Itachi's Choice

The stone steps of Naka Shrine were long.

Shisui stood below the first step, looking up at that familiar back. Uchiha Itachi sat at the top of the steps outside the shrine's main hall. There was no sign of the clan council's radicals beside him, only the memorial tablets of generations of Uchiha arranged silently inside the hall behind him.

He had been here alone for three hours.

Shisui did not use the Body Flicker Technique. He walked up the stone path one step at a time. His footsteps echoed through the shrine's empty expanse, each one striking the air with the clarity of some kind of countdown.

When he reached the seventh step, Itachi spoke.

"You came to find me. That means things have reached the point where there is no need to keep it from me anymore."

He did not turn around. His voice was as calm as if he were commenting on the night's pleasant moonlight. Shisui stopped three steps behind him and looked at the back of this junior who was several years younger than him—lean, straight, like a blade that had yet to leave its sheath.

"You were waiting for me."

It was not a question. Shisui took the classified document from his robes. The edges of the scroll had become slightly frayed from being gripped over and over. He held it out beside Itachi's shoulder.

"Danzo has obtained your Anbu file and the full records of Root's psychological assessment of you. Before the coup breaks out, he intends to use these materials to convince the Third Hokage and the Advisory Council to classify the entire Uchiha as a threat that must be purged. The document is in my hands. Read it yourself."

Itachi accepted the document.

He opened it.

His fingers stopped when he turned to one particular page.

Three seconds.

Shisui saw faint creases form along the edge of the paper beneath Itachi's fingertips—it was Danzo's psychological assessment report on Uchiha Itachi. In the conclusion field, the ink stated with glaring clarity: "This individual is extremely dangerous and cannot be trusted. Recommend prioritizing his disposal after the Uchiha incident."

Itachi closed the document.

"...The Third Hokage knows about this assessment."

His voice was calmer than Shisui had expected. It was not a question. Shisui fell silent for a moment, then said, "When Danzo submitted the assessment report, he did not reject it. Not a single word."

Itachi returned the document to Shisui. His movements were steady, but he handed it back half a beat slower than he had taken it. Then he turned around to face Shisui, the emotion in his black eyes restrained with almost harsh severity.

"You should have died in District Seven. The man Danzo sent was my senior in the Anbu. I've seen his mission records—he never fails. How did you survive?"

Shisui had expected him to ask.

"Because someone made me remember something I had said myself, from the deepest part of my consciousness." Shisui kept his voice low, but every word landed solidly. "'The Third Hokage... he knows.' That was the truth I confirmed to myself three times before Danzo made his move. Danzo's attack woke me up instead."

He looked into Itachi's eyes and took half a step forward.

"Itachi, I came to you not because I trust the Third Hokage."

"It is because I trust you."

Itachi's pupils contracted for an instant. The change was exceedingly brief, but Shisui caught it. Itachi did not ask who that "companion" was, though he had already seen that name in the Anbu files. He chose not to ask.

"The radicals at the clan council have already lost control." Shisui pressed on. "How much longer can Clan Head Fugaku keep them down? Three days? Five days? Or tomorrow morning?"

Itachi did not answer directly. He turned toward the side hall and walked over. Shisui followed behind him. The two passed through the main hall's side corridor and stopped before the Uchiha crest deep inside the side hall. The fan-shaped emblem was set into the stone wall, the candlelight casting dark red shadows across it.

"They won't listen to me."

Itachi spoke. His voice was soft, but every word carried a compressed chill.

"In their eyes, I am an Anbu lapdog, a nail the village drove into the clan grounds. Shisui, from the day you and I chose to serve the village, we have only been half Uchiha in the eyes of our clansmen."

He paused. The candle flame flickered.

"...But those children should not die."

The final sentence was so quiet it was nearly inaudible. In that instant, Shisui saw the crack beneath Itachi's hard shell—not hesitation, not weakness, but a resolve utterly mismatched with his age, one that had long since prepared for the worst. Those children. He meant Sasuke. Perhaps not only Sasuke.

"I need your intelligence within the clan." Shisui went straight to the point. "Those radicals won't let me near them, but they won't be wary of another Uchiha."

Itachi fell silent.

For a long time.

Long enough that Shisui thought he would refuse. Then Itachi raised his eyes. There was no unnecessary emotion in his black pupils, and his voice was as steady as if he were delivering Anbu mission intelligence.

"Three days from now, Danzo will attend the Uchiha Clan Council in his capacity as Hokage aide. The agenda was set two months ago, but not everyone knows what it means."

He paused for a beat.

"Whenever he leaves Root for more than two hours, the chakra supply to the barrier formula on the deepest level of the archives will be cut off—because he himself is the formula's anchor."

Shisui's heart gave a heavy thud.

This was information only the upper echelons of the Anbu and a very few at the heart of the village's intelligence apparatus could possibly know. Itachi did not say, "I'm joining you." He did not say, "I'll help you." He used a piece of intelligence to test the waters—it was both assistance and a test. He was watching to see whether Shisui could understand its value. Whether he could seize the opportunity.

This was Itachi's way of trusting someone. Give first. Then see whether the other person was worthy.

"Two hours before the clan council begins in three days." Shisui immediately locked onto the time window. "That will be our window to act."

Itachi neither nodded nor said, "All right." He turned and walked out through the side door of the hall, with Shisui following behind. One after the other, they crossed the stone path outside the shrine and stopped beneath a stone lantern outside Naka Shrine. The candle within the lantern swayed in the night wind, making their shadows on the flagstones ripple as though underwater.

"Shisui."

Itachi's voice suddenly changed. Colder. Sharper. Like a blade finally drawn an inch from its sheath.

"I can help you. But I must tell you in advance—if your preemptive strike fails, I will not wait for the outcome to reach the children of the clan."

He looked at Shisui. The calm in those eyes was no longer merely beyond his years—it was an almost inhuman, absolute rationality that had placed even himself on the list of costs.

"I will stop the coup in my own way."

Shisui did not answer at once. He stared into Itachi's eyes and found the answer in the depths of those black pupils.

"...When you say 'your own way,' does that mean even you are not sure whether you can come back alive?"

Itachi did not deny it.

The silence itself was an answer.

Shisui took a deep breath. The night wind outside Naka Shrine filled his lungs, carrying the cold scent of moss on old flagstones. He thought of the ruins of District Seven, the truth Lin Feng had laid bare, the pain of space tearing apart during Crow Reverse Summoning—and, even earlier, the sentence he had repeatedly confirmed to himself when he closed his eyes before Danzo: The Third Hokage... he knows.

He opened his eyes and held out his hand.

"I accept. Three days from now, two hours before the clan council begins, we act."

Itachi looked at the hand he had extended.

He paused for a long time.

Then he clasped it. His palm was colder than the night wind, but his grip was steady.

"Itachi, before I leave, let me ask you one last thing." Shisui did not release his hand. "If, three days from now, what stands before you is not evidence of Danzo's crimes, but a resolution from the entire village demanding that the Uchiha pay the price—will you still stand in this shrine, before the clan crest, and say, 'Those children should not die'?"

Itachi did not answer the question.

He withdrew his hand, returned the classified document to Shisui, and turned toward the depths of the shrine. His back grew increasingly blurred in the candlelight and shadows of the clan crest. The stone lantern's light could not catch up to him, and darkness poured from the hall and wrapped around him.

His final words came from the darkness.

"Three days from now, I will appear at the clan council. Whether you can obtain what you want from the archives—that is your business."

The footsteps stopped.

"But if you fail, I will not wait for a second time."

His voice sank into the darkness like a stone into water. Then the footsteps vanished completely. Shisui stood alone beneath the stone lantern, the classified document in his palm still retaining the warmth of Itachi's fingertips. He lowered his gaze to his own hand, then clenched it.

The return trip.

As he passed through the outskirts of the clan grounds, he activated three Crow surveillance points and confirmed that none of Danzo's hidden agents were following him. Through the crows' eyes, there was only the night wind passing through the treetops, patrol teams making their routine rounds along the southern wall, and several children still awake, leaning by their windows to look at the stars.

Safe.

But that sentence kept echoing in his mind—"I will not wait for a second time." It was not a warning. It was Itachi already standing at the edge of a cliff, looking back at him and saying: I will wait for you for three days.

Shisui quickened his pace. The outline of the safe house appeared at the edge of the forest, faint light glowing from its window—Lin Feng was still inside. He had to bring back the time window for the clan council and the intelligence on the archives' barrier defenses immediately. Within the three-day countdown, he had to advance two things at once: revise their operation plan with Lin Feng to maximize the efficiency of the time window, and establish a mechanism to monitor Itachi's condition, preventing sudden changes over the next three days from causing Itachi to walk down the path to ruin he had chosen for himself before anyone could react.

Because when Itachi said he would not wait, he truly would not wait.

When he pushed open the safe house door, his mind was still calculating: three days. Subtract the time needed to prepare ninja tools and intelligence codes, subtract the time needed to scout the route, subtract the contingency reserve for unexpected situations—they had to produce the final operation plan within twelve hours.

The door closed behind him.

Outside the window, the torches in the direction of the Uchiha Clan Grounds were still burning.