entire operation forward with strength, but in reality, Shinnō had already predicted all of Sasuke's actions.
It was this ability that allowed him to move freely between villages, stealing various secrets.
For example, the plans to create Zero-Tails were something he had stolen from the Hidden Leaf's secure vaults.
Not only did he steal the plans for creating Zero-Tails, but he also managed to swipe a scroll containing the secret technique of the 'Eight Gates Formation.'
That's right!
Shinnō, the so-called wandering doctor, was actually a master of the Eight Gates Formation, one of the most powerful Taijutsu in the entire shinobi world.
Although he wasn't a pure Taijutsu fighter, he had, through his exceptional medical skills, forged his own path and mastered the 'Eight Gates Formation,' a technique that was considered one of the pinnacle steel-fist styles in the shinobi world!
As a result, when the demon Mōryō first saw him, Mōryō had given Shinnō's body a very high evaluation.
Because by that time, Shinnō had already successfully opened the sixth gate, the Gate of View, in the Eight Gates Formation. If this information were to reach the Hidden Leaf, it would surely drop many jaws.
And after receiving Mōryō's assistance and learning the Dark Medical Ninjutsu from Mōryō, Shinnō successfully modified his body and opened the seventh gate, the Gate of Shock, in the Eight Gates Formation.
He was now just one step away from opening all eight gates!
Of course.
He was ultimately still just a doctor. Although he had mastered the secrets of the Eight Gates Formation, he wasn't a Taijutsu warrior devoted to self-will and strength.
This is why, in the original timeline, even though he used the Eight Gates Formation and pushed his physical strength to its limit, he was still defeated by Naruto and Sasuke working together.
The root cause.
Was that he lacked the courage to face death without fear, to sacrifice himself along with his enemies!
Naturally, Sasuke had no idea who this doctor really was. He was still proud of how he subdued the doctor and left the village smoothly.
Noticing Sasuke's pride, Shinnō smiled slightly: "Heh, foolish brat!"
After laughing at Sasuke in his heart, Shinnō decided to play along with Sasuke all the way. When they finally reached their destination, he wanted to see the expression on this Uchiha genius's face when he learned the truth about everything!
The next day.
At Ichiraku Ramen.
Teuchi, the ramen shop owner, looked at Naruto with a bit of exasperation: "Still haven't found the coupon?"
Naruto took off his jacket, then his pants, shaking them as he said, "That's weird! I clearly remember putting the coupon in my pocket!"
At that moment.
Sasuke's letter suddenly fell out as Naruto shook his clothes and landed on the ground.
Naruto picked it up in confusion: "Huh, what's this?"