Persuading Shisui

"Capacity?" Hane shook his head. "I merely saw the light! Brother Shisui, the Uchiha and Konoha's upper echelon will inevitably have a battle. It is something that cannot be stopped."

"Yet the outcome can determine the future of the village and the clan. If the village's upper echelon wins, the clan will be utterly annihilated and reduced to experimental tools for our enemies.

If the Uchiha wins, then Konoha will truly inherit the Will of Fire and sprout a new shoot! A shoot unlike any in this world!

After absorbing enough of the old nourishment, this new shoot will surely grow into a towering tree that supports the heavens. That is the true Will of Fire!

And we are that new shoot, a shoot that carries the entire world in our hearts!"

Hane looked at the somewhat flustered Shisui with incomparably firm eyes.

"Brother Shisui, what are you still hesitating for? Don't you want to see such a towering tree grow? Are you going to turn into fertilizer alongside that old, withered tree? Is this truly the extent of your Will of Fire?"

Hane's three consecutive questions backed Shisui into a corner. He had never imagined that the Will of Fire could be interpreted this way.

"Hane, must it really be done this way?" Shisui suddenly asked painfully.

"Yes! It must be done this way!" Hane answered without hesitation.

Yet after hearing Hane's answer, Shisui suddenly seemed to deflate, as though all the strength had been drained from his body.

"Hane, can I really see the new tree grow?"

Looking at the lowered head of Shisui, Hane could not help but relax. It seemed he was close to succeeding.

"Of course. As long as you can break free from that narrow-minded way of thinking, you will discover that new shoots have always been growing. They were merely destroyed time and time again. The White Fang was one. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was another!"

"Yet laughably, the Third Hokage and the Konoha Elder Council, who spoke so much of the Will of Fire, were the true culprits behind the destruction of those shoots.

"On this already withered tree, all I saw were new shoots being destroyed generation after generation. The ones burning were never the old generation, but children with dreams in their hearts!"

"What hope could such a Will of Fire possibly bring?"

At that moment, Uchiha Retsuyō, Itachi, and Shisui all stared blankly at Hane as he sighed toward the sky.

"Hane! Can you break through this darkness?" Shisui asked blankly.

"I am willing to try. What about you, Brother Shisui?" Hane asked lightly.

"I want to try too, but right now, I want even more to test Hane's strength!" Shisui looked at Hane with resolute eyes, as if he had made up his mind.

"Of course. I also want to see how strong you are now, Brother Shisui. Let's go and settle this quickly, or my father will come looking for me soon. Six-year-olds have no rights. I can't come home late!" Hane said helplessly.

Shisui smiled. "Let's go to the training ground where Itachi secretly trains. It's far enough from the village that we can fight without holding back."

"Alright!" Hane answered firmly.

Uchiha Retsuyō and Itachi instantly became somewhat excited.

"Finally, we can see the young clan leader fight again. He has to teach that smug guy a harsh lesson."

"Is Big Brother going to duel Brother Shisui?" A gleam flashed through Itachi's eyes.

The three then prepared to set off, but Hane suddenly stopped them.

"Wait. Running there is too slow. Let's fly."

The trio's excitement abruptly froze, and they all turned to look at Hane.

Hane smiled faintly and theatrically stretched out his right hand. "Sword, come!"

In an instant, a longsword glowing with azure light flew rapidly over from afar. The azure sword slowly descended into Hane's outstretched palm.

Hane grabbed the Wind Sword. Under their puzzled gazes, he performed a beautiful sword flourish, then formed a simple hand seal. Instantly, the Wind Sword flew out of his hand, transformed into an enormous sword, and hovered before the three of them.

Hane lightly leaped onto the sword and beckoned to the three stunned onlookers. "Get on! What are you standing around for?"

Shisui uncertainly jumped onto the massive sword, which was large enough to carry four people. He could not make sense of it no matter how much he thought about it.

It was clearly an ordinary longsword, so why had it suddenly become so enormous? Even weapons made from Chakra Metal could not do that!

He reached out and touched the blade. Everything felt so real, cold to the touch. The moment his fingers touched it, it was as though a cool breeze curled around them.

Shisui suddenly imagined Hane attacking an enemy with this sword. The enemy might think they only had to block an ordinary longsword, only for it to suddenly become enormous. What kind of sight would that be?

Shisui's heart trembled. He gave Hane, who wore a faint smile, an inexplicable look. He realized he was finding it harder and harder to understand this clansman who was six years younger than him.

Under the shocked, astonished, and puzzled gazes of the three, Hane raised two fingers slightly and poured spiritual power into the Wind Sword. A gentle breeze instantly brushed past them.

"We're taking off. Make sure you all stand steady," Hane kindly reminded them.

The three immediately felt their bodies sway slightly, followed by a powerful force pressing them backward. The enormous sword shot into the sky at incredible speed.

It moved so fast that in the blink of an eye, Konoha's buildings below rapidly shrank, and the entire layout of Konoha appeared in the three's eyes.

This was their first time standing so high in the sky and looking down over all of Konoha. Even the full moon in the sky seemed several times larger.

"Hane, what kind of Ninjutsu is this?" Shisui muttered in disbelief.

"Haha, Brother Shisui, this? It's a secret!" Hane answered with a soft laugh.

Shisui also knew he had been too presumptuous. A ninja's techniques were not something that could be casually revealed to others. He quietly looked down over the village and did not ask about Hane's secret again.

Yet he was no longer as confident about this match as he had been earlier.

Itachi stared blankly at his brother. Suddenly, he realized that he knew far too little about him.

There was no need to even mention Uchiha Retsuyō. At that moment, his eyes were filled with nothing but admiration. Only now did he understand just how badly he had held back during his duel with the young clan leader.

If the young clan leader had used this technique, flown into the sky, and then used his ability to control swords, there would have been nothing he could do. He knew that the young clan leader possessed more than a hundred swords like this!

Against such a situation, any ninja without a flying Ninjutsu would be helpless. And at the speed this sword flew, even escaping would be difficult.

In only a few minutes, the group felt as though Hane had arrived at the forest where Itachi usually trained in secret after merely blinking. Normally, even for a Jonin moving at top speed, traveling from the center of Konoha to this uninhabited forest in less than twenty minutes would have been nothing more than a fool's dream.

At that moment, they were all silent for a long time.

"Alright, Brother Shisui, let's begin! The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home."

Shisui gave a wry smile. Hane was clearly extremely confident in his own strength, but Shisui was no ordinary ninja. He would not think his own strength lacking just because Hane had shown a flying Ninjutsu.

Shisui gave Hane a serious look. "Hane, let me see just how strong you are! Only then can I have faith in the future you spoke of!"

"Brother Shisui! I won't disappoint you. I am prepared to go all out as well!" Hane said with a smile.

In the end, strength was what mattered when dealing with the Uchiha. Hane thought to himself calmly.