Talking Shisui Uchiha Around

Shazo looked at Shisui Uchiha and said gently but resentfully, "I wasn't born into a ninja clan, and I don't have a Jonin teacher who appreciates me, so I have no way of getting a Jonin's recommendation!"

Shisui Uchiha was left completely speechless.

Shazo's resentful gaze made him extremely uncomfortable, his ears burning with embarrassment.

Shisui Uchiha suddenly realized something.

He had always believed that the Uchiha Clan was disliked by Konoha's people because its members were too arrogant and distant.

Yet he himself had unconsciously acted arrogantly, offending a Konoha Ninja who had originally held no prejudice against the Uchiha Clan.

How ironic.

Shisui Uchiha felt like an absolute idiot.

He could not help but doubt himself.

Had he made the same mistake unintentionally in the past?

In the eyes of his clansmen, was he even more arrogant than they were—so arrogant that even they could not stand him?

That had to be it!

Otherwise, why had he been unable to persuade even a single clansman?

Sigh, Uchiha Itachi has such a good temper. He actually put up with someone as awful as me.

Shisui Uchiha sank into a self-generated spiral of overthinking and could not pull himself out.

Shazo waited for a while. Seeing that Shisui was still distracted, he spoke up. "If you have nothing else to do, Jonin-sama, I'm going home!"

"I'm tired now. I want to take a bath! I want to sleep!"

Shisui Uchiha suddenly snapped awake and quickly stepped back, clearing the way.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault. You may go home."

Shazo gave a cold snort, then strode forward and passed Shisui Uchiha.

Just as they crossed paths, Shazo suddenly turned around and looked at Shisui Uchiha.

He asked, "Since you said it was your fault, Jonin-sama, can you agree to one request from me?"

Shisui's heart was full of guilt. Hearing Shazo make a request, he blurted out without even thinking, "No problem, I agree!"

Shazo was amused by him. The anger and resentment he had been pretending to show could no longer be maintained, and he burst into laughter.

"Ha ha, I haven't even told you what the request is. How could you agree already?"

After coughing twice to suppress his laughter, he made his request. "Keep my true strength a secret. Don't tell anyone."

Shisui Uchiha agreed without hesitation. "No problem!"

Shazo stared at Shisui and said seriously, "I mean, you can't tell even the Third Hokage."

At those words, Shisui immediately felt uncomfortable.

He argued, "The Third Hokage is Konoha's highest leader. He has every right to know the information of every Konoha Ninja. You need to trust the Hokage."

Shazo smiled mysteriously. "So you mean you won't agree?"

His words were full of contempt and suspicion, provoking Shisui Uchiha into opening his mouth several times, only to close it again each time.

Keeping promises absolutely and trusting the Hokage absolutely had always been Shisui Uchiha's core principles. Yet now, under Shazo's guidance, they had come into the fiercest possible conflict.

The struggle in Shisui Uchiha's heart caused him immense pain.

So, he tried to persuade Shazo to relent, hoping to use the opportunity to free himself from this predicament. "Shazo, I don't think you need to—"

Shazo interrupted him without hesitation and said firmly, "I think it's necessary, and very necessary!"

"Jonin Shisui Uchiha, I'm the one making a request of you right now, not the other way around!"

Shisui tried asking for the reason again so he could make a final judgment. "Can you tell me why the Third Hokage cannot know your true strength?"

Shazo refused even more firmly. "You're not qualified to know the reason yet."

I haven't even come up with a perfect reason yet. Why the hell would I tell you?

Shisui Uchiha looked at Shazo in surprise and asked, "I'm a Jonin, and you're a Genin. I'm actually not qualified to know?"

Shazo's gaze became unusually profound. He stared until Shisui could not help shifting his eyes away before saying, "Shisui Uchiha, don't blindly believe in so-called ninja ranks. Not everything in Konoha is decided by ninja rank."

"Since you won't agree, then forget it."

With that, he left quickly and without hesitation, giving Shisui Uchiha no chance to continue pestering him.

Shisui was left standing alone in the cold midnight wind, sorting through the chaotic thoughts in his heart.

After returning home, Shazo changed clothes, took a bath, drank some water, and lay down on his bed.

He silently said to himself with satisfaction, Well done, Shazo.

Then he drifted into sleep.

Another uneventful night passed.

When Shazo woke up in the morning, he decided to indulge himself today.

He had worked hard for six straight days. Apart from sleeping at night, he had either been memorizing materials or training in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and his Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.

Other than Uchiha Izumi coming to visit him, he had not rested at all.

Even when he slept, he had been incredibly tense, constantly reviewing the knowledge he had memorized while lying in bed, unable to relax completely.

He could not help it. Thinking about how he needed to memorize knowledge before sharing it made him feel as though he were about to take an exam, so nervous that he could barely control himself.

Now, he had memorized everything he needed to.

After all, the ninjutsu materials Shazo could buy were all public information, and the ninjutsu available were only D-rank and E-rank. The content was not complicated, nor was there much of it.

It was time to reward himself properly.

No matter how hard he worked, he could not keep the string pulled too tight.

What if it snapped and he never wanted to work hard again? Wouldn't that mean he could only rely on himself from then on?

Huh, that actually seemed like a pretty good idea.

Shazo swiftly crushed the lazy little man in his mind and began preparing a feast.

The feast included meats such as fried chicken, grilled meat, grilled fish, and braised beef, as well as staples and desserts like rice, noodles, bread, rice balls, cake, and ice cream.

There were also fruits such as apples, pears, and oranges.

Shazo's feast was far more lavish than Konoha's barbecue feasts, with careful attention paid to color, aroma, and flavor.

Since he was only fourteen, he did not prepare any alcohol. There was only honey water.

Shazo piled all the food onto the table in the living room, filling it so completely that it looked like a series of little mountains.

He had not prepared this entire table of food just for himself.

It was noon, and the early-summer sunlight was dazzling enough to make people drowsy.

Shazo packed up the food on the table, slung a huge food box over his back, and quietly left his home.

Slightly different from ninjas, who were skilled at using darkness and shadows, Shazo not only liked darkness but was also skilled at using powerful light sources such as sunlight to conceal himself.

Using the brilliance of the noon sun, he moved through the patchwork shade of trees and bright sunlight along the streets. Even with the huge food box on his back, no one noticed his presence.

Shazo headed east, passing the Sarutobi Clan's residential area, the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage's Residence, and Konoha Hospital. He left the bustling central district and arrived in eastern Konoha.

This was a civilian residential area. Dense, multi-story apartment buildings lined both sides of the roads, while the open spaces beside the streets had been divided by fences into vegetable gardens of varying sizes, planted with all sorts of seasonal vegetables.

Shazo kept walking until he reached an apartment building that looked extremely dilapidated. Only then did he stop at the edge of the sunlight and carefully observe his surroundings.