In the End, It Was All Because He Hadn't Read Enough

Bang!

The cup fell off the table and hit the floor. Hayato came to his senses and looked at Shisui.

A powerful wave of chakra erupted from Shisui. It carried the characteristic coldness and ferocity of the Uchiha.

He'd lost control.

Hayato immediately released his genjutsu. At first, Shisui had been in control and refused to let him dispel it. Now, he'd already sunk into the illusion.

And—

Hayato rose and headed for the door. As expected, the chakra had already drawn several powerful members of the clan.

Fugaku, who'd been at his own dojo, was the first to arrive. When he saw Hayato, he seemed to understand what had happened.

"Clan Head, Shisui needs to know some things too. I've seen much more than you have. It all began with Shisui."

Hayato looked at Fugaku and spoke expressionlessly.

"Began?"

Fugaku's pupils contracted. After a moment, he came back to himself. "Can you handle it?"

"Don't worry, Clan Head. Just make sure no one disturbs us." Hayato nodded.

At that, Fugaku turned around. He needed to hold back the clan members who were on their way.

Hayato turned his back and went inside, closing the door again to shut out every gaze.

Fugaku glanced back at the door, then raised a hand to stop the clan members who had come running over. "Go back. Nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure?" Uchiha Yashiro furrowed his brows. He could sense that the chakra was unusual and had a vague suspicion about what was happening.

"Don't worry. It's fine."

Fugaku's expression remained calm. Seeing this, the few clan elders could only tell the clan members who arrived afterward to leave.

Inside the room, Hayato sat down across from Shisui and quietly waited for him to come around.

"Hayato, none of this is real, right?" Shisui asked, his voice edged with a plea.

"That depends on how you look at it. If things follow the path laid out, then it's real." Hayato spoke softly, then poured another cup of water and pushed it in front of Shisui.

"L aid out?"

So that meant...

At the thought, Shisui raised his head and looked at Hayato. A little light gradually returned to his eyes.

"I showed you where these scenes came from. I've seen a great many things." Hayato spoke softly. He hadn't shown Shisui only the Night of the Massacre.

He'd also mixed in some of the things Shisui would do after awakening his Mangekyo in the future. To keep the vision from feeling false, he'd only shown him certain specific moments.

That included what Shisui told Uchiha Itachi at the Naka River after his eye was taken, as well as who had truly carried out the killings on the Night of the Massacre.

It seemed to have worked.

"I'm a sinner against the Uchiha Clan!" Shisui clutched his head with both hands, gripping his hair tightly. The Mangekyo in his eyes spun wildly.

"Idiot!"

Hayato shouted at him.

"Hayato?" Shisui looked up at him, confused about why he'd called him that.

"Let the past die as yesterday; let what comes next be born today." Hayato looked at Shisui's bewildered face. "Whatever happens in the future, start over from today."

"This is only the future you saw. None of it has happened yet, and you're already sitting here feeling sorry for yourself. Could you try reading a little more?"

Shisui's face flushed with embarrassment. He hadn't really understood the first sentence Hayato had just said, though the explanation afterward was clear enough.

He suddenly realized his education hadn't been very good.

Shisui immediately pressed his forehead to the floor and said solemnly, "Hayato, please teach me!"

"Get up. I'm not fucking dead yet." Hayato rolled his eyes, speechless at Shisui's posture.

Shisui raised his head, unable to believe what he was seeing. It was the first time he'd seen Hayato this irritable. He quickly sat up straight, like a student ready for class.

Hayato sat cross-legged and regarded Shisui with a sharp gaze, as if assessing him.

Shisui quickly composed himself. Though a thoughtful look still lingered in his eyes, he stared straight at Hayato.

Good—

It seemed the things Hayato had occasionally said lately, along with the illusion he'd just shown him, had shaken Shisui to some degree. In particular, Shisui had seen a lot from Hayato's conduct at the Hokage Office that night.

A boy in his early teens, upholding the Will of Fire, while carrying the bloodline of the Uchiha, a clan cursed by its own power.

Some of Shisui's actions in the original story were hard to understand. In the end, it was all because he hadn't read enough.

Still, unlike Itachi in the original timeline, Shisui could still be saved.

"During Konoha's fifty-three years since its founding, do you know why the Second Hokage was always wary of our clan?" Hayato's gaze settled on Shisui as he asked slowly.

"Because... the ancestor, Uchiha Madara, left the village?" Shisui replied uncertainly.

"Ha. Naive."

Hayato glanced at him. "It was because of the Nine-Tails."

"The Nine-Tails?" Shisui froze, then realized what he meant.

"Exactly. There have only been two known cases of the Nine-Tails being controlled. The first was when Uchiha Madara controlled it and fought the First Hokage at the Valley of the End. The most recent was the Night of the Nine-Tails two years ago."

"The Night of the Nine-Tails. I assume you know what happened to Konoha that night?"

"Yeah." Shisui nodded. That night, the Fourth Hokage died, and many elite Chunin and Jonin had also perished.

After that night, the Uchiha had found themselves in a position where all of Konoha seemed to shun them.

"The Mangekyo's ability to control Tailed Beasts is what people fear most about our clan. That was why the Second Hokage had our clan concentrated here and gave us responsibility for Konoha's Military Police Force."

Shisui opened his mouth, wanting to argue.

"Shut up. Let me finish." Hayato cut him off.

"The Second Hokage had always held a grudge against the Uchiha—or, more accurately, against our ancestor, Uchiha Madara. After the battle at the Valley of the End, that grudge reached its peak."

"The First Hokage died a few years later, and his sister-in-law, Uzumaki Mito, had to become the Jinchūriki who kept the Nine-Tails under control."

"If you cared to look through the records, you'd see that everything the Second Hokage did after taking office followed a clear pattern."

Hayato continued slowly, while Shisui listened like a child who had yet to understand anything.

"Establishing the Military Police Force looked like it gave the Uchiha a prestigious position, but that position was a double-edged sword. You've seen it yourself—the Uchiha Clan has already become separated from the village."

"We're isolated, with power but no one who understands us. We try to maintain order, yet people resent us for it."

"But that's also because of the way our clan behaved when enforcing the law..." Shisui lowered his head and spoke quietly.

"Ha. I won't deny that's true." Hayato tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "But this is an unsolvable scheme, a trap with no good outcome."

"What are the duties of the Military Police Force?"