When the peripheral codename "Crow Feather" appeared, Shisui did not speak immediately.
He simply stared at that line in the record.
Assess whether Body Flicker Shisui can be approached alone.
The sentence was short.
Yet it felt like a hand reaching out of the old files and pressing against his eyes.
The Uchiha had already thwarted the eye theft before it could happen.
Shisui still had his eyes.
But only now did they discover that the old operation targeting Shisui might have begun much earlier.
It had not been a spur-of-the-moment decision by Danzo.
Nor had it been a sudden judgment after a particular mission.
Someone had once used the old-shell system to assess in advance whether Shisui could be isolated.
Shisui said quietly, "They didn't just want my eyes."
Gen nodded.
"They wanted to find out first whether they could make you face a choice alone."
That was the most dangerous part.
Shisui was powerful.
He had a good reputation.
And he was willing to bear the strain of maintaining a balance between the village and his clan.
If they could make him accept contact alone, judge alone, and sacrifice himself alone, then whether his eyes were stolen or he destroyed himself, it could all be recorded as his personal choice.
The old-shell system did more than conceal orders.
It also created isolation.
Itachi took the records concerning Shisui and checked them line by line.
The codename "Crow Feather" had appeared in three vague advisories.
The first called for assessing Shisui's mental state after missions.
The second called for confirming whether Shisui still kept his distance from the Uchiha's inner circle.
The third recommended monitoring how often he spoke privately with Itachi.
When Itachi reached the third, his fingers visibly stopped.
He suddenly realized that he, too, might have