The genius ninja influence assessment did not cover only Shisui.
There were other names in the summary.
The most jarring among them was Itachi.
Uchiha Itachi.
Precocious.
Highly perceptive.
Possesses judgment beyond his age.
Attention must be paid to his views on village order and his clan's stance.
When Itachi read those lines, his expression did not visibly change.
But Gen noticed that his breathing stopped for a moment.
Before a child had truly made any choices, he had already been written into an assessment.
And the assessment's focus was not how to nurture him.
It was which way his views would lean.
Fugaku's fingers slowly tightened.
He finally realized that this assessment went further back and ran deeper than underage observation.
Underage observation was merely the surface-level result.
The genius ninja influence assessment was one of the sources that bound talent to risk.
Inside the Hokage Building, Danzo was still explaining.
"Every ninja village keeps an eye on its geniuses. Once a genius goes astray, the harm they cause far exceeds that of an ordinary ninja."
The statement still made sense.
And it was still dangerous.
What Gen guarded against most was precisely this kind of reasonable statement.
Because it made sense, it was all the easier to use it to conceal the other half of the truth.
Fugaku asked, "Why is talent directly tied to clan risk only in the Uchiha entries?"
"The Uchiha's circumstances are unique," Danzo said coldly.
Fugaku pressed on. "So unique that even minors must be included in the preliminary risk materials for the Relocation Order?"
Danzo did not answer immediately.
This was the part he found hardest to explain.
Assessing geniuses was acceptable.
Assessing mission risks was acceptable.
But placing members of the younger generation like Shisui and Itachi in the preliminary risk