Shisui suddenly understood and slapped his forehead. "Look at me—I've worked myself silly and completely forgotten."
He laughed and shook his head, then 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 and prepared to dig in, several people with the Uchiha Clan Crest on their clothes lifted the curtain and entered the ramen shop.
Shisui paid them no mind and continued eating with his head lowered.
Through the swirling steam, he heard footsteps drawing closer, until someone beside him asked, "Hey! Is anyone sitting here?"
Shisui was about to answer, but his Shadow Clone beat him to it.
Without even raising an eyelid, the Shadow Clone stared at the soft-boiled egg bobbing in Shisui's bowl and drawled, "No."
"Come on over, guys. There's room here," the man called to his companions.
As the wooden stools scraped across the floor, three or four Uchiha crowded into the seats.
Shisui had his back to them, and he was only wearing ordinary clothes.
The Uchiha didn't recognize him, though they thought his silhouette looked somewhat familiar.
But with that empty left sleeve, it couldn't possibly be Lord Shisui.
The Uchiha thought to themselves.
As their ramen was served, they began talking in low voices.
"Imagine that—I'm a respectable Chunin, and they've got me doing this sort of thing." One Uchiha lowered his voice and prodded the chashu in his bowl with his chopsticks.
"Last time, they sent me to fix an old man's roof. Then he turned around and reported us to the Anbu, claiming we'd been skulking around his house!"
"Tell me about it!" The member sitting beside Shisui tugged at the Military Police Force armband around his collar and gave a cold laugh. "The day before yesterday, I helped a vegetable vendor push his cart, and he didn't even thank me. He just muttered, 'The Uchiha are obviously up to no good.' Now the clan insists we do all this thankless work. It's just..."
He broke off, realizing this wasn't the place to say such things.
The brief silence was broken by the clatter of porcelain. One Uchiha slammed his chopsticks onto the table. "Last week was even worse! I helped a bar owner move some kegs, and I accidentally chipped one. The guy insisted I'd damaged it on purpose!"
The veins in his neck bulged. "If it weren't for the clan's orders, I'd have..."
Their conversation didn't bother Shisui.
He'd noticed these problems long ago, but there had never been anything he could do about them.
"Hey, Shisui, what do you think?" the Shadow Clone asked casually from beside him.
Shisui fell silent for a moment. Steam from the bowl blurred the dark thoughts churning in his eyes. "There's too much resentment built up. The clan leader's compromises, the civilians' prejudice, and the higher-ups fanning the flames behind the scenes..."
Shisui said nothing more and simply bent his head over his ramen. The scalding noodles slid down his throat, but did nothing to dispel the chill in his heart.
The Uchiha's complaints beside him gradually faded, becoming a broken, distant echo.
Seeing he had no intention of continuing the conversation, the Shadow Clone fell quiet too, idly tapping out a faint rhythm against the rim of its bowl with its chopsticks.
The ramen shop was bustling, the rising steam mingling with the constant hum of conversation.
Shisui focused on finishing the last bite of his ramen, then set down his bowl and chopsticks. His Shadow Clone took out a banknote and placed it on the table.
As the two stood, their stools scraped against the floor, drawing the attention of the Uchiha behind them.
When they saw Shisui's face, their pupils contracted and shock spread across their expressions.
Shisui gave a slight nod in greeting, then headed for the door.
The Shadow Clone hurried after him. As it passed the Uchiha, it raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you're enjoying your meal. We'll talk next time."
The Uchiha exchanged bewildered looks. Even after Shisui vanished into the night, an eerie silence lingered in the ramen shop.
The first to react shot to his feet, his stool screeching across the floor. "Was that Lord Shisui just now?! Why... why didn't he say a word?"
"No wonder his silhouette looked so familiar!" The young man with dreadlocks slapped his thigh and stared blankly at the leftover broth on the table. "But why... his arm..."
The young man with dreadlocks spoke with a tremor in his voice, his Adam's apple bobbing.
The shop fell deathly silent. The only sound was Uncle Ichiraku's ramen bubbling ever more clearly.
Meanwhile, Shisui and his Shadow Clone walked along the streets of Konoha.
Moonlight, broken by the leaves, fell across the rooftops and stone paths at varying heights.
A group of Konoha villagers were gathered together, though it wasn't clear what they were doing.
Suddenly, a piercing scream shattered the night's Serenity.
Shisui and his Shadow Clone squeezed into the crowd.
"You—you rotten gambler!"
"That was my mother's life-saving money!"
A woman knelt on the ground, clutching at a man's trouser leg.
"Hmph. What would a woman like you know?"
"If I win this time, we'll have plenty of money!" The man kicked her away, his leather boot grinding down hard on the fingers she'd stretched out to stop him. "Then paying for your mother's treatment will be easy!"
The man turned and walked away, ignoring his wife as she lay on the ground, wailing.
Only then did the villagers cautiously approach to check on her.
Seeing this, Shisui moved to intervene, but the Shadow Clone stopped him.
When Shisui looked at it in confusion, the Shadow Clone explained, "The Military Police Force is here."
As soon as it spoke, several figures approached. The Konoha Military Police Force's insignia gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
The villagers nearby quickly scattered.
The Uchiha at the front looked down at the sobbing woman and asked as gently as he could, "Ma'am, what happened here?"
The woman recoiled in terror, her back crashing against the earthen wall behind her, as if the Uchiha before her were some kind of monster.
She hid her bloodied hand behind her, trembling. Her voice was choked with tears, yet rose instinctively in volume. "N-nothing! I just fell by accident!"
The Uchiha's face immediately darkened. The muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched, and complicated emotions churned in his eyes.
He looked at the terror in the woman's eyes. His throat bobbed, but he couldn't say a word.
At last, he took a deep breath and forced his voice to remain calm. "Since nothing happened, let's go."
Shisui watched the whole scene from the shadows.
"Shisui, has anyone in our Uchiha Clan ever abandoned his wife and mother like that?" the Shadow Clone asked. The two had already left with the crowd.
Shisui shook his head.
"And yet we're the ones branded the evil Uchiha Clan."
"Isn't this man more evil than we are?"
Shisui remained silent.
"Shisui, it isn't just the higher-ups rotting Konoha from within..."
"What I said before—that making you Hokage could solve our clan's current predicament—wasn't wrong."
"But who can guarantee we won't eventually become the next Third?"
Shisui remained silent.
"Shisui, go back first," the Shadow Clone said, no longer pressing the issue.
It had only brought it up because it had happened to come across the incident today.
Shisui watched the Shadow Clone's shoulders tense slightly and nodded.
"Be careful." Shisui rested his one remaining hand on the Shadow Clone's shoulder, then vanished into the night.
The Shadow Clone watched the direction Shisui had disappeared in, a cold curve lifting the corner of its mouth.
It followed the man's trail.
After turning through three alleyways, the Shadow Clone caught the sharp mix of alcohol and blood.
From deep within the alley ahead came the clatter of dice against a porcelain bowl and shouts of abuse. "Roll! Give me a big one!" The stench of alcohol and smoke billowed toward it. Beneath a dim oil lamp, seven or eight people crowded around a gambling table, yelling.
The man was just about to go inside.
The next moment, he felt the world spinning before his eyes.
Then he saw a headless corpse.
Huh?
Am I dead?
Beside the man's fallen head, the Shadow Clone's figure gradually faded.
The thing it hated most in life was gamblers.
Before you continue