"Gulp… gulp…"
"Man, that really hits the spot. Another bowl of miso ramen, Teuchi-sama. There is nothing in this village that can compete with Ichiraku Ramen."
Teuchi laughed from behind the counter.
"Coming right up!"
I sat comfortably on the stool, stretching my arms slightly as I waited. The warm smell of broth and noodles filled the small ramen stand.
Today had been the first-year final exams at the Ninja Academy.
Looking back, I could hardly believe that an entire year had already passed.
"Only five more years to go," I muttered to himself with a small grin.
The final exam had several parts.
The theory exam was a single written test that included questions from every subject they had studied during the year. It covered ninja history, basic chakra theory, village rules, mathematics, geography, and language.
The shuriken throwing test came next. A wooden board had been placed at the end of the training field. The board had several circles drawn on it, all with the same center point but different sizes. Each student had to throw several shuriken at the board. The points depended on which circle the shuriken landed in. The smallest circle at the center gave the highest score, while the larger outer rings gave fewer points.
Then there was the leaf concentration competition. This test measured chakra control. Each student had to place a leaf on their forehead and keep it attached using chakra. The goal was simply to see who could keep the leaf from falling for the longest time.
Finally, there were the taijutsu battles.
The academy held them in a small tournament format, with points given based on rank. However, the instructors had separated the matches between boys and girls, so the two groups fought in different brackets.
I always found it amusing how serious everyone became during exam time.
Some students looked like they were facing life or death.
For me, the tests had gone smoothly.
I had done extremely well in the written exam.
The leaf concentration test had been easy for me. After years of practicing chakra control, it felt almost effortless.
The shuriken throwing test had also gone perfectly. Every shuriken I threw had struck the exact center of the board.
And when it came to taijutsu, I had not lost a single match.
I leaned back slightly while waiting for his ramen.
"I am either first place or second place this year,"
The only person who could compete with me is Hinata.
From everything I had seen, she had also performed extremely well in the exams.
They were both strong students.
They were both consistent.
The only real way to decide who deserved first place would be a direct taijutsu match between them.
However, the instructors had never matched them against each other. I still did not understand why.
Both of them had gone the entire year without losing a spar.
"So why not just make us fight once?" I muttered quietly.
Teuchi placed a fresh bowl of steaming ramen in front of me.
"Here you go."
My attention immediately returned to the food.
"Well… whatever."
I grabbed the chopsticks with enthusiasm.
The current month was January, the academy would be closed till February.
Students would have a full month of holiday before the second year of the academy started in March.
I slurped up a mouthful of noodles happily.
This month is going to be perfect. I already knew exactly how I planned to spend it by focusing entirely on training.
Especially on improving my chakra weapon construct ability.
I grinned to myself as I finished another bite of ramen.
"Time for a training montage."
Shisui Uchiha was alive.
Not only alive, but now he was a missing-nin.
The official story spread through the village quickly. According to the announcement, Shisui Uchiha had attacked one of the village elders and fled the Hidden Leaf.
That was the story everyone heard.
The village claimed that Shisui possessed a terrifying ability within his Sharingan. They said he had a genjutsu so powerful that it could control a person without them even realizing it. A technique that could change someone's thoughts and make them believe those thoughts were their own.
Kotoamatsukami.
The story said that Shisui used this power to create hatred between the Uchiha clan and the village. They claimed he planted seeds of distrust during meetings. They said he manipulated emotions and twisted conversations. Slowly, he pushed both sides closer and closer to war.
That was the explanation given to the public.
The Third Hokage stood before a large crowd to announce it. His face looked older than usual, and there was a deep tiredness in his eyes. Beside him stood Fugaku Uchiha. The clan head looked calm and composed, but there was a storm hidden behind his eyes.
Together, they addressed the village.
Together, they explained Shisui's crimes.
And together, they declared that the crisis had ended.
Shisui Uchiha was officially declared a missing-nin. A traitor to both the Uchiha clan and the Hidden Leaf.
The village placed a bounty of one hundred million ryo on his head.
Dead or alive.
No one asked many questions about why he had done it. People simply made their own assumptions. Some said he wanted to become the leader of the Uchiha clan. Others believed he wanted to become Hokage. Some whispered that he was seeking revenge for his parents. A few even claimed he had simply gone insane.
The message from the village was clear.
The Uchiha clan was not rebelling.
The village was not planning to destroy the Uchiha.
All the blame fell on one man.
One sacrifice to protect many.
Politics.
In the original timeline that I knew, Shisui was supposed to die quietly. His death would awaken Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan. The tension between the clan and the village would continue behind closed doors. Eventually, the Uchiha clan would be wiped out in a single bloody night.
But now everything had changed.
Shisui was alive.
The Uchiha clan was still intact.
And the entire future had shifted.
The village had painted Shisui as a villain who tried to manipulate everyone. They described him as a mastermind who pushed both sides toward war for his own twisted goals.
The story was simple.
Too simple.
The Hokage avoided war with the Uchiha.
The Uchiha avoided civil war with Konoha.
The village elders avoided responsibility.
And the people?
The people received peace.
All it cost was one name.
Shisui Uchiha.
Poor guy.
In a single day, he had gone from being a loyal shinobi to a hunted traitor.
In the canon I remembered, the truth was very different. Shisui had actually tried to stop the coup. He planned to use Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku to prevent the rebellion and protect both the village and the clan.
If that was still the truth in this world, then this village had done something truly disgusting.
Instead of honoring him, they had turned him into the villain.
But I guess that is how politics works. You twist the truth until it becomes useful.
Sacrifice one person to protect everyone else.
I looked up at the stone faces of the Hokage carved into the mountain. I wondered what Hiruzen truly felt about all of this. Did he hate the decision he had made? Or had he convinced himself that it was necessary?
Maybe it was both.
The Hokage told the village that Shisui attacked an elder after his manipulation was discovered. According to the story, he fled the village before he could be captured.
The Uchiha clan expressed shock and anger.
Fugaku himself publicly condemned Shisui.
That part surprised me.
Fugaku Uchiha condemning Shisui in front of the entire village meant something important. It meant the clan had chosen survival over pride. They had chosen to stay within the village system rather than push toward rebellion.
No massacre.
No extinction.
That single change could reshape the entire future.
Sasuke would grow up with his parents.
Itachi would not be forced to slaughter his own clan.
The balance of power inside Konoha would shift in ways no one could predict.
However, there was still one serious problem.
Shisui was free.
And that thought scared me.
I leaned back and stared at the night sky.
If Shisui ever joined the Akatsuki, the situation would become extremely dangerous very quickly.
Kotoamatsukami was not a normal genjutsu. It did not trap someone inside an illusion like Tsukuyomi. It did not rely on traditional eye contact.
It quietly changed your will.
You would believe the idea was your own.
You would act on it willingly.
There would be no resistance.
No awareness.
No counter.
How do you fight something when you do not even realize it is happening?
I swallowed slowly.
If Shisui joined the Akatsuki, I was finished.
That thought alone felt like a nightmare.
Even Madara needed overwhelming power and presence to control people. Shisui could do it silently without anyone noticing.
I rubbed my face and sighed.
Panicking would not help.
I needed to think clearly.
The village had declared him a traitor. That meant if he appeared anywhere, he would be hunted. His name would be placed in the Bingo Book. The bounty on his head would attract hunter-nin from every nation.
That made his life extremely difficult.
It also pushed him toward dangerous alliances.
Missing-nin rarely survived alone for long. Eventually they joined organizations for protection. They traded loyalty for safety.
And the most obvious organization for someone like him was Akatsuki.
I remembered the members.
Pain.
Konan.
Kisame.
Sasori.
Deidara.
If Shisui joined them, the entire balance of power in the shinobi world would change.
After finishing my ramen and paying the bill, I stepped outside and jumped onto a rooftop.
From there I could see the village clearly.
Konoha looked peaceful tonight. Lights glowed softly inside the houses. People laughed in the distant streets. Children were still playing somewhere far away.
No one here knew how close the village had come to civil war.
No one understood how fragile this peace truly was.
The Uchiha clan still existed. That alone changed the future in a massive way.
Without the massacre, Sasuke would not grow up consumed by revenge.
Without the massacre, Itachi would not become the villain who carried the village's sins.
Without the massacre, the tension between the clan and the village would still exist, but it would remain hidden beneath the surface.
This peace stood on a lie.
Shisui was the villain.
Everyone else was innocent.
It was a simple story.
An easy story.
But lies have weight.
And eventually that weight breaks something.
I looked toward the Uchiha district.
Many houses were still lit. Families were together. I could hear faint laughter from children playing somewhere inside the compound.
Sasuke was probably training in the yard.
For him, this situation was a blessing.
He kept his parents.
He kept his brother.
He kept his clan.
But what about Shisui?
He became a shadow.
A hunted man.
I felt a strange mixture of emotions.
Pity.
Relief.
And dread.
Shisui might decide that the village had betrayed him. If that happened, he could truly become the villain everyone believed him to be.
That possibility worried me.
A hurt idealist can become something very dangerous. Especially someone with eyes like his.
I whispered quietly into the night.
"I pray to Hagoromo that Shisui does not join the Akatsuki."
I almost laughed after saying it.
Praying would not solve anything.
Preparation would.
If Kotoamatsukami was the threat, then I needed to find ways to counter it.
Strong willpower might help.
Sage Mode might help in the future.
Maybe sensing natural energy could reveal foreign chakra interference.
Maybe sealing techniques could resist mental control.
Maybe staying unpredictable could make manipulation harder.
But right now?
I was still just a kid.
A kid who knew too much about a future that no longer existed.
I clenched my jaw.
If Shisui ever appeared again, I needed to be ready.
Not to fight him.
But to survive him.
One man carried the blame so that thousands could sleep peacefully at night.
The wind brushed against my jacket as it moved through the rooftops.