The trouble in the Resettlement Zone broke out in the afternoon.
The Konoha Military Police Force had just changed patrol shifts. Several villagers crowded around the temporary medical tent, their voices rising over one another.
"He's gone mad!"
"Stop him!"
"Get the Uchiha here! Aren't they supposed to know genjutsu?"
When Shisui arrived, an injured man with a bandaged arm was kneeling on the ground, his eyes vacant and his hand clenched tightly around a short blade.
He wasn't attacking anyone.
But he had the blade's tip pointed at his own throat.
The medical ninja around him dared not approach recklessly.
The ordinary villagers were even less willing to move.
Someone spotted Shisui and shouted as though grasping at a lifeline, "Body Flicker Shisui! Don't you know genjutsu? Make him stop!"
At those words, many eyes turned toward Shisui.
Hope.
Fear.
Impatience.
And a few cold gazes hidden at the edges of the crowd.
Uchiha Gen happened to be patrolling the outskirts of the Resettlement Zone.
His heart sank the moment he heard "know genjutsu."
That wasn't how ordinary people called for help.
Ordinary people were afraid of blades. Their first instinct would be to call for medical ninja, call for the Military Police Force, or ask someone to restrain the injured man.
But that shout had bypassed every normal procedure and tied "Shisui" directly to "genjutsu."
As though someone had already prepared the answer for the onlookers.
Shisui's fingers moved instinctively.
He could do it.
Just one look.
Just one instant.
The injured man would put down the blade, and the commotion outside the medical tent would end immediately.
But just as he was about to step forward, a hand pressed down on his shoulder.
Uchiha Gen stood beside him, his voice very low.
"Don't use your eyes first."