If one had to ask who in the Uchiha clan had the most complicated feelings toward Shisui Uchiha, the answer would neither be Shisui Uchiha's birth parents, nor Itachi Uchiha, who had also been regarded as one of the Uchiha clan's stars of tomorrow but had only met him a few times, nor the Uchiha elders who had once stood behind Shisui Uchiha, watched him, and used every method to draw him into their own factions.
Fugaku Uchiha was the only possible answer.
He had personally witnessed Shisui Uchiha being taken away by Rei Kaguya.
He had done everything in his power to work toward taking him back from Kirigakure.
Under pressure from the village and his clansmen, he had been forced to announce a bounty on him.
Then, when the clan and Fugaku himself fell into a crisis of annihilation they could not resist, they were saved by Shisui Uchiha.
This sequence of rising and falling emotions was so dramatic that Fugaku Uchiha did not even know how to continue the conversation between them.
Especially when he saw Shisui Uchiha openly wearing Kirigakure's forehead protector while standing beside his eldest son, Itachi Uchiha.
And when Shisui Uchiha saw Fugaku Uchiha's complicated expression, which seemed capable of splitting into seven or eight different emotions in one breath, he did not continue staying there and making the other party feel awkward.
After briefly asking a few questions and confirming that Fugaku Uchiha's injuries would recover before long, Shisui Uchiha politely chose to excuse himself.
Before leaving, he made an "I'll wait for you" gesture toward Itachi Uchiha, who was caught between the two of them and looked extremely troubled.
"Itachi, when you came just now, did you make some agreement with Shisui?"
After seeing Shisui Uchiha leave, Fugaku Uchiha shook his head and sighed. Then he looked toward his eldest son and asked in a gentle tone.
"I asked Brother Shisui whether the person who controlled the Nine-Tails and attacked the village was really Obito Uchiha, the one who was posthumously recognized as a war hero."
Itachi Uchiha lightly tugged at the hem of his clothes and answered cautiously.
"He nodded. But for the questions after that, he said I should go to the clan training ground and find him there if I truly wanted to know the answers."
"Is that so? So that is what he said…"
Fugaku Uchiha gave a bitter smile and sighed. Unused to having one eye blind, he had to turn his face at a wider angle before he saw the fruit basket Itachi had placed by the window.
"Then what do you think, Itachi? Do you want to know, or… do you plan to listen to the adults?"
"If Father does not object, I want to go and hear Brother Shisui's answer."
Itachi Uchiha watched his father's unreadable expression and carefully gave an answer that was not quite so definite.
"Why do you need to confirm our opinion first, Itachi?"
Fugaku Uchiha stretched out a bandaged hand, picked up a plump apple, and tossed it up and down absentmindedly.
"You can decide this kind of thing for yourself, can't you?"
"Because when Father saw Brother Shisui's Kirigakure forehead protector, your expression was very strange."
Itachi Uchiha shook his head like a rattle drum and said softly, "No matter what, Kirigakure and Konoha are still two different villages… Right now, because of certain reasons we do not yet understand, Kirigakure can stand on Konoha's side. But if something happens between both sides in the future, they will also stand opposite Konoha, won't they?"
"…Itachi, children do not need to think so much."
Hearing his eldest son's thought process, which far exceeded his age, Fugaku Uchiha was first somewhat shocked, then helpless and worried.
"You do not need to consider my thoughts. Just follow your own feelings… Children possess a unique right to be forgiven no matter what mistake they make. You must learn to make good use of it."
"Then… I'll go ask Brother Shisui clearly?"
Listening to his father's guidance, Itachi Uchiha asked with some hesitation.
"Go. Throw every question you have at Shisui Uchiha—what you saw, what you heard, what you felt, everything you think is worth asking."
With a faintly encouraging tone that was difficult to notice, Fugaku Uchiha gave Itachi Uchiha permission to ask boldly.
"The speed at which the era is changing has already exceeded the range that adults like us can accept… We need children like you, children onto whom we have placed tomorrow, to adapt to these things earlier."
…
"So that is what Mr. Fugaku said to you?"
Inside the Uchiha clan's family training ground, Shisui Uchiha sat on a large boulder with targets tied to various blind spots around it. He nodded thoughtfully to Itachi Uchiha, who was looking up at him.
"But that is indeed true. The current world is no longer the kind of world where one can learn the basic knowledge taught at the Ninja Academy, learn the so-called Will of Fire, and then move forward without confusion… If Mr. Fugaku has high hopes for you to support the Uchiha clan, or even all of Konoha, then he truly does need you to open your eyes and see the world earlier."
"Is this the view you learned from Kirigakure, Brother Shisui?"
Itachi listened very seriously to the other party's words, and secretly compared him with the "Shisui Uchiha" he had once met before.
"Because the Fourth is a… hm, a person with many strange ideas. If you do not learn to look at the various policies and plans he formulates from a perspective that surpasses one nation and one village, it is very easy to fall into self-doubt when faced with realities you cannot understand."
Shisui Uchiha scratched his head and mocked himself without the slightest concern.
"To be honest, when I went to carry out missions assigned to me by the Fourth, there were many times when I braced myself and thought, 'How could this possibly succeed?'
"But what surprised me was that usually, as long as we managed to hold on through the very beginning, reality would quickly prove the feasibility and foresight of the missions issued by the Fourth. Only after being slapped in the face many times did I gradually learn how to view matters with a broader perspective."
"…Brother Shisui, are you not someone who turned toward Kirigakure because you felt Lord Mizukage's strength was impossible to resist?"
Listening to Shisui Uchiha's self-mockery, Itachi Uchiha's quick little mind rapidly pieced together a conclusion different from his previous judgment.
When he voiced that doubt to Shisui Uchiha, Shisui shook his head and firmly denied it.
"Strength alone is not enough to make an Uchiha submit from body to heart, nor is it enough to make him betray everything he once cherished. After all, we have all heard the story of Madara Uchiha. We know that within the Sharingan passed down through the Uchiha clan for generations lies the possibility of becoming the next Madara Uchiha.
"Even if that possibility is very small, it is still greater than the chance of the Kaguya clan producing another expert like the Fourth."
"I wear Kirigakure's forehead protector only because I saw within the Fourth a brand-new will and ideal. It is completely different from the Will of Fire, and it has actual feasibility and a concrete program of action. It contains the true possibility of changing this world and ending those meaningless wars…"
"To realize that great cause of world peace, I am willing to abandon my identity as a Konoha shinobi, and I have also prepared myself to completely part ways with the Uchiha clan."
"Liar…"
"Eh?"
Seeing Itachi Uchiha take several steps backward first, then glare at him with an angry expression, Shisui Uchiha subconsciously let out a confused sound.
For a moment, he could not figure out exactly where he had said something wrong.
But immediately afterward, Itachi Uchiha's shout, filled with intense personal emotion, made him realize where his mistake lay.
"The Brother Shisui I know was clearly a great shinobi who, so later challengers could defeat a terrifying enemy, did not hesitate to personally step into the abyss of darkness and try to investigate the abyss's secrets and intelligence! He is not someone like you, who has already accepted the darkness willingly!"
"You are not Shisui Uchiha at all. Who exactly are you!?"
No, I really am Shisui Uchiha. The Shisui Uchiha you're talking about was the one someone else disguised as, all right!?
Looking at Itachi Uchiha, who had already begun planning how to attract the attention of nearby Uchiha clansmen, Shisui Uchiha did not know whether to laugh or cry.
He appeared in front of Itachi with a Body Flicker. While silently grumbling in his heart about the tragic hero image Rei Kaguya had artistically embellished for him at that time, he helplessly reached out and lightly tapped Itachi Uchiha on the forehead.
Sighing, he said, "Back then, I did say those things to you, Itachi… But compared to the situation during that conversation, have you not noticed that the positions we stand in have already changed?"
"Where did they change?"
Knowing that he could not possibly escape before Shisui of the Body Flicker, Itachi Uchiha puffed up his cheeks and asked back in a sulking tone.
"The last time I spoke with you face to face, the relationship between Konoha and Kirigakure was still hostile. Even though both sides had signed a non-aggression peace treaty, once Kirigakure embarked on its future path of expansion, Konoha would ultimately still become the first enemy Kirigakure had to defeat."
"To make up in the end for the losses the Uchiha clan suffered because of me, and to prevent them from doing something foolish beyond their ability, it was necessary and meaningful for me at the time to say those words to you, the clan's star of tomorrow."
Shisui Uchiha shook his head and said calmly, "But now, things are different… Konoha, having suffered such heavy losses and exposed its weakest side, can no longer be considered an enemy Kirigakure must guard against when facing a Kirigakure whose strength remains unharmed and is even rising rapidly."
"Since there is no longer a need to treat Konoha as an enemy, then saying a little about my true realizations over these past few years is something I can do."
"In Kirigakure's eyes, is everyone in Konoha such an insignificant opponent!?"
Itachi Uchiha widened his eyes and asked, both angry and unconvinced.
"Purely in terms of strength, even after Konoha's ninja clans suffered this disaster, the surviving clansmen can still compete with Kirigakure's ninja clans. They might even be slightly superior."
Seeing that Itachi Uchiha's mind still only held the idea that the strength of shinobi decided victory and defeat, Shisui Uchiha could not help shaking his head.
Then, with a tone that was partly emotional and partly teasing, he leaned close to Itachi Uchiha's ear and said, "However, even if Konoha is successfully rebuilt one day in the future, everyone in Konoha will still only be the same kind of shinobi they were before…
"Half-baked shinobi who only know how to fight and kill cannot possibly defeat those who rewrite the rules."
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