In what capacity are you speaking to me?

"Jin, I've awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Thinking his close friend hadn't heard him clearly, Shisui Uchiha couldn't help repeating himself.

This was the Mangekyō Sharingan!

This was the first pair to appear apart from the one belonging to that man who had defected from Konoha!

Shouldn't Jin have been shocked, then filled with envy and jealousy?

He stared hard at his friend with his Mangekyō, yet saw neither shock nor envy on his face.

There was only calm.

"Oh."

Uchiha Jin nodded lightly to show that he understood.

The Mangekyō Sharingan, huh.

I don't have it now, but I can use Shisui's in the future.

Someone's going to gouge his eyes out sooner or later anyway.

I'll just take them back and use them then.

Shisui Uchiha: "???"

"Aren't you surprised?"

His friend's indifferent reaction shocked him instead.

"You want to use the Mangekyō Sharingan to ease the conflict between the clan and the village?"

Rather than answering, Uchiha Jin asked a question.

"Yes."

At that, Shisui Uchiha stopped dwelling on his friend's reaction and nodded earnestly.

"My Mangekyō's ability..."

"Stop!"

Jin cut him off before he could finish and gave Shisui an exasperated look.

"Don't tell anyone what those eyes can do."

This guy really is hopeless.

How could he tell others about his Mangekyō's ocular technique?

Battles between shinobi hinged on information advantages.

If others knew beforehand, they could prepare for it.

Sasuke Uchiha's Amaterasu, for example, activated too slowly and could only exploit an information advantage.

If others knew about it, it couldn't hit anyone at all.

Although Shisui Uchiha's Kotoamatsukami was powerful, shouldn't as few people as possible know about an ability like that?

Yet this guy practically wanted to tell everyone.

In the original story, Shisui had foolishly told Konoha High Command about Kotoamatsukami.

Then Shimura Danzō had ambushed him and stolen one of his eyes.

To be honest, apart from Hiruzen Sarutobi, none of the other higher-ups trusted the Uchiha Clan at all.

After all, by then, the Uchiha Clan had already been secretly plotting a rebellion.

They were no longer merely unhappy about the village ostracizing them; they wanted to change the outcome through a coup!

"No matter what your Mangekyō's ability is, don't reveal it."

Uchiha Jin stared at those Mangekyō eyes and murmured softly.

"Shisui, if one day you had to choose between the clan and the village, which side would you stand on?"

"Jin, I'll do my best to stop that from happening."

Shisui Uchiha evaded the question. In truth, he didn't know the answer either.

To him, the clan and the village were equally important, and coexistence was the best option.

If he really had to choose between them, he most likely wouldn't be able to.

So he could only do his best to avoid that situation...

"Idealists can't live in their ideals forever."

Uchiha Jin shook his head lightly, making no attempt to hide the disappointment in his eyes.

"Remember, you're Shisui Uchiha, not Shisui Sarutobi or Shisui Hyuga!"

The Uchiha were stubborn by nature.

Unless they experienced an exceptionally powerful emotional shock,

it was difficult to change their existing beliefs.

Even the shock that had awakened Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan hadn't changed his resolve to protect the village.

Jin didn't think a few words from him could change Shisui.

Since he couldn't get through to him, he would stop talking and save himself the wasted time and breath.

Just as Uchiha Jin rose to leave, Shisui Uchiha's voice came from behind him.

"Jin, wait..."

He watched his friend's retreating figure with a conflicted expression.

"Jin, I don't think you should be prejudiced against the village and its leadership. We can change their view of the clan through our actions, rather than resorting to such extreme methods..."

The full moon was round as a platter, its clear light spilling across the ground.

Beneath the moonlight, the black-haired youth slowly turned his head, his scarlet, three-tomoe eyes looking all the more uncanny in the moonlight.

"Shisui Uchiha, in what capacity are you speaking to me?"

Uchiha Jin's voice was icy, devoid of any emotion.

"As a member of Konoha's Anbu? A lapdog of the higher-ups? Or a former friend?"

"Jin..."

Shisui Uchiha's expression was conflicted.

He hadn't expected Jin to say such things to him.

He opened his mouth to answer, only to see Jin wave a casual hand as though shooing away an annoying fly.

"It doesn't matter to me what capacity you're speaking in."

"One day, the clan and the village will stand against each other. When that time comes, I hope you'll abandon your unrealistic fantasies. Otherwise, when an idealist witnesses his ideals shatter, all that awaits him is death."

Uchiha Jin truly wanted to change Shisui's fate.

But everyone had their own destiny.

Some things couldn't be forced.

He had tried to dissuade Shisui countless times, yet had never made any meaningful progress.

Shisui wouldn't recognize the problem until the very last moment...

Shisui Uchiha watched his friend leave, standing silently in the courtyard for a long time.

Those who followed different paths couldn't work together.

Most members of the clan thought the same way as Jin, while he was one of the few shinobi who could see beyond the clan's limitations.

"I won't let that happen."

Although the Third Hokage had suppressed the Uchiha Clan, intentionally or otherwise, during his time in office, Hiruzen Sarutobi was already very old.

He would retire before long.

And the newly appointed Fourth Hokage was the key to easing relations between the clan and the village.

Shisui believed that as long as the Uchiha Clan performed well enough, everyone would eventually change their impression of them.

Weren't the villagers enthusiastically talking about Uchiha Jin's impartial enforcement of the law?

What Shisui Uchiha didn't know was that the villagers had indeed praised Uchiha Jin at first.

He feared no authority and enforced the law justly.

Anyone who committed a crime had to pay the price, even the Hokage's nephew.

They suddenly felt much safer.

The incident had considerably improved the Konoha villagers' impression of the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force.

But within a few days, public opinion began to shift.

"What exactly is the Uchiha Clan trying to do?!"

"They even dared to kill Lord Hokage's nephew. Doesn't that mean they'll kill anyone they don't like in the future?"

"That's absolutely terrifying."

"I suddenly feel so unsafe. What if I accidentally offend the Uchiha Clan, and they just pin some charge on me and cut me down?"

"Exactly. I remember Uchiha Jin tortured Sarutobi Shōtarō into confessing during his trial, didn't he?"

Soon, letters reporting Uchiha Jin piled up on the Hokage's desk.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed as he looked at the villagers' reports and the letters proposing that the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force's authority be curtailed.

He didn't need to guess whose handiwork this was.

That fellow Danzo was truly far too brazen.

He had spread rumors about the Uchiha Clan without Hiruzen's permission.

He had done no shortage of similar things over the years...

"The Uchiha Clan does have a little too much power."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff from his tobacco pipe and murmured to himself as he stared at the letters on his desk.

The Second Hokage hadn't thought things through when he established the Konoha Military Police Force Troops.

As a result, the Uchiha Clan was the only clan in the village with law enforcement authority apart from the Anbu.

In the end, he abandoned the idea of weakening the Uchiha Clan.

He would be retiring soon.

All he wanted now was to get through this period peacefully, without leaving behind any mistaken decisions.

Otherwise, he could easily tarnish his reputation in his final years...