A visit from Root

"Clan leader."

Uchiha Jin walked out of the Hokage Building and saw Uchiha Fugaku, his expression grave, with two squad members behind him.

He immediately understood what had happened.

Seeing him emerge from the office unharmed, Uchiha Fugaku gave a slight nod and asked no questions.

The four returned to the Konoha Military Police Force Troops together.

The Commander-in-Chief's Office.

"Jin, the Hokage didn't give you a hard time, did he?"

Uchiha Fugaku worried that the Third Hokage had deliberately made things difficult for Jin.

If that had truly happened, he would step forward to seek justice for his clansman.

Although the Uchiha Clan did not want an open break with the village leadership, that did not mean they were sheep to be bullied!

"The Third invited me to join the Anbu and asked about my views on justice while he was at it."

Uchiha Jin briefly outlined what had happened in the office.

As for Uchiha Fugaku showing up at the Hokage Building to try to protect him,

it had considerably improved his impression of this clan leader.

It would have been even better if he had not fathered that ever-so-filial son, Uchiha Itachi.

Ever since Jin had failed in his attempt to interfere with Shisui's belief in the will of fire, he had realized that some things were not so easily changed.

Unless he gouged out Shisui's Mangekyō and forcibly altered his will.

Otherwise, changing a person's thinking was difficult.

Especially a precocious genius like Uchiha Itachi.

Since he could not change him, he might as well leave him alone.

If all else failed, he would take his mother and younger sister out of the village in the future.

The Shinobi World was so vast.

He refused to believe there was nowhere for them to live.

Why stay in Konoha and wait to die?

"If you ever encounter any difficulties, you can come to me for help."

Uchiha Fugaku looked at the boy before him, his unsmiling face full of earnestness.

"The clan will always stand firmly behind you!"

Uchiha Jin was different from Shisui Uchiha.

He belonged wholly to the clan faction and would absolutely be able to lead the clan in the future.

As for Shisui...

Joining the Anbu was both good and bad for the Uchiha Clan.

The Anbu answered directly to the Hokage and could interact directly with the Third and the leadership, unlike the Konoha Military Police Force Troops, who were shut out of the core decision-making circle.

Shisui could serve as a bridge to ease friction between the Uchiha Clan and the village.

He could facilitate communication and ease their conflicts.

But every advantage had its downside.

The Anbu themselves were responsible for monitoring the village's ninja, and after Shisui Uchiha joined them, the Third might very well assign him to monitor his clansmen.

If that happened, it would arouse the clansmen's suspicions and destroy their trust in Shisui.

Only a few days after Shisui Uchiha joined the Anbu, rumors had already spread through the clan.

They were convinced he had betrayed his clansmen.

He had to admit that Hiruzen Sarutobi's move was brilliant, an utterly overt scheme.

The village deliberately selected geniuses to recruit into the Anbu, drawing away the clan's strongest fighters.

On one side were the clansmen who held on to the Konoha Military Police Force Troops and disliked the village leadership.

On the other were the elites in the Anbu who took the village's side.

The clan would be completely divided, unable to agree on a stance.

The only thing Uchiha Fugaku felt fortunate about was that Shisui was the only genius the Hokage had recruited into the Anbu.

The impact on the clan as a whole was not too great.

After all, the other genius had chosen not to join.

Perhaps Jin had refused to join the Anbu precisely because he had seen through this.

Uchiha Jin did not act like a boy at all.

In that respect, he was very much like Fugaku's son!

Itachi was the same way; he believed the boy's future achievements would be no less than Jin's.

The Root Base.

Shimura Danzō had been busy providing Orochimaru with experimental materials lately.

He had only just learned about what had happened in the village.

Reading the intelligence in his hand, he narrowed his single eye slightly, his gaze turning cold and sinister.

"Uchiha Jin."

He truly had not expected the brat to be so utterly lawless.

He had even refused to show the Hokage any respect.

Although seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi suffer a setback delighted him, Jin's behavior made him realize that the Uchiha Clan was starting to slip out of control.

If he dared disrespect the Hokage today, he would dare plot a rebellion tomorrow!

Teacher Tobirama had been right.

The Uchiha Clan was inherently evil.

Keeping a clan like that in the village was no different from keeping a ticking time bomb.

It seemed the plan to eliminate the Uchiha Clan needed to be put on the agenda.

Once Hiruzen retired and he successfully became the Fourth Hokage, he would start dealing with the Uchiha Clan!

Before that, he would try recruiting the brat into Root.

Late at night, at the Uchiha Clan Compound.

"Uchiha Jin, come with us."

Two ninja wearing Anbu attire appeared before Uchiha Jin.

He looked at them with a slight frown. "Who wants to see me?"

One of the ninja, wearing a dog mask, fell silent for a moment before speaking coldly.

"Lord Danzo."

"I'm not going."

If it had been Hiruzen Sarutobi, he would have gone out of respect for the Hokage.

Who the hell was Shimura Danzō?

Nothing good could come of him sending for Jin!

The two Root ninja exchanged a glance, then drew kunai from their waists.

"That's not up to you!"

Lord Danzo's orders were to bring Uchiha Jin back to Root.

Since he refused to go willingly, they could only resort to force.

At this, Uchiha Jin's expression turned cold. He activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, making no attempt to conceal his killing intent.

"You're in the village. Aren't you Root people acting a little too recklessly?"

Root's ninja were all selected by Shimura Danzō from childhood and subjected to extreme training that erased their independent thought.

They became weapons that obeyed only their leader's orders.

Jin felt only pity for people like that.

If the two insisted on attacking him, he did not mind granting them an early release.

Just as the tension reached a breaking point,

two Anbu suddenly appeared. "Lord Hokage wants you to go back and tell Advisor Danzo that there are limits. If this gets out of hand, no one will look good."

Hearing this, the Root ninja put away their kunai, then vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.

Although they took orders only from Lord Danzo, under the circumstances, they could only abandon the mission and return to report.

"Since when did the Uchiha Clan's defenses become so poor?"

Uchiha Jin stared at the two Anbu before him, his gaze resting mainly on the one in the lead.

"Shisui, I don't want you appearing in my home again."

Hearing this, the leading Anbu turned and waved to the Anbu behind him. Once the other ninja had left the courtyard, he removed his mask.

It revealed Shisui Uchiha's somewhat youthful face.

"Sorry, Jin. It's my duty."

Uchiha Jin looked toward his mother's and younger sister's rooms. With so much noise, they must have been woken up.

He did not want his own affairs to affect his family.

"Jin, come over to my place for a while."

Shisui Uchiha understood his friend's concerns, so he invited him to come home with him.

"All right."

Shisui Uchiha's Residence.

As an orphan, his living conditions were modest.

In fact, after becoming a Jonin, he could have applied to the clan for a different residence.

But Shisui Uchiha had not done so, perhaps because he had grown used to living here since childhood.

The courtyard was small, but sufficient for someone living alone.

Moonlight spilled into the courtyard.

The two sat facing each other at a stone table.

Shisui Uchiha poured hot water into their cups and gazed at the bright full moon in the sky, feeling somewhat wistful.

"Jin, it's been a long time since we sat and talked like this."