After returning to the Hidden Rain Village, Hikari first opened the basement to check if that guy had kicked the bucket yet. Confirming that Kaito was stable, she headed for the Akatsuki Organization's base.Inside the base, Konan sat at her desk, handling the village's heavy workload.

After all that had happened, the days when Amegakure survived on missions or relied on daimyo support were long gone. Now they had to achieve self-sufficiency.

So she not only managed the villagers' basic needs but also had to consider developing the village's economy, population, and even arrange food production in meticulous detail.

What made it worse was...

Five years ago, Nagato had inexplicably decided to emulate Uchiha Kaito's secluded training methods and locked himself in the basement to cultivate. He even declared that unless absolutely necessary...

He wouldn't even control the Six Paths Puppets.

This left all responsibilities squarely on Konan's shoulders.

As midnight approached, Konan propped her chin with one hand while mechanically sorting documents with the other, her head nodding occasionally from exhaustion.

Creak—

The office door opened as Hikari entered carrying several scrolls.

"Last month's revenue."

"Except for the one million ryo I spent on ice cream, everything's here."

Dark circles hung heavily under Konan's eyes as she took the scrolls without checking, simply opening an empty drawer and tossing them inside.

"You should... be careful. Too many sweets will rot your teeth."

Hikari nodded vigorously, though her mind was already deciding tomorrow's ice cream flavor. What a joke...

With her formidable power, how could her teeth possibly decay so easily?

"By the way... has Kaito come out from the basement yet?"

Konan asked this question once more—she'd lost count of how many times she'd asked over the years. It seemed that if Kaito would just end his damned secluded training, Nagato would naturally emerge too and share her burdens.

"Same as always." Hikari shook her head with a hint of helplessness, feeling a pang of guilt whenever facing Konan. After all...

The leader of Akatsuki and village chief of Amegakure—a perfectly normal person—had been turned into a fellow recluse by Kaito, abandoning all duties to train. As Kaito's teacher, she couldn't escape responsibility for this.

"You should rest early. Don't overwork yourself..."

"It's not like everyone will starve tomorrow."

Hikari worried that before Nagato resurfaced, Konan might collapse from exhaustion first.

Konan understood Hikari's concern perfectly well. But if she worked a little more now, perhaps she could afford a day off later...

Besides, there are so many things to deal with in the village right now.

She even began to regret why she had only chosen powerful candidates when recruiting members for the Akatsuki Organization, instead of selecting those with intelligence.

"Let's wait a little longer."

Konan forced a smile, then said with a hint of resentment, "How's the Secret Realm lately?"

Just mentioning the Secret Realm gave her a throbbing headache.

Even now, the villagers are still terrified when facing those projections.

Some even pooled a large sum of money to hire a famous monk to exorcise the "demons."

The result?

The monk was so scared he wet himself in the bathroom, immediately refunded the money, swore never to return, and ran away.

This incident turned their Amegakure Village into a notorious "ghost village"...

To the point where merchants dared not come to do business.

Even refugees outside would rather go to neighboring villages than live in Amegakure.

"It's going alright."

Hikari's lips curled slightly as she spoke, clearly in a good mood.

She knew all too well what the Uchiha clan was like. During those dark days, she had witnessed too much darkness in the hearts of her clansmen.

Arrogance, conceit, pursuing power by any means necessary, and looking down on everyone equally...

These were the stereotypes she held about her clan.

But now, the Uchiha living deep in the Secret Realm had regained a place to survive while constantly facing powerful monsters around them. This had made the entire clan incredibly united.

During her last visit to the Secret Realm, even the children spoke softly and gently, completely different from their former loud and brash behavior.

Even activating the Sharingan had minimal influence on the clansmen now.

One could say she was still somewhat unaccustomed to the changes in the Uchiha clan.

"Could you at least have them be a bit more considerate?"

Konan hesitated when bringing up the Uchiha clan, but considering her friendship with Hikari, she sighed deeply and continued.

"At the very least, have them rest properly at night and stop going outside to do strange things."

Konan wasn't sure if time in the Secret Realm was inverted compared to the Shinobi World.

Whenever night fell, the projections of Uchiha children would laugh and play in every corner of the streets and alleys. Sometimes she'd get startled on her way home from work.

Let alone the other villagers.

Hearing this, Hikari's expression suddenly changed. She looked somewhat awkward and stammered for a long moment before speaking.

"Th-that might not be possible..."

She covered her face with her hand and also let out a long sigh.

"Kaito's father has gone mad, saying that training at night is highly beneficial for the children..."

"Something about the essence of the sun and moon..."

Konan fell silent upon hearing this, then finally waved her hand to signal Hikari to leave, ending their conversation.

Seeing this, Hikari didn't linger any longer. After saying goodbye, she headed straight home.

As usual, she pushed open the front door, changed into her indoor slippers, and planned to lounge on the sofa for a while before going to bed.

But when she reached the living room, Hikari froze.

Because she saw Kaito voraciously eating in front of the fridge...

"Yo, Great-grandma, you're back?"

Kaito held a chicken leg in one hand and a tub of ice cream in the other, casually greeting Hikari as if no time had passed at all.But on him, the once short hair had now grown down to his waist, and his youthful face had taken on a more teenage charm.

Standing there, he gave off the same ethereal, flickering presence as those projections, as if he might vanish at any moment.

Though the food stains on his face somewhat ruined the aura.

Hikari stood frozen for a long while, unable to react. She stared blankly at Kaito, her emotions churning wildly in that moment.

She couldn't quite put into words what she was feeling.

In any case.

She was happy to see Kaito again.

However, the joy didn't last long. When Hikari's gaze landed on the ice cream in the boy's hand and the several empty containers on the ground, her expression immediately darkened.

"Idiot!!!"

"Did you eat all my ice cream!?"

Though her tone was angry, the corners of her mouth never quite stopped twitching upward.

Kaito had thought his great-grandmother might say something welcoming, but upon hearing her only cared about the ice cream, he immediately scooped another huge spoonful and stuffed it into his mouth.

After quickly finishing the last container, he picked it up and showed it to Hikari.

"Now I've finished it all."

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