The Lifelike Hokage

"The furnishings inside are almost identical to the Hokage Building in Konoha." Uchiha Ying cautiously ascended the stairs. He saw no one, however, neither in the main hall nor in any of the other rooms. Was it simply an empty building?

Harboring this suspicion, Uchiha Ying pushed open the doors to the central room of the Hokage Building—the Hokage's office.

"A ninja here for a mission? There's nothing to assign today, I'm afraid." The blonde woman hunched over her desk, immersed in paperwork, spoke to the young man who had just entered without looking up.

"Tsu… Tsunade?" Wasn't the current Hokage still that old codger, Hiruzen Sarutobi? How could Tsunade be sitting here? Had he time-traveled again?

Uchiha Ying tentatively approached Tsunade.

"How dare you address the Hokage so casually!" Tsunade finally looked up at him. However, Uchiha Ying noticed a distinct lack of life in her eyes. It was as if she were looking at the air behind him, rather than at him directly.

"Strange…" Even if Tsunade didn't recognize him now, her expressions and movements shouldn't be so mechanical.

"There are no missions for you today."

"You…" Observing Tsunade's vacant expression, listening to her flat tone, and hearing the repeated phrase, a bold conjecture formed in Uchiha Ying's mind.

"An NPC?" She couldn't possibly be… a real person, could she?

Uchiha Ying boldly took a few more steps forward, this time standing practically right in front of Tsunade.

"You're very rude. Address me as Hokage." Though Tsunade adjusted her gaze to his current position, her expression remained blank. She stared at him like an exquisite porcelain doll, her face devoid of emotion.

"So, she really is just an NPC." Uchiha Ying breathed a sigh of relief and then sauntered over to sit on the desk in front of Tsunade.

"There are no missions today…"

"Still, this is a bit too lifelike, isn't it?" Sitting on the desk, he looked down at the curvaceous blonde woman with her delicate features and breathtakingly stunning figure. An angelic face, a devilish body.

Uchiha Ying only glanced into the abyss before finding himself captivated. Mature Tsunade's allure was simply overwhelming.

"Even her skin is so smooth and supple." Convinced that Tsunade was merely an NPC, Uchiha Ying reached out without hesitation and touched her cheek.

"Don't be absurd! This is the Hokage's office!" Tsunade abruptly stood up.

She… she's alive? Uchiha Ying quickly withdrew his hand, startled by Tsunade's sudden movement. Seeing the flash of anger on the blonde woman's face and hearing her speak different lines than before, he began to suspect that she might not be an NPC after all.

But after a brief pause, Tsunade seemed to reset, returning to her desk and resuming her writing, penning meaningless symbols on the papers.

"So, this NPC has a third line of dialogue." Observing Tsunade's utter lack of further reaction, simply writing like an automaton, Uchiha Ying finally relaxed.

She was definitely an NPC. And perhaps, this was all just a dream.

"If it were before, I wouldn't do anything, but the me now…" …only desired to be a wicked Uchiha.

"Let me see just how lifelike you are."

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*Plip.*

Crimson blood dripped from the cold, gleaming blade of a long sword into the damp darkness of the floor below.

*Scrape.*

The dragging blade grated against the floor, producing a chilling sound. It was a completely sealed underground space, almost entirely shrouded in darkness.

"Why?" Uchiha Ying watched the white-haired ninja approaching him, listening to the scraping of the blade, and instinctively recoiled. But the blade was right before him, and behind him was a cold, hard wall.

He was trapped.

"You inherently evil Uchiha brat…" Without further explanation, the white-haired ninja, intent on killing him, unleashed his most prized jutsu against the Uchiha boy.

Flying Raijin Slash! (Flying Thunder Slash)

A flash of white light, followed by an explosion of crimson that instantly filled the entire space.

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"!?" Uchiha Ying instinctively clutched his chest, gasping for air.

A dream?

He went to the bathroom. The pale, sweat-streaked face in the mirror reminded him of the terror of the nightmare.

"Senju Tobirama… I'll dig up your bones and desecrate them one day!" Splashing cold water on his face, Uchiha Ying gritted his teeth as he watched his reflection gradually regain its composure.

This wasn't the first time he'd had this dream.

Born as a transmigrant, Uchiha Ying had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan at birth. Unfortunately, he had been born into the era of Senju Tobirama's rule in Konoha. Consequently, as a child, he was often confined to a basement and used as a test subject in Tobirama's experiments.

Until one day, perhaps having finally given up, or perhaps fearing the potential threat of his Mangekyo Sharingan… Tobirama had attempted to assassinate him.

Unexpectedly, however, he hadn't died by Tobirama's blade. Instead, he had somehow been transported to the Uchiha compound decades later, on the very night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. His physical body had even regressed to a younger age.

Thanks to this transformation, the Flying Raijin mark on him had completely vanished. And due to his apparent youth, he hadn't faced much scrutiny from Hiruzen Sarutobi when he emerged from the pile of Uchiha corpses.

However, possibly due to side effects from traversing time, his Mangekyo Sharingan was no longer accessible, and the chakra within his body had also dissipated.

Thus, powerless, he could only surreptitiously seek ways to recover his strength while dutifully attending the Ninja Academy with Uchiha Sasuke, which is where he was now.

"That was a dream, but the one before…" Feeling the surge of chakra within his body, recalling the vivid sensation of the Great Fireball Technique from the previous night… That overwhelmingly real feeling, and the chakra now coursing through his body, couldn't possibly be fake.

The hyperrealistic instance, and the hyperrealistic NPC…

The game… had it finally begun?

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"Why are you out so late today?" Passing through the rubble of the Uchiha compound, Uchiha Ying saw a blue figure leaning against the gate as he approached.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Ever since they crawled out from under the bodies on the night of the massacre, the two surviving Uchiha had become each other's closest family.

"I had a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Could it have been that strange dream from last night…? Uchiha Sasuke remembered being obliterated in his dream.

No, it was impossible for two people to have the same dream. He shook his head, dismissing the absurd notion.

"I will kill that man. You don't need to worry about it." Since it wasn't that strange dream, Uchiha Sasuke naturally assumed that the root of Uchiha Ying's nightmare was his "dear brother," Uchiha Itachi.

He, too, had been frequently plagued by nightmares over the years. Every day, upon waking to the desolate and ruined compound, he couldn't help but picture the scene from the night of the massacre: mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and the image Itachi had forced him to witness—his parents impaled by a long sword, blood spraying everywhere.

With each passing day, Uchiha Sasuke's hatred for Uchiha Itachi intensified. The depth of his current hatred mirrored the intensity of his former love for his brother.

"No, I…" Uchiha Ying wanted to ask Sasuke if he remembered the instance from the previous night, but seeing him consumed by hatred, he didn't know how to broach the subject.

"I will kill him. You will rebuild the Uchiha clan." The bloodshot eyes returned to normal. Facing his only remaining clansman, Uchiha Sasuke's expression and tone softened considerably.

"That was decided long ago." Although this guy was a useless weakling who couldn't even awaken the Sharingan, he was still family, and Sasuke had to protect him.

"Here, take your lunch."

"Let me make it next time…" Looking at the lunchbox offered to him and Sasuke's unwavering tone, Uchiha Ying couldn't help but massage his forehead. He felt like Sasuke was treating him like a little brother. Even though he was older.

"See you at school." Unfortunately, Uchiha Sasuke, despite his youth, maintained his aloof air and wasn't one for listening. After placing the homemade lunch in Ying's hand, he vanished.