Uchiha Clan District.
The young man in a high-collared combat robe slowly approached a house near the Naka River.
He stepped into the courtyard and looked up.
Figures crowded the yard. Dozens of people with Blazing War Fans emblazoned on their backs stood silently there. At the front was a slightly stooped old man, with a short-haired boy with a childish face standing beside him.
"Shisui, you're home."
Uchiha Mo called softly, and the crowd instantly turned their heads in unison.
Shisui immediately rushed over with a delighted expression.
"Big brother!"
Uchiha Setsuna's body also jolted. He waved a hand and said,
"It's all right. Everyone, disperse."
The others turned away in confusion, but after hesitating briefly, they gradually left the courtyard.
After the crowd dispersed, Setsuna strode over to Mo. He first looked him over from head to toe, and only after seeing no injuries on him did he ask,
"How did it go?"
"I killed Danzō," Mo said indifferently.
"?!"
Uchiha Setsuna wanted to loudly ask whether he had heard wrong, but his instincts stopped him. Setsuna first warily looked around before leaning close to Mo and asking,
"You really killed him? Then why hasn't the village reacted at all?"
"He's completely dead. Even the body was burned to ash. No one knows yet, so don't ask, Great Elder."
"..."
"I understand."
Hearing that, Setsuna did not ask any more questions. He nodded knowingly and said nothing further.
Mo glanced at the serious little old man, then raised a hand and grabbed Shisui by the shoulder.
"Time to go home."
"Ah... okay!"
Shisui nodded belatedly. As he followed Uchiha Mo away, he turned around and waved at Setsuna.
"Goodbye, Great Elder!"
Setsuna also smiled and waved. Only after the two vanished around the corner did he put away his smile.
"Big brother, my Sharingan evolved into the Two-Tomoe Sharingan." Shisui grinned and raised his head. His large eyes turned blood-red, and two black tomoe slowly spun within the crimson.
"..."
"When?"
"When you left the Naka River to find Dan... that person."
Aftermath Fades
In the forty-sixth year of Hidden Leaf, two people vanished. The first was the Third Kazekage, known as the strongest Kazekage. The second was Shimura Danzō, known as the Darkness of the Ninja World!
The former's disappearance had indirectly triggered the Third Shinobi World War, while Danzō's disappearance in Hidden Leaf also caused no small stir.
The Third Hokage of Hidden Leaf and the two remaining elder advisors had all come from the Hokage Guard Team alongside Danzō, and they shared deep friendships.
Moreover, even setting those factors aside, Danzō himself held considerable status and played an indispensable role in present-day Hidden Leaf.
Thus, when Danzō had been missing for nearly a month, the higher-ups of Hidden Leaf could no longer hold back.
Root underwent a thorough investigation, and what had happened inside the Root Base that day was gradually revealed to the higher-ups.
Then they discovered a chilling fact: in the days following Danzō's disappearance, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seals on Root ninja had gradually vanished...
Did that mean...
Yet whether it was the airtight patrols on the day of his disappearance or the sensory coverage later encompassing the entire Root Base, neither had detected anyone entering or leaving. Danzō seemed to have evaporated from the world, silently disappearing within the Root Base.
This inevitably directed the higher-ups' attention toward Root itself. Though, in theory, ninja marked with the Curse Mark could never betray them, after eliminating every other possibility, this seemed to be the only one left...
Afterward, the Root ninja Dog, the last person to see Danzō, was uncovered. He was the only one who knew exactly what had happened in the office that day.
But for some reason, Dog refused to talk no matter what they did. Tiger, who knew part of the situation, was the same. Even though the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal had already failed, they remained tight-lipped.
Left with no choice, Hiruzen Sarutobi had the Intelligence Division intervene under the forceful demands of the two advisors. Yet this intelligence, which they believed could not possibly be wrong, only made the entire matter even more baffling.
From Danzō's final appearance until the moment his disappearance was discovered, the sensory barrier around him had never ceased operating. There was also not the slightest clue regarding the person who had first attacked him. He truly seemed to have vanished from the world.
Furthermore, the sole remaining clue pushed the three of them into an even deeper silence...
Thus, after a meeting between master and disciple, the matter of Shimura Danzō was inexplicably dropped without resolution. Only one more force searching for Danzō had appeared in the Ninja World...
None of this affected Uchiha Mo in the slightest. Though his earlier conflict with Danzō being exposed had drawn some attention to him during the initial investigation, that attention shifted away after Root's situation became clear.
In terms of intelligence-gathering ability at this point in time, his abilities were comparable to Nagato's. So long as he did not actively reveal his Invisibility, no one could figure out how Danzō had died.
This was not a gap in intelligence, but something fundamentally determined by the limits of their understanding.
The person most likely to know the killer was Orochimaru, but Orochimaru was already struggling just to protect himself, much less pin something like this on Uchiha Mo.
If Orochimaru dared to say, "Uchiha Mo silently infiltrated Root under its tight defenses, made Danzō vanish from the world, then left without a sound,"
Orochimaru was certain that Hiruzen Sarutobi would start swinging a club after hearing it and purge his own disciple.
Even Orochimaru suspected whether this person had really been Uchiha Mo, or an enemy Danzō had made in the Ninja World.
Besides, if Uchiha Mo truly had acted, then some of the things in Orochimaru's laboratory must have ended up in his hands. Those were truly fatal matters...
Mo and Shisui's daily lives returned to their usual peace.
After breakfast, they trained in Taijutsu. At noon, they rested to recover their bodies. In the afternoon, they practiced ninjutsu.
Mo had almost nothing left to improve in other areas and could only slowly strengthen his fundamental attributes through steady effort. Shisui, however, began growing rapidly under his training.
His Body Flicker Technique became faster and faster, his swordsmanship sharper and sharper, while his reserves of ninjutsu and Genjutsu also increased rapidly.
He had gradually begun to show traces of the Body Flicker Shisui who would one day shake the Ninja World.
Thus summer passed, winter came, and spring once more drove away winter's chill.
Summer, the forty-seventh year of Hidden Leaf.
A year had passed. Both brothers' birthdays were in the first half of the year. Mo had turned eleven, while Shisui had grown from a five-year-old child into a six-year-old child.
Naka River.
"Phantom Body Flicker Technique!"
Uchiha Shisui shouted softly. He brought his hands together in a seal, while two tomoe slowly spun within his large eye sockets.
The next moment, countless phantoms split away from Shisui's body. Those phantoms continuously twitched, eventually forming one Shisui after another across the open ground.
"Big brother! Here I come!"
Voices came from every direction. Mo's black eyes shifted as he constantly watched the many Shisuis attacking from all sides.
Whoosh!
A sound of tearing air came from behind him. Mo did not even look back and simply sidestepped.
The next instant, one Shisui's blade struck empty air. Mo immediately reached for his throat, but that Shisui seemed like an illusion. His hand passed directly through the body and grabbed nothing.
At that moment, another Shisui suddenly swung his blade at Mo's palm from the side.
Mo's eyes shifted. With a twist of his wrist, he drew a kunai.
Clang—!
The short blade struck the kunai, scattering sparks. Yet Mo did not even look at it. He suddenly raised his other hand and fiercely grabbed toward a Shisui on the other side.
Mo's movement came without warning. He had not even turned his head to look at this Shisui. Combined with the close distance and sudden attack, Shisui had no time to react.
Then...
Bang!
Mo grabbed the bewildered Shisui and lifted him up. The numerous Shisuis around them quickly vanished as well. Looking at the still-dazed Shisui in his hand, the corner of his mouth lifted into an almost imperceptible curve.
"Got you."
Shisui came back to his senses and immediately asked unwillingly,
"Big brother! How did you find me? My Phantom Body Flicker Technique clearly shouldn't have any flaws!"
"Your feints were too obvious... Like attacks from Shadow Clones, they are usually for tactical purposes. So Shadow Clones instinctively conserve their limited stamina and chakra, which leads to problems like insufficient force and weak ninjutsu. Or they make suicidal attacks purely to attack... The difference in combat logic from the original body is the key to seeing through such illusions."
"Your Phantom Body Flicker Technique is the same. While it has no flaws at all, your attacks are too halfhearted. That makes it easy for others to see your intentions and judge where the real you are."
Shisui stared blankly into Mo's clean, calm black eyes and sighed,
"So you could even do that... Big brother, you're too strong. You didn't even use your Sharingan. It looks like I still have a long way to go..."
War Begins
Mo raised a hand and patted Shisui on the head. He did not say much. In his view, understanding one's shortcomings and pursuing strength was not a bad thing.
As for Shisui's praise, Mo felt he still had a long way to go.
A monster like Madara Uchiha, with his abundant battle experience and sharp insight, could see through even Naruto's Shadow Clones at a glance. What Mo had done was nothing in comparison.
(Edo Madara saw through Naruto's Shadow Clones at a glance.)
At that moment, a figure wearing a fox mask and armor suddenly appeared beside Mo with the Body Flicker Technique.
Seeing that attire, Shisui immediately raised his ninja blade vigilantly, while Mo promptly lifted a hand to stop him.
After Danzō's death, Root had now been merged into ANBU.
The man glanced at Uchiha Mo and spoke calmly.
"Uchiha Mo, the village is holding a Jonin meeting. Lord Hokage specifically sent me to notify you. You can head out now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ANBU member vanished again with the Body Flicker Technique.
Shisui looked at Mo in confusion. "Big brother, did something happen?"
Uchiha Mo glanced at Shisui and nodded.
"War... should be coming..."
Judging by the timeline, the Third Shinobi World War was about to fully erupt.
Not long ago, Hidden Cloud had suddenly attacked Hidden Sand. Based on the intelligence currently available, they seemed to have allied with Hidden Stone.
Hidden Cloud's surprise attack force, led by the Third Raikage, had made a wide detour around the southern border of the Land of Earth before suddenly attacking the Land of Wind from the direction of the Land of Birds!
War instantly erupted between the two sides. But Hidden Sand had always been weak, and now that it had lost the Third Kazekage, it was suffering defeat after defeat on the front lines.
According to the original timeline, not long after Hidden Cloud began fighting Hidden Sand, it would join Hidden Stone in declaring war on Hidden Leaf.
At that time, Hidden Cloud's A-B Combination—the future Fourth Raikage and his younger brother, the perfect jinchūriki Killer B—would invade the northeastern border of the Land of Fire. Minato Namikaze's name as the Yellow Flash would also spread throughout the Ninja World beginning with that battle.
"War..."
Shisui looked up at Uchiha Mo, his eyes gleaming as though he were eager to give it a try.
Before you continue