Fucheng opened the treasure chest he had obtained from Root.
As he looked at the little booklet in his hands, Uchiha Fucheng felt he might have to reassess just how ruthless Shimura Danzō was.
As far as he remembered, Uchiha Kagami and Danzō had gotten along fairly well ever since they became teammates.
Whether it was the Second Hokage, Tobirama, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, or Senju successors like Tsunade and Nawaki, they had all praised Uchiha Kagami.
Uchiha Kagami was one of the rare, exceptionally good men of the "gentlemanly" sort.
During the First Shinobi World War, Uchiha Kagami had saved Shimura Danzō's life several times in moments of crisis.
By rights, a bond forged by saving each other's lives should have earned Danzō's gratitude and kindness.
So why had Uchiha Kagami's death ended up as a mysterious, unresolved case?
And why had everyone been so secretive about Kagami's death, too afraid to mention it?
After all, Uchiha Kagami's grandson, Shisui Uchiha, was more talented than Itachi. He was also the unlucky fellow whose eye Shimura Danzō had dug out.
Fucheng strongly suspected that Uchiha Kagami had died at Danzō's hands.
The eye hidden behind Shimura Danzō's bandages now could very well be Uchiha Kagami's right eye.
"People really shouldn't be too kind!"
Fucheng regarded this copy of Uchiha Kagami's Ninjutsu Notes with an amused smile.
He thought of Shisui, whose eye had also been taken.
The kind-hearted grandfather and grandson were "exactly alike," and their fates had been very similar, too.
This personal notebook of Uchiha Kagami's had come from the mysterious treasure chest that White Zetsu had previously stolen from Root.
They had also found two Uchiha secret techniques: Izanagi and Izanami.
This was a remarkable discovery.
The clan's secret vault had, for some reason, already had these two self-sacrificial techniques destroyed.
Aside from clan elders like Uchiha Setsuna, who might still know these techniques, few of the younger generation of Uchiha ninja had probably even heard of them.
Both techniques required the permanent sacrifice of a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, making them forbidden techniques of the sacrificial type. Fucheng didn't want them widely circulated, either.
After all, these two techniques were products of infighting within the Uchiha clan.
What he wanted more was a united Uchiha clan.
A faint sob came from the courtyard.
Along with it came the quiet consolations of Jiangyi, Hezi, and the others.
Fucheng walked into the courtyard and saw that the one quietly sobbing was Yakushi Nonō, who was usually so well-behaved.
The little girl was crying so hard her face was streaked with tears.
"What happened?" Uchiha Fucheng asked.
Yakushi Nonō wiped her tears and choked out, "Ever since you announced the care plan for war orphans, I've been helping out. Today, I went to buy grain like I always do, but they raised the price fourfold and gave me far less than I paid for.
"I bought a hundred and fifty pounds of grain, but they shorted me by more than forty pounds. When I said I didn't want it, they wouldn't let me leave.
"I couldn't win an argument with them, so I tried to run, but they chased after me and yelled at me for ages. A lot of villagers who didn't know what was going on thought I was doing something wrong."
Fucheng understood. Someone had been deliberately playing up talk of war lately, hoping to hoard food supplies and make a fortune.
But suddenly raising the price fourfold, shortchanging customers, and forcing them to buy was downright despicable.
It was obvious they were bullying Yakushi Nonō because she was just a little girl.
"Don't cry. Watch me get revenge for you." Uchiha Fucheng patted Nonō's little head affectionately and comforted her gently.
Mikoto and the others thought Fucheng was going to scold the culprits, or send ninja from the Police Force to cause them trouble.
They hadn't expected him to scoop up Nonō and stroll out.
At the southwest end of Konoha Commercial Street stood a grain shop facing the street, with a courtyard behind it.
Three burly men with brutish faces were making crude jokes about the Konoha women passing by the shop.
A skinny man had only wanted to come in and ask about the prices, but the people inside had immediately cursed him out.
"Grain prices change every day. Are you buying or not? If not, get lost. Stop asking questions every damn day."
The skinny man didn't dare talk back. He simply pointed at the sacks of rice.
"I-I'm buying. I just wanted to ask whether it'd be cheaper if I bought a whole sack."
"Cheaper?" A bearded shop clerk sneered.
"Whether you buy one pound or a whole cartload, it's four hundred ryō per pound."
"F-four hundred ryō?" The man buying grain took a frightened step back.
"That expensive?!"
At those words, the shop owner, a burly man with a face full of flesh, immediately grew angry.
"What do you mean, expensive? Our Shimura Grain and Oil has charged this price for years."
The owner looked impatient. "Sometimes you need to look for the problem in yourself, okay? Have your wages gone up in all these years? Have you been working hard?"
The poor man buying grain shuddered at the shout.
He wanted to turn and leave, but before he could, the three men grabbed him and hauled him back.
"You said you were buying just now, and now you want to run? If you don't buy a sack, you won't be leaving this street!"
Just as the skinny man was about to be forced into buying the grain, Uchiha Fucheng arrived at the shop entrance.
The four big characters on the sign—Shimura Grain and Oil—made Uchiha Fucheng chuckle.
"No wonder they're so arrogant. They've got backing."
Fucheng was afraid the others would recognize Yakushi Nonō, so he told her to watch from a distance.
He walked into the shop by himself.
Fucheng: "Hey, man, how much is this rice per pound?"
The owner was basking in the joy of forcing someone to buy. He glanced at Fucheng as he came in, his tone turning a little cautious.
"Four hundred ryō per pound."
Fucheng looked astonished and grinned. "What the hell? Is the rice made of gold, or is the sack made of gold?"
The owner's smile vanished. His fleshy face twisted into a fierce scowl. "Look around. Where can you find grain these days? We haul all this grain a long way from the Land of Fields. You think it's expensive? Hmph, I think it's expensive, too."
Fucheng was delighted to hear the man play along.
He gave the owner a hundred out of a hundred for that performance.
"Good. Come on, give me a sack."
By now, Mikoto, Hezi, Jiangyi, and Nonō had mingled with the crowd along the street, watching Fucheng mess with the grain shop owner.
The owner couldn't figure out what this well-dressed man was up to, so he casually hauled over a sack. "Sure. How about this big one?"
Fucheng grinned and nodded repeatedly. "Sure, I'll take this one. This rice of yours—is it old stock?"
The owner eyed Fucheng up and down, one eye half-closed. "This is the biggest grain shop in Konoha. Would I sell you old stock?"
Fucheng was even happier with that answer.
He pressed on. "I'm asking you: is this rice old stock?"
The owner immediately took offense.
He told his two men to release the little man who was still struggling, then came over to surround Uchiha Fucheng. "Are you fucking looking for trouble? I'm asking if you want it!"
Fucheng smiled and nodded. "If it's good rice, of course I want it. But if it's old rice that's been sitting around for years, what do you say we do?"
As he spoke, he walked over to the chair where the owner had been sitting and settled into it, legs spread wide.
The owner could tell Fucheng had a commanding presence, and he began to feel uneasy.
He just wanted the man to buy the grain and leave as quickly as possible.
"If it's not good rice, I'll eat it raw myself. Happy now? One hundred and fifty pounds. Sixty thousand ryō."
Fucheng pointed at the sack. "That sack's too small to hold a hundred and fifty pounds. There's something wrong with your scale."
The owner flew into a rage. "Are you fucking looking for trouble? Do you want it or not? Do you?!"
Fucheng kicked the grain scale away.
"Your scale's got a magnet in it.
"And you said that if the rice is old, you'll swallow it raw yourself."
The owner was now so furious he could barely contain himself. "You kicked my scale, you bastard?"
Watching him jump around in a rage, Uchiha Fucheng covered his face with one hand and threw his head back, laughing delightedly.
That pose was even more authentic than Edo Madara's laugh.
Before you continue