The Abandoned Training Ground north of Konoha did look as though it had been neglected for a long time.
The wooden posts were cracked.
The targets stood crooked.
Weeds grew calf-high.
Even the wire fence around the perimeter was half rusted.
But Shisui took one look and said, "Someone has been here recently."
The Anbu Captain frowned.
"The traces are faint."
Shisui walked up to a wooden post and crouched down.
"Too faint."
He pointed to a nearly invisible scrape on the side of the post.
"If this place really were abandoned, these few spots wouldn't be the only ones cleaned so thoroughly."
Uchiha Gen looked over.
Faint scrapes left by high-speed movement marked the wooden post.
This wasn't ordinary training.
It looked more like practice for closing in with the Body Flicker Technique.
Shisui stood up, his expression grim.
"Someone has been simulating my movement patterns."
Itachi soon noticed something wrong, too.
Several sets of low targets stood on the other side of the training ground.
Their height was clearly off.
They weren't meant for adult shinobi.
Itachi stood before the targets, silent for a moment.
"This height suggests a teenage shinobi."
Uchiha Gen studied the targets.
Shisui's Body Flicker routes.
The attack height of a young prodigy like Itachi.
Add the earlier fake meeting invitation, the nighttime eye-stealing setup, and the Anbu training notice.
The answer was already clear.
This wasn't an abandoned training ground.
It was a Simulation Ground.
Root's outer ranks had practiced here: how to force Shisui to move, how to counter a teenager's attack angles, and how to drive a target into a predetermined position in the shortest possible time.
A chill ran down Uchiha Jun's back as he listened.
He had thought the enemy was merely passing along lists, spreading rumors, and forging