Year 47 of Konoha

Year 47 of Konoha was very important for the village.

That year, the Third Shinobi World War ended with the Land of Fire's victory.

That same year, Third Hiruzen Sarutobi announced his retirement, and Minato Namikaze was successfully elected Fourth Hokage.

Also, Fugaku Uchiha and Minato Namikaze's wife both became pregnant that year. With more in common to talk about, the two men grew increasingly close.

Unlike in the original story, the Uchiha Clan joined Minato Namikaze's supporters a full year earlier.

[Thanks to the host's advice, the Uchiha Clan successfully improved its relationship with the Hokage Faction. System reward: one copy of Konoha's Scroll of Sealing]

[Scroll of Sealing: A record of the various forbidden techniques developed by Second Tobirama Senju]

A year earlier, at Shisui Uchiha's suggestion, the Uchiha Clan had used Obito's relationship with Minato Namikaze to get a foot in the door with Minato, providing him with substantial funding and votes to help him take office.

Although this had no effect on the outcome of Minato's election as Fourth Hokage, it had opened up a new path for the Uchiha Clan.

As a book of forbidden techniques developed by Tobirama Senju, the Scroll of Sealing recorded many powerful ninjutsu. It would be a considerable boon to Shisui, too.

Recently, though, one question had been troubling Shisui: without Obito, who would Uchiha Madara choose as his successor?

"Going by the timeline, next year is when Obito controls the Nine-Tails and wreaks havoc in Konoha."

"But so far, Obito Uchiha is still the same hanger-on who follows Rin Nohara around all day, and he only has a Two-Tomoe Sharingan. If I send him to Uchiha Madara to train now, will it already be too late?"

Whenever Shisui saw how hopeless Obito could be, he wanted to drag him near Kannabi Bridge and drop a boulder on him.

Obito: "???"

Speak of the devil. Shisui Uchiha was walking along when he ran into Obito, Kakashi, and Rin Nohara coming toward him.

"Hello, Big Brother Shisui!"

As soon as he spotted Shisui Uchiha, Obito shouted out to him. Fourteen-year-old Obito greeted eight-year-old Shisui with the deference of a junior, drawing curious glances from the Konoha villagers nearby.

"Okay, don't do that in front of other people. It's embarrassing." Shisui Uchiha pretended he didn't know Obito as he quietly reminded him.

"Hello, Shisui."

Kakashi and Rin, walking behind Obito, also bowed to Shisui with complete sincerity, making this life's Shisui feel rather awkward.

The reason the trio showed Shisui Uchiha such respect went back to the Battle of Kannabi Bridge.

A few days after they returned to the village, Obito sought Shisui out, insisting that he train him so he could grow stronger faster and protect Kakashi and Rin Nohara.

Since Obito already had Minato Namikaze as his Hokage teacher, Shisui had refused at first.

In the end, though, Shisui couldn't withstand Obito's shameless habit of showing up at his house every day. After getting Minato Namikaze's approval, he became Obito's big brother.

As for Kakashi and Rin Nohara, Shisui Uchiha had saved their lives. And after Kakashi lost his left eye, Shisui had obtained a Two-Tomoe Sharingan from Fugaku Uchiha and given it to him.

At the time, Fugaku Uchiha was eager to strengthen his ties with Minato Namikaze. Since a Two-Tomoe Sharingan wasn't as precious as a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Fugaku had made the decision despite opposition from his clan.

Shisui Uchiha had his own reasons for doing this.

One consideration was to earn Minato Namikaze's gratitude. More importantly, Shisui had discovered that his Sharingan could not only suppress Obito's Two-Tomoe Sharingan but also partially control it, forcibly shutting Obito's eye.

Shisui Uchiha had looked through the clan's records, but there had been no such case in the history of the Uchiha Clan.

That meant Shisui could—and only Shisui could—help Kakashi shut off the Sharingan transplanted into his left eye.

Of the three disciples of Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, two were now dependent on Shisui, while Rin Nohara felt nothing but gratitude toward him.

What a debt of gratitude that was.

It meant that as long as Minato Namikaze remained in power and alive, this debt would endure, shielding Shisui Uchiha from most of the overt and covert attacks aimed at him.

"Big Brother Shisui, let's go get ramen together! Ichiraku Ramen in the eastern part of the village is the best."

As he spoke, Obito grabbed Shisui and tried to pull him along.

"Fine, fine. I'll go with you."

At this point, it was hard to say whether Obito would ever control the Nine-Tails, let alone awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.

In his eight years in the ninja world, Shisui had eaten at Ichiraku Ramen before, but it tasted different every time.

"Kakashi, what are your plans from here?" Shisui asked, taking a bite of the boiled daikon in his bowl.

Now that their teacher had become Hokage, Kakashi and the others naturally held a higher standing in the village.

"Ever since our teacher became Hokage, he hasn't had much time to train us. But he suggested that we keep going on missions and focus on improving our own strength."

"Also, Shisui, you can just call me by my name from now on."

Kakashi and the others might not have understood Minato Namikaze's intentions, but Shisui could guess some of them.

Although Third Hiruzen Sarutobi had announced his retirement, he had stepped down without losing his influence. The senior officials from his time as Hokage still occupied important positions throughout the village.

If the Uchiha Clan hadn't temporarily pulled two Jonin with Three-Tomoe Sharingan from other duties to help, Minato Namikaze wouldn't even have had enough people for his Hokage guard.

In the face of supreme power, even fathers and sons fought over it—let alone a teacher and his former pupil's students.

Minato Namikaze desperately needed Kakashi and the others to grow quickly and help shoulder his burdens.

"Big Brother Shisui, why don't you join our team and go on missions with us? Then I could learn from you even better."

"That's right, Shisui. It'd be wonderful if you could go on missions with us."

Obito and Rin Nohara both urged Shisui to join their team. Kakashi alone said nothing. Since he would later become Sixth, even at this age he could already guess what his teacher was thinking.

"Unfortunately, you caught me at a bad time. At the clan meeting two days ago, clan leader Fugaku assigned me to train with the Konoha Military Police Force."

After the successful move to support Minato Namikaze, Fugaku Uchiha had realized that Shisui Uchiha was not only far stronger than his peers but also had a keen political instinct.

He had assigned Shisui Uchiha to train with the Konoha Military Police Force in the hope that Shisui would take on more responsibility for the clan.