Shisui's Probe

Uchiha Ao was surprised.

He hadn't expected his mother to agree so readily to him leaving the Uchiha Clan.

He'd thought it would take some effort.

He hadn't expected it to be so simple.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but just as the words reached his lips, his younger brother, Uchiha Lan, came in from outside.

"Big brother, Shisui's here."

Lan was the same age as Shisui, and they'd been classmates at the Ninja Academy. But Shisui had already graduated, making him a fellow ninja of Ao's.

Lan, meanwhile, was still a student at the Ninja Academy.

There was now a huge difference in their status.

"Go on. I'll make dinner. Tell Shisui to stay and eat with us."

His mother smiled and ushered them out.

Ao went into the living room and saw Shisui sitting cross-legged on the tatami in a pair of white ankle socks. A cup of tea sat on the low table in front of him.

His little sister was curiously sizing up the prodigy who had become famous throughout the Uchiha Clan.

"Big Brother Shisui, are you really strong? Are you stronger than my big brother?"

His little sister, Uchiha Zi, asked with unabashed curiosity, her small hands propping up her chin as she openly examined Shisui.

Her pretty, delicate face made Shisui smile.

"Your senior is definitely more talented. He's a genius Lord Orochimaru has taken an interest in."

Shisui answered without hesitation.

He was humble.

Unlike some other clan members, he wasn't arrogant about his talent.

As he spoke, he noticed Ao's arrival, immediately rose from the tatami, and bowed respectfully. "Senior Ao, I'm sorry for the trouble. I came without warning!"

"Did you need something?"

Ao lifted his sister off the tatami and asked.

He gently stroked her smooth hair, straightening the two tufts that stuck up.

Shisui nodded.

A trace of hesitation showed on his face.

Seeing this, Ao handed his sister to Lan, then took the gray jacket hanging on the coat rack and draped it over his shoulders. "Want to go for a walk?"

Shisui nodded firmly and followed him.

The two of them went outside.

They walked along the empty street, with hardly anyone around. When they passed the occasional clan member, they exchanged a slight nod in greeting.

They weren't close.

Though Shisui had gained some renown, he wasn't particularly prominent yet.

Compared with the prodigies who'd graduated early during the war, being nine years old wasn't anything special.

Still, the clan's evaluations had recorded his talent in ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and other fields.

He'd performed exceptionally well.

The clan's higher-ups had already taken notice of him.

People were keeping an eye on his every move.

Ao soon sensed two shadows behind them.

Their attention stayed fixed on Shisui.

Clan guards?

These were troubled times.

After Shimura Danzō failed to claim the Hokage Position, he would surely vent his resentment on the Uchiha.

The clan had taken precautions, too.

First, they'd restricted their movements to avoid unnecessary actions that might draw Root's attention.

Then they'd arranged for elite clan members to secretly protect important members of the family.

Their manpower was limited, so only clan members with outstanding talent or powerful connections made the protection list.

Ordinary clan members like Uchiha Ao had no chance of being included.

After training in the Spirit Transformation Technique,

his soul had grown vastly stronger. His spiritual perception was already on par with that of an elite Chunin.

After noticing the tails,

Ao didn't show any sign that he'd sensed them. He continued chatting with Shisui, now and then.

Shisui told him a lot about his training, as well as his thoughts on the clan's current situation.

He was deeply worried about the clan's predicament.

He wanted to ease the tension between the clan and the village.

"Senior Ao, we'll be neighbors soon."

"When I finish a mission, could I come train with you?"

After reminiscing for a while, Shisui finally couldn't hold back and revealed his reason for coming.

There was something mysterious about Ao.

It made Shisui want to find out more.

As far as he could tell, Ao wasn't as simple as he seemed.

"You're moving near our house?"

Ao asked in surprise. Their home was near the far end of Uchiha Street, in a very remote area. The Forest of Death was dangerously close.

Most of the people living nearby were peripheral members of the clan.

Someone of Shisui's standing wouldn't live there.

"You didn't know? The clan's moving soon. Your new home is in the same area as mine..."

Shisui said in surprise.

"Moving..."

Ao's pupils contracted, and he was taken aback.

But he quickly remembered that after Konoha's higher-ups had cracked down on the Uchiha, they'd forced the clan out of the village's central district and relocated them near Kaga Shrine, where Konoha kept them under twenty-four-hour surveillance.

This measure further inflamed the already tense relationship between the village and the clan.

It planted the seeds of the Uchiha's future rebellion.

In fact, one could say that this distrust was what gradually drove the Uchiha Clan down the road to rebellion.

No one wanted to live under constant surveillance, with no privacy and not a shred of trust.

Anyone would go mad.

And that was all the more true of the Uchiha Clan, whose members were sensitive and emotionally fragile.

"Has the village handed down its punishment?"

Ao looked at Shisui and stopped walking, his fingers unconsciously pinching the hem of his jacket.

No wonder Mother said things had been chaotic in the clan lately.

Under these circumstances, none of the clan's doves, hawks, or moderates could stay calm.

His teacher had chosen this moment to leave...

Had he discovered something in advance?

Ao couldn't help thinking about how Lord Orochimaru had spent this time away. Perhaps he'd been plotting his escape route.

Given Orochimaru's snake-like cunning,

he wouldn't have left himself without a backup plan, especially after making an enemy of Danzō.

"Senior, why is the Hokage blaming our clan for the Nine-Tails Incident?"

Shisui's question pulled Ao from his thoughts.

He looked at Shisui's puzzled expression, then realized they'd reached the edge of the village. The entrance to the Forest of Death was just a hundred meters ahead.

The area was silent.

Only two ninja tails trailed them from the rooftops several hundred meters away. They thought they'd hidden themselves well.

Judging from Shisui's expression, though, he'd probably noticed them too.

Going by chakra alone, Shisui, who'd only just graduated, already had as much chakra as a Chunin. With his talent for genjutsu and taijutsu, he'd probably already crossed the threshold into Chunin rank.

Ao didn't answer directly. Instead, he spread his spiritual energy, enveloping Shisui.

"Genjutsu!?"

Shisui's expression didn't change, but he spoke in surprise.

The chakra inside him stirred.

He immediately broke free of the genjutsu.

The world before him cleared, revealing the Forest of Death.

Then Ao's voice sounded in his mind.

"Because the Sharingan controlling the Nine-Tails belonged to our Uchiha Clan. That night, the mark was plain to see in the Nine-Tails' eyes, and most people in the village noticed it."

"We can't deny that, no matter what we say."

The voice conjured by Ao's spiritual energy echoed in Shisui's mind.

"The Fourth Hokage's death, the villagers' sacrifices, and the replacement of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki... Someone had to take responsibility. The Fourth Hokage, the person best suited to shoulder the blame, died on the battlefield."

"The Uchiha... in our current situation, will never have a chance to clear our name..."

"We can only keep moving further into opposition with Konoha."

"I have no interest in any of this."

"I don't want to waste my energy on a meaningless struggle."

Ao's words carried a deep sense of helplessness about the Uchiha's fate.

At best, he had the strength of a Chunin.

There was nothing he could do about the clan's predicament at this point.

Shisui's face turned pale. Ao's words filled him with a profound sense of crisis.

The clan's future looked bleak.

And Ao's detailed analysis made it impossible to dismiss his concerns.

"That can't be... If we cooperate with the village's investigation, find the real culprit, follow the Hokage's orders, and carry out our missions, surely we can earn back their trust..."

Shisui spoke unconsciously, trying to persuade Ao not to be so pessimistic and to keep believing in the clan.

But as soon as the words left his mouth,

Uchiha Ao spoke first:

"The Uchiha's only way out is to leave..."

"Leave the clan. Leave the village. Find a new path for the clan."

His dark eyes held a strange confidence.

Shisui stared at him in surprise.