Shisui swayed slightly and instinctively leaned back against the cold stone wall, his gaze unfocused, as though the foundation of his understanding had been brutally shattered.
He had always thought Itachi was a staunch successor to the Will of Fire, someone who would weigh his choices from the village's perspective.
Never had he imagined that, from very early on, Itachi's allegiance had belonged entirely to the Uchiha.
"So... so that's how it is." Shisui murmured, his voice tinged with hollowness. "You've been on the clan's side all along."
So many past judgments, so many expectations, collapsed at that moment.
Yet his fear of civil war, etched into his very bones, still had not faded.
The chains gave a series of faint, cold clinks as his shoulders trembled slightly.
Over his sealed eyelids, the black leather hood blocked out all light, but it could not stop the thoughts churning within him.
"So what if you're on the clan's side?" Shisui's voice slowly regained its composure, wrapped in profound helplessness.
"Once the Uchiha raise their banner and launch a coup, war will engulf all of Konoha. The other four great shinobi villages will never let that opportunity slip away. Their armies will mass at our borders, and in the end, it won't just be Konoha's civilians who die. Our Uchiha will bleed rivers too."
This had long been the greatest nightmare in his heart. Even after viewing the memory records of Danzo and Orochimaru brutalizing his clansmen, that worry had not diminished in the slightest.
Itachi heard those words and strongly disagreed. After returning home earlier, he had already learned about the Altar and the Land of Rice Fields plan from his father.
"Shisui, what you're describing is a situation that would only have happened in the past because the Uchiha lacked strength."
"But what if the Uchiha possessed enough power to crush an entire shinobi village?"
The Stone Chamber instantly fell silent, save for the crackling flame of the oil lamp.
Shisui froze, finding it very hard to believe.
"Crush an entire shinobi village? Itachi, that's nothing but fantasy."
"No matter how many geniuses the Uchiha produce, how could a single clan's population and resources ever reach the point of overwhelming an entire shinobi village?"
"The Five Great Shinobi Villages have deep foundations. Their troops and supplies have accumulated over generations. That gap is certainly not something a Kekkei Genkai alone can easily erase."
Shisui spoke slowly, his tone carrying a deeply ingrained understanding of reality.
Itachi did not tell him about the Altar or the plan currently underway, because those secrets were far too important, and Shisui's allegiance...
He gently set the subject aside, his gaze settling on his old friend, bound by layer upon layer of restraints before him. The questions in his heart only grew.
Shisui did everything in his power to avert civil war, yet he seemed to already have a method of his own.
Itachi's voice slowly rang out in the dim Stone Chamber, carrying a probing note:
"Let's set aside whether that power can be attained for now."
"Shisui, you've always tried so hard to prevent civil war. Could it be that you have a means of quelling the unrest without bloodshed?"
The Stone Chamber fell silent for a moment, leaving only the crackle of the burning lamp wick.
Shisui slowly let out a sigh, as though he had made some momentous decision.
Now he was trapped in a cage. Perhaps it was the scene before him, or perhaps it was the atmosphere at that moment.
"There's something I've never told anyone, right up until today."
"Not even you, Itachi."
Itachi's heart suddenly tightened, but a trace of bitterness rose within him immediately afterward.
In the end, though we were each other's closest friends, neither of us ever truly let down the barriers in our hearts.
"I've never told anyone about my Mangekyō's Dōjutsu."
"Because this Dōjutsu is far too dangerous. Once word gets out, it will make others wary of me!"
Hearing Shisui Uchiha describe his Dōjutsu this way, Itachi's expression grew solemn.
"It's a Dōjutsu called Kotoamatsukami. It can permanently rewrite a target's will without them noticing a thing."
"Anyone affected won't know they're under a genjutsu. They'll regard the altered thoughts as their own innate, true feelings."
Itachi's pupils contracted violently. He instinctively leaned half a step forward, his eyes fixed firmly on Shisui Uchiha.
This Dōjutsu was far too terrifying. It could completely alter a person's mind.
Shisui's voice continued to echo through the Stone Chamber as he revealed his original plan.
"I originally thought that if the conflict between the clan and the village escalated completely, and the coup became inevitable, I would cast Kotoamatsukami on Clan Head Fugaku during an Uchiha gathering."
Itachi shuddered all over and blurted out in a low voice, "On my father?"
"I would alter his will so that he would willingly abandon the idea of launching a coup."
Ignoring Itachi's shock, Shisui continued.
"Once the clan head backs down, the Uchiha's entire armed plot will collapse."
"Then there would be no fighting, no bloodshed. That way, I could protect Konoha while preserving the entire Uchiha Clan."
After hearing this, a surge of barely containable anger suddenly rose from the depths of Itachi's heart.
The regret and complicated feelings he had held toward his closest friend were now overwhelmed by indignation.
"Shisui, do you really not know, or are you pretending not to understand?"
His voice brimmed with outrage, stabbing at Shisui Uchiha with a bone-chilling edge.
"The Uchiha's resistance has never been my father's idea alone. It's a struggle born from the entire Uchiha Clan facing Konoha's suspicion and persecution."
"You can't make this whole matter vanish into thin air just by altering my father's thoughts."
"Even if my father's thoughts change, the suffering our clansmen have endured won't disappear. The resistance that should arise will still arise."
Shisui Uchiha stiffened after hearing those words. Clearly, he had never considered this question.
"Th-this, this..."
Uchiha Itachi continued questioning Shisui, as though dealing him a heavy blow.
"Besides, since you possess such power, why did you choose to alter my father's will of all people?"
"If you used Kotoamatsukami on Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo, forcing them to rein in the Konoha High Command and stop suppressing the Uchiha, wouldn't that be more reasonable?"
"You could resolve the conflict at its root in one stroke. Why turn around and coerce our own clan head instead?"
The chains clinked.
Shisui, his eyes covered by the hood, suddenly began shaking his head.
"Rewrite the minds of the Hokage and the higher-ups? No, absolutely not! How is that the same?"
"It's Konoha I'm protecting. If I use genjutsu to twist the true intentions of Konoha's rulers, how would that be any different from an ambitious schemer usurping power?"
"Peace obtained that way would be false. The entire village would be tainted."
Shisui paused, his tone still carrying that same village-centered logic etched into his bones.
"But Clan Head Fugaku is different. What I want to stop is the Uchiha starting a civil war and dragging the entire village into the flames."
"I want to stop the spark that ignites the war, not take control of Konoha."
After hearing this, Itachi felt a sense of absurdity well up within him. He sneered.
"So in your calculations, you'd rather alter your own clan head's mind than touch Konoha's rulers."
"The village's moral principles and foundations must never be touched, but the true will of the Uchiha Clan's head can be treated as a price to pay and altered at will?"
Driven speechless by Itachi's barrage of questions, Shisui moved his lips. Only after a long while did he offer a quiet defense:
"I've never treated my clansmen as bargaining chips to be sacrificed at will. I only wanted to find a path that would let both sides survive..."
"But your path itself is full of injustice," Itachi interrupted. "You refuse to stain Konoha's righteous cause, yet you can freely manipulate the will of your own Uchiha clansmen. Is this the solution you seek that supposedly serves both sides?"
Inside the Stone Chamber, the oil lamp's flame flickered restlessly, sending their shadows swaying back and forth across the stone walls and throwing Shisui Uchiha's heart into complete turmoil.
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