Shisui fell silent, his gaze dull.
Stupidity and ignorance were not obstacles to survival; arrogance was!
He kept pondering Uchiha Jin's words, continually scrutinizing his own past behaviors, and finally, he had to concede to what Uchiha Jin said.
His past self had indeed been a bit arrogant!
Just because his clansmen were unwilling to go to the village, he had arrogantly assumed that all Uchiha were arrogant, completely unwilling to lower his head and mingle with the villagers.
He had never once considered that there might be other reasons behind his clansmen's behavior.
Now, hearing Uchiha Jin put it this way, he finally understood that the clansmen were not arrogant at all; rather, they had no way to go to the village for interaction.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Watching Shisui sink into thought, Uchiha Jin also felt that he might have misjudged him earlier. Although Shisui's behavior was indeed somewhat aloof, it seemed he could actually listen to what others had to say.
This was not a bad phenomenon at all!
If he could truly change Shisui's mindset, it would certainly count as a good thing for him.
Compared to Uchiha Itachi—who was driven into a desperate corner by the village and his clan, falling into a dead end, and becoming crazy and twisted—Shisui was obviously much more normal than Itachi.
Therefore,
he rolled his eyes and decided to up the ante and test him further.
"Shisui, let's continue."
"Don't you feel that while your usual interactions with other ninjas in the village are pretty good, you simply can't become true friends with them?"
"Then, regarding this matter, let me ask you another question."
"Suppose your squad eliminates the enemy during a mission and acquires one million taels. Would you choose to secretly divide it up or hand it over to the village?"
Hearing this, Shisui froze once more.
To be honest...
his mind was still a complete mess regarding what Uchiha Jin had told him earlier, and he hadn't fully processed it yet.
Now, another one?
However, Shisui's gentle nature prevented him from saying much. Instead, he sank straight into deep thought.
He knew Uchiha Jin wouldn't throw out random examples, and this question definitely contained aspects he hadn't considered.
Yet,
after thinking for a long time, he still followed his heart: "I would hand it directly to the village because, according to village rules, all spoils must be turned in."
"Then, here is the question," Uchiha Jin spoke up once more. "Do you know what civilian ninjas care about the most?"
To this, Shisui had only silence.
Although he desperately wanted to make friends with the villagers, what did civilian ninjas care about?
Sorry, he had no idea!
He had never even considered this question.
So, sigh!
After a helpless sigh, Shisui simply waved his hand: "I can't figure it out. Jin, just spell it out."
"Money!" Uchiha Jin stated.
Hearing this, Shisui was instantly dumbfounded.
Money?
His whole person was stunned.
Because he had never lacked money since childhood and had no concept of it whatsoever, it naturally never crossed his mind.
So upon hearing this, he couldn't help but retort: "Shouldn't it be the Will of Fire?"
"What a—spoiled rich brat!" Uchiha Jin rolled his eyes. "Can the Will of Fire be eaten as a meal?"
Hearing this retort, Shisui choked up instantly.
At that moment, he felt somewhat angry, his entire body beginning to tremble slightly, because the "Will of Fire" was his core belief.
If anyone else had said such a thing, he would have completely cut ties with them on the spot!
However...
thinking of how Uchiha Jin could mingle together with other ninjas and commoners, he forcibly suppressed his anger inside. After taking a deep breath, he spoke with a tremor in his voice: "Go on, I want to hear your perspective!"
He said it almost word for word, which was enough to show how unsettled his heart was.
In response to this,
Uchiha Jin's expression remained as usual.
He knew what those four words, the "Will of Fire," truly represented to Shisui.
This was the absolute core that he persisted in for his entire life!
Therefore,
there was even a hint of playfulness in his gaze before he couldn't help laughing: "To be honest, the fact that you didn't slash at me with a sword really surprised me quite a bit."
"Well, never mind, I won't tease you anymore."
"So I'll just spell it out directly. Of course, to help you understand better, let me use my guiding instructor, Takada Fujiwara, as an example."
"My teacher is truly of civilian origin. Unlike ninja clans such as the Uchiha, when he graduated from the Ninja Academy, he only knew the Three Body Techniques and the Chakra Refining Technique."
"He was fairly lucky, plus he had some strength. He completed a full 217 C-Rank Missions and spent 300,000 taels just to trade for his first Earth Style Ninjutsu: Earth Flow Wall!"
"You need to know that for a C-Rank Mission, unless the village takes its cut, the guiding jonin takes their cut, and the squad members split the rest evenly, what ends up in your own hands is at most seven or eight thousand taels."
"You can imagine how many missions Captain Takada Fujiwara, coming from a civilian background, had to do and how long he had to save just to scrape together 300,000 taels for a single ninjutsu, given his daily training and ninja tool consumption."
"Then what about B-Rank ninjutsu? A-Rank ninjutsu?"
"Things that are within arm's reach for you, Shisui—Takada risked his life to become a jonin, braved nine-to-one odds on so many dangerous missions, and to this day, he only knows two C-Rank Earth Release, one C-Rank Fire Release, one B-Rank Earth Release, and a dime-a-dozen Fuinjutsu."
"Perhaps it looks quite shabby to someone like Shisui, but for the civilian ninja class, Jonin Takada is already considered an absolute elite."
"Even though he now gets tens of thousands of taels from a single mission, to this day he still doesn't qualify to acquire any A-Rank ninjutsu."
"Shisui, if you were put in Takada Fujiwara's position—without the Uchiha's endless ninjutsu, without the legacy of your grandfather, Kagami Uchiha—could you still say that money doesn't matter?"
Hiss!
Accompanied by Uchiha Jin's words, Shisui froze completely.
He had never imagined that being a civilian ninja could be so difficult!
And this was for ninjas of a higher social stratum; what about those bottom-layer commoners who weren't even ninjas?
For a moment, he fell silent.
Money!
This thing he had never cared about felt overwhelmingly heavy for the very first time!
"This... how could that be?" Shisui found it hard to accept.
To this, Uchiha Jin merely shrugged: "This is why you can't truly integrate into other ninja clans and civilian ninjas. No matter how gentle you are, people will still keep their distance from you out of respect."
"By everyone's tacit rule, all spoils of war are privately split up, and even the Hokage knows this is the default practice."
"It's just that because the optics are bad, it can't be brought out into the open."
"But as long as someone teams up with you, all spoils have to be turned in. Even though people don't say it out loud on the surface, do you expect everyone to treat you as a friend?"
"Bullshit!"
Hearing this, Shisui was thoroughly dumbfounded.
This was something he had never encountered before, and for a moment, he truly didn't know what to say.
Of course,
he had also gained something!
He finally understood completely why he had been unable to integrate into the village!
Before you continue