Do you know about the Mangekyō Sharingan?

Uchiha Jin took a sip of hot water, set down his cup, and said expressionlessly.

"You and I have nothing to talk about."

Ever since they had met, he had done everything he could to stop Shisui from believing in the Will of Fire.

But the guy was like an NPC. No matter how Jin tried to guide him, it never worked.

Once he reached the right age, he automatically awakened to the Will of Fire.

From then on, Jin had realized that changing someone else's life was truly difficult.

So much so that he could no longer be bothered to guide Uchiha Itachi.

Shisui alone already seemed beyond saving, let alone the clan's king of elimination.

Shisui Uchiha was momentarily at a loss for words at his friend's response.

He honestly did not understand how he had offended Jin. They had clearly been very close friends before.

They had trained together, gone shopping together, and chatted together.

When exactly had their friendship started to sour?

Perhaps it had been when they met during the Third Shinobi World War.

He remembered Jin asking him a question then...

"Shisui, which do you think matters more, the clan or the village?"

With the Will of Fire in his heart, he had answered without thinking, "Without the village, there would be no clan."

Then Uchiha Jin had left him with some incomprehensible words before turning to leave.

"Everyone makes different choices about this. You're not wrong. But all I can say is that you're not my brother. You're a stranger. What does that mean? It means you're not my friend, not my brother, and not my enemy. We're not on the same path."

At the time, Shisui Uchiha had been utterly bewildered, unable to understand what had gotten into his good friend.

He had thought that perhaps the pressure of the battlefield had been too much for Jin and made him talk nonsense.

So he had not taken those words to heart.

Only now, thinking back carefully, did he understand. Had their friendship already broken down back then?

Had it been because of what he said?

"Jin, I think you're being too narrow-minded."

Shisui Uchiha intended to persuade his friend and get him to agree with his views.

"Although I don't approve of the leadership's suspicion and exclusion of the clan, we can't let that make us feel negatively toward the village."

"As long as we work hard, sooner or later the leadership will see the clan's changes, and this exclusion and distrust will end..."

"Enough. You're already dreaming before you've even gone to sleep."

Uchiha Jin cut him off impatiently and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"You think you can resolve the conflict between the clan and the village just by flapping your lips?"

"Not right now, but we can..."

"Can what? Get the leadership to accept the Uchiha Clan? How are you going to do that?"

In his eyes, Shisui had the typical mindset of a laborer, believing that as long as the clan worked earnestly and diligently, they could change other people's ingrained beliefs.

He had been thoroughly poisoned by the so-called Will of Fire.

In the original story, the Uchiha Clan's coup had stemmed from prolonged discrimination and distrust, not mere ambition.

Faced with his friend's questions, Shisui Uchiha fell silent, his expression somewhat conflicted.

"Shisui, you're too naive. I feel like someone like you isn't suited to being a shinobi."

Uchiha Jin felt somewhat helpless.

Shisui Uchiha and Uchiha Itachi could be called the clan's twin stars.

Leaving aside whether Uchiha Fugaku actually possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.

With just those two's Mangekyō Sharingan and the clan's elite, their chances of winning a coup were very high.

Even if they could not win, they could still take their clansmen out of Konoha and find another way forward.

Yet of these two geniuses, one had voluntarily told the Konoha High Command about his eyes' abilities.

Who knew what had been going through his head?

Intelligence was the most important thing in a battle between shinobi, yet this guy had volunteered his to others.

Then Shimura Danzō had gouged out one of his eyes, after which a group of Root shinobi had hunted him down.

Even in that situation, he had not thought of finding his clansmen and fighting back.

Instead, he had believed that if he remained alive, his remaining left eye would become a deadly weapon that all sides would fight over, further intensifying the distrust between the clan and the village and accelerating the rebellion.

So, after handing his remaining eye to Itachi, he had jumped off a cliff and killed himself.

There was honestly so much wrong with it.

If Shisui Uchiha was a genius, Uchiha Itachi was the genius of geniuses.

He, too, possessed the Will of Fire and did not want to see war break out between the clan and the village, bringing devastation and giving other countries an opportunity to invade.

There had been only two paths before him.

One: allow war to break out between the clan and the village, ultimately resulting in the Uchiha Clan's annihilation and heavy losses for the village.

Two: kill all his clansmen beforehand, resulting in the Uchiha Clan's annihilation while reducing the village's casualties.

Between dying on his feet and living on his knees, Uchiha Itachi had chosen to die on his knees.

He had joined forces with Obito Uchiha to carry out the night of the massacre, killing every clansman except Sasuke.

Thus, the Uchiha Clan had produced two kings of elimination, whose Uchiha kill counts far surpassed those of a certain red-eyed, white-haired man.

Just thinking about it made Uchiha Jin furious.

It could be said that Shisui Uchiha bore an inescapable connection to all of this.

If only he had not revealed information about the Mangekyō Sharingan to the leadership and had instead secretly found an opportunity to alter their wills.

How could any of what followed have happened?

He had possessed a skill as absurdly powerful as Kotoamatsukami, yet had been taken out before he even had a chance to use it.

Did he even know how to play?!

"Jin, I actually have a way to resolve the conflict between the clan and the village."

Shisui Uchiha instinctively looked around and, after finding no one watching them, spoke with a serious expression.

Uchiha Jin: "..."

This guy wasn't going to reveal information about the Mangekyō Sharingan right now, was he?

Surely not.

With this kid's intelligence, surely he wouldn't do something that rash!

"Do you know about the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

The corner of Uchiha Jin's mouth twitched as he looked at Shisui in disbelief.

It was not that he was shocked to learn Shisui had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, but that he had never expected the guy to actually volunteer the information.

No wonder the Uchiha Clan's coup had failed.

Never mind Shimura Danzō. Jin wanted to gouge this guy's eyes out himself right now.

Seeing his friend's shocked expression at the mention of the Mangekyō Sharingan, Shisui Uchiha could not help feeling a little smug.

Then he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, what came into view was not three tomoe but a four-cornered shuriken pattern. Centered on the black dot of his pupil, the pupil pattern extended outward into four symmetrical, sharply angular black blade-like markings, arranged in a rotating cross, with all four blades perfectly equal in length and angle.

"That's right. I've awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!"

Shisui Uchiha had thought that revealing his Mangekyō Sharingan would let him see shock and envy in his close friend's eyes.

But Uchiha Jin's face held none of the shock or envy he had imagined. Instead, he looked at him as though he were an idiot.

Shisui: "???"

The script seemed different from what he had imagined!

Why was Jin looking at him like that?

Uchiha Jin silently sighed.

With these twin stars around, the Uchiha Clan's annihilation was not undeserved at all.

He was already prepared to flee with his mother and younger sister in a few years.

Konoha's feng shui was bad. It was no place for the Uchiha Clan to survive.

No wonder Madara Uchiha had fled not long after joining Konoha back then.

All he could say was that it truly lived up to the name of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

It really did see far ahead...