Reminder

"Shisui, Orochimaru isn't a good person."

"Stay away from him."

Shisui walked ahead with his back to Ao, hurrying along. His gentle voice broke the silence.

It sounded like a friend offering advice.

But aside from graduating in the same class, the two had no connection.

That was what he said now.

It fit the personality he showed to others: gentle and dependable!

The Uchiha Clan had more than two thousand ninja.

And among the Uchiha's two thousand-plus ninja, Uchiha Shisui was widely recognized as the clan's most gifted prodigy.

In a few years, once Shisui was a little older,

he would become the Uchiha's foremost ninja.

Even the clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, needed to consult Shisui on certain matters.

But at present, Shisui was only a nine-year-old child who had just been promoted to Chunin.

He was a few years younger than Kakashi and the others.

Yet he had graduated the same year as Ao.

His talent completely eclipsed Ao's.

Beside Shisui, Ao was an overlooked nobody.

The two occupied opposite extremes of the clan's hierarchy.

Before turning nine, Shisui had already awakened his Sharingan and become the clan's most prized talent.

"You don't need to worry about me! You, the Uchiha's great prodigy, should keep a low profile for a while, or something unpleasant might happen to you."

Ao appreciated the concern and offered a warning.

Orochimaru might look dangerous, but spending time with him was no safer. His experiments could cause irreversible harm to the body.

That was an unavoidable side effect of biological experimentation.

But compared with waiting to die among the Uchiha, Ao would rather become a blade in Orochimaru's hands. At least he could die on the experimental table he liked, instead of having his throat cut in his sleep.

Shisui was a good person, but that was all he was.

"Thank you. I understand..."

Shisui gave Ao a long look, realizing that perhaps he had never truly understood this older clanmate.

Ao came from a simple family and had very little talent.

The clan paid him little attention.

There had never been much reason to keep an eye on him.

Shisui had only noticed him after they took the same graduation exam and he paid some attention to his fellow students. That was when he learned there was someone like Ao.

He hadn't thought much of him at first.

It was only when he heard that Uchiha Ao was getting close to Orochimaru that Ao caught his attention.

And he had reported it to the clan's leaders.

The Uchiha tolerated nothing less than absolute loyalty.

Uchiha Ao's actions had crossed that line.

He would face the clan's harshest interrogation.

Shisui led Ao to Kaga Shrine, which the clan had established outside the village, not far from the Valley of the End.

From the highest point of the shrine, one could still see Uchiha Madara's likeness.

The sound of running water drifted from nearby.

The shrine was utterly quiet.

Several seemingly ordinary clan members were cleaning the shrine.

An old man in a dark kimono knelt before the memorial tablets of the Uchiha ancestors. Holding a wooden mallet, he gently tapped the wooden fish before him.

The wooden fish sounded in a steady rhythm.

The old man murmured a faint chant.

Shisui didn't stop there. He led Ao through the main hall and into a secret room in the rear courtyard.

Several important Uchiha leaders were already seated in place. A tea set sat on the tables before them, and the tea in the cups had gone cold.

"Clan head, I've brought Ao."

Shisui answered respectfully.

After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he had been assigned to work at the shrine as one of its attendants.

He trained alongside the clan members who practiced meditation there.

After a year of meditation at the shrine, he would be assigned to the Police Force and given an important position.

"So you're Uchiha Ao?"

The man in the central seat raised his head and fixed Ao with a scorching gaze that seemed capable of melting him.

Uchiha Fugaku.

He had a proper square face, with deep furrows beside his mouth as if they'd been carved by a knife. His eyes were deep-set as he carefully studied the changes in Uchiha Ao's expression.

Ao gave a small nod and fearlessly swept his gaze around the secret room.

It had a simple tatami layout.

Seven low tables were arranged inside, with an elderly clan member kneeling before each one.

Uchiha Fugaku was the youngest among them.

He looked to be in his twenties.

"Why did you betray the clan!"

The old man seated to Fugaku's left slapped the table and demanded sternly.

His eyes were faintly pale, and a scar crossed one of his eyes on his deeply wrinkled face.

"Great Elder... When did I ever betray the clan?"

Ao asked in bewilderment, staring straight at Uchiha Setsuna without the slightest trace of guilt.

He knew exactly what the clan members were thinking.

A bunch of stubborn, old-fashioned, and insular old men.

They couldn't accept anything new.

The Uchiha Clan seemed peaceful toward outsiders and didn't impose many restrictions, but in reality, it was even more closed-off and conservative than the Hyuga Clan.

They rarely interacted with the village.

That was all because of these old men's restrictions.

The Uchiha seldom took part in the village's affairs, keeping themselves confined to the small domain of the Police Force.

They seemed to protect the village's peace and stability, but the force was really a cage.

The Hyuga Clan, by contrast, was conservative at its core, and its Main Family never appeared in public, but its branch family maintained close ties with the village.

The village assigned all kinds of missions to branch-family members, earning the goodwill of the villagers.

That was why the Hyuga Clan had a much better reputation in the village than the Uchiha.

"You secretly conspired with Orochimaru. Are you telling me you weren't planning to sell the clan's information to secure your own future?!"

Uchiha Setsuna said sharply.

He was old, but he wasn't blind.

He kept a close watch on every clan member's movements.

He knew that Uchiha Ao had gone out repeatedly to seek out Orochimaru in recent days and had even spent several nights at Orochimaru's residence.

That was why they had ended up here.

Thanks to his immense prestige, even after the failed coup, he had not lost his influence in the clan.

The new clan head he had helped install, Uchiha Fugaku, was still very young and posed no threat to his position.

Within the Uchiha Clan, his word was absolute.

"How could that be?! I approached Orochimaru for the sake of the clan. The village is now blaming the clan from top to bottom, and some clan members resent the clan head. With internal and external troubles on all sides, I can only do everything in my power to find the clan a new way forward."

Ao answered without so much as a blush.

The Uchiha... didn't have many experts at playing political games. Even compared with the few tech nerds from the office in his previous life, they fell short.

They were all simple-minded.

His words were full of holes, but they still caught the attention of several elders.

"Great Elder, let him finish. What if he really did approach Orochimaru for the clan's sake?"

A chubby, round-faced old man tried to ease the tension. His name was Uchiha En, the clan's Fourth Elder and Ao's great-uncle.

"What can Orochimaru do for the Uchiha?"

Uchiha Setsuna's tone softened a little, no longer as aggressive as before.

"Orochimaru can draw some of the attention away from the clan while the village is wary of us."

Ao answered, looking around at everyone with a faint smile.

"I imagine the clan already knows what Orochimaru has been doing. His actions have crossed the village leadership's bottom line. They can't let him continue his research..."

Ao's words made Uchiha Setsuna stiffen slightly.

It was as if Ao had seen right through his thoughts.

"What is he researching?"

Fugaku asked with a frown. He glanced at the elders present and saw that none of them seemed to doubt Uchiha Ao's words.