Although the turmoil in the clan compound had temporarily subsided, his mother, Uchiha An, was smiling again, and their home had regained its former tidiness and warmth. With the clan's doubled compensation and overdue payments, they were even a little better off than before.
Yet the taut string in Shinji Uchiha's heart had not fully relaxed.
He stood in their small courtyard, watching his mother carefully wipe down his father's recovered Short Blade.
Her movements were gentle, her fingertips tracing every faint pattern on the blade. Her gaze was tender and intent, as though she were touching the lingering warmth of her late husband through the cold steel.
Sunlight filtered through the persimmon tree in the courtyard, scattering patches of light over her and easing some of her haggardness. But it could not dispel the worry deep in Shinji's heart.
Soon, I'll have to head out again, this time to the battlefield in the Land of Wind. The situation there is even more chaotic and dangerous than on the Kirigakure front. Sunagakure's Puppet Technique is almost impossible to guard against, and there's no telling when I'll return.
Shinji calmly analyzed the situation in his mind. Those people in the clan are intimidated by the clan head's authority and my strength, so they won't dare cause trouble for now. But given enough time, others with their eyes on what we have-or the remnants of the Eighth Elder's faction-might take advantage of my absence to harass Mother through subtler, more despicable means. The clan head has too much on his plate to look after everything.
He needed a stronger safeguard, something that would keep his mother safe within the clan even when he was thousands of miles away.
Relying solely on the authority he had just established and the clan head's verbal