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After Sasuke excitedly ran off to train again, Kaito once more sat down at the office desk. He wanted to finalize the plan for the space defense line construction as soon as possible.
Time always flies when one is busy. By the time Kaito regained his focus, there was no trace of light left outside the window. The sunlight was completely blocked by Earth.
Kaito stood up, stretched, and leisurely walked outside. Come to think of it, his body hadn't eaten in a long time. Previously, his soul was out-of-body, his physical form left here. Naturally, it couldn't eat. King Enma didn't bother specifically controlling the body for such a thing either. However, He used a method to make the body automatically absorb the free-flowing natural energy in the air to maintain its vitality.
Thinking of food, Kaito's digestive system seemed to suddenly awaken. He immediately felt hungry. He just didn't know how Sasuke and the others solved food issues on the moon. So he simply walked through the corridor, heading towards the main hall.
"Uncle, you're out!" Turning a corner, he saw Sasuke walking towards him. "I was just about to notify you that dinner is ready."
Kaito apologized first: "Sorry, I never paid attention before. Where does your food come from? The supplies you kept in your ninja tool pouch earlier should have run out pretty quickly, right?"
"Before, we found food ourselves in the forests down on the moon's surface," Sasuke curled his lip. "Later, as the environmental changes grew more severe, finding food became difficult. We started relying on summons to carry supplies. After that, when the teleportation arrays opened, Konoha's representatives here were Uncle Minato and Aunt Kushina. I asked them to bring some supplies over."
"Must have been tough. Sorry about that." Kaito patted his shoulder in consolation. "So, who among you is in charge of cooking? Karin?"
"Her?" Sasuke's expression instantly became indescribable. "Her skill is even worse than mine. Generally, Neji handles the cooking."
"Hmm, come to think of it, you've all had experience living independently," Kaito stroked his chin. "Seems cooking skill is also a matter of talent."
"Hmph, you always had Granny Chiri taking care of you before. So lucky!" Sasuke suddenly grew envious of Kaito's younger years.
Kaito was cared for by his elder sister Mikoto during his early childhood. After leaving Konoha, he had Chiri and the Youkai of Mt. Ōeyama. One could say he lived a princely life all along.
And him? The Uchiha clan was tragically massacred when he was young. From the age of seven, he was always taking care of himself. From a second young master of a great clan who knew nothing, he became a helpless orphan. Looking back, he only managed to hold on back then by relying entirely on the hatred in his heart. At that time, his focus was solely on training; food, of course, just needed to fill his stomach.
Thinking about it this way, compared to Kaito, the contrast was simply too great.
"Hmph!" Feeling extremely discontented inside, Sasuke snorted again.
Kaito obviously sensed Sasuke's thoughts. "It's a good thing you grew up well, Sasuke," he said with some emotion, patting Sasuke's shoulder once more. "Sorry. Even though you met me later, I don't seem to have been a qualified elder, not taking proper care of you."
"With Granny Chiri and Gramps Izuna around, it wasn't really your turn to look after me anyway," Sasuke shot him a sidelong glance.
Recalling their first meeting years ago, he had still harbored some wariness towards this uncle back then, but also felt admiration. After losing all his relatives, suddenly learning he still had a family member... It was like sunlight suddenly appearing in the darkness, like a drowning person grabbing onto a floating log. Overall, he felt he had been saved.
However, all these various feelings utterly shattered to pieces during the long period of interaction that followed. Although this uncle was very reliable when it came to serious matters, in daily life he was a complete idiot. And he was also very unskilled at being a teacher. His teaching standard was so abysmal, yet he was so confident about it. One could say Sasuke was completely self-taught at the beginning.
Fortunately, Kaito got tied up with other matters and sent him to Onikiri's dojo. Later, Izuna and Chiri took charge of his shinobi education. Otherwise... Sasuke suspected the only things he could have gotten from Kaito were the spiritual power secret techniques and Sage Arts. As for shinobi combat? Sorry, Kaito didn't understand that either.
"Although Uncle really is an unreliable adult," Sasuke suddenly smiled. "But the fact that you existed at all held significant meaning for me. It was precisely your appearance before me that let me know I still had family, that I wasn't alone. Furthermore, you showed me sights I had never seen before."
Sasuke spoke his mind一 earnestly, his ears reddening slightly, but his expression was very serious at this moment.
Kaito suddenly reached out, pulled out a folding fan, and with a 'swish' opened it to hide his face. His amused voice sounded: "You've changed a lot too, Sasuke. Now you can say such embarrassing words so easily."
"..." Sasuke's face instantly turned bright red. Puffing up with anger, he used the Body Flicker Technique and vanished from Kaito's sight.
"What a good kid!" Kaito let out a soft laugh and continued walking unhurriedly.
Arriving in the main hall, Karin immediately welcomed him enthusiastically. "Long time no see, Lord Kaito! Please, have a seat! Dinner will be ready soon!"
"Hello, Karin." Kaito looked at the young woman whose desire to become his niece-in-law was quite obvious, and nodded with a smile.
Karin immediately turned her head and roared fiercely at Suigetsu, who was sitting at the dining table drinking water: "Suigetsu, you idiot! Can't you see Lord Kaito is here?! Hurry up and prepare a seat for Lord Kaito!!"
"Yo! Lord Kaito, hello!" Suigetsu turned his head, greeted Kaito, and obediently carried a chair from the side to place beside the dining table, which only had four chairs.
Sasuke was already sitting silently on the other side of the table.
Once Kaito took the seat at the head of the table, Sasuke immediately turned his head away.
Karin then sent Suigetsu to help in the kitchen and carry the dishes, keeping him running in circles.
After all the food was laid out, Neji walked out from the other side. "Uncle Kaito." Neji came over and took a seat.
"You've worked hard, Neji." Kaito gave another gentle smile, looking at Neji's eyes. "Congratulations. Your eyes have evolved yet again."
"Ah, I must also thank you for your help." Neji instinctively touched his eyelid. "Recently, my eyes completed another quickening, getting closer and closer to the fully matured Tenseigan."
"Is that so? I'm afraid you're about to surpass me," Kaito said deliberately, glancing at Sasuke. "After all, the Tenseigan is an ocular jutsu on the same level as the Rinnegan, while I still have the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"No, I'm still nowhere near you. You don't even rely on the Sharingan to fight." Neji was very humble.
"In terms of dōjutsu you've certainly walked ahead of me, but I've already found the next evolutionary path for the Mangekyō Sharingan. I'll catch up soon enough." Kaito continued, satisfied to see Sasuke's ears twitch instantly.