Do You Love Your Sister-in-Law or Gold?

Uchiha Kazuhiko was delighted when he saw the triggered worldline mission, but couldn't help grumbling a moment later:

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So no matter what I do, you still think I'm going to die by Itachi's blade, huh?

Is this mission looking down on me, Fat Tiger?!

I refuse to believe that, with my astonishing perseverance and all the wisdom I've gained in this life, I can't change fate and save the Uchiha Clan!

I'll have Obito and Danzo come at the same time. I'll avoid their sharpest attacks?

I choose option three. I want to see if the blade in Uchiha Itachi's hand is sharp enough—whether it's harder than my unyielding, upright spirit!

"Heh heh~" Itachi's chuunibyou declaration and the worldline mission made Kazuhiko snort with laughter.

"Want to make a bet? I bet you'll come back and obediently pick up your diagnosis."

Itachi turned around, shot Kazuhiko a sidelong glance, then walked away, leaving behind the back of a proud head.

An eighteen-year-old Genin. If you weren't the medical ninja recommended by Shisui, you wouldn't even be qualified to see me. Hmph!

"Looks like you don't dare to bet against me."

Itachi still didn't say a word and soon disappeared through the office doorway.

Under normal circumstances, goading worked wonders on the Uchiha.

Everyone knew Uchiha ninjas were competitive. Even when they couldn't win with their fists, they'd never admit defeat verbally—Obito, for example.

If they could beat you, well, then, "Polish my shoes for me" (in a French accent). Sasuke was the prime example.

Someone like Itachi, who didn't react at all to provocation, was a rarity among the Uchiha.

"What a character. I'm starting to like you."

In the clinic's main hall, Itachi immediately spotted Uchiha Shisui waiting for him.

To Itachi, Shisui was his older brother, someone he could trust completely.

That was precisely why Itachi had come here to get a baffling psychological assessment.

He was still angry when he thought about Kazuhiko using a genjutsu to take on Shisui's appearance.

In Itachi's eyes, that shoddy imitation was nothing less than sacrilege against his brother.

Itachi walked over to Shisui, who was watching the people in the hall, and sat down beside him without a word. Together, they stared blankly at the steady stream of people passing through the clinic.

It might have looked unbearably dull to anyone else, but Itachi inexplicably enjoyed it.

He didn't know what Shisui was watching, but he liked being together with him. He could let down his guard, forget the troubles of the outside world, and set aside the pressure of being a genius.

Rather than lean back, Itachi braced both hands on the edge of his seat and kicked his little feet, relaxing completely as he let his mind go blank.

Shisui glanced at him and smiled.

"Looks like the psychological assessment worked pretty well."

Thinking of Uchiha Kazuhiko, Itachi pursed his lips without replying. After all, Shisui had recommended the doctor, so he couldn't bad-mouth him to his face. Instead, he changed the subject.

"There's not much to look at in the crowd, is there?"

Shisui looked toward the flow of people in the hall. "Well, I've been thinking about something."

"What?"

"Konoha Hospital has better medical care and more medical ninjas, but the Uchiha always crowd into the Clan Clinic. They'd rather wait in long lines than go to Hospital Headquarters for treatment."

"Why is that?"

Itachi kept kicking his little feet. He had no interest in thinking about it.

Shisui had taken rare leave from Anbu, and every moment they spent together was precious.

So he'd leave the thinking to Shisui.

"Because our Uchiha Clan is sick."

"The Uchiha Clan is sick?" Itachi's little face showed his confusion.

Shisui smiled. "Interesting way to put it, isn't it?"

He pointed toward the people waiting in line and continued:

"I asked them. They said things like, 'I came here because I trust my own people more,' 'I hate being talked about behind my back,' and 'Uchiha ninjas get sent to the back of the line at Hospital Headquarters.' Their reasons all seem different, but the truth is—our Uchiha Clan is sick."

"Brother Kazuhiko said we have to look past appearances to see the truth. The reason behind this is that both the Uchiha and all of Konoha are sick."

Brother Kazuhiko?

Itachi frowned slightly. What kind of person was he, to have Shisui call him brother?

And what kind of bizarre theory was this? The Uchiha and Konoha weren't people. How could they get sick?

Shisui didn't notice Itachi's dislike. Immersed in the ideas Kazuhiko had shared with him, he continued at length.

"We were born in Konoha and taught to love Konoha. But Konoha treats us like an internal enemy that might rebel at any moment. We're isolated, monitored, and discriminated against."

"Our Uchiha Clan has been branded as 'dangerous.' For various reasons, our people have gradually developed the fixed mindset that 'the whole world is against us.' That's made them distrust outsiders completely, leaving them trapped in the small circle of the Uchiha."

"It's this fractured sense of identity, this feeling of being abandoned, and this paranoid way of thinking that have made every one of us in the Uchiha sick. To put it in the terms of Brother Kazuhiko's diagnosis—"

Shisui looked at Itachi, who had stopped kicking his feet. "We all have psychological problems, and we all need a psychologist. That's why Brother Kazuhiko founded psychological therapy, and why I insisted on bringing you here."

Itachi's little mouth opened, but suddenly he didn't know what to say.

Putting himself in their shoes, he realized that this was exactly the problem he'd been struggling with.

Should he love Konoha or the Uchiha? Or should he love his older brother, his little brother? Itachi was starting to lose track.

He wanted the peace and stability of Konoha to last forever.

But his clansmen were constantly at odds with Konoha. The hardliners even shouted slogans like "seize power by force" and "support a coup" from time to time.

On one side was the peaceful, happy life Sasuke had in Konoha. On the other were his parents and clansmen, preparing to seize power. That was the source of Itachi and Shisui's pain. They were Konoha's people, but they were also Uchiha.

So when the Third Hokage gave Itachi the forced choice, "Do you love Konoha or the Uchiha?", Itachi's condition worsened. His mind shut down completely, and he chose Konoha.

To use an imperfect analogy:

Do you love your sister-in-law or gold?

Because he hadn't read much, Itachi chose gold. In the end, he lost the person to keep the gold, then lost both the person and the gold.

The idea Uchiha Kazuhiko wanted to instill in them was simple: to make them love a Konoha that included the Uchiha. That was also the goal Shisui had always been striving toward.

Kazuhiko suspected that this very fixation was why, after witnessing a comrade's death, Shisui awakened Kotoamatsukami, which could rewrite another person's will. He had hoped to control Uchiha Fugaku and achieve the ultimate goal of a Konoha that included the Uchiha.

Unfortunately, Danzo ambushed him and took his eye. His mission had failed before it even began.

But even if Shisui had successfully controlled Fugaku, war between the Uchiha and Konoha would still have been unavoidable.

Senju Tobirama had already deeply embedded the idea that "the Uchiha are Hamas" in Konoha.

So even if Shisui had used Kotoamatsukami to prevent the Uchiha's "bloodless revolution," Konoha wouldn't have stood by and allowed a Hamas member with the Mangekyo Sharingan to continue leading the Uchiha Clan.

In fact, after witnessing the terrifying power of Kotoamatsukami, the Uchiha would only have been destroyed sooner.

The Konoha High Command, with their belief that "the Uchiha are Hamas" ingrained in their minds, would only fear that Kotoamatsukami might be used on them. They'd become even more anxious and wary.

So it wasn't enough to set Shisui and Itachi straight. He also had to "set straight" the entire Konoha High Command!

"Then how do we get them to go to Hospital Headquarters?"

Itachi folded his arms and looked toward the crowd, beginning to think. "Or, how do we cure the Uchiha's illness?"

"That's a complicated question. But Brother Kazuhiko said, 'Stand tall, unite, demand equality, and uphold justice.'"

"Stand tall? What does that mean?"

"The Uchiha's Sharingan gives us the confidence to stand tall. It's this power that keeps our people from being bullied and prevents Konoha from being caught up in war..."