Along the way, Uchiha Shisui told stories about the Uchiha clan. His vast knowledge greatly impressed the little boy... but his stories were not very captivating, because Kitahara fell asleep while listening...
Uchiha Itachi caught the crow before it could fall and suddenly asked, "Shisui, could you tell me about the missions you've carried out?"
"Itachi, a ninja's missions must be kept secret!" The boy raised a finger and shook his head mysteriously. Yet when he saw the disappointment in the little boy's eyes, Shisui could not help smiling. "Still, I discovered many interesting things during my missions, as well as some useful ninja knowledge. Want to hear about them?"
"Can I?"
"Of course!" Uchiha Shisui thought for a moment, then nodded. "Those things have nothing to do with missions. But if you want to become a ninja someday, Itachi, you need to remember this: even things that seem unrelated to a mission can reveal clues..."
A conflicted look immediately appeared on Uchiha Itachi's little face. "Then... I'd better not listen..."
"Hahahaha..." Shisui turned around, saw the little boy's expression, and chuckled. "You're very sensible, Itachi!"
Caw!
The crow's cry rang out abruptly. The boy's teasing voice had woken him... Kitahara's Chakra instantly condensed into a Shadow Clone, which charged at Uchiha Shisui at high speed with a desperate aura...
The boy's body turned into smoke under the impact, while several black feathers drifted down on the wind... That was Uchiha Shisui's Crow Clone!
He really was fast!
Crimson eyes looked toward a tree not far away... A boy stood there, forming hand seals. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eyes was exceptionally striking. It was Uchiha Shisui, who had just escaped.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique!
Sharingan: Release!
Uchiha Shisui shook his head and muttered, "A Sharingan genjutsu... How was it completely reflected back at me?"
After Kitahara's Chakra-overflowing clone attacked him, he had tried to subdue the Ninja Crow with genjutsu. He had chosen the Shackling Stakes Technique because he was afraid of hurting Itachi... Yet he had instead fallen into the genjutsu himself. It was not Mirror Heaven and Earth Transfer, but pure spiritual power...
"Calm down, Kitahara..." Uchiha Itachi tightly held the crow's wings. Once he sensed that it had stopped struggling, he called out loudly to Shisui, "It's okay now, Shisui!"
"Caw..."
I think I've discovered a new way to use Shadow Clones...
"Phew..."
This crow's spiritual power seems a little strong...
Naka Shrine.
Kitahara stood on Uchiha Itachi's shoulder, his crimson eyes watching the densely packed Uchiha clansmen climb the mountain steps... Beside him, Uchiha Shisui looked at the crow with an indescribable expression.
"Mom!"
The little boy spotted his mother at once beneath the pavilion. Uchiha Mikoto stood beneath the wooden pavilion with a smile, holding a wooden ladle. Several wooden buckets sat beside her.
Every clansman who passed by wetted their fingers in the buckets, then knelt before Mikoto while she scooped up several droplets and sprinkled them over them, symbolically cleansing away impurity.
She looked rather important... However, there were at least a thousand Uchiha ninja and ordinary civilians combined, which meant she had to stand here for several hours... Fortunately, Mikoto was also a ninja, and her body was strong...
When it was Itachi's turn, Mikoto scooped up several droplets and evenly sprinkled them over both Kitahara and Itachi. Even with the crow's sturdy body, the cold water jolted him awake.
Caw!
He was a crow. His body was covered in feathers, not clothes...
"Kitahara needs cleansing too!"
Mikoto's loving smile was simply impossible to refuse. Kitahara could only let out a listless cry. "...Caw..."
"How interesting..." Shisui covered half his mouth beside them.
After the purification with clean water, the stone path leading to the main hall had been spontaneously divided into two lanes by the Uchiha clansmen. People lined up to enter on the left, while those who had finished worshipping emerged in small groups on the right, discussing the fortune slips in their hands.
As for where those fortune slips came from...
Uchiha Fugaku stood in the main hall beside an enormous cylindrical fortune box, looking rather like a fortune teller... When he saw his son enter, Uchiha Fugaku could not help straightening his expression and putting on the solid image of a stern father.
Uchiha Itachi worshipped the River Earl with great solemnity. He looked utterly adorable.
Then he rose and stood before his father, bent over, and extended both hands to ask for a fortune slip... Kitahara curiously watched Fugaku expressionlessly draw two fortune slips from the box... He looked thoroughly unprofessional while drawing them, without the slightest air of mystery.
It was only a side job, after all. That was understandable.
One fortune slip was placed in Uchiha Itachi's hand, while the other was tucked beneath the crow's wing...
Kitahara: "..."
After leaving the main hall, the little boy took out his fortune slip and stammered, "Ever... ever..."
Uchiha Itachi could not continue. The New Year's first shrine visit fortune slip had only two characters on it, and five-year-old Uchiha Itachi recognized only one... When Shisui came out, Uchiha Itachi handed him his fortune slip.
"Chang Di."
After reading it, Shisui could not help breaking into a cold sweat. Fortunately, he recognized that character.
The Uchiha clan's fortune slips had been passed down from their ancestors. Every slip bore a verse or phrase of varying length, most containing strange and uncommon characters, let alone meanings that were hard to decipher.
For example, even Shisui could not understand his own fortune slip. This year, the three characters on his slip read: "Nourishing the Lord of Life."
He recognized every character, but once they were put together, it felt as though he recognized none of them.
Of the three fortune slips, Kitahara's was unexpectedly the easiest to understand: Yin and Yang.
It was just that the meaning of those two characters was a little too broad...
"Well, never mind. No one in the clan has ever understood these anyway. Let's go hang them up!" Shisui led Itachi to the sacred tree and hung the fortune slips on its branches. Before next year's first shrine visit, the slips on the tree would be collected and returned to the fortune box...
At the very top of the sacred tree, a fortune slip and a bell swayed back and forth. Only one character was written on it: Azure.
After the first shrine visit, Konoha's residents began visiting one another, exchanging New Year's gifts and giving children New Year's money. The money would continue to be given until the children became ninja.
Uchiha Itachi and Kitahara each received a large sum of New Year's money they could spend freely: one hundred thousand ryo.
That was roughly the reward for a B-rank mission. Converted into red bills, it came to about sixty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six yuan... Somehow, that felt a little off...
As the clan head, Uchiha Fugaku received quite a few New Year's gifts.
For some reason, Fugaku made an exception this year and chose to have the little boy Uchiha Itachi handle the return gifts. Shisui would also help, since there were quite a few Uchiha elders.
This was completely different from last year. Since Uchiha Itachi was only five this year, Shisui gladly accepted the task and even returned home to change into a kimono.
As for Kitahara, he burrowed into the blankets after returning and went back to sleep... By the time he woke up, it was already dark...
Lights shone in every home, and Konoha was brilliantly illuminated.
Uchiha Mikoto knocked on the door. "Kitahara, it's time to eat!"
At the dinner table, Uchiha Fugaku was lecturing his son. As expected, it was the same old routine... Kitahara soon heard Fugaku's concluding words: "You did very well today. As expected of my son..."
Whenever the husband said something like that, the wife would usually chime in as well... Sure enough, Uchiha Mikoto emerged from the kitchen with a smile. "Itachi is really amazing!"
"...No, it was mainly because Shisui helped me..."
After taking Itachi home, Uchiha Shisui returned to his post. Even during the New Year, Konoha's defenses required ninja to take shifts, and the Hokage inauguration ceremony was drawing near...
Meanwhile, the couple was still praising their son...
"You're only five this year. Being able to do this much is already very good."
"That's right! When Mom was five, she only knew how to play around with her friends during the New Year!"
...It seemed they could always find something to praise their son for... Kitahara felt that he had grown accustomed to the way this family got along...
Fortune slips were all Buddhist sayings and poems... Actually, Zhuangzi's "Nourishing the Lord of Life" was quite interesting... "Chang Di" came from the Book of Songs...
Before you continue