Fugaku frowned. "Itachi clearly stands on the side of the village's greater good now."
"If we let him know the truth... won't he turn around and tell that old fox, the Third?"
Haruma grinned. "If you try to persuade him as his father, that kid Itachi might really turn around and sell you all out."
"After all, he must have noticed how you let the Hawk Faction grow before. If you try to explain now, he probably won't believe you."
Looking rather grim, Fugaku nodded heavily.
Indeed, with his eldest son's suspicious nature, if he tried to explain...
How much Itachi would believe was truly an unknown.
But Fugaku now regarded Haruma as the Uchiha Clan's hope. Letting Itachi, who stood in the Third's camp, meet Haruma would be far too risky.
Seeing Fugaku's troubled expression, Haruma chuckled teasingly. "Ah! This complicated, delicate father-son relationship."
"There's someone better suited to handle this. You and Mikoto just need to help out from the sidelines."
Hearing this, Fugaku abruptly looked up. "Shisui!!!"
Haruma nodded. "As both Itachi's mentor and friend, Shisui is undoubtedly far more suitable than you."
Fugaku let out a long inward sigh of relief.
Indeed, the trust Itachi placed in Shisui was presumably far greater than what he placed in his own father.
Speaking of Shisui, Fugaku looked around the room and asked, "Where is he?"
"I sent him out on a mission a month ago."
Taking a sip of the hot tea on the table, Haruma said casually, "I've supported him for a whole year. It's about time he made himself useful."
"A mission?"
Fugaku asked in confusion, "At a time like this, what mission did you send Shisui outside the village for?"
As for inside the village, it was filled with Anbu eyes, and the Third could use the Telescope Technique within the barrier's range.
Presumably, even Shisui, famed for his Body Flicker Technique, couldn't carry out a mission for a month without the Third and the Anbu discovering a single trace.
Haruma set down his teacup and, his face brimming with fervor, answered one word at a time. "Rob! The! Rich! Help! The! Poor!"
Fugaku: "..."
Rob the rich to help the poor, my ass...
The corners of Fugaku's mouth twitched uncontrollably. With a moment's thought, he understood what Haruma had sent Shisui out to do.
Sending a peak Jonin out to rob and plunder...
The only person capable of doing something like that... was probably the money-grubbing bastard before him.
Still, Fugaku didn't ask any further. He wasn't the one doing something so embarrassing, after all.
"Then when will Shisui return?"
Haruma said, "In the next couple of days. It's a long-term mission, with a handover once a month."
Fugaku was truly speechless.
Treating highway robbery as a long-term mission-poor Shisui really had it rough...
And once a month, at that...
It somehow felt like paying wages on time or handing over protection money on schedule.
Fugaku said, "Then let's wait until Shisui returns before finding an opportunity to talk to Itachi."
With that matter settled.
Fugaku continued, "The Konoha Military Police Force has more or less withdrawn now. What's the next step in the plan?"
Seeing the golden glint flash through Haruma's eyes, Fugaku hastily added, "Aside from making money! What should I do?"
Fugaku was terrified that this bastard would send him out too, pairing him with Shisui as a "male-and-male bandit duo."
"Ah."
Noticing the resistance in Fugaku's eyes, Haruma sighed with some regret.
"Have you heard about the missing-person cases in the village?"
Fugaku nodded. After all, he was the head of the Konoha Military Police Force.
He was the first to learn of cases reported by the villagers.
Although the higher-ups had suppressed the subsequent information and forbidden its dissemination.
Once Haruma mentioned it, he recalled the rather frequent disappearances of late.
Haruma said, "Go search the outskirts of Konoha's defensive barrier yourself."
"I don't need you to find the people! Just locate the human experimentation laboratories hidden underground."
With the earlier intelligence to guide him, Fugaku understood without Haruma having to elaborate.
These explicitly forbidden human experiments were the work of Danzo and Orochimaru.
A sharp gleam flashed in Fugaku's eyes. "If I expose this through an investigation in my capacity as a member of the Konoha Military Police Force..."
"The village higher-ups' reputation will surely take a serious hit!"
Haruma shook his head in rejection. "It's no use."
"If you investigate as a member of the Konoha Military Police Force, even if everyone finds out, the outcome will simply be Danzo throwing Orochimaru out to take the blame."
"Then the residents' anger will shift. The higher-ups will announce that Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, has defected... their reputation won't suffer much."
Fugaku looked at Haruma in confusion. "Then...?"
Haruma said calmly, "I want you to conceal your identity while searching. Once you locate them, don't make it public."
"I don't know exactly how many underground laboratories there are either. Find as many as you can."
"Remember, don't let Orochimaru or any other Anbu discover your movements."
Fugaku had already begun to develop some awareness of his role as a puppet.
Although he didn't understand, he still nodded to show that he did.
In a small settlement a hundred li outside Konoha.
Kozuki Unma, a locally notorious unscrupulous merchant, had now found himself in enormous trouble.
In a spacious courtyard, a mysterious masked man wearing a black robe patterned with red clouds stood firmly in place.
At his feet lay rows of wandering ninja Unma had recruited, still groaning incessantly.
Cold sweat trickled down Unma's forehead. His eyes filled with terror, he asked in a trembling voice, "Y-you... who exactly are you?!"
"W-we're under Konoha's protection here!"
"Th-there might even be Konoha Ninja carrying out missions nearby!"
"Don't you dare try anything~~"
"My name is Madara Uchiha!"
Under Unma's gaze, which looked at him as though he were a lunatic, the mysterious man forced down his humiliation and declared solemnly, "My name is Madara Uchiha! I have come here to carry out heaven's justice!"
"Kozuki Unma! You have committed every sort of evil! Relying on the thug ninja you hired, you have forced purchases and sales upon the nearby villages! You have raked in vast sums!"
"Your crimes are unforgivable!!!"
This person overflowing with chuunibyou was none other than Shisui Uchiha, whom Haruma had sent out.
The bitterness and tears in Shisui's heart after spending this month carrying out a secret mission were truly difficult to put into words...
Compared to the missions he had previously carried out in the Anbu or Root.
It was safe and also incredibly simple.
But Shisui would rather clash head-on with ninja from other hidden villages than face these wealthy merchants' mocking stares, as though they were looking at a lunatic.
The social death was far too complete!
Fortunately, his close friend had told him to wear a mask and hadn't made him give his real name.
Otherwise, Shisui would never have accepted this mission, no matter what!
As for Haruma's decision to send Shisui out on this operation.
His inspiration had come from a scam text message on Blue Star in his previous life.
[I! Qin Shi Huang! Send money!!!]