"Take a look at this, Shisui."
While Uchiha Shisui was still reeling from the outrageous claims he'd just heard, Uchiha Chen patted him on the shoulder and handed him a scroll.
Shisui took it, puzzled, and unfurled it. The first thing he saw was the large title at the top:
<Statistics on Konoha Clan Shinobi and Ordinary Shinobi, from the End of the First War to the Eve of the Third>
???
Still not understanding what it meant, Shisui frowned and started reading the statistics from the beginning.
The Uchiha Clan: at the end of the First War, twenty-eight jōnin and over seven hundred registered shinobi; before the Third War, twenty-one jōnin and exactly six hundred registered shinobi.
The Hyuga Clan, Ino-Shika-Cho, the Sarutobi Clan, the Shimura Clan.
After scanning the figures on the scroll, Shisui thought for a moment and understood why Uchiha Chen had shown him the data.
Over the two decades between the First and Third Wars, the numbers of jōnin and shinobi among Konoha's dozen or so medium and large clans had generally held steady or risen slightly. There were only two exceptions.
The Uchiha and the Sarutobi.
The Uchiha Clan, Konoha's largest, had declined somewhat. The Sarutobi Clan, on the other hand, had surged over those twenty years from four jōnin and more than five hundred shinobi to eleven jōnin and over a thousand shinobi.
By now, the Sarutobi Clan had more shinobi than any other clan in Konoha, and its overall strength was surpassed only by the thousand-year-old clans, the Uchiha and the Hyuga.
These stark figures didn't lie.
Shisui felt as though the light scroll weighed a thousand pounds, pressing down on him until his hands trembled.
"Truthfully, I don't care if the Hokage looks after his own clan, skims a little from the village to support them, or even suppresses the Uchiha!"
Uchiha Chen rose from the bluestone and gazed into the distance, toward Kage Rock, barely visible in the dusk.
"I really don't care. Everyone has their own selfish motives! Sarutobi Hiruzen's real problem isn't that. It's that he lacks virtue!"
Virtue?
Shisui was even more confused. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something like, "The Third is a kindly elder," but his throat felt strangely dry.
"Exactly. Virtue!"
Uchiha Chen raised a hand toward Kage Rock. Shisui followed his gesture, his gaze settling on the First's monument.
"The First had the virtue of a god!
"He was the God of Shinobi, the strongest in the thousand years since the Sage of Six Paths founded the Ninjutsu Sect. His Wood Release made him invincible across the world, so he had nothing to fear!
"He didn't care how many jōnin or powerful fighters the Uchiha had, because after Uchiha Madara's death, he could wipe out the entire Uchiha Clan with one hand, at any time, in any place."
(Senju Hashirama: See that virtue of mine, hundreds of meters tall? I'll let you have nine hundred and ninety-nine hands first!)
That was virtue?
Shisui wondered if something was wrong with his ears.
"That's the highest virtue!" Uchiha Chen could guess what Shisui was thinking without even looking at him.
"Having the power to casually destroy the Uchiha, his former enemies, and choosing not to—that's benevolence, isn't it?
"Having the strength to do whatever he pleased, yet choosing to unite the world and establish the village system—that's righteousness, isn't it?
"So the Uchiha sincerely submitted to his great virtue and obeyed every order. Even when the Uchiha Clan's leader, Madara, defected from Konoha, not a single person dared to follow him."
Uh, so that was what virtue meant?
Shisui gave a wry smile. Thinking it over, there did seem to be a twisted sort of logic to Uchiha Chen's words.
Everyone admired the strong, and the Uchiha admired them even more than most. It wasn't entirely unreasonable to say the First had won them over through sheer strength.
"The Second, Senju Tobirama, had the virtue of a sage!
"His strength was nowhere near the First's or Uchiha Madara's!
"But in the era after the Two Heroes of the Ninja World disappeared, he was still stronger than the other villages' Kage. He was the strongest in the Shinobi World at the time.
"He wasn't afraid of the Uchiha's jōnin, but he still feared the Mangekyō.
"He personally developed countless ninjutsu and forbidden techniques designed to counter the Uchiha. That was his wisdom. He then entrusted the Military Police Force, which held enormous authority, to the Uchiha, took your grandfather Kagami as his student, and used rules to restrain and direct the Uchiha. That could be called propriety.
"His virtue was effective, but not as open and aboveboard as the First's. So the clan only half-submitted to him."
That actually made sense!
Shisui nodded slightly. Uchiha Chen's words matched what he'd heard from the clan elders.
Whenever they mentioned the First, they always sang his praises, without a trace of arrogance. When they spoke of the Second, they made all sorts of snide remarks, though they still had a decent opinion of his time in office.
But when it came to the Third...
Shisui shook his head. He really didn't want to remember the things they'd said.
"What about the Third, then?" Uchiha Chen spread his hands.
"He was strong, but not strong enough. So he had no virtue.
"Uchiha Madara was a special case, but the Uchiha produced another Mangekyō wielder like Uchiha Izuna every generation or two.
"The Second could defeat Uchiha Izuna in his prime. But could the Third?
"He couldn't!
"That's why he was so wary of the Uchiha. He could only sleep soundly by limiting them, openly or in secret.
"And with the Uchiha declining under his rule, resentment was bound to grow. Naturally, they didn't submit to him at all!"
Shisui nodded. Sarutobi Hiruzen was known as the Professor of Ninjutsu, but he really was no match for the First, the strongest in a thousand years, or the Second, who had once been the strongest in the Shinobi World.
For the past twenty years, the Shinobi World had recognized four great powerhouses:
The Strongest Shield, Third Raikage A; the Iron Sand Wings, Third Kazekage; Ōnoki of Dust Release; Hanzo of the Salamander, the Demigod; and Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Professor of Ninjutsu.
Those five were roughly on the same level, each a little stronger than the likes of the Third Mizukage and the Sannin.
Though the Third Kazekage and Third Raikage A had already fallen in battle, Shisui had still formed his own assessment of the five based on the intelligence he'd gathered:
Third Raikage A and Ōnoki were harder to deal with than Sarutobi Hiruzen.
One had the Lightning Release Armor, giving him the highest defense and margin for error in the Shinobi World. The other had Dust Release, which could kill with a graze, and could fly. Both excelled to the extreme in their respective areas.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, by contrast, was like a top student who scored ninety in every subject. His overall score was high, but if you had a subject where you scored above ninety, you could try taking him on. Even if you lost, escaping from him would be easier than escaping from Third Raikage A or Ōnoki.
Wait, why was I already thinking about how to kill the Hokage?
Shisui shook his head hard, but the outrageous thought wouldn't go away. If anything, it dug itself deeper into his mind.
My mind's been corrupted!
Shisui looked at Uchiha Chen with anguish.
'Did he take in too much information at once and lose his mind?'
Seeing Shisui's dazed, utterly broken expression, Uchiha Chen asked in a slightly guilty, quiet voice:
"Shisui, are you all right?"
"I've never heard anyone put it that way before, but it does seem to make some sense. I can't tell what to make of it yet. I'll need to think it over."
Shisui let out a long breath, then asked in puzzlement, "There's one more thing. How did you figure out I'd awakened the Mangekyō? I was sure I'd hidden it well!"
Because I've read the manga!
Uchiha Chen obviously couldn't say that, so he gave a mysterious-sounding answer:
"Why? Because... the Sharingan..."
In that instant, countless images flashed through Uchiha Chen's mind. Inspiration struck, and he thought of a certain white-haired man in a mask.
"Your Chakra reserves!"
Uchiha Chen quickly put together a well-reasoned analysis:
If Hatake Kakashi, who had just become a jōnin at twelve, was used as a unit of measurement for Chakra, then Shisui, who was also twelve, had only had less than 0.9 Kakashi a few months ago.
But now he had nearly 3 Kakashi. Such an implausible increase in Chakra reserves over such a short time could only mean one thing:
Shisui's Yin Release had undergone a qualitative improvement! He'd awakened the Mangekyō!
A perfect deduction!
As for why he used Kakashi from two years ago as a unit of measurement for Chakra...
Don't ask!
It was "Without Hatake Kakashi, the Shinobi World's Chakra measurements would have been shrouded in darkness for all eternity!"
Before you continue