The Boy Who Slays Dragons Will Eventually Become a Demon

Shisui suddenly realized, tapping his forehead. "Look at my memory, I was just too exhausted to think straight."

He shook his head with a smile and reached out to take the steaming bowl of ramen Uncle Ichiraku handed him. The white mist rising from the porcelain bowl blurred his vision.

Just as Shisui picked up his chopsticks, ready to tuck in, several people bearing the Uchiha Clan crest on their backs pushed aside the door curtain and entered the shop.

Shisui didn't pay them any mind, keeping his head down to continue eating his noodles.

Amidst the swirling steam, he heard footsteps drawing closer until someone asked from right beside him, "Hey! Is this empty seat taken?"

Shisui was about to answer, but his Shadow Clone beat him to it.

The Shadow Clone didn't even lift his eyelids, staring at the soft-boiled egg rolling in Shisui's bowl, and replied lazily, "No."

"Come on over, guys, there's space here," the man called out to his companions.

With the sound of wooden stools scraping, three or four Uchiha clansmen squeezed in to sit down.

Because Shisui was sitting with his back to them and was dressed in plain, casual clothes, these Uchiha clansmen didn't recognize him, though they felt his back looked somewhat familiar.

However, seeing that empty left sleeve, they figured it couldn't possibly be Shisui.

The Uchiha clansmen thought to themselves.

As their ramen was served, the Uchiha clansmen began to talk in low voices.

"To think that a dignified Chunin like me is being ordered to do this kind of work," one Uchiha clansman said, lowering his voice as he poked at the chashu in his bowl with his chopsticks.

"Last time, I was told to go fix an old man's roof, and he turned around and reported us to the Anbu, claiming we were lurking suspiciously around his house!"

"Tell me about it!" The member sitting next to Shisui loosened the Military Police Force armband on his sleeve and sneered. "The day before yesterday, I helped a vegetable vendor push his cart, and the guy didn't even say thank you; he just muttered, 'The Uchiha are up to no good, as expected.' Now the clan insists we do these thankless chores, it's just..."

His words cut off abruptly as he realized this wasn't the place to be saying such things.

The brief silence was broken by the clatter of porcelain bowls. One Uchiha clansman slammed his chopsticks onto the table. "Last week was even more ridiculous! I was helping a tavern owner move barrels, and I accidentally chipped one, so the guy insisted I was sabotaging him on purpose!"

Veins bulged on his neck. "If it weren't for the clan's orders, I would have already..."

The conversation among the men didn't affect Shisui sitting to the side.

He had noticed these problems long ago, but he had always felt powerless to change them.

"Hey, Shisui, what do you think?" the Shadow Clone asked casually from the side.

Shisui was silent for a moment; the steam from the bowl blurred the dark glint surging in his eyes. "The resentment is too deep. The clan head's compromise, the civilians' prejudice, and the high-level officials fanning the flames behind the scenes..."

Shisui stopped talking and buried his head in his noodles. The scalding hot noodles slid down his throat, yet they couldn't dispel the chill in his heart.

The complaints of the Uchiha clansmen beside him gradually blurred, turning into intermittent echoes.

Seeing that he had no intention of continuing the conversation, the Shadow Clone also quieted down, boredly tapping a rhythmic beat against the edge of his bowl with his chopsticks.

The noodle shop was noisy, with rising steam and overlapping conversations weaving together.

Shisui focused on finishing the last bite of his noodles and set down his bowl and chopsticks. Seeing this, the Shadow Clone took out some banknotes and placed them on the table.

As the two stood up, the sound of wooden stools scraping against the floor caught the attention of the clansmen behind them.

When they saw Shisui's face clearly, their pupils contracted sharply, and expressions of shock appeared on their faces.

Shisui nodded slightly, acknowledging them, and then stepped toward the door.

The Shadow Clone hurried to keep up, and as he passed the clansmen, he raised an eyebrow. "Enjoy your meal, let's chat next time."

The Uchiha clansmen looked at each other in dismay. Even after Shisui's figure vanished into the night, an eerie silence still permeated the noodle shop.

The first clansman to react stood up with a jolt, his wooden stool making a harsh sound against the floor. "Was that... Shisui? Why... why didn't he say a word?"

"No wonder his back looked so familiar!" The young man with dreadlocks slapped his thigh, staring blankly at the leftover broth on the table. "But why... his arm..."

The young man's voice trembled, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

The room fell into a deathly silence, with only the sound of Uncle Ichiraku boiling noodles becoming increasingly distinct.

On the other side, Shisui and his Shadow Clone walked along the streets of Konoha.

The moonlight was sliced into fragments by the branches and leaves, scattering across the uneven rooftops and stone paths.

A group of Konoha villagers were gathered together, though it was unclear what they were doing.

Suddenly, a shrill, miserable scream shattered the tranquility of the night.

Shisui and his Shadow Clone joined the crowd.

"You, you degenerate gambler!"

"That was my mother's life-saving money!"

A woman knelt on the ground, clutching at a man's pant leg.

"Hmph, what would a woman like you know?"

"As long as I win this time, we'll have plenty of money!" The man kicked the woman away violently, his leather boot grinding heavily over the fingers she had extended to stop him. "By then, won't paying for your mother's treatment be easy?"

The man turned and left, ignoring his wife wailing on the ground.

The surrounding villagers then cautiously stepped forward to check on the woman's condition.

Shisui saw this and wanted to intervene, but was held back by the Shadow Clone.

Seeing the confusion on Shisui's face, the Shadow Clone explained, "The Konoha Military Police Force is here."

No sooner had he spoken than several figures approached, the crest of the Konoha Military Police Force glinting coldly under the moonlight.

The surrounding villagers hurriedly scattered at the sight.

The leading member of the Uchiha Clan swept his gaze over the sobbing woman on the ground and asked in as gentle a tone as he could muster, "Ma'am, what happened here?"

The woman recoiled in terror, her back slamming hard against the earthen wall behind her, as if the Uchiha clansman before her were some kind of ferocious beast.

She tremblingly hid her blood-stained hands behind her back, her voice thick with tears yet instinctively raised, "N-nothing! I just fell by accident!"

The expression of the leading Uchiha clansman darkened instantly, the muscles at the corner of his mouth twitching as complex emotions churned in the depths of his eyes.

He looked into the woman's eyes, which were filled with fear, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he could not bring himself to say a word.

After a long while, he took a deep breath, trying to keep his tone calm, "Since you are fine, then let us go."

Shisui, hidden in the shadows, took in the entire scene.

"Shisui, has our Uchiha Clan ever committed such acts of abandoning wives and children?" the Shadow Clone asked Shisui, who stood beside him; the two had already followed the crowd away.

Shisui shook his head.

"And yet, we are the ones labeled as the 'Evil Uchiha Clan'."

"Isn't the heart of this man far more evil than ours?"

Shisui remained silent.

"Shisui, it is not just the upper echelons of Konoha that are rotting..."

"What I said before—that you becoming Hokage would solve the current predicament of our Uchiha Clan—that was not wrong."

"But who can guarantee that we won't eventually become the next Third Hokage?"

Shisui continued to remain silent.

"Shisui, you should head back first." The Shadow Clone did not continue to dwell on the subject.

He had only brought this up to Shisui today because he had stumbled upon this incident by chance.

Shisui stared at the Shadow Clone's slightly tensed shoulders and nodded.

"Be careful." Shisui placed his single arm on the Shadow Clone's shoulder, then vanished into the night.

The Shadow Clone watched the direction in which Shisui had disappeared, a cold, grim curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

He followed the trail left by the man.

After turning three alley corners, the Shadow Clone keenly caught the scent of alcohol mixed with the smell of blood.

From deep within the alley ahead came the clattering of dice hitting a porcelain bowl and shouting: "Open! Give it to me, big!" The smell of alcohol mixed with cigarette smoke wafted over; under the dim oil lamp inside, seven or eight men were shouting around a gambling table.

The man was just about to step inside.

The next moment, he felt the world spinning before his eyes.

Immediately after, he saw a headless corpse.

Eh?

I died?

Beside the man's severed head, the figure of the Shadow Clone gradually dissipated.

He hated gamblers more than anything else in his life.