The wind by the ruins was cold.
After Shisui landed before the two of them, his first glance was not at Uchiha Gen.
It was at Itachi.
Itachi still held the Fire Release Rescue Record, his face lacking the bewilderment a child his age should have shown.
He was thinking.
And thinking far too deeply.
That was precisely what worried Shisui most.
"Itachi, go back to the Clan District first."
Shisui spoke.
His tone was mild, but carried a rare insistence.
Itachi looked up. "Why?"
"This isn't a place where you should stay any longer."
Itachi glanced at the ruins in the distance.
"Because people died here?"
Shisui fell silent for a moment.
"Because there are some things you shouldn't be thinking through alone yet."
"Then who will think them through for me?"
Itachi asked very softly.
Shisui's expression stiffened slightly.
Those words sounded less like an objection than a genuine question.
Uchiha Gen stood beside them without immediately interjecting.
He knew Shisui's concern came from good intentions.
Seeing Itachi encounter questions of war, death, power, and sacrifice too early, Shisui instinctively wanted to pull him away.
That was not wrong.
But simply pulling him away without giving him answers would not make those questions disappear.
They would only keep growing inside Itachi.
Shisui said quietly, "You're still too young. You don't need to carry all this yet."
Itachi looked at him.
"But I've already seen it."
Silence settled over the edge of the ruins.
Those words were harder to deal with than any argument.
The Nine-Tails' Attack had not spared Itachi the sight of corpses just because he was young.
Nor would the suspicion between the village and the Uchiha leave his name out of it because of his age.
Shisui's fingers tightened slightly.
Only then did Uchiha Gen speak.
"Shisui, I understand that you want to protect him."
Shisui turned to look at him.
"But keeping him away from these questions isn't the same as protecting him."
Shisui frowned slightly. "And letting him keep thinking about them is?"
"No."
Uchiha Gen shook his head.
"Protecting him doesn't mean laying everything before him, or shielding him from everything. It means that once he's already seen something, you don't leave him to process it alone."
Itachi lowered his head and looked at the scroll in his hands.
Shisui did not immediately argue.
Uchiha Gen continued, "Do you think taking him back to the Clan District, keeping him away from the ruins and the records, will stop him from thinking?"
Shisui said gravely, "At least these things won't push him along."
"They will."
Uchiha Gen answered at once.
"He'll think about them on his own. About why the village suspects the Uchiha, why great power brings fear, and who should be sacrificed if conflict can't be avoided."
Shisui's gaze changed.
Uchiha Gen looked at him.
"If no one helps him unpack those questions, he'll find his own answers."
Itachi said nothing.
But his fingers tightened around the edge of the scroll.
Shisui understood.
Because he had once been the same.
After seeing the rift between the village and his clan, he, too, had grown used to burying those questions inside.
Until, in the end, every choice seemed like a burden he alone had to bear.
He did not want Itachi to become like that.
But suddenly, he realized that what he had just tried to do was much like what others had done to him in the past.
Don't look.
Don't ask.
Don't get involved.
Then they had left him alone in that silence to arrive at the heaviest answer of all.
"Then what do you want to do?"
Shisui asked.
Uchiha Gen looked at Itachi.
"Keep him from handling missions from the higher-ups alone, from compiling lists of the dead by himself, and from becoming a subject of observation for the Anbu and Root."
Itachi raised his eyes.
Uchiha Gen continued, "But if he's already seen something, tell him the full chain of cause and effect. Let him know that death can't be summed up with 'for peace,' and that power shouldn't be abandoned simply because someone calls it dangerous."
Shisui remained silent for a long time.
"You make it sound easy. But once he knows too much, he'll get dragged in even deeper."
"That's why he needs you."
Uchiha Gen said.
Shisui froze for a moment.
"You can't just be a mediator."
Uchiha Gen looked at him, his voice steady.
"You can't always think of standing between the village and the clan, using concessions to keep them apart. You also need to learn to preserve evidence, to protect yourself, and to check whether there are blades beneath the bridge before letting others push you out there to become one."
For the first time, Shisui's expression visibly changed.
Those words were harsh.
Harsh enough to almost pierce through the way he had always handled things.
Itachi also looked up at Shisui.
"Shisui, could you be pushed into that position too?"
Shisui did not answer.
He wanted to say no.
But only recently, Root had tried to pin the charge of "trespassing in the supply depot" on him.
He also wanted to say he could handle it.
But without Uchiha Gen arranging the timeline and witnesses in advance, he might already have been trapped in a quagmire of explanations.
"Yes."
At last, Shisui answered quietly.
Something shifted in Itachi's eyes.
Shisui looked at him and, for the first time, did not lightly brush the question aside.
"So Gen is right. We can't rely on concessions alone."
Uchiha Gen did not take the opportunity to say more.
It had already been difficult enough for Shisui to say those words.
Shisui lowered his head and looked at his hands.
"From now on, I'll put any mission involving me or Itachi on record first."
He spoke slowly, as though adjusting to an unfamiliar way of doing things.
"If someone passes along orders privately, I'll ask where they came from first, too."
Uchiha Gen nodded.
"This isn't about distrusting the village."
Shisui finished the thought. "It's about not giving anyone a chance to twist the account."
After saying that, he fell silent for a moment himself.
Even to him, those words sounded unfamiliar coming from his own mouth.
The voices of the debris-clearing crew carried over from the distant ruins.
Several Transport Squad ninja were dragging away charred wooden beams.
Watching them, Itachi suddenly asked, "Then what should I do?"
More than any of his earlier questions, this one sounded like a child's.
And it was more dangerous, too.
Uchiha Gen crouched down until his eyes were level with Itachi's.
"First, don't rush to make choices for everyone."
"Second, don't mistake the piece you've seen for the whole truth."
"Third, if you think something must be sacrificed for peace, first ask whether those being sacrificed have had a chance to speak."
Itachi listened quietly.
Shisui listened quietly, too.
Uchiha Gen said, "What you need to do now isn't shoulder the Uchiha, or shoulder the village."
"Then what is it?"
"Learn to see the whole picture."
Itachi repeated softly, "The whole picture."
"Yes."
Uchiha Gen stood up.
"See the ruins, but also the rescue efforts. See the fear, but also those deliberately magnifying it. See the danger of power, but also what it can do when bound by rules."
Holding the scroll, Itachi nodded.
He might not have fully understood.
But at least today, he had not been given an answer so simple it was cruel.
Watching Itachi, Shisui's expression softened a little.
"Let's go back for today."
This time, Itachi did not refuse.
He returned the Fire Release Rescue Record to Uchiha Gen.
"Can I read it again?"
Uchiha Gen handed the scroll back to him.
"Yes, but bring your questions next time."
Itachi took the scroll.
"I will."
After Shisui left with Itachi, Uchiha Gen did not leave right away.
He looked toward a distant rooftop.
There was no one there.
Yet his two-tomoe Sharingan still picked up an extremely faint trace of someone's presence.
Someone had been watching this place.
Not Shisui.
And not an ordinary Anbu operative.
Underground at Root.
A ninja knelt on one knee before Danzo.
"Contact between the observation targets has become more frequent."
"Shisui Uchiha, Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Gen had a lengthy conversation in the Nine-Tails ruins today."
Danzo's lone eye narrowed slightly.
"Itachi?"
"Yes. Uchiha Fugaku's eldest son. Though young, he has shown unusual composure in the disaster-stricken area."
Danzo tapped his cane with his fingers.
Shisui Uchiha's eyes.
Uchiha Gen's mind.
Now, there was also Uchiha Itachi, who had become composed far too young.
"Keep recording."
Danzo spoke slowly.
"I want to know what that child saw, and what he's thinking."
Before you continue