Uchiha Clan Grounds.
Shin walked briskly.
"Hey, little Shin. School over?"
An elderly woman around seventy, wearing glasses, with a head full of white hair and a kindly expression, asked him as he approached at a slower pace.
Shin looked at the old woman before him and flashed a bright smile. "Yes, Granny Chiyuki."
"Then you need to keep working hard, Shin."
"Okay, Granny Chiyuki."
With his obedient expression, it was hard to believe that Shin had just declared he would become the one calling the shots at school in order to get himself expelled.
"Oh, right, Granny Chiyuki. I used the Body Freezing Technique you taught me last time on someone. It was pretty powerful."
Like a child, Shin proudly showed off to Granny Chiyuki.
With concern on her face, Chiyuki placed both hands on his small arms. "Oh? Who did little Shin use Genjutsu on? Were you hurt?"
Feeling her concern, Shin's heart warmed. "A child from the Senju Clan..."
"After he got hit by my Body Freezing Technique, he just kept sleeping. He didn't even manage to touch me once."
Chiyuki looked astonished. "The Senju Clan... It's fine, your father will handle it. Looks like Shin has quite a talent for Genjutsu."
As she spoke, she smiled and reached out to pat Shin's little head.
"Granny Chiyuki, I won't grow taller if you keep patting my head."
"Hahaha... Little Shin has grown up. You won't even let Granny pat your head anymore~"
"..."
Shin felt utterly helpless as he watched Chiyuki laugh without restraint.
Uchiha Chiyuki belonged to the same era as Uchiha Madara.
Though she was not skilled in ninjutsu, her Genjutsu was used with uncanny mastery.
For some unknown reason, she had worn glasses for many years.
When Shin had first met Chiyuki, he had been deeply suspicious about those glasses.
Driven by curiosity, he had put them on and confirmed that they were not reading glasses.
An ordinary Sharingan had no limitation on its eye power.
Other than one explanation, there was no more reasonable possibility.
"The Uchiha of the Warring States period really had more than just two pairs..."
The one who discovered how to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan was Senju Tobirama, the God of Shinobi and Konoha's Second Hokage.
After the two pairs of eyes from the original story had been fused into Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, how could that forbidden-technique fanatic have studied them?
The only explanation was that the Uchiha of that time had more than two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan!
As proof, Chiyuki had retired early and did not participate in clan affairs, yet every member of the proud and unruly Uchiha Clan treated her with exceptional respect.
What did a woman who rarely used her Sharingan, and whose husband and son had both died on the battlefield, have to command such respect?
It was not because Shin had some ulterior motive that he deliberately tried to please Granny Chiyuki.
If she truly possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, then someone who lived in darkness yet still turned her heart toward the light would be difficult not to grow close to.
"Granny Chiyuki, I'll head home first." Shin politely said goodbye.
Chiyuki watched him slowly walk away, her face full of smiles.
At the Uchiha Clan Head's home, Shin pushed open the front door and entered.
After returning home, he first greeted his mother, who was preparing lunch, before heading to the backyard.
"Shin? Why are you so late? Father will be back soon."
Fugaku, seated in the small pavilion in the backyard, put down the documents in his hands.
"I chatted with Granny Chiyuki for a while on the way..."
After explaining, Shin walked over to him and pointed at the documents on the table. "Brother Fugaku, what are these?"
"They're materials from the clan's Military Police Force. Father plans to have me start training with the Military Police Force next month." Fugaku answered with a proud expression.
In the hearts of the Uchiha Clan, being entrusted with the Military Police Force was Konoha's trust in them.
However, Uchiha were the sort who disdained explaining themselves.
They often carried out their duties stubbornly, causing many villagers to misunderstand them.
The Uchiha chose to ignore those misunderstandings.
That only further deepened the village's misunderstanding of the Uchiha.
Still, the situation was not yet as severe as it had been in the original story.
Shin curled his lip. "The Military Police Force? That's no good place..."
He believed that the Military Police Force's work was all about offending people.
The Military Police Force even had to inspect all the village's facilities.
Wasn't that basically like the city inspectors from his previous life?
People might smile at city inspectors, but who knew how much they cursed and insulted them in their hearts?
Fugaku ignored Shin's assessment. This was not the first time he had heard him make one criticism or another about the Military Police Force.
"Brother Fugaku, why not just skip the Military Police Force..."
"I'll give you an idea. That Uchiha Commercial Street I mentioned last time has real potential. It'll definitely make a fortune." Shin tempted Fugaku.
"..."
Seeing that Fugaku remained unmoved for a long while, he immediately gave up trying to persuade him.
Shin sat beside Fugaku, draped an arm over his shoulder, and said with a teasing expression, "How boring. Once I grow up, I'll do it myself..."
"Then I'll hire the Military Police Force as security guards, while you, Brother Fugaku, can be a good captain."
Fugaku's face immediately darkened.
He wondered if he had been too nice to his younger brother, letting him grow bold enough to joke with him like this.
"That is Father's order, and the Military Police Force is the Uchiha's glory. How can it be hired out as some kind of security guards!"
Shin only wanted to teach this "foolish" older brother a proper lesson.
"What glory? It's merely a method the Second Hokage used to divide the village and the Uchiha."
"You... How did you know that?" Fugaku stared at Shin in astonishment.
Although this younger brother had been clever since childhood, Fugaku was still shocked that he had exposed the Uchiha's predicament in a single sentence.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"The Military Police Force's work looks important, but it actually has no real authority. All it does is bring offenders to prison, while the village itself never steps forward to punish them..."
Shin began speaking at length. "The clan members merely take people away according to the regulations. The village gets to play the good guys, while we get to play the bad guys."
Fugaku fell into deep thought after hearing that.
"When the First Hokage placed the Uchiha Clan Grounds beside the Senju Clan Grounds, perhaps it was initially meant to foster friendship between the two clans..."
"But the Second Hokage used those conditions to monitor the Uchiha in disguise, and even handed us the seemingly 'glamorous' Military Police Force..."
"But where was there ever a case of an entire clan serving in the same occupation?"
"Look at us Uchiha. Aside from Senior Kagami, who else ever held a high-ranking position in the village?"
Shin stood up, moved closer to Fugaku, and whispered into his ear, "And I suspect Senior Kagami's death was suspicious. Hasn't the clan always said..."
"That he was very likely to have obtained those eyes after the Second Hokage died?"
Like Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō, Kagami Uchiha had been a direct disciple of the Second Hokage.
Yet after one mission, he had died in the prime of his life.
"..."
Cold sweat broke out across Fugaku's body. Shin's words leaned somewhat toward conspiracy theory, but the more he thought about them, the more reasonable they seemed.
"Brother Fugaku, assuming Senior Kagami was assassinated, whoever could ambush someone with the Mangekyō Sharingan could not have been some Nameless nobody, so..."
Fugaku immediately shot to his feet, his lips trembling as he voiced his guess to Shin. "So the murderer was someone Senior Kagami knew..."
"Someone familiar enough to know his weakness."
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