Several days passed, and Uchiha Ao still hadn't triggered another main quest from the system.
At noon that day, Uchiha Ao went to train by the river outside the clan grounds, as usual.
Sister Izumi had planned to come with him, but she had to leave halfway through for something.
I wonder how Shisui's getting on. Uchiha Ao thought as he trained with a little help from his Shadow Clone.
It wasn't just that Shisui hadn't come looking for him. There hadn't been so much as a peep from the clan lately, either.
The cicadas fell silent in the sweltering air. The kunai in Uchiha Ao's hand struck the tree trunk dead on, sending wood chips and dust fluttering to the ground.
His Shadow Clone tirelessly repeated the same shuriken drills while he stared absently at the dead leaves floating on the river.
With his help and Shisui's strength, Shisui should have already won over at least some of the clan members.
Once Shisui became clan head, they absolutely had to lock that brat Itachi up.
Just then, Uchiha Ao sensed a familiar chakra nearby.
Shisui?
Unsure, Uchiha Ao focused on the chakra again. It really was Shisui, but the chakra's fluctuations suggested he wasn't in good shape.
To be safe, Uchiha Ao decided to send his Shadow Clone ahead to scout.
The Shadow Clone raced across the water, leaving a broken silver trail of ripples behind.
As it rounded the bend in the river, a faint smell of blood and something scorched hit it.
In the clearing ahead, Uchiha Shisui's left arm was gone, and he looked utterly defeated.
The Shadow Clone's pupils contracted sharply. It hurried over to Shisui.
Shisui sensed someone approaching, and chakra surged around him. But when he saw that it was Ao, his tense body abruptly relaxed.
"Ao-kun, you're here." Shisui's face was as pale as paper. He managed a smile, but it looked more like a grimace. His bloodied lips twitched upward, while his eyes remained hollow.
"Shisui, how did you end up this badly hurt?" Uchiha Ao asked, staring at his empty left sleeve.
Shisui struggled to swallow. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and spread across his collar in a dark stain. "I did what you told me to. I realized that my own strength wasn't enough, so I thought I'd discuss a way to save the clan with Itachi..."
"But I trusted Itachi too much. I thought he was like me—that even though he loved the village, deep down, the clan mattered most."
His eyes dimmed as he spoke.
Hearing Shisui's explanation, Uchiha Ao couldn't help twitching his mouth.
He'd overestimated Shisui. He'd thought that with Shisui's strength, he could quickly rally a group of people behind him.
He hadn't expected Shisui to go to Itachi after all.
Sigh.
Uchiha Ao couldn't help rubbing his forehead.
Shisui, Shisui. You're really letting me down.
Shisui had no idea what Uchiha Ao was thinking. He looked at Ao and shakily felt around his eyes—the Mangekyō Sharingan glimmering with a crimson light.
"Ao-kun, am I completely useless?"
Uchiha Ao gave a dry laugh.
But instead of putting Shisui down, he tried to reassure him.
"It's okay. Itachi betrayed your trust. We still have a chance."
Shisui only shook his head at the reassurance, his fingertip gently brushing his eye socket. "Ao-kun, I've already failed. I've let down everyone who believed in me."
Uchiha Ao had a bad feeling about this.
Sure enough, Shisui's next words left him stunned.
Shisui struggled to swallow. His blood-flecked lips moved. "Ao-kun, my eyes... I can only entrust them to you." As he spoke, he formed a Chakra Scalpel in his right hand, preparing to cut out his own eyes.
What the hell.
Uchiha Ao hurried to stop him. This was no time for him to die.
Dying would be easy for Shisui, but it would leave Ao under a lot more pressure.
This careless move could tip them off. The Night of the Uchiha Massacre might even happen early.
"Don't be ridiculous, Shisui!" Uchiha Ao braced his knee against Shisui's shoulder and caught the wrist holding the Chakra Scalpel.
"Ao, why are you stopping me?" Uchiha Shisui coughed up a mouthful of black blood. The light in his Mangekyō Sharingan flickered. "I'm useless now. If I leave my eyes here, they'll only become prizes for them to fight over."
He struggled to push Ao away, but he was too weak from blood loss. "Itachi will definitely tell the Konoha High Command. Danzo won't let me get away with it."
Until now, Shisui had always used the harmony between the clan and the village to fool himself, forcing himself not to consider any other possibility.
But after years of working under Danzo, Shisui knew exactly what kind of man he was.
"Shisui, I need to tell you two things."
"First: I don't need your Mangekyō. I can awaken my own."
Uchiha Ao clamped down on Shisui's trembling wrist, his face brimming with confidence.
For a moment, Shisui looked dazed. His memories flashed back to when the two of them had first met.
"Shisui, listen to me. Three years east of the river, three years west! You may have smacked my butt today, but in three years, I'll make you see me in a whole new light!" Four-year-old Uchiha Ao was pinned over a wooden post, his butt sticking up, yet he still stubbornly kept mouthing off.
Back then, twelve-year-old Shisui had put away his shuriken and crouched down to pat Ao's bottom. "Then I'll wait until Ao-kun grows up."
The memory overlapped with the present, and a smile tugged at Shisui's bloodied lips.
"What are you smiling at? Listen to the rest." Uchiha Ao was getting annoyed just looking at Shisui's smile.
"Second: your death won't solve anything. It'll only make things harder."
Shisui was still smiling, but he broke into a violent coughing fit. Blood trickled through his fingers and dripped onto the Uchiha Clan Crest, staining the flame an even deeper red.
He looked at Ao's tense profile, his voice as faint as a dead leaf drifting on the river. "But I'm already useless. I've lost an arm..."
"Enough!" Uchiha Ao cut him off, suddenly furious.
"The Shisui I know is the one other villages call Body Flicker Shisui. So what if you've lost an arm? What does the Uchiha Clan rely on? Our Sharingan!"
Uchiha Ao's roar shook the reeds along the riverbank. He seized Shisui by the collar and pulled him close, until their noses nearly touched.
Shisui listened in silence, then finally let the Chakra Scalpel in his hand vanish.
Seeing that Shisui no longer intended to gouge out his eyes, Uchiha Ao let out a long breath.
Damn, I guess I've got some Talk-no-Jutsu potential after all.
Shisui looked at the boy's determined eyes and finally lowered his hand. "I understand, Ao-kun. I'll keep going with you, even in this broken body." He tried to push himself up, but staggered from the blood loss.
Before you continue